Carlos Sanchez grew up in a hardworking and modest family in Ambato, Ecuador before immigrating to the United States in 1995. After facing many initial hardships such as lack of job skills, difficulty with the English language and of course lingering homesickness, Mr. Sanchez eventually found himself settling down in the predominantly Hispanic area of Jackson Heights, Queens. It is here, with the start of his bakery Sabor Ecuatoriano, where he lives and earns a living to provide for his siblings and children back home in Ecuador. Like many immigrants, Carlos finds himself stuck in a cycle of working and earning money here in the United States, while his heart longs to be back home. Mr. Sanchez frankly shares his childhood memories, and his thoughts on his identity as an immigrant working and living in the United States and expresses his deep hopes that he will one day return to his homeland.

Early Life

I used to work much of the time when I was young. We were always working, just working. I used to work in the street, selling fruits. Me and my brothers we played, we studied, we working on the street selling fruits in the mercados. There were 7 children in the family, I was the youngest one. They protected me a lot. I was very sick when I was young, before 18-year-old. I was sick for 10 years- infermedad en mi pierna- there was lot of blood loss and I was injured. It stopped when I was 18, I go hospitals in Colombia and Peru.

 Growing Up

We celebrated independencia and some other holidays but not lot. Not like here. Here, birthday is big event but we were poor in Ecuador. Sometimes, we not even remembering our birthday. It is too different here. There, you have to work to eat that’s it. I didn’t have shoes, or basic clothes.

Important Childhood Event

I remember my father passing away when I was 7. I remember it all the time. He was in an accident and it took his life. The neighbor came in screaming “your father is dead! your father is dead”. I was just a boy 7 year old.

Education

I finished high school in Ecuador. I liked matematicas and fisica. I loved the numbers and I like dividing and multiplying. I wanted to be teacher, a matematicas of fisica teacher. I also wanted to have a business. I don’t know what kind of business but I wanted. I liked computers and phones and technology.

Immigration to United States

This is my second time in the United States- first time was 1995. Immigrante organization brought me here. I was 20/22 years old. Oh my god it was crazy, I cried all the time because I was here 22 days. First time here was crazy. I worked and lived in 71^st street in an apartment. My cousin paid lot for me. After I started working in the iron factory, I started paying. I know how to live here. I worked from 9 to 7 pm sometimes 10-12 hours. I made very little very little money- $180 a week is nothing to live here. Later I make like $340- double. My family was very triste to send me here. I love my family. We were unidos. I miss my ma and my brothers. I lost my father, my mama is only left. She worked for all of us.

Mr. Sanchez in his bakery Sabor Ecuatoriano

New Life/ Thoughts on the United States

People in Ecuador used to say here there is lot of money. Ecuadorian people who come here say they make lot of money, go back and buy a house, buy a car, pay rent. In Estados Unidos, hay mucho dinero. You have to work hard to make money. You have a great life here, but no time for life. In Ecuador, you don’t have money but you have time for life. When I first came, I saw the casas and it was nothing I thought of Estados United. I thought it was like Manhattan, big buildings and people. Here it is all Spanish. I wanted to see the Gringos de Estados Unidos- the white people, blue eyes. I didn’t see nothing like that. In Ecuador you have to work. Here, you have to RUN. It’s muy occupada. You have to make food, wash your clothes, clean your apartment, you have to do everything. In Ecuador, I have my sister and my brother and mama make food for us. Its much easier in Ecuador que here. It is much better situation economica here. In Ecuador you don’t have money, but wonderful time for life. You can talk in your language and relax. You can eat almuerzo and see mother, brothers and sons. In Ecuador, you can see your family. But here, no.

Family Life

I have two children. I don’t like here for my children. I want them to finish studies in Ecuador- much better in Ecuador que here. They are 9 and 7 years. I talk to them two, three times a week. I video with them sometimes. They are my day, my life. They do everything for me. I working for them. They can choose whatever work they want in life. They are focusing on studies. I don’t want my sons to be poor like I was.

Finding Work

I started working here in my brother’s restaurant. I love the kitchen and cooking and the bakery. My brother told me “If you want it go” and I agreed to work. My brother and me don’t have papers. Another person helped him get started. In this area, you don’t need English that much. It’s all Hispanic. Only two or three non-Hispanic come saying “Give me one coffee”.  It’s good. One good thing about the business is that there is lot of Spanish people. One bad thing here is there is lot of business- lot of competition. All the time I am working, working working. When you have a business, you have to earn everything.

Free Time 

I like to run. I like to sleep and recuperada. I walk a lot also. One time I walked all the way to 61^st, I live in 111^th street. I also play volleyball aqui with one or two people in the park. Ecuadorian people in the park and I play with them in free time.

Future Goals/Plans  

I have to get a green card soon. Because its easy for visit the family and to go back. People in the gobierno promise us lot of things, all the time they say to go to get the papeles de immigrantes, but they never help. They don’t make nothing for us. For my future, I want to make money. For my business I work hard. I want to go back to Ecuador and live the life. Of course, I don’t want to live here. Its crazy, here you have no time for life. In home, you have time for life. There, everything is barrato but here it is all expensive. I want to live for my children. I miss my children. I want to connect with my family again and see everyone again.

Andres Mejia is an American citizen, but that’s because his parents wanted him born in the United States to have his papers. He moved to Mexico early in his life and grew up there, identifying as a type of immigrant for when he would come back 6 years later. He discusses his community, Sunset Park, and explains his feelings for his neighborhood and how he’s seen it change over the years.

Early Life

“I was born in Brooklyn. I spent my early childhood in Mexico because after I was born, we shortly moved to Mexico. It was kind of, a small community. There was a hotel in the town, we had dirt roads. I lived on a newer street, it was literally called ‘nueva calle,’ which means new street. I think it was suburban, that’s a good way to put it. It was small, there was one elementary school, one middle school, one high school. [I remember] waking up early, going to the fields. Not really to work, I was a little too young for that, I would go with whoever wanted to go to the farm.”

Moving to Sunset Park

“To an extent, yes, because there was a transition into American life. I was 6 years old. [I live in] Sunset Park, Brooklyn. My grandfather came over to work. He went to Sunset Park, not exactly sure why, Sunset Park was kinda familiar to my family already. I didn’t care mostly because a lot of my family members came with me, it was a group effort. There was a bunch of us living in a small apartment. I was nervous, it was kinda big. I came from a place that had one school, one church, it was a small town to a bigger city. I guess the language barrier, but I think it was very minimal. At that age, of 6, everybody has a language barrier issue, that’s when you’re learning the intricacies of grammar. I was enrolled in a kindergarten class for bilingual speakers. A portion of the class was Spanish, and then throughout the year we moved towards speaking more English than Spanish. This was a known issue that the school wanted to tackle, a bunch of kids who don’t know English. I’m thankful for that. You could speak only Spanish if you don’t have to speak to anyone for your job. We had a community that was made up of mostly Mexicans, so you could go to a store and speak Spanish there, you could get your hair cut where they only speak Spanish. Everything we needed, we had, and it was familiar.”

An infamous Mexican restaurant in Sunset Park, has the best tacos according to Mejia.

My Daily Life and Inspiration

“When I was a kid, he was in the United States, at the time setting up for my family to move. He was willing to make sacrifices like that, he wasn’t able to see me or his family for a couple years, to set us up here in the United States. He had a plan, and it kinda worked out, he just always worked hard. I was born [in Sunset Park], and then he stayed with his father. He was a welder, same as his dad. I am also a welder. It’s kinda a family profession. It’s a skill I was taught. I’m 20. I said I went to Fort Hamilton, I had a tough time, I didn’t like school. I definitely didn’t want to go to college or anything. I took a year off, and worked, then I went to trade school, to get my certificates and licenses for welding. Mostly work, definitely, wake up early to get to a job site in the city. But the day was quick, and then afterwards another big part of my life is playing soccer. I like to play it more than watch, definitely.”

How I Feel About My Neighborhood

“I really, really like it ever since I been there. It’s changed a lot in recent years. When I first got there, there was more locally owned stores, not by Mexicans. It was like Puerto Ricans, you know, there was a Mexican store here and there. Those were the stores that my father supported, the Mexican stores, you know, to support our community. And then slowly, there were more and more Mexican stores throughout, and this was like in the 90s, early 2000s. Now you go to Sunset Park, you go to 5^th Ave, Sunset Park, like 38^th Street to 42^nd Street, all those stores are Mexican-owned. But now gentrification is hitting, there’s a new high school on 36^th Street, which is cool. It was pretty cheap, I guess. The building we live in is pretty old, at least we used to live in an old building. It was a two bedroom apartment, it was pretty rundown. It was surrounded by… there was a bakery across the street that’s not there anymore, and there were a lot of mechanic shops, near it. On our side of the street, we were the only house. I do not [live there now] but my grandparents do.”

An example of the array of Mexican establishments found on 45th Street and 4th Ave in Sunset Park.

Will I Ever Leave?

“Realistically, I’d probably end up moving out, but it’s somewhere I want to stay. It’s very new and exciting, even now, though I’ve been there for so much of my life, it’s still exciting. Gentrification is moving in, like I said they built a new high school, they built a hotel in my neighborhood. I think three hotels popped up so far. I welcome it, personally, because I see improvement in my community. It’s not good, because it’s definitely pushing out a lot of the Mexican community. I don’t know how I should feel about that, progress had to be made, and this is the consequence I guess. “

Jana Jefimova first came to America on a visit, and never expected to stay. However, when she went back to her native Estonia, she fell in love with America and she decided to move here permanently. She reflected over how her homeland and family dynamic influenced who she is and how she raises her daughter.

In the Motherland

I was born in Estonia, and it’s a small Baltic country. We used to be part of the USSR, and then in 1991 we become independent. So until 1938 to 1991, it was a part of Russian Federation, but that was a few years. Over 900 years back, it was a small, small Baltic country.

It’s my motherland. I was born there, my first steps there, my first words there, my education there; it’s my land. We have some relatives there. Of course there’s some warm nice feelings. So there’s some part of us here, and there’s some part of us there.

At age 7, I decided to be a doctor. And, I got where I wanted. I was working in emergencies, in my country. But coming here, and with all these barriers and with family, you have to make some choices. I wanted to step down to be available to my family, to be available after 5 o’clock, and to be home and everything. So, I stepped down, and I started to work as a tech and now I’m a manager at a practice. Now, I’m happy, very happy.

The only thing is that I miss patients, I miss my medical background, and I miss that, because right now, especially past eight years, I’ve only had an administrative job.

A “Complicated” Family

Before World War II, half of my family came from St. Petersburg, which is Russia. So during war they escaped and came to Estonia. Some part coming from St. Petersburg, and my other side is the German side. So after World War II, my parents were born and the family stayed there. And, that’s how it was.

My mother is Estonian; her family comes from Germany. My father comes from St. Petersburg. My grandfather’s from St. Petersburg, and some relatives still live there. Some relatives in St. Petersburg, some in Germany, and whoever came before and during war, some of them stayed and started families in Estonia. Because Estonia was kind of in between.

My parents kept me aside, because I wasn’t accepted by one side and then I wasn’t accepted by another side. It was difficult. It was very difficult. I was not allowed to be in any family pictures on one side of the family, and I wasn’t accepted on the other side of the family. It was very, very difficult for me. And, that could change people. Thank God my parents are still together. It’s a very strong family. And, you take it as it is; trying to make your life easier. You can’t change the facts, you can’t change your relatives, but you have to deal with it. That’s your life, so you have to make the best out of the situation.

I am good with both sides these days. How it’s influenced me? I’ve become more independent. I was thinking who I should be and who I would be, not to follow anybody, not to harm anybody, not to make any bad choices. So, I guess I had to make myself, not in a different way, but I guess in my own way. And I respect um all traditions and I respect all holidays, but I’m very personal inside.

Raising a Daughter

My daughter was born here. She went to day care, to a Russian day care. All learning, all singing, all subjects were in Russian language. And, she went to elementary school for six years, and she had to take Russian language twice a week: read and write. At home, it was Russian-language, and sometimes she didn’t like it and she had to answer in English. But, now she knows how to read and write. She reads newspapers all the time. And, I think it’s great. She went to Estonia. Estonia has a different language, and she learned quite a few words and sentences. My mother speaks Estonian and Russian, since she was a native Estonian. So, I was exposed to a few languages in the family, and I daughter is exposed to multiple languages as well.

I have a story about my daughter. Once, I was called into the principal’s office during her elementary school. Because, they were learning about the letter ‘S’ in school. So every student had to say a word that started with the letter ‘S.’ So, when the principal called me, I came. So the teacher talked to me, and everyone was saying “sun” or “smile,” so this young lady says to the teacher, “you’re silly.” And the principal says to her, you can’t talk to teacher like this. You can’t call her silly, even if it starts with an ‘S.’ So, I sit down with her and tell my daughter, “you can’t call the teacher silly, even if she is at some point and it starts with the letter ‘s.’ Sometimes, you can’t say your thoughts out loud.” She says, “mommy, I didn’t.” I said “yes, you did. You called the teacher silly.” She replied “I didn’t say she is stupid.” So, I said to the principal that she’s right. It starts with the letter ‘s.’ But that was a good lesson to not share your thoughts with teachers or most people.

I am very proud of my daughter, as a mother. Expectations: she’s met most of them. I hope she’s gonna be happy. That she’s gonna achieve her own goals, because for me to be happy, I have to see my daughter happy. She’s a very good girl. I’m proud of her. I am sure, I am sure she’s gonna get where she wants to get. I hope she’ll be happy and have a lot of grandkids.

The American Psyche

I dealt with America like every one else. I don’t think America is a culture. I think it’s a mixture of different cultures. And it’s a great country, because anybody can be who they are, they can keep their traditions, and America opens this opportunity that you wouldn’t have maybe in other countries. At the same time, you’re exposed to different things, so you have a great opportunity learn and experience life in general. So, it gives you lots and lots of choices. It is a free country.

Actually, the first time I came here, it was not my intention to stay here. I really liked how it felt here. Then, I went back to my country, and I missed America. I missed how I felt here. I felt the air is fresher and I felt better here as a person. Maybe because of my family. I just felt great and that’s what made me come here.

I came to America from a very conservative country, with very deep long traditions. And, I um think people had fewer choices in their lives and everything in Estonia. I think it is a great country. They give free education, a good education, the people are nice, they’re smart and they’re honest, but they would close their doors to me. When you’re here, you just know the country is yours, it’s very difficult to explain.

America is everything; everything you see is America. It depends what you want in your life. It gives you choices. You see here everything you want to see.

The transition to America was very easy, because when you’re here, in Brooklyn, you’re surrounded by Russian-speaking people, Russian food, Russian day cares, and obviously Russian elementary schools. Basically, you replace leaving in a way with more opportunities. I didn’t feel very negative. I came here the feel that this is mine. I have to live here to, so I have to make the best out of the situation. That part to me was easy.

This is my home now. Estonia is my home and it’s my families home. Of course, they come visit here, but my home is here. My home is where my family is and my family is here.

Last time we went to Estonia was three years ago, and we’re planning to go back soon. But, my parents coming here often, so do my cousins. And, I speak with them every single week. I have to call there. I have to speak with them. With my aunts, with my grandmothers, with everybody there.

Here is where everybody has a place. Everybody can find their place.

Ms. Bella Pico’s family was doing just fine in Ecuador. However, Ms. Pico decided to move to the United States to give her children a chance at a better future and better seguridad. She has lived in her current apartment for twenty-one years, and has become quite acquainted with lugares beyond Jackson Heights. She has raised six kids of her womb and one other to be successful in the career paths they have chosen and to have a priceless personality.

Education and Career

Ms. Pico aspired to become a nurse. But alas, her dreams could not be fulfilled when she gave birth to her very first son. “It is very difficult,” she says. Although Ms. Pico was young at heart, she took her new responsibility head on, putting aside her own wishes. Her lack of an educational degree, however, is atoned for through her childrens’ educations and careers.

Ms. Pico’s eldest son, Raul, is an electrical engineer and resides in Long Island. Her second son is a Programmer, and he majored in Computer Science. Her third son, Carlos, works in a hospital after majoring in Computer Science. Similarly, one of Ms. Pico’s daughters, still back in Ecuador, is a journalist; she recently covered news for the big Earthquake that has occurred as well as its after-effects.

Although Ms. Pico’s kids are successful in their lives, she choses to support herself by babysitting down the street during weekdays. On week nights, Ms. Pico supplements her income by tailoring “curtain, this pillows, the dress … arreglar la ropa, when the sleeve long … the jacket or coat and the long pants.”

Ms. Bella Pico’s work station

Family and Health

In Ms. Pico’s legacy, a joint family system is not the costumbre. She says, “In my country, when they marry, go home … separate.” Every son and daughter fends for themselves once married. Therefore, all of Ms. Pico’s sons moved out of her apartment once they had been wed. Still, they have managed to maintain a close knit family – Ms. Pico visits her sons in Long Island every weekend, and she visits her her children in Virginia every so often.

Ms. Pico’s son, Raul, lives in Long Island with his wife and two kids, while Ms. Pico’s second child has a similar situation but with one kid only. Carlos lives in Jackson Heights and has a wife and child. Ms. Pico’s daughter in Virginia has bred three kids, two of which have chosen medicine and business paths while the third is still in high school. Although Ms. Pico’s daughter in Ecuador is divorced, she has also bred three children, two of whom are interested in medicine and architecture while the third finishes up high school.

Ms. Pico may have made some sacrifices for her family, but her face immediately lights up as she speaks about any of her children or grandchildren. When she speaks about her husband, though, her tone changes to a more concerned sound: “My husband is very sicks. He has a condition de health. It’s not good. The first time he had the cancer, leukemia. After, six, seven, eight years, continue with the lupus. Lupus is a condition very, very bad. He has ten years with the lupus. It’s terrible. It’s terrible. He health is not good.” Ms. Pico serves her husband soup and puree because he is unable to swallow whole foods.

Ms. Pico pushes aside all the troubles she has and continues to endure in order to spend quality time with her family during holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. These holidays are especially significant for the family, as they all make sure to be in one place, whether that place is Virginia or whether that place is New York City. Ms. Pico explains, “All go to Virginia or they coming here. Cook. And Thanksgiving is more eat turkey. And Christmas, sometimes hen; different things my country. My country its more for the provincia de El ceviche. It’s typical food.”

Impact

Ms. Pico did not only raise her own children to be successful, but she also cared for another child in the neighborhood: “Before, I care the other child in here, care for eleven years. Live in the other side of this building. They say, ‘grandma.’ They coming here with the my daughter is coming de Virginia, staying with us Christmas, Thanksgiving … When the 9/11, Arianna had the two years, and me crying with looking the building down and me crying, crying. She hug me and say, “No cry Mommy Bella, no cry Mommy Bella.’” It seems so surprising that a supposed stranger can form a bond so strong with her caretaker that she not only cares for her at a time of need, but also refers to her as “Mommy Bella.” “I say, ‘Ariana, nice letters please. She said, ‘Mama Bella, here is America.’”

In addition to her impact on her NYC neighborhood, Ms. Pico continues to remain a strong force for her home country. Along with donations from many other members of NYC, Ms. Pico and her son were able to send milk and medicine to support babies in Ecuador during the recent Earthquake crisis.

Mitsuka Attys’s Interview

as told to Michel Fallah

            Mitsuka Attys’s family wanted a better life in America. Not knowing much about the country except for New York City’s existence, Mitsuka’s grandmother, the first in her family to immigrate to the United States, attained her green card and started a new life in New York. Moving back and forth from birth until the age of about seven, Mitsuka has learned the importance of maintaining her Haitian roots in her current narrative. As a growing teen in New York’s Flatbush community, she is able to embrace both her own experiences as well as her family’s stories and, in the process, live in the middle ground between her new identity and her old heritage.

Mitsuka Attys, Age 20

Haitian with a Japanese Name

My father, he gave me the name and apparently my mom told me that it was a name that was found in a book. It’s a Japanese name so often people ask me like, where did that name come from? You’re Haitian but you have a Japanese name! 

Emigration from Haiti to “New York”

Its kind of a funny story too because there’s this circulating joke around the Haitian diaspora that always says that people in Haiti the only three cities they know of that exist in the Unites States are New York, Miami, and Boston… instead of saying that they’re going to the United States, they say they’re going to New York.

Nothing Sweeter than Haiti

We have a mango tree and we could take a bunch of mangoes and put them in a bucket, and people come and take it and go home with it. I love the mangoes, the cherries because you could grow cherries in the backyard. We also have passion fruit which you don’t really find here. There’s also this other fruit called abiko which is apricot which over here you don’t find it as much either but I love the food, the fruits, the juices that they make out of the fruits. I love the sweets that they have over there. There’s this thing in Haiti that they call a frisco which is like a snow cone and they have the shaved ice with a bunch of syrups and usually the grownups, the older people in the country, they get theirs with nuts in them, like peanuts… my favorite flavor was coconut and I loved it ‘cause the syrup tastes so natural.

Spiritually Connected

I am Seventh-Day Adventist so we’re a Christian denomination where we serve the Sabbath just like the Jewish people would. From Friday sundown to Saturday sundown, that’s our Sabbath… I spend my whole Saturday at church and during that time we don’t work, we don’t study, we don’t go to school, we basically keep it very religious and try not to get involved in secular events or secular things during our Sabbath time.

The 2010 Haiti Earthquake

The earthquake happened on January 12, 2010 and I was in eighth grade at the time. I remember on that exact day I was staying home from school because I was having a really bad stomachache… my grandmother had come over during her break from work to, you know, come make me soup… as soon as she left I was watching CNN news and then there was like this big blast of information that they had saying that a 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti. And I’m here like losing my mind because I had never really heard about, you know, I read about earthquakes in textbooks and all that stuff, but I never really thought that it would be happening in real life and, you know, not to mention close to home… so then I called my grandmother right away and I was just like ‘Did you hear?! You know they said a 7.0 magnitude earthquake just hit Haiti!’

Misconstrued Messages

I remember during that time it was so hard to get in contact with anyone … but somehow they got in contact with some of our family in Canada who had contact with people in Haiti, and I remember it was so hard to get the truth and the messages translated out… I got a message where somebody told me that my mom died… so I’m here like crying and balling and all that stuff because you’re telling me that my mom died, but turns out it was false information… Then, after that, they told me that her leg got broken but that’s not what happened.

The Injuries and Casualties

Our house in Haiti at that time was two levels so there were two floors. What happened to the house was the first floor went down to the ground and the second floor took the place of the first floor… there was a staircase in the back of the house that connects the first floor and the second floor… everyone tried to run out at that time so the rubble fell on my mother and she was under there for 12 hours. Right now she lost a finger and a half so this finger, the index finger, is gone on the left hand and half of this finger. And she also broke her arm so about a month later she had to come into New York after we kept pleading her to come into the states to try to get it fixed. My sister, she had her neck split open, down here, during the earthquake and also her jaw got broken because she was stuck under the rubble also but they were able to get her out, but my mom it took way longer. My dad was at work at the time so he wasn’t affected. My uncle, who was living in the house with my family, he died in the earthquake. He died on the spot… Not a nanny, but we had this servant, like a maid, working with us and she died on the spot, too.

What Makes Us a Haitian Family

The big things for Haitian parents are legliz which is church, lekòl you know school and lakay, home, so these are like three big components for Haitian families.

Coming from a “Statistically Poor Country”

I feel like often times people in America, they had a bad view of Haitians. They always thought that you were from a statistically poor country so it’s like for them, how well can you do in life because you’re from a poor country?

Celebrating Haitian Independence Day with Soup

During New Years, we have this thing called soup joumou which is squash soup or pumpkin soup…we basically usually eat it for the rest of the week. And basically the soup is supposed to symbolize how we got our freedom because in Haiti at some point the slaves were not allowed to eat pumpkin soup. It was a commodity that was thought to be for the high class people, only which were the white people and the mulattoes at that time so when the Haitians slaves got their freedom from their capturers or whatever, to celebrate, they drunk pumpkin soup.

Céline Dion Fans United

One of my favorite artists is Céline Dion, and I think it’s because of the Haitian house that I grew up in because Haitians, they like love Céline Dion. Every Haitian, you tell them about Céline Dion, they know who she is. So I grew up listening to a lot of her songs and wanting to sing like her, and that’s how I really got into it and I never stopped.

French Creole is My Language

I also sing in a singing group that I have, well, that me and a couple of my friends have from different Seventh-Day Adventists Haitian churches. We’ve come together and made a singing group where we go around, we sing at concerts, we administer during Sabbath worship… we have mostly French songs because we are all from Haitian churches, and the Haitian churches that we attend, they speak Creole and French… This is why my family like they always snicker at people who don’t teach their children Creole or French because they want you to be in touch with your culture.

Haiti IS Significant

Last year, I found the Haitian American Student Association on campus, HASA for short, and I entered. I went to some of their events. We had the taste of Haiti where my mom cooked some dishes to expose the campus to Haitian cooking, and they also had a Miss Haiti pageant which kinda forced me to learn more about my culture … we were competing with one another to see who could win the crown and I was representing Jacmel… I learned a lot about the role that Haiti played on a global scale in terms of like assuring the Louisiana Purchase for the U.S. and all these different things that I had no idea that Haiti was involved in. In my head, it’s almost like the American society got to my head making me think that my country was small and that it wasn’t really significant but being in that pageant taught me that Haiti really did play a large role for a whole bunch of other countries. We were the largest exporter of sugar at some point. It helped so many countries out and it’s not something I was exposed to to realize that Haiti was that important to the world.

My Dream

I hope to become a practicing physician one day. And if I’m not there, I hope to be in the health field somehow… One of my biggest dreams that I want is to be able to go back in Haiti and help the underserving community.

Herlinda Diaz came illegally to America at the age of 18, leaving her home country of Mexico. Wide spread corruption in Mexico City had destroyed, in her eyes, any possible future in her home country. She came with her husband to America with the primary goal to raise their children in an environment of opportunity and safety, neither of which Mexico could provide. Coming illegally to the States has brought many hardships for Herlinda and her family. While living under the shadows has been a struggle, she still sees America as a ray of light and opportunity.

Growing Up
“I remember I like to run in the forest because it was so beautiful.”

“I was the child of a single mother. I don’t have a father.”

Love and Judgment
“I met my husband when I was seventeen. The people in town would say that “the woman is looking to run away from the house.” They don’t like it. There were many troubles.”

Corruption at Home
“I miss many things, because it is my country. That’s where I was born. I don’t like how they manage things, the politicians. I don’t want to be there. These is many corruptions. It has beautiful places. It has beautiful people. But it also has bad things.”

“There is a corruption with the police. There is a corruption with the senators. Also the guns, there are a lot there.”

“My husband and I, we tried to get a business in Mexico. A transport business. He has a big truck. He transports products from state to state. Always the police stopped him and take money. Also when somebody else do something wrong and you go to the police, the police say “You know, if you have money, we can follow it, if you don’t, we can do nothing” Those are the kind of things I don’t like about Mexico. Maybe if cut the corruption, maybe I can go back.

A Better Life for My Children
“The place I was born did not have a lot of necessities, had a lot of poor people, and I did not want that for my family. I married so young, so when I decided to come to the United States I did not want to have that sort of life for my child.

“Yes, you know because, I look in my childhood, my youngest life, and I don’t like that kind of life for them. And right now I say “thank you America” It gave me the opportunity to bring my kids here”

Impressions of America
“I remember when I was seven years old, I listened to the people “Oh when you live in the United States, it’s beautiful, you can buy anything you want, you can do anything you want. So I grow up with that kind of memories. So when I decide to come, it was because my uncle went there and he said “oh, I have the car, I have the house, I have everything that I want” So I said I want that for me. It doesn’t matter the price. What is the price? The price is to cross the border.”

“It was not so beautiful, that’s how I would describe. Yeah, the train smell bad, the house was so old. So I said “uh oh, I don’t think this is what I want.” But I say “Well, I will be here and I will fight for what I want and a better life for my child.”

“I say thanks to America. Because I met people from the other countries, from the other cultures, from like different type of people. So I like the melting pot of this city.”

Challenges of a New Life
“When I first came to the United States, it was really so hard for the immigrants. So the first obstacle there was the language. There was also missing the family, the city, your relatives. You can fight for whatever you want, but it was forceful to get that.“

Racism from an Unexpected Source
“The first racist was you know, this is curious, but this was the Mexican people. Because I did not speak English and did not understand a lot. They speak English and they were racist to me. So I said okay, I will fight to learn English. I start to learn in private school, I paid for that. And also I tried to improve my English to get a better life, not just for me, but for also for my kids.”

The Looming Shadow of Trump
“I am scared Donald Trump will win the presidency. I guess he doesn’t have an idea how the immigrants, not only the Mexicans, even around the world, how they suffer from racists and are fighting to be part of the United States. If he say all the Mexicans are bad people. You need to show him he is false. You are coming to work hard and fight. Not fight for the wrong things, but fighting to get a place in this country.

“Trump says every immigrant are bad. It’s not true. All cultures have bad and good people”

Mexican Culture vs. American Culture
“Mexican culture is more closer. Because right here the family is lonely. Right here the family is father, mother, and child. In Mexico, it not like that. It’s all of the extended family together around the table. But it also makes troubles. Because they don’t respect the life of each other.
The sister and the brother says “you need to do this, you need to do that”, I don’t like that part of Mexico.

The Struggles of the Undocumented Job
“The boss of my job was Ecuadorian. I used to make $3.25 an hour. The minimum wage was $5.75. That’s a lot of money they were stealing from me. All those things I remember in my heart. I don’t know how Spanish people can make other Spanish people not have the same standards of life. My life wasn’t easy. But in Spanish I say “pero tu me necesitar”, but you needed me. I kept fighting and I worked so hard and a lot of hours. I said, “okay thank you, I don’t want to be here anymore.”

“Then I start to work for the pharmacy, so I need to lie. The pharmacist told me you need to say that you came from the other states and that you are a citizen to work here. So I feel bad for that. Because I never lie. I didn’t know I need to lie to get a job.”

Herlinda’s Thoughts on the Responsibility of Being in America
“Some immigrants say when we cross the border, that it is the biggest obstacle and we jump it. It’s not true. We need to jump the dialect, the culture, to try be part of this culture. So we need to fight. Some immigrants fall into assistance and start to have kids and go to the government and system to support them. I don’t feel that is good. We are running away from our country because there is no opportunity, we come to America because there is opportunity. There is many things you can do to support yourself.

Productivity Is My Passion
“I love to read and I love to make arts and crafts. So that’s my passions, reading something and try to do something productive. My dream job would be a wedding planner”

To Stay or Not to Stay
“My child I must support them, maybe then I can go back to Mexico. But, only when I feel that I get my dreams to get a better life for my children. My husband wants to go back now, but I don’t want to. This is the fighting with each other. He wants to go back. He doesn’t feel part of this country. And he says “how do you feel part of this country, if they are racist, if you need to do the jobs that even the citizens don’t want to do. Why do you want to be here if you get less money that the citizens get for the same job?” And I said “because America gave me everything that I want. Right here, I finish my high school diploma, I learn English, if I stayed in Mexico I would never do it because I have no money.”

You Gotta Do What You Gotta Do
“People don’t understand when I say that you need to be focused in your dreams and your goals and follow them. Don’t quit. They say that “you are so strict, you are so mean.” Some people say I’m so rude sometimes. I say you need to do it because you need to do it, not because you want. If you need to do something, do it. It doesn’t matter how long its taking. Some people don’t understand, especially in my circle of friends. If you don’t sleep, don’t sleep. Because I need to do it. Because I want to show that I can stay in the United States. Now with Trump, why does he think like that? Maybe he has bad experience with Mexicans. I don’t know. So I need to be focused.

Karina Yushchenko was born into poverty in Odessa, Ukraine. When her parents, whose loyalty resided with the dissolved USSR, not Ukraine, had the opportunity to come to the United States, they jumped at the opportunity to make a better life for themselves and their 3-year-old daughter. Now, that 3-year-old is 19, and could not be more thankful that she grew up in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn.

Karina Yushchenko in 2016

Before Karina

“My mom is Jewish- my dad is not. My dad’s parents didn’t like my mom because she was Jewish.”

“My mom had to have a Jewish star on her passport and certain colleges wouldn’t take her because of that.”

“My mom [went to college] in Ukraine, my dad didn’t.”

“My parents met in junior high, they dated since they were 13 and got married at 19, when I was born.”

Life in Ukraine

“[I was born in] Odessa, Ukraine, on May 31, 1996.”

“[It was] poor, I lived in an apartment with my grandparents and my other grandparents and my aunt and my uncle and my parents and four dogs.”

“McDonald’s is like a 5-star restaurant in Ukraine. It’s super fancy.”
“The main city [of Odessa] is pretty.”

“They don’t like Jewish people in Ukraine.”

“Everything is fair here whereas in Ukraine everything is about money. If you have money there you’ll be set you get the best school the best everything but if you don’t have money you get nowhere.”

“I went back [to Ukraine] when I was 9 and 11. I didn’t like it. It was old, not fun, I didn’t know anyone there.”
“[I miss the] countryside of Ukraine. We had a country house with [acres] of flowers and fruits.”

“I visited [Ukraine] a few times. Everything’s old, it’s pretty poor. No one buys new apartments, everything is super [old. There’s] no air conditioning, no heating. Everything is crap the government doesn’t do anything.”

The Decision to come to America

“[I came to the United States] when I was 3, in 1999.”

“My parents applied for a [United States] Visa, but they never heard back so they bought and renovated an apartment, got a dog, and then as soon as everything was finished, they got the Visa.”

“My dad didn’t want to come [to the United States] but my mom said, ‘I’m taking our daughter and leaving, you can stay or you can come with us.’”

“[My parents] came here for a better life. My mom likes it [here] a lot more than [the Ukraine]. My dad didn’t like it [at first]. He was depressed for years because he didn’t speak English, so it took him a while [to adjust]. But they like it!”

First Arriving in America

“There’s a video of me hysterically crying when I came to America because everyone spoke English and it freaked me out.”

“I danced when I was little with only Russian people. There was not a single American person there. [The students], owners, and teachers were all Russian.”

“I don’t think I knew other people [other than Russian people] existed until fifth grade.”

“My grandpa lived in Mil Basin, but Brighton Beach was all Russian-speaking and my parents only spoke Russian, so they automatically put us there. On Brighton 1^st street right by the boardwalk!”

“I went to a Russian private school, Bambi, [so] I didn’t learn English until the second grade.”

“Whenever someone spoke English to me I would freak out and cry.”

“It took me a while to get used to new people.”

“[For new immigrants], a good start would be to come to Brighton Beach because everyone there speaks Russian and can always help you out.”

“Brighton is ‘little Russia,’ so it’s easy to get used to.”

“You can get a job easily and use cash if you don’t have credit card information.”

The Transition from Ukraine to America

“My dad only speaks Russian at home. His English is severely broken, it’s bad.”

“My mom can speak English, but I laugh at her [because] she has the heaviest accent.” “My dad only speaks Russian at home. His English is severely broken, it’s bad.”

“My mom can speak English, but I laugh at her [because] she has the heaviest accent.”

“My mom was a housewife, and then she came here and worked in a jewelry store. Then she went to a trade school and now she works at NYU. She’s a vascular technician.”

“My dad was a truck driver for furniture, and now he has been doing maintenance for the past 12 years [here].

“I didn’t have to do anything [to become a citizen] because I was under 18, I was 17. My parents only did it because I had to go to Italy for my senior trip [in high school and] I needed a passport. It was $2800, and they had to take a written and a verbal test. They had to say a sentence in English and then they got it, and I got it through them. [We] gave up [our citizenship to the Ukraine]. It didn’t change much because we didn’t live in Ukraine, we didn’t associate with Ukraine. [My parents were loyal to the] USSR. We can still go there any time we want with an American passport, but my grandparents would have to get a visa [to come here].”

School and Education

“When I went to public school for one year I didn’t speak English and I got put into ESL and lower classes.”

“I wasn’t stupid; I knew all of the material it just took me a little longer.”

“I got classified as an immigrant who didn’t know anything, and I got picked on, [but] I had strong skin so I didn’t let it bother me.”

“Most of my friends were Russian. Not so much anymore [now, but I used to] hang out with all Russian people. We were in the same dance group, the same schools.”

“When I went to an American middle school, Mark Twain, I was shocked at all of the different types of people.”

“A semester ago I took a semester off because of loans. It’s too expensive.”

“I never liked school. I don’t want to finish but I know that at some point I’m going to have to.”

“My mom told me that college wasn’t for everyone [and supported me].”

“I liked [college] I obviously got some things out of it, but I wish I didn’t take out a $6,000 loan.”

“I have a lot of opportunities compared to [in Ukraine] I wouldn’t be able to do anything.”

Identity

“I heard my name means ‘queen.’”

“I don’t [religiously identify].”

“I was baptized, I had a bat mitzvah, but I don’t identify as either one.”

“My parents are in denial about it, they will say that I am Jewish or Christian.”

“I’m less Russian than a lot of my Russian friends, I identify as an American. [However,] If someone were to tell me, ‘you’re not Russian,’ that would piss me off and I would [say], ‘yes I am!’”

“I have a lot of Russian characteristics and I associate a lot with Russia [through] my way of dressing and my hair.”

“I have a Russian accent.”

“I speak both [languages] at home. I’ll start a sentence in English and end it in Russian, or start in Russian and end in English.”

“I feel like I became very American very quick, I prefer it [here] better.”

“[When I was younger I wanted to be] a pediatrician. I still want to work with kids but I don’t want to pursue the medical aspect, I’m not good with sick kids.”

Family

“My family in Ukraine refuses to come here.”

“[I have] a little brother, [who was] born in 2005, [in the United States].

“My brother is super American. He likes his football. He goes to a Russian school, but he has no accent. We are very different.”

“My brother speaks, writes, and reads in Russian but he learned it here and I learned it [in Ukraine]. My grandparents are here from Ukraine now and he has a harder time talking to them than I do. His Russian is [very] broken.”

“My grandma is constantly [making me eat!]”

“[My grandmas is] here for two months to visit and help out. My dad’s mom.”

“My mom’s mom refuses to leave Ukraine.”

“I want my kids to know [the] Russian [language], and I’ll cook Russian food, but my kids will probably be more American.”

“My dad would love me to marry someone who’s Russian, my mom wouldn’t care, but I don’t think it’s going to happen.”

“All of my family is still in Ukraine [except for my nuclear family.]”

“They won’t admit it, but [my parents] miss their family.”

“My dad misses his sisters, and they Skype all the time but it’s not the same.”

“My mom talks to her family through the messaging app Viber.”

“I don’t miss my family [in Ukraine], I don’t know them.”

Life Now

“I get jobs a lot easier, I know a lot of people. If you go to Russian neighborhoods they will automatically hire you once they find out you speak Russian.”

“I’m a medical assistant at a dermatology office. I came in for an interview to be a regular administrative assistant, and then they [said], ‘oh you speak Russian? We need a Russian person to be a medical assistant do you want to do that?’ and I said, ‘I have zero experience whatsoever but sure!’”

“All I eat is Russian food at home. When I go out, I prefer American food like McDonald’s and wings and French fries!”

Loose Words

“They came and then they winged it!”

“My grandparents want me to get married now, [at 19] I’m getting old for back there! They aren’t happy with my current, Polish, boyfriend.”

“All Russian people love Russian people.”

“I am absolutely thankful [my parents came here].”