In the early years, Victoria’s family mostly kept to themselves. As soon as she did learn English, Victoria was helping her parents, translating school forms for them and calling to make appointments. “Since there weren’t a lot of us, [white Arcadians] were more accepting,” she told me. “Things aren’t all the same really anymore.”

To be clear, she and everyone else emphasized, most people in Arcadia are welcoming. But Victoria, too, now hears the occasional crack that there are now too many Hispanics, or that people don’t want their kids growing up speaking Spanish. Once, someone at her job claimed that immigrants don’t pay taxes, so Victoria defiantly showed them her pay stub. When Victoria and her brother, who is also undocumented, went off to college, they were ineligible for in-state tuition.

One particularly strange moment for the family came in September of 2017, when a police officer who seemed new to the area pulled over Victoria’s father, who does not speak English and doesn’t have a driver’s license. (He was unable to get one, as an unauthorized immigrant.) It was two-thirty in the morning, and Victoria’s terrified father called her to come help him. When she arrived at the scene, she says the officer brusquely interrogated her about why her father doesn’t have a license. The officer let her father go with a ticket, but the incident seemed to rattle the family.

Victoria speaks perfect English with a Midwestern accent, yet she says she feels more Hispanic than American. Her younger brother does too, even though he barely remembers life in Mexico. Victoria watches Spanish-language TV, listens to Spanish music, and cooks Mexican food.

I came away from our conversation wondering if the actions of some of their fellow Americans might have helped push Victoria and her brother into the arms of Mexican culture. Some of their neighbors only disliked immigrants more as there came to be more of them, and they voted for a man who vowed to kick them out. They became wary of the immigrants because their behaviors, their food, their appearance, their language, to them, were weird.

Victoria tells me she wishes she could return to Mexico and visit her extended family, but her immigration status prevents her from traveling internationally. Her own parents haven’t seen their parents in years.

Her brother, too, dreams of returning to Mexico and becoming a politician. After seeing the toll that immigration took on his parents, he wants to make his home country better—so that families don’t have to emigrate anymore.

Emma, Part I