Tori Wallace
Hist 150-0002
Due: March 25, 2016
Path of Immigration from Panama
- Citation Information
- Elba Cassort Interview, History 150 Spring 2016, Conducted by Tori Wallace, Path of Immigration from Panama, March 12, 2016.
- Transcription
- This interview was conducted in person. I used my phone’s voice memo feature to record our interview. I did not edit the recording at all. There is a moment in the recording where their dog started barking in the background, but I had lots of trouble trying to editing out the barking. This was because she continued to speak as the dog barked, so if I had continued I would be interrupting out interview. I then saved the recording on my phone and uploaded it to my computer and later to the website as a MP3.
- Elba Cassort lived in Chiriqui, Panama for around 20 years before coming to the States. She immigrated to the United States and started living in Georgia. She finished college in Panama before moving. She lived in the city for a couple years where she met her husband. In 1992, they got married and lived on base in Panama. They then moved to Georgia, back to Panama, to Alabama, to Texas, to New Jersey, to Germany, to Hawaii, and finally Maryland. She became a dental assistant and worked on the different bases. The military then helped paid off her student loans while working for the military. Her husband is now retired from active duty, but they both work continue to work on the Fort Meade base in Columbia, Maryland.
- In late 1992, accusations were made against government officials stating that they were part of a drug related problem. It was also when a liberal group formed to start to take out the ruling political party that would take over in 1994. The ruling government at the time was in a very rocky situation and most of Panama didn’t want the people in power, to stay in power. For Ms. Cassort, she had recently been just married and was living on the military base in Panama with her husband. They lived on base, during the time several large earthquakes hit the country. Their base was also located near the canal. The area is also known for being very rich and developed as well. Due to marrying an American citizen, Ms. Cassort said the process of immigrating was easier for her than most.
- Interviewed Transcribed Time: 15 minutes, 7 seconds (2932 words)
TW: Ok, this is Tori Wallace interviewing Elba Cassort. Do you consent to the interview?
Elba Cassort: Yes, I do.
TW: Can you describe the process of immigrating from Panama to the United States? Oh ya, it [voice memo] has started.
Elba Cassort: Wait, so what was the question again?
TW: Can you describe the process of immigrating from Panama to the United States?
Elba Cassort: The process?
TW: Ya.
Elba Cassort: Well, it was very hard in the way that I came to a country which is more liberal than Panama, more conservative first of all. The culture is totally different. Um, facing the barrier of language, ok, um and everything for me was kind of new here.
TW: What was it like adjusting to a new language completely?
Elba Cassort: I’m still adjusting; it takes me, um I think that never goes away. It is because you were born and raised in the country so that’s why it never goes away. You will always [have] your root back in your country, born and raised, um so its been hard.
TW: Ok, what areas of your life have become easier or more difficult after moving?
Elba Cassort: I think easier in the way because that you adjust yourself to the language or the country you are in and because I [didn’t] leave behind that culture and myself and my traditions and my values, so that will stick with me forever. I will pass away no matter where I am.
TW: What types of traditions did you bring along with you?
Elba Cassort: Everything, well were talking everything. Food, to start off with, the seasoning, the food and seasoning that I use in my country. Every year, twice or once a year I try to bring back with me that I know I can only find in Panama, so I brought it with me. And that is the seasoning I use for food, um, I have a little souvenir from my country too. I brought with me Pollera dress, which is part of my culture too. I raised my kid in the same way how I was raised. Pretty much the same, with the different scenario, which is the United States. Different language, but I was tried to teach them my language, as well. So, um, what else I got, um.
TW: What about the New Year’s traditions?
Elba Cassort: The New Year’s traditions, so um, I have these New Year’s traditions ok. So in Panama we, um, we celebrate on the 31st. So we have a lot of traditions, a lot of traditions, like it starts right as it turns 12 o’clock, we have everybody was, the mom and the family gather together, and they do the tamales, the typical tamales, could be frijoles y arroz, which is rice and beans. Typical beans that we use [black] and we do pollo y arroz, which is chicken and rice. Um, and then salad, and then 12 o’clock comes in and then we have the luggage ready. So we go around the house 12 times, uh, if the house is an apartment, it has the stairs, so you go up and down, or as much as you can, uh, as soon as it’s 12 o’clock it start. And then you have your lentils with your rice ready. You then have your 12 grapes, which represents every month of the year that you are facing. So that would be the 12 months. Um, you do, what else do you do? You sweep the house, you take the bad energy, or all energy that was for the whole year taken out of the main door. So you do that too as well. Um, so also in my country they do orange, and you eat the orange and you count the seeds in the orange or the seeds of the grapes. So you keep them [the seeds] with you or in your wallet for luck, that’s for good luck. The number that you count, that will be the number that you play in the lotto and in my country on Saturdays, oh I mean on Sundays and Wednesdays, you play the lotto, and that is the number, the lucky number you play for that day. And then everybody, you know waiting for the 12 o’clock eat and then you eat your dinner at that time.
TW: Uh, before leaving Panama, what was your life like?
Elba Cassort: Ok, so before Panama, I moved to the city and started in college. And it was like me living in the city, in an apartment and I was living by myself. Um in the beginning, I started living like everybody else, living with my family, living with my aunt, and then with my sister when she got married, and then a few months later, I decided I wanted to live by myself, so I bought my own apartment and with my car, and I use to have two jobs and um, that’s what I did in the city. Then I met my husband and moved to then that’s when I moved to the United States.
TW: What did you know about the states before moving here?
Elba Cassort: Well, we only, we know, we have bases [American Military Bases] in Panama until 1999, so from what I know and heard came from there about the United States, but it was not my dream to come to the United States. I never thought that in my life. Uh, we have the same value as the money, so it’s is less immigration from Panama to the United States, so we don’t have that, we have the big something, the canal, so the people in Panama, don’t come here [America] because they will have a better life here, no. I think in Panama, they have everything that they need, and of course the money that you make here, in the United States, is different then what you make in Panama, but the University is pretty much free, and you don’t have to pay a lot of money for that, so my dream was not coming to the United States. So, other than coming just for a trip, I would of stayed in Panama, but not come and live in the United States. That was not my dream.
TW: Can you describes examples of adopting to new American cultures?
Elba Cassort: Example. Adopting.
TW: Anything that you changed or anything you appreciate here more than in Panama?
Elba Cassort: Well adopting, I will adopt Thanksgiving. For example, we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in Panama. So, that was one of the things I adopted to do, because I have two kids and I tried thanksgiving, because everybody comes during November, so I have to come and follow the traditions that we have here. I have to follow the fourth of July, because that is the country that I accepted as a country. And I became a US Citizen, so I feel like one or more American without leaving my culture behind too. That’s pretty much what I have adopted from. And the good things about the US is that it is a rich country and we can learn from, but I miss my country. My native country, I really miss it.
TW: You work as a dental hygienist or assistant?
Elba Cassort: Dental Assistant.
TW: Do people or have you ever experienced a time where people won’t take you so seriously because of your accent?
Elba Cassort: [Not clear] Good talking about that, there is many things. I have many bad experiences, so many bad experiences about that. Some people, they don’t have the syntax to say things. And it hurt a lot when you, its not your primary language and the people no try to understand. It has been hard. I have travel a lot and my first experience in the United State I had a job in JC Penny’s in Georgia and um, a women, and a women over there taught me that she don’t understand, because my accent. So it’s not the first time, it happens many many many times. Then there are patients who act like they don’t understand me and some can be very rude, while others can act like they love the accent and you know, I just try dealing with it. I have to learn how to deal with it. So that’s what I do, I just try to smile and just try to not let it affect me, but it does. At the end it does, because it affects how other people are approaching you without seeing how your heart is or actually sometime you put more effort into everything you do, because that’s just the power you have to use [loud dog barking from other side of the door, followed by laughter].
TW: So would you say because of your accent was it more like difficult to gain a job? Because people…
Elba Cassort: No not really to get the job. Actually I was really lucky, very blessed about that because I, I the way how I am, is I am looking forward. I don’t care about who tries to hurt me in the back. It just, my thing is everything in life you can do it. It does not matter which language you do it, it doesn’t matter. It is the power that you have, it is more courage that you have. You have to keep moving and that is my thing. So it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t stop me to work. I get a job easy and I am very friendly and that is what I think I have with me. That is my key.
TW: And, um, I should of ask this is the beginning. When did you come to the States?
Elba Cassort: Well we came over in 1993. Around 1993 to 1994 yes.
TW: Ok and where did you travel through?
Elba Cassort: Ok, so we um. So we married in 1992 and then we married in Panama and we had two wedding. We married for the civil first, because in Panama you have to marry for the civils and then you marry for the church. Then, um, then we lived in Panama on the base, because my husband was former military. We then lived on base in the canal [unclear] and then we moved back to, uh, to Georgia, yes to Georgia. To Georgia we had our first child and then we went back to Panama again for the second tour. And from Panama, we lived twice in Panama. From Panama we moved back to Alabama for a couple of months and my husband was in school. And then we went back to Texas we bought a house in Texas and we lived there for about two years and a half. And from Texas we went to New Jersey. And from New Jersey we stayed three years there and then from New Jersey we went to Germany. And from Germany we went to Hawaii, from Hawaii we came to Maryland.
TW: Ok
Elba Cassort: And from there we went to Maryland.
TW: Um, have you ever had any experiences from across the States, or even across the countries to Germany has anything changed from there? Have you seen anything change?
Elba Cassort: No, well change in what? In more like life or in culture?
TW: Kind of both.
Elba Cassort: Well I think I am very, very lucky to see, coming from a third world country, which is Panama, to going back to a main power country, which is the US and then going to Europe and living in Germany too. Which is the German culture, it kind of looks like my own culture.
TW: Oh, really?
Elba Cassort: Yes, um, not in here, well in the United States, everything has to be big. The cars, the parking spaces, the house. It all has to be big, so what other thing you can see in Europe, is the people in Europe don’t have huge parking lots or huge cars. You barely see a van in Germany, what you see, the people they have modern houses to live. Sometime they live in a small apartment, they have everything, like very type of IKEA furniture. So they no like us. They don’t have to have the two living room. They don’t have to have, you know? That’s how an American lives and in Germany, it is more like what we have in Panama.
TW: Ok, Ok.
Elba Cassort: Because in Panama, the people live day by day with what they have. They don’t have a huge freezer, like back in the stores, where they hold all the meat for the whole year. You don’t live like that. That teaches us, that we don’t have the value of how we live, like how the other cultures live. So, I think I am more, um, more close to the European culture, then American culture in that way.
TW: And then lastly, do you um, I’m guessing it is very important to bring Allie and Maria back down to Panama and really explore all that?
Elba Cassort: Yes, I try to tell myself, well first of all, I wanted them to know the language, because my parents don’t know how to speak English. So I need them, that was my main concern that I have with them, for the both of my kids, I wanted to make sure that they, that my kids, were able to speak both language and the same time, which I accomplished that. And what I did is, when they were little enough, what I did was, I went to a psychologist friend of mine and she explained to me what I had to do in order to have my kids to speak both languages. So they taught me how to tell my husband to speak with them in English so since that is his native language. And for me, I would speak Spanish, since that is my native language so that is how I did it for them. And it was important to bring them back every year, because I wanted them to get into contact with the culture and with my family as well, so they can see also what we have there that we are miss there that we have here. So they are able to see both sides. There are very, more inclined back to the culture, so that’s why I did it.
TW: Would you say that you are happy living here or do you wish you would of stayed in Panama?
Elba Cassort: Well, that’s a tough question. I would like to go back to my country, because it is like, like here you don’t have a life. Everything is so busy, everything is so, so people over there is like, you have a job, you have job, you get paid, you pay your stuff. You can eat today, maybe you can eat later, maybe you don’t have food for tomorrow. However, you’re still living. Here there is nothing. Not like Panama. So back in the day, im talking about back in the day, Panama has grown so much since then, a lot actually. But, um, ya I would like to go back to my culture. And I miss it a lot too.
TW: Well that’s it.
Elba Cassort: Thank you.