IMMIGRANT

Being an immigrant is different now from fifty years ago. My country is made by immigrant from all over the world, like USA does.
My profession allowed me to talk with my patients widely. They told me amazing stories. I would never made the same journey. Some of them leave their families and never saw them again, like my great grand parents.

I remember an old man from Portugal that told me that he had a farm of olive trees in his country that he left sixty years ago, traveling by ship. Once in Uruguay, he struggle to survive keeping money to come back, but he felt in love and married, bought a house and stayed. He used to write to his family once in a while. He missed his olives. I asked him if he was going to go back now that he was widow, he had not children or other tied in Uruguay. He answered that he didn't have any relatives or friends to visit. He had only curiosity to know how things changed in Portugal. He passed away a week after we talked

Other man that was from Italy traveled by ship with fake documents because he was minor and was not allowed to travel alone. His father and his older brother were already in Buenos Aires. They worked making shoes and sent money back to their mother and sister. They wrote once a month. When his father finally retired, he decide to go back with his family, but suddenly got ill and died.

My patient sent money, and letters, and once the war ended, he went to visit his town. He made the first bathroom in the town. The people from all around went to see the modern thing that he brought from the new world. He was a hard worker and had a shoe's factory with his brother. He was continuous sending money and letters to her family, and ten years after, he went again and found that Italy was another country. He was sending money to them but they had better houses, and cars, and appliances than he had. He was really surprised.

My family is now spreads around the world but I can talk everyday with them, by phone, email or messenger. I can see their faces, see pictures, listen their voices. I know even what my children eat everyday. I would never live for a long time not knowing about my family. My great grandparents came from Italy during the nineteenth century and never went back or even write a letter to their family. Was like if the the life that they lived back disappeared.