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Macaulay Honors College
at Baruch, Spring 2011Professor Els de Graauw
ITF Emily Sherwood -
Authors
▪ Alyssa Alicino
▪ Brandon Baksh
▪ Ru Xiao Chen
▪ Belinda Chiu
▪ Els de Graauw
▪ Becca Glickman
▪ Elisabeth Greenberg
▪ Doris Hu
▪ Peky Huang
▪ Toby Joseph
▪ Haesol Jun
▪ Nika Kartvelishvili
▪ Farrukh Khan
▪ Holly Kiang
▪ Julian Kipnis
▪ Kar Yi Lim
▪ Yang Lin
▪ Cait McCarthy
▪ Sofya Moshkovich
▪ Mariya Tuchinskaya
▪ Ying Zhang Login
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With a Little Help from a Friend
Antonio, a 43 year-old man who immigrated from Mexico, has been living in America for 28 years. When he first arrived to this country, he struggled with the English language:
Oh it was terrible. [laughing] Terrible! Can you imagine being in a foreign place and barely understanding what people are saying? I remember I had a little pocket dictionary with me most of the time or else I would be lost. New York is a big and scary place compared to Tlaxcala… Yeah, luckily I had my friend or else I wouldn’t what to do. His English was alittle better than mine and he knew more about here than I did. So I just followed him and did what he did. [chuckle] Man I would have been so dead without him.”
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Don’t Care and Vote Only When It’s Important
Antonio, a 43 year-old Mexican man who immigrated from Mexico, has been living in America for 28 years. He recently became a citizen and was able to vote in the 2008 presidential election. He reflected on his experience of being a citizens and being able to participate in the political process:
Yeah, I voted in the 2008 election, of course. That was a big election and I felt I should go vote since this was the first time I was able to vote for president. Other than that, I don’t tend to vote like for the little guys. Actually, I voted in the one that just happened, for the governor. That one was big and important so I voted. I don’t have too much time to follow politics, so yeah voting is only for the big ones like the president or the governor or mayor.
Later on in the interview, Antonip commented that he generally is not very interested in politics:
No, I am not very active in politics at all. I mean, I read the newspaper and everything, and we talk about it sometimes during dinner or when we watch the news, but it’s just not that important. I don’t care about some of the things, like gay marriage. I don’t care about gay marriage. They can do what they want I don’t care. I am too busy sometimes to care too much about politics, so talking about it is okay, but I don’t have the time to go into it and fight for this side or that side.”
The Importance of English
Antonio is a 43 year-old man who immigrated from Mexico and has been living in America for 28 years. When asked how important it was for him to learn the English language, he replied:
It was definitely very important. It is hard to do anything when you can’t tell other people what you want to do. My list of priorities when I got here was to find a job and learn some English. I didn’t have money to go to classes at the beginning, but later I had some money and time to go to night classes. As you can tell, my English is not perfect, but I am doing pretty well.”
Thoughts on America before Immigrating
Antonio, a 43 year-old man who immigrated from Mexico, has been living in America for 28 years. These were his thoughts on America when he was making the decision to immigrate:
Well, you know what they always say, America is the land of opportunities. I believed that, or else I wouldn’t have left… Well, I probably would have left no matter what, but I may have moved to another part of Mexico instead… But anyways, I felt that America would give me the opportunities to make more money and just have a better life in general, you know? I know it was gonna be hard, but I mean come on I was already working on a farm all day already how hard can America be? [chuckles] I just wanted a better life for myself and my family and I think coming to America will make it possible for me.”
The Pain of Losing a Son
Antonio, a 43-year-old Mexican man who immigrated from Mexico and has been living in America for 28 years. At the age of 15, he decided to immigrate to the United States without his family. When asked how his family responded to his decision to leave Mexico, he commented:
Oh, they were not happy. [smiling] They were not happy at all. Can you imagine what it’s like to lose a son? Well that is probably what my papa felt. I mean … I know he was proud of me for wanting do something with my life but… I guess it was because I was so young? Yeah, I guess it wasn’t the safest thing for me to be going off to another country by myself. But I had to you know? Am I supposed to be a farmer the rest of my life? I had a good opportunity and I didn’t think much but go for it.”
