EL PASO – It’s 4:00 a.m. in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, when Azhiel Rodan’s phone alarm blares. He wipes the crust from his eye, dazed and confused that Monday morning came so soon. The weekends he spends across the border with his mother are always too short.
This past Friday, Azhiel’s football team at the El Paso Leadership Academy had an away game at Whiteface, a town just west of Lubbock. The team bus didn’t get back to the school until 4:30 a.m. Then, Azhiel still had to cross the Bridge of the Americas – known locally as the Puente Libre – an international port of entry from the United States to Mexico.
Azhiel had tried sneaking away from the team to hike to the bridge alone, not wanting to bother anybody. But his coach insisted he get in the car, already knowing where he was heading.
He’d spent 15 hours round trip on the bus to play the football game, but the journey was far from over. His mother’s house in Ciudad Juárez is an hour away from that bridge. By the time he stumbled through the front door and plopped on his bed, finally home from his Texas high school football game, the Saturday morning sun was shining through his bedroom window.
He felt like he’d blinked, and now it was time to go back to the United States for another week of school.
Azhiel is a dual citizen, which allows him to cross back and forth over the border. He grew up in Ciudad Juárez with his mother. But three years ago, she started sending him to live with his uncle, a legal guardian, in El Paso so he could attend the El Paso Leadership Academy, a tuition-free charter school.
But attending still comes at a cost. Azhiel didn’t speak any English before he enrolled, and he had to live away from his mother from Monday to Friday. She was only an hour away, but in a foreign country.
Every time Azhiel wants to quit, he thinks about all his mom is sacrificing so he can get a high school diploma in the United States.
“My mom really had a hard life,” Azhiel said. “She lost my dad-presence. He died when I was like six months old. For her, it’s been really hard. But she always tried to give us opportunities and never gave up.”
Azhiel is still thinking about her as he crosses the international bridge. It only takes about three minutes to walk across, depending on the customs line, which is weird because this act is such a massive leap of faith that all this lack of sleep and time spent away from family will be worth it in the end.