BAY WINDOW: When did you first come to the United States?

ROSITA QUIJADA: I arrived here on June 20, 1988.

BAY WINDOW: Did you fly into San Francisco from Mexico?

ROSITA QUIJADA: I entered through Mexico.

BAY WINDOW: When you entered the country did you ask for political asylum right away?

ROSITA QUIJADA: Yes, immediately. Within five days of arriving, I went to request political asylum.

BAY WINDOW: Were you ever in jail during this process?

ROSITA QUIJADA: No, never.

BAY WINDOW: When you came to the United States, did you first go to Los Angeles? Did you come right to San Francisco? Did you get an attorney?

ROSITA QUIJADA: I came directly to San Francisco. I didn't stop by Los Angeles. I just came directly to San Francisco. Thanks to an attorney I was able to get representation and I was able to get a work permit. I'm very grateful that he helped me. I don't think I'll ever be able to repay him what he's done for me.

BAY WINDOW: Why did you want to come to San Francisco instead of somewhere else in the United States?

ROSITA QUIJADA: Because my sister Maria was here and she's the one who was going to help support me when I arrived here.

BAY WINDOW: Did you go to court many times? Did you have many interviews during your political asylum process and how were you treated?

ROSITA QUIJADA: I had several court hearings. I would go to court, the judge would set another hearing. I would go back to court, the judge would set another hearing and he would not give me my papers. On the third time when my hearing was rescheduled I came home very sick from my heart and I was anxious. I was so sick that I had to go to the hospital and I was in the hospital for two days.

BAY WINDOW: Tell me about making the decision to come here and leaving your children behind.

ROSITA QUIJADA: It was very difficult for me to make the decision to leave them behind, but I was very afraid that like my husbands, I too would be murdered. I had to choose, I had to come to the United States and that's why I had to request asylum from the judge and also ask my attorney to help me. I had to do that in order to be able to bring my children so that they would be with me.

BAY WINDOW: Can you talk about the twelve years you spent without her children? How did you keep in contact with them and what that period was like?

ROSITA QUIJADA: It was very difficult for me to be apart from my children. While I was here in the United States I was fighting to get them here. I would communicate with them by phone and by letter. I would talk to them on the phone and they would tell me that they wanted to be with me, that they wanted to be here. I would tell them I wanted to be with them but that I couldn't because my case had not been approved yet and that I had not been given permission to remain here in the United States I told them that I was fighting to be able to bring them here. And I prayed and I cried a lot. I prayed to god that he would help me bring them here.

BAY WINDOW: Tell us about your daughter who is still in El Salvador who raised the boys? When will she be able to come here?

ROSITA QUIJADA: I left my children with my daughter when they were very little and she fought for them, she supported them, she washed their clothes, she made them food. It's my hope that she too will be able to join us in the United States I hope that all my children will be able to be with me one day.

BAY WINDOW: After the hardships that you've been through, what are your hopes for life in the United States and your hopes for your sons here?

ROSITA QUIJADA: I hope that they will be able to first study and then later if they can that they will work. I hope that they will do this for their own good and I hope above all to be able to give them everything that I've not been able to give them. My love as a mother. That's what I really want for them.

BAY WINDOW: Why did you feel that you had to leave El Salvador?

ROSITA QUIJADA: I left El Salvador because I truly feared that I would be assassinated just as my husband was. I feared most that my children would be left without parents, that they would have neither father nor mother. That's why I came to the United States, hoping to seek asylum here and to seek some help here, so that my children would not be left without parents. The guerrillas who murdered my husband also gave us a very bad life. They committed grave things against us and for that reason I could not remain there.

I've suffered, my children have suffered. We've all suffered a lot. On the first occasion when my first husband was murdered, the guerrillas came to my home. My children were in school. They came on the pretense that they wanted him to fix a radio and once he was working on the radio they said they didn't really care about that. They took him. They tied him up. They then shot him for the first time on his temple, then on his chest, and then on his stomach. In the meantime, I had been tied up and they shot him and they left and I was tied up there. A neighbor came, a woman. She untied me and I saw my husband dead and I couldn't do nothing but cry.

BAY WINDOW: Now that your sons are here, you have asylum, and you know you won't be going back to El Salvador, how does you feel?

ROSITA QUIJADA: I still feel sad even though the judge has granted me asylum. After twelve years, I thought after the judge granted me asylum that I would be permitted to remain here as a permanent resident but it turns out that I have to wait one more year before I can apply to be a permanent resident and I feel that I'm being punished even though I am a decent woman, a woman who is hardworking, who's never committed any crime either here or in any other country and I don't feel that it's fair that I'm still going through this after twelve years, it's still not over.

San Francisco International Airport

BAY WINDOW: Why is today, Mother's Day, a big day for you?

ROSITA QUIJADA: It's a very important day for me because I'm going to receive my children here after so many years.

BAY WINDOW: How many years has it been since you've seen your children?

ROSITA QUIJADA: Twelve.

BAY WINDOW: Rosita, what are your feeling right now?

ROSITA QUIJADA: This is a very important day for me because I'm going to be receiving my children after so many years. And I feel very, very happy.

BAY WINDOW: What are your hopes for the future with your children?

ROSITA QUIJADA: My hopes are that my children will come, that they will come here to study, to work, that they will become good people, and that's what I want for their futures.

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