In the song “La Jaula de Oro,” Los Tigres del Norte chronicle the plight of undocumented immigrants who, despite achieving a level of material success in the U.S., feel trapped by their lack of legal papers.
“What good is money if I’m living like a prisoner?” the song declares.
“Even if the cage is made of gold, it’s still a prison,” it continues.
The song hits home for Alessandro Negrete, a 43-year-old former member of the Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council who earned a six-figure salary as a philanthropic strategy consultant, while undocumented. In 2022, the Los Angeles Times featured Negrete and others who missed out on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program — which granted deportation relief and work permits — but were starting their own businesses to get ahead.
Still, Negrete couldn’t travel outside the U.S. He risked getting pulled over while driving anywhere. He hardly left LA after Donald Trump became president. “It’s just not a livable situation. You’re not living, you’re surviving, and to some that may be enough,” he said.
Choosing freedom over fear
For Negrete, it wasn’t. In June, as immigration raids escalated in the region, he published “A Love Letter to LA” on his Substack newsletter, announcing his decision to “repatriate politically back to Mexico.” It wasn’t a goodbye, he wrote, “but rather a rebirth.”
In his last days, he wrapped up his softball tournament and held a farewell yard sale in Boyle Heights with a taquero and mimosas. He also spent time explaining to his parents why leaving was the best decision for his future in spite of their hopes to give him a better life by bringing him to the U.S. as an infant.
“You asked me to dream. You dared me to dream, and this is me dreaming. Staying in the U.S. in a cage was not what I dreamed of,” Negrete recalled telling his parents. “I want to get to know the place that saw me born. I want to explore the world’s beauties and wonders that I saw and read in books. That’s what I want for myself.”
On Sept. 6, Negrete, along with his chiweenie, Lorca, boarded a one-way flight from Tijuana to Guadalajara, Mexico. He chose to depart from Mexico out of fear he could be detained at a U.S. airport. Friends joined him at the border to show support.
Leaving LA isn’t Negrete giving up. “I am choosing freedom,” he said.
In his LA love letter, he wrote of his work directing public safety and community empowerment initiatives while on the Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council. He noted the youth programs he led while working with East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice. As a consultant, he supported the county’s LA River Master Plan and managed initiatives at Alliance for a Better Community. He highlighted the “We Never Needed Papers to Thrive” art show in Boyle Heights he helped create to celebrate undocumented creatives.
Now, as a queer Angeleno and longtime community advocate, he hopes to continue supporting LA communities in a new way: by sharing information about the new life he’s building in Mexico.
“We’ve been living under these ideas that our parents gave us around the American dream.
It’s an American nightmare right now, and the targets are Latinos, Mexicans in particular,” he told Boyle Heights Beat. “The gift I want to give my community is the assurance that this is still a choice you have. The Mexico that our parents left is not the Mexico that is receiving me.”
Negrete’s close friend and former roommate, Angel Martinez, saw firsthand how the raids were upending his life.
“It was causing him to stay home a lot. For someone who is a very social person, not being able to just freely engage in that way is challenging,” he said.
The two met while Negrete was doing HIV and AIDS outreach in Boyle Heights. Martinez recalls his involvement with the Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council and how Negrete rallied their friend group to participate in an early morning weekend street cleanup. He’d make sure they’d go to bed early the night before, Martinez said.
“He’s got deep ties here,” he added. “I do think these ties are going to remain. … They’re just going to start looking and blooming differently.”
Building a new life in Guadalajara
Negrete came to terms with the possibility of leaving for Mexico this spring, months after President Trump was inaugurated. That’s when he began looking for jobs, first in Mexico City and then in Guadalajara, which he came to know as the Silicon Valley of Mexico. “All the tech jobs are here,” he said. However, the job opportunities he came across on sites like Computrabajo favored younger people and women.
He expanded his search to remote work, ultimately landing his current role as executive director of Old School, a U.S.-based organization that works to educate the public about ageism. His job has already taken him to Mexico City, where he attended a conference in late September. Exploring the city, he spent time at the Zócalo and visited Bellas Hartas, a cultural space featuring the work of LA photographer Eric Solis. One of the pieces showed the Sixth Street Bridge. “A reminder from home,” Negrete said.
Negrete now lives in Guadalajara’s Colonia Americana. Free salsa dance classes are held down his street, and he’s near an abundance of community parks. “I love that there’s so much green space here,” he said. Outside his window is a view of La Glorieta de los Niños Héroes, a landmark that, according to the Guadalajara Reporter, has emerged as an unofficial “Monument to the Missing,” plastered with photos of people who have disappeared.
In Mexico, “violence is more in your face” than in the U.S., Negrete said.
“The U.S. hides these things,” he said, pointing to the people who have disappeared after immigration raids, as well as social media posts highlighting missing young people from Boyle Heights.
“People [in Mexico] aren’t scared to talk about it … I appreciate that a lot more, because now I know where the violence is,” he said.
Since moving to Mexico, Negrete has participated in online forums with others who have either repatriated to their home countries or who are thinking of doing so. Negrete urges people to start preparing months in advance and to save as much money as they can.
The $5,000 he thought would cover initial expenses did not go far enough.
Negrete lived in an Airbnb for a month while he looked for a more permanent place to live. He spent about $800 for a real estate agent who helped him navigate the process. Without an aval, essentially a co-signer whose guarantee is commonly required for leases in Mexico, Negrete had to pay several months of rent in advance. That translated to paying about $5,000 upfront. He spent another $1,000 for a lawyer to draft promissory notes.
This doesn’t include the money he spent on storage, furniture and appliances he purchased.
“Plan it out, be methodical about your savings [and] about what you’re going to bring,” he recommends to others. “[I want to be] of service to whoever wants to learn about this journey and what it looks like … what I’m still uncovering.”
Carrying Boyle Heights wherever he goes
As he’s settling in, he still thinks of Boyle Heights.
He longs for the bread from La Favorita on 4th Street. “I haven’t found my bakery yet,” he said. He also thinks of the neighborhood tamalera who would start later in the morning. “She would always pass around 10 a.m. She had some delicious tamales.” He remembers the aguachiles he would buy from Northgate Market after softball practice.
“Most importantly, I miss my friends,” he said.
At his farewell gathering, Negrete handed each of his friends an invitation to his new home. “You will always have a warm meal and a place to rest your body. The keys are different. The address is new, but the house is always open to friends like you,” it read.
His friends are answering that call. They’ll be arriving in Guadalajara to celebrate Negrete’s birthday this week. He plans to take them to La Feria del Cartón at Parque Morelos and to Calaverandia, a theme park about Día de los Muertos.
Soon, Negrete will be traveling to Canada for work. As far as personal travel, Peru, Colombia or Greece may be on the horizon.
“The world has opened up to me in a way that I never could have dreamt of in the U.S.,” he said.