I came to America when I was a teenager and did not know any English. I felt strange and anxious at school and tried to fit in the new environment. The school system was totally different compared to where I came from. I did not know what to do but did not know how to get help. Every day in class, I was doing the math and only math.…
My Family immigrated to the United States when I was just two years old. Growing up in an unknown place surrounded by a foreign language was difficult to say the least, if not for me then for my hardworking parents. This may have not been the most convenient of circumstances being raised in total isolation with no family, but it transformed me into the woman I am today. From this I have been able to appreciate my surroundings more, knowing the things people take for granted in the United States are privileges in other countries. Drivers complain about potholes in the roads, where i think of them as lucky to even have roads.…
My parents came to America through school because where there from colleges are not so great. My parents are from a small place in Africa called Rwanda, it’s a pretty small country and not a lot of people know about it. Well my parents didn’t know each other back in Rwanda but met in America. They came here because they were given the option to come to America paid by the government to take studies and come back. My parents obviously didn’t do that but they got that privilege because they did good in school and over there school shapes your life more than it does here.…
Everyone is unique in a different way and being different is such a beautiful thing. I was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco Mexico. I have worked as hard as I can to successed and chase my dreams here in America. As time has passed, I have discovered what I love and what I want to do in life. All I need is encoragement and support; I know I could make it.…
I was born in the capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, the place where all my best memories live. My mother gave birth to her first child at the age of 18 then to me a year later, she hadn’t finished high school so she trusted my grandparents to raise us in the city while she went to work in another. There was never a dull moment in our grandparents home, we would play countless games in the water when it rained and the yard would get flooded or get chased around by our guard dog as my family would watch laughing despite my fear of dogs. One of the things I will always be grateful for is growing up in Ethiopia, my days were filled with happiness and adventure that I will forever cherish. Moving to America was a drastic change for my brother and I, we would spend countless nights crying homesick, asking to go back home.…
It was 1884, when the Law of Religion was passed. The law didn't allow citizens of Poland to practice their own religion. My parents were furious, especially my father who was a preacher at the town Church of God. So, my parents allowed that my sister, Lena, and I would move to America with them. It was going to be a long journey, this I already knew.…
After my long and tiresome journey to my long awaited paradise of America, I anticipated following the gold rush and providing for my family back in China. I hoped to find a better life in America. I ending up at the distant land of Angel Island or so I have been told of various other immigrants. As I arrived I was excited to advance from this point and adventure into the land called America, but I was told that I would not be allowed to enter. Due to the Chinese exclusion laws I am told that I cannot enter America.…
“Do you remember coming to America grandma?” I replied, “Just like yesterday, Clarice”. It seems just like yesterday.. It was one frigid morning in Rome, Italy. November 19, 1893 to be exact.…
I was 8, finishing 2nd grade, when I moved to America and left my homeland. I didn’t realize how much this would change my life. All I thought at the time is that I am going on a plane. Planes are cool when you’re a young child. Planes can fly.…
“W-Where am I? Oh, I just slept on my bed sideways.” I groggily got out of bed and ate breakfast. The day went by normally. When I got home from school, my whole family was gathered in the living room.…
Two minutes left in the game and we are a goal away from winning the first game of the season for my sister’s soccer team. The clock is ticking and time is running out. I sprint down the field with the ball as fast as I can when suddenly BAM! Lights out.…
I am the only son of Ruben Acevedo and Guadalupe Quiroz (my parents). I have an older sister, by 11 years, named Jazmine. We are all Mexican and a bit of white, so I have a big family. My parents along with their siblings and parents immigrated from Mexico to the US for us to have a better life. Over the years, everyone in my family was getting their American Citizenship test and passed.…
Migration is a big part of a family’s traditions, culture and overall background, but so many people have no idea where their past ancestors have originated from. I have done some reasearch on my migration story and have gotten the opportunity to learn some interesting things I did not know about my family. All of my great grandparents from my mother’s side of the family have originated from Germany. My grandma’s father’s name was Otto Nawrocki and he was a hard working military man who served in WW2. His wife was that of Erma Luis, a stay at home mom and mother of four.…
Aliyah, It is nice to meet you. I am with you in having winters without snow. I am from San Diego but I lived in Ohio for a few years. I had to move I couldn’t handle the snowy winters, I live in San Antonio, Texas now.…
My families’ migration story dates back to three generations. My great-grandfather came to the United States for the first time through the Bracero Program; a program that “brought millions of Mexican guest workers to the United States [which] grew out of a series of bilateral agreements between Mexico and the United States short-term, from 1942 to 1964.” Unfortunately, my great-grandfather passed away a while back when I was very young, therefore, for this assignment, I decided to acknowledge my parents’ migration story, a story that relies on a series of events that tore our family apart but simultaneously brought us closer together. I interviewed my mother and my father regarding, their own individual migration stories while also focusing…