Immigrants search for better life and understanding  Print Print
February 12, 2012  Jorge Islas-Martinez sometimes stares at the
underbelly of a passing train and wonders how he survived.  "I
hid underneath it," he recalled. "Suddenly, the train started to
move. The only thing I could do is hang on."  Inches off the
ground, the man who now calls Whitewater home clung to the cold
mass of pulsing steel in the darkness. He prayed hard as the
train picked up speed into California.  "I thought about my
mother, my brothers," he said. "I thought I would die."  More
than 25 years later, he recounted the harrowing details of
eluding immigration officers at the border in Tijuana, Mexico.
"It seemed like hours and hours underneath that train," Islas-
Martinez said. "I had my eyes closed. When the train stopped, I
crawled out, and I could not feel my body. I was so scared. My
heart was pounding."  Since his dangerous journey to the United
States, Islas-Martinez has come a long way. Today, he is a
United States citizen wh