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• 1 2021-04-19T17:25:29+00:00 Salvador Balleño 1 Club La Purísima, Michoacán plain 2021-04-19T17:25:29+00:00 Club La Purísima, Michoacán
  
  Oral History Transcript
  
  Oral History Audio
  
  Name of Interviewer: Enrique Alvear
  Date of Interview: July 15, 2016
  Location: Sleepy Hollow, IL
  Interview Language: Spanish
  
  Salvador Balleño was born in “La Purísima”, Michoacán, México. As a part of a family composed of his parents and 15 siblings, Salvador started to work on his family farm since he was 8 years-old. He studied his elementary education in “La Purísima” and then went to middle and high school in nearby Morelia. While he was in high school, he got his father’s permission and traveled to the United States in October of 1976 with his brother. He was 19 years-old when he arrived in Chicago, Illinois. He entered the United States as an undocumented immigrant and trespassed the US-Mexico border by Nuevo Laredo, Texas. Once he arrived to Texas, Salvador and his brother traveled by airplane from San Antonio to Chicago, Illinois. After a brief unemployment period, Salvador began to work as a dishwasher in a restaurant in Chicago. Then, he worked as a car washer in a car dealership. While working in the car dealership, Salvador was arrested and removed to Mexico. He stayed in Mexico for 3 months and then came back to Chicago. During his second stay in Chicago, he also worked in a car dealership. Salvador Balleño regularized his immigration status thanks to the amnesty provided by the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) in 1986. In 1988, he got his permanent residency.  Salvador and his wife have five children and three grandchildren. All of Salvador’s sons and daughters were born in Chicago and the entire family eventually moved to the suburb of Sleepy Hollow. Salvador works in an auto body shop as a car painter in Chicago’s West Loop and owns his own auto body shop close to his house in Sleepy Hollow. He was one of the founders of the “Club La Purísima” in November 28th of 1988. The club has been mainly focused on fundraising projects to develop social programs to improve basic infrastructure in the community of La Purísima in Michoacán, Mexico.