RSSOne man's journey -- a long and grinding road
Yakima Herald-Republic
E-mail
Print
Comments
More 'Local'
- New concept and new look planned for State Fair Park
- Volunteer judges offer to ease backlog of civil court cases
- Hitchhiker? DNA leads to husband
- Home custody escapee back in jail
- Mabton mayor pushes to hire Selah ex-police chief
- Account to benefit Dale Carpenter
- Sunnyside hires firm to find new manager
Miguel Blas-Matus vividly recalls growing up with seven siblings in a one-room, dirt-floor house in his homeland of Juchitan, Oaxaca, Mexico.
Lacking electricity, they lived by candlelight while his mother cooked over an open fire at night, raised pigs and made cheese.
He'd get up before dawn to help his father -- who only spoke the indigenous Zapotec language -- farm their meager one acre of land amid the arid plains of southern Mexico. It provided just enough for his family to survive.
"You don't even think about poverty -- you're happy with what you have," he recalled recently while standing outside the University of Washington's physician's assistant program in Yakima. "If you have something to eat, that was the main thing."
Today at age 45, his life is much different. He rents a room from a friend in Yakima, owns a 2000 Chevrolet Impala, but mostly relies on his bicycle for transportation, and is a junior in medical school.
Last month, Blas-Matus realized his dream of becoming an American citizen. But his quest into the land of opportunity wasn't easy. It was a journey filled with pain, sacrifice and humiliation.
"Starting from scratch, nothing, I think it's worth it," he said, clad in a black button-down shirt, dark slacks and sporting short black hair. "In that painful process, there are a lot of question marks. But if you enjoy what you're doing, it's worth it."
Blas-Matus' journey began at age 7, when he started school at the urging of his father, who lacked any formal education.
A Zapotec Indian, he began learning Spanish in elementary school and eventually worked his way up to medical school in Mexico City, where he was considered a minority.
"I had to move from an Indian town to the big city," he said. "For (a Zapotec) to get at the university level is rare."
But it was a feat he and all his siblings had accomplished.
After finishing medical school and earning his credentials to work as a doctor, he joined the Mexican Navy, where he completed a fellowship for pediatric surgeons.
"I was following my dreams," said Blas-Matus, with a boyish smile.
But a three-month visit to the United States in 1993 with his girlfriend, who is from the Yakima Valley, brought new vision to his life.
She worked as an office secretary at a college in Mexico, and in the fields and warehouses in the United States. She held citizenship in both countries.
They decided to get married and figured the U.S. was the best place to raise a family.
So Blas-Matus began applying for a visa that would allow him to work and stay in the country.
That's when the struggles began.
After taking his money, one attorney said it would be an easy process. But months passed without any paperwork, Blas-Matus recalled.
"I went to his office several times, talked to his secretary just to find out what was going on," he said.
Meanwhile, his tourism visa had expired and he became an illegal immigrant.
In order to survive and pay attorney fees, he turned to the fields of the Yakima Valley and warehouses.
Although he appeared to fit in with field workers, Blas-Matus, who stands about 5-foot-9 with a solid frame, soon learned that he lacked the skills -- and stamina -- to be a farm worker. He was fired from his first two jobs before catching on to the daunting tasks of picking apples, and pruning and thinning trees.
"They fired me because my hands were so delicate, they couldn't resist the thinning," he recalled. "The tips of my fingers used to bleed because of all the friction."
Short of cash, he road a bicycle from orchard to orchard seeking work, and recalled standing in snow above his ankles to perform winter pruning.
Two years and five attorneys later, at a cost of about $15,000, Blas-Matus finally received a work visa that allowed him to stay in the U.S. legally.
He said attorneys kept taking his money, telling him they could help him before referring him to another.
"I can't believe the amount of money I spent," he said. "Both my wife and I, we were fighting to make everything work, our savings and everything."
Because Blas-Matus lacked proficiency in English, he was unable to work as a doctor. So he went to school and became a certified nurse's assistant, and worked long hours in two nursing homes before landing a job as a surgical technician at the former Providence Yakima Medical Center in Yakima. He later left for a similar job at Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital.
His sights were set on continuing his education here and becoming a medical doctor in Yakima.
But on May 4, 1997, life delivered the couple a devastating blow -- their daughter died at birth.
Recalling the moment, Blas-Matus sunk in his chair and rubbed his eyes as tears rolled down his face.
He said he gave her an Indian name, Nadxielli, meaning "I Love You" in Zapotec.
"My only daughter that I have is in heaven," he said softly. "She is a baby, and I love her."
Following his indigenous beliefs, he wanted to take her to his homeland to bury her, but because he was here on a work visa, U.S. immigration authorities wouldn't let him return to Mexico.
Not long afterwards, his sister became ill with hepatitis B, and fell into a coma. He again sought permission to return to Oaxaca, but was denied. She died months later.
"They didn't let me go," he said somberly.
But when his father fell ill in 1999, Blas-Matus left the country without permission.
Months later, he was caught re-entering the U.S., and was held at an immigration detention center in Florence, Ariz., for five months.
His father died while he was in custody.
"Restraining a human being's freedom has no price, and that's what they did to me at that detention center," he said. "I tell my wife ... that was a very unforgettable experience."
He was then deported and told that he couldn't return for 10 years.
He appealed the deportation through four courts before eventually losing the case.
He returned to Mexico, and his wife visited him when she could.
She kept filing paperwork in pursuit of his return, and more than 20 physicians from the Yakima Valley wrote letters in support of Blas-Matus to immigration authorities.
Blas-Matus spent three years in Mexico before he was pardoned by U.S. authorities in 2003 and allowed to return on a work visa.
His job at Memorial Hospital was waiting for him.
He moved back into their home in Yakima and began pursuing his education again, but the long periods of time away and insurmountable stress dealing with immigration authorities had taken a toll on his marriage.
His relationship with his wife began to unravel, and eventually ended in divorce in 2006.
"My education, my vocation was just to improve my family," Blas-Matus recalled sadly. "The whole thing I was doing was just to improve our lifestyle, but unfortunately the pressure was too much and the relationship did not work that well.
"I appreciate the whole thing that she did," he added. "I also appreciate the beautiful moments that kept us as a family."
Despite feelings of loneliness following the divorce, the emotional roller coaster that ensued forged in Blas-Matus a desire to continue.
"I did not leave my country to come over here to waste my time," he said. "I didn't just leave my country -- I left community, my people, my culture."
Now, his classmates in his physician's assistant program in Yakima are his family. Class was canceled the day he was sworn in as a citizen and the entire class showed up.
He has one year left of school and plans to stay here and work as a primary care giver to underserved people in rural areas.
"I just feel like when I get done, life has to get better," he said. "It has been a long journey."
* Phil Ferolito can be reached at 577-7749 or pferolito@yakimaherald.com.
The spin I got from reading this "feel-good" story is the inference that the U.S. is a big ogre who prevents foreigners from achieving their dreams with our immigration laws. The story also demonstrates one important factor that seems to encourage an illegal alien's endless belief that it is o.k. to break the laws of another country for whatever reason you justify is good enough as long as you "work hard" when you get there. The story makes it sound like it is justifiable to break the law if, after doing so, in the end, you become a citizen. The story makes it sound like he was kept a virtual prisoner here by our government, regardless of his "hardships". I really have trouble believing that part.
I wonder how long it would have taken him to become a citizen if he HAD NOT been so determined to leave and re-enter illegally, costing him those years as a convicted criminal and deportee.
Now,in the interest of fair reporting, how about having a story of how someone came here and got their citizenship the RIGHT way, BY STANDING IN LINE AND OBEYING ALL THE LAWS FROM THE BEGINNING. Oh, that's right. No one can legally enter our country anymore because of those tens-of-millions before them who have cut into line and come here without authorization, displacing the legal immigrant's rightful place in the quota.
I'm sure you've never broken a law. How virtuous of you. I think you missed it...He was trying to do it the right way and had lawyers who were taking his money and not helping him. Until you've walked in someone else's shoes please have more compassion. I agree we have a problem with immigration, but we all have to remember how our families got here and what they had to do. He did work hard, and that DOES count for something. We have too many people coming over and taking from our system and not trying to do anything legally. He did come here with authorization and the process took too long because of another person's error.
Report ViolationWOW!!! I just don't get this whole comment board thing here. "Nick" you are allowed to degrade and judge just about any story that comes on here but when others say something it's deleted. You act as if you are by far more superior then the next person. It sickens me some of the stuff they let you get away with saying on here. I just wonder what the reason is for them allowing you and all your negative comments. Sad, sad, sad!
Report ViolationWhat a moving story, once again the bus left mr nick way behind on this one. This is a 99.9 percent positive story and you base your negative comments on the .1 percent. So sad, I feel for you.
Report ViolationThank you YVH for telling the story of this man's struggle to achieve U.S. citizenship. I am proud to call Mr. Blas Matus my countryman and wish him all the best.
On the other hand, Nick, you miss no chance to spin an immigrant's story into the worst possible light. Obviously, you don't know and don't care how difficult it is for an immigrant applicant to get advance parole, or permission to travel outside the United States AND get back in to finish their paperwork. You "really have trouble believing that part." What makes that so hard for you to believe?
Nor is there anything in the story about this man being a convicted criminal. Yes, he was in immigration detention in Florence, AZ. However, if you knew anything at all about immigration detention you would know that it has nothing to do with criminal punishment. But that's not the direction you spin, is it?
Your comments have become almost laughably predictible, but in this case you cross the line into actual defamation. You ought to be ashamed of yourself. I suggest you apologize to Mr. Blas Matus immediately.
Each day we as Americans are subjected to the massive criminal enterprises of the illegal immigration invasion. If fraudulent use of our social security wasn't enough, we also have a growing rate of rape, child predators, assaults, drug dealers and murders. Heinous crimes that should not be just associated with the millions slipping across our almost undefended border. But illegal individuals who have over stayed their passport visas, or left a ship without permission. Yes! Our immigration system of laws are broken, mainly because the 1986 Simpson/Mazzoli law have never been enforced correctly?
The powers in Washington have done everything to undermine any new illegal immigration prevention law. One reason is for propagation of the free trade treaties, but the unquestionable movement of cheap labor for the corporate overseer's of our puppet politicians. We are after all a nation run with a minority of corporate elitists. Wall street plays a major roll in how our country is run, and displayed its greed with the AIG bonuses disclosed in the Stimulus/Omnibus Another massive controversy is the arrogance of Democratic leaders lawmakers who killed the Federal E-verify system of identifying people in the workplace, who illegal and had no right to jobs.
American Workers each day are inundated by foreign nationals in competition, at unskilled, blue collar and even to the management class. E-Verify has been subjected to adverse assessments, by its critics with everything to gain from its destruction. The question is, why send the American people, grandchildren to the poorhouse, when we could remove 40 million (analysis of Heritage Foundation) quartered here. We underwrite with hundreds of billions of cash benefits and services that should only be for legal masses. Blame Madam Pelosi, Sen Reid and 40 other legislators who are playing havoc with American worker, by denying ongoing funding for E-verify. It is our only efficient, easy access tool to remove the blemish of so-called undocumented workers. Read all the ignoble facts kept away from the public view at NUMBERSUSA, JUDICIALWATCH, CAPSWEB. Call your Senator--DEMAND E-VERIFY. 202-224-3121
I would like to ask Miguel Blas Matus, when you mentioned about paying the 15,000 dollar did you pay Immigration or was it to pay to erase your domestic violence charges against your wife in 1994, I ask you because I was a witness to this event. I rented a room to you and your wife (Martha) in Selah, Washington I remember that the police was dispatched to my home do to caring neighbors that called for help. The majority of us women when a situations arise like domestic violence we try our very best and do the impossible to avoid our husbands going to jail or and deportation. I remember I went with her to get checked before bruising appeared on her body so it would be documented. She wanted to make sure that it was documented at the clinic. His wife didn’t want him to get deported. So she got a lawyer to bail him out of jail.
My brother was deported back to my homeland for minor issues, until now I have not been able to help my brother come back into this country was it because he had no education or because he is not a doctor that would be of service to this country or is it because his wife didn’t do enough for her husband.
When I read this story, I imagine a person that has no education that is looking for a better life in this country. Someone that truly has no family, friends or people that could give them a helping hand but still makes the journey to this country. I knew this couple and to my knowledge this is not the true story that is being told.
The story that I know is different, I don’t understand why he feels the necessity to lie so much to a point that people are feeling sad for him and looking for the support of this community. This man thinks that he has ethics, value and morals. Forgive me for this comment but when you tell your story you expose yourself and you history. People that know you and your ex-wife in this small town know exactly how everything happened. One of the biggest lies that were told was about his own daughter that was bored dead. He mentioned that he was unable to go to Mexico to bury his little baby. This is a big lie, because he and his wife travel outside of the U.S to Mexico. He indeed broke the law. He was very lucky to not get cot by immigration officers. I don’t understand why he is disrespecting his own flesh in blood his baby girl memory.
Why does he not mention that he was deported twice, and etc, etc, etc….
To finalize my hopes are that his ex-wife never reads this false stories, what a shame. I would give him an Oscar for his great acting and performance
Posting Guidelines - Updated Aug. 21 2009
Readers are encouraged to use these forums to discuss issues affecting the
Yakima Valley. Debate the ideas presented in stories and other comments, but
refrain from personal attacks and offensive remarks aimed at others; e.g.,
you may call an idea idiotic, but don't say the person is an idiot. The
Herald-Republic reserves the right to remove any comment for any reason.
Examples include material that is obscene, encourages illegal activity or
stereotypes based on race, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs and
other factors. Continued violation of these guidelines can lead to
suspension or revocation of your ability to post comments. If you believe a
comment is inappropriate, you can bring it to our attention by clicking the
"report violation" link by each comment. Guidelines revised Aug. 21, 2009.
Registered User?
