Ana Montes is in prison for a little over a decade now. Once a highly decorated U.S. intelligence analyst, Montes today lives in a two-bunk cell in the highest-security women’s prison in the nation. Montes spied for seventeen years, patiently, methodically. She passed along so many secrets about her colleagues and the advanced methods and eavesdropping platforms that American agents had covertly installed in Cuba. Montes’s motivation for spying was pure ideology she disagreed with U.S. foreign policy.…
I talked to my great grandmother, on my moms side, and asked her many questions about our ancestors. "Most of the generations I know about have lived in New Mexico. Usually when people ask us we say Spain because we know our ancestors didn't come from Mexico. I'd say Spain" she said word for word. I also asked her how long ago they came and she didn't know so I assume they came a long time ago.…
Alex, and that tree. I’ve lived in two completely different places. For the greater part of my life, in Ecuador, and for the last 4 years, in California. Moving away from the place that I spent my entire life at, has really changed me. I had to leave all of the people I love and everyone I ever knew, and move to a strange place where I had no one except my mom, dad, and brother. Moving to California made me become a new person, a different person than who I was in Ecuador. In the following Vignettes I talk about what has made me into who I was in Ecuador, and what made me into what I am today. I talk a lot about the trip to California, and the first few months here because it was a very traumatic experience for me that pains me to think about even to this day. I’ll always miss the person I was in Ecuador, even if I don’t remember who I was. But I will always love the person that I am today and will continue to better myself and live the best life…
I never realized how lucky I was to be granted such a stupendous life until I saw the poverty some people live in. Over the summer, I was fortunate enough to be able to take an ephemeral trip to Nassau, Bahamas. It was much different than I imagined it would be. I remember walking around and almost being frighten to leave my parents sides. There were natives on every street corner trying to con their way into you spending money on their fake product; there were people going through the trash looking for food; there were people sitting on the street with all their belongings tied up to their bicycle street. You could just tell this country was nowhere near as advanced as the United States. It was nothing like the pictures and it got me thinking of the gloomy lives these children will have to grow up in and all the opportunities that they don't have available here.…
I came to the United States from Colombia when I was just 3 years old. I was brought into the country of bright opportunities because like every other parent, my mother and father wanted what was best for me. My mother had to give up her dream job in Colombia, which was being an accountant for an essentially important company, in order to facilitate my well-being and open up the doors for my future. As the years progressed, I began to acquire both languages, English and Spanish, but there was a point where I became tongue tied and had to assist in speech therapy. My parents would talk to me in Spanish at home but in school all I would hear was English, my mind was extremely confused to the point that I made my own language by using both tongues in one sentence.…
It was Monday, May 30th, 2011. My family was driving home from a hotel we were staying at in Virginia, after going to Kings Dominion for my birthday day the day before. On the way home, we stopped at a Cracker Barrel for breakfast. During our meal, we got a call from my aunt telling us that my uncle, my mother’s brother, was in the hospital. Only a few days before he had moved back to Guatemala without saying goodbye to me. Once we were back on the road, my mother continued to get phone calls updating us about what was happening down there, as each call came through we all became more and more anxious wait for the answer. Then it came it just wasn't the answer we were hoping for, my mother began pushing on the walls of the car as if they were…
But there is one thing, that, my family don't know about me. It's that i became a man in front of them and they don't think about it!.…
The small island of Cuba, no larger than Pennsylvania, is thought to have one of the largest per capita prisons systems in the whole world. Per capita means “by heads” or “for each head”, and Cuba has one of the largest with over 57,000 inmates, However, over the past ten years or so, Cuba’s prison population has decreased from an estimated 100,000 inmates. It’s quite difficult to get numbers as to how many people are in prison in Cuba today because their government does not regularly update the official figures on the amount of inmates, only interviews with ex-prisoners and letters smuggled out by inmates tell the horrific tale of inhumane conditions. The International Committee of the Red Cross was allowed entry to one of the prison systems in 1989 when the population was around 40,000, since then there have been no outside visits. A human rights activist by the name of Vladimiro Roca, spent nearly five years in one of these prisons. “Here, people get thrown in jail for anything, if you kill a cow to feed your family, you go to jail” (Martin 1).…
Let me start off with my mother's journey to America. It was 1985 when her parents decided it was time for a fresh start. It was very difficult to come to America legally, so they made their journey by traveling to other countries. They left Cuba and traveled to Spain where my grandfather found a job as a farmer. They lived in Spain for almost 2 years before they gathered enough resources to travel to Mexico. The journey from Mexico to the USA was very easy for them because they had a family member who knew their way around. They struggled for many years in America but soon became legal citizens. My mother later on went to college and completed her bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of Miami. My grandparents purchased the…
Leaving your country is always a difficult decision, and whoever has experienced it understands the sacrifice it entails. When I left Poland at 18, I thought I was going to be in paradise, but to my disappointment it was far from that. I had to learn a new language and work hard to provide for myself. What kept me motivated was the hope for a better future and an independent life.…
America, land of the free and home of the brave, a country strengthened with rights, equality, and justice. For Americans it’s just a regular country, with regular rules and laws, nothing special about it. Although, to immigrants it’s a country to reinterpret their lives, a better life, a life where they’re free to pursue their happiness and follow their dreams. Even though America is a great country, adjusting to a new culture isn’t easy. It took patience, support, understanding, and passion in order for me to balance two different cultures.…
One day nearly two years ago, I came back from the worst trip and experience ever in my life. Three years ago, my family made the biggest decision of our lifetime together and we had decided to move. Now the fact that we were moving didn’t bother me or my little sister, it was just the simple fact that we were moving from our home that we had grown up in our entire life. The only problem was the fact that we had eventually found out that we were going to move to Oregon. This Alabama home that we grew up in was very special to me and my sister but it wasn’t the one of best of places. We had lived right beside our grandparents and we loved to go up the hill and see them and us moving had rendered that possibility from happening any longer.…
Winter is the last season in a year among the four. It is like a immaculate bride who has a beautiful white dress on her. But to me, winter just like a vicious witch who put magic on me and made me had a bad start in USA. My family immigrated during the winter and it brought changes in my life and my personality. It is a sign of starting new. In this new place, I have enjoyed a certain level of comfort like making new friends and seeing new things. But, every day, I still had to grapple with language difficulties, cultural gaps, and day-to-day life issues. Especially about associating with people, social aspect became one of the most challenging thing I have to conquer and it was a torturous memories. Being an immigrant teaches me deeply…
Even though my father thought that traveling from Mexico to America was a going to be a fast and easy trip, my dad encountered some incidents. For example, while crossing the border he had no water or food for days he also didn't have communication with his love ones. An intense hardship he encountered was that the police chased him and his friends. During the extensive trip he was crammed in a car with four of his friends and they had no food or anything else. Some obstacles were challenging, while others were more simple to go through. After everything he went through, he found a silver lining and made it to America. All he needed now was a secure home and a well established job. However, in order to reach his desired goal, it required motivation.…
It is 5:30am on a rainy day on a reserve high up in the mountains of Costa Rica. I’m lying on the twin mattress of the top bunk that I’m sharing with another girl. We had gotten to the reserve two days ago and spent the day before digging a 2 metre deep septic tank for the local church and we were getting ready to go back and finish the bathroom the church has waited so long for. It’s hard grunt work and the rain and bugs don’t make it any easier, but I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. Although I didn’t know it when I signed up, this missions trip would change my perspective on life forever. Originally, I decided to join the Costa Rica 2015 team as a good self-improvement experience and to see another part of the world; my reasons were very selfish. I knew that we would be helping people there and I was eager to do that, but it wasn’t my primary reason for going. The minute I met the pastors of the church with which we were collaborating, my whole mindset changed. I suddenly had this intense desire to make a lasting difference in someone’s life. Over the next ten days, I became invested in the work we were doing and the people we met. We served directly with a small church in Cartago, a city…