Natalie

Portrayed by Natalie de la Cruz, this is the story of author Beatriz Curry as she struggles to carve a niche in a new and unexpectedly alien world called the United States. It is the story of tenacity in the face of adversity, of personal failures and triumphs.

Her life in the US starts in1977 when she arrives in Miami with a dream of a better life, a little over a thousand dollars in her purse and four children in tow. From the moment she arrives and faces the immigration offi cer with "the coldest and most hostile eyes she had ever seen," she realizes she is in for a long and turbulent ride. She becomes a waitress, a machinist, a hotel maid as she grapples with a new language, a new city and a new world. Exhausted after years of hard work and failures, she decides to return to her country of origin-if her luck didn't change. But it does.

Over 30 years later, author Beatriz Curry gives us her poignant story as she remembers it. Some details have been added or omitted to fit the story. Personal names and some places have been changed.