A close family friend, Mireya Zamora, had been living unauthorized in the U.S. over two decades when she began a years-long process to apply for an immigrant visa. The final steps—submitting to a medical exam and interview—could only be done in a U.S. embassy in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Sponsored by The Atlantic Monthly, I went with her. Here she looks through her folder of documents in our hotel. 

Mireya surveys her first harvest in the garden she and her husband, Robert Valenzuela, shared with my parents.

Mireya and Robert wanted to go back to the land.

Mireya and Robert at an organic farming demonstration.

Mireya's son Josh and piglet.

Mireya and Josh.

Itzanai waits in a pickup as the family prepares to haul a camper onto El Rancho, the parcel of land they bought from my parents on a zero-interest loan.

The family says goodbye before Mireya and her son Joaquín go to Juárez.

Anabella, moments after she has received approval for an immigrant visa, shows Mireya pictures of her grandchildren.

Mireya and Joaquín outside the embassy after she has been approved for a visa.

Mireya traveled to her family home in a tiny pueblo in rural Jalisco, a western state in Mexico, in order to wait for her visa to be mailed to her. She and family gathered in the patio to celebrate. They hadn't seen each other in over 20 years.

For a few pesos an old couple will milk a cow directly into your pail .

Mireya and her uncle the night she arrives.

Jalisco. 

Jalisco.

Jalisco.

Mireya and her uncle at her aunt's grave.

Mireya's family home in Jalisco.