This article is part of the ESC Club’s “Crossing Borders, Building Futures” oral history project, documenting the experiences of Chinese families living in and around the San Diego-Baja California border region. The ESC Club is a student-driven organization operating under the nonprofit Amazing Grace Institute, dedicated to multicultural communication and STEM education.
Based on an oral-history interview conducted by ESC Club students
Life Before Migration
Huaqiu Liu was born in Chongqing, in southwest China, into a childhood he describes as good overall, if competitive. From primary school through high school, the pressure to perform was constant.
“Currently, China is thriving β the competition is strong,” he said. “No matter from primary school to high school, just before I enter university, I just faced a lot of competition. It’s kind of stressful, but the life there was generally good. I got all my basic necessary education, and I learned a lot of STEM courses.”
In university, he majored in Spanish language and literature β a choice that would eventually reshape the direction of his life. It was through his studies that he first became curious about Latin America.
“I knew there were a lot of potential in Latin American countries,” he explained. “Even though they are not developed countries like the US or UK, they’re open to more commercial and business opportunity. I believe that Mexico is a country with a lot of potential and opportunity.”
Choosing Tecate
Liu’s move to Mexico wasn’t a long-planned dream so much as it was where a job offer led him. Upon graduating, he joined a company specializing in automotive manufacturing, and his contract sent him to work at the company’s newly established manufacturing facility β not in Tijuana itself, but in Tecate, a smaller city about 40 miles away.
“My contract with the company was to work in Mexico. At that moment, the company had just established their manufacturing facility in Tecate. That was why I chose that city.”
The Hardest Moment
The earliest days in Mexico were, by his account, surprisingly easy. He adapted quickly. But as the initial excitement faded, a harder reality set in.
“As time goes by, the first moment of curiosity and passion all cooled down,” he said. “The very realistic situation is that I have to face that I was there alone β without my family, without friends β spending all the time in the factory, in a very isolated city, without having access to the resources I expected.”
Career pressure compounded the isolation. As he was promoted, he took on more responsibility and faced what he called “moral challenges” β and that combination, more than anything cultural, was the hardest part of his journey.
Living in Two Countries at Once
What stands out most in Liu’s memory of his early days is the border itself. Crossing from Tecate into the United States took about an hour, and he found himself doing it often β for weekend trips, for business, for the simple novelty of it.
“I was kind of living in two countries. Everything is brand new β it just makes me feel amazing.”
He credits daily life in Mexico with giving him real fluency in Spanish and a genuine appreciation for the culture around him. “The people there were very passionate, very friendly,” he said. “I got to know about their food, their culture β everything was brand new.”
A Small Chinese Community
Liu wasn’t entirely alone. His employer’s Tecate facility had a small but real Chinese community β he was among the first Chinese employees there, in a group that eventually grew to about six.
The bigger adjustment, he says, wasn’t cultural at all β it was learning to live communally, sharing a house and a kitchen with coworkers rather than living independently.
“I have to get used to living in a group,” he explained. “I have to think about things from the point of view of other people β I cannot be completely self-centered, just caring about myself. That’s pretty much the biggest adjustment I made.”
Relearning Spanish
Years of formal Spanish study in China, it turned out, only carried him so far.
“Almost all my Spanish from school was completely useless. What I learned was too stereotypical β not very native. I completely relearned Spanish in Mexico.”
He picked it up by speaking it constantly β with coworkers on the factory floor, with neighbors, even in emergencies, like accompanying coworkers to the hospital and communicating with local doctors and nurses. “Every day, every hour, I was speaking Spanish,” he said. “I really learned my Spanish when I moved to Mexico.”
Understanding a Different Work Culture
The biggest professional challenge wasn’t language, Liu said β it was understanding how his Mexican coworkers approached work and relationships in the first place.
“Mexican people are highly aware of their community. Even though they’re open-minded, to really become part of them, it’s not just something of language, but something of really understanding how Mexican people are thinking,” he said.
He noticed a clear contrast in pace and priorities. Chinese coworkers, in his experience, preferred to finish tasks quickly and stick tightly to a schedule; Mexican coworkers were more comfortable letting plans shift as needed. “That’s the biggest difference I felt,” he said, noting that what felt like delay to him often felt completely natural to his colleagues.
Somewhere In Between
Asked whether he feels more Chinese or more Mexican after all these years, Liu didn’t hesitate long before landing on an answer that felt true to his whole story.
“I feel something in between. If I move back to China, I feel like there is a lot of difference between me and my Chinese friends or family. But I wouldn’t say I’m completely Mexican either. I still keep my Chinese identity β so I like to say I’m something in between.”
Ironically, the place he’s felt most like an outsider hasn’t been Mexico β it’s been China. Visiting family there, he found the closeness itself disorienting after years away: relatives asking pointed personal questions as an expression of love, in a way that now felt like an invasion of privacy he’d grown unused to. At work in Mexico, by contrast, he recognized his own instincts as distinctly Chinese β the preference for speed, structure, and sticking to the plan.
On Discrimination
Liu describes Mexican people, on the whole, as welcoming. The exception came during the COVID-19 pandemic, when misinformation and media coverage fueled suspicion toward Chinese communities worldwide.
“I once went to the supermarket, and I encountered a situation where some Mexican people were watching me in a very weird way,” he recalled. “They said something discriminative. That was the only situation where I felt discrimination.”
Friendships Beyond Work
Outside the factory, Liu built a social life that went well beyond his Chinese coworkers. He joined a local tennis club, attended a Mexican friend’s wedding, and spent time immersed in a version of Mexican life that moved at a different pace from work β one where the language was more native, more casual, and, by his account, harder to fully master.
Holding On to Tradition
Despite years abroad, Liu says his connection to Chinese holidays and traditions has stayed largely unchanged β he last returned to China in 2023. Mexican holidays, on the other hand, were something he embraced only while actually living in Mexico; since relocating to the United States, he no longer celebrates them.
Advice for the Next Generation
When asked what he would tell future generations facing a similar choice β whether to leave home for the unknown β his answer was simple.
“Follow your heart. It doesn’t matter whether you stay in your homeland or you move to another country. It’s just a different choice.”
A Broader Horizon
Liu has since relocated again, this time to the United States, where he now works in e-commerce. He describes the move as broadening his perspective in ways that surprised him β in Mexico, his understanding of his own industry had been limited by the relatively isolated, smaller-scale environment he worked in.
“I suddenly realized that what I was focusing on was a very small portion of the whole industry,” he said. “I got to know other parts of the supply chain. My perspective was quite broadened after I moved to the U.S.”
Most of his family and childhood friends remain in China, and he acknowledges building a life in the U.S. has meant doing it largely on his own. But from Chongqing, to Tecate, to the United States, Liu’s path reflects a throughline the ESC Club has heard across every interview in this project: identity doesn’t have to resolve into one place. Sometimes it’s most honest to stay somewhere in between.
Source: Oral-history interview with Huaqiu Liu, conducted by ESC Club student Anna Liang
