Carmen Lopez Research Paper

Words: 590
Pages: 3

Today the Lopez family came in after being referred due to fifteen year old Carmen Lopez, the oldest of six and her thirteen year old brother, Jesus Jr. Lopez, getting in trouble for fighting after an alleged case of bullying against Jesus Jr. The Lopez family emigrated from Mexico settling in Chicago a few years back. At first only the father, Mr. Jesus Lopez decided to immigrate after working odd jobs after losing his job as a welder in Mexico. The rest of the family decided to stay behind, considering Maria, Mr. Lopez wife of fifteen years had a job as a secretary in a lawyer’s office at the time.
Mr. Lopez immigration status and limited English limited the income he was able to obtain and prevented him from sending much to his family in Mexico. This caused Mr. Lopez great grief, and he became depressed because he missed his family. Mr. Lopez turned back to
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Carmen, despite being an honor roll student in her native country, was held back a year and was placed in an ESL program. Mrs. Lopez decided to volunteer at Carmen’s school to help her daughter with this transition. Mrs. Lopez was eventually offered a salaried position as a teacher’s aide. Mr. Lopez also bettered himself by attending ESL classes and obtaining a welding certificate. He was able to obtain full time employment, yet he continued with his drinking. This got him into further problems with the law and eventually was detained again. This time he was instructed to take part in treatment for his alcoholism which seems to have been successful. Jr. was also faced with adversity when he found himself troubled by a group of students at his school who physically attacked him. Jesus Jr. approached Carmen with this situation, but was not open to his parents about the occurrence. Carmen also did not approach their parents and decided to take care of the situation herself, causing a fight, hence the reason they were referred to this