Interview with Pedro Catacora
Introduction
Growing up, I was surrounded by a diverse community, especially in Northern Virginia. Most of my friends were children of immigrants just as I am so it was not difficult to find who I would decide to interview. On November 26th, 2023 I interviewed my Father, Pedro Catacora, on his immigrant experience from coming to the United States from Bolivia. My mother immigrated around the same time my father did with her family. Still, because of my mother’s connection with the American Embassy, she was fortunate enough to have a fairly easy immigration experience compared to the majority. This was a large deciding factor when choosing to interview my father. Another factor was that due to my father coming to the United States as a teenager, which is typically very young for immigrants, he had the opportunity to learn English at an early age which is another large factor as to why this would be an ideal option for an interview. I had always heard bits and pieces of his life during this time as he was always very open about his experience with being an immigrant, but I had never heard the story in its entirety, until now. 
Leaving La Paz
In Bolivia, my father had a well-established life, friends, and strong relationships with his family, and could play soccer every day. Therefore you could imagine how difficult it was to leave the only place he had known for the past 16 years of his life. My father was born in one of the two capital cities of Bolivia which is tucked away in the Andes mountains, La Paz. Being the capital city one would imagine that this was one of the more up-to-date cities to be in, but as my father describes it was not the trendiest of cities. There has never been too much focus on trends in Bolivia due to many political issues that happen very frequently all around Latin America. As my father was growing up there was lots of instability in the country due to military coups that was a frighting time for him especially being the capital city, but it was normalized to him as there have been so many in Bolivia and even continue to happen to this day. Although through the turmoil in the country, my father still found a way to be immersed in pop culture. He heard the top 40 radio and watched “Music Tevelvions” also known as MTV where all the latest music videos would show, these were the only few notions of the United States he had. When my father was 16, his mother decided that the family would be leaving Bolivia. His mother, sister, and brother traveled first to the States and a few months later, my Father would be the last to go. Mixed emotions emotions surround this. He would be reuniting with his mom, brother, and sister in the States, but would be leaving behind friends and family.
In the States
Being a teenager in any circumstance is a vital time for any person, but my Dad did so while being in a new country with a new language and having to create a new life. My father moved to Hyattsville, Maryland, and went to high school there in 1986. My father was in the United States on a student visa but the road to becoming a student in the U.S. was not so easy. He had to wait about 5 months for his transcript to come in so he was held back a grade due to this, resulting in him having to graduate a year later. Despite the school system’s difficulty in allowing this transition, my father managed to begin to create a life for himself. There were many sources or connections for other immigrants in Hyattsville he found friendships within his ESL classrooms. In the ESL classrooms, my father describes a sense of relief and level of comfortability with other students as they were all learning English as well. This created a judgment-free zone in this class that he didn’t feel when talking to people who were born in the United States. My father recounts that he “ felt a lot of judgment when I didn’t know how to speak English.”.
On top of all this, my father had to work while in school, which was prohibited while being on a student visa, but had to to support himself and his family. During this time he worked as a cook in a restaurant after school. One key topic discussed is that he worked alongside other Latinos as well. But being not very proficient in English, they were usually very quiet and worked in the back. 
Eventually, after living a humble life in the U.S. while working and being a student. My father graduated but had to face the next challenge in his life now that he was no longer a student, obtaining his green card.
Road to getting the Green Card 
To get his green card my father had to go back to his country of origin. Fortunately, his mother had started the process three years earlier when they moved to the United States so by the time my Father graduated high school he would be able to have an appointment with the Bolivian consulate to receive his green card for the United States. During this time my father waited 4 months for his appointment and had to get reacquainted with the country he left behind 3 years ago. The appointment with the consulate was a nerve-racking experience.” If you mess up in the interview, you can lose everything.” my Father says when recounting the experience. My father got approved for his green card and moved back to the United States. Although he much preferred being in Bolivia, he knew he didn’t quite fit in anymore after being in the U.S. for so long.
There and Back Again.
When my father eventually went back to the United States he returned to Maryland. Unfortunately not being financially stable enough to go to college, he began to work to support himself and his family first. During this time he worked a lot of jobs that were under less than ideal circumstances such as staying up all night, but because he had his green card and was a lot more proficient in English he could get jobs that he couldn’t have before. After a time, my father decided to move to Virginia where there were a lot more job opportunities. After working there for a long time, my father was financially stable enough to go to college and it was here where he decided he would get his citizenship.
Naturalization
Thankfully for my father, the naturalization process was not as difficult as it could have been. My father already knew English and had been living in the United States for a considerable amount of time describing the process as fairly easy. After submitting his application he waited a few months and paid the fee. After this, he got interviewed, passed his test, and became a citizen. He had some doubts when getting citizenship because you could not hold dual citizenship In the United States or Bolivia. But once Bolivia passed the law that you could be a dual citizen soon which allowed him to keep his Bolivia identity, he decided to go through the naturalization process.
Contexts of Reception
Throughout this time my father has described multiple times where there were different contexts of reception in his immigration experience. The first was in the city of Hyattsville where there were not many sources for immigrants such as him at the time. The second place was in the school systems, where the school systems didn’t do such a great job of easing the process of my father coming into the school. The third place where he described clearly was in the workplace. When talking about the workplace one could tell that this wasn’t the best or ideal circumstances for a workspace in how they were treated. This included long hours and working unseen jobs.
Conclusion
After reflecting on his experiences my father described that what most immigrants hope to achieve is the American dream. He describes the American dream as “A life, a house, a family, work, and, and with that, will come more happiness” And I believe my father has accomplished just that. He finishes with stating that all immigrants contribute to the country as it is a country built by immigrants. Although the immigrant experience was a bittersweet one,t it has crafted my father into a more understanding and compassionate person who believes that all people should have a second chance at life.
[00:00:00] Daniela: Hi, I’m Daniela Catacora and I’m here today with my dad, Pedro Catacora, who I’ll be interviewing. And first, before we get started, he is going to introduce himself.
[00:00:09] Pedro: Hi, I’m Pedro Catacora, and I am Daniela’s dad.
[00:00:13] Daniela: Okay, so I have a few questions for you today. Where were you originally born and from?
[00:00:21] Pedro: I was born in La Paz, Bolivia.
[00:00:23] Daniela: What was La Paz like growing up?
[00:00:26] Pedro: It was great. When I was a kid, I had A lot of places to go, very different from here. It wasn’t such a trendy city. But growing up I had a couple friends where we had a lot of fun. Going to the woods, going to the mountains. We had a lot of fun. Plus I, I could play soccer every day.
[00:00:49] Daniela: So, so you had a good time there? You liked it there?
[00:00:52] Pedro: I liked it there, yeah. But sometimes it wasn’t really good because there were a lot of military coups [00:01:00] when I was growing up. So that was kind of scary. But besides that, it was fine.
[00:01:05] Daniela: Growing up, did you have any expectations or notions of the United States growing up in Bolivia?
[00:01:13] Pedro: I knew a lot about the United States, but I didn’t have like any notions of coming to live here while I was growing up. That was later on in life when I knew that I was going to come here. But when I was a kid, I had no notion that I was coming here. But I knew a lot of stuff about the USA.
[00:01:30] Daniela: Like what type of things did you hear?
[00:01:33] Pedro: Oh, I used to listen, I used to listen to the, to the music. I used to listen to America’s Top 40 and record it every weekend. And watch MTV. And that’s it.
[00:01:46] Daniela: Okay, so what age, Did you first migrate to the United
[00:01:49] Pedro: States? I came here when I was 16 years old.
[00:01:54] Daniela: Why did your family decide to come to the United States?
[00:01:57] Pedro: I guess my mom decided to come here with [00:02:00] my sister initially for a better opportunity to have a better life.
[00:02:05] Daniela: Did you guys come here all at once or was it something different?
[00:02:10] Pedro: No. We came in And different times. My mom and my sister came first. Then a year later my brother came. Or a couple years later I think that my brother came.
I don’t remember the way it went. And then after a year is when I came. I was the last one to arrive here.
[00:02:35] Daniela: And what year was that?
[00:02:36] Pedro: That was in 1986.
[00:02:40] Daniela: What How did you come come here in a green card? Did you come here to the United States on a visa?
[00:02:45] Pedro: I came with a, initially I came with a student visa. I guess I was lucky to get a visa.
A lot of people don’t get visas easily. But at the time, I was lucky to get a student visa to come here. [00:03:00]
[00:03:00] Daniela: So does the student visa only allow you to come as long as you’re a student?
[00:03:03] Pedro: Yes.
[00:03:04] Daniela: And what were your feelings migrating here to the U. S.? Were you excited, happy, scared?
[00:03:12] Pedro: I had mixed feelings. I was excited because I was going to see my mom and my brother and my sister, but then I was sad because I was going to leave behind a lot of things, like my, my grandparents and my friends and yeah, a lot of different I knew that it was going to be a totally different life experience, so, yeah, I had mixed feelings.
[00:03:36] Daniela: How old were you again at this time?
[00:03:38] Pedro: I was 16.
[00:03:38] Daniela: And when you came to the U. S., where did you first come to? What state? Where
[00:03:43] Pedro: did you first live? Oh, we lived in, I came to live with my mother, my my brother, my sister. We lived in an apartment in Hyattsville, Maryland.
[00:03:53] Daniela: Was it always the plan to go to Maryland?
Or
[00:03:55] Pedro: Well, they were already, they were already in Maryland, so [00:04:00] There was no other place to go, so that was, that was the place I had to go.
[00:04:04] Daniela: Well our grandmother, my grandmother, was it her plan to always come to Maryland or any specific reason?
[00:04:10] Pedro: Yes, she went. It was always the plan, it was always to come to Maryland.
She came to a to a relative’s home initially.
[00:04:20] Daniela: And how was Hyattsville, Maryland? Did the city itself make it easy for immigrants like yourself? Was it welcoming or did it feel kind of different than that?
[00:04:31] Pedro: Well
There were not, there were not that many immigrants back then, so I, I don’t know if I felt welcome or not. It was just another place to be. There wasn’t really any help for immigrants, we just had to go day [00:05:00] by day.
[00:05:02] Daniela: So you said you were 16 at the time, meaning you were in high school. How was American high school life like at the time?
[00:05:12] Pedro: American high school was very different than, than high school in Bolivia. For one, for, for one thing, there was lunch in the school. We didn’t have lunch back home. We had to go have lunch at home. wHen we had lunch here, and I like the, I like the, I like the lunches. I like the way it was organized and initially I, I came into an ESL, uh, class.
ESL classes, not regular English classes, but English for other languages. And I met people from a lot of different places.
[00:05:55] Daniela: So why do you think that group of friends clicked so much, the ESL students? [00:06:00]
[00:06:02] Pedro: Because we were all learning. We were all learning English. We didn’t know
full we didn’t know fluent, we weren’t fluent in English. We used to speak in broken English, I remember. It was broken English. But even then, even with that, we could understand each other. There was no judgment. Because there was a lot, I felt a lot of judgment when I didn’t know how to speak English.
To talk to a Native American, than talk to an immigrant. I was scared to talk to an American because I didn’t know if I was going to make a mistake speaking or not. But with a non Native American, with an ESL student, it was fine that we made mistakes. We still understood each other.
[00:06:52] Daniela: Do you think it was just because you guys all didn’t speak English that well, or you think it was because you all were immigrants that made you close [00:07:00] together?
[00:07:01] Pedro: Both.
[00:07:02] Daniela: Both?
[00:07:02] Pedro: Yeah.
[00:07:03] Daniela: What was the transfer process like from Bolivia to the United States? Were there any problems with that?
[00:07:10] Pedro: Well, yeah, it took a long time for my, for my transcript to get here. It took about, well, five to six months, so. I wasn’t going to school for about six months, five to six months initially.
Which means that I was, I was, I lost time. It was kind of a, I was, it was kind of, it was held back. Because I lost time, so I had to go to, I lost one half of a year, so I had to go to to the next level a year later, so.
[00:07:44] Daniela: So you graduated a year later.
[00:07:46] Pedro: So I graduated a year later.
[00:07:50] Daniela: And was it, or was it not what you expected American High School to be like?
[00:07:56] Pedro: Actually, it was kind of [00:08:00] scary at the beginning. I didn’t know what to expect. It was kind of scary at the beginning because everything was different. You know, I didn’t know anybody there. I had to make new friends from, from the beginning. yEah. Yeah, but it was, it was just like in TV. When I, when I was growing up in Bolivia, I saw American TV or American movies.
The high schools worked just like that. They were very good.
[00:08:37] Daniela: Okay, so as a student did you have to work to support your family while being in high school?
[00:08:43] Pedro: Yeah, we all had to work. All of us had to work to to provide for the family. So I went to school in the morning, during the day, and I worked at night.
[00:08:54] Daniela: What type of job did you work during this time?
[00:08:57] Pedro: Well, I used to work in a restaurant. [00:09:00] I was, I started doing, uh, meal preparations, and then I, and then I was a cook after that.
[00:09:12] Daniela: Where other, People on the job. Latinos like you?
[00:09:16] Pedro: Yes. There were several Latinos on the job like me.
[00:09:21] Daniela: How do you think you were treated by the establishment?
[00:09:26] Pedro: I guess I was, I was, I guess I can say it was good, not excellent, but I was treated fairly. , I didn’t try to speak that much. I just did my job because I, we didn’t have to interact with anybody.
[00:09:43] Daniela: Why do you think so many Latinos usually are the ones to have these kind of unseen jobs?
[00:09:49] Pedro: Well, for one thing, the most important part is the, the language proficiency.
Because the less English you have, the less opportunities you can get.[00:10:00]
[00:10:03] Daniela: So after being in the U. S. for a time, and being in Bolivia for a long time, what are some of the big differences you saw between being in Hyattsville, Maryland, from originally being from La Paz, Bolivia.
[00:10:17] Pedro: Well, one of the
biggest difference is that everything was very organized here. Very neat and organized. Like there’s no, there’s no trash on the streets. There are no stray dogs walking all over the place. All the stores are neat and tidy. There’s no, there wasn’t really like a neighborhood store but we had to go to the mall for everything.
So that, that’s the difference. Or some of the difference.
[00:10:53] Daniela: So after graduating high school, did you remain here in Maryland, or did you want to go back? [00:11:00]
[00:11:01] Pedro: Well, after I graduated high school, I wanted to go back. Because my visa was expiring, so I couldn’t go to college. So, I wanted to go back to Bolivia so I could go to college, and eventually I went back.
But it was totally different. It wasn’t the same as I left.
[00:11:30] Daniela: So you went back for personal
[00:11:33] Pedro: reasons? I went back for personal reasons, and I guess one big reason was that I was going to get my green card. Once I got there, but I didn’t know when, so the plan was just to stay there as long as I can until I get my green card. I didn’t know when I was going to get it.
[00:11:53] Daniela: Was it your whole family that went back or just you?
[00:11:56] Pedro: It was just me initially, just me. [00:12:00] Then afterwards, my mom and my sister came a few months later.
[00:12:05] Daniela: Back to Bolivia.
[00:12:06] Pedro: Back to Bolivia, yeah, to get the green card.
[00:12:09] Daniela: And you mentioned that it, Bolivia felt different when you came back. How did you feel different going back after being in the U. S. for how many years?
[00:12:20] Pedro: Well, three years. It was just three years. You know, I, I, I felt it different because for one thing, I wasn’t in school anymore. I had to try to get, get, get acquainted again with my friends, but, but they were very busy. They were, they were all going to, to college and, and I wasn’t. So on that part, it was, it was, it was, I thought it was different.
[00:12:59] Daniela: So it wasn’t [00:13:00] too easy to stay in touch with your friends while being in the U. S.
[00:13:03] Pedro: It wasn’t easy. I just had a couple of friends that I used to write letters, but that was the only way we could get. In touch to one another, writing, writing letters. But that was it.
[00:13:20] Daniela: So that time being in Bolivia, what, what did you end up doing there? While waiting for your green card?
[00:13:26] Pedro: Well, I, Well, I just got acquainted with my friends again. I just spent time with my friends and my, and my family. My grandmother and my aunt who, who raised me. And I was happy.
[00:13:51] Daniela: So what was the green card process like?
[00:13:55] Pedro: Well, my mom already submitted the papers here when she was here in the United [00:14:00] States. tO get a green card we had to go back to the country of origin. And then had to go to the, to the consulate to get an interview. And see if we were going to get approved or not.
And I was very scared because we didn’t know that it was going to get approved or not until the day of the interview. So, and it took a long time. It took many years. It took three years for the process to be completed. But,
from then to now back then three years felt like a long time, but right now it takes, it can take up to five to ten years now. It’s very different.
[00:14:43] Daniela: To get the green card approved?
[00:14:44] Pedro: To get the green card approved, yeah.
[00:14:49] Daniela: So how long did you end up staying in Bolivia? Three years?
[00:14:54] Pedro: No. No. No, the process was three years. I ended up staying in [00:15:00] La Paz for like four months. That’s all. My plan was to stay there, but I had to come back. Otherwise I was going to lose the green card. So I had to come back with my mom and my sister.
[00:15:15] Daniela: To the United States?
[00:15:16] Pedro: To the United States, yes. I wasn’t very happy. I wanted to stay longer. But I had no choice.
[00:15:26] Daniela: So you went back to Bolivia for your green card, and then you had your interview there.
[00:15:31] Pedro: Yeah.
[00:15:33] Daniela: And you waited for the approval.
[00:15:35] Pedro: No, the approval was done right there. The approval was right after the interview, the same day.
I
[00:15:40] Daniela: thought it, I thought it took three years.
[00:15:43] Pedro: No, the process takes three years, the approval. Once, you wait three years for all the paperwork to, we waited three years for all the paperwork to be done. And then the way it works [00:16:00] is, you submit, it’s like an application, you submit an application for a green card.
Then after that, that, that gets processed. It’s not like they’re going to tell you the day, the day after tomorrow they’re going to tell you, Oh, you’re approved. No, it takes three years for them to, to get an approval for an interview. And after the interview is done, then you get your green card. If you, if you mess up in the interview, you can lose your, you can lose everything.
So it’s very scary.
[00:16:33] Daniela: So you waited the three most of the time in the United States.
[00:16:36] Pedro: Yes.
[00:16:36] Daniela: And then went back for the interview.
[00:16:37] Pedro: Yeah.
[00:16:38] Daniela: I see. So what age did you, you were still, what age did you come back to the United States?
[00:16:43] Pedro: I was 19.
[00:16:44] Daniela: And when you came back, was it just you?
[00:16:47] Pedro: No, it was the three of us. My mother, my sister, and me.
My brother remained here. He couldn’t get a green card. Because he was over the age of 18. So, [00:17:00] he did it differently.
[00:17:02] Daniela: When you came back, did you go back to Maryland?
[00:17:04] Pedro: Yes.
[00:17:05] Daniela: Back to Hyattsville.
[00:17:07] Pedro: Back Htyattsville, yes. Not for very long, but I went, we went back to Hyattsville
[00:17:12] Daniela: because you had already established relationships and stuff there?
[00:17:18] Pedro: Well, we lived there. Not necessarily because, well, we were more used to it, I guess. We lived there.
[00:17:27] Daniela: And what did you do when you came back to the United States?
[00:17:31] Pedro: First I didn’t do anything. Then I wanted to get a job, but it was very difficult to get a job. It was the recession time in the United States. It was hard to get a job. There was no jobs around. It took me, it took me a long time to get a job. It wasn’t so easy. I thought it was going to be easier with the green card, but it wasn’t.
It wasn’t easy. I was [00:18:00] still, regardless if I had the green card or not, I was still an immigrant here. That’s how I felt back then. I’m always going to be an immigrant, right?
[00:18:15] Daniela: So, if you’re comfortable with sharing,
was there any time you were here illegally in the United States after this time?
[00:18:28] Pedro: Well, not really. Because I was, I was the lucky one to get a, a student visa. So I wasn’t illegal here. Actually, I, I wasn’t, I wasn’t supposed to work. But I worked anyway.
[00:18:43] Daniela: On a student visa?
[00:18:44] Pedro: On a student visa, yeah.
[00:18:45] Daniela: What
about when you were here on the green card?
[00:18:47] Pedro: Oh, the green card you can work. You were legal already.
[00:18:50] Daniela: With the green card, was there a specific amount of time that you had to or not stay here?
[00:18:55] Pedro: No. Once you get the green card, that’s it. You’re able to [00:19:00] work and do everything here.
[00:19:01] Daniela: Being on the green card did you feel like any other citizen on the street here in the U. S.? Or did you feel outta place?
[00:19:12] Pedro: It was still the same. I mean, I didn’t feel like a citizen. I was not a citizen. I was still an immigrant. I was still learning. I, I don’t think my English was, was, was, my English was better, but not the best. And I had a lot to learn yet about the country.
[00:19:33] Daniela: What year did you come back on the green card?
[00:19:35] Pedro: I came back in 1989.
[00:19:39] Daniela: You said you came back with your green card in 1990, 1989.
[00:19:43] Pedro: Yes.
[00:19:44] Daniela: And you worked here. What jobs did you have while you were?
[00:19:50] Pedro: Well, at that time, I couldn’t get a better job, so I actually was, I actually went back to the restaurant for a little bit, and then I got a job [00:20:00] working in a front desk.
In the same building, in the same condominium that I lived in, they needed a front desk person I needed enough English to get by, so I started working there. It was hard at the beginning because it was from 11 at night to 7 in the morning every day. It was tough to, to be awake the whole night, but I had no choice.
[00:20:28] Daniela: Because you had to support yourself and your family?
[00:20:30] Pedro: Yeah. Yeah. We had to. There’s no There was no other way. I had to support myself and my family.
[00:20:40] Daniela: How long did you work at that front desk job?
[00:20:42] Pedro: For about a year. Not much.
[00:20:47] Daniela: And then?
[00:20:48] Pedro: Then we moved to Virginia.
[00:20:50] Daniela: What year did you move to Virginia?
[00:20:52] Pedro: 1990.
[00:20:53] Daniela: And you had to find a new job?
[00:20:57] Pedro: I had to find a new job, yeah. I [00:21:00] got a good job actually in Virginia. There was more opportunity in Virginia than in Maryland. I found a job in a hotel. I was working as an operator. As a telephone operator. It was called PBX. PBX Operator. For Marriott Corporation. So, that was fun. I used to get free dinner.
[00:21:23] Daniela: By the Marriott.
[00:21:24] Pedro: Yeah, you can get If you worked the whole night, because sometimes I had to work the whole night, then when you worked the whole night, you were you were able to get anything you wanted from the, from the room service menu. So, I always got a lot of good stuff like shrimp and steak.
It was good.
[00:21:48] Daniela: Why do you think it was easier to find jobs here in Virginia?
[00:21:52] Pedro: There was more opportunity. I don’t know why, but there was There was more opportunity here in Virginia.
[00:21:56] Daniela: So after the Marriott, did you find another [00:22:00] job?
[00:22:00] Pedro: After the Marriott, I I went to work at a drugstore. It used to be, it used to be called People’s Drugstore.
What’s now CVS. I worked in a store. I was doing everything in the store. Being a cashier and being a stock clerk. Yeah. General stuff. Yeah, I worked at the store. I liked it. It didn’t pay that well, but I liked it.
[00:22:31] Daniela: But you had to do it.
[00:22:32] Pedro: I had to do it, yeah. There’s no way, there’s no other way. I had to get a job.
There was no way I couldn’t get a job because I had to support myself.
[00:22:39] Daniela: And then?
[00:22:40] Pedro: Then after the store, I got a, I got a job as a delivery driver in, in a, in a pharmacy in D. C. That paid a lot better. And I worked there for many years, I, I started working there and then I was, I went to, [00:23:00] to school. Then I started going to college at the same time and yeah, it was, it was nice.
[00:23:10] Daniela: Did you decide to go back to college for personal reasons because you were financially stable enough?
[00:23:15] Pedro: Well, really, I, I, because we, I had a green card. I got the opportunity to go there. I could get financial aid with the green card. Without the green card you couldn’t get anything. You couldn’t go into school back then.
So, because of the green card I had a lot of opportunities. I was able to go to, to college.
[00:23:40] Daniela: Was it any harder or was it still, or was it pretty simple?
[00:23:44] Pedro: College?
[00:23:44] Daniela: Yeah.
[00:23:45] Pedro: No, college was hard.
[00:23:46] Daniela: Well, on a green card.
[00:23:49] Pedro: No, it’s the same thing.
[00:23:51] Daniela: The same thing?
[00:23:51] Pedro: The same thing, yeah. There’s no difference. It was harder for me because I had to learn different stuff.
In college. College is a lot [00:24:00] harder than high school, so. But, having the green card is the same thing as being a citizen. There’s no really restrictions. Or differences.
[00:24:14] Daniela: Okay, so What year, so did you ever want to get your citizenship?
[00:24:21] Pedro: I, I could get a citizenship five years after I got the green card, but I waited.
I waited about 15 years to get the citizenship.
[00:24:36] Daniela: So by that time you were
[00:24:37] Pedro: I was still a green card holder. As long as you live here, you’re always a green card holder. Oh. And you can, I could get my citizenship five years later, but I didn’t. I waited until I was 15 years, 15, 15 years later. My idea was that I was going to be [00:25:00] an American one more day after half of my life.
So I became a citizen one more day after half of my life here. So in other words. The day that I spend more, most of my life in the United States than in Bolivia, then I was going to become a citizen. So, in other words, I spent, I came here when I was 16, I waited 16 more years to get a citizenship. And I became a citizen when I was 16 years after.
I think when I was 35.
[00:25:35] Daniela: and what year was that?
[00:25:37] Pedro: Nineteen, no, 35 it was 2005.
[00:25:42] Daniela: dId you have any doubts about getting your citizenship?
[00:25:46] Pedro: I knew the language a lot better. I had no problems with, with understanding the, the citizenship process and all that. It was, [00:26:00] it was not difficult to become a citizen. I only had to know the, the citizenship questions and then go to an interview.
That’s it. And then if you pass the questions, then you are a citizen. One thing that I also waited was to have dual citizenship. Bolivia has dual citizenship. The United States doesn’t have dual citizenship, but Bolivia has dual citizenship. So I can, I can have a Bolivian passport in Bolivia, but I cannot be Bolivian while in the United States.
I’m always, I can just be an American citizen here.
[00:26:38] Daniela: So the U. S. doesn’t recognize dual nationality?
[00:26:42] Pedro: No, the U. S. doesn’t have dual nationality, no.
[00:26:46] Daniela: So that was a doubt you had before?
[00:26:49] Pedro: Yeah, it was one of the reasons I waited too, because I wanted to have dual, dual citizenship. So, around the time that I was becoming a citizen, they passed a law [00:27:00] back in Bolivia to have dual citizenship.
Because it wasn’t that way, it was the way until I became a citizen. So it coincided, coincided with the time.
[00:27:12] Daniela: So when did you first apply to become a citizenship?
[00:27:15] Pedro: 2005.
[00:27:16] Daniela: And how long until you actually got citizenship?
[00:27:19] Pedro: Oh, it took about nine, nine months to a year. It wasn’t a, I had to wait about nine months to a year to get a citizenship.
[00:27:29] Daniela: And what were some of the steps that you had to go through to get your citizenship?
[00:27:33] Pedro: If I remember correctly, you have to, you have to fill out an application, application for citizenship, and then pay the fee. I forgot how much is the fee. Every year is different, so it wasn’t like cheap, it wasn’t too expensive, but it was some, it was a good amount of money to get the paperwork.
So you get the paperwork You gotta have proof that you’re [00:28:00] here five years after you get your green card. So I had enough time, I had 15 years, or 16 years. And just to make the process, it wasn’t really, it wasn’t hard. I didn’t have to do it with an attorney or anything, I just did it by myself. I just filled out the application and I sent it in and then I got to an interview and I became a citizen.
[00:28:29] Daniela: So you became a citizen when you were 35?
[00:28:31] Pedro: Yes.
[00:28:33] Daniela: When you became a citizen, did you feel any less Bolivian, any more American?
[00:28:39] Pedro: Well, the irony was that I was here for a long time already, so I felt, I felt more American than Bolivian. Because I was here already, more than half of my life, so. I didn’t know, I don’t think I could do [00:29:00] well in Bolivia again. I felt more American than Bolivian.
[00:29:07] Daniela: And you said that you were here in Virginia? Was that any more welcoming than Hyattsville
[00:29:15] Pedro: it was about the same. I learned, well, the thing is that The more, the more, the better English you know, the best opportunities that you’ll understand. So, so I was more welcoming in, in the jobs than, than before. Because I knew better English then.
[00:29:46] Daniela: Than in Hyattsville.
[00:29:47] Pedro: Than Hyattsville, yeah.
[00:29:49] Daniela: Was there a larger community of immigrants here in Virginia?
[00:29:51] Pedro: Yeah, there was a bigger community. There was like a big Bolivian community here. bUt I wasn’t really involved that much in the, in the Bolivian [00:30:00] community or the Latin community.
I didn’t get really involved with them. Just sometimes, but not all the time.
[00:30:08] Daniela: Since going through the immigration process yourself, what are your current views on immigration policies and other migrants who are going through this process themselves?
[00:30:21] Pedro: Well, immigrants contribute to the country just as good as any other person, any other citizen. So I think that there should be laws to ease the process of becoming a legal immigrant, just because they’re, one, because they, they contribute to the country, and two, because they’re also human beings that, that deserve a second chance.
So, those are my views. [00:31:00] The most important is that they contribute. They don’t, many immigrants, they don’t come here to beg for money. They come here to work and they don’t, and they’re hard workers, and they do hard labor. They do hard labor. They do jobs that other people don’t want to do. Immigrants do.
And that is the truth. And There should be an opportunity just as good for them to anybody else. tHey all should be able to have the opportunity to, to receive a green card. Because they contribute. to the country just as good.
[00:31:43] Daniela: Okay, and what do you think of the term illegal immigrant?
[00:31:49] Pedro: That’s a, that’s a hard word. Illegal immigrant? That’s a tough one. Because illegal immigrant, illegal means that you’re breaking the law. [00:32:00] That’s what it means, illegal. So people, illegal, unfortunately, illegal people are breaking the law.
But how can you become a, how can you become a legal immigrant without being an illegal immigrant? You have to be in the country to be, to start the process, so it’s kind of an irony. Being a human is not illegal. The problem is that to be a citizen of another country, you have to go through an immigration process.
It is not, it’s not human to say somebody that is illegal. There should be another word for that. It should, it should, it should be just called immigrants. It should just be called immigrants. Not illegal immigrants.
[00:32:56] Daniela: I know some people prefer undocumented rather than illegal.
[00:32:59] Pedro: [00:33:00] Undocumented, yeah. But at the end of the day it will be the same thing though.
Undocumented means that they don’t have papers, right? Illegal means that they’re not legal. So it’s about the same thing. The word doesn’t change anything.
The word immigrant is better, yeah. An immigrant. Rather than saying illegal immigrants.
[00:33:31] Daniela: Is there anything you wish that people knew about being an immigrant or about migrants?
[00:33:38] Pedro: Well,
Most of the people that come here come for a better life. There are different reasons that people come to the United States. Some people come because of violence. Some people come because of, of poverty. [00:34:00] Some other people just because they want to come. But, in general, they all want the same opportunity.
They wanna, they want to have a shot at the American dream. To be able to have A life, a house, a family work, and, and with that, will come more happiness.
[00:34:23] Daniela: How has this whole process of being an immigrant, everything you just talked about, shaped you as a person do you feel?
[00:34:30] Pedro: I’m always going to be a Bolivian.
I cannot deny my roots. I came here as an immigrant. But being an immigrant here. It made me realize that life is not easy. Life is not easy for, for immigrants. You have to go. It’s a hard, it’s a hard life. It’s a, sometimes it’s bitter. It’s bittersweet. Because there is discrimination. [00:35:00] I feel that there is still discrimination.
You’re dis-, you’re discriminated because you don’t know the language. And that’s one of the reasons that, made a difference in my life. Learning the language was very important. I grew up here. I became a, I became an adult here. So I guess I became a, a good person. I always followed the laws. I was never in legal trouble.
I, I went to get good jobs and, and be immersed in the society. I became another American throughout this time.
It’s a good experience.
But I’m always going to consider myself an immigrant.[00:36:00]
[00:36:00] Daniela: Okay, well that’s all the questions I have for today. Anything else you want to add?
[00:36:06] Pedro: No, it was a very good interview.
[00:36:08] Daniela: Thank you. Okay, well thank you for talking with me today.
[00:36:13] Pedro: Okay.
[00:36:14] Daniela: Hope you had a good time.
[00:36:15] Pedro: Yeah, I did. Thank you very much for the interview.
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