Interview of Paola Iturbide

Interview with Paola Iturbide

by Colby Mocarski

The following interview is between myself and Paola Iturbide, who came to Harrisonburg, Virginia from Guadalajara, Mexico. During our interview we discussed her reasoning for coming to the United States, how her experiences have been while here, and what her plans are when she returns to Mexico. I chose to interview Paola, because she is a younger perspective on immigration in the modern world.

INTERVIEW –

Colby Mocarski: [00:00:00] Hi my name is Colby Mocarski. I am a senior at James Madison University and today I will be interviewing Paola Iturbide. And so my first question is can you tell me your age and something about you?

Paola Iturbide: [00:00:16] I’m 25 years old. I was born in San Diego, California. But I moved to Mexico where my parents lived since I was a baby. My parents used to live in Mexico City. They met there. Then they moved to Tijuana. And they decided to just have me in the United States so I can have more opportunities like in the future. And so I do. I was just born there. But live in Mexico all my life and now I live in the States.

Colby Mocarski: [00:00:50] OK so can you tell me some about your childhood or your education?

Paola Iturbide: [00:00:56] My childhood I grew up in Guadalajara, Mexico. I was in a Catholic school all girls school and my friends were middle high class so they had money to give me the location that I needed and I learned English in school.

Colby Mocarski: [00:01:16] So you said that you went to a Catholic school so that was that your religion growing up?

Paola Iturbide: [00:01:22] Yeah. Because a lot of people in Mexico are Catholic. That’s like the main religion. So I grew up Catholic and I’m Catholic and I was raised in a Catholic school.

Colby Mocarski: [00:01:36] So what made you want to come to the United States?

Paola Iturbide: [00:01:41] The first thing is like there’s no jobs in Mexico because I mean I study a career. But I saw a lot of options but they don’t pay you well. You have to have a connection or know someone in the government to have a well-paid job. And also I did and say I did and I study a lot. Also I had to study more to be someone I think I was a little lazy in school. So that also was the problem. If you put a lot of effort in school you can be successful in Mexico. What a lot of people are lazy and that’s why they come to the United States because they think it’s gonna be easier. But I think you have to work at the same level that you will do it in Mexico or in the States.

Colby Mocarski: [00:02:44] What made you choose Harrisonburg when you came to the United States?

Paola Iturbide: [00:02:47] Because my sister and is in Bridgewater and I came with her and it was easier for me because she knew people because coming to United States not knowing anyone it’s difficult it’s difficult living here it’s difficult.

Colby Mocarski: [00:03:02] What what was your first initial reaction of Harrisonburg? Did you like it right away? Did you feel like you fit into the community right away?

Paola Iturbide: [00:03:20] I think it’s warm because I came from a big city so I prefer big cities. I fall in love withD.C. This is like not for me because it’s like living in a ranch but it’s really pretty. Just like for coming on a vacation I mean and people here are nice. I think there’s a little bit of racism racism. I think there is but I mean it’s it’s ok living here. I’m just not like a country girl.

Colby Mocarski: [00:03:53] So how was it finding a job in Harrisonburg?

Paola Iturbide: [00:03:58] It was so easy. That’s the thing of the United States. It’s really easy finding any job well me because I have papers but I don’t know the people that are immigrants. I work for a week in a restaurant in a Mexican restaurant. The name is El Charo they get it. They they just have immigrants and they treat them like slaves. They made them work all day and they paid them nothing. Just the tips from people and I think people that come here as an immigrant it’s not worth it because they are treated like slaves. You have to have papers to be OK here or on have a decent job. If you don’t have papers is horrible. You are surviving, just surviving and maybe you are living a little better. We maybe in Mexico didn’t have a TV and you have a TV here with you. You have to pay it every month and you work here in the States. People that don’t have papers they work like slaves. They live better but they are their slaves.

Colby Mocarski: [00:05:04] So I know you came here also trying to get a certification to be a translator. Is that something that was offered in Mexico too?

Paola Iturbide: [00:05:16] No I just like look in here and I saw that they have the certification. I just did it.

Colby Mocarski: [00:05:25] So what is like your long term goals? Like what jobs do you want? Do You see you staying here, or going back to Mexico full time?

Paola Iturbide: [00:05:35] I mean if I pass the exam to be a translator. My plan my initial plan was to move here and find a better job, because having a job in Five Guys that mean you earn a lot but if you save it and you go back to Mexico. But here things are so expensive that if you want to leave here you have to have a better job than Five Guys cook. You know what my goal to have my certificate and to work in a hospital and get paid minimum 30 dollars per hour so you can be fine you know because if you have like a job you are not going to leave fine. You’re going to just survive. So while not my plan was coming here study that if I pass it I was going to leave close to D.C. because I fell in love with D.C. But now my ex-boyfriend is talking to me again. We’re going to meet each other and if any if what he proposed I’m going back to Mexico because he has a lot of money so I’m gonna have to worry you know. But if he doesn’t propose in New York I won’t. I’m going to come back and work as a translator in the hospital because in here I will have a decent life. And in Mexico I will be a slave just to survive. Like working in an office eight hours to get paid. I don’t know. Two hundred dollars per month. So it’s nothing. Per day I will get paid like 30 bucks.

Colby Mocarski: [00:07:17] So you said you worked at Five Guys did you ever feel like not being an American has affected you in your workplace?

Paola Iturbide: [00:07:27] No I don’t think so because there’s Mexicans there in five days. I mean Spanish speaking people. There are a lot of Spanish speaking people here.

Colby Mocarski: [00:07:39] So do you think that there are Americans that work in five guys that treat you differently because you are aren’t American?

Paola Iturbide: [00:07:48] No.

Colby Mocarski: [00:07:51] So how is Harrisonburg changed since you moved here. Have you seen any big differences or anything?

[00:08:01] Yeah I mean just because I had a car in Mexico and I have lived with my parents I was fine but what I saw the poor people that live in Mexico is a huge difference here because I’m going to put an example. The bosses here have air conditioner and in Mexico people have to wait in lines to get on the bus and they go squish. They have to walk thousands of miles to get to their jobs. And here is more access to all or it’s more accessible to have a car than in Mexico is impossible because of they because of what they get paid in there. In any job because jobs there if you don’t have a connection or if you know someone if you come from a wealthy family you screwed your whole life! Or you are very smart to become a successful doctor or you know in here you’re not that smart you can work two jobs and you are going to survive and live decently we have to be really smart to stay or to, to do it in Mexico.

Colby Mocarski: [00:09:20] So do you feel like there is a community within a community of immigrants in Harrisonburg because for example JMU has over 200 different countries represented within our campus. So do you think there’s a community within a community of immigrant students or people?

Paola Iturbide: [00:09:45] Yeah. There’s a lot of immigrants here because they told me Harrisonburg is the city that you don’t get deported at deported. I don’t know why. So they call their safe place so that’s why immigrants come here because if you don’t have papers you don’t get deported. That’s why there is a huge community of immigrants.

Colby Mocarski: [00:10:07] So do you feel like that you see a lot of other people reaching out like within that smaller community? Like do you feel like there’s a stronger bond between those people?

Paola Iturbide: [00:10:22] People that I have met makes you can with Mexicans, Chinese we Chinese like they don’t get makes a lot I think because of their racisim, and because of the language maybe they find it difficult.

Colby Mocarski: [00:10:39] So what made you end up working for five guys? Like what made you decide to work there?

Paola Iturbide: [00:10:44] Because it was close to my house and I don’t have a car it is a bad job. But I mean I will love to work in other place but it’s like you so hard to move here because their transportation is horrible.

Colby Mocarski: [00:11:02] So do you see yourself like staying with Five Guys? Are you going and try and look for a new job? Or try to start your career as a translator?

Paola Iturbide: [00:11:15] Yes. I just need the translated stuff I’m just doing my exam if I pass it I think I’m not leaving here because he’s boring. But I’m going to maybe move to Charlottesville, if my ex don’t propose.

Colby Mocarski: [00:11:31] So what Changes would you like to see in Harrisoburg in the nation in general as far as looking at immigrants?

Paola Iturbide: [00:11:45] Transportation people that don’t have cars so difficult. You don’t have transportation you don’t have transportation and Saturday and Sunday. It’s horrible.

Colby Mocarski: [00:11:56] But what about like how our nation views immigrants?

Paola Iturbide: [00:12:02] I think it’s really hard for people that immigrants. So I think they don’t have a decent job. If you are an immigrant you’re screwed. You’re going to leave this in but you’re not gonna live, you’re gonna be a slave. So people here treat immigrants that they don’t have papers as slaves they are slaves.

Colby Mocarski: [00:12:33] As a whole like especially under President Trump he’s been like extremely strict with immigration policies. So like how do you feel about our nation. Like right now he’s shown to appeal the 14th Amendment that says that if you are born in the United States you are a citizen even if your parents are not. So you shine to get that reversed. So like how do you feel about the way that our country is moving towards like a no immigrant population?

Paola Iturbide: [00:13:07] I think is fine if you like if their parents are not from here. I think it’s OK. What they are doing. I don’t know why people come here. They should fight in their own countries to be better and other countries should like fight so that their people have better jobs and not leave their countries. So I think America is doing the right thing not having immigrants here.

Colby Mocarski: [00:13:48] So you said that your family still lives in Mexico so what do your parents do to be successful and have a life in Mexico if finding jobs are very difficult?

Paola Iturbide: [00:14:01] Like I said I was not a very studious person. I didn’t study a lot. I’m kind of I like to study both my parents my parents my parents. My dad he’s he’s really smart so he become a lawyer so like I said if you are smart and you study you can be successful anywhere. But most of the time people are lazy. That’s why they are not successful.

Colby Mocarski: [00:14:30] So what jobs do your parents have in Mexico?

Paola Iturbide: [00:14:33] My father is a lawyer and he runs a call center he’s them. Like their manager of all Mexico. Like all the, the country because they have different call centers in different parts of the of their country.

Colby Mocarski: [00:15:01] And what does your mom do?

Paola Iturbide: [00:15:02] My mom right now she doesn’t work.

Colby Mocarski: [00:15:05] So what do you think about the overall view on immigration? Like what do you think about the American perspective of immigration.

Paola Iturbide: [00:15:34] What Americans think of immigration. I think that right now they’re really racist about immigration and I think they should stop immigration and not let people in. If they are were not born in the United States and or if they are born here and their parents are not from here they should not give them the papers because governments on other countries should fight for better education and everything like that.

Colby Mocarski: [00:16:11] So yeah it’s just America was built on immigration because everybody that’s ever really been here immigrated from overseas from Mexico somewhere. So it’s just like how is how are the times so different now where immigration is viewed as a negative thing and we’re trying to cut it off completely versus we were built on immigration. So like why do you think it’s like completely changed?

Paola Iturbide: [00:16:44] Because back in the days there was they were everything was building it was building like everything was not done yet. So all like Mexico was built because European people move to that country. So now that is overpopulated like they should stop immigration because everything’s done right now like people like countries have their own people so they should stop immigration.

Colby Mocarski: [00:17:17] So what do you think you will take for Mexico to, I guess become more like the United States where it has more job opportunities and higher wages and things like that?

Paola Iturbide: [00:17:30] When they when the government stops robbing has a robbing, because people are really really corrupt. That’s the problem that in other countries government is so corrupt and they steal thousands and thousands of dollars they don’t have the values like Americans have. They have honesty values here and Mexicans, they don’t have that because the government steals. The steals their taxes monies taxes money. So that’s why it’s like a circle, like it repeats repeats repeats the same stuff because if they don’t stop from the government, stealing the government give give them more opportunities. People will stop stealing to have a better life. So the government should start not stealing and have their values like America has more Americans have more of honesty. They are more honest. There is not a lot of crimes like in Mexico because of that because it starts from the government that the government steal. They don’t rob. They don’t commit crimes. So is everything. Start start start from the top like from the government.

Colby Mocarski: [00:19:10] So, with not a lot of job opportunities before you moved to the United States even if it was just for a short period of time. What job did you have in Mexico?

Paola Iturbide: [00:19:22] I was just like Secretary.

Colby Mocarski: [00:19:26] What. What did that involve?

Paola Iturbide: [00:19:30] What do you mean?

Colby Mocarski: [00:19:31] Like what were your tasks to do every day?

Paola Iturbide: [00:19:35] Just type things on the computer. Answer the phone. It was awful.

Colby Mocarski: [00:19:42] So how does that compare to like the salary you made in that job. How does that compare to the salary that you’re making in your current job?

Paola Iturbide: [00:19:51] Yeah it’s way like this is a bad job also. Also that’s the difference. Like I had a bad job over there and they pay me like thirty dollars per day. So that’s, no not thirty dollars like twenty dollars per day. And that was an eight hour shift in here a bad job. You get paid per day seventy dollars so that’s a huge amount of difference. That’s the difference. Working in Mexico than working here and in Mexico you work one day and you you can like if you work in that bad job for the whole month you can just buy groceries and that’s it. You don’t like you. You don’t have money to pay rent and to do other stuff in here. If you work a bad job you can’t pay rent. You can have food and you can live decent. That’s the difference between Mexico and the United States that you can live more decently having bad jobs.

Colby Mocarski: [00:20:55] In the span of comparing these two jobs. There is a difference on how far a dollar goes so even though you getting paid less in your other job your money probably went for the men in the United States because things are more expensive here right?

Paola Iturbide: [00:21:13] Yeah. But you can like, but it depends where you go if you to the dollar family store. It’s really cheap. Well it depends on what you do.

Colby Mocarski: [00:21:25] Yeah because the big thing in America right now is buying organic and buying one freshly grown products and going to farmer’s markets which can all be really expensive. So do you see a culture of like Americans spending more. Just because we have more?

Paola Iturbide: [00:21:43] Yeah. I mean here I can see like this consumerism, comsume. How do you say the word? Like you consume a lot like you just want to consume a lot of stuff. It’s a lot of competition. And because these are first world, first world country like they have everything and more so if you were to a store you just want to buy like everything because you can’t like you see everything it’s like you can buy with your credit card. You’re gonna pay it in, I don’t know six months. So it’s consumerism, you you people are buying and buying and stuff that they don’t need.

Colby Mocarski: [00:22:37] Right. So how are things like talking about stores and groceries and that thing like how are they different in the United States than in Mexico? Like do you see a huge difference, are things helps here in one place or another?

Paola Iturbide: [00:22:54] No it’s just like here. I see also the fruit and everything is really I don’t know the word, it is they made their fruit not natural because they don’t know the orange. It doesn’t have seeds. So I think food here is really processed, and in Mexico. No because of their consumerism. So a lot of competition. So people here the food is not healthy like natural like in Mexico and it’s expensive here also.

Colby Mocarski: [00:23:42] So did when you were coming to the United States did you also see it was harder or easier to find somewhere to live to find friends too?

Paola Iturbide: [00:23:54] Oh yeah. It’s really hard here to find like friends and it’s on where to leave also because they ask you for so many stuff like cosigner any of you don’t know anyone is really difficult. And I think people here live more by, they do everything they own and they find people on apps because they are so involved in just their job and just in themselves that they are not like involved in different stuff like in Mexico because here is expense here I’d like to go to our country club and people don’t do that here because it’s expensive just for rich people. The difference in Mexico is like to go to a country club it’s cheap so it’s more like people hang out more. You don’t have to meet someone like community. Yeah because this is cheaper. Like being middle class can go to our country club in here, middle class they cannot do that, people get more and more together. They have more time to do things with their friends. And here everything needs money and work work work work.

Colby Mocarski: [00:25:26] So what would you like when the public is listening to this interview like what is one main thing you want them to take away from your story?

Paola Iturbide: [00:25:38] To think about twice if you don’t have papers to come here you are going to have a better life. You are going to live decent but if you don’t have papers you are going to live like slaves. You are going to work. I work in a restaurant that they hire immigrants and they work from 8:00 in the morning to 10:00 at night and you are going to have a car you’re going to have more things that you’re going to have in Mexico where you are going to work a lot because here things are expensive here, than down in Mexico makes it you can leave poor but you are going to be free. So think twice. Call me here if you don’t have papers. You are not going to be happy. You marry an American or something like that.

Colby Mocarski: [00:26:29] So are also be students listening to the interview. So what do you think they can learn from your story? Like about your immigration experiences your work experiences your living experiences like what’s one main thing you want people and students to learn from your experiences? People are learning about immigration. So as an immigrant like what do you want them to learn from your experience?

Paola Iturbide: [00:27:04] Like I was. I’m not like kind of an immigrant because I have papers but my my friend that I meet here she was she was an immigrant and she didn’t have papers and she lived like hiding because she had to drive with no license. And she always had to be like hiding from the police. She had to work in a Mexican restaurant that they don’t ask for a social security number and anything. And she worked like a slave. So she couldn’t like anything because she didn’t know they, she she couldn’t go out of the country because her their papers were in process to be American citizen. So if you don’t have papers like is no worth it come in here is worth it. Like coming here for a while and then come back just like save money and then come back because here things are really expensive. So if you work like that as an immigrant you are going to earn money but you are going to spend, spend that all and leave just live by the day. The thing to believe you are an immigrant and don’t have papers work a lot and then go back to Mexico or that place that you are and do something there with that money that you earn here because living here is like you’re going to be living good but you are never going to be free.

Colby Mocarski: [00:28:28] Well thank you for this interview. It’s great talking to you and learning about your personal experiences!

Paola Iturbide: [00:28:34] Thank you! Bye!

 

Loader Loading...
EAD Logo Taking too long?

Reload Reload document
| Open Open in new tab

Download

Honduras to Albemarle: Sofhia

Interview with Sofhia

by Zach Sims

Sofhia Pineda is a 17 year old high school student in Albemarle County, Va who immigrated with her family three years ago from San Pedro Sula, Honduras. This interview outlines her journey in transitioning lives from Honduras to the United States, as well as the climate which brought her family here. Also, she highlights the differences in education from the two countries. This interview helps give perspective on the experiences of people who immigrate while still being in school.

[00:03] my name is Zach Sims and it is October 14th. It’s about 12 in the afternoon and I am here with Sopfia. I’m go ahead and introduce yourself.
[00:14] Hi, I’m Sopfia Pineda.
[00:19] Yeah. So, uh, just general information, like how old are you? Where you live, what school do you go to?
[00:23] Okay, so I’m 17 years old. I go to Albemarle high school. I live in Charlottesville, Virginia.
[00:32] Yeah. Good. No, no, no pressure. This is just, we’re just talking. I can go back and edit if we need to. I can cut stuff out. Don’t worry about it. Alright. So, um, you are a Latino immigrant officially to the United States. So where are you initially from?
[00:50] So I am from some San Pedro Sula around.
[00:53] Ooh, I like that. That’s the way that he said that. Sorry.
[00:57] Um, yeah. Uh, I grew up in a very, what while San Pedro Sula is the most, it is industrial city and Honduras, I grew up there,
[01:17] so. Okay, so let’s talk about Honduras as a whole right now. So, what’s kind of like the situation going on in Honduras? Is it kind of like unrest or people like for the most part kind of alright or like what’s going on in Honduras right now? Because I’m not exactly familiar with that situation there.
[01:38] I’m so right now. Honduras is a very dangerous in some way. We have a lot of problems with gangs and robbery and especially where I lived we had, we were basically surrounded by the areas that were the most like that were attacked more frequently. Yeah. And, and yeah, it was. Well I grew up in a very, like I, I grew up segregated from the world basically. So, I like my childhood basically. I didn’t went out or like I didn’t hang out with friends a lot or I couldn’t go out and just like enjoy my childhood. So, I basically spend my whole time in it for, in like a bedroom with full of toys. And that was it. That was my childhood.
[02:35] Yeah, I know. I’m just. Because I know you, um, your parents are fairly strict. Would you say that was kind of common for people in your area or was really just because your parents were trying to protect you from, from stuff going on?
[02:47] So I guess more generally I feel like Hispanic parents especially, they’re very strict, but my parents kind of just like inherited that cultural thing. Oh, Hispanic community I guess. And um, well my, my whole life I grew up in a school that was Christian and we spoke English. We had every single class in English and we just had like one class in Spanish. Wow. Yeah. Um, so it was, it was basically from my house to school and from my school to my house. So like back and forth, nothing between.

[03:23] Was it a Catholic school?

[03:30] It was not, it was an angelic school, like it’s very similar to a baptist. Yeah. So we had and we had like a church and also in school.
[03:41] Interesting. So how big was the, uh, the town or city that you grew up in?
[03:46] Um, since it was the industrial city ah, in Hondurash, I guess it was very well populated almost. It was very big. Well, it is very big. Yeah.
[04:00] So you’re saying industrial, so there were a lot of factories and stuff around the people worked in to most people work in the factories, um, and kind of like I have some job connected to those companies. I’m kind of like how here in Charlottesville, like so many people work for Uva and like everybody seems like they do something with Uva. Um, was it kind of a similar deal there?
[04:20] Um, I guess where you live, it depends where you stand. It’s like socially I guess. Um, my, well, my family, none of us, we didn’t like grew up in like that kind of environment I guess, but I knew a lot of people that have worked in factories and yeah, it was, even though it was not the capital offender is a list like the second most populated city.
[04:55] Um, more things about Honduras, uh, what are some of the things that, um, you think are distinct? Honduras um kind of in comparison to the other parts of Central America. Um, so like whether it’s like a specific food or a specific tradition that you guys did, like is there something that you would say is specifically very like? Oh yeah, that’s obviously from Honduras.
[05:20] So what I think most people say about Honduras is like, Oh, do you want to know the most dangerous place in the world? Especially where I live and uh, yeah, I mean we are very similar to other countries in Central America. We basically have the same traditions. I guess we have our own food, we produce our own food and we have a do you want me to be specific? Okay. Um, we had food that is very popular, that’s called Ballatas a has beans, cheese, eggs.
[06:05] Then that’s like fried or is it just like a plate of food that you kinda like make up together?
[06:09] So it’s Kinda like a flour tortilla. Yeah, I guess. And you put the beans in there, you can even put chicken if you want to Yeah, it’s very good.
[06:21] All right, cool. So let’s start talking about a little bit of immigration working towards going to the United States. So what would you say were some of the main causes of your family deciding to kind of pick up things and leave?
[06:39] So kind of like going back to like,

wait, hold on, sorry. Not just you. How old were you when you guys moved over here?

14.

  1. All right. So this was three years ago?

Three years ago. Yeah. So like free recently we, uh, so like I think the 23rd of October. No, September. Yeah, September just recently. Just recently. And let’s say so like Kinda like going back. My Dad, he was a lawyer for the government and then my mom was like, what? So um, he handled money for the government and then my mom for eight years, she was like, I guess you will call it a call her, like the superintendent here from like a district in Honduras. So after that and my mom, she was a principal at school at a, like a high school in Honduras, like on the afternoons and then in the morning she was like a regular Spanish teacher. So she had like two jobs and then my dad, he was still working in the same place. And then, uh, we have a very, we have an issue in Honduras, but like politically, uh, so if you’re from one party than if that party wins in the elections than like they take control of everything, you know. So where my dad used to work, he would he say a democratic liberal.
[08:11] Yeah. So what are the names of those two parties? Like the Spanish names, what would you call him in Honduras?
[08:16] Do you want me to say in Spanish? But the Liberal Party liberal team basically. And then the other party is like nationalists. Yeah. Okay. So my dad, uh, my family is very, they’re like, we were very like, uh, I guess integrated into politics. My parents had worked for the government. Exactly. So of dealing with stuff. Yeah, exactly. So I think it was the elections of 2013, 2014 around there that the nationalist, I won the election in injuries and uh, like they. So my dad had a job and like I said, right. And then like they tried everything they could to take him out of the job just because he was not from the same party as they. Uh, okay. So, um, so yeah, that happened. So he got fired. He demanded. Yeah. So he, um, so he, um, so he sued the government and he won the demand. So we kind of had a lot of money and like my dad was in the news and everything. Yeah. So like having a lot of money and also going on the news then people are gonna Think, oh family. Yeah, that family has a lot of money so we have to go and like about them or something.
[09:44] Say that you guys like it’s. Yeah, that’s, that’s like an interesting situation. It’s almost like, not quite like political refuge but like you guys were just gone in a sticky situation in Honduras and it really wouldn’t be great for you to guys to stay there because you know, another party who had control and your dad was very involved with politics and you just won this, the suit against the power of the party. That has a lot of control. That’s interesting. So would you say this is kind of like a, a deep in my maybe personal question? Um, uh, would you say that you guys were any in any like physical danger if you guys had stayed or do were, you know, do you think it was much less of something like that and much more just political thing?
[10:27] I think it was like a little bit of both because if you’re very like involved in politics then other people know that you’re involved in those politics so you kind of have to like take your risk and going out there. So once he was fired, we stayed like that for two years. So because he was a lawyer, so he, he like, he did some little stuff he seemed like he could handle, taking small cases for some people but we couldn’t stay like that.
[10:57] Yeah, all the time. So that’s interesting because a lot of times you just think like, I’m like monetary gain or like money. It’s like,
[11:10] oh no, you’re fine. Oh my God. Yeah, just do you need to know.
[11:24] So like normally you think of a like monetary gain being something you need in order to, to flee the situation and get out of the country, like you have to, you have to gather up as much money as possible and that’s kind of what’s holding you back. But with your guys’ situation, like you just won this lawsuit and all of a sudden you have this abundance of money and that existence of the abundance of money kind of pushed you guys out because like, um, it doesn’t look good for a political opponent to have a lot of money, you know, and kind of like. So That’s interesting. Um, all right. So what did the process, this is kind of like the nitty gritty stuff. What did the process of coming to the United States look like? Were you like, I don’t even know. It did take a long time for you guys in Honduras to be able to say like, let’s get on a plane and go. And then like once you got here, what did it look like? Um, so just give me the details of that, like how you felt, you know, kind of the whole way that you felt through the process is also kind of important.
[12:22] So let’s see. I was, so I was a bath so like I was about to get to go to high school basically when we came here. So we have been talking about that back in Honduras for like a year in something because we had a, my family, like Andrea’s has a family, like coming here for a similar situation. So we thought okay so if we go then we’re going to have like family support are there and everything but we stayed like that for a year. Like are we going to go, are we going to stay in something like that because like my mom, she was very attached to her work I guess. So it was like an like a struggle to convince her basically to like come here.
[13:05] I mean it’s a, it’s a big deal. You’re like picking up your entire life and leaving.
[13:10] Exactly. And I was like 14, oh, I already know what I’m going to do with my life or something like that.
[13:18] Yeah. All right. So, um, did you guys like apply for anything or did you just like get passports and go?
[13:26] So we already had, we already had this visa here, so I guess like an advantage for like for my brother and myself to like having this like fluent English school that spoke English. Yeah, exactly. And because we’ve been here like almost every Christmas we came here to visit. Yeah. So like we have family down in Rockville, Maryland. We also have family in New York and Miami, so we kinda like went all over the place during the holidays and we done, we went back to Honduras but this time we were like okay. So if we traveled with the visa thing, we’re going to go there and we’re going to apply for asylum basically. So that’s like the legal stuff that we did and still in process I guess.
[14:14] Okay. So you guys haven’t officially like gotten the paperwork that you need to be live here, but you guys are kind of just waiting for it to go through processing still.
[14:23] So we have like, we have legal, legal status a year. We don’t have exactly like the asylum, that’s the one that Andrew family just got like recently, probably like a couple of months ago. And so, um, I guess we’re still waiting for that. It’s been like three years and they waited like five years. So we are so like we’re hoping that something, some loss change through this because like there, there had been some news that some are going to be some reforms through immigration crap all over the place. Exactly. And so we are hoping something comes out but um, we like we were approved to like being the process of the asylum so we have our social security and that’s the way we can work in like say for taxes and everything. So yeah.
[15:14] So that’s really helpful that you guys came and visited every year for Christmas because you guys already had your visa is and you didn’t have to wait and stuff like that. Obviously you’re still waiting a lot of processing. Um, all right, that’s good. Um, so transitioning to the United States, you said already that you went to a school that spoke English, so you, your English was already good basically. What was life like coming to the United States and living here? Like what did you just tell me about it? How did you feel about it?
[15:44] So I guess in education it was like a lot different. I guess like teachers here have a lot of like, um, they’re very professional so like you have to have a year degree to a able to go and be able to teach and stuff like that. But backing Andrew is like if you know English and you know math, you’re going to be a teacher. So that’s basically it. So my, I remember like my math teacher back in Honduras, she had recently graduated from high school and then because she was really good at math, oh you’re going to be it teacher, that she was really good but it was not like professional I guess or like not teacher material. And so when we came here like teachers are very prepared for the classes and they know what they’re doing and like, so it was pretty great, like educated, like in the education side I guess. But then like making friends, it was so hard. It was really hard.
[16:48] So um. Okay, let’s go into that a little bit. So what was the best way I think that for you, what was the best way for you to make friends? Was it was like clubs or just like being in class with people and making jokes and saying hey, you know, like we have this thing in common, like, you know, whatever, what was Kinda the best way that you went about making it
[17:06] So I feel like more recently add fell more comfortable, like talking to like being, being open and talking to people. But back then, like two years ago, I didn’t talk to anyone, like I have my cousins with me anywhere in high school, so it was like during lunch we, we just hung out together and it was basically just asked, us, like talking to each other. So like the first few years for like kind of hard because like you, I, I didn’t, I just felt like that language barrier was like keeping me from like speaking up and stuff like that. But um, recently I just, it was just different I guess. Yeah. And I think like ever since Puerto Rico, I just felt like mean just go for it.
[17:58] So your senior year you guys take advantage of it

[17:59] Yeah. And like I’m doing everything I’m doing like clubs, cra the other way. And I just recently started a club called Latin acts. There’s one at Uva and one in Charlottesville. So we decided to open one in Albemarle and yeah, I just feel like, well we talk like 50 percent English, 50 percent Spanish and I don’t know, I just feel like being involved in like the school and given like the Latino community, like a voice in school. It’s, yeah, it’s been pretty good. It was very important.
[18:34] Shoot, had a question. Okay. So kind of like broader like stuff. Um, what were some things that like culturally speaking, coming from Honduras to the United States kind of you found is like shocking or like wow, I really like that’s, you know, almost exactly the same way that we do things in Honduras or like, um, so like what are things that like kind of shocked you, things that were like didn’t really surprise you and kind of just something you found interesting about the switch from Honduras?
[19:06] So we have a very different culture, very, very different. Um, especially for my family. We grew up like my brother and I, we grew up in a very religious family. So there were stuff that we couldn’t deal and stuff or we could do. And what I noticed is that, um, like people here in the US, like even though you’re a Christian or you’re not a Christian, you hang out with your friends when you go eat, you, you go eat with them or go catch a movie or something like that. Exactly. And then in Honduras I couldn’t do any of that. Like if I went out it was probably just with my parents or if I went out with her friends, it was basically they had to be there as well. So very strict.
[19:55] Wow. Okay. Um, so what was one thing that you kind of, or were there any things that you really thought like, hey, that’s kind of similar to or you didn’t really notice or you know, kind of something that just seemed the same.
[20:06] the same?
[20:10] because normally you highlight like, wow, it’s so different. Like we do all these things and under earth and you guys do all these things here. But I guess one thing that I thought might be a good question to ask is like if there’s any way that people act and kind of do things that’s the same, you know,
[20:27] whether it’s like even something as simple as like we eat the same time, you know, or like, um, I dunno, the way that we care about sports is the same even though it’s a different sport or something like that. Do you think there’s anything like that or.
[20:43] I’m like,
[20:46] yeah, probably sports we have a soccer and under is I guess it’s Kinda like, well it’s not a big thing in the US. I guess they like liked football better than they do soccer. But I mean they are very um, I guess like very into sports. A lot of people like we have a lot of like a small groups in hunters or like a football or soccer. I don’t know the difference. I mean I didn’t notice a difference but I don’t know which one you need. Okay. Uh, so we have a lot of, like different groups in Honduras and I feel like people are very inclined to follow a, a, like a certain sport. You didn’t hear a lot in Honduras, like someone playing tennis or golf specially golf. And so yeah, I guess like the, I don’t know is, it doesn’t really relate with my life I guess because yeah, my family, we are not very into sports as well. Not Me

[21:48] did uh, uh, Honduras go to war with El Salvador over like a couple of soccer.
[21:55] Yes, yes, yes. I heard about that. I, I don’t know the whole story, but I did hear about it.
[22:00] I don’t think it was actually about soccer games, but I think
[22:03] I like um, I, I heard about that they were fighting for an island or something like that and that’s like very close to El Salvador and like it’s what it’s like, it’s like right in the middle, in the middle of like El Salvador and Honduras. But what I knew is that Honduras bought, that island, but because it was like covering one side of the tub, either word, they were claiming that it was theirs. So
[22:28] Yeah. So that’s probably more important than like a soccer match, but it Kinda gets hailed at that because that’s really funny. So. Okay, here’s a good question. I’m kind of like with the sense of community in Honduras, I know you were sheltered so you probably didn’t see as much of that, but I’m sure you could probably be at least a little bit familiar with it was, were there any like major differences just between like people in the same neighborhood having, um, like ties or something like, you know, feeling like they’re close and bonded. Whereas like over here, like I don’t know anybody in my neighborhood for the most part, you know, versus like church groups that you had, you know, you feel really bonded. There is a kind of a, the sense of community. Is there anything really different or are harsh that you found in your, in from going there to here?
[23:23] So I, I guess I didn’t really live this, but I know a lot of people, like people from communities and like, uh, from neighborhoods, they knew each other. Like I guess if you didn’t have your keys to get to your home, you just go to your neighbor and stay there for like the afternoon till your parents got there. And it was like, people are very friendly and they’re very open with each other and they create a relationship like that. Uh, I mean I’ve read a lot of stories of like, oh, my neighbor, she’s my best friend or she’s like, I tell her all my secrets and now everything, everything. Right. And I mean, I didn’t grow up like that, but yeah, I, I,
[24:02] you kind of have like a little bit of a special story, I guess in that sense. Yeah. Okay. So what
[24:12] I want to phrase this, um, shoot. I had it in my head. I’m sorry. So, um, okay. So what was it like? I’m just being in the United States. Um, shoot. I lost my train of thought. I had it, I had it right on the tip of my tongue. Hold on, it’s coming back. I’m going to cut this part out. Um. Oh yeah. So coming in, you said that Andrea and her family, so you guys like New People in this area, do they live, do they live in Charlottesville when you guys were back trying to make the decision? Um,
[24:53] yes. So when they came here and they like they spend like one or two weeks in Brotha, Maryland with my other family but then they moved to Charlottesville just because he thought they was going to be better and they started working at a restaurant and then they start to move on from that. It wants to legal stuff starting this or starting to like uh, like take in like taking place in everything. So we were just looking at how they were doing with all, like how they were basically like moving on from like the harsh, like lifestyle or like the difference on like coming to this country now because you’re not doing the same job. Yeah, exactly. Like you have to really start over exactly like it’s basically like starting your whole life over and not, not just for like us as teenagers or young adults, but like for your parents that they’d basically be able to live there. So like her, her mom, like she used to work, like at the same, like basically the same thing that my mom used to work and then she came here and they started working at a restaurant like as a family, but then they started to like progress and like, um, so we kind of saw their example as to like think like a motivation basically to come here and like, like it’s like it’s hard but then you’re going to move on from that. It’s going to get better basically.
[26:15] So there’s um, kind of the theory behind him or that works with immigration and it’s called networking. So it’s kind of like once somebody comes and starts to do it and they can do it, like they don’t necessarily invite, but they influenced the other people that they know back home basically. And it makes it easier for them to come and like, oh, hey, I know this person, here’s a job here, like I can set you up kind of thing. And it just knowing people around makes it easier to live there and get stuff down. Definitely. So like once that first family does come and it’s successful. So like Andrea’s family, which is incredibly difficult to do just in general, um, like that kind of plays along with the theory. Like it just, I’m sure it made the decision a little bit easier knowing that they were here. Um, do you know of any other reasons why you guys came or would come to Charlottesville other than really you guys knew Rudy and his family came here and were successful.
[27:14] So, um, uh, when we came here three years ago, the first year we, we used to live in Rockville, Maryland guys, they look out there for a little while. Yeah. So we stay there longer than they did. But then um, we just thought that opportunities here in Charlottesville were like bigger for my family. And then like my, like under his mother, she got like a job at a preschool and so my mom saw it and saw that and she was like, oh, I think I can do that because my mom has like a greater mass or like a level of education that my, than my aunt. So she was like, oh, so if she did it that way, that it’s possible that I could do it the same way. So that was kinda like one of the things that we inquire, we chose to stay in Charlottesville the longest I guess. Okay.
[28:03] So, um, you guys have been in Charlottesville for two years then, right? So, um, you can answer yes or no for this. I’m not like pressuring you to answering like, oh yeah, but um, can you kind of feel like a sense of ownership and a sense of community with just Charlottesville itself or um, or that kind of in comparison to like back home or even in Rockville, you guys were there for a year? Um, because like certainly I’ve grown up in Charlottesville my entire life and I, I definitely feel a sense of like logging and like, oh yeah, that’s like Charlottesville, that’s where I live. That’s my home city. Do you kind of have any of the same vibes or similar feelings? We Charlottesville or you know, like is that, are you still like, Nah, that’s not really, just kind of where I live.
[28:46] Probably not. I mean that’s perfectly fine now you feel more comfortable when you’re around people that you’ve known your entire life, you know, and like people that speak your same language. So no, probably not, not yet.
[29:00] I mean, yeah, I don’t want to pressure you and be like, Oh, you have to love Charlottesville because like there are plenty of them,
[29:08] especially when the, I guess I’m really trying to like, just like to feel comfortable in a place where it’s not where I grew up basically.
[29:16] Yeah. Okay. That’s a great bridge into my next question. So like you mentioned the Latino Club that you started, what was the name of that again? Latin acts. Yeah. Um, and it kind of like being comfortable and like it’s not your first language and coming in. So how do you think I’m like that, like what, what does that feel like not being comfortable in like your own high school and kind of like your language and things like that and coming into a new country and then kind of after you answered that question, where do you see going forward and how can we make it better for people that are coming in or are comfortable and especially the Latino community. Um, kind of how we can make them feel more comfortable and you know, Kinda open up things so that they are better.
[30:03] So, um, the Lantin acts club was started this year and our goal is to give a voice to those, uh, uh, like Latinas at school and feel that um, they don’t have to go to school just because they have to get their classes done. But because it’s a place where they can gather together and make friends and like hang out and feel comfortable. Even though it’s not a place where you grew up that it’s not a place that you know, that you’ve had, have known like your entire life, you know. So our goal is our goal is to like integrate those people and give them like an environment where they can feel that they belong somewhere. So like event. And so I went on a leadership retreat this past weekend and I feel like I learned a lot from them from that because like they’re trying to get involved more and more people that are not just like American, you know, like when I was there this past weekend, it was just like five people that were in there were not from like from here. So we had I guess so yeah, like four people from Latin America and then another person from Afghanistan. And so what we’re trying to do is to get more people into going through those theater retreat in like feel that they belong somewhere and identified themselves. Like, oh, that’s Albemarle high school. I went there and like, yeah, I made. I made a lot of memories over there. So make them feel like they’re at home basically.
[31:40] Yeah. That’s awesome. So where do you think, what do you think we can do better? Kind of as a society or a Charlottesville or just as teenagers even, um, to make people feel more welcome and feel more at home. Um, and kind of get away from this idea of like, oh, I’m an American because I grew up here, I’m white, I’m redneck, you know, like, I kind of get away from that idea and into like, you know, this is your home, this because this is where you live and you should feel comfortable. How do you, how do you think we can like, do better at that?
[32:12] So I guess like we like the Latino communities and other people that are in nature that didn’t grow up in the US a day. We just want to feel that they belong somewhere when they come here. So I guess like we have to adapt to this new culture so that, uh, um, the weekend, like succeed or like move on from this or like, yeah, make work. Um, we can just integrate everyone, you know, because the, uh, one of my problems was like, I just felt like the school was very segregated so we had like this type of people taking honors or AP classes or this going to people taking like ESL classes or like they’re not allowed to take any other languages because they now have to learn English. So one of the thing, one of the things that I’m doing is that a, like regular classes like personal finance or this require P.E., those required classes that you have to take to like mix them together and create a sense that it’s not segregated and it’s more like diverse. So like include them in everything they do. And uh, this year what we’re doing in Albemarle is not like if we have a spirit week, we’re not just doing posters in English, we’re doing it in Spanish or in another or another languages we have around a school. So like making them feel more like integrated in it plays where I mean they, they didn’t grow up in. So like making them feel welcome.
[33:46] Yeah, that’s awesome. Okay. Um, all right. So I guess just one more big question, I’m kind of reflections that you’ve had as a whole kind of looking at the way that you felt during the whole process and kind of, um, the entirety of, of moving countries entirely different societies, um, kind of what you get from that. What do you get from that? Like, um, what did you learn from that? Was it good, bad, you know, not really that great experience and kind of just self reflections and like final thoughts kind of,
[34:24] um, it was pretty hard I guess when we came here because we didn’t have like a house to stay too, so, um, I dunno, I guess so the first year, like I said before and we stayed with my aunt down in Rockville, Maryland, so we kind of like lived in her basement for a couple of months and then we moved here. Um, but it was not like it was now you’re home. It was, it didn’t feel like home. So yeah, definitely it’s, yeah.
[34:56] Can’t imagine like picking up things and moving to China or something.
[34:59] Yeah. And I mean like we just like, we had a, like a bag with us and that was it. That’s crazy. Yeah. I mean all our stuff, all this stuff that my mom bought recently in Honduras. It was just gone
[35:13] know people say like, oh, it’s such an adventure, but. No, that’s terrifying. Fine. Yeah. Alright, well that’s pretty much all at all. I have, um, that’s 35 minutes of speaking. Thanks for allowing me to do this. I’m going to write a lot of stuff about this and um, yeah, that’s, that’s all I got. Okay.
[35:34] If you need more things, I feel like I like, I’m not telling it not. I mean we can, we can do this again and just like mean nothing. If I think of a good amount of big questions just like write them down, then we can do like a 10 minute supplements or something like that. That will be perfect.

Loader Loading...
EAD Logo Taking too long?

Reload Reload document
| Open Open in new tab

Download

From Mexico to Maryland: A UVA Student’s Story

Interview with a UVA student

by Eric Keener

This interview was conducted by Eric Keener with an undergraduate student from the University of Virginia who elected to remain anonymous for the purposes of this project. Both of her parents were born in Mexico. She was born in Mexico City and attended a French private school for her first few years of primary education. Soon after, she immigrated to the United States at the age of seven with her parents, brother, and grandmother. The family primarily left due to safety concerns, and managed to settle in Maryland.

The interviewee’s parents are very well educated, so their entrance into the country was smoothly granted. Upon arriving, her mother began to work in the World Bank, while her father found a position as an energy consultant for a private company. He has worked with corporations as well as the United States government.

The interviewee’s experience in Maryland was quite different from what she had been used to in Mexico. She recalls everything seeming so much more green than her hometown, and she mentioned how grateful she was to feel safe while walking around her neighborhood. Because of her lack of English language knowledge, she did not socialize much with the other neighborhood children at first. This was further exacerbated by the fact that she attended another French private school upon arriving, leaving her out of public education for many years. In order to help her pick up English, her parents sent her to a summer camp primarily populated by English speakers. The experience, while stressful at the time, as she recalled, it made speaking English far easier for her. The fear of making mistakes was practically gone at the end of the experience.

Once the interviewee reached high school, she was switched into a typical American public school. This came with several challenges, including navigating a very different form of curriculum from what she was used to. Her math knowledge was somewhat incomplete for the level of math she tested into, which was Algebra II. This struggle encouraged her greatly to study hard and suceed, and was one of the driving forces that led her to pursue a degree in mathematics. After high school, she managed to gain admittance into the University of Virginia, where she is working to gain her ideal degree in mathematics. In the future, she intends to continue her education into a prestigious Master’s program in mathematics.

The student has previously done much volunteer work, including work at her grandmother’s daycare service in Mexico and the Natural History Museum. The volunteer work at the museum eventually led to a job where she gave tours of the insect exhibit. Insects are one of her loves in life, so this was one of her favorite working experiences. She has also completed undergraduate research in the field of mathematics during the summer, and has mentioned continuing to work in the field on a separate project throughout the fall of 2018. The interviewee also participates heavily in on-campus community organizations, including the Native American Student Union (NASU), American Women in Mathematics, and a Christian organization, Chi Alpha. She also attends events held by the Latinx Student Association, although she had to step down from more responsibilities due to a busy class schedule and campus life.

The student identifies prominently with the Catholic faith. As she explains in the interview, her family certainly holds some from of Christian belief, but they are not particularly devout. Her extended family, however, is much more strict. When visiting, she and her immediate family have to be careful to mind all of the important traditions associated with Catholicism in Mexico.

As a fairly young immigrant, she brings a unique perspective on what it is like to enter contemporary America at a young age. Further, we discuss some current political issues to bring a more holistic perspective into the argument.

Interview: UVA student who immigrated from Mexico

[00:00:02] Eric: The date is October 27th, 2018, and I am here in Charlottesville. The time is 11:30. So, to get started, why don’t you just tell me a little bit about your family?

 

[00:00:12] Interviewee: Umm…I live in the U.S. with my dad, my mom, and my brother. My nanny also came with us. Uh…My brother is 2 years younger than. Umm…He’s currently in high school, which is interesting. (laughing) And, yeah, both of my parents are Mexicans and they were raised there their whole lives.

 

[00:00:42] E: So, um, what kind of drove your parents to come to the U.S.? If you know.

 

[00:00:50] I: Insecurity. Like, um…there was an incident with someone breaking into our house, and stealing- like like trying to get information. And my parents were just worried about like potential kidnappings, of my brother and I because luckily we were in school at the time. Yeah it was just like an unsafe environment, and my parents just wanted to. Get out of the.

 

[00:01:26] E: Seems fair to me. Um, so what time were you born?

 

[00:01:31] I: I was born in Mexico City.

 

[00:01:34] E: Woah, Mexico City. Do you have any memories of it? Or was it too early?

 

[00:01:38] I: Yes! No, I lived there until I was seven. Um, so…not too, not too old, but enough to remember quite a bit. Um…(chuckles) I also go back there twice a year for extended periods to see my family. And…(chuckles) that’s always been interesting (laughing).

 

[00:02:04] E: What kind of family still lives there?

 

[00:02:07] Ah, all of my dad’s family lives in Mexico City. All of my mom’s family lives in, um…Oaxaca, Mexico, which is in the southern part of Mexico.

 

[00:02:20] E: So when you go to visit I take it you visit both branches?

 

[00:02:22] I: Yes, one-hundred percent.

 

[00:02:25] E: Interesting! Um…so where did you first go to school

 

[00:02:33] I: Um…In Mexico? So in Mexico there was a French international school Whose name I honestly cannot recall (laughing). But, I started my schooling there from like pre-K up to…first grade. And so I moved here during second grade. Um…

 

[00:02:58] E: What were your first impressions upon making it to the United States? Did anything seem interesting, kind of stand out, or was it just sort of like, “We’re here”?

 

[00:03:07] I: Um, It’s very different because where I moved in Maryland it’s like very green, and it’s like very safe. Like, it’s just the idea that I can walk by myself and, like, not have to be worried. It’s very…like I have grown used to it, which is something that I am definitely very grateful for. Like, all the time. But it’s definitely not a given. Especially not when I was younger. Um…also TV (laughing). I watched a lot of TV when I was younger, and the fact that, when I got here, I didn’t know English, and like I could literally not understand what they were saying was very interesting.

 

[00:03:59] E: So, when you first came here, uh, what kind of school did you go to?

 

[00:04:04] I: I, uh, transferred to a French school in, uh, Maryland because my parents were worried about me going into an American school. Um…and that’s where I stayed…until the end of middle school.

 

[00:04:23] E: So with English, were you explicitly taught it in school, did you pick it up as you went along? How did that work?

 

[00:04:29] I: So technically our school did offer English classes, but the main priority was French classes so you only had English like once or twice a week for maybe an hour. I mostly picked it up because my parents (chuckles) put me in a summer camp with only English speakers. And they were like: (claps) go! (laughing)

 

[00:04:55] E: (Amused) That sounds interesting. Tell me about that experience.

 

[00:04:59] I: (Laughing) It’s more like, if you want to make friends, you gotta pick some stuff up (laughing). Um…And, obviously, my English was not…amazing after that, but it definitely got me to, um, to get out of my comfort zone and like to speak to other people. Um, So I grew very comfortable with English after that because it was like…once, once you go through that, you’re not really afraid of making mistakes anymore, cause you’re like (gesturing and laughter).

 

[00:05:42] E: That’s really cool. Um, so when you first move to the U.S., Describe the neighborhood. What was it like?

 

[00:05:50] I: Oh,um, it’s still the same neighborhood where my parents are still living in. And it’s changed…a bit in the last few,um, in the last few years. Um…I- since I went to the French school, which was a private school, I didn’t really know most of my neighbors at the time or like most of the people in my neighborhood. But, again, it’s like…a very green space with like a lot of like really friendly people. Actually when I first moved in, our neighbors came by and like dropped off brownies, and my parents and I were really freaked out (laughing). Uh, we were like, “Who are these people and why are they talking to us?” Um…so we didn’t talk to them for a couple of months (laughing). But, I Actually- I actually really appreciate them. They’re quite funny. But, Yeah.

 

[00:06:49] E: That’s really cool. Are there any neighbors in your head that kind of stick out as notable?

 

[00:06:58] Well, them, uh…quite frankly because…it’s different. Like you do know your neighbors back in Mexico, but um…it’s not. I mean, also I can’t make generalizations of every single neighborhood. But, in my experience, people don’t tend to like, have their neighbors over for dinner or like, go do stuff with their neighbors or community…like, just like a good sense of community, where you let people inside of your house just because they live next to you, you know. Um…I think that like has to be built on for a very long time before you have access to somebody’s house. Um, Like you can enter. But…that was like very different when we first moved in, where our neighbors were like, “Oh you want to come have dinner, you wanna, like do you want to play, like, basketball together?” You know? It was…very odd. Yeah I don’t- again, I didn’t really talk to most of
my neighbors when I first moved in because I didn’t go to school with our neighborhood kids or like, any of that.

 

[00:08:26] E: (Aside) Alrighty. Um, so when your parents first made it here, what jobs did they pick up?

 

[00:08:32] Um, well my mom, ah, was in the world bank and she still is. So she was able to transfer quite easily. My father used to work at um…at like this, like- He’s also an economist- but, um, it was like this governmental, like it’s not, like, in the government, but it works strongly with the government. It’s like a corporation on oil and energy resources, but when he moved here, like, he like let that go in order to like get us safely, you know. Um…and so, for a while it was like…kind of uncertain. So he started like working for this one company. But…yeah so like it was um, for a while it was like, not super stable, but then it got better.

 

[00:09:31] E: So that means your parents are pretty well educated upon arriving?

 

[00:09:39] I: Yes, yes.

 

[00:09:44] E: Um, alright. So, is religion a big part of the household?

 

[00:09:52] I: (Chuckles) Um, ah, not entirely. Mmm…both of my parents’ families are very religious, but my parents are not as much. So, if we are with the rest of our family, it’s like, very strict (laughing) like what you can and cannot say, but…like within my household, in Maryland, it’s, um….it’s a good time. (Laughing) They definitely encouraged me to like, look into religion and they um, they did go with us to…to mass on Sundays. Um, but they didn’t really push a belief on us, which is something that I appreciate, and has helped me like, make my own decisions about God which is very important. I think in faith like you have to believe. Somebody can’t believe for you.

 

[00:11:04] E: So do you identify with any specific denomination or just a believer?

 

[00:11:08] No, I am…I am definitely Catholic. Um, I’m part of a Christian group here on grounds which is like non-denominational, which has been a very interesting um…experience. Because…I- I had interacted with like, Catholics but also, there was a
lot of Jewish people in my neighborhood. And there was like- and I knew like a fair amount of people in Islam. But um…not other, like, Christians (laughing). Uh…and, yeah, I think it’s been good for me to like…learn about that, uh, cause if you don’t, like, there’s a lot of preconceptions if you don’t have education. So I’m glad for the knowledge.

 

[00:12:10] E: How’d you get involved with the group?

 

[00:12:16] I: My roommate (laughing). Honestly, I thought I was joining- like I- I was not going to join a religious group on grounds because I’d had, like, my own conflicts with religion, um…prior to coming to UVA. And…(chuckles) my roommate was very involved with this Christian organization. And she never like, pressured me to join, by any means. She did extended an invitation to another event and I decided to go, to make her happy mostly. And, um…I really liked it. Honestly, I thought- I thought there were all Catholics (laughing) when I first joined. But…yeah. That was not the case (laughing).

 

[00:13:19] E: Let’s go to some working and volunteering. What have you done in that regards?

 

[00:13:25] I: What do you define as working?

 

[00:13:27] E: Um, any kind of job. Something like that, something you did for an organization or whatever.

 

[00:13:33] I: During university or like in my life?

 

[00:13:36] E: In your life.

 

[00:13:37] I: Oh, okay, cool. Um, (under breath) where do I start? I…the first real job that I had was in high school, where I worked as a paid intern at the Natural History Museum, uh, mostly doing bug stuff (laughing). But, you know, like talking to people and visitors and just explaining a lot of specimens that we had and…just promoting knowledge, which is very important for me. I have done a lot of volunteering in the past. I think the first real volunteer experience that I had was, so my grandma, she, back like in Oaxaca, she and some of her friends started a children’s shelter for, like, children
who are…who the state doesn’t deem it, like, to be safe for them to stay in their households either because their parents are abusive or the families like too poor to actually take care of them, uh, correctly. Which is why it’s completely voluntary like they don’t, like, um…like there is an agreement, if the parents are alive, for them to stay there. And…I, uh, I would tutor the students there from- from everywhere in their elementary school. Um…and just like talk to them and play, because oftentimes I think people tend to forget that they’re still kids and that they still…they’ve gone through like some pretty rough things. But it’s important for them to still feel like normal kids, because their circumstances doesn’t…doesn’t dictate what they can be. Although it does heavily influence, but…that is a society issue not them. Um, And so I was very involved in volunteering all through middle school and high school, um, in organizations…like feeding the homeless, or I volunteered at the Natural History before I got my job. Um, I…picked up trash in a river once which is super interesting because then, like, you find out what people threw in the river and you’re like “I’m sorry, what?” One of the best days of my life (laughing). Clearly. Um, then the REU we did over the summer, and I’m currently working as a research assistant for one of the professors at UVA. Um…Yeah.

 

[00:17:04] E: That’s a good place to transition. So you’re attending UVA right now.

 

[00:17:11] I: Yes.

 

[00:17:12] E: Why did you choose it?

 

[00:17:19] I: That’s a fair question. I think, mostly because- I have known that I wanted to be a math, um, major, since I was in ninth grade. Um, and so one of the…and so I definitely wanted to go to Grad School for Mathematics and get a Ph.D. in that area. And one of the benefits of attending UVA is that there is a lot of, uh, help in that regard. There’s like five different majors within the math department, like different concentrations, right. And one of them is graduate preparation which, um, does put a little bit more emphasis in the classes that you should take before attending grad school. And if you have the- like if you are done with all of your requirements, then it’s kind- like before you have to graduate- then it’s heavily, um…recommended that you take Grad classes, which is something that is offered here, and that I, in the foreseeable future, hope to do. So, yes, mostly because of their concentration, their, uh, dedication to help promote their students to graduate school in mathematics.

 

[00:19:04] E: That’s good reasons. So you mentioned that since you were a freshman you wanted to be a math major. What inspired that?

 

[00:19:12] I: Um, When I first transferred from the French system to the American system like the first grade that I attended in the American system was, uh, ninth grade. I think I kind of hit a low in regards to my math schooling because I had to test into, like, my math class. Um…and so I studied for like a week trying to get all of the Algebra 1 and geometry curriculums down because the curriculum in the French school, in regards to everything including math, is very different than that of the American school. Um…So I technically hadn’t finished Algebra 1 nor geometry because they were done around, like, at the same time. Um…and so…but I wanted to see in Algebra 2 in ninth grade. So I studied in order to get there, and I did. But once I was actually in algebra 2, there was a lot that I didn’t know that…I needed to know in order to understand some of the, um…material that has been taught to us. And I think that was kind of a low in the sense that I was putting a lot of work in, but it was still very frustrating to not understand everything that everyone did simply because of my, uh…lack knowledge. But, it’s then when I realized that, despite the fact that I was, like, clocking in three or four times the hours that the other- uh, my other classmates were, I still really liked mathematics. And…It wasn’t necessarily that I loved it ’cause of the prestige it got me, because I obviously wasn’t understanding it as well as some other people, and it wasn’t that I found it easy so that’s why I liked it. I just- I liked the way things worked, and I honestly couldn’t have seen myself doing anything but that.

 

[00:21:42] E: That’s Really cool. So on campus, What kind of organizations are involved in?

 

[00:21:53] I: So that’s…So at the beginning of the school year, I was involved with a lot more, but I had to- I had to step down because of my classwork and because of…how I was more involved with some organizations. Like, I am vice president of the Native American Student Union which- which means I have to be attending a lot of meetings every two, three days. So that definitely takes away from a lot of time that I would spend on other organizations last year. I’m also, um, exec for American Women in Mathematics, which implies that I have two meetings and work on other stuff, which I’ve been slacking honestly, but (laughing), you know? And I’m part of, um, Chi Alpha, which
is a Christian organization, and that also takes quite a bit of time. Um…as part of my duties in NASU, Native American Student Union, I have to be involved in the MRC, which…I can remember exactly what it stands for but it’s like the minority coalition group. So, I have to be involved in their council, uh, ’cause we all like to get together and we talk about different things that are going on in the university. Um, and those are really my main involvements because I’ve had to step away from the other things while I get every- because I don’t believe in, um…not doing your best in what you’re currently doing. So I didn’t want to…take away the seat of somebody else in the other organizations that I used to be in knowing that I couldn’t commit as much time as somebody else could. But I used to be involved in LSA because we used to have a committee that I was in, but then, like, things got restructured, which is fine (laughing). Um, I still participate in some of their events, but I wouldn’t say that I’m…I’m not part of an, an executive board, which is very similar to a lot of the other LSA, um…organizations that I’m- I don’t consider myself part of, since I’m not in the decision making. But, we all have like a group chat and when there is an event that…needs help, and it’s something that I strongly believe in, I usually go and show my support. But yeah.

 

[00:24:53] E: And, uh, just to clarify the LSA is, uh…

 

[00:24:57] I: Latinx Student Association or Alliance. I’m not sure.

 

[00:25:02] E: Uh Busyschedule, busy schedule. So after you’re done with your education, what are your career goals?

 

[00:25:13] I: Oh my gosh. Um…honestly, I’m not quite sure, uh, given that I definitely want to study a Ph.D. in mathematics, but I personally couldn’t see myself as a teacher, nor as a professor, because I think those two are very challenging, um, in- in ways that are not necessarily my forte. Um, I personally…one of the things with being a math professor is that you have to…your research could take years, and you still couldn’t come up with- like, you might still not come up with a result. Um, and I feel like I need more immediate gratification than that (laughing), because it takes very specific type of people to be able to, like, bang your head against a wall constantly and still keep going. Um…so I’m not quite sure, but I’m still making my mind up.

 

[00:26:33] E: One last question about the university. What do you think about the campus? Are the people friendly, competitive?

 

[00:26:43] That’s a very complex question considering the amount of people that there is at UVA, like, just within my different social groups. Um, the people in each are very different to each other and have different priorities. Um…I would say that I’ve met good people and I’ve met not-so-good people (laughing). As in…I knew where you could go. Um, Unfortunately, I think, um, some of the not so good people seem to have a bigger voice than the general population, who is either neutral or like pro, uh…humanity, I’d like to say (laughing). Although neutral is not necessarily, like, the best stance on that point, but it is the truth. That’s definitely something that…I, Would hope, change Yeah, it’s- there’s good people and bad people everywhere (laughing).

 

[00:28:13] E: Fair, very true. To transition to our last little part, here, um, what are your opinions on the U.S. political climate right now?

 

[00:28:26] I: Um, I think a lot of things are oversimplified, in the sense that…I think media plays a big part in that. That, things have to be spoon fed to the public, and I am, um…I’m not above that, either. I will gladly admit that, at times, I tend to not do my own research, and it is just convenient to read the first article, um, instead of like looking into various. Um, but I do think that’s something that affects dearly what is going on, currently, in the U.S., and everywhere, if we’re being honest. There’s like a very…It’s…it seems like people, ah…think that, since some other people who are more influential are able to say whatever they want, that, that is their god-given right as well, instead of holding others to higher standards, um, and just trying to care for their fellow neighbors. Um…It’s, um, basically, I think a lot of people have been slacking off in, um, in doing their own research and that that also includes only reading things that correspond with your own political ideals. and… fact that, in the U.S., there’s only- there’s really only two main parties, is very much an issue because any issue should have more than two options. Uh, because there’s a lot of intersectionality with everything really. For example, If you have, um, a lot of the environmental issues mostly affect minority races because they’re not able to move away from the situations or they don’t have as big as a, like, a these things happen. And that also goes along with education, like if you’re in a place people don’t want maybe that place also, like, have the best education system,
and it’s just a very big cycle. Um, and people have to realize that any decision that you make will affect something else.

 

[00:31:26] E: Yeah, that’s very true. Um…what’s your opinion on this rising kind of anti-immigration sentiment? Is it…

 

[00:31:36] I: Um…I think it’s…very dehumanizing, uh…because, I think, since a lot of things have- a lot of hatred, um….has come about this issue and this unders– like not really understanding where people are coming from, but also the fact that people who seem to understand also…don’t want to, like, listen to people who don’t understand and they don’t want to listen to- there’s a very big breach of communication between…between both sides of the political system. And I think that has harmed very much the immigration policies because it’s no longer seen as people. It’s more seen like a political issue. And, it’s like, “Oh, no, we’re just debating about ideas.” We’re not debating as whether people should not be locked up in camps (laughing). Because these are real people who have real families, and even if they didn’t have families, they’re still people, and they should be treated as such. I think it’s less of a question about the immigration system as much as a question of…how unempathetic are we as a society in regards to, like, and it’s not just how unempathetic are we to immigrants, but how unempathetic are we to people who don’t understand the immigration problem we’re just like, “Oh, you’re just too dumb to understand.” That’s also very dehumanizing because not everyone has the same access to resources and understanding, uh, which by no means means that everyone who does understand must, um…is expected to teach others. You are a person. You have the right to live as you wish, you know? But…it’s two sides of the same coin. If you want respect, you must give respect. And, right now, I don’t really see either side doing that, and the immigration problem is just caught in the crossfires.

 

[00:34:34] E: That’s a very good perspective, I like that. I guess…that about draws down. One last thing about politics: the, uh, DACA. How do you feel about that?

 

[00:34:54] I: Honestly…DACA was only a temporary solution, like, even from when it first was, um…written into law. It was only supposed to be used as a means to get these people to more…stable conditions, and, in that sense, I think that it’s good that it was taken away. But it should have been taken away with, um, without leaving people in
limbo, right, and with providing people with actual opportunities who have contributed to the American society without, even like- ‘cause DACA, recipients, right, it was either people who- it’d been people who lived here their, like whole life, basically- and who had either…who were either studying or working. So they were definitely people who were contributing to the American economy and society. And, even if they weren’t, they’re still people, like- you still deserved to be treated as such and not be treated as…illegal, because that…makes no sense. Like, how can a person be illegal? Like, perhaps your status is, but that does not define you as a person. Uh, and I think that that’s also something that’s happened a lot in our political climate, like labeling. Um…and just reducing someone to one word. And, really, the only word that should matter is that you’re human. But apparently, that’s not enough. Um…so, I think that, yes, DACA has been essentially taken away, but I think that that’s also an opportunity to provide people with a more stable, uh…situation to stay here in the U.S. where they’ve contributed to society and could have their own families but definitely have their own communities.

 

[00:37:30] E: That’s a really nice thought. That’s about the end of this. Are there any closing remarks you’d like to make? Something you’d like the people to know?

 

[00:37:39] I: I think that people should be involved in all of these issues that we’ve talked about, regardless of whether you have…whether you’re part of Latinx community. Um…’cause this is, at the end of the day, like, a people issue, not one section, “I am this by blood so I have the right to speak about this.” Um, so, just empathy and involvement in the political climate regardless of who you are or which community you belong to. It’s more about treating others as humans and not about treating them as a label and a stereotype.

 

[00:38:33] E: That’s a very nice sentiment. So, that’ll be the end of this, so, thank you so much for your time.

 

[00:38:37] I: Yes, thank you.

 

Loader Loading...
EAD Logo Taking too long?

Reload Reload document
| Open Open in new tab

Download

Jose Carlos Ramos

Interview with Jose Carlos Ramos

by Cortni Potts and Megan Bennett

Jose Carlos Ramos

By Cortni Potts and Megan Bennett

My partner and I interviewed Jose Carlos Ramos to discover his story of where he came from, how he got to the United States, specifically Harrisonburg, and why. Carlos is from El Salvador and came to the U.S. in 1999. He went to university in El Salvador studying medicine, public relations, and even some English. He was one-year shy of graduating when his father had Carlos leave the country and its poor economic situation to instead go work with some people his father knew with jobs in America. He entered the United States illegally by the underneath of a truck, but now holds a legal status through the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) given to El Salvador from the United States government. Carlos first received this status two years after he entered the U.S. and still holds it today.

Harrisonburg has been Carlos’s home here in America the entire 19 years he has been here. He has worked in the poultry industry in Harrisonburg for the entire duration of that time as well. Currently Carlos owns a home here and has two children in school, one of which is his daughter who was born here in America, therefore making her an American citizen. This is a current concern for him as his TPS status is currently being threatened, and if it is revoked Carlos would be deported. Carlos is very active in the local and national politics and very much loves the “marvelous city” of Harrisonburg. He was wonderful to meet and interview, and my partner and I certainly learned many interesting things about him and his life, and even some about our country’s immigration policies.

Methods

Before meeting Carlos, we knew that his English was not the best. I myself (Megan) am a Spanish major and consider myself decent at understanding and speaking Spanish. This was still a difficulty to consider since my Spanish is nowhere near perfect and my partner (Cortni) only had a basic knowledge. We received Carlos’s contact information in class one day and were only given a phone number. The first time I tried to call Carlos, I must have caught him at work because on the other end I heard a faint “hola” and then distant chatter and a lot of background noise. I tried to talk and ask if this was Carlos and explain why I was calling, but I was receiving no answer. After about two minutes of hearing people in the background speaking Spanish and having no one answer me, I hung up. Trying the next day instead I was able to actually reach Carlos and set up a time for the interview. He was very excited to do it and had been expecting to hear from someone in “David’s class.” We were able to set up the interview for the next day, November 7, 2018, at his house at 6PM.

Cortni and I met up a little early the next day to make sure we knew how to work the recording device. Once figuring it out we headed over to Carlos’s to do the interview. Carlos greeted us at the door and after introductions led us to the kitchen. We sat down at the kitchen table and had Carlos sign our agreement form given to us by our teacher to assure that Carlos was okay with being recorded and having this interview posted online to the website. As he did this Cortni and I set up the recording device and made sure to turn it on and see that all the audio levels were reading correctly. The interview itself went pretty smoothly. For the most part we did the interview in English, but there were words that Carlos didn’t know and some questions we asked that he didn’t understand at first. If he didn’t know a word, I attempted to understand what he was trying to say and see if I knew the word. If he didn’t understand our question, I asked it to him in Spanish, which we came prepared with the translations. His daughter did come in towards the end to sit with us, but it did not affect the interview. Overall there were no complications.

A small issue Cortni and I did run into was transcribing our interview as there were times where what Carlos was saying was unintelligible or neither of us understood the word he was trying to use. These spaces are marked as [unintelligible.]

Departure and settlement

Carlos left El Salvador in 1999, shortly after the Civil Wars ended. Along with the damage from the civil wars, El Salvador also experienced two earthquakes that pushed people including Carlos from the county and toward the United States with the hope to gain temporary protected status (TPS). Carlos explains that the economy of El Salvador after the war was “down,” “crime [was] up,” and “poor [was] up,” all of which contributed to his personal motivation to the leave the country. Another major motivation for Carlos to leave El Salvador was “The problem is the business of my father is down right. No have money and I had to take the position to go a United States, immigrate the United States right.” His father being in the fabric industry provided him with a network that Carlos could use in his advantage to immigrate to the United States. Carlos describes his father engaging in these networks by asking

“help me, I need my son to go a United States and immigration. My business is down, I don’t have more money and I need more better future for my son. And these people they say okay, no problem. You send your son I receive here in Harrisonburg Virginia.”

As Massey describes in the section titled “the social organization of migration,” networks play a critical role in the immigration process. Massey identifies three types of networks, one of them being friendships. Carlos’ father utilizes his friendships with immigrants in the United States by asking for support and guidance. Massey describes that “shared experiences create a disposition to exchange favors and provide mutual assistance that benefits both parties in the long run,”(Massey). We see this in the friends’ invitation for Carlos to come to Harrisonburg. Carlos continues to build on these networks as the friends whom “in the similar situation, have no paper” help him since he does not have family in Virginia and does not know anyone else. Carlos was able to continue the friendships and these networks because, as Massey explains, “a series of common experiences, customs, and traditions… permits easy communication and friendship formation,” (Massey).  

Crossing the border illegally, Carlos entered the United States in Phoenix, Arizona. He crossed the border hidden in a tractor trailer, describing the experience as

“the border de (of) immigration you look and it look nothing right, and the deposit is down the floor de (of) the trailer. In this situation I go.”

Once in the United States, Carlos made his way to Harrisonburg, VA where he settled down and has been ever since. He recalls that during his first day in the United States, he “cried” and for the first three months he “only watch[ed] T.V,” as he waited to receive his TPS. The process of assimilating into the United States, Carlos describes as “mental work.” With help from the people whom his father knew and the general community of Harrisonburg, Carlos was able to find his place and begin his new life. He compares Harrisonburg from when he first arrived to how it is now, saying that before there were only two Hispanic stores and now there are “maybe ten or fifteen.” Another change the he describes is the employment opportunities for Hispanic people, saying “they work in different businesses. Example, restaurant and example gas station and example and cleaning, medical cleaning. Before it’s not like nothing.” Regarding his own employment, he began working in the poultry industry since 1999, when he first arrived in Harrisonburg. When asked about the industry, he pointed out scars on his hands as a result of the taxing duties the job entails. He also shares a story conveying the working conditions.

“I had example no have time, example I need to go in the bathroom, el bano, say hey buddy you taking my position? No, I need [unintelligible] maybe one people, no, no, no, not in position, [unintelligible] , you say hey please I need break okay five minutes or two minutes. In two minutes to go to the bathroom. I said pee pee and come back. Right.”

These same harsh working conditions can also be seen in other poultry and agriculture plants around the United States. Workers in the Case Farms chicken plant in Canton, Ohio share experiences such as being disciplined for “leaving the line to use the bathroom, even though [the worker] was seven months pregnant,” (Garbell, 2018) Workers in the poultry industry also experience “carpal-tunnel syndrome at nearly twenty times the rate of workers in other industries,” (Garbell, 2018).  

Carlos still works in the poultry industry as a means to supporting his family and creating a future for his children. He explains how within six months of settling in Harrisonburg he bought his own house and explains how easy it was for him to purchase a car given his good record and ability to provide a down payment. He credits this opportunity to the idea that “the dealer, the restaurant they all tell the business no look in the people, oh no these people is immigrant, no, they look at the money.”

Attitude

It was easy to tell that Carlos loves Harrisonburg. When asked about how he felt received by the community he mentioned things such as “this city is the special city,” “it’s marvelous city, the people is marvelous people,” “the people muy carinoso (very caring),” and “here in Harrisonburg I repeat, the beautiful, the beautiful city.” When looking at the context of reception for Carlos, he seems to describe that the people were very welcoming to him from the very beginning. Of course, assimilation has gotten easier over the years, and the town has become more receptive as well. Since he has been here 19 years, he has seen the city change and adapt to the increasing immigrant population. He notes how he has seen more Hispanic shops and restaurants pop up, even how the roads have changed. His daughter’s school has created the first Hispanic dancing group which for him was a really big deal. This all shows how the town has adapted to its increasing immigrant community in order to better receive them and help with the assimilation process.

When describing his life in general at this moment, he said, “it’s, this state in my life is beautiful, I’m talking to other people. I have the real situation, the immigrants and the American people.” It was very sweet to see how much Carlos loves and appreciates his city as well as how involved in the community he is. Carlos does have some strong opinions on local and national politics, specifically focused on immigration, of course. But he uses this as a way to be more involved in the community. He told us about he and his daughter watched the presidential election together, and even followed the more recent midterm election. This is helping his daughter, who is considered a second generation, assimilate into the community as well.

Conclusion

Carlos’ story of immigrating to the United States conveys the stereotypical immigration story of coming to the United States in hopes to find opportunities leading to financial security, influenced by personal factors. The network system created by his father lead Carlos to Harrisonburg, Virginia. Where the demand for workers in the poultry industry provided him a source of income that he still depends on to this day. Although this line of work is demanding, Carlos appreciates the opportunity as it keeps in Harrisonburg where he can influence the community through political advocacy specifically regarding TPS. Carlos continues his active engagement in TPS as he fights for a better future for immigrants and his family.

 

Works cited

Grabell, M. (2017, May 8). Exploitation and Abuse at the Chicken Plant. The New Yorker. Retrieved from https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/05/08/exploitation-and-abuse-at-the-chicken-plant  

Massey, D. The Social Organization of Migration.  

Interview with Jose Carlos Ramos

By Cortni Potts and Megan Bennett

November 7, 2018 at 6 PM

MEGAN

So you’re from el Salvador

CARLOS

Yes, my country is el Salvador

MEGAN

So obviously you were born there what was the country like when you were born

CARLOS

Alright and I born in February 26 de (of) 1972 and the city is San Salvador City the capital del Salvador. My family no is de (from) capital del Salvador, my family is de (from) San Miguel City the problema (problem) de (of) San Miguel is the city that we vacation in [unintelligible] del Salvador y (and) this area is very hot, right, and the weather is very hot maybe the weather is the 40, 38 degrees Fahrenheit every time. It’s the place that my city and it is dedication a agriculture, and the corn, maiz (corn), cotton, coffee, café (coffee), and cane, sugar cane, cane azucar (sugar). It’s the [unintelligible] the problem is, this area the people the majority of people is poor, es pobre (poor), right. The majority of people poor is the area rural in the country, in el campo (country). Is that most people poor. And the city and living the people in the middle position, right, professional, doctor, and the different professionals in the city in San Miguel City. [unintelligible] the different eating, clothes, ropa (ropa), food, comida (food), and restaurant. The different area de economy, right. My infant is regular right like the play and the different play in my country and I like the soccer, right, play the soccer. Play the soccer in the area in the street in the front of my house, my neighbor and all the children and the had the group, two teams and play the game, the soccer, right. I study in my college in catholic college, right, in the catholic college. My high school in el Salvador [unintelligible] is the institute de (of) commerce de (of) San Miguel. I had my title, I don’t know my titulo (title), the, my high school, high school…

MEGAN

Diploma

CARLOS

Diploma, right, diploma. And in the area natural ciencias (natural science). I don’t know, it’s the [unintelligible] in my life is studying in university right, and I’d been studying medicine, three years, well situation de (of) economic and situation de (of) war in my country, I can’t continue study medicine. And it’s necessary to take position at change other city and the capital San Salvador City and I begin other professional and de (of) relation public. Relation public I study 4 years, right, well the situation economic that my country, I no can’t continue right. My country the problem is that the 1918, 1992, had twelve years, wars, civil wars right. The civil war maybe die 75,000 people right, in el Salvador, right. I don’t know it’s…

MEGAN

So, you studied at university in el Salvador

CARLOS

In el Salvador yes. My English my little English is working now here its studying in el Salvador and received the different model the English, English 1, English 2, English 3, the professional English and the problem is the practice okay in el Salvador no have people to practice the English, right. It’s very different only the English is very grammatical right.

MEGAN

So, when did you come to the United States

CARLOS

The United States I come here um 1999, right

MEGAN

So, after the civil wars

CARLOS

Yes in el Salvador. In el Salvador here. The question is, the 1999 a (to) 2001, I no have paper, yea, I illegal, right, okay. TPS is the program that the government and the disaster, natural disaster, and war and all this situation, in my country, Mr. President George Bush give the TPS el Salvador and el Salvador had two earthquakes, terremotos (earthquakes), earthquakes. The situation, the earthquake, hit [unintelligible] sign the TPS to el Salvador right. The beneficiary el Salvador. De (from) 2001 and this day, I had legal paper in the United States, right. And here the United States, I live in 1999 right, and in 2001 I have the position legal. For 2 year, no have paper. De (from) 2001 a (to) this day, I have the paper, right.

MEGAN

So, what was it like crossing the border without papers? And why did you come up without papers? Como cruzo la frontera? (How did you cross the border?)

CARLOS

Oh okay, the crossing the border had the different [unintelligible] right and the maybe the [unintelligible] maybe crossing in trailer, right, the trailer had the compartment, [unintelligible], I don’t know English, is separate the border de immigration you look and it look nothing right, and the deposit is down the floor de (of) the trailer. In this situation I go.

MEGAN

In the bottom of the trailer

CARLOS

Yea

MEGAN

Okay

CARLOS

In my port of entrance is Phoenix Arizona

MEGAN

Phoenix Arizona, oh okay. So it was after la Guerra Civil (civil war) in el Salvador, so why did you decide to leave in 1999 from el Salvador?

CARLOS

My first city here that I stay or…

MEGAN

Por qué sale el salvador en 1999 por los Estados Unidos? (Why did you leave El Salvador in 1999 for the United States?)

CARLOS

Okay, yes, um, my country had twenty year the war, right. They had finish the war, the economy de (of) my country is down, right. No war, criminal up, the poor up, right. The situation de (of) opportunity de (of) war in this town is not good, right. Um, in this time in this 1999, 1998, is the first years that [unintelligible] de (of) original is the los Angeles California. These people de (of) Angeles California deportation del Salvador y these people trainer old people young right. These people young no living only they living they grandfather or grandmother, why? Because the father and the mother immigration the United States the situation de (of) economic situation. No have money a (to) eating, no have money a (to) study, no have money vestir (to dress)

MEGAN

Clothes, ropas (clothes)

CARLOS

Is very [unintelligible] the problem in my country. My situation is the similar situation. I study in el Salvador and I no have maybe the level [unintelligible] my level in the country is middle, middle level right. The problem is the business of my father is down right. No have money and I had to take the position to go a United States, immigrate the United States right.

MEGAN

Did you know anyone in the United States? ¿Conozco alguien en los Estados Unidos? (Did you know anyone in the United States?)

CARLOS

Yes, in the prior de (from) my father right. My father is administration de (of) fabric. The construction de (of) material de (of) construction in el Salvador. In the area outside the city de (of) San Miguel City. And this area had the different people that live in this area, right. And cerca de (close to) fabrics, the construction. These people immigrate here in the United States maybe 1994, 1995, right. My father talk on these people, say help me, I need my son to go a United States and immigration. My business is down, I don’t have more money and I need more better future for my son. And these people they say okay, no problem. You send your son I receive here in Harrisonburg Virginia. And these people is in the similar situation no have paper, illegal right. These people working in different plants and example, Rockingham corporation, and the Wampler. Now its different name [unintelligible] and the Wampler today the name is VVEC, the corporation right. These people working in this plant, right, illegal, right. These people help me and I know, in this city I no have nothing family. In this area Virginia, I no have nothing family. My family live in Texas and New York. Only I here. My first day here in United States is very [unintelligible] I cry right. Although my preparation no is the physical work okay no mental work. Example, ustedes (you all), your preparation is mental work, right. No is physical work. Y (and) is a big change for me, right. I’m trying my TPS. I wait my social security, I waive my [unintelligible] three months, no work. Only watch TV, [unintelligible] the people that receive the document, they work is very strong. Other situation is, example, the people the other country, el Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, no have more option, right. No have the option to study. No have the option to help the government, right. Only work y (and) work y (and) work right. Example, now, American people had to question, Carlos, you continue to study, no continue to study. My pride in this time is work no is study. It’s a big problem in the immigrant right. Example I, I had my four years, one year more y (and) graduate [unintelligible] Seattle and relation public. And for me it’s the psychological, this time is the big change right. Example I understand that only the study the university gets study in the university old people they say oh its easy, oh its easy. It’s mental preparation, it’s mental. the people no understand the situation, right.

CORTNI

So how did you, you said when you first came to the United States you were in Arizona, how was kind of the like transition from going to Arizona and ending up in Harrisonburg?

CARLOS

The travel?

MEGAN

Yea, de Phoenix Arizona a Harrisonburg, como era la… (From Phoenix Arizona to Harrisonburg, how was the…)

CARLOS

Transportation?

MEGAN

Si

CARLOS

Ah, in this, in 1999, no is problematic, the transport, right. Maybe getting home, maybe the flyer right, no problem. The problem in New York, the [unintelligible] center is more hard transportation de immigrant right. I need more document, I need ID, I need passport, and last time I go, it’s easy right. Maybe you buy the coupon a (to) go to Harrisonburg, I don’t know, maybe you remember before the [unintelligible] have the terminal here in Harrisonburg, now no. Before right, transportation [unintelligible] pass right, the boleto (ticket), here in Harrisonburg transportation.

MEGAN

Por que Harrisburg? Conoce alguien o hay trabajar, de Phoenix Arizona (Why Harrisonburg? Did you know someone or was there work? From Phoenix Arizona…), so why, how did you end up in Harrisonburg?

CARLOS

Harrisonburg, my decision de (of) transportation de (of) Harrisonburg I have a friend de (from) my father, right. There more opportunity Harrisonburg to work, right. This area, the big city is a small city, right. It’s less control the people. More work, no have distraction, no have example, casinos, no have party, no have the different situation, bar, the other big city, right. I look in the city in the first day and I say, oh I like it, the city. Its [unintelligible] problem, have work, right, y (and) I like it, the city. The other situation is I like it okay the city, its similar el Salvador right, it’s similar mountain and the rural country, it’s similar right. Only no similar is the weather (laughter).

MEGAN

So, you’ve been in Harrisonburg since 1999?

CARLOS

Yea, 1999 and 2000 we came here in the United States and we stay here, October de (of) 1999, pero (but), I repeat, de (from) 1999 a (to) 2001 the position is illegal, right. De (as of) 2001, I had the TPS right. The problem is, example, other interview they say, hey, Carlos how many time you live here in the United States. I live here 17 year in legal position with TPS. In the really, I here 19 years, right. In legal position I here 17 years. I don’t know you trying to take it, you trying to take it in 2001, you trying to take it in 1999, I don’t know.

CORTNI

How when you first came to Harrisonburg, how do you think the city kind of like received you, and has that like changed since you lived here a lot more years now?

MEGAN

¿Cómo siente recibido para la comunidad de 1999 o ahora? (How did you feel received by the community in 1999 or now?)

CARLOS

Oh okay, this city is the special city, right. I like it. It’s marvelous city, the people is marvelous people and the first day, the first year here in the United States, I no have American friends, right. Now, I have found the different [unintelligible] the benefits of community I’m talking of all the people American. Example, in [unintelligible] fathers and school de (of) my daughter and it’s [unintelligible] elementary school. It’s the first Hispanic group, it’s the first dancing group, it’s [unintelligible] right. For me, it’s marvelous right. Now have example, the TPS and have the national TPS [unintelligible] right. It’s, this state in my life is beautiful, I’m talking to other people. I have the real situation, the immigrants and the American people. Example, this interview is the [unintelligible] for you and for you and for me, right, why? You say, hey, I listen and then you [unintelligible] to these people, right. He is criminal he is [unintelligible] only bad situation. In the real, anyway, any group have bad people y good people. And the people in Harrisonburg like it, right. It’s the people muy carinoso (very caring), and the people muy (very) [unintelligible], amigos (friends), friendly city. In this area right, yea I like it.

MEGAN

What was the Hispanic community like in Harrisonburg like in 1999? La comunidad hispánico en (the community in) Harrisonburg in 1999 versus now.

CARLOS

Oh, it’s very, very big change. I remember here in Harrisonburg only have two market Hispanic, tiendas hispaña (Hispanic stores), only two. One [unintelligible] in the 11 route [unintelligible] y (and) the other is near the 11 route [unintelligible] y (and) only two market Hispanic. Now, maybe ten or fifteen and Harrisonburg market only the food mart, example, the food mart is for sell the eating product Hispanic. Before, nothing was out. Others market I remember any time buyer [unintelligible] Hispanic say chino. And then…

MEGAN

Oriental Café

CARLOS

Yea, Oriental Cafe. You see the market is very small, in this area you buy example cookie del Salvador and candy del Salvador, coffee del Salvador, different product del Salvador right. Other big change example, the people, they work in different business. Example, restaurant and example gas station and example and cleaning, medical cleaning. Before it’s not like nothing. And now you, I remember example, this is the eating and golden corral. No see people Hispanic, and now all people is Hispanic. Example you visit the [unintelligible] in the night all people is Hispanic. I don’t know maybe the people Hispanic is more in this time pero (but) this situation is [unintelligible] and the economy de Harrisonburg, right. I remember, before have only Walmart, y (and) the Walmart in the situation and now the target, right. But now have 3 Walmart, have one Aldi, have the target have the food lion, have the I don’t know the … here pero (but) the business is more big, more big, more big. Example I remember the street the Linda lane, the finish here y (and) now continue. Y (and) the [unintelligible] at school and this area, before is not only [unintelligible] it’s a good economy de this country, de (of) this city. The problem is now example, in this situation de (of) immigration the people have more fears. No example, the Hispanic people like a change occur every year right. I not happy change occur, why. Okay here maybe one year in the United States, the politic de (of) immigration and… Example [unintelligible] I no have inversion, why? Okay no have [unintelligible] one year living here or no living here. No sé (I don’t know), this problematic is no good but economy de (of) Harrisonburg, right. Wherever you looking oh, the whole [unintelligible] right. Example, I like the change the new [unintelligible]. At first right, maybe I [unintelligible] and you cooking and one year no here. Pero (but), here in Harrisonburg I repeat, the beautiful, the beautiful city and had opportunity the people they like it the work, right. The people no like the work, maybe no live in here in Harrisonburg. I look in maybe in the downtown and the afternoon, the people on the stop, the people on the poster “I am hungry,” “I am homeless.” Y (and) here, all the sites they say that they need people. One thousand [unintelligible] in six month, what? In Harrisonburg have people, Hispanic people. They like it the work, the problem is, no have legal paper, right. And the first days in my company, all the people is Hispanic people, they no have paper, only paper the people they have is the TPS. Y (and), down, down, down, quit, quit, quit, quit in the new people no like the work. Maybe people the other country, or maybe people the United States, porque (because) I’m sorry pero (but) the people the United States, I don’t know maybe the people the problem is [unintelligible] they say I American y (and) they won’t like it no work, no like it no work. No, your decision. Example for professional right, the student they say work no like it, the position I like. Pero (but) had the option cause you a student. You no student, no have nothing position. You say I no understand the people I hungry maybe the exit the route 11 the DMV, maybe in the downtown, maybe here. [unintelligible] Its inside here maybe VVEC o (or) [unintelligible] $500, $1000, or the bond was the had the application the work y (and) these people [unintelligible] y (and) maybe these people is young people, you no understand. I look in maybe Walmart, two people, two men and the one dog. It’s like, oh my god. What happened, this is America, really? What? Is America now is very crazy right, okay, okay, okay. I no understand the situation y (and) these people they say, no Hispanic people lost my work. No, I no lost my work, I work I work I work. Nothing in this is easy or need pay. Example I pay my tax, I pay my, example my daughter born in America. My daughter no have Medicaid, my daughter I have my insurance. Y (and) what happened people say, ah no, these people they [unintelligible] they pay the electric bill, they pay the water bill, they pay the taxes, they pay the Medicaid, [unintelligible] no pay nothing but I need the water.

MEGAN

So, you work in poultry, right?

CARLOS

Poultry right poultry

MEGAN

Did you get into poultry from what your dad sent you to get to America?

CARLOS

Mhm, yea

MEGAN

So you’ve been working in poultry in Harrisonburg since 1999?

CARLOS

Yea, Harrisonburg

MEGAN

What’s the industry like?

CARLOS

What like the poultry?

MEGAN

Yea, como la industria de poultry? (What is the poultry industry like)

CARLOS

Como es? (How is it?) Is very, no easy. Its very hard, maybe you look at my finger, right. My finger had the maybe … right, I had to pay … example you look. Maybe I work every time 15 grades every time, the problem, the beef maybe forty grades anytime very cold. I no had the more option, example in this kind of weather, in the snow in the morning, for me is no good. Why, okay I need maybe levantarme (wake up), wake up, more early, why because

MEGAN

Mas temprano (earlier)

CARLOS

I need [unintelligible] to clean the car and maybe looking oh my god, good or no good driver. The snow in the morning, early, for me, it’s no good. Why. Okay. I need maybe the [unintelligible]. Wake-up more early. Why.

MEGAN:

(Spanish)

CARLOS:

[unintelligible]  need to clean the car, maybe looking. Oh my God, it’s good, I’m a good driver.

Laughs

CARLOS:

it’s very, [unintelligible]  driving in the snow, in the morning, it is slow right. I had example no have time, example I need to go in the bathroom, el bano, say hey buddy you taking my position? No, I need [unintelligible]  maybe one people, no, no, no, not in position, [unintelligible] , you say hey please I need break okay five minutes or two minutes. In town minutes to go to the bathroom. I said pee pee and come back. Right. [unintelligible]  maybe the position the [unintelligible] I don’t know may other positions opposite. They take McDonalds, take the coffee, very different. Why. Example, I used at work every time, you use the book, maybe eight or nine [unintelligible]  home, he say hey [unintelligible] my foot very water, no it’s not water it’s (Spanish) I don’t know english.

MEGAN:

Um like dirty? Or.

CARLOS:

Yeah (Spanish) say oh my God. it’s very hard, very hard. No more options for me. right. maybe option for me, example, my daughter have a better position for me my future. I need work for my daughter. have future more better. example my daughter, she have teacher maybe [unintelligible]  

CORTNI:

Do you have any connections, like to El Salvador? Do you go back there? or talk to people that are still there?

MEGAN:

Al visitar El Salvador o tiene a conexiones en El Salvador?

CARLOS:

Oh, Okay. El Salvador. I had the TPS. Temporary [unintelligible] . You are looking in the finish letter. Not valid for reentry to USA. Right. The homeland security had one option to travel out of my country. Why this option. The option is they [unintelligible]  

MEGAN:

parole

CARLOS:

This parole, I need pay this application maybe, i don’t know maybe four hundred dollar for one year, one year. I need take my fingerprints. I need take my picture. I need to recheck my record. Is there no problem, sign my parole for one year. In one year, no use the parole, no refund the money, no nothing. Had this option to travel to El Salvador, the problem is this parole and the [unintelligible]  had the different [unintelligible]

MEGAN:

Okay

CARLOS:

he say, you this parole no has [unintelligible]  you reenter the United States depending on the officer control the border.

MEGAN:

Okay

CARLOS:

Right. The officer control the border this day no eating or last night maybe the wife (Spanish) is angry, he say oh you no enter the United States. You come back, you can’t. You see the officer he say happy, say oh it’s okay. I like you face, come into the United States alright. I visit my country, last year.

MEGAN:

Last Year?

CARLOS:

Yeah, last year. For one month. Had maybe 18 year, no 17 year no visit to my country. Very very different. Example the children no is man, professor, maybe my family my [unintelligible]  my uncle, my all very different. You look into the street [unintelligible] why. it’s very different. The situation in El Salvador now is different, it’s very dangerous in different areas. not all areas, different areas, alright. [unintelligible]  maybe the [unintelligible] maybe the area of the street. Maybe you look in the, maybe you look in one main, the entrance to one street, you talk to the [unintelligible] said hey these people no live here, you check it out. theres maybe two people, he say hey where do you live. no I live with example my friend live maybe in this house, maybe die or maybe the money. Why this situation. And they call on my friend and say I visit tomorrow, alright. I sit in the entrance they [unintelligible]  no problem he say oh is he your friend, okay go in the country, very very all the situation is the young, the teen year and they exit the school, they say to sell the drug, or they say hey you have part of the gang. I don’t like this, you have part of the gang, no, you no part of the gang? you die or you die for your sister or you die for your mother, or you die for your father. They say okay this part is very very difficult now in my country. maybe you look and you watching tv the caravan of people in central America. These people no have more option. no have no option. and anyway these people have bad people and good people. pero people and the children [unintelligible]  example the old people no have no option right. United States the problem is no have the politic (do not understand) for good. maybe in my country, after the war I need more [unintelligible] in my country. Example, I, he say hey Carlos, you like it work in the United States is small. yes. okay. this is the visa, you work 6 months. in 6 months you come back and all the 6 months you work in the United States, in 6 months you come back. right they say my paycheck no here in the United States, my paycheck, the money in El Salvador. Work in the United States how the economy the United States [unintelligible] the economy of my country, they don’t have this option. Example he say no can the people necessary to travel to the United States [unintelligible]  no have this option. No have, why. Example the administration Obama had the option the people example the children the TPS have the go here, the new administration down, quick, this option. the people don’t have no option. right the United States is the father that all countries America is the big brother they call come to America. These people. example, I working here in America, its [unintelligible] . no [unintelligible] no robbery, and the economy of America. I [unintelligible] economy of America. Right. Example, now I need change my car. I had big credit and good credit. maybe see in Toyota, Honda, hey Mr. Carlos, hey welcome, what do you need. Okay i need this car [unintelligible] they say okay no problem. How money you want down [unintelligible]  down pay. Um maybe 500 dollar. Okay, no problem. And I own, and this day. Carlos have new car. no problem for have good record. The dealer, the restaurant they all tell the business no look in the people, oh no these people is immigrant, no, they look at the money. Right. In this situation not understand this president. Example you say hey, i don’t know maybe you think in the food, the hispanic food, [unintelligible] tacos, you like it , the food. they say oh my goodness, the food is very, very delicious, then American food.

Laughter

CARLOS:

[unintelligible]  They say hey this food is cooking the immigrant people, I don’t care, really like it. Right you like it. you like the food. you like my work. you like my song. now you look in the song Enrique Iglesias, Shakira, Talia, the different song, in english, in spanish, Pitbull, right. You listen to his music. This music of the immigrant. I don’t care, I like it. The problem is in America is made to immigrants, why the different, the different is maybe your beautiful, you beautiful. [unintelligible]  You say, example, your family, why is your grand grand father, what countries, Germany, Poland, Austria. Maybe you visited the college you say the question why is the country that you big big father. Oh my big big father is Poland, my big big father is Norway, my big big father is Germany. Oh my God nothing is America. Yeah it it is real. The people not understood these people not have the example my friend Michael [unintelligible] , the teacher in the Mennonite university he say Carlos you have more American then I, why decent is Germany, you is America [unintelligible]  say why the different the immigrant. The first immigrant in United States traveled in the boat, the big boat, way entrance in New York in the island Coney island in New York and the file, what your name called, okay now United States citizen, United States citizen. Why okay this time they needed people in United States, no have people in United States. Need more people, the people is the [unintelligible] the economy. The whole country. Right. the people don’t understand the situation, the last year 22 thousand people (spanish) in the city de Eastern [unintelligible] .

MEGAN:

Eastern Europe

CARLOS:

(spanish) 22 (spanish) right. El Salvador, Honduras, caravan 3 or 2 thousand people in the [unintelligible] . have 50 thousand solider on the border. these people he say I hope the United States, the United States is the big brother. The problem is the United States no help these people no help my country, and the time the war. The United States send my country 2 million dollar, why can this time, the cold war [unintelligible] , why Nicaragua is the friend the Union Soviet. Nicaragua help the area El Salvador. He say this time Ronald Regan, they send money El Salvador, why because El Salvador de Korea de taken the problem de country South America, take the problem the Union Soviet [unintelligible]  guns, [unintelligible] , fire, [unintelligible] , the war, they say Ronald Reagan maybe have Joe Bush father he say hey 2 million dollar in 10 years I no have solution. I need solution the dialog in the (do not understand) the conflict, nothing win nothing lost. Okay. The [unintelligible] El Salvador, had [unintelligible] .

MEGAN:

Peace treaty

CARLOS:

Alright. Okay. Very Good. Peace. Love and Peace in El Salvador no problem. United States [unintelligible]  other country [unintelligible] more money in El Salvador economy, [unintelligible] no nothing. My daughter. [unintelligible]  It’s a big problem in my country, you know in El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, alright. Example, Guatemala no have TPS. Only Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador. Guatemala no have TPS. maybe you watch the news, I don’t know this year or last year, the volcano (spanish) people dying, maybe, I don’t know how the day maybe ten thousand people die, what happened to TPS, no TPS. Why. I don’t care, Guatemala is (not important) to the United States. Right. El Salvador now is the big problem, no have [unintelligible] . the people need immigrants. Okay Immigrant is the life, the universal life, example you say momma, papa I no like Harrisonburg, I immigrant say Costa Rica, or immigrant other country. Why, yeah it is my decision, okay. You immigrant, okay, you immigrant, your decision. No like it. Oh my goodness, United State very cold, maybe 10, 5, degrees. Oh my God. Right. No have more option. Say this two years old i visit a class, in elementary school, english class, have group people different country. The teacher had the question, how many time you have other partner, student for me. he say how many time you live here in the United State have 15 year [unintelligible]  he say 15 years, you no speak nothing english. Hey say hey I’m sorry I have a question for you, you work? no, I no work, I cooking, I [unintelligible] my children, I clean my home, okay. You have resident? yeah I have resident. In 6 months had my resident okay. Here have 15 year living here in the United States you no have resident. Why. I don’t know its a big question for the government. These people, hispanic people, no here in United States as student here in the United States work, Why. For my children, my children need eating. You maybe don’t have document, and me take it anyway position, maybe to clean the bathroom and to clean the i don’t know. The different paper, no I don’t clean the bathroom maybe work in the station in the restaurant, I don’t know may they say this [unintelligible] why the situation, real situation, the immigrant example in my country El Salvador, right. No work, travel here the United State, they like it, have more option, no more option, the option have the rich people, example the rich people in my country no study in the United States, study in France, Germany, England, United States, no. You like it United States. You look to maybe visit other country in Europe, maybe Germany or other country, it’s very different right. you look at example the street, example the interstate 81, only two lanes. You looking two lanes, one trailer here, one trailer there. Oh my God, right. Its America, in 18 years living here in Virginia, only two lanes. I look example on internet, example in (Holland) the street is plastic, [unintelligible]  no more gas car, the electric car. Why. What happened in the United States. Is the immigrant (Spanish), no the (Spanish). You and You, the future of this country, my daughter the future of this country, the women the future of this country. you know the movement MeTo, right. the MeTo, I like this movement, I like it. United State is necessary the women take it, the real position. The men is no good, the women. Example in the last election, I cried Hillary Clinton no win. What happened. Hillary Clinton had big opportunity and no win, I don’t know.

MEGAN:

Politics

CARLOS:

Politics, right, politics. example, in the JMU maybe no have the real idea the [unintelligible] . I like it the foreign the different, the interview, all people have [unintelligible] . example the country, the midwest have big problem in the war, why. in example my friend de Iraq say hey I have a question for you all right, you say Sudan Husain is a good president or a bad president, no he a good president, they pay [unintelligible]  300 hundred dollar for the people only work 60 year [unintelligible] the pension. right. the gasoline maybe 15 cents a gallon, why. you worry Sudan Husain is the bad people, the [unintelligible] people, no. This the good people. The dying the Sudan Husain taken the power over people now Iraq is down. Other problem is Libya, [unintelligible] in this control Libya. I say I don’t know if this war is very crazy, no, understand. Example my daughter last night she cry, say pap no win in Virginia.

MEGAN:

the election

CARLOS:

[unintelligible]  no hija, no. is Jennifer Lewis is only one represent. This morning the congress come to the (democrats) [unintelligible] . I don’t know. Why do you think?

Loader Loading...
EAD Logo Taking too long?

Reload Reload document
| Open Open in new tab

Download

Mariana Lorenzana

Interview with Mariana Lorenzana

by Anna Clark and Evan Finley

Methodology
After a few emails back and forth, we finally met Mariana Lorenzana in her second grade classroom at Spotswood Elementary school right here in Harrisonburg, VA. She greeted us with a big smile and quickly admitted that she was a little nervous about the interview. We ensured her that we are also nervous, but there was nothing to be worried about. We sat down at a child sized desk and chairs, and began the interview after checking the recording device and signing the consent forms for the project. We started out with basic background questions. Looking back at our experiences it would have been nice to know a little bit about our subject in order to better customize our questions. Mariana was very excited to have the opportunity to share her story, but her nerves might have rushed her a bit and she skipped a lot of details at the beginning of the interview, so we had to make sure to come back to certain parts of her story to learn more about the timeline of her events.

Migration and Integration
Mariana was born in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. When describing her childhood in Honduras, she says it was “peaceful at that time.” She eludes to some violence within the public schools, but said it was better when she was growing up than it is now. Mariana first came to the US after graduating High School in Honduras. Through her church pastor’s connections, she was given the opportunity to participate in a program to learn English in Seattle, Washington. If she could pass all her English exams during the program, she could stay in the US longer and go to college there. Mariana said she didn’t plan on staying in the US for a long time and her motivation was her education, because she wanted to be a teacher. After a lot of hard work, Mariana passed all of her tests and was able to stay in Seattle and finish college there. She said this experience was a “dream come true.”
“I didn’t see that much of the city [Seattle] because I was always studying because I knew they just gave me six months to study to take the test and be able to go to college if I didn’t pass the test I was when I sent back home and I really wanted to go to school because what you guys have here or what we have that freedom and openings and all the chances, it’s not like that back in Latin American. You really have to work hard and it’s expensive. Even though universities here are so expensive, now that I have one [child] in college, it’s like, Ooh, but the opportunities that you have, it’s just there. So we, this people always ask us with my husband, how can you continue studying? I say because there is a chance to study. My husband just graduated with a doctorate in ministry and people say, why do you keep studying? Because there is a chance for us to study. If we were back home, we wouldn’t have that.”

After college, Mariana returned to Honduras to become a teacher at a bilingual school. After she got married, he husband was invited to come to the US by the Mennonite Church to work with the Hispanic community in New Orleans. At the time, they planned to be in the states for three to four years. She said she didn’t particularly enjoy her time in New Orleans, as they were only there temporarily, she couldn’t drive or work, so she just tried to enjoy her time working with the Church’s youth group. Eventually they were invited to become permanent residents through the Gulf States Mennonite Conference. Even though they only planned to be in the US temporarily, once they got their permanent residency status, they became more settled in the states and had kids. Mariana was worried that if they went back to Honduras, their kids would lose some of the advantages they have in the US such as educational opportunities and medical coverage for her adopted son.
After a few years in New Orleans, her husband was invited to move to El Paso, Texas and open a Mennonite Church there. “We fell in love with the place,” she said, “We really enjoyed it because we were able to go to Mexico and get some of the food, the spicy food and beans and the cheese and you know, at that time we just drove by and went to those expensive restaurants and they were not that expensive because we were paying in dollars and just the whole culture. It was a nice, nice place.” After being in El Paso for a few years, Mariana said that she and her husband began to feel more homesick and that it was harder to travel to Honduras from Texas, so when the opportunity arose for them to go Miami, Fl, they decided to move.
“It was more like being in Latin America,” she said. While her family was living in Miami, she started to work in a bilingual school. However, she and her husband felt that the Miami area was to “hectic” and unsafe, and her husband wanted to pursue another degree, that is when they found EMU and decided to move to Harrisonburg.

Harrisonburg
Mariana Lorenzana lives in Harrisonburg and is a teacher at Spotswood Elementary. After living in Louisiana, Texas, and Florida, she and her husband made Harrisonburg their home in 2004. Mariana Lorenzana has feels that Harrisonburg is by far the best place she has lived in the U.S. She said that once they moved here with her two children, they fell in love with the community, and that her kids feel that this is home for them. One of the most important factors for her about Harrisonburg bang the best place to live is that it is very safe. Compared to where they had lived before, Harrisonburg was by far the safest. She felt comfortable allowing her kids to play outside knowing they would be safe.
She also said that Harrisonburg was “a welcoming place.” Mariana Lorenzana was very connected with the EMU community. She talked about how she and her kids would walk around the campus and felt a real sense of community there. We asked Mariana if there were many other Hondurans in Harrisonburg when they first came and she said, “I think I didn’t know them because I was so involved in the EMU community, so I was not involved that much with them.” The Mennonite church clearly had the most influence over Mariana and her family’s experience in coming to the US and integrating here. In his article, “The Social Organization of Migration,” Massey talks about how voluntary organizations help facilitate migration, and this is true in the case of Mariana’s story. Since they have been here for so long, she and her husband, have branched out from the church and have become more integrated, but their faith is still an important factor that shapes their experience here in the US. “Now it’s easy, so much easier just to connect with other Hispanics because of the parents and at that time, not that much. We were new in the area.” She also had this to say about the EMU community: “EMU plays a big role because both of us graduated from there. So EMU has a special, you know, part in our heart and probably, you know, the connection.” This shows that all immigrant stories are different. Mariana Lorenzana didn’t know anyone when they came to the Harrisonburg area, but they soon found a community that was welcoming and safe.

Membership
When asked about the decision to naturalize, Mariana Lorenzana’s said the decision came quite easy. She made the decision because her residency was going to expire. They had always postponed the step of becoming a citizen because it was expensive. She said that they never really had the money to change their immigration status, but that they basically had no choice. They either would become citizens or leave the states. This made the decision quite easy. She then took us through the process of becoming a citizen.
She made the decision around 10 years ago and said that she took a class to prepare. She also bought a book and studied on her own, going through the questions in preparation. Some of the questions she was asked was about politics and about who her Representative and Senators are, and jokingly told us not to ask her who they are as she can’t remember. She also said that she was very nervous for the interview and that you need to be prepared and professional. She also thought that the people who interviewed her were very nice. The interview consisted of five questions, and if those five questions go well then that’s it, you pass the test.
She said she had one regret about the whole process. The regret she had was that she couldn’t keep her maiden name or her own last name. They told her that she could only have one last name and not a hyphenated last name. She regretted not fighting for it. But, like she said after this, it brings to attention how much you don’t know when going through the process of becoming a citizen. She felt that she had no choice but to listen to the people helping her with the process. It does seem strange that they wouldn’t let her have two last names but she didn’t want to cause any problems so she decided not to fight it. After the interview, the process continues. This consisted of getting fingerprints, going to the doctors, and conducting a background check. Overall, she said that the process was easy, but a long process, which was around a year.
Next, we wanted to get a sense of how much she goes back to Honduras and if she misses anything about Honduras. Since coming to the United States, she has gone back to Honduras four or five times. At first, she would go back to visit her parents and other family member. But since becoming an American citizen, she was able to request her parents to come live in the U.S. she said that this has made things easier, and has caused her not to want to go back to Honduras. She still has siblings in Honduras, but she doesn’t feel the impulse or need to go back to Honduras, because she has her parents here now. Massey talks about the importance of Kinship a social base of network migration and Mariana bringing her parents here is a good example of this. Massey discusses how family members are our closest ties and that is why it is one of the most popular network that fuels migration.
The last question we had for Mariana Lorenzana was if she feels American or more Honduran. She thought this was a good question, and we could tell it really made her think deeply. First, she jokingly said that her husband thinks she can be too American sometimes. But her answer was interesting. She said that she feels like both. Sometimes she feels very Honduran but other time she realizes that she has changed a lot since coming to the United States. She does feel that she has embraced American culture but that she has also brought her heritage with her. An example of this is when she spoke about her daughter coming home from college on break. She said that all her daughter wanted after coming home from college was rice and beans. This resonated with us because it shows that she has brought her heritage into the house and embraces it too. Mrs. Lorenzana said she felt a lot of joy when her daughter asked for rice and beans, because it means that she embraces her heritage and feels it’s a piece of who she is as well. This speaks to the experience of raising children as an immigrant, as well how the second generation creates their own identity, as discussed in the article “Becoming Ethnic or Becoming American,” by Min Zhou and Jennifer Lee. They point out the struggle that the second generation and their parents go through where they don’t want to lose their heritage, but feel pressure to be only one or the other (Honduran or American). However, many feel they connect to both as Mariana and her daughter feel.

Conclusion
Since Mariana Lorenzana has been here since 2004, we were curious to know how she saw Harrisonburg change over the years. She said that a lot had changed. There are more roads and streets. She also said that a lot more immigrants have come to the Harrisonburg area since she first arrived. She has seen more immigrants from not just Latin America but also Asia and the Middle East. She also said that there are more stores, where she can get the food she craves, and by this I think she means more stores that have Hispanic food. She appreciated that immigrants are bringing their heritage to Harrisonburg. She appreciates this because she tries to the same in her own house. Another change that she was excited about was that Harrisonburg schools have a bilingual program. She said, “kids are learning English and Spanish at the same time and I think that’s a plus that brings a lot to the community and it’s not that the Hispanic or taken over, it’s just we’re teaching the community to be open to new cultures, to new languages.” She was proud of this because she was one of the founders of the program when it was only in one school. Now the program is in every school in Harrisonburg, except for one. This goes to show how much Harrisonburg has changed and embraced the immigrant community.
Harrisonburg offered a welcoming, safe home for Mariana and her family and she has appreciated calling Harrisonburg her home. We share that same appreciation for Harrisonburg and how it has changed and how it has offered for us as a great place to get our education. We also truly appreciate the opportunity to listen to Mariana Lorenzana’s story and get to know her. It has shown us that immigration stories are different and listening to these stories helps us appreciate being American. The United States provides many immigrants with the opportunity of education, work, and safety and it was very humbling to listen to someone who can give us a first-hand view of an immigrant experience.

Anna : So we’ll start with um, when, and where were you born?
Mrs. Lorenzana: Date and years. I was born in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Did you say date?
Anna : You don’t have to…
Mrs. Lorenzana: Yeah, I was born in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
Anna : Okay, and what was it like growing up?
Mrs. Lorenzana: I think it was kind of peaceful at that time and I remember taking public transportation, going to school and now if we do that it’s kind of dangerous, but it was, you know, free. And the only thing I regret is girls could not play soccer and I was a pretty fan of soccer and I couldn’t play because girls were not allowed during that time. Now it’s fine. Um, so people decided either you go to a public school, public school or not like this, like the ones in the state. Sometimes kind of hard, you know, because everybody goes there and sometimes can be lots of violence and my parents will not accept that. So. So it was peaceful and not the way it is now.
Anna : Um, when did you first come to the US?
Mrs. Lorenzana: My very first time was just right after high school, uh, I came to learn English and I have the chance to go to college. So they said you take this course and then you take a proficiency test and if you pass it then you can enter college. So for me that was my dream coming true because I always wanted to be a teacher and I had the chance of coming in and becoming one. So I did that. So I was able to go to college, graduated and then I went back home. That was the first time.
Anna : So you were here from about 18, 17, something like that?
Mrs. Lorenzana: Yeah. And for like four or five years or five years.
Anna : Nice, and was your main motivation for coming to learn English education?
Mrs. Lorenzana: Yeah, basically I wanted to learn English and I wanted it to be a teacher.
Anna : So, um, what happened next when you went back?
Mrs. Lorenzana: Then? I went back home and I got a job as a teacher at a bilingual school and I was happy. We got married and then we were invited by the Mennonite church to come and work with the Hispanic community. My husband is a minister, so it was a chance for us to plan churches and just basically to work with the Hispanic community. So we came up, basically it was, we thought maybe only three years we’d been 25 now after we get the kids. And so.
Anna : How old were you then when he came back to the US for the second time?
Mrs. Lorenzana: I came back, got married when I was 30, 31 I think.
Anna : OK Yeah.
Mrs. Lorenzana: Yeah. So I was an adult.
Anna : Um, so when you came back here, and your husband was preaching or?
Mrs. Lorenzana: We, we started as a youth pastor. See in the Hispanic churches is not as um, they don’t have that many people working full time. So he was the young, the young pastor and he functioned as an assistant pastor to this moment.
Anna : What were you doing during that time?
Mrs. Lorenzana: Just helping him because we didn’t have our permanent residency. We were just in the process of getting one, so I couldn’t work. I couldn’t drive. He had a driver’s license because he went to school, were in that area where we used to live that was in New Orleans, so I couldn’t drive, I couldn’t work. So I waited until I was enjoying just working with the kids and, and a church.
Anna: So at what point did you decide to become a permanent resident?
Mrs. Lorenzana: Well, we were, uh, we were invited, as I say, we were invited by the Gulf States Mennonite conference, something like that to be, I think it was a religious visa and then we were asked, would you like a permanent visa. We didn’t understand exactly what we’re saying and say, yeah. So we got the visa and, but the idea was to be here for three years. But then kids came along and our oldest son, he got asthma. So medical expenses were really high, almost $400 per month. And since he was adopted, the government paid for that. So we thought, what can we offer him? I mean going back home, we couldn’t afford it. Yeah, you know, his for his health and then we thought about education for them and how much we had the chance to have an education and we want to offer that to our children. So that’s how make us decide. Let’s go for the permanent resident.
Anna : So was that in the Harrisonburg area?
Mrs. Lorenzana: No no, that was Harrisonburg is our fourth place that we live and the longest.
Anna : So kind of take me through that journey.
Mrs. Lorenzana: We started, we came to New Orleans, we were there for I think three or four years and I was not working. We were just, I was helping my husband at church and just getting around and it’s not the same like I went to school in the north, all of north and, and then um, he was invited to open the church in El Paso, Texas. So we went to visit and we fell in love with the place. It was in the on the border with Mexico and we could go to Mexico if we wanted just to visit. So we moved there and that’s where we have our kids in El Paso. Um, and then we decided we were beginning, we were starting to get homesick and it was kind of far away traveling to Honduras from El Paso and they were not that many Hondurans there and just, we just began getting homesick and the kids now that we had the kids, we wanted them to be closer to home so he had an opening, there was an opening in Miami, so we went there and it was more like being in Latin America. However, I didn’t like the area because it’s too hectic, but I began teaching again in a bilingual school, so I really loved it, but I didn’t like the area and my husband always wanted to, uh, he always wanted to get a higher education. So he came to visit EMU and there was a chance for him to get his master’s degree. So we said why not? So let’s move. So we came with our two kids and we fell in love with the area and we’ve been here ever since. And for our children, this is home, Harrisonburg. It was a nice move.
Anna : How did you feel you were accepted here in Harrisonburg compared to other places and was there a community of people from Honduras here at all?
Mrs. Lorenzana: At first, not really. Not that many Hispanics that we met and we were not connected with any Hispanic churches because my husband was going into the seminary so it was mostly his classmates and going to church. And then I began working. I was working in the county my first two years. It was hard because I feel like I was not being accepted that well just because I was Hispanic. I even have comments of people saying, oh, but how come you, can you be a teacher when you were Hispanic? And I was like, why not? And people assume that my husband was an American because he was getting his master’s degree and I say how come a Hispanic can’t do that? So those two years were kind of hard trying to figure out because I never experienced that and after awhile you learn to deal with that. Then I got a job with Harrisonburg city school and I feel like this is where I belong because I was able to give back something to the community. Then I met others like me and I’ve never felt that discrimination from the administrators or the staff. Nothing. It’s like it’s me. Whether I have an accent, whether I looked different it is just me. One of the other teachers.
Anna: And, what year was it that you got to the Harrisonburg area?
Mrs. Lorenzana: We came 2004.
Anna : Okay, great. And how was it raising kids in this area?
Mrs. Lorenzana: Well, I will say Harrisonburg. Harrisonburg is total different than other places. We came from Miami and even though there were lots of Hispanics in the area, at some point it was not that safe. Having kids outside here. It’s such a great community. We live in the park view area. So for us having the kids outside playing on their own, riding their bikes, that was wonderful. That was great. It was, we felt like it was a safe place and a welcoming place and we never told the kids that, oh, you’re Hispanic, but we never mentioned that word because we didn’t want to feel them different than anybody else. And even though we made the rule at home only in Spanish, not English, they never questioned why. I mean, for them it was just natural.
Anna : Were there any norms that you saw in the U.S. that it took time to get used to or that you found kind of weird?
Mrs. Lorenzana: Um, the individualistic part sometime, even now it’s hard because we’re in a collectivism community. Everybody’s into everybody’s business. I’m probably that part in. It was interesting seeing how people treat us and I talk about the plural because I’m including my husband. We noticed when people knew we had some kind of education, people started treating us differently and it was that, wow, that’s as soon as we mentioned, Oh, you know, I’m a school teacher. Oh, okay. Oh, there were a couple of people at the beginning thinking, oh, so you were an assistant assuming that just because I was Hispanic, I couldn’t have. So that part. I remember one time my husband was mowing when the lawn and one of his coworkers drove by us, oh, so this is, you have a part time job. And I said, no, this is my house, this is where I live, just because he looks Hispanic. So that was kind of different and trying to learn to deal with that and, and helping our children to learn that they don’t have to react when people treat them differently. Um, Harrisonburg’s a nice place to be. It is, its a, it’s a great community and, but that was something we got to our attention why people treat us different when they know the education that we have.
Anna : Um, have you been back to Honduras? How many times?
Mrs. Lorenzana: Since I came to Harrisonburg?
Anna : Or I guess since the US.
Mrs. Lorenzana: Since the U.S. Not that many. Probably last time I was home was last year and after that it took me almost 10 years. So probably four or five the most that had been home.
Anna : And was it just to visit family and everything?
Mrs. Lorenzana: Yeah, just a family. At first I wanted to go home because my parents lived there so I wanted mostly for my parents even though I got siblings back there, but then when we became Americans citizens, then I was able to request my parents so they came and lived with me and so that made it easier, not so urgent to go back home because I had my parents with me.
Anna : So when did you make the decision to naturalize?
Mrs. Lorenzana: Oh, our residency was going to expire. So basically that because it was pretty expensive, just changing the status. So we never, we always postpone it because we never had the money basically. So it was either becoming an American citizen or keeping keep it right in and say, you know, what, let’s go for the citizenship. And we did it and I’m glad we did. Especially now with this environment. Yeah, it’s pretty hard.
Anna : Uh, so what was that process like?
Mrs. Lorenzana: Ah, we, let me see if I remember of 10 years. You have to take a class and, and they asked me some questions. I think I, I bought a book and I studied on my own, the questions and just prepare for that. Then we had an interview separate, you know, my husband went side and me and you have to be ready, you know, they asked you about politics and they ask you about who are your Senators, your Congress. So I have to learn that. Don’t ask me now who they are because I can’t, I don’t remember and, but I knew, you know, the basic history, so that was not that bad, but it’s always so tension, know, so nervous going in and, to have that interview. However, I felt like they were really nice people. Very nice. In our interview, the only thing I regretted is I wanted to use my maiden name and they didn’t allow me to do that. They say no, that’s the last name. You cannot do that. And of course you know, you’re getting into the process. I didn’t feel free to fight for it because it’s like, okay, then they’re not going to give me my citizenship because I wanted to keep my own last name. And they say, no, you use only one last name, your name and last name. So, yeah, now it’s like, how come I didn’t fight for it? I mean now that I know, but during that process you don’t have so much of a choice. It’s like, okay, whatever you say, I’m going to do it because I’m in this process. Probably the, the people that helped me were being like that. But the interview, it wasn’t that bad. It was only five questions. If you pass the five questions, that’s it. And then you know, all the process, the fingerprint and going to the doctor and background check and everything. So it was a long process. I think now it’s harder. I think that’s what I heard and it was expensive. I can’t remember how much but almost a thousand dollars probably for each one of us.
Anna : How long did that process take from start to finish?
Mrs. Lorenzana: Probably no more than a year. No more than a year I think.
Anna: And how old were you then? What year was it?
Mrs. Lorenzana: Uh, I was in my forties.
Anna : Um, Evan?
Evan : Um so you first came to the, to the New Orleans area?
Mrs. Lorenzana: My very first time, no.
Evan : When you went, where did you go to school?
Mrs. Lorenzana: Seattle, Washington.
Evan : Nice, Seattle’s cool.
Mrs. Lorenzana: Yeah.
Anna : Um, how did you get the opportunity to study in the US? How did you find out about that?
Mrs. Lorenzana: Through my pastor. The church was a church connecting.
Anna : Um, I guess, what do you miss about Honduras the most?
Mrs. Lorenzana: What I miss? Know, it’s kind of hard because for me, if I have my family with me, I don’t miss anything. But what I miss about Honduras is that friendship for example, this time of the year. Oh, it’s the best going home because everywhere you go it’s music. There’s music and just feel the Christmas spirit that here we don’t and that part, the friendship. Having lots of my friends in always getting together because here you’re busy and we’ve been very lucky for having good friends, good people. We have met good people, but we’re always busy.
Evan : So the first. So after you went back, after coming from school, you went back to Honduras and then you said your husband got a job in New Orleans. Okay. Um, how’d you like the New Orleans area or it was like…
Mrs. Lorenzana: I didn’t like it at all. So we were there only for 3 years. It’s kind of gloomy and I don’t know, just, you know, Mardi Gras. I was not into that. Now, the food is good. I mean there were a lot of visitors but I was not really so excited make New Orleans my home. I know it was just temporary compared to El Paso and here. Those have been my best places.
Evan : And how’d you uh, was the reception in New Orleans? Like, when you first came did you see differences in the reception between New Orleans and like El Paso or Miami?
Mrs. Lorenzana: Every place that I’ve been, even though there are some Hispanic, since Hispanic is such a broad, you know, culture and, and, and in New Orleans there were a lot of Hondurans and we spent most of the time with the people at Church. My last year that I was there, I began working in a public school, so that’s I feel like I have. That’s the first time I experienced the American culture and it wasn’t that bad. I was taken well, of course you know when you have an education and you have a degree, people respect you. So, we learned that. I don’t know how we can sense that the people start treating you differently just because you have a bachelor’s degree, you have a master’s degree. The other day my daughter was telling me, I always remember you always saying when you go to the store, just try to look nice because I always tell her, you know, people are going look at you like, oh, look at that sloppy Hispanic and now with this environment people treat you differently. And, and you know, one of my kids, my son, my son, sometimes he looks more really Hispanic, dark complexion, black hair, and he has felt some people treating him differently. Just the way he looked. Even though he was born here. Both of my kids were born back there. I just remember one incident in New Orleans my first day at school. Um, I went pretty early and one of the teachers. Really Nice Lady. She came and greet me and say, Oh, you’re the new custodian here. Just assuming because I was Hispanic and I say, no, I’m the new bilingual teacher. So you know, things like that, incidents like that I had experience. But you learn, you learn this, not me with the problem is the other one that doesn’t understand. So New Orleans is, I didn’t like the area that much, no particular reasons. Just El Paso. We really enjoyed because we were able to go to Mexico and get some of the food, spicy food and beans and the cheese and you know, at that time we just drove by and went to those expensive restaurants and they will not that expensive because we were paying in dollars and just the whole culture. It was a nice, nice place.
Evan : So in El Paso, did you have permanent residence while you were in El Paso.
Mrs. Lorenzana: Yeah, yeah, well yeah.
Evan : So it was pretty easy to go over the border and come back?
Mrs. Lorenzana: During that time, that was, my daughter’s 18. Yeah. 18. Almost 20 years ago. All you had to do is show you a green card, drive by. That’s fine. Sometimes they just. Do you live here or are you an American citizen or say no, we’re just permanent residents. Okay. Just go. That was that easy. That the trust that people now probably is not that easy. I don’t know. I haven’t been there in 20 years. Yeah. But it was a neat experience just being able to go to two different countries.
Anna : How have you seen Harrisonburg particularly changed from when you got here?
Mrs. Lorenzana: Oh, a lot. A lot more streets, you know, more new roads and more immigrants. I think a lot of immigrants, not just Hispanic, um, Asians and from the Middle East during that time and more stores and now it’s easy for me, whatever I’m craving that I have, you know, from home all I have to go to one store and I get it a little bit more expensive, but I get it. So in that way for like, oh, they’re bringing a little piece of my country here and I want my own children to experience that. My daughter just came from college. And what do you want to eat? Oh, just make me some beans, mom. So like I was, I was, you know, it means a lot to me because like wow. So she’s bringing that, because I don’t want them to lose their heritage. I wanted to keep it and, but at the same time they are Americans, so they need to experience what this culture brings. So it’s a mixture. Yeah. What else? Yeah, the um, the school in the school system now we have a bilingual program. Now it’s in every single school in Harrisonburg cities, except one. We have the bilingual program, kids are learning English and Spanish at the same time and I think that’s a plus that brings a lot to the community and it’s not that the Hispanic or taken over, it’s just we’re teaching the community to be open to new cultures, to new languages. I’ve never been in Europe, but you know, people speak lots of languages. Uh, my husband and I are fan of soccer, so we’re always listening to this European soccer. And like, were so impressed that a lot of them, they speak two, three, four languages and, and, and you listened to like, wow. So hopefully, you know, it will change the whole mentality of not because you’re white, you’re better than someone else. Yeah.
Evan : So within the school and do all of the kids go through the bilingual program?
Mrs. Lorenzana: No, no, they, it’s an, it’s an optional thing.
Anna : Do most people opt in?
Mrs. Lorenzana: Um, it’s probably more and more people wanted to get into the program. When we started 10 years ago, uh, it was a waiting list. I used to teach at Smithland, so I was there 14 years and I started that. I was one of the people, to choose to start the program. So kids drove from different places just to get into the program. Now you go and you don’t have to travel. I mean you don’t have to, you, you can be in your own district and you find a bilingual program. And I think the first group, it’s probably seventh or eighth grade, the first group that started. So more and more people are getting more used to and eh, it’s neat seeing like in parent teacher conference or, and PTO activities, that interaction is not the white or the Hispanic is just parents come into school, kids learning a different language no matter what language it is, it’s just they’re kids. So in that sense, I see a change. You find more Hispanic churches or other cultures. I don’t know what other cultures will be, but you know, that brings more respect to diversity.
Evan : Um, so it sounds like the, uh, the Methodist Church was a big organization that helped…
Mrs. Lorenzana: Mennonite church.
Evan : Excuse me. But it sounds like they had like a very influential part of your immigration story.
Mrs. Lorenzana: Probably, yeah, I will say. Yeah.
Evan : Would you say that, um, it’s like the biggest organization that, um, that helped you connect more than Harrisonburg and um, or were there any other organizations within Harrisonburg that kind of helped you get more comfortable with living here?
Mrs. Lorenzana: Since my husband, a Mennonite minister, probably I will say so, EMU plays a big role because both of us graduated from there. So EMU has special heart especially, you know, part in our heart and probably, you know, the connection. You may people you met there, they’re friends for life. I was telling my kids the friends that you’re making there are for life, you know, those friends, that mentor. So I would say probably the Mennonite church. Um, yeah, EMU, EMU and Harrisonburg city schools in my personal case, because I’ve been teaching here since we came.
Evan : Were there, I think you said this, but there weren’t that many Hondurans in Harrisonburg when you first came?
Mrs. Lorenzana: I think I didn’t know them because I was so involved in the EMU community, so I was not involved that much with now it’s easy, so much easier just to connect with because of the parents and at that time, not that much. We were new in the area, and it takes a while now I feel like this is home for me. I feel that I’m part of this and yeah.
Anna : Do you have anything to add?
Mrs. Lorenzana: Thanks for doing this. I feel like you guys want to educate the community and it’s not a matter of a race or where are you from it is just a person and some people are so caught up on how you look and that will determine who you are and it’s not just one, you know, to bring something good to this. Because we had Americans back home. People decided to move back home. And our faith brings us here. So I know there was a purpose for us to be here and which I want to be the best and help and I always tell our kids, don’t look at the color of the skin. Look at the heart. In fact, yesterday we were talking with my daughter and say, you’re going to marry someone that has a good heart. That’s all we’re asking. Good heart don’t look at…I don’t care what color the person will be, but I’ve learned to say that it’s not easy. You know, at first you were so prejudice even for me thinking, my kids are going marry an American. They’re going to change, no. So I’ve learned that it’s not whether they’re Americans or Hispanic it is just about who they are. My son married an American, but Victoria, I don’t see as different. I mean besides the language it’s learning, but yeah.
Anna : Thank you.
Evan : I thought it was interesting how you said, uh, people seem to kind of be nicer or maybe pay more attention to you when they found your education background. Is that you think just a U.S. Thing or have you seen that back in Honduras?
Mrs. Lorenzana: Oh, uh, probably everywhere, everywhere, everywhere. And probably we feel it more because the tension there is in the environment now that I remember when we were thinking about starting to dual program, there was an article or an interview, I cannot remember the exact thing, but um in the news that we’re thinking about bringing Spanish into education and so many comments of ignorant people. I’m sorry for the word ignorant people, but you know, our languages, English, they’re not going to learn English and all of this. And I remember one particular comment people saying, but send those cockroaches back home, back to Mexico and it’s like, I’m not from Mexico. So you know, those comments really hurt and I’m not saying that all immigrants are the greatest people. But anywhere you go and getting back to your point, I found a, we found it here, not so much of a tension whether you have a degree or not. Like for us, when my husband went to the seminary and people started calling their first name to the teacher, like, oh, you don’t call the doctor. So for us was, it was a shock because back home you have to call someone Dr. so and so or Mr so and so. And here you could call them by their names. That was a shock for us and say, Oh this is neat. And in we don’t know if it’s the mennonite community, that EMU community that was so relaxing and friendly and welcoming. Or it’s just Harrisonburg. I mean so, but you can tell people treat you different. And I don’t know if everybody feels the same way. If they know, Oh, you got a degree also, so we’re big on education, for my husband. We push education, and our daughter now just started college at Mary Washington.
Evan : Mary Washington’s a big education school, so.
Mrs. Lorenzana: I gave up, I wanted her to attend EMU. They said mom it is so close to home and when my, my husband used to work there so my kids were little so they used to be in EMU the time. So they grew up there. They need a break and like, so I’m glad she picked one that is not that far away and yeah, it’s been good. I heard good things and she’s excited for whatever she’s going to study at Mary Washington is close by and she can do some internship or whatever. I didn’t want JMU because it’s too big. It’s still thinking like, no, I can’t do that. Even though I heard good things, but I don’t know. That was my mom’s side of it.
Evan : Um, another question, um, with 2016 being a big election, did you see any kind of differences after that? Or Harrisonburg kind of been more of a vacuum and stayed friendly and a better place or…?
Mrs. Lorenzana: Um, that’s an…I just feel like now it’s kind of hard talking about politics even with your friends because you don’t know who they are. You think they believe like you, but they don’t. In fact, one of my best friends here at school, we’re good friends, but we don’t talk about politics because once we start talking about politics, there was not a common point. So we decided, you know, that not even mentioned. Not even say that I went to vote. Nothing. That’s not part of our relationship because it’s hard. We don’t think about things the same. And I think it’s been harder now with this last election. People are more intense and I don’t know why we just feel there was more tension. We just feel like we have got to be careful now. I don’t know why, but even speaking Spanish in public, I never thought about it, but now it’s like I’m kind of concerned because you don’t know how people are going to react. I was offended when they say Mexicans were criminals because even though I’m not Mexican, I’m Hispanic, I’m one of them and I say I’m not a criminal. That was really hurting me. And just so you know, when you hear those negative comments, it really hurts. It does, because you cannot judge people just by the way they look or how they speak.
Evan : So you said you’ve called Harrisonburg home. Would you say that you feel American or, uh, you still feel more Honduran?
Mrs. Lorenzana: Um, that’s a good one, that a good one. Sometime my husband thinks I’m too American. I will say both. I think we both, what’s the word you acculturate, right? Is that the word acculturation? I think. It’s when you embrace the new culture and it becomes part of you, but you still bring your heritage. Um, it depends. Sometimes. Sometimes I feel like I’m still very Honduran and there are times I feel like I’m, well look how much I have changed. Especially going back home and after 10 years being away, you know, here you are in a restaurant and you don’t like something you can say I don’t like it, it’s not what I ordered and you’ll be fine most of the time. Back home is like, you eat it fine. And um, I have to remind myself like I don’t like to waste food. And I think here we waste so much food here and I think I bring that spending part of me like I cannot waste, especially food. It’s insane how much they waste. Yeah. That’s good. Yeah.

Loader Loading...
EAD Logo Taking too long?

Reload Reload document
| Open Open in new tab

Download