Sergio has tanned skin and an average build. He always wears a warm, approachable smile, like he is about to crack a joke. Among all the people I interviewed, he is the most ordinary one. He neither has tragic stories to tell nor grand dreams to pursue. He is just a simple construction worker living and working in Mexico City.

Yet there is one thing that sets him apart: he spent twenty-seven years in the United States.

“Twenty-seven years,” he says, gesturing with his hands. “I moved there in my early twenties, and I’ve worked on construction sites ever since.”

Twenty-seven years is longer than I have been alive. Over these years, he has grown from a young man into a forty-nine-year-old adult. He has built skyscrapers, paved roads, and set up countless scaffolds. In the end, he chose to come back. He was not deported. He returned on his own will. He could not explain exactly why. “I just felt it was time to come home,” he says.

He loves joking around with me. When I ask his thoughts on living in the United States, he grins and replies, “It’s wealthy, but boring.” He then adds, “Mexico is so much better. It has great sunshine, delicious food, and beautiful women.”

He never hides his honest thoughts. At first, I was amused by his straightforwardness. Later, I realize he simply has never learned to pretend. He never receives much formal education, yet he lives far more honestly and openly than most people.

He shows me a painting he made — a traditional Mexican sunflower decoration, painted in bright red and orange, with blooming petals that look as if they are glowing. He tells me he finished this painting while living in the US. “I hung this painting on my wall back then,” he says. “Every morning when I woke up and saw it, I felt like I was still in Mexico.”

He tells me that after exhausting days of hard work in America, the only thing that comforted him was the thought of returning to Mexico one day. “I don’t know where I’ll go next,” he says, “I just want a steady job, one that lets me live a peaceful, stable life.”

Now he has a new small dream: to learn English. “Not for business purposes,” he laughs. “Just for daily communication. So I can talk to more people and understand their jokes.”

As he speaks, he keeps an old safety helmet clasped in his hand — the one he brought back with him from the United States.

Voces de México

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