Does your culture define who you really are? Can you choose a place you call home? To answer these existentialist questions, I have had to compromise who I really am. Sharing this was a tough decision to make as these thoughts had never traveled beyond the metal, cold walls of my mind… it is an intimate story of a journey ... Read More »
I was born two years before we left our home in Sydney to move to the unknown, Houston, Texas, USA. In Houston, life was like a TV show. Everything seemed as if we were in a sitcom where everything seemed right and in place. The only thing that seemed out of place were my parents. My mother, of Ukrainian and ... Read More »
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “America is another name for opportunity”. My grandmother, Marianne Kramer, believed this as well. She is a strong woman who came to America for the purpose of opportunity. She was the first person in my entire family to come to America and make a living here. Life for Marianne in Bremen, Germany was pleasant, she ... Read More »
But this is all that I wanted, a life that I can survive through and be happy. I only paid a nickel to cross the U.S./Mexico border, which is not a lot today, but it was a lot for me back then. I was very young and vulnerable. This was the year of 1902. All I wanted was a better ... Read More »
You could say we were to chase the “American Dream,” yet we left because of our American nightmare. Oh gosh why was the car ride so long? Hope. How much more can I take of this? Hope. Why do we have to move? Hope. Why is it that I suffer the most? Hope. What more can go wrong? Hope. What ... Read More »
The sounds of gunfire, cannons, and people in your town screaming are signs that your life is going to change. My mother is from Vietnam and had her life change because of war. She is now living happily here in America. This is Hai Phan’s life story. My mom was born in South Vietnam in 1974. “The life back then ... Read More »
Editor’s note: Slavery is an integral part of the American story and those who were forced to come to the US in chains, are no less immigrants than any other group. Not only was their freedom taken, but in many cases, their personal family history was lost. On this web site of immigration stories, we pick up their descendants’ story ... Read More »
My grandfather’s life started in jeopardy due to his premature birth and small size, which forced him to spend his first two weeks without his family in an incubator. My grandfather, Al Bien, was born in Beijing, China in 1934 where his home was in a “hutong” or alley. Following the beginning of the second Sino-Japanese war, his family moved ... Read More »
This is the story of a female immigrant that came to America, leaving her home, family, and memories to create a better living environment for her children. Her name was Patricia Hernandez Galvez and she was born in Torreon, Mexico in 1972. During her childhood she lived with her older brother Hector, her younger brother Freddie, and both her mom ... Read More »
She worked two jobs to keep us fed, clothed and with a place to live . Sanjuanita worked in the fields in the morning and took the night shift at Hunt’s Wesson Foods a tomato canning company…” Mom immigrated first to McAllen, Texas from Estación Aldamas Nuevo Leon, Mexico, where she worked as a maid. Due to poverty and your ... Read More »