Claudia Perez, a Mexican immigrant living in Chicago for the past 25 years, has always yearned for her homeland and the loved ones she left behind. Despite a successful street vending business in Little Village, she chose to leave her life in the U.S. due to health concerns and a desire to spend her remaining years with her aging siblings and visit her parents’ graves in Mexico. Her decision illustrates the dilemma faced by many undocumented immigrants who, after years of living in the United States, choose to return to their countries of origin to be with family and prepare for their own mortality. While her family in Chicago remained, Perez’s return was a bittersweet moment filled with both joy and sorrow.
