Life After Deportation: What It's Like to Start Over in a Country You Barely Know Tristan Smith and Polo Sandoval - CNN
go to original March 28, 2017

Life after deportation: A stranger in Mexico (CNN)

Jorge Matadamas is a Mexican citizen, but at 23 years old, everything about the country is brand new to him.

From the time he was 4 years old, when he says his undocumented parents took him across the border into the United States, he lived in Phoenix. "I had lived there for so long that I considered it my home," he said.

Then, on March 7, he was deported.

Now he's living with his uncle and aunt in La Paz, a suburb about an hour and a half drive from the center of Mexico City.

"The first couple of days I think were the hardest," he said, "because they were the most emotional for actually realizing that I am not going to go back (to America) anytime soon."
"I didn't show it, but I was homesick."

When it comes to speaking Spanish, Matadamas can generally hold his own in a conversation, he said. He usually has to think of what he is going to say in English first, then translate it in his head.

But he speaks what is often called "Pocho," an unflattering term for Americanized Spanish, and a word that's used to describe Mexicans who have lost their culture.

Read the rest at CNN

Related: Mexican President Announces Special Assistance to Deported People (Prensa Latina)

Related: US Migration Policies to Dominate Mexico-CentAm Summit (The Economic Times)

Related: Mexican Migrants Signal They Prefer Detention to Deportation (WSJ.com)

Related: While Immigrants Panic, Trump Says ICE Raids Are a Part of His Campaign Promise (NewsFix)

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