What a hopeful first-generation immigrant wants you to remember on Election Day.
We have the choice to determine what tomorrow will look like. Let's not get it wrong.
When I was a first-generation immigrant kid in the late-1980s, Ronald Reagan was president.
It was a big deal. I didn't even know whether he was Republican or Democrat, but I knew he was a good man. People liked him. He had my family and my community's respect. I also knew he had been an actor, but that wasn't what defined him or his presidency.
Image by J. David Ake/AFP/Getty Images.
When I was a kid, I could walk to and from Arizona to Mexico without too much of a fuss.
Because I'm the only U.S. citizen in my immediate family (born in Tucson, Arizona), I always felt a special sense of pride in being able to say "U.S. citizen" before the customs agent waved me across.
When I was kid, I wasn't scared the government would deport my parents.
Maybe it's because I knew my parents and my older brother and sister had permanent residence cards. They became U.S. citizens about 10 years ago, once I was grown up, but still, I never even worried about the words "resident alien" on my family's passport cards when I was younger.
Image by iStock.
When I was a kid, I wasn’t aware of the fact that I was an “other.”
When I turned on the television, I never saw families that looked like mine, but I was oblivious that I wasn't represented in Hollywood. As long as I enjoyed the actors and the storyline in any given TV show or movie, life was grand. Representation wasn't an issue because I was unaware I was a minority. No one treated me differently. I thought everyone was just like me, Mexican-American — made up of two cultures.
When I was a kid, it really did feel like you could accomplish anything with hard work. It was "Morning in America."
My family was considered middle-to-upper class. It felt like we had a fighting chance in the land of opportunity. My father was the owner of a successful auto parts wholesale warehouse. He also owned at least a dozen rental properties on both sides of the border that kept us living comfortably. It felt like that sense of financial security would last forever. The devastating devaluation of the peso wasn't an issue ... yet.
My family and I posing at one of my dad's business locales in Mexico in the late-1980s.
When I was a kid, I knew that people were engaged in the political process, but they didn’t live and breathe it like some do today.
I remember picking up snippets of news here and there, hearing about politics from my parents, neighbors, maybe teachers at school. But there was no constant barrage of information. I knew who my parents were endorsing in election years. I also knew who was running in the Mexican presidential election. But that news was delivered either via newspaper or the TV news, promptly at 5 or 10 p.m. That was it.
When I was a kid, I felt that if I got a good grades, everything else would just fall into place.
My parents didn’t have to worry about how to pay for my tuition. I felt secure that the opportunity to attend college was readily available if I worked hard and earned the grades to get in. I knew it was up to me how far I wanted to get in school too. The idea of "how are my parents going to pay for this?" was never a factor when I was accepted into grad school. The fact that I don't have student debt is a blessing.
Image via iStock.
Now, I’m an adult. I live in Phoenix, Arizona. And I see things with a lot more clarity and cautious optimism.
Today, I'm worried about my nieces and nephews and their children, and about first-generation immigrant kids everywhere.
I want them to have what I had growing up. I want them to live without fear of being discriminated against, without the financial burden of taking out high-interest loans to pay for college. I want them to know that, in spite of the constant downpour of any salacious or unnecessary details related to the 2016 presidential election, the process matters.
Today, I have no idea what the border checkpoints would look like under a Trump presidency, let alone his plan to build a giant 10-foot-tall wall.
Part of the proposed structure would be built right smack in my hometown. It would send a divisive message of "us versus Mexico" — literally and figuratively.
The border fence that separates Nogales, Arizona, from Nogales, Mexico. Image by Alicia E. Barrón.
Today, many kids are scared to death that their parents will be deported back to their country of origin.
Kids today are more aware about social issues (like illegal immigration) than I was as a child in the late-1980s, and a presidential candidate publicly calling Mexicans "rapists" and "criminals" is part of that. Some kids saw that and they are well aware of how that candidate feels. There were no minced words. They worry that they don't belong.
Today, many minority kids are more likely to feel like they are a minority.
The racial divide has never been more apparent.
Image via iStock.
Today, for many folks, America can feel more like the land of little-to-no-opportunity.
If Trump wins, it feels like another win for “the man,” for the top 1% — with nothing to offer lower- and middle-class families. I worry that the opportunity to get ahead will not be the same for everyone across the board. I worry that the children of my family and friends won't be able to fight for their dreams. I fear that Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric will further rub off on society.
Today, politics are everywhere.
We no longer have to wait for the daily newspaper or the evening news to hear the highlights. We’re infiltrated with every single news tidbit throughout the day via social media and constant TV coverage. It's exhausting. It’s difficult. It's almost impossible to have an objective opinion about the world (much less politics) because of the filter bubble.
Sometimes, I fear that we are all over-informed and that we're not talking about the issues that affect our everyday lives, like LGBTQ rights or who will be appointed to the Supreme Court.
The last presidential debate. Image by Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images.
Today, I worry about how the heck kids are paying for college.
Today, even if you have stellar grades, you worry about how to pay for your education. Today, if I wanted an education, I would be one of millions taking out a student loan. The last thing I want is for my nieces and nephews to graduate with a mountain of debt I never had to endure.
But despite all of this, today, I am still hopeful we can make progress.
What I had and saw as a child in America can still exist, in some sense. And the choice to make progress is ours to make.
We can choose to tell -generation immigrant kids that they matter and they belong in America. We can choose to make progress on issues that affect all kinds of people, not just the wealthiest among us. We can choose to create systems that make education accessible, not prohibitive. We can choose progress and more opportunities for all. We can choose to live in a country where dreams come true. We can choose all of this because we live in a democracy.
As a first-generation immigrant, I'm incredibly proud to be an American.
I was given opportunities to succeed. I am where I am today because of America.
That's why it's super important to me, and to other people who know how great America is, that we all cast our vote for the kind of America that doesn't build walls or function on fear. On Nov. 8, let's not waste this choice that we have.
There's way too much at stake.
American portion sizes are colossal.
Tax shouldn't be a not-so-fun surprise at the end of your shopping trip. 
A trip to the doctor shouldn't break the bank.
This totally isn't weird at all. Right?
It's a choice. 
America loves extra sugar in savory foods.
Princess Odette Girl GIF by The Swan Princess 
Rose GIF 
sailor moon GIF 
river phoenix 80s GIF 
All of this will be ours one day. Yay. 
Elderly woman with white hair on phone, sharing a story about a dead person her child has never met. 
Surprised elderly man in blue shirt against a yellow background.
Elderly woman in pink shirt using a smartphone on a garden swing.
TV for waking. TV for sleep. 
Elderly man using a magnifying glass to read a piece of mail
Mom is totally humiliated after her kindergartner tells the teacher what she does for work
She was clearly mortified.
A mom is embarrassed by her child.
One of the great joys and stresses of parenting is that you never know what will come out of your child’s mouth. When you have young, inquisitive kids, they can say really inappropriate things to people without realizing they were being rude or possibly offensive. TikTok influencer Aurora McCausland (@auroramccausland), known for her DIY cleaning tips, recently told a funny story on the platform about how her son believes she makes a living. The problem was that she heard about it from her child's teacher.
Mom is embarrassed by her child
“The other day, I went and picked my five year old up from school and when I get to his classroom his teacher pulls me inside and says, ‘Hey, today he wanted to tell us about what Mommy does for work and said that Mommy makes videos in her bedroom but only when I'm [he’s] not at home,” McCausland recalled.
Given her body language while telling the story, McCausland was clearly mortified after hearing what her child said to his teacher. It makes it look like she may be posting videos to adult sites while her child is at school, which most people wouldn’t want their son’s teacher to know about.
The good news is that another teacher was there to clarify the young boy's comments by adding, “I think she makes TikTok videos.” The uncomfortable situation was a great invitation to chat with her son about what she does for a living. “So I have to have a conversation with my son about how he tells people what I do for work,” she finished her video.
The funny video went viral, earning over 1.7 million views on TikTok, and inspired many people to share the times when their children had funny ways of explaining their careers. The commenters were a great reminder to parents everywhere that if your child says something embarrassing, it's ok, just about everyone has been through it.
Moms share their most embarrassing moments
A lot of parents spoke up in the comments to show McCausland that she's not the only one to feel embarrassed in front of her child's teacher.
"My son told everyone that we were homeless (because we don’t own our home, we rent)," KBR wrote.
"I work in ortho.. my daughter told her teacher I steal people's knees bc she heard me talking to my husband about a knee replacement," Aingeal wrote.
"My son told a teacher we were living in our car over the summer. Camping. We went camping," Kera wrote.
"In kinder, my son thought Red Bull was alcohol and told his teacher I liked to have beer on the way to school," Ashley wrote.
My niece told her teacher her mom and dad work at the wh*re house. They work at the courthouse," Ellis wrote.
"My husband works as a table games dealer at a casino. Kindergartener, 'Daddy's a Dealer!' We now start every school year clearly stating he works at the casino," CMAC
"My son said we lived in a crack house…There’s a tiny chip in the wall from the doorknob," KNWerner wrote.
"My dad is a hospice chaplain and officiates a lot of funerals. My son and nephew were asked by their preschool teacher if their papa was retired or had a job. They told her his job was to kill people," Tiffyd wrote.
"My son said "my dad left me and I'm all alone" to a random person at the zoo. My husband was just at work," Shelby.
"I am now in my 70s. In my gradeschool, during the McCarthy era, I told my teacher my dad was a communist. He was an economist," Crackerbelly wrote.
"In Kindergarten, my daughter told her teacher that mommy drinks and drives all the time. Coffee. From Starbucks," Jessica wrote.
"Well I once told my kindergarden teacher a man climbs over our fence to visit my mom when her husband is not home... It was a handy man who came to fix gates when they were stuck," Annie wrote.
Ultimately, McCausland’s story is a fun reminder of how children see things through their own unique lens and, with total innocence, can say some of the funniest things. It’s also a great warning to parents everywhere: if you aren’t clear with your kids about what you do for a living, you may be setting yourself up for a very embarrassing misunderstanding. So, even if you think they know what you do ask them as see what they say, you could save yourself from a lot of embarrassment.
This article originally appeared last year and has been updated.