Esperanza Santos stared, wide-eyed and heart-racing, at the big envelope she had been yearning for and dreading; the envelope she didn’t want to think about yet every day could not help but obsess over. The envelope that she now clutched in her hands, her name scrawled in big, official letters across the front. There was no denying that it was just for her.
Throughout her youth, Esperanza was a quiet, introverted girl in school. When teachers, girls, or boys called her name she was quick to smile faintly and dart her eyes downward, pulling away almost as quickly as the blush that would dart across her face. She spent her grade-school days, K-12, avoiding attention. Her goal was to make as little disturbance as possible, fluttering like a leaf on the breeze made by those around her, her presence only marked by the memory of a rustle. This was not because her mind was quiet, in fact Esperanza was loud inside. She was louder inside than most of those around her. Louder, too, outside than most—but only with her family surrounded by the safety of her home. She had a lot of energy, spunk, and attitude—her mind was sharp and cutting, and she could think of jokes and come backs faster than you could spit out the rest of your argument. Her most favorite pastime was watching shows of Judges and lawyers on her rundown TV—she loved to see how they could juggle words at their disposal. But Esperanza had to keep her thunderous thoughts to herself outside the home; not just for her sake, but for the sake of those she loved. This was because the only thing keeping Esperanza in school and in America were the fake papers her parents had risked their lives to forge for her, when she was born 18 years ago in Mexico. Her father and mother, Rodrigo and Maria Santos, had worked hard since Esperanza was born to not only provide for their daughter, but to stay scarce and work for trusted employers who paid under minimum wage to be sure that they would not be caught and deported. Watching all they had done to ensure her a better future, Esperanza learned quickly that the only way to pay respects to their dreams and to succeed in her own was to stay quiet until the time was right.
Now, she wondered if this was that time. The envelope in her hands was from the Admissions Office of Yale’s Law School—where she had always dreamed of attending. When Esperanza closed her eyes and began to open the envelope by touch, she allowed her loud mind a moment of utter silence. After all, no argument could alter the decision conveyed in the letter. When she opened them again her heart skipped a beat—she was accepted! She stared at the letter, taking time to register what this meant. Then she rushed into the living room and exclaimed loudly to her parents, “Mama! Papa! Lo hice—I did it! I got into Yale, with a full-ride scholarship! I’m going to be a lawyer!” Her father beamed at her as she rushed over into his embrace, tears welling up in her eyes.
Her mother Maria’s face hardened and turned to stone. With one quick stroke of reason she shattered the lighthearted mood. “What if you get caught, Esperanza? The university will find out you are not a legal citizen of the United States. You will be deported and all of your, and all of our, hard work will be all for nothing.”
“Bu—But Mama…” Esperanza tried to refute, her voice for once not so brash or confident.
“Hush now, Maria,” Rodrigo cut in, “we might not have papers but we made sure que nuestra hija does. They might not be real but they’re damn near untraceable. My daughter is going to Yale and becoming a lawyer, and that’s final. Why else have we worked so hard?” he finished, using the same assertive, self-assured voice that Esperanza prided herself upon.
Looking back on this memory fondly and with nostalgia, Esperanza later thought how trivial the fears and anxieties of the time now seemed. Through focus and dedication, coupled with her natural talent and passion, she had worked her way through law school and the Bar Exam with greater success than even she had hoped. Shaking her head, she put her introspection aside yet again and tried to remember that she did not need to stay in hiding anymore. If she played her cards right, the next day would be her big break, for before Esperanza lay her just-finalized Case Summary for the biggest case of her career. Putting down the report, she jumped as a hand slid onto her shoulder. “Wow, you’re so tense. Come get some rest,” cooed the familiar voice of her husband. Esperanza smiled, turning around to kiss him.
“I’m coming, I’m coming. You know I needed to finish this case,” she justified sleepily, the hint of a smile tugging at the edge of her lip.
“You are so ridiculous, your flight leaves this afternoon and you still are reviewing your case!” he teased as they both walked out of her study and into their bedroom.
They had been married less than a year ago, shortly after they both graduated from Yale and started off their careers. Esperanza was fortunate to marry out of love, but with it came another benefit—she was now legally a U.S. Citizen. This didn’t solve the issue of her parents, but that was not a huge concern. Esperanza simply gave them a credit card in her name so that they no longer needed to risk being caught in the work force. They lived quiet, humble lives in retirement on the outskirts of town, in a new home surrounded by trees, and went out only to shop for the bare necessities. Though Esperanza loved her husband and had vowed not to lie to him, she still kept one dark secret to herself—beaten into her by habit and deep-seated fear; she had not told him that she wasn’t before a citizen, or about her parents. But this part of her life had always been so personal and so hidden that it did not seem real even to her when she was around other people, even those she loved. The only time it resurfaced was when she would sneak away and visit her parents, absorbed once again into the isolation of feeling like a fugitive in the only country she’d ever really known.
That afternoon Esperanza flew out into what was not only the biggest case so far of her career, but what some newspapers were calling the biggest case of the century. When she went into the courtroom she was flocked by interviewers from papers and TV stations alike, the paparazzi filling up her vision with lingering flashes even when she closed her eyes or looked the other way. She felt anxiety linger in her mind in a similar fashion, clinging to every thought no matter how hard she tried to drive it away. During the middle of the week of the trial, however, she hit a weak point in her opponent’s argument and a feeling of triumph rushed through her that stayed right until the end of the case when the jury ruled in favor of her argument and her defendant not-guilty for his crime. This feeling of triumph sailed all the way back with Esperanza through her interviews with the press, on her flight back home, and into her apartment. Not until she called out her husband’s name and he didn’t reply did her triumph finally grow stagnant and settle once again in her chest. Realizing she hadn’t called to let him know she had returned, Esperanza went over to the phone.
When he answered, he sounded preoccupied and concerned, taking a moment to recognize her. “Oh Esperanza! Thank goodness you’re back. I was just on my way home to call you. There’s been some trouble over here while you were gone, but I didn’t want to worry you during the big case. I’ll be right over and give you an update.”
“Trouble?” Esperanza said, an unwelcome chill creeping up her spine and pit seeping down into her stomach. “What trouble?”
“Don’t you worry about it, darling. I have it all handled, it’s taken care of and there’s not even much more for me to do. We just need to let the lawyers take care of it. Now I’ll see you in a minute, I shouldn’t be talking while I’m driving. We can discuss it over your lunch celebration!”
Waiting for him to arrive, Esperanza had no idea as to what he could mean. She feared the worse. When he arrived with the champagne, she rushed out to help him carry in the groceries, ignoring his protests. Fiercely, she sat him down at the table and demanded to know the trouble right away—before lunch.
“Well, I didn’t want to ruin to homecoming but I understand why you want to know. Someone has been stealing from us, Esperanza,” he said, and her eyes opened wide. “These people have been using a credit card in your name, so I got a lawyer on the case. Get this—they’re illegal immigrants! I guess they’re using you as a cover up because they have no other means to support themselves. I don’t know how they even—“
“NO!!!” Esperanza burst out with a fiery intensity, “what have you done?!” Tears welled up in her eyes and a knot caught in her throat that felt as solid as a rock, choking her. Startled, her husband leaned over comfortingly, but she jumped away sharply, startling him again.
“Honey, I know it’s upsetting, but how can you be mad at me? I was only trying to help, and it’s all taken care of—“
“Who did you go to? What lawyer did you see?” she cut in again, suddenly realizing what she must do. Astonished again, he told her the name and address of the lawyer, and before he could make another sound she was sprinting out the door. As soon as she drove up frantically to the address, Esperanza hopped out of the car and ran inside, still in her clothes from her airplane trip. In the office, she burst past the receptionist and into the lawyer’s office. He looked up with a disconcerted look on his face as she burst out her question, “I’m Esperanza Roy, Ted Roy’s wife. That family, who was using the credit card in my name, have you reported them to the authorities yet?”
“Erm, uh…” he stuttered, seeming to question how to respond and whether he should request ID before taking the route of compliance, “yes, ma’am. Yes I did. It’s all taken care of for ya …”
Esperanza groaned as she sank into the nearest chair, and her heart sank along with her. The lawyer looked at her for a long time before she spoke up again. Her heart raced, her head went blank. She realized what she needed to do; she couldn’t let her parents get deported as criminals, no matter what the consequences were to her life. “Those are my parents,” she said.
The following day, Esperanza was back into a court-house yet again with the anxiety she had felt only a week before. She explained to the judge why her parents could not be arrested for credit card fraud, which brought up the issue of how two illegal immigrants were her parents. When looking through her records, it didn’t take long to find that there was no way they could be real given the circumstances. This brought up an issue that Esperanza herself hadn’t realized, but that the judge did immediately: Esperanza had not been a legal citizen when she had passed the Bar Exam and received her Law Degree. There were no clear laws around this, but it was clear that Esperanza had not gotten it in due, legal process—considering it to be a law degree, this unsettled the court for obvious reasons.
Esperanza battled it out in court as her own lawyer for the following weeks. For the first time in her life, she fought for her and her parents’ rights and safety with what used to be her greatest weakness: the truth. She described the awful drug cartel in the area where she had been born, and how her parents have strived their entire life to provide a brighter future for her. As a child and student, she had no choice about being an illegal immigrant—but she followed her dreams, and fought for her survival as best as she could. Eventually, it was time for the jury to make their final decision. Esperanza sat with her parents, holding each of their hands with one of her own. Her husband wrapped his arm around her shoulder and stared grimly forward; they had talked through everything in the tense evening between the court battles and held no harsh feelings toward each other. The clock tick-tocked and Esperanza squeeze her parents’ hands—first her mother’s, then her fathers, then her mothers’ once again. Over and over. Tick tock, tick tock. Suddenly, a door burst open, making the entire group of them jump. “The jury has reached its’ consensus,” a man declared, "the defendant is acquitted."

Esperanza beamed. Finally, after all these years, she was really and truly free.