Interviewing Process:
While interviewing Luiza the process was efficient. I recorded The conversation we had on the phone with another phone, uploaded it to my laptop as a movie file, converted it to an audio file where I then could upload it to this site. She answered every question very thoroughly and in-depth and exceeded my expectations for our conversation. She was very willing to work with me as I had forgotten to record the first couple questions and she had to re-answer them.
Biography
I am interviewing my nanny of three years, Luiza Aparecida Rodrigues. Luiza lived in Jacarei, Brazil with her parents, three brothers, and two sisters before moving to America. Luiza started working at the age of fourteen, and started working full-time all throughout high school, which she attended at night. She went through primary school and college and was working at a Bank, specializing in Loans and mortgage management. She did not plan on staying in Brazil, after learning English she had planned on returning to Brazil and use her bilingual to help her expand in her finance job. After a year she knew loved it too much to leave because she had made so many great connections and been presented with many opportunities. She was able to get a job nannying and continued her school work so she could continue having work or school visas. She then went on to marry an American Citizen so could retrieve her green card. She is now months away from taking her naturalization test to become a citizen! She is a very kind, open, and talkative person with a very bright and optimistic view on the world.
Research
I specifically researched things that would help me understand her mindset as she was moving since she was trying to find a better and more opportunistic place to live. My main focus was on differences in school and the workforce in Brazil than in America. Much of the information found resulted in the idea that the information presented on education seems to tie directly to wealth and class status due to unequal job opportunities. This research has lead me to uncover a very corrupt view of Brazil, which Luiza agreed with and we did touch on. There is also a statistic of 1/3 Brazilians in New York plan on returning home while 5% are undecided. I will use these statistics and compare them to Luizas reasoning on immigrating and her plan on either staying in the US or eventually returning to Brazil. Returning to Brazil was Luiza’s original plan, which informs me that Luiza did almost fit into a common concept of Brazilians.
Interview Transcription
…
M: What made you want to come to America and what were your expectations?
L: … America they always, than third world countries, they always say there’s better opportunities there and uh I don’t know theres always something missing in Brazil so I wanted to experience living abroad and doing something different. My siblings, I think at the time too, no, they all lived abroad too and they had experienced much more than I had.
M: So all the expectations you had they were all pretty much lived up too?
L: Yes, yeah, I think so. In America, security is something very very important for me, and in Brazil we don’t have security at all. It’s so unsafe and since I’m a little girl, oh my gosh the United States you can leave your bike outside of the house and no one will steal it, if you leave a parachute in a tree no one will steal it, and it’s true at least where I lived it’s pretty safe. You can walk anytime of the day anywhere, uh, You feel like you have more freedom, too. People are more respected as well and in Brazil there is a lot of discrimination, not really towards race but towards, uh, people with low income or more income. There’s always a separation, a line separating rich and poor and over here I feel like people, I think people come to the United States you can get whatever you want if you work hard, you know, if you work hard and go to school and be open-minded about things.
M: Okay the next question is did you come to America knowing where you were going to live and what you were going to do and what was the process figuring that all out?
L: I knew where I was going to live because I already had family that I was going to work for and go to school to learn English and that was set, right?
But you know when I came my goal was to learn English and stay for one or two years and then go back to Brazil, I didn’t know I would end up here. So, the plan came, I think, came after a couple of months, eh, actually I think after the first year when I realized okay, I’m not going home anymore. So and also because of your parents. Your parents, you guys are a very important part of my decision too because I have the support, you know, that your family gave to me maybe I wouldn’t of stayed here. Having a family and people that cared about me, it was a very crucial part of my process to stay in the country.
M: When you were originally planning on going back to Brazil, what were you planning on doing once you got back and had learned English?
L: To go back to finance, I used to work at a bank.
M: What specifically did you used to do at the bank?
L: I used to help with mortgage and help people get loans. I used to work for a bank in Brazil that was a loan company and oh, yeah it was nice.
M: Did you already have a visa or how long was the process to get one and what did you have to go through?
L: Right now I have a green card and I just applied for my citizenship and I’m going to become a citizen very soon.
M: Oh wow!
L: Yeah! I apply in October now, I’m just waiting for immigration to call me so I can go through the whole process.
M: When do you find out when you take the test?
L:I called today, they said they don’t know yet but it’s going to be soon. The lady said it’ll be before the end of the year but I have the green card so it doesn’t really matter, you know. But I’ve been in this country now for 14 years, I really wanna become a Citizen because I’m going to stay here. But the process for the visa was I came here with a J one visa, and from the J one visa I changed to a work visa, and uh, because I left the program for the nannying thing I was working, I changed to a student visa. I had to go to school the whole time I was here. So then your parents helped me and were my sponsors, my father was my sponsor a couple times but then because they need a certain amount of money to prove that I’m here but I am not working. But I still had to work to be able to pay for school, otherwise I couldn’t afford to be here. So then for about eight years I had a student visa S one, and then I got married with an American citizen and he was my husband for five years, and then I got a green card from him and then I applied for citizenship last october 2018.
M: Next is what habits or traditions have you brought from Brazil to America?
L: Traditions I think the food. I always cook a lot of Brazilian food, it’s one thing that I think is, even though I’m going to be living here for the rest of my life I think of the tradition of Brazilian food and the culture. And also my friends when they come over they love it. I cook some Brazilian food, oh and also Brazilian people and American people are similar in a lot of things but there are a lot of things that we’re different too, you know. You know mostly positive, it’s not negative, just a different culture. So I think maybe I learned more from the American cultures than Brazilian cultures, too. I was young, I was very young leaving there and and when I moved here I already had a job and had to go to school, but I was very young when I moved, so life was very shallow, you know. Your friends after your twenties, it’s a big change on how we see things and how we perceive things.
M: After you moved here and really started loving it, did you ever try to convince your family to move out here?
L: No, I had a brother who lived in California for a year after he finished [indistinguishable] in Brazil. And he even had a job offer at the farm he was doing the internship, but he didn’t want to live here. My parents, even when my mom comes, my mom has came a couple times but my dad hasn’t come yet but he’s coming in July, my mom has been here a couple times, you’ve met her right?
M: Right!
L: And they like life there, you know. Life for them there is pretty calm and they’re both retired and they have their house they have grandchildren. It’s very hard for my parents to live elsewhere, and my siblings are doing very well, you know. Everybody tries to have a good life and they are happy, they’re happy there.
M: Did your siblings go through school and college too?
L: Everybody. All my siblings went to college. Five of my siblings, just one didn’t go to grad school, but he’s a lawyer so he didn’t have to go to grad school. My parents always made sure college was a main thing for everybodies education. It was very important, my mom would help us with homework every day to make sure we had good grades. I didn’t have very many good grades, it was hard. She was very pushy and would help with everything. Give me a tutor, like whatever, there’s always help there. And then after I got the job I felt like she didn’t have much control about my grades and everything else so it’s declined a lot… So there’s five of them (her siblings), one is a lawyer, the other one is a teacher and a pharmacist, the other one is a food engineer, the other one is a grownamist, and other one is a psychiatrist.
M: Oh my gosh, those are all really incredible jobs.
L: I know we’re all so different
[…]
M: Are there any differences or similarities between women finding jobs in the US than in Brazil?
L: No, I think it’s pretty similar. Like there are a lot of websites in Brazil to go to that’ll help you find a job and a lot of help centers. We go through the same process, you know, first you got to call and then schedule an interview. So I think the process is pretty much the same, you know, I had a couple jobs in Brazil so I didn’t feel any difference at all, from what I remember, about how to get a job there versus how to get a job here. But it’s pretty similar. One thing for Brazil though, is who you know matters a lot, right? In any job if you know somebody, oh then you might be able to get the job. But here they don’t have that, at least I’ve never felt that way. But in Brazil, it’s open and clear. You can be the best for the position but if somebody else applying for the position knows somebody in the agency for the job, then that person is going to get the job.
M: Would you say it’s more corrupt?
L: Completely, completely, very corrupt.
M: Okay, so now what was your initial impression or treatment towards Americans or them towards you?
[…]
L: Okay yeah, I was treated very well. Many people were very respectful, they welcomed me, I never felt discriminated against, you know. Like Latino people feel discriminated but I never felt discriminated. And in Virginia and DC I think there’s a mix of races but it’s pretty white, but I never felt any types of ways. I always felt happy and relaxed and welcomed in any situation that I was in.
M: Did you feel a lot more comfortable or happy in Miami than in Virginia? (Where she lives now)
L: No, I don’t. I don’t because there’s so many classes here so the problem with Miami people, they’re not bad people, just more relaxed in doing things… especially when it comes to work, they’re not very work oriented. So I like it here because of the weather but [indistinguishable, Virginia people are better!]
M: Well, that’s understandable.
L: But it feels like home, if feels more like home here and in 14 years I became very Americanized too, right?
M: Yeah, when you go back to Brazil is it weird?
L: Yes, very weird, very very weird. When I go home it feels like, oh my gosh I get to go home, but I have two homes, right? I feel completely out of place. So I felt weird because in Brazil people are always talking, you’re always around friends all the time. Because I spend a lot of time on my own here, I became more quiet than what I used to be. When there’s always people in your house I’m like oh my god give me a break!
M: Yeah we’re more quiet.
L: And all the time they want to do something.
M: We’re lazy!
L: No, we’re not lazy. They just like to party and be out all the time too much.
M: Ohh okay. The next question is so what was the difference like between going to school in Brazil versus America, at least like the application process and stuff?
L: It was different in the sense because we’re in a different country, I had to pass a bunch of tests and take the stucco test. It’s for the college or university, to say that you know the language so that I could take the classes. And a difference too about the college in Brazil that in America is that in Brazil as soon as you finish high school you like, for example, if you went to high school you don’t take the pre credits that you do here. Like if you go to law school you have to go to college first for a couple years and then you go to law school. In Brazil, if you want to be a doctor you go directly to medical school, if you want to be a lawyer you go directly to law school. So the time is less in Brazil, high school is only three years and I was able to graduate so young. So that’s the difference and you know I think for me because of the language issue…
M: How long do you think it took you to get the language down?
L: No, I’m still getting it down [laughter] but probably a full year for me to feel more comfortable with the language … it was pretty easy to me because we have the same alphabet, so I think it was one of the most easy languages to learn for me because of Portuguese being so similar because of the alphabet.
M: And that was my last question, thank you!
“Brazil: Five Centuries of Change.” Brazil Five Centuries of Change, library.brown.edu/create/fivecenturiesofchange/chapters/chapter-9/brazilians-in-the-u-s/.
Sposito, et al. “The Research on Young People in Brazil: Setting New Challenges from Quantitative Data.” Educação e Pesquisa, Faculdade De Educação Da Universidade De São Paulo, www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S1517-97022017005016101&script=sci_arttext&tlng=en (Links to an external site.).
“U.S Visa Law and Policy.” U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of State, travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0.html.