Medina, 31, is 5 feet 5 with an easy smile and short-cropped hair. He is also a father, a husband and a small-business owner. Since arriving in Philadelphia 15 years ago from a small town in Mexico, Medina has risen from dishwasher to cook in several upscale restaurants.
His story is a classic immigrant tale; it's also an increasingly common one in Philadelphia. Over the past decade, Mexican immigration - both legal and not - has been one of the most significant factors in the city's population growth, an increase that is most conspicuously felt around the Italian Market area in South Philly. And among Mexicans who've immigrated to South Philly since 2000, the majority hail from the same region as Medina: Puebla.
"We came here because, over there, we are so poor, we are farmers," Medina explained one day as he sat in his living room with his then-9-month-old son, Miguel, cooing on the couch. "We don't make enough money to support the family. We came here to work, to send a little money to support the family."
Whatever the reasons, though, the influx of immigrants into the United States remains a controversial and divisive topic, one that is sure to be revisited during the 2012 election. But lost amid the politics of the issue is a much more basic story, one that is changing Philadelphia and affecting the lives of thousands of its residents: what it takes for immigrants to actually make it here - and what it takes to stay.
It's a journey that often involves perilous and heart-wrenching choices that native-born citizens may find hard to fathom. It's also a journey that, for many of Philadelphia's most recent immigrants, starts in a single place.
Working the fields
