From Mexico to Maryland: A UVA Student’s Story
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...
Interview of Father Miguel Melendez
The interview below is between myself and Father Miguel Melendez, the local priest at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Harrisonburg, Virginia. In the interview, Father Melendez discusses his background, his relationship with the Catholic Church, and...
Jose Carlos Ramos
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...
Mariana Lorenzana
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...
José Cardoso Martinez
José Cardoso Martinez is a home school liaison with Harrisonburg City Public Schools in Harrisonburg, Virginia. This means that he serves as a bridge between the school and parents from Spanish speaking families who may need help understanding communicating...
Alicia Horst: A Story of Identity, Transition, and Purpose
Identity Alicia Horst is the Executive Director of New Bridges Immigrant Resource Center in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Born in Harrisonburg in 1979, Horst’s immigration story is unique in that she is a native-born US citizen, but left the country at a very young age....
Nelly Moreno Shenk
Introduction: On Friday, March 16th, I had the honor of meeting with Nelly Moreno Shenk for an interview for the Immigrant Harrisonburg project conducted by Dr. Morales spring semester history class. We met at 2:30 in the afternoon at her place of work, Skyline...
Sal Romero
Sal Romero is an advocate for the strong line of communication between the school and all the families. Romero immigrated to the United States from Mexico at a young age and has lived in Harrisonburg for all this life since then. Romero graduated from James Madison...
Maritas “Tess” Cortes
Migration Marites ‘Tess’ Cortes was born in Cebu City, Cebu, Philippines in 1960. She Immigrated to the United States in 1990, however, before Immigrating to the United States, she spent about 12 years living in Liberia. In 1978 Tess was a second-year student at...
Migration from Colombia: My Interview With Fernando Gamboa
Oral Narrative My interview with Fernando Gamboa was among one of the more memorable academic events that I was blessed to have while in attendance at James Madison University. During my time with Fernando Gamboa, I learned a lot about his migration to the United...
Arsalan Syan: The Refugee Experience
On the 24th of February 2018, I interviewed Arsalan Syan, an Iraqi-Kurdish refugee and case worker at Church World Service refugee resettlement office in Harrisonburg, VA, as part of the Immigrant Harrisonburg project conducted by Dr. Morales’s History of...
