This episode was created in order to highlight the narratives of two immigrants from Vietnam and Mexico; Que Hang Pham and Willie Chavez. In this episode, we draw attention to Que Hang and Willie’s different experiences as emigrants, specifically noting Que Hang’s experiences navigating the American education system, as well as the educational experiences of Willie’s children. Referencing Dina Nayeri’s “The Ungrateful Refugee,” we hope to establish the differing experiences had by immigrants as they establish new lives in the United States and navigate the American education system.

“The American Dream” podcast episode was inspired by those who helped make it possible, specifically Que Hang Pham and Willie Chavez, Dr. Fagan, and the JMU libraries’ special collections and digital specialists. It was their guidance that gave us the privilege of sharing the voice of Que Hang Pham and her story. This episode was produced by Lizzy Kubica, Jasmine Frank, DJ Monsale, and Sean Walsh.

Que Hang is a Vietnamese immigrant who came to America with her family at the end of the Vietnam war. She was an 8 year old girl doing her best to transition into American life. Her and her family rebuilt their lives from the ground up. Que Hang utilized her new opportunities to seek out success in her education and adult life.

Bibliography

Nayeri, Dina. “The Ungrateful Refugee.” The Guardian, 4 April 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/04/dina-nayeri-ungrateful-refugee Accessed 23 April 2021.

Chavez, Willie, oral history conducted by Theresa Staropoli, 10 February 1993, The New Cultural Pluralism in the Shenandoah Valley, SdArch8, Special Collections, Carrier Library, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Va.

​

In a collaboration between Candy Foster, Anthony Salazar, Molly Boucher, and Rachel Hoffman, we present this episode, “Bravery Displaced.” When creating this podcast, we took into consideration a multitude of challenges that immigrants still face unfortunately, in today’s society. We examined specifically what caused each of our interview subjects to leave their home country to seek asylum in the United States, the impact of educational opportunities, and the importance of women’s rights. Our two subjects, Salwa Mahdi and Osman Rezain are both from Kurdistan region, which encompasses eastern Turkey, northern Iraq, and Western Iran, as well as, smaller parts of northern Syria and Armenia. Osman is from Iran and Salwa is from Iraq. Our podcast will explore the courage and resilience of our two interview subjects as they fled their home countries of Iran and Iraq to seek political asylum in the United States.
Our first interview was conducted with a man from Iran named Osman Rezain as part of the Shenandoah Valley Oral History Project. Osman was specifically from the region of Kurdistan, an area that underwent Islamic Revolution in 1979 and this was heavily reflected on the country’s new culture and made things difficult for non Muslims like Osman, Osman’s education was greatly impacted by the cultural revolution, because the educational focus was religious rather than focus on traditional subjects like mathematics, science and history. In our second part of our episode, we talk to Salwa Mahdi, who lived in Iraq where because of “morality” police and vigilantes, enforcing their country discriminatory laws against women and non Muslims forced many citizens to seek asylum in the United States. Salwa Mahdi is from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. She has an undergraduate degree in business with a focus on statistics from a university there. She was forced to leave Kurdistan when Saddam Hussein declared the organization she worked for were criminals. She fled to Guam with her brother, where she waited five months before being given asylum to the United States. Courage and resilience our common themes in our episode as we discover their fight towards their respected causes.
Relevant material included in today’s podcast:
Dina Nayeri’s novel: The Ungrateful Refugee
Link-https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/04/dina-nayeri-ungrateful-refugee
“We have no debt to repay.” Like Salwa who had a university degree from Iraq, but could only first find work in a factory because their English language skills were weak. Mary talks about how our mother, who was a medical doctor in Iran could only find work in a pharmaceutical factory, where her bosses and co-workers would question her intelligence daily, though they had a quarter of her education. Her accent was enough if she took too long to articulate a thought they stopped listening and wrote her office unintelligent. This is a common issue that immigrants face when they first arrive in the United States, the inability to speak English.

Bibliography:

The Ungrateful Refugee: ‘We Have No Debt to Repay’. 4 Apr. 2017, www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/04/dina-nayeri-ungrateful-refugee.

SHOW NOTES

Harrisonburg 360 –  Finding a Home : Education, Family and Identity

Produced by: Tyler Belcher, Camille Lynch, Leah Smith & Ena Guevara-Marquez

Biography: 

GN is a highschool senior who came to America at the age of two. He lived in many communities growing up, and finally came to settle in Harrisonburg, VA where he attends public school, and community college simultaneously. He is involved in SLI, the Scholars Latino Initiative with James Madison University, that provides mentors and guidance as he researches opportunities for higher education. 

Summary

In this episode of Harrisonburg 360, JMU students Tyler Belcher, Camille Lynch, and Ena Guevara-Marquez interview GN. GN is an undocumented immigrant, whose family migrated from Mexico when he was two-years-old, theyhave been living in America since. GN is currently a high school senior who is also attending a local community college to secure an associate’s degree after graduation. He plans to attend college and study computer sciences, in order to be successful and ultimately provide for his family in the future. GN has been on a journey in making Harrisonburg, Virginia, and the U.S. feel like a home for himself and his family. This episode focuses on GN’s immigrant experience with education and finding his identity and place in society. The episode also compares GN’s story to an oral history by Salvador Romero, and his immigrant experiences as described in 2007. Both stories contain personal narratives on their experiences in Harrisonburg, VA, and highlight changes in the community. This story also compares with Jose Vargas’s personal essay, “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant,” and conflict in considering himself American and calling it his country too. GN expresses he would not take anything away from his experience, he believes “what happened is for a reason” and “appreciates the struggles and successes.”

SOURCES

Marshall, Serena. “Obama Has Deported More People Than Any Other President.” ABC News,

ABC News Network, 29 Aug. 2016, www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/obamas-deportation-policy-numbers/story?id=41715661.

Sasser, Mitchell. “Harrisonburg City Public Schools Embrace Diverse Population.” The Breeze, 

Breeze JMU, 6 Feb. 2019,  www.breezejmu.org/news/harrisonburg-city-public-schools-embrace-diverse-population/

Article_aba48c34-2a61-11e9-9207-6f0735eb283c.html.

Vargas, Jose Antonio. “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 22 June 2011, 

www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/magazine/my-life-as-an-undocumented-immigrant.html

“What Is It like to Grow up as an Undocumented Youth in America?” American Psychological 

Association, American Psychological Association, 2013, 

www.apa.org/topics/immigration/undocumented-video.

MUSIC

Intro and Outro

“We Are Millenials.” Sean Fischer www.audioblocks.com/stock-audio/we-are-millenials-hb4f1xgf_0hk4brm9cq.html

Transition

“Affection”. Lance Conrad

www.audioblocks.com/stock-audio/affection-bxz2g2oz8k69tat9h.html

This episode was created in order to highlight the narratives of two immigrants in Harrisonburg, Zee AlKhater and Nasser Al Saadun. We draw attention to the similarities of their experiences as refugees, ranging from their time in the country they travelled from, Iraq, to their well-established lives in the Shenandoah Valley. While the episode does highlight the resemblance between the two stories, the overarching theme emphasizes the individuality and humanity in each of them. Referencing “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus, we hope to establish a different perspective of “the huddled masses.” The word immigrant is established in the identity of many people, but the value of the person extends far beyond that label.

The episode was inspired by those who helped make it possible, including Zee AlKhater and Nasser Al Saadun, Dr. Fagan, and JMU libraries’ special collections and digital specialists. It is under their direction that we have the honor of giving a voice to immigrants in Harrisonburg, and it is because of them that we are inspired to continue capturing the essence of this project outside of the classroom.

Links to works that we referenced in this Episode:

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46550/the-new-colossus

https://www.breezejmu.org/influentials/nasser-al-saadun-integrating-refugees-into-harrisonburg/article_20c40cf4-df56-11e7-81ed-7778f2699b5b.html

Bibliography

Lazarus, Emma. “The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation,             www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46550/the-new-colossus.

Munro, Ian. “Nasser Al Saadun: Integrating Refugees into Harrisonburg.” The Breeze, 22 Jan. 2018, www.breezejmu.org/influentials/nasser-al-saadun-integrating-refugees-into-harrisonburg/article_20c40cf4-df56-11e7-81ed-7778f2699b5b.html.

Saadun, Nasser Al, oral history conducted by Daniel Brennan, 2009, The Shenandoah Oral History Project, 2005-2009, SdArch 29, Special Collections, Carrier Library, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Va.

“The Iraq War.” Council on Foreign Relations, Council on Foreign Relations, www.cfr.org/timeline/iraq-war.

This episode of Harrisonburg 360, “Learning the Unofficial, Official Language of America,” discusses the expectations and troubles that immigrants in the United States face regarding learning English. We spoke with Ms. Melissa Menjivar-Fuentes in February of 2020, where she shared her story with us about her experiences as an immigrant in the Harrisonburg community. After speaking to her, we went back to the 1990s with the help of the James Madison University Libraries and Special Collections, taking a listen to two stories from Ms.Thu Huynh and Mr. and Mrs. Sasha and Tanya Reut. By looking at these different stories, this episode discusses the similarities and differences in learning English as an immigrant from immigrants in the Shenandoah Valley over time.

Ms. Melissa Menjivar-Fuentes is a 21-year old immigrant from El Salvador. She moved to the United States when she was a teenager, attending school at Harrisonburg High School. El Salvador has been in political turmoil since the El Salvador Civil War from 1980-1992. For more information on this, see the link below.

The interviews used from the 1990s are part of the JMU Special Collections and are a part of the New Cultural Pluralism in the Shenandoah Valley Project conducted by Theresa Staropoli, Burruss Intern in Carrier Library Special Collection. Ms. Thu Huynh is an immigrant from Vietnam who has lived in the Harrisonburg community since 1988. Mr. and Mrs. Sasha and Tanya Reut are immigrants from Ukraine. They immigrated to the Shenandoah Valley in 1992 right after the collapse of the Soviet Union. They were both engineers in Ukraine, and had two young children at the time of the interview. 

This episode was produced by host Anoush Stamm, interviewer Michelle Pineda-Hernandez, content producers Emma Knaus and Jay White, and audio editor Jake DeLaurier. Our project advisor is Dr. Allison Fagan, and we received much support from JMU Libraries staff members Kate Morris, Bodeene Amyot, Sarah Roth-Mullet, and Kirsten Mlodynia.

For more information on the political climate in El Salvador: https://www.britannica.com/place/El-Salvador/Civil-war

Find us on social media!

• Facebook @Harrisonburg360
• Twitter  @360Harrisonburg
• Instagram  @harrisonburg360

Bibliography

Conrad, Lance. “Affection.” ASCAP, n.d.

Fischer, Sean. “We are Millenials.” Prod. SOCAN. Soundscape Audioworks, n.d.

Huynh, Thu. The New Cultural Pluralism in the Shenandoah Valley Theresa Staropoli. 17 March 1993.

Menjivar-Fuentes, Katherine. Interview. Michelle Pineda-Hernandez. 28 February 2020.

Reut, Sasha and Tanya Reut. The New Cultural Pluralism in the Shenandoah Valley Theresa Staropoli. 24 February 1993.

Santamaria Varela, René, et al. “El Salvador.” Encylcopædia Britannica 13 February 2020.

In the podcast episode “Ten Million Souls”, we explored the lives of two immigrants: Nasser Al Saadun and Ana Arias. Even though the two people come from completely different backgrounds, this episode explores the similarities that they have. Both Nasser and Ana have been through traumatic events in their home countries. But, they both also bring up the mental struggle of adapting to a new culture in the United States. 

Interviewees:

• Ana Arias
  • Ana Arias was born in Manaus, Brazil. She went to Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California for two years before returning to Brazil. She later continued her education at Eastern Mennoite University majoring in Psychology. She worked at the Collins Center for 12 years as a sexual assault therapist. She now works for the Harrisonburg Public School system as a trauma therapist. She lives in Harrisonburg with her husband and three sons.
• Nasser Al Saadun
  • Nasser Al Saadun was born in Kuwait. He received his B.A at the University of Basra in Iraq. After graduating, he became an interpreter for the British and United States army during Operation Iraqi Freedom. This job created many dangers for Nasser and his family. So, he immigrated to the United States. He then received his Master’s Degree in Education from Eastern Mennonite University. He now works at James Madison University in the Foreign Language Department as an Arabic Instructor. 

Links:

• “Affection.” Royalty Free Stock Audio, Special Effects and More, www.audioblocks.com/stock-audio/affection-bxz2g2oz8k69tat9h.html. 
• Al Saadun, Nasser. “Support Office Of New Americans.” Daily News-Record, 13 Feb. 2020, www.dnronline.com/opinion/open_forum/support-office-of-new-americans/article_613df9ec-bfcb-5f0d-beb2-b13e3bcde50d.html.
• Radford, Jynnah. “Key Findings about U.S. Immigrants.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 17 June 2019, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/17/key-findings-about-u-s-immigrants/. 
• “Refugee Blues by W H Auden.” By W H Auden – Famous Poems, Famous Poets. – All Poetry, allpoetry.com/refugee-blues. 
• Risen, James, et al. “Leaked Iranian Intelligence Reports Expose Tehran’s Vast Web of Influence in Iraq.” The Intercept, 18 Nov. 2019, theintercept.com/2019/11/18/iran-iraq-spy-cables/ 
• Saadun, Nasser Al, Oral History Conducted April 2009, in Shenandoah Valley Oral History Project, 2005-2009, 1677, Special Collections, Carrier Library, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA. 

• “The U.S. Invades Panama.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 9 Feb. 2010, www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-u-s-invades-panama. 
• “We Are Millenials.” Royalty Free Stock Audio, Special Effects and More, www.audioblocks.com/stock-audio/we-are-millenials-hb4f1xgf_0hk4brm9cq.html. 

Producers: 

• Emily Baker: Audio Editor
• Arielle Gick: Host/Interviewer
• Kara Myers: Host/ Content Editor
• Madison White: Content Editor