Episode 7: We Were Told We Were Going to Disneyland

The Immigrant Perspective · Apr 29, 2026 · 1h 17m

Laura Contreras-Alanis arrived in the United States in 1974 - a little girl from Michoacán, Mexico, told she was going to Disneyland. What followed was anything but a fairy tale: migrant farm work in Central California, multiple moves as a teenager, dropping out of high school, a painful estrangement from her family, and eventually - decades later - a U-Haul headed to Knoxville, Tennessee, with five kids, a terrified-of-flying husband, and a grandmother's passing along the way.

In this conversation, Laura shares the full arc: the privileged childhood in Mexico where everyone knew her name…