Imperfect Paradise: Return from Mexico
California Love
LAist Studios
4.5 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 3 June 2025
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In 2009, Gloria Arellano de la Rosa was banned from re-entering the U.S. for ten years, finding herself separated from her four children and husband. But unlike Daniel Zamora, she didn’t remake her life in Mexico. Every day she waited to go home to the U.S. Fernanda Echavarri tells the story of what happens when Gloria finally returns to the States and reunites with her family.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Support for LAST comes from the Soraya, producing the West Coast premiere of Fiddler on the roof in Yiddish. |
| 0:06.1 | Enjoy a special concert production with English super titles featuring Tony nominee Stephen Skybell and award-winning Joel Gray. |
| 0:13.0 | Learn more at the Soraya.org. |
| 0:16.1 | Support for L.A.S. comes from Pasadena Playhouse presenting Eureka Day. |
| 0:25.1 | Jonathan Spector's Razor Sharp 2025 Tony Award-winning satire. |
| 0:29.3 | Eureka Day is on stage at Pasadena Playhouse beginning September 10th. |
| 0:32.8 | Tickets are on sale now at Pasadenaplayhouse.org. |
| 0:35.5 | Hey, this is in Perfect Paradise. |
| 0:36.9 | I'm Antonia Serejido. Today's episode is a rerun from last year. |
| 0:40.6 | It's a story that my former colleague Fernanda Chowardri at Latino USA had followed for years, |
| 0:46.2 | a story of a family that had been separated by the border. It's more relevant today than ever. |
| 0:52.6 | This year, President Trump promised the biggest mass deportation in U.S. history. |
| 0:57.6 | We've seen border crossings go down, immigration and customs enforcement arrests doubling |
| 1:02.2 | and detentions at an all-time high. |
| 1:05.1 | This episode is about the human cost of these policies. |
| 1:09.4 | Stick around to the end to get the most recent update. |
| 1:12.7 | The story starts with a family in Tucson, Arizona, who are split up in 2009. |
| 1:19.1 | The dad and all four kids, ages 4 to 16, were all U.S. citizens, but the mom, Gloria, was |
| 1:26.1 | undocumented. |
| 1:29.7 | And in the process of trying to get her green card, she was required to travel to Mexico, where she was barred from returning to the U.S. for 10 |
| 1:35.6 | years. The 10-year barred to re-entry is the punishment for being in the States without |
| 1:40.9 | documentation for over a year. And it doesn't mean you could automatically come |
... |
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