Yesica Aramburo traveled on trip to Mexico in April 2017 for the festivities in her Mexican household’s city of La Moncada, Guanajuato, within the middle of the nation. She by no means thought that this temporary go to would change her life and lead her to discover love.
At the time, Aramburo was 20 years previous and nonetheless learning in Chicago, however the pleasure of experiencing in individual every thing that her household had instructed her in regards to the festivities, motivated her to make the journey. And that’s when she met Ramón Vega, an automotive detailer.
“We met in the garden,” Aramburo recalled. “From then on, there was something like chemistry, but we didn’t know each other; he was a friend of my cousin’s.”
Despite that first encounter, love arrived somewhat later.
Mexico, Chicago and two relationships
That 12 months, 2017, Aramburo returned to Chicago to proceed her research in accounting, however she felt the urge to return to her mother and father’ homeland for an extended keep. “Like when I was little and would stay with my parents two or three months on vacation,” she mentioned.
The 29-year-old American has had a deep love for Mexico since she was very younger. She says she likes how colourful life is on the opposite facet of the border, the best way individuals are, the meals, the patron saint festivals, the sense of neighborhood.
“I love Mexico. When I was little, I would cry and ask my parents why we couldn’t live in Mexico. There, even though people live very simply, you feel so full of so much – I don’t know how to explain it – like you have the whole world,” she says.
In January 2018, she went again to Mexico with the thought of staying for a couple of months. Then, she and Vega met once more, went on dates, frolicked collectively, however neither felt prepared for a critical relationship. She returned to Chicago, he stayed in Guanajuato, and shortly after, each began relationships with different individuals.
A protracted-distance love and the loss of a child
It was September 2020 when Aramburo returned to Mexico and as soon as once more— and this time definitively — met the person with whom she would have a child, though issues didn’t end up as they anticipated.
“That’s when all the romance started, although we didn’t become boyfriend and girlfriend right away. We started as friends because we were afraid of getting hurt, but the relationship was very serious,” mentioned Aramburo. “A few months later, in November, I found out I was pregnant.”
From that second on, distance grew to become part of their relationship. She returned to Chicago for the December holidays to inform her household the information and stayed there till February 2021, when she took a flight to Mexico to have the gender reveal get together for his or her child.
The following month, in Mexico, Aramburo had problems that led her to see a health care provider who really useful mattress relaxation and returning to the United States as a result of she was shedding amniotic fluid.
“So I returned home; a few nights went by and then I lost all the fluid, I had to go to the hospital and my baby was born on April 11, 2021; my baby was 20 weeks. I had him with me for half an hour and I was able to baptize him, then he died,” she shared.
At that point, the toughest half for Aramburo was being removed from her associate, understanding that, though they needed to grieve collectively for his or her child, they couldn’t as a result of he didn’t have a visa to go go to her.
“It was very difficult for me because I had to do everything alone, I couldn’t run to see him. And although he supported me, he wasn’t physically there. I had doctor’s appointments, we couldn’t bury our baby, we cremated him because I didn’t want to take away the opportunity for him to be there in that moment,” she defined.
When her medical appointments ended, carrying her unhappiness, Aramburo traveled to Guanajuato with her child’s ashes in a small heart-shaped urn, with no set return date.
Marriage and a three-year consular course of
Once collectively, Aramburo and Vega have been in a position to grieve, and they went to psychological remedy. “Grieving caused many problems; he didn’t want to show his feelings and I am a very sensitive person — if I feel like crying, I do it — so I didn’t feel understood because his way of grieving was so different. Therapy helped us a lot, brought us closer, and we realized we didn’t want to be apart,” she defined.
At that point, they determined to get stronger, heal and honor their child. That resolution led them to make a journey to Puerto Vallarta, on the Mexican Pacific, the place he proposed marriage and she accepted.
On February 14, 2022, they have been married in a ceremony that Aramburo describes as “something small and very simple” as a result of they needed to start a consular course of to apply for the inexperienced card.
“We started that process in April 2022 and they didn’t give us an appointment until 2024,” she defined.
Aramburo then returned to Chicago due to a requirement stating that, so as to request somebody’s entry into the US, the American citizen should be working within the nation. This state of affairs pressured them to be separated for months or see one another just for a couple of days when attainable.
“They were complicated years,” mentioned Aramburo. “There were times when I wanted to resign and thought, ‘What if I quit my job and go to Mexico?’ I got desperate, there were times I got depressed and had negative thoughts that the relationship wouldn’t work. And even though I looked for ways to go see him, I had to save money for the flights.”
In August 2023, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) accepted the couple’s utility, and on the finish of 2024, they obtained an e-mail to go to the interview appointment in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua.
“In November of that year, we went to the consular appointment, but he was placed under administrative processing for two months. Our lawyer told us they might just be doing a thorough review of the case, but they took away his passport and we felt very scared,” she added.
Finally, in January 2025, the couple obtained the notification that they had awaited for therefore lengthy: The immigrant visa had been accredited. They cried tears of happiness over the telephone and shared the information with their households and mates. With the method accomplished, all that was left was to discover a flight to take Vega from Ciudad Juárez to Chicago.
“When he took the flight, I was so happy, so excited. I made him a welcome sign and went to meet him at the airport. I was really cheesy,” she remembers.
For simply over a 12 months they’ve been dwelling their love story in Chicago. “The real reason for being here in the US is because we plan to have another baby and the idea is to have a hospital where, if something happens, we will be cared for and nothing bad will happen again. But the plan is also to return to Mexico and one day, build a home there too.”