I am a fifth generation Japanese-Hawaiian child with not so many connections to my past. I had asked my mother who my family was and to my surprise, she told me about the history of both her side and my father’s side of my family. Like myself, she didn’t have any knowledge ... Read More »
In the summer of 2010, Janice was studying hard in a high school classroom in China, where the “gaokao” was too stressful for her. She was afraid of failing to get into a good university. Life in her original country was pleasant, but the pace of life was too fast. Because ... Read More »
I was ten years old carrying a broken heart and tears that cover my eyes when I emigrated to the United States of America from El Salvador with the innocence feeling of only wanting to be reunited with my mother and father. At the instance, I was not chasing the American Dream. All I wanted was to be able to ... Read More »
It’s not uncommon for families to separate as one or more go to the US first to establish roots and some security before the others come. Rafael was brought up in El Salvador by extended family until he was 4 years old and got the call to rejoin his mother. Rafael was one of the featured Storytellers at our “Walk of ... Read More »
As a 10 year old, Lalo would wake up at 5 AM, and work next to his mother picking strawberries in Michoacan – first remembering to take off his only pair of shoes. Later they emigrated to the US where he pursues a college degree and hopes one day for a pathway to citizenship and operating a small family business. ... Read More »
My grandfather, Thomas Henry Sanders, worked at Rudge-Whitworth in England, a bicycle manufactory in Coventry, England and left because of a broken heart. His best friend who also worked at Rudge-Whitworth got the girl. They stayed good friends! My grandfather took a job teaching finance in Japan. I guess you could do that in those ... Read More »
In this season of my life, I am a freshmen undergraduate student at a university in California. Like the typical undergraduate, I live in a dorm room and often stay up ungodly hours of the night typing away term papers like the rest of them. At my university, I am just your average nineteen-year-old, freshmen girl fulfilling her educational requirements. ... Read More »
Jeremy’s grandparents left home in Poland when the Nazis invaded. His grandmother was only 16 when she made it to a refugee camp. In California they worked in the fields. Read More »
Luis came over as a baby from Mexico. His family lived in a garage until they saved enough to buy a home. He goes to college in San Jose. Read More »
My father, Tomás Ignacio Morán Santos, came to the United States with his family in August 1961 from Cuba. He was accompanied by his wife Laydée and his three very young children, Tomas (me), Enrique, and Susana. While the entire family had opposed the Batista regime and supported the Cuban revolution, my father grew concerned in early 1961 when the ... Read More »