MISSION, September 20, 2006 — From a couch in her living room, Maria Hernandez can see her two oldest daughters race off in her blue car to meet friends on a Wednesday night.

Three years ago, a scene like that seemed a world away. Hernandez, 37, lived in fear. She was stuck in the middle of a bitter divorce. She was here illegally, and she had no income.

Her story includes sad twists and turns of separated families, childhoods cut short and abusive relationships all too common in first-generation immigrants to the Rio Grande Valley.

About one in eight people, or more than 30 million Americans, claim Hispanic origin. They come from every walk of life and numerous national origins.

In the Valley, most are of Mexican descent, but it is their family's time in the United States that impacts each of their stories more than their nationality.

As the nation marks Hispanic Heritage Month from Sept. 15-Oct. 15, stories like the Hernandez family's help illustrate each one's assimilation into this country.

Perhaps at no time in the nation's history have the stories been so different than the next, beginning with the family still trying to fight its way in the door for its shot at the proverbial American dream.

She was born in 1969 in Mexico City. When she was 7, her parents took her and her five brothers to Reynosa to live with one of her grandfathers.

After only two years in Reynosa, her father turned desperate and left his job as a security guard to work as a migrant worker in Florida and Texas. She didn't see him for three years.

So, Hernandez dropped out of school at that point and started cleaning houses and babysitting, while her father worked as a security guard again.

She started dating a U.S. resident, Jose Lopez, with family living in Mission. When they married, Hernandez knew she was headed for this country.

More importantly, once she crossed into the United States, she would not be able to return to Mexico to visit family because she was here illegally.

After a few months in Mission and barely 21 years old, Hernandez moved to Colorado with her husband and two daughters — her oldest daughter, Zinnia, had joined her and Yazmin by that time — to pick vegetables.

For two years, she had no contact with her brothers, all of whom live in Reynosa. And her father, her best friend, who was always giving her advice, was not doing well.

She knew it was time to come home when she became pregnant for the third time, with Jesus Alberto in 1994 and she couldn't properly communicate with her doctor in Colorado.

Back in Mission, they temporarily moved into her mother-in-law's house again. Finally, they moved to Palmhurst to a dusty neighborhood with no drainage.

They needed the money, but he convinced her that she needed to stay home and she couldn't get a decent-paying job because of her illegal status.

The abuse reached a breaking point in 1998 when she was pregnant with her fourth child, Marcos. Her husband's legal residency had just been upgraded to citizenship and he was working as a carpenter.

Finally, she approached a friend for help. The woman had gone through a similar situation and reassured her that her husband could not do the things he was threatening.

It reached a boiling point in 2003, when she reported Jose to the Hidalgo County Sheriff's Department. Her husband was arrested and sentenced to 45 days in jail for assault of a family member, according to court records.

Hernandez turned to Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid, a non-profit organization serving low-income residents in need of legal services, to secure her divorce and her family's legal residency.

For their family, working hard is simply the first step to laying a foundation for future generations — Hernandez's grandchildren and great-grandchildren — to come.

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