When my family and I lived in Mexico, we would usually travel to the U.S. for Christmas vacation. But now that my family and I have moved to the U.S. we have begun going to Mexico for Christmas vacation. In fact, we just got back from our trip .

In both this year´s Christmastime trip, and that of a year ago, it took us hours to cross the border from Mexico back into the U.S. There were just so many vehicles. These vehicles, most of which are pretty nice, belong to Mexicans resident in the U.S. who, like us, were visiting Mexico at Christmastime and were returning to the U.S.A . So it takes hours.

As we traveled through northern Mexico and across the border, I took a mental note of the U.S. license plates on northbound vehicles. I saw more Texas license plates than those belonging to any other U.S. state, but the Illinois plate contingent came in second place. There were other states represented, from the east coast to the west coast. Today's Mexican Diaspora is no longer limited to the Southwest and the license plates verify that fact.