My parents migrated from Mexico to Arizona in 1994, to provide a better future for me and my brothers. When you migrate, you are starting a completely new life, and are faced with many challenges as an undocumented immigrant. From language barriers, lack of employment opportunities, and housing. 

 

Luckily we already had family that lived in Arizona, and my uncle was able to get my dad an entry-level job. My uncle worked as a screen printer for a big company, and my dad started as a catcher there. A catcher is responsible for catching garments as they come off the dryer belt, checking the quality of the print, and folding them into the boxes. Eventually, my dad became a screen printer himself, and as the years went by, he became a pro.

 

At this time I was still very young and didn’t really question what my dad did for a living; however, as I became older, I became more curious and interested in what he did. Conversations with him as a kid consisted of him telling me and my mother that one day he would love to own his own screen printing business to provide better income and job security for our family. I am grateful that his ambition and hustle changed my perspective in life at an early age. When you grow up undocumented and poor, you have to work harder to even have the same opportunities as others. You feel the constant pressure and fear of not failing and letting your parents down. Having immigrant parents, you want to ensure that the sacrifices they made to provide you a brighter future did not go in vain. 

 

 

In 2005, my dad and uncle purchased a small manual press machine, dryer belt, a few screens, etc to finally print shirts in my uncle’s garage. My dad did the printing, my uncle worked on clientele, and I worked as a catcher. Around 2007 my uncle no longer wanted to work in the business and we moved all the machines into our back house as my uncle needed his garage to work on cars. Because of this, printing stopped as my dad did not want to continue until it was a legit registered business. 

 

 

Fast forward to 2012, I became a DREAMer through DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) and was finally able to feel treated as an adult as this gave me the opportunity to obtain a driver’s license, SSN, and a work permit. Soon after, I got my first job and bought out my uncle’s half he paid for the equipment. 

 

In 2013, I was able to finally legitimately register our company, and we began to print shirts in our little back house. My dad did the printing, I handled the clientele, and was the catcher. Eventually, I learned how to screen print with my dad’s mentoring and learned the flow of the business. 

 

Now we are expanding by building a bigger back shop with more equipment to service our customer’s needs better and faster. We are hoping to keep growing in this industry, to keep serving our current and new customers with exceptional service. What started as a dream, is slowly becoming a reality.