Latinx Stars Share Their Family’s Inspiring Immigration Stories

Two days before Christmas, a 21-year-old Milan told his mom he was headed toward America. With dreams of working in Hollywood as an animal handler and $100 from his dad tucked into his sock, the native of rural Mexican town Culiacán spent weeks trying to penetrate the border at Tijuana.

“It’s almost like an animal in the zoo against the wall, back and forth, back and forth,” he recalled in a 2019 interview with DailyMailTV. “Many times, I let the immigration catch me, so I can eat, because the Mexican police won’t feed you, but the Americans do. At least they gave you bread with bologna and a coke and that gives you some sugar, and some carbs, and some salt.”

He was running out of options when, “This guy comes out of nowhere, very thin guy, dirty, and he’s smoking a joint and he said, ‘Do you want to cross the border? I’ll charge you $100,'” he shared. “That for me was a sign, because nobody knows how much money you have.”

After crawling through a canal and spending two months sleeping under freeways, washing cars and dishes, he made his way to Los Angeles, where he transformed a job as a dog walker into a gig washing kennels—and then his own Pacific Point Canine Academy and finally a TV empire—with a little help from pal Jada Pinkett Smith, who hired him an English tutor. 

Explained Milan, who became a citizen in 2009, “We come with the whole survival spirit, fate, passion to feed our families.”