My mom, Lilia Araujo was born in September of 1980 in Torrance, California. Her dad and mom, 2 brothers, and 3 sisters immigrated to California in the early 1970’s and set down in Long Beach. Her dad started to work with a relative who had lived in America a few Years longer in maintenance on the Queen Mary. Her mom was a homemaker so since her father was the only one working they could only afford to live in a 1 bedroom apartment on the 2nd floor of a 4 apartment building. Many of their relatives and friends, that were from the same Hometown in Mexico lived in this neighborhood. Her parents did not speak English, but they knew it was the most important thing that they and the kids needed to learn in order to live in America.
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the kids were enrolled in school and began to learn to speak, Read, and write English. They made friends and started to learn about living in America. At the time my mom was born, her oldest brother was 15 and her closest sibling in age was her sister who was 8. She remembers her mom telling her stories about when she was born that she was an "accident", which she didn't understand what that meant until she was much older, and that my mom was born an American citizen, and the only one in their family at that time and her mom was so proud of that.She was Mexican and American. Thanks to her brothers and sisters, my mom grew up watching Saturday morning cartoons with her brother's, her favorites were Tom-and-jerry, he man, and The Jetsons to name a few. She watched soul train which was a big music show with her sisters and would sing and dance along to the music. She also loved going to school because she learned a lot but also had fun playing with her friends and going to McDonald's to eat happy meals on the weekends. Her mom used to tell her about her life when she was growing up in Mexico.
She talked about what her town was Like, about her grandma and cousins, What school was like, the work they did, and the grand celebrations the whole town would have during Christmas. Her mom would say "I hope to take you to Mexico one day so you can see how beautiful it is." She also told her it was very important for her to be able to speak, read, and write in Spanish so that she could communicate with her family from Mexico. My mom grew up speaking Spanish because her mom taught her to read and write in Spanish by practicing writing letters to send to their family.
In April of 1990, her dad received news that his dad was very sick and passed away. His mom, brothers and sisters that lived in Mexico wanted him to go as soon as possible so he could attend the funeral. Unfortunately, he couldn't because they didn't have the money to pay for the trip. In Mexico it was a tradition to do a type of ceremony of sorts, prayers, by the family of the deceased one year after their deaths. Her dad began to save money so that he could go the following year on the anniversary of his father's
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death. Although it was a sad occasion the chance to finally go to Mexico for my mom had arrived. The plan was for her and her parents to go in April of 1991 and stay for about 6 weeks. Her brothers and sisters would not be going along on the trip. My mom was mostly looking forward to meeting her grandma’s from her mom and dad sides and all her aunt's, uncles, and cousins that she had heard so much about. The day arrived to go to Mexico. They took a plane from Los Angeles to Mexico City which was my mom's 1st time on a plane, then took a bus to apango, guerrero which was a long trip. The 1st day her family came over to meet her and visit with her parents(she had a lot of fun).
Her cousins told her about places they would like to take her like swimming in the river and the mango farm, and they also wanted all their friends to meet their cousin from America. In the following couple of days the ceremonies were held for her grandpa. After they were done her parents began to plan the rest of their stay to visit their old friends and catch up and to take my mom to visit family that lived in nearby towns. They also wanted to celebrate her birthday early so she could experience a party and their towns tradition. My mom described it as "everything was so different from home, but so nice"
. 1 morning 2 of her cousins asked to take her to the bakery a few blocks away.Her parents gave her permission and they were off. As they were walking down the street my mom started to notice people stopping and staring at them. She asked her cousin's "are they looking at me?”,And they said "don't worry they just don't know you and they are curious." As they continued down the street they ran into 2 of her cousins friends. Her cousin said to them "meet our cousin lillia from America" , but the girls didn't say hello. They stood there for a moment just looking at my mom. Her cousins were a bit confused at their non reaction and said" let's go" and took my mom's hand and started to walk away.As they were leaving one of the girls yelled out "she thinks she's better than us because she wears pants!”,At that moment my mom realized that her cousins were wearing dresses, their friends were wearing dresses, she was in blue jeans and a T-shirt. It was completely normal to her but immediately she fell out of place. When they got to the bakery her cousins introduced her to the lady at the counter as their cousin from America. The lady laughed and asked my mom in Spanish in a rude way "do you even speak Spanish? Do you even understand what I'm saying?" and laughed to herself again. At this point my mom noticed the other people in the bakery were watching them and was so embarrassed she couldn't answer because she thought she would start to cry. Her cousin's bought their bread and started to head back home. Her cousins saw how sad she was but all they could say was "don't pay attention to them.” The next couple of weeks my mom met more family and made more friends. Luckily, the encounters were much better and she was becoming friends with more kids and was playing games, visiting their homes, and actually enjoying herself.She saw the 2 mean girls she 1st met a few times but they still didn't talk to her. They would just watch her play with the other kids but wouldn't join in. My mom knew though that they were the ones missing out on all the fun. The day to go home was 2 weeks away. Her mom had been planning her birthday and the day had finally arrived. There were so many people that it felt like the whole town was their. My mom was told by her aunt to go around the Room, shake each person's hand and say "thank you for coming to my party." Even though she was a bit nervous, she did as she was told. Some people gave her gifts and some made flower leis that they put on her.As she was finishing with her guests she saw the 2 mean girls come in the door. They walked up to her with a bouquet of flowers and said "thank you for inviting us to your party, can we be friends?" my mom was so shocked but so happy she said" yes!" the party was great there was cake, dancing, and games to play. The next day and every day for the rest of the week's the girls showed up to spend the day with my mom and wanted to know all about what she did in America and they shared what they like to do in Mexico.They became good friends and even cried as they said goodbye on the last day.
Being a Hispanic have impacted all my entire life; I lived 15 years of my life in Mexico I love being there because most part of my family live in Nuevo Laredo, I was cursing my last months of 8th grade and one day my mom told me that she was thinking about send me here to the U.S to start learn English; since I’m a U.S citizen and I didn't know the language of my country, I accepted. The most hard prove was live without having my mom at my side, since I live with my aunt now; when the days passed here in the U.S I started to depressed myself because I missed so much my house and all my family, one day in the middle of the night I call my mom crying and I told her that I really want go back to Mexico, but she didn’t take into account my desire my mom just explained me that it will be the best for my future and with the time I will be thankful with her for don’t let me go back. My mom, and my grandmother are the ones who motivates me to be a better student. Actually I’m in dual enrollment and I have taken AP classes; sometimes is hard for me talk, read or write in another language that the one I was accustomed but, every time I fail I get up and persist until I’m able to do what I want.
Lily is thinking “how much older fourteen had made [her]. In the space of a few hours [she’d] become forty years old.” She makes this connection after she realizes that maybe her mother's death could have not been her fault and that it could have been T. Ray’s and he was punishing her for it. This caused Lily to pack “...5 pairs of shorts, tops, ... shampoo, toothpaste...” $38 and a map (41-42). By doing this, it made her feel like she had aged, feeling like a 40 year old.
On one hand we can see that she pushes back and challenges her tradition on the other hand it is difficult to not see emotion expressed by herself when she is alone. One scene that does do this is when she is buying condoms for the first time but does not know what to purchase. This small but significant scene revels that although she is strong and ready she also needs guidance through her path of adulthood. She is able to ask a pharmacist for advice but not her own mother. This lack of connection to be open up to mothers is emphasized enough to create awareness that young Mexican American women need someone to talk to and it should preferably be their
My mother is an outspoken woman. In her tiny appearance lies an extraordinary fortitude story. Bravery is a virtue that not a lot of people possess, but my mother has proven her courageousness. Before my mother gave birth to me, she lived in San Luis Potosí, Mexico. Her family lived in poverty, and every bit of food was valued and cherished at their table. It’s hard to tell whether my mother’s decision to migrate to the United States was an act of courage or impatience. She certainly had no bright future at home, her parents could barely afford used clothes from the town’s thrift shop. She certainly wanted to find a way to turn her life around and provide the needs for her family, so she decided to come to “The land of opportunities.”
After reading The Book of the Unknown Americans, I realized how difficult immigrating to the United States can be. I am an immigrant also, so just reading the story makes me relate to many problems immigrants experience relocating to a different country. Immigrants often face many issues and difficulties, but for some it is all worth it, but for others there comes a point in time where they have to go back to their hometown. Alma and Arturo Rivera came to the United States to better their life, but also so that Maribel could attend a special education school. While Arturo had a job things had gone well for the family, but once Arturo lost the job and passed away the two of them had to go back because they felt that that was the best option for them. Reading this book made me realize how strong an individual has to be to leave their own country and relocate somewhere else not knowing if this will better your life or cause one to suffer.
Anzaldua was a Mexican descent, but born and raised in Texas. I believe she included this in her essay on purpose for readers to understand that her situation was not by choice. This sense of helplessness will help gain readers’ sympathy. She was brought up in a community that speaks both English and Spanish, English while in school and Chicano while at home. However, this was scrutinized by the respective groups as they were unable to
In her family, she has a father, mother, two sisters, and a stepfather. Her grandparents and most of her parent’s family live in Mexico.
The subject of this paper is Liz, a 52-year old, 1.5 generation female immigrant from Hong Kong. What this means is that she immigrated to the United States when she was a child, around 7-years old (Feliciano Lec. 1/4/2016). As a child of a family that consists of five siblings and two parents that did not speak any English prior to immigrating, the focus of this paper will be on the legal processes that the family went through to become legal immigrants and the various factors that aided in her path towards assimilation.
My mom had been going to school in Greeley and staying at my Aunt Margaret's house . She had been away for two weeks and wanted to come home for the Fourth of July weekend. My mom had suggested that I go back with her and visit colleges, shop, go to movies and just spend time together. I had been feeling pretty sorry for myself since she had been gone. I had been working alot as a maid and helping my dad run the house, I was getting very irritated with my siblings as I felt that I was the only family member doing my part to help my dad. I was really excited to have a week with my mom to myself. The whole ride over we were talking about what I wanted to do that week. Making plans and having "me time" seemed very important at the time.
In 1964, Leticia was born in Chavinda which is a very small town in Mexico. Leticia had a very difficult life growing up because her dad left to go to the United States to work but eventually he passed away and her mother would always be working in never had time for Leticia and her siblings so her grandparents would be the one taking care of her and her siblings, so she called them her parents. Leticia would also start working so she can help her mother with paying bills because he stopped going to school in middle school because they couldn’t afford money so she could continue school. Back in the 1960s, it was very easy to cross the border because there weren’t any policies there to stop you and there were better ways to cross like you could have someone else’s passport that you look pretty similar to you and they would just let you go with no
Tan also reflects on how her broken English with whom she shares with her mother is her mother tongue, and how this broken English has shaped who she is today. I am able to identify with Tan’s feelings as my grandmother who is a native Puerto Rican, has her own “mother tongue” as she still speaks in broken English. After my mother passed away when I was three, my grandmother moved in to help raise my sisters and I as we were very young. My grandmother used the same broken English Tan’s mother’s had used and my feelings towards it mirrored Tan’s at an early age. I remember because my father worked during the day my grandmother had to attend parent teacher conferences in his place. As I was still too young, my grandmother dragged me along and made me wait outside. We had waited in line for about two hours before finally being called for my conference. After a few minutes in, one of my teachers walks outside of the classroom and asks me if I know Spanish, to which I reply no. As the teacher walks back into the room I hear a resounding “Ma’am we must reschedule…there are other parents waiting and we cannot understand you, and we are pretty sure you
One awesome story my family has let me know is my family 's history. My maternal grandma 's guardians went to the United States from Ukraine by vessel around 1906 or 1907. They at first settled in Export, PA, in light of the fact that they had relatives and companions living there. My grandma was conceived in 1921 and was the seventh of eight youngsters. A year after she was conceived, they moved to Warren, OH, where they stayed until my grandma moved on from secondary school. The family 's religion was Ukrainian Orthodox. My grandma grew up communicating in Ukrainian and English. Ukrainian was talked in the home, and English was talked at school. My grandma began kindergarten at the age five knowing no English. She grabbed the English dialect from her colleagues. My grandma 's family did not claim an auto. Each Easter, they strolled around seven miles to go to...
While reading Mother Tongue by Amy Tan, I was thinking of my mother. My mother originally from Paris, France came to the United States in her mid-20s. Being older and while moving to a different country means that she already strongly developed her homeland language. So by coming to the United States she had to learn a whole new language. Getting married and having four kids definitely helped her situation with her English as we were able to advocate her thoughts into words for her, however, that didn't take away the fact that she has a strong French accent and at times was unable to develop her thoughts through speaking as well as a born American citizen.
Guadalupe when I asked her who her role model is she said “My dad because a lot of people put a lot of pressure on him and he finds a way to keep calm during all that stress, and I look up to him because of that and need to take advice from him.” In their family they all have determination to succeed in life and not dwell on the past. Her parents are what inspire her to do big things in life and do things that they never got to do, like finishing high school and they want the best for her and it inspires her from what happened to her parents to always keep that in mind and do good because of their determination. Her family has a lot of dignity they take pride in their actions and aren't embarrassed of who they are because of what happened to them and now they have come far. Her favorite childhood memory was when she was a little kid she always loved going over on holidays to be with family and spend time with them.
My family emigrated from the Dominican Republic when I was two years old. At the time, none of us spoke any fluent English. Due to their limited education,