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Macaulay Honors College
at Baruch, Spring 2013Professor Els de Graauw
ITF Benjamin Miller Log in
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Undocumented and Less Worthy
Fernando talks about his knowledge of the United States prior to immigrating.
I knew, is that if someone is here illegally and they do something, the first thing that happens is that they get deported—I knew I wasn’t going to have any right—Like hospitals, I wasn’t going to be able to go to one and receive medical care. I thought that if something happened to you, no one was going to help you, not even the police.
Fraud and Coming to America
Fernando describes what things pushed him to leave Guatemala:
I wanted to help my family, I wanted a better life…. I was happy and life was going great for me. I was in a good position economically. But it changed when my parents became victims of fraud… the land we lived on wasn’t ours…we had land titles and everything but they were false–We had to take out a loan from the bank in order to pay for the land […] but later we realized that we didn’t have the means to pay those loans off.
Learning English and Making Friends
Fernando talks about going to night school and how that expanded his social circle:
I went to night school in order to learn how to speak English. I speak it well, or so I think, but it is really difficult for me to read it and write it. [And] I met people; I met some of the people who I consider my closest friends. I also met my fiancée.
