Ana Belen Montes was born in 1957 on a United States military base in West Germany. Her parents both had strong Puerto Rican roots, however, English was their first language at home. After leaving the military base, Montes along with her three siblings and parents, settled for a short time in Topeka, Kansas before moving to Towson, Maryland where Ana Belen Montes received a supreme public education. Ana’s family became wealthy after her father took a job in a private psychoanalyst practice. Even though wealthy, Monte’s father was a disciplinarian. Ana and her father did not enjoy each other’s company and brutal conflicts often arouse from their disagreements. Ana Belen Montes’ father was abusive; however, Ana was able to escape his abuse by going off to college at the University of Virginia.…
In How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents, Julia Alvarez discusses the four girls’transition from the Dominican Republic to America. The Garcia’s are an immigrant family who must find a balance between their identity as Dominicans and their new identities as Americans. Yolanda, the sister on whom the story primarily focuses, must find a balance between the strict and old fashioned culture she comes from and the new, innovative and radical culture she is now learning to embrace. Immigration challenges Yolanda and her sisters to create a bi-cultural identity—a task at which they ultimately fail. They embark on a search to find themselves, feeling torn between two distinctly different and opposing…
Author’s Firoozeh Dumas and Mawi Asgedom both tell their experiences of coming to America. While both Dumas and Asgedom discuss valuable stories of coming to America, they use different strategies to convey their perspectives.…
Richard Rodriguez is an American journalist and essayist who often writes about his life and the obstacles he has faced during so. He has become widely known due to his popular book, The Hunger of Memory. In the excerpt that’s presented, Rodriguez talks about how his life has changed tremendously due to education, and he goes on to describe how he feels “assimilated.” Rodriguez comes from Mexican Origins and is the son of Mexican Immigrants and throughout the excerpt he has an internal fight due to the fact that he feels as if he is now a stranger to his once familiar culture. However, the one thing that has taken Rodriguez as far as he has come is his education.…
Ms. Valerie Sorenson, Spanish teacher at Lake Forest Academy and on the Head of School Symposium committee this year, shares this burden of history. This burden of history began in the early 1900s, when Sorenson’s grandmother, Mrs. Otilia Klorman escaped the religious persecution of Jews in Vienna, avoiding certain death. Giving up her Austrian citizenship, she escaped to Valparaíso, Chile on a boat. Here in Chile, she amalgamated the Austrian and Spanish culinary experiences into a cookbook.…
In the book, El Otro Lado by Julia Alvarez, describes the author’s experience of leaving the dominican republic and moving to the united states. This is more than just her moving though, it’s about her transition through things like her culture, her behavior, her personality and her childhood into a world of emotions filled with insecurity, love, hurt. Alvarez’s use of Spanish that is mixed into the English she writes her poems also describe stories of her life along with the struggle of emigrating to a new country and what it’s like living in a country that isn’t 1st world or most advanced, revealing feelings from situations that most immigrants face coming to the United States. Alvarez also reveals her own personal…
Francisco was born to immigrant parents in 1985 in a rural part of Denton, Texas. They lived in a 2 bedroom, 1-bathroom house which held 8 people. Francisco’s parents always emphasized how important education was, even though none of them had gone to college. His parents had low-income jobs. Growing up in this type of environment taught him many things,…
In the story “Four Stations in His Circle”, Austin Clarke reveals the negative influences that immigration can have on people through characterization of the main character, symbols such as the house that Jefferson dreams to buy and the time and place where the story takes place. The author demonstrates how immigration can transform someone to the point that they abandon their old culture, family and friends and remain only with their loneliness and selfishness.…
Miami, FL is a place that has to be felt rather than seen or heard—and by that I mean observed beyond all senses, with mind, body, heart, and soul. I’ve been entrenched in it my whole life, a little Cuban princesita not so different from all the rest, but it’s only as I’ve gotten older that I’ve fully felt like a part of a community, a culture. I feel it when I talk, casually, to the elderly cashier at my neighborhood grocery store, a familiar combination of Spanish, English, and what many call cubanismos, phrases with meanings that simply will not tolerate literal translations, spilling forth. I feel it while seated at a table of no fewer than four relatives on any given evening, judging the quality of a restaurant on the quality of their flan de caramelo or their café. I feel it, too, in the colorful songs of Ernesto Lecuona and the ardent verses of José Marti, but most of all in the anecdotes of my grandparents and great aunt, the nostalgia of long-settled immigrants, echoes of sorrow, shared over dominoes and rice and beans and coladas of espresso.…
To other people living in different country such as Mexico, China, Central America and other parts of the country it appears to be a dream to be living the “American Dream” or “El Otro Lado”. In “The Distance Between US” Reyna visualized it as the country were their parents dream was for a better life it could of bring them and the country that took away both parents, a dream as opposed to what the reality is.…
On a crisp night in Boston, all seemed well as Diane enjoyed a nice meal with her family, and the next day, her mom, dad, and brother were stolen by US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, and she was stranded. The book In the Country We Love: My Family Divided, tells us the life story of Diane Guerrero, a Colombian girl who was born in the United States, unlike her parents and brother who were both born in Colombia. The author tells a heartbreaking story of a girl’s resilience in frightening situations, like isolation and poverty. Diane’s home life was turned upside down, but despite the countless number of nightmarish situations, Diane strived and pursued her dreams with no aid…
Gabriel Santiago, age seventeen, has lived in the U.S. since he was four years old after being brought over illegally. He was raised in Phoenix by his two parents, who worked long hours and left him with the responsibility of watching over his two younger sisters. After eventually learning how to manage a part time job at Subway and care for his siblings, Gabriel became very involved in his studies at school. Faculty…
Just two days after coming to this land, I was sitting in a large classroom trying to recite the pledge of allegiance in a large public school. My life in America took me by shock and I felt unprepared. I struggled with basic academic courses initially while my peers glided through easily. Moving to America has been one of the great challenges I have faced and still continue to struggle with. However, my grandfather’s words constantly reminded me of my purpose in life and with diligence and great perseverance, I accomplish and learn everyday.…
About ten years ago, my family moved to this country. As a Mexican legal resident people believe I didn’t struggle; however, I often remind them that I also come to the United States with little to no knowledge. I was expected and demanded to learn a foreign language, which was going to aim me in the future. A future that was unknown, surrounded by a different culture.…
America was very unfamiliar and distant place for Nicholas and perhaps very exciting at the same time. In a way it helped him forget about what happened back in his home country and helped him find a so needed fresh start in life. Even though, he was placed in the class for the mentally retarded which was perhaps the usual place where principles would’ve put immigrant children, Nicholas didn’t lose his hope and in four years he was ready to be placed in regular class with the same age classmates. It was a tough period for him because now he was in the class he suppose to be but he still felt out of order because of his unusually…