My life was about to change. It could be for the best or for the worse but it was a risk I was willing to take. As a child, I lived in a little one-floor house with 2 rooms. Located in the hills of a valley. The valley was located in a small city called Veracruz, Mexico. There were house ... Read More »
Carlos Da Silva is a humble man who is proud of the work he and his family have done here in Santa Clara County, including actively supporting and contributing to the Portuguese community. As a nine-year-old child, Carlos came to the U.S. from Portugal with his parents in the 1950s. In Portugal, Carlos’s family owned ... Read More »
…making sacrifices is also important to growing as a person, and becoming the best possible version of yourself. Maria was born in Durango Mexico. She was the youngest of 11 siblings, who all lived in a tiny pueblo on the outskirts of the city of Durango. They had very little money, and living far away ... Read More »
I needed my tonsils removed, but I was terrified of the doctor, Dr. Webb, which is why I brought my friend Maria with me. The thing that I was most scared of was the doctor, because I was unable to communicate and didn’t speak English. Everything had remained the same after I moved from Portugal forty six years ago, as ... Read More »
My father started his life in a small town in Mexico named San Joaquin. It was there where he grew up with his 6 brothers and 5 sisters, everyone different from the last. It was a poor town where he and his family lived. There were no paved roads, everything was just mud, dirt or rocks. There was trash everywhere, ... Read More »
Elizabeth was born in Cabugao, a rural town in the Philippines. Recounting her memories of Cabugao, she told me, “There were a lot of poor people. It’s called the barrio, Padayog in Ilocano (dialect of this region). My grandparents’ house was next to our house, so we saw them everyday. I used to have a black cat, and my dad had a ... Read More »
In 1994, everything went downhill for me in Mexico. I wasn’t getting enough money to provide for my family. If it wasn’t for the money, I would still be in Michoacan. My two friends and I decided to leave El Sauz De Magaña Michoacan the Rancho, where I was raised to come to the United States. The jobs in Mexico ... Read More »
Fikriye left Turkey, her home country, for the first time in 1996. She grew up on a farm, while being raised by her mother and grandparents. Her father left at the time that Fikriye was five years old, which made her feel sad and disappointed because it seemed to her that her father did not love her. Fikriye father had ... Read More »
I was born in 1977 in Pozo De Ibarra, Mexico. I grew up not having many toys to play with but that did not mean that I didn’t have an amazing childhood. As I grew up, I remember how all of my brothers and sisters always told me that even if they had lots of siblings they still waited very ... Read More »
I was living in Michoacan, Mexico on a small poor ranch where it smelled like cows and horses. It was a ranch far away from the city and was surrounded by dust and trees where only our family struggled day by day. I had only gone to school from kindergarden to 6th grade which meant I couldn’t do anything else ... Read More »