"Crossing Flatbush Avenue" by Felix Herby Bien- Amen

My name is Felix Herby Bien- Amen it is different just like many other things about me .I am from Haiti and my story starts here, when I went to the airport .There was a storm raging and as a result I could not come to America . My cousins and relatives who came to say good bye to me at the airport were joking America does not want you .You are good here with us. What was supposed to be a sad farewell turned in to one of the best memories of my life .I am so glad there was storm and I got to spent one more night with my family and relatives. I came to America on February seventeenth 2008.This farewell was much more painful and different from the other night .The hug my mom gave me explained everything she did not have to say more .When he was saying this his eyes filled with tears . When I came to the American airport I remembered what my cousins jokes and in the mist of feeling sorrow I smiled at that memory.
I came to America to mainly study so all the stories I heard about money and riches did not affect me nor influence me .My sole purpose of coming to America was education .Before coming to America I thought it would be a place full of rich and clean people who spoke good English .When I use to watch movies and T.V shows it showed beautiful cities filled with tall buildings and modern architecture but when I came here some streets from Haiti looked better than some of the streets of Brooklyn .The buildings in America are cooped up and small in my country houses are bigger more spacious .In America the tall buildings were not as pretty as the ones in the movies .To me the streets and homes of my country have more charm and grace than here . I had a big back yard in Haiti , my house was surrounded by trees of many fruits mangoes ,guava ,nectar and much more .While on the subjects of fruits let me just say they are ten times better than the ones here .The food over there was much more fresh and tastier than the ones here . Or maybe it’s the fact that my mother use to cook it with love.
Another thing I noticed about people in America they just worked and worked trying to make money. They led very busy lives with no time to appreciate the little things in life. Americans just cared for themselves no cousins or uncles or aunts seem very important to them no one helps another relative in need in Haiti everyone in your relatives is counted as your family. We grow up as one big family there are of course ups and downs but the fun is also great. They did not care for parents when they got old I learned what a nursing home was and it applauded. Back home parents were taken care of by their children when they got old not put away in a nursing home. I do not mean to criticize Americans it’s just that it is very different then my culture. I miss my home and culture very greatly.
Enough about home back to America I expected that the school system would be very advanced but the things I learned in junior high back home kids over her were learning in high school this surprised me. Also the kids here were so disrespectful I was shocked in Haiti you were very respectful towards your teacher. In America the students cursed shouted and fought with their teachers. If I have children I will not raise them here I will go back to Haiti and raise them there. I might keep them in America up to the age five but after that I am taking them back to Haiti to raise them, after seeing kids here no way. When I got to college I felt allot better. The kids were much calmer and I was learning stuff at my level. My interest was not in biology or physics these things bored me I wanted to do something I liked. So I decided to go for computer sciences I liked math and computers. I enrolled in KBCC and am proud to say I have a 3.9 average .I also joined the soccer team and played for the college because I use to play soccer back home too. This gave me some comfort and a good way to spend my time .So while studied and played I also worked in school I work in the C.I department of course .I enjoy working in that department it is a great place to work in I would like to graduate and go for a higher position . All this kept me occupied until I got home that’s when I needed something else to do to keep me busy. So I did my second most favorite thing I hung out in my room and played or I should say made beats on my computer .I loved to dance and it gave me a sense of satisfaction to make beats that I could enjoy dancing or listening to .
I liked college life it was tolerable unlike the cold weather here. Which was un bearable the first time I saw snow I thought how beautiful but as soon as I stepped outside I changes my mind .because I came inside with a bruised back side . Before my story goes much longer I have a few more things to share .I have not yet told the things I like about this country one this country has to offer is that if you mess up in life there is always a second chance waiting for you . If you want to make yourself something or become someone America offers that dream to you just have to make it come true. There are many opportunities in America that Haiti does not offer like very good colleges, health care, financial assistance in school and much more. Also in Haiti I would have partied much more than in America but being here I party less and focus more on my studies.
I have responsibilities towards my younger brother who will look up to me for guidance. So if I mess up what will he follow also my mom is spending so much money on me I have to reach my goal and dream for her also .I miss my mom her food her cooking her motherly love . I come home to an empty house and I remember my house filled with so much laughter so much love but then I tell myself it’s not for long. I will go back to Haiti once my goal and dream is complete .One day I see myself as the head chairman of the computer department I work for. I am living in America with allot of responsibilities and it has made grow up and be more mature it has also changed me somewhat characteristically but over all I still long to be home and I will one day for now I am still pursuing my dream.

Crossing Flatbush Avenue by C. H.

Project: Interview with Ms. Norma E. Lovelace.

Today I’m taking a stroll along Church Avenue, East 46th. Street. This is a part of East Flatbush. I’m going to visit and talk with someone who has befriended me since I came to this country.

My interviewee began her story like this. “Many times people talked about coming to America when you are from the “Islands” and that America will solve all your problems, but we have a saying in my home country, “See me and live with me ah two different things.”

I am originally from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and I have lived in the United States for the past twenty-one years. Most of my family members are living in Florida; only two of my daughters are still living in St. Vincent.

When I came to this country I worked in different homes as a house keeper, then my eldest daughter encouraged me to go back to school and study for the Home Health Aide, after I passed the exam I stopped housekeeping and started to work with an Agency to take care of elderly patients. I did this until I retired in 2006. Now I’m retired, I spend most of my time travelling to Florida where I can be with my children and see my grand children, I also knit, I knit scarves, bedspreads and skirts for my family members and friends.

Every time anyone asks me the question why I came to America, I can only say that I was in search of a better life. I wanted to get away from my abusive husband and being a business person who owned a restaurant, I thought that business was becoming very slow because too many restaurants were being opened. I expected to find a good job in a home when I came here, because I pride myself on being a good cook. I also thought that people would be more helpful and generous.

People from my country who came here before, when they came back home painted a picture of the U.S. people being very accommodating to people who were in need. That was far off by a long margin. My life turned out to be just what I made of it. I learned fast that you have to learn to depend on yourself and don’t look to anyone for help. She then interjected another saying, “God helps those who help themselves.” She said that this was always her motto. Sometimes even my sister will tell me in the early days that she could not see the reason for me to give up my business and house at home and come here to struggle. I told her that life is a struggle and that I was not doing it for myself but for my children so they can have a better life than what I had.

My lifestyle has changed to a certain degree. I’m not that naïve; I don’t take things for granted as I used to do. I ask questions and I’m not afraid to stand up for what I believe. I also don’t trust people as easy like before. Since I live here, sometimes I become very nostalgic about my home country, especially around Christmas time, that was such a lovely time home, with all the family coming together, the Nine Mornings of caroling which is uniquely Vincentian, that’s the time I miss most. I tried not to think of the unhappy times, I’m just thankful to God that he has spared my life to see my grandchildren.

I’m a U.S. citizen. I became a U.S. Citizen because I regard this country as my home now. Becoming a citizen has helped me to get my children here so that they can continue to pursue their education. I see myself as an American; I have the privilege to speak my mind against anything that I deemed unfair. This country has helped me to get away from my husband who was very abusive.

I have never had any problem with immigration since I’m in this country. The only problem was when I went to Barbados to do my processing for U.S. residency, then I was told they could not process me without my husband consent, can you believe that, after all those years, I had filed for divorce, thought I got rid of the man and now I had to get a judge to write an official letter stating that I was divorce because he did not sign the divorce paper. That was a shock to me because I thought that it was over and done with.

I do keep in touch with my two daughters that are home, and every other year I go home and visit with them. My last daughter, she is the Chief Veterinary Surgeon at home, and my other daughter is a teacher. I would like to go back later in my life if it’s God’s Will. To spend my last days just puttering in my garden or sitting on the veranda just listening to the sound of the ocean.

I ended the interview by asking her what kind of advice she gives her children. She smiled and said, “You know these young people, they don’t really like to take advice, but I tell mine to live every day as if it’s their last one, help everyone who come to you for help because you never know it may an angel you are helping, and also go to school and get a good education because that’s the only how you will get out in life.” She also gave me that as my advice.

"Crosssing Flatbush Ave" Rosa D. Herrera

Rosa Delia Herrera is an immigrant from Dominican Republic. She was raised and born in the Santo Domingo, which is the capital. Currently, living in the Bronx. She has 43 years old. She is married and has three children. “I have 25 years living in New York, I miss my country but I do not want to go live there again because life is much easier over here. Life for me was not so easy because instead of going to school I had to take care of my siblings so my parents can go work and provide us with what they can even if it was not much. I was sixteen years old when I first came to this country and it was hard for me because I left my sister and other siblings I grew up with, not only that I fell in love with my husband Pascual David Rodriguez. My father asked me when I came what I wanted to do I said “work so I can bring my future husband.” That was a hard choose for me and I did not want to go to school because I did not even finish school in Dominican Republic. When I found a job in a factory, I was so happy because I wanted to be independent and move out of my house so that way I can bring my future husband. While working in the factory, I earned some money and got my own apartment then, I went back to Santo Domingo to go visit Pascual and my family members. Pascual asked me to marry him and I accepted because I knew in my heart he was the man for me and still to this day Pascual and I are happily married. We have 24 years and still going (gracias a Dios).
“To be honest, life in New York is hard even in Santo Domingo. I feel in Santo Domingo is better because you are not always looking at your watch and do everything fast. The life in NY is fast pace. People are like robots go to work then home or work, school the home, back home is not like that, yes you have to do the same thing but you are more relaxed and have more time to spend with your family. In NY I hardly talk to my children all I do is tell them what I expect and what I do not want them to do. I try my hardest on Saturday’s or Sunday’s to spend time with them but they all have things to do. My oldest daughter goes to college and takes night school so I barely see her, my son is in culinary school and when he gets home he plays basketball and then comes home to eat then sleep and my youngest daughter is a teenager she just wants to be in myspace, texting and being locked in her room. We use to have a family day, but is hard with scheduling. In my house everyone has to speak Spanish unless my children are talking among each other. My children go almost every two years to Santo Domingo to go visit my family. I do not have plans to become a American citizen for what. I am Dominican not American, if the President wants to send me to my country, no problem. Immigrants in the U.S. have a hard time dealing with the language including me because I do not understand much and I prefer not to speak it because I am embarrassed and I have a strong accent. My children make fun of me because instead of saying “Home depot” I say “home pipo, they just laugh and correct me. For me to move back to Santo Domingo I would have to be economically stable because I have worked for many years and is hard to start from scratch. I would have to have a good job or a business so I can maintain myself and my husband even though he works. My children would have to be married and I can retire, but I am not planning on retiring now, I’m to young and capable of doing things for myself still. I hope my children learn from me even though I am a manager at a McDonald’s it took me hard work to get to that position. I do not regret anything not even finishing school because I learn and I tell my children all the time “education is power.”

"Crossing Flatbush Avenue" S.B

I have known S.B for quite a few years. She is my mother’s friend. She has lived in the US for over twenty years, after immigrating at the age of 26. Her choice to live in the U.S came about because of a very personal matter that had to do with a relationship. She chose not to elaborate on any specifics, but the situation must have been extreme to cause her to give up everything and relocate. She is West Indian, and requested that I do not publish the name of her home country. She was reluctant to go through with this, but only chose to after I informed her that she could be completely anonymous.

I came to the America over 20 years ago, with the help of my then best friend. I left my job. I was a bank employee, living on my own and making an income that allowed me to live comfortably. I gave up everything, I don’t know what I expected at that time, but it was a complete disappointment to me when I arrived. I arrived in Brooklyn and stayed with my friend and her family. My first impression when I saw Brooklyn was utter amazement. The buildings were covered with all sorts of graffiti, and they just looked dilapidated. I thought this could not be the America where so many of my friend’s families were now living.

It was very disheartening. I remember at times I would cry all night, because I thought to myself that I didn’t want to be in that situation. It was very frustrating. After I was in the U.S for a few months, I had to look for an apartment of my own, because the apartment was tiny and one more adult was just not ideal. I found a very tiny apartment. I hated doing laundry and I could not believe that everyone, even strangers used the same washing machines to do their laundry. As simple as it may have seemed to others, I missed being able to hang my clothes out to dry in the sun. I remember trying to recall the smell of sun-dried clothes. There were times when I missed home so much, I felt like I was going mad.

To help get me through the days, I used to reminisce about going to work at home, and think about the position I would have held in the organization, had situations been different. I had planned to go back to school in about a year or so and get a degree in business; however, I was unable to do so because I had to constantly work to pay my bills. I eventually went back to school, and got my degree and became a social worker. There really is no one I am in contact with at home, I lost my mother when I was 3 yrs old, and was raised by my grandmother who past away when I was 19 yrs old, so my contact at home is minimal, therefore I have never returned home. I am not a U.S citizen, although I sometimes feel that I am, (as this has been my home for the past twenty years), and then I am reminded that I am not a citizen when there is an election and I’m not eligible to vote. Maybe I should consider becoming a citizen, I’ll think about it. Why not? I could have dual citizenship.

I think my experience, as an immigrant is very similar across the board. There are some who would have identical stories as mine and then there are others whose experiences would be horrific compared to my first experience living in this country.

"Crossing Flatbush Avenue". Kimi

Everybody who migrated to America came here in order to find better life than back in theirs homeland. When you ask people why did they decide to move here you could here: “because streets in the United states made from gold”, or “America is heaven”, or “There is free speech, there is democracy in here”, etc. all these are most common reasons why people are dreaming to come to United States.

I wasn’t exclusion. My name is Kimi. My American dream story started 20 years ago.

In 1989 there was a communism regime in Yugoslavia (Kosovo nowadays). If you don’t know what it means, I would just say that there was no free speech… even by saying something against communism you could get in the jail for as long as 25 years.

We had an extended family. That’s why when my uncles run away to America; we are (family members who left in the country), were discriminated. It was inappropriate to have a traitor in the family.

After living in such conditions I decided to do something to escape from that terror.

Of course, I had a dream to go to America, but according to situation that time I decided to try something closer... my choice came to Germany.

That’s how I left Kosovo in 1989.

I was a good engineer – contractor, that’s why it wasn’t a problem for me to find a job. I work for one German guy Ditor, he likes me for being hard worker and honest. He treated me like a son.

While living in Germany for 5 years I got a passport. Of course not without Ditor’s help. That’s how I got one step closer to reach my goal to come to America.

Now door for America were open for me!

One winter day in 1994 I arrived in the Chicago International Airport.

YOU ARE INTERESTING WHAT WAS MY FIRST EXPRESSIONS ABOUT AMERICA?

Shock! Upset! And this is place I was dreaming about? This is for what I left my beautiful life in Germany? Where can I get a ticket to go back?

The most memorable from first night being in America was A HUGE RAT, I saw right next to my bed in the motel I stayed.

My uncles came to pick me up to take to New York.

Few days I enjoyed staying with my family and afterwards I become “a slave”. What do I remember about my first year in USA? 18 hours work day in my uncle’s bakery, seeing no sun, no rest, and no money.

When I looked back at that time I realized how wrong I was about my family. By keeping in touch with them before they always used to say how sorry they are that we have to straggle because of them; how much they would like to help any of us if we would JUST COME TO America. In fact when I came here they scared me so much about strict rules for illegal and that a little mistake could cost me a trip back home. They knew our mentality and they manipulate me in the way which was comfortable for them. They even found “a lawyer” for me to get an immigration paper through asylum. They pretended that they pay him instead of giving salary to me.

While working in the bakery I spoke with one Albanian guy who had a construction company; he told me when he would have a job he would take me to work.

That’s how came a day when I left my uncle’s “sweet home”.

I had worked for that guy for 2 years. He paid me a little money, but still I had money in my hands and I did a job I like!

My next move was to work for some company where I would be able to learn language. 3 years in the country and I still couldn’t handle any simple conversation.

I worked for nasty Italian man, who use us as a 24/7 workers. But I had a reason why I was there and I kept going.

Those 2 years were enough for me to move forward again. I learnt a lot while working for that man, the way he does the business, the way he does the job. With a customer you have to be fair and you would be successful!

I bought used truck and some instruments and from that moment to nowadays I pray of the God for all goods I got in my life. Thank for his blessing.

Now after 10 years I can say I reached all goals I pointed for myself when I came to America. I built two houses for my family; I have cars and my lovely son.

I forgot to mention that as I found out later “the lawyer” my uncles found for me didn’t do anything with my paper process. After 5 years being in America I finally got legalization. That was a very good lesson for me: trust yourself and your eyes. Try to do everything yourself because people around you could be the worst enemies.

This country gives great opportunity for those who want to become somebody in this world, those who ready to work, learn, and go through a lot of difficulties.

From my experience I can say that in so many cases immigrants attain better life positions than people who born here and have all the privileges from the birth.

We are - immigrants- who have to go step by step, from getting legal in this country to building a new better life for us and our families.

"Crossing Flatbush Avenue" Roy Embrack

I was able to interview a good friend of my mom followed by a discussion. He left his home, St. Vincent, with the mind set of coming to a better and easier life. Did he eventually realize it was all a fraud. He and his family went on to living in Brooklyn and still is in the area of Church Avenue and is not thinking of returning to live back home, but makes occasional visits. Working hard and enjoying life to its max is the way he lives. This is his story.

My name is Roy Embrack and I left my home country, St. Vincent, 18 years ago to enter a new and better life here in America with my mother. I have family both here and back home that I keep in touch with all the time. I work as a Patient Liaison which is helping people and their families with non-medical questions/concerns. When I’m not working, I spend time with my family and friends whether if it’s from just sitting around conversing or doing something active. I like to go to the movies and I like to take long walks on nice days. Like I said before, I came to the U.S. for a better living, but it wasn’t as great as I expected it. I expected it to be an easier life with the expectations coming from family members that returned home with false impressions of what life in America would be like. Life is very rough; nothing is as easy as I thought it would be. One has to work twice hard in this America compared to the islands.

My command of English is very good. I still use my native language, but I do feel comfortable speaking English. My lifestyle has changed, but my values remain the same. No pressure in changing lifestyle, just have to adapt to new environment. I am a U.S. citizen. There are more benefits available to a citizen then to a non-citizen. I do not think of myself as an American, but the term “AMERICAN” to me means free society. Since I did not have a bad or terrible experience of immigration, I would say I had a common one or a little more than common; kind of better. I connect back home all of the time. I may visit home occasionally, contact them through the telephone and mail. I also watch the Caribbean channel to know what’s happening back home. I do have kids and I would like for them to know where their father is from. I took them to St. Vincent so they can meet the family and see the culture. In 10 years I should be retired and cruising around with my lady bug. I love to cruise to the islands, it’s beautiful and relaxing. I also see my kids and step kids living healthy and prosperous life without harassing me in my senior years. We all get old and age.

Crossing Flatbush Avenue: Overstay

I interviewed one of my dearest friends who preferred to remain anonymous. He moved to the States with his family when he was thirteen years old.

I’m from Guyana. I’ve been here since November 2002.

I lived in the rural part of Guyana, as opposed to the city which is more westernized or Americanized. My village didn’t have a lot of residential houses. It just had a lot of empty land and an army base, which was very cool because I was friends with the army guys and I was able to play with their AK47s …they were called GDF. And I got to sit in their boats.

The army base was there to, like, in case there was contraband ships from Suriname or Venezuela in the Corytine River or in the Atlantic Ocean in the area, the GDF… they would get on their jeeps and tow their speedboats to the water and once in a while you would see these really cool speedboat chases in the beach, you know. But my Village was pretty cool.

I lived, like, off the beach and you could have a hammock between two coconut trees and you could wake up and walk out of your hammock and there would be grains of sand between your toe…very white sand—sometimes brown sand and seashells—but they’d have a lot of watermelon vines because watermelon vines would grow around the coconut trees. There was also some squash trees –go figure--but the watermelon trees were awesome—not trees, they’re vines—they just grew wild…maybe at some point they were planted there, but it was just the perfect soil for watermelons.

And the really good watermelons—contrary to American watermelons—a really tasty, really succulent watermelon, has a very sandy taste to it. Like a very grainy, sandy, feeling to it…because it grows on sand…

The beach wasn’t blue water…it was brown water…not like a dirty brown but at the bottom of the beach were sediments or like, lots of sand sediments, it was not like a very solid bottom, just very sandy…so the water would appear like a brown…like my complexion…exactly like my complexion…you could see through it at some points…

It was a predominantly Hindu area so every Sunday morning you’d see people with Hibiscus flowers which are these red almost rose-looking flowers…it’s a very beautiful flower and almost everyone had one in their yard…

and on Sunday mornings the Hindus—my family was Hindu also—they would pick like three flowers each and go to the beach and… kneel at the end of the water where the waves would lap up to the shore. They would kneel at the end of the water, stare into the ocean, close their eyes bow their heads and pray…and when they were done praying—their hands were clasped around the flowers, by the way—they would put their hands down into the water, let the flower go. For some odd reason, the flowers would go in the opposite direction the waves were pushing them, so they’d go out into the river, or Ocean…it was reminiscent of what Indians do near the Ganges…so we kneeled before the Corentyne River and we’d pray and we let the flowers go.

The only other country I really heard stories of was America….and everyone wanted to go to America…where I come from, they would just say “’merica”.

Everyone was rich in ‘merica. Everyone had everything they wanted. Everyone had cookies and Cadbury chocolate and teddy bears and blue jeans….and everyone had sneakers…and lots of cookies in ‘merica. It was what every kid knew: if you want Cadbury chocolate, you go to ‘merica. Or you’d wait for someone to come from ‘merica and they’d give you Cadbury chocolate—you know those ones in the blue wrapper, shiny. Yeah, Cadbury milk chocolate…

When someone told me about ‘merica I couldn’t fathom it as being a real place…it was no different than a dream…there was no ‘merica in my head for real…I never managed to conceptualize where that place was from…

My mom would be like “Your uncle come from ‘merica today. Abi go see dem.” And when I would go they would give me like 5 US dollars…a lot of Cadbury chocolate…and they’d give me clothes…

My father was a very brilliant man, he was a college professor, a headmaster and, sort of like in England, he was a minister of education…a junior minister of education…there are poor ppl…there are very very few rich ppl who live a life far beyond what any other person was capable of, and then there’s my father who’s sort of in the middle…like we never had to go days or weeks without eating…or living miserably but we weren’t, like, millionaires either.

My dad came to America first. When he came back he brought some Twizzlers or other assortment of candies. Then my mom went and when she came back she brought back a Monopoly….so basically I thought America was the land of candy and games…

Then I went to boarding school for two years and I put it behind me.

My boarding school was the most wonderful institution ever. Impoverished but effective. It was called the school of excellence.

“We can. We must. We will.”

That was their credo…It’s sort of evocative of this very strong sentiment of a people fighting for survival, of a people who must overcome some sort of oppression or overcome some sort of an obstacle…

This was a school for geniuses, mind you. I’m no genius but this was a school for geniuses. The IQ in this school was greater than American debt. And that’s saying something. The problem is…these kids could be Einsteins and they would never amount to anything, not because they’re incapable of it, but just because there is no opportunity. But the boarding school itself, it fostered discipline, it nurtured a very positive social upbringing…

'tolerated' was not a word we would talk about; we just loved each other.

Like, the Muslims, the Hindus, the Christians, you know, we all had mutual respect for each other…the country has a high rate of segregation, violence, but the boarding school itself, it was like the epitome of an institution of understanding…that breeds love…and excellence.

I expected to come to America and have a great job…I wanted a Lexus Jeep…and I wanted to see Usher…I wanted to come to America, buy a Lexus, drive it over to Usher’s house and say ‘Hi!’ …I thought it was that easy. I thought I would…show the American kids what I had…not arrogance, it’s just that I was eager to prove myself in America…I was eager to be someone great. So, basically, my expectations were: I’d come to America, I’d get a great Lexus—Jeep—I’d drive over, make Usher sing, “You Got It Bad” for me, call my friend, Taslema…and tell her I met Usher and then brag about it…I thought I’d have all the candy and toys I wanted. I thought I’d go to High School and I’d meet the jock and I’d meet the blonde cheerleader…

They put me in Special Ed. because my report card from Guyana said I had a 73 average. What they didn’t realize was my 73 in Guyana equals to, like, 125 in America…so in two weeks they put me in the Honors class.

I remember something very cool; when I came over here, in our History class, we played American History Jeopardy…the first question I answered was 'where did the Transcontinental Railroad meet?' It was Promontory Point and no one else knew that…I felt so proud that it was my first week in school and I already won the American History Jeopardy. It was very cool…

While everyone already took the examinations to place them in proper High Schools, I missed that exam and I didn’t even get accepted to my zoned school. My zoned school wait-listed me….but my middle school principal knew the principal of Transit Tech so I just went to Transit Tech…from where I came from, this was not a good school at all. I was Valedictorian easy. I’m not bragging; it was just very easy. I did all my work but considering how hard I worked, it was very little.

Guyana is the only English-speaking country in South America. It’s sort of what some would call broken English, though some might find that offensive, …you have…some cacophony of words or concoction of…basic words of so many languages…it’s very obscure, what it is, but I’m only speaking of the Indo-Guyanese population of Guyana, I don’t know what the African population speak like. It’s very similar but some of the words may obviously be different, have more African roots, like for the Indo Guyanese population the words have more Indian roots…

Actually, I went to a school where they taught you English. You take any other person from Guyana…fresh off the boat… you probably wouldn’t be able to understand them.

I’m still Guyanese…I once had this girlfriend in High School; she was American. Whatever values I had, whatever standards I upheld, whatever expectations I had from people or from cultures, whatever things I kept from a place long gone…being with her…I guess it wasn’t her fault, it’s just that being with an American, being that close to an American girlfriend, it turned everything upside down…or it just threw them out the window…it wasn’t a very subtle transition; it was violent, almost…it was a violent realization…sort of what I would call the most violent episode of culture shock. Maybe I’m exaggerating, but I think so. I was being with an American woman. I’m not criticizing her…it was my moment of culture shock…dating the American woman….

To be quite frank about it, she already had sexual partners. I was seventeen, she was sixteen. But she already had a sexual partner and that was like, ‘whoa!’ I’m like, ‘really?’…it’s not something I’m used to. I realized that if I’m gonna have an American relationship, I’d seriously need to get over what some people would call- - inhibitions. I realized that… a great number of the things I value would be rendered quite ridiculous in this environment…

it’s not a very good feeling to know that all those things that you held to be beautiful principles, beautiful standards, to be violently overthrown…

I realize it has no place in this world. Maybe it has no place in Guyana anymore, I don’t know. It feels like the very essence of your being…all your dreams…all these very basic, very fundamental things that you valued and dreamt about and imagined…things that have driven your imagination, the things that have driven your love and affection, the things that have constituted every…romantic feeling you ever had or every chivalric feeling you ever had…to have the majority of these things called ridiculous, or thrown out, or be ignored or considered out of place, you know, it feels…

it feels like you no longer exist, like not only have you left a life behind, but you’ve died.

And here you are being reborn again and you have to fit a certain standard. You have to be something very stylized…there’s already a precedent you have to match. There’s a precedent for the American male…the American male has to be a particular something…he has to have a very particular set of standards…you’re not free to imagine your perfect woman, you’re not free to look at your woman and think of princesses and fair maidens and forever anymore. It’s just not there anymore. I mean, that’s how it feels. Practically speaking? Reasonably speaking? Maybe they’re not wrong. Maybe it’s just not the place for it anymore. Maybe I am ridiculous. I don’t know.

Until a few years ago I didn’t know I wasn’t a U.S. citizen…all my friends were working and I’m at home and I’m like, ‘Ma, I wanna get a job.’ And she’s like, ‘No. You can’t get a job.’ And I’m like ‘Why?’ She’s like, ‘Don’t worry about it.’ Eventually I found out I needed a Social Security Number to get a job. Like who knew, right? Who knew I needed a number to be somebody?…I thought only old people needed it to get some sort of benefits. Am I wrong? Isn’t that what it was meant for? …I was heartbroken…

As time went on, my friends went to work for the MTA as part of the course requirement and I was stuck fixing old computers at school, and my girlfriend was working at some cancer institute in Manhattan making like $600 a week just filing stuff. I was stuck at school fixing old Dell computers…blowing dust from between the keyboard keys, and then I was heartbroken. And then I realized that this was gonna be much harder than I ever thought. I was seventeen.

Brooklyn College is very, very wonderful…they’re very accommodating.

Like, in High School I graduated valedictorian; I have like perfect scores on regent exams; I have over 2000 on my SATs, you know, I got like a perfect score on the English part, both English parts. I have like five offers of fully paid tuition, and books, and room and board from scholarships from colleges all over America…and you know what?

I couldn’t go to any of them; I couldn’t take any of those full-paid scholarships.

One that stood out in my mind, because a lot of people got scholarships from my school because my school was predominantly Black…they all had partial scholarships to this Black school in Tennessee called Fisk. I’m not a Black kid but I had the only full scholarship. They even offered to pay for my books, my room, my board, my food, and they offered to give me a stipend…and I couldn’t take it….the story of my life basically. I had so many opportunities that I couldn’t take. And then, one day, I was…visiting Brooklyn College with my girlfriend…I bumped into a very good woman who has some power at Brooklyn College…she looked at my transcripts, saw my perfect regents grades, saw my 98.96% graduation valedictorian score and my SAT scores and she said, ‘You’re coming to Brooklyn College.’ And I’m like, ‘Thank you.’ Then she told me I was full of bulls*** for some reason…long story…I love the woman. But you know, here I am, Brooklyn College. And I still can’t get a job.

Right now being an American means having nine digits…I would love to be an American. I think I would be a good American. Do you know I haven’t littered -actively littered- since November of 2002 when I touched down in America? I am yet to actively litter…I perform my civil duties. That’s what I would like to think.

Being an American means having those nine digits, means taking those nine digits for granted, not knowing what you have, you know? Not knowing what it’s worth. That’s being an American, right?

There are a lot of people who are willing to sacrifice a lot of things for nine digits. At this particular moment, I think I have a chance. I see myself with those nine digits. And you know what? Those nine digits are not just nine digits to me; those nine digits represent a fighting chance. I see myself with artillery. Nine freakin’…ordnance!...you know what I’m saying? I just see myself with a fighting chance. It will be more than nine digits. You know? It will be something of value. It will be my greatest asset. Most Americans, I think, don’t consider their Social Security Number an asset. It will be my asset. I’m studying accounting; I want to put it down as an intangible asset. A priceless, intangible asset.

To me, having a Social Security number, that’s the greatest intangible asset you can have.

Why don’t we all put it down as our greatest intangible asset? You know? It makes perfect sense to me.

Crossing Flatbush Avenue

M.A. was originally born in Yemen, when I asked the question of where he was born M.A stated, “I’ve been asked that question so many times, since my five years of living in the united states and when I tell people I’m from Yemen it sounds to them like it’s a strange country…my response is usually, if you never heard of Yemen, its located in the Middle East, not far from Saudi Arabia. He now lives in the Flatbush area of the borough of Brooklyn with his parents and siblings. M.A is focused and aware of what he wants out of life.

Now all of my immediate family members are here living in the United States. My father was the first to immigrate to the U.S. it was during the civil rights movements, he use to travel back and forth between the U.S. and Yemen until about fiver years ago he decided it was time to settle down in one place with his family and that’s when he started the long process of paperwork.

I have job, I work within the family business, I work part time as a cashier and a manager. While I’m not working I attend the city University of Technology. I know I’ve only been in the U.S. for five years but within my time of being here I managed to graduate from high school a year early and now I’m a sophomore in college.

Originally I came to the U.S. because of my father; as I can recall it was early one morning around 2am when my father woke me up and said “we are going to be leaving in the morning” I was so tired I just brushed him off with a yea, yea. A mean I didn’t take him serious at all but when he woke me up at 6am and told me to look about the plane tickets I realized how serious he was. The only available tickets were for a flight leaving around three in the morning. I remember how crazy that day was because we had to run around town to tell all of our family members’ good-bye and pack on such a short notice. The hardest thing about that day was telling my mother bye; it was only going to be my father, my sister and my brother who I may say was younger than I was going with my father. When I was telling her bye I didn’t cry I wanted to but I wouldn’t have appear to be ‘manly’ so I didn’t. when I landed at the airport it hit me that my life was about to change, I told myself that I’m going to have to man up and take care of my other siblings. Two other reasons why I was in the U.S. were for a good education and for a better career opportunity; these two things leads to a better life of course.

I had two different types of expectations, a good and kind of a bad expectation of what my life would be like in the U.S. I was expecting my life to be easy and smooth, by getting my education and making lots of money at the same time. When I was back home I thought the American life is an easy life and money comes easily without worry about how and where to make it [speaking about money]. The reason for my bad expectation was mostly a worried one; I was really worried about coming to a new country where I don’t know anyone, I didn’t speak the language, and I feared facing all kinds of different obstacles. But I somehow knew that all those things were going to lead to a bright future.

My expectations about some of the obstacles I thought I was going to face came true, I really did have to face some of those hardships. The most important and difficult one I had was to learn the English language. I felt like a person from a different planet having people around me talking to each other without me understanding a word of what they were saying. I knew I was going to have a very difficult time especially making friends. The big reality was about the money, man was I wrong for thinking that money was going to come so easily! You have to work so hard to make it and that’s if you’re lucky enough to find a job. Even the education you have to work so hard for it especially from the heart just to reach where you want to be in the future. I learned a valuable lesson which was, things don’t come as easy as you think!

All these expectations came from people who have lived a life in the United States and came back to Yemen to tell their stories about their life in America. In some ways my life now is the way I expected it to be as when I was back home to some extent. To be frank the life in America is easier compared to the life back in Yemen. Here in America we have more goods and services and education is valued higher with more supportive techniques.

When I first came from Yemen I thought it would be impossible for me to learn English. But now I believe English is one of the easiest languages to learn compared to my native language. I had a very hard time understanding English during my first year in the U.S. however throughout the years things started to get easier. So in the past few years I managed to learn a new language, how to speak it, read it and even how to write it. I feel comfortable using English in all contexts. In all actuality now I mostly use English in my daily life because of work, school and social life. Though this doesn’t mean I’ve neglected my native language, which I do speak at home to my parents, family members and others who don’t understand English.

I haven’t changed my lifestyle or values since I have been in the U.S. I still do whatever I did back home, and never had the pressure to change my lifestyle. I am currently a U.S citizen; I got my citizenship about a year after I came to America. When my father filed for his citizenship I was under eighteen years of age so I was able to get my citizenship through him.

I think of myself as a Yemen-American because I was born in Yemen and I now have a U.S citizenship. The term “American” to me, means a person who was born in the United Stated or carries the U.S citizenship. I think my experience of immigration is a fairly common one; there is nothing unusual about it. Since we are in the land of freedom and opportunities I will keep carrying on my religious beliefs and try to keep up with my cultural practices even though I am living in a very diverse society. I guess I’m trying to maintain both the Yemen and American cultures. I don’t have any children yet, but when I do have some I am going to make them keep up with these cultural things also.

In ten years I see myself married with a beautiful wife with about one or two kids. I see myself having a nice job as a manager in this big computer company after completing my master’s degree in computer science. Hopefully that job is going to be paying me a god salary so I can get my dream car and house. Since life is so unpredictable in ten years you never know what life is going to throw your way especially on NYC. Now that I am making money I might move somewhere better and quiet, maybe in long island since Brooklyn is so chaotic and loud.

Crossing Flatbush Avenue - Svetlana Cozmit

Svetlana Cozmit is one of my best friends. She emigrated from Moldova a few years ago. Today she already has A.A.S. in Accounting. Svetlana graduated with Honors from Kingsborough Community College. She is a student at Brooklyn College, working on her B.A. in Accounting. Svetlana is smart, intelligent, hard working and these qualities make her achieve her goals.

I was born in Chisinau, Moldova. I have lived in the USA since February 2005. I immigrated here with my parents and my younger brother. My grandmother, my aunt and her husband still live in Moldova. I work as a teller in Chase bank. When I am not working, I am attending college. If I still have some time left, I like to spend it with my family and friends.
I came to the USA with my family because my mother won a Green Card Lottery. Life in Moldova is hard; there are not many opportunities for good future. That’s why we decided to try to immigrate to another country.
Before coming to the USA, I saw and heard a lot about this country. I saw it on the TV, and heard from other people. I was expecting the life to be easier than in my country. I knew that if you study, there is a good future for you in the USA. I was expecting that at first it will be hard for me and my family to adapt to this country. My life here is mostly how I expected. What I didn’t expect, that the lime here is running very fast, and there is almost no time for personal life.
At first, I had difficulties to understand other people’s English. Now I am very comfortable using English. Sometimes I even forget how to say a certain word in my native language. I still use my native language at home, with my family and friends.
Since I came to the USA, my lifestyle changed completely. Every day is the same: home-college/work-home. I am very lucky if I get a chance to go out with my family or friends. This made me value my loved ones more, because it is not that often when I can spend time with them.
I didn’t become a US citizen yet, but I will apply in November this year. I don’t think of myself as American yet. Maybe it’s because I was not born here, and 20 years of my life I spent in my native country; but partially I think I am, because I have to work hard to get something.
I believe my immigration experience is very common. Every immigrant faces a lot of difficulties at first. They have to adapt to the new country, learn its traditions and rules and more.
Even though I live in the US, I never forget where I came from. I still get in touch with my relatives and friends from my native country. And I want my future children to remember their roots.
In ten years I see myself living in another state with a lovely family and having a good job that will bring me satisfaction and stability. That’s what I am working on now.
My experience is a challenge. I think challenge is good, because it makes you stronger, and more able to achieve your goals.

Crossing Flatbush Ave - Baila Halberstam

My grandmother, Baila Halberstam, emigrated from Czechoslovakia to the US in 1946. Although she is deceased, we had a very close relationship until her death, 1 ½ years ago, when I was 18 years old. I did not have a chance to formally interview her; however, our conversations during her lifetime painted a picture of her journey to America and how she viewed the life she built there. I hope this narrative adequately describes her views and experiences.


Where shall I begin?

Perhaps you want me to talk about my childhood, however I don’t know if that’s possible. It all depends on how you define the word childhood. Does it merely mean the age gap of 5-15 years old, or would you explain it as the time period of innocence and freedom of burdens? If the latter is the case, then I am afraid to say, I had virtually no childhood. My childhood was stolen from me by those brutes, the Nazi’s, may their names be wiped out. I come from a wealthy family. We had maids. We wore nice clothing. We had many belongings. I NEVER went to bed hungry. We even had money in Swiss bank accounts. But mostly, I had a happy family life: two healthy parents, a sister, three brothers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.


Suddenly, in a matter of days, I was a poor, wretched, starved orphan with no family left besides my sister and one brother, and I was forced into hard labor. I can’t bear to describe that time period of my life, I try to forget those gruesome details. Who would want to remember those skeletal bodies, the ever present stench of death, and the picture of your loved ones being tortured and killed before your eyes.

Yet I hope with these few words, I gave you an understanding of where I was coming from when I emigrated to America. For me, America a place of refuge, a place to run away to. . . a safe haven.


Over the years, my definition of America has expanded.

America is where I married my dear husband, Yosef. America is where my three precious jewels, my son and two daughters were born and grew up. America is where I was reunited with my sister and brother after those months of treachery.


America is the place where I was finally able to take revenge on those creatures that you can barely call people. They tried to wipe out my nation, the Jews, but they were not successful. I wasn’t broken by them I built a family, proud of their Jewish identity!! I was driven to overachieve to avenge them. Although, most people are set back by the language barrier, I didn’t allow any barrier to stand before me. I learned English and I can proudly say I speak like a native. Not only that but I probably have a higher vocabulary than most Americans, since my favorite past time is to knit while I play Scrabble. And I don’t just play scrabble, I win scrabble!

America is the land on which I rebuilt. When I think of America, I think of second chances. I think of success. I have twelve beautiful successful grandchildren. I lived to be a great grandmother of 26 (4 more great grandchildren were born after her death.) All my descendants still wear my hand knitted clothing and pass them among each other. Not only that but my daughters inherited that skill from me. It is a skill I learned from my mother, a skill linking me to my homeland.

Although, I would call myself American, as I have lived here for 62 years of my life, my culture and religion binds me to my past, which I am proud of. I do not classify myself as a victim of the Holocaust. Rather I am royalty, I am a precious, for I have survived.

America is now the home of my descendants, yet I hope one day, Israel, the land of my nation, will become their home. That is where I truly feel at home. It brings me great pride that my grandson and his family have emigrated to Israel.


Yet, I am forever indebted and grateful to America, the land that turned my hope into reality.

Yelena T.

Yelena is a friend from here at Brooklyn College. She's an English major and also a talented writer. Having lived in Brooklyn for the majority of her life, she considers herself fairly "Americanized," although she is trying to re-establish her fluency in Russian and hopes to one day travel back to the Ukraine and travel the rest of the world as well.

I’m from a city in Ukraine called Nikolaev and I’ve lived here for fourteen years. When we left it was Ukraine, when I was born it was the USSR. I have some family here but most of my family’s in Israel or Germany…I don’t have barely anybody back home. We came to the US on a refugee visa because my family is Jewish and most of my extended family died in WWII and since then, things haven’t improved much for Jewish people there so most of my family is left because—I mean most of my family worked really hard and they ended up in menial jobs because they were Jewish, so…I didn’t really know much when I was younger I guess; I was just excited to go somewhere new, “Oh, maybe it’ll be better.” I never really asked [why]; they were just really excited about it; I mean, things are really hard there and they were working on it for years; ever since I could remember; it took like five—six years to get a visa. Now it takes even longer after 9/11. It was very, like small, very like, just humble: get along, like, do whatever you have to do and just. I don’t know, it was nice. It sucked though. There was a whole lot of things that seemed awful now but at the time it wasn’t a big deal. like having toilet paper was a big deal, having…a lot of food was a big deal. You know, things like that. Simple.

There was something that I always wanted and I didn’t know what it was really, but it was, like, to have my own life and make my own decisions and be able to just do what I do. I mean, even growing up I know that I wouldn’t have had that, at home, I would have had expectations. It wouldn’t be like this. I really—I have a really, like, decent life by my standards. I would probably be married by now. With kids. It’s a different world [here]. I’m uncomfortable that I can’t speak Russian the way I would like to. I’m practicing the alphabet in Russian right now [in a class]. It’s a bunch of kids around my age who came here when they were younger, a little younger, a little older than me, and they just—most of them are like super bright in Russian, so they speak Russian. My whole lifestyle is very Americanized, very American. I lost a lot of the values that I used to have. Education was always a really big part. like, just hard work. Just do what you're doing and work as hard as you can and put everything you can into it. I don’t have that anymore. I’m a lazy American. When I left the Ukraine I had been halfway through second grade and the math that I learned there halfway through second grade kept me going through my first year of high school in America. I was in honors programs and I went to a special high school and I already knew it. It’s that different. It’s just in your blood: they raise you, like, just study: that’s what you do. I don’t know. We just did it. We didn’t ask questions. We tried the hardest that we could. It was just, like, a different level of discipline. There was one kid that was always getting in trouble and he had a serious mental disability, he physically couldn’t sit there. Because it was uniforms, it was sitting like this, you raise your hand like this. You stand up when the teacher comes in. It’s just like a military but it’s effective. It was a joke [in America], but I didn’t speak English when I came here. At all. They put me in ESL class with mostly Spanish people. And I pretty much just learned on my own. The people who were in my ESL class with me stayed there for three or four years and I came here, they put me in third grade halfway through the year so I spent a half a school year in ESL. And then I went to regular class and then I went to honors in fifth grade. but because that’s—that’s what I did. I sat home and I read the Goosebumps. I learned English from the Goosebumps. After that I moved up to something…grown up. Actually, Stephen King. That’s why I’m so morbid. I was already writing and stuff so—I was just speaking English. I had to, like, get Americanized, too, because people—people make fun of immigrants. And we were so poor. I had one skirt and one pair of jeans and, like, three tops. That’s what I wore. In third and fourth grade kids are cruel. It was in the same neighborhood I live now. I went to PS 99. It’s on Coney Island, it’s like two blocks down. I feel like I got a chance to live the way I want to and I like to live a little easy. I don’t know, just immigrant kids, there was a lot of Spanish immigrants who weren’t supposed to be here, that was mostly my school because most of the people in my neighborhood go to yeshivas and the ones who were left over go to public school.

My family’s Jewish but we’re not religious at all. We came here, there were four of us, my parents, my grandpa and I and we had 70 dollars. We had three suitcases. We actually had a layover in Paris [on the way over], that was really cool. We stayed for a night. We had fun at the buffet. I mean, what did we eat at home... Mashed potatoes, grains. A buffet in Paris? That’s serious business. We flew here, in 1995, there was that crazy snowstorm that lasted like three weeks. That’s when we flew in. We fly here and there’s like six feet of snow. We lived by the sea, our whole area was...We were all built on the ship building industry, it was warm, it was nice, it was like New York in a good year. I hate when people say that “oh, you must be used to the cold.” No.

I became a [us citizen] because my parents did. I’m a New Yorker [laughs]. I’m sorry--I can’t--I can’t say that I’m an American, because this country— It just depends, for some people it goes well, for some people it doesn’t. we came here so poor but my parents, like, figured it out. They got a handle on it. My mom was cleaning Jewish women’s houses and my dad was building kitchen cabinets. I didn’t see them. All they did was work. They both went to learn English in different places. my mom actually went to Brooklyn college and my dad-- She almost got her bachelor’s. My dad told her to go work. So she did. I mean, I’m sure she was hoping I’d take it up a notch, but--I will! My dad actually taught himself Autocad, it’s like a design program and now he works for Chanel and he makes a decent buck and my mom is a manager at a big like financial […] thing. they did really well for themselves here. A lot of people don’t. My parents have some friends who are still struggling that they’ve known from then. And a lot of people that I know, like, they came here and they were just—a lot of, like, single mothers who come here. They’re still poor, they’re still struggling, a lot of people who don’t want to learn English. And look at Brighton Beach—people buy Benzes and Jaguars and sleep in the backseat. It’s a culture thing. What they both did was like really high level stuff [in Russia]. My mom was a librarian. She was a head librarian in the one library in my city. It was called “The City”; it was like a thousand people. We were like, “Yeah, we’re City!” Yeah. And my father was trained as an engineer, so.

We went to a little place in the summer, like, by the water. And then we went to Moscow to get our visas. That was nice. It was so overwhelming. It’s like half of New York but it was like—just looking around like, oh, everything’s moving! It’s a beautiful city though, my grandpa used to travel a lot, but he’s been around a really long time. He lives with my parents, he takes care of them. He pretty much raised me, I guess. I see him, he’s just my grandpa. He’s like my role model. But it’s hard for me to even communicate with him, he has a really bad hearing problem, so. He knows English on paper but his hearing was gone when we came here. Because he used to have TB and the medications for the TB killed his hearing. He still claims to be a communist. He was a member of the Communist Party. The only good thing he got out of anything except his own hard work was the apartment we had, it was a one-bedroom apartment. It was big back then, though. My grandpa’s more of a philosopher. The way it actually worked out [communism], it wasn’t cool.

We have a couple of graves that I’d like to visit and clean up. That’s all we have. My grandpa’s wife, she was an incredible woman. She was like—she died when I was younger, like, five, maybe, five or six. My other grandma ran the family ‘cos my grandpa’s just, like, wishy-washy. He’s sweet and he’s, like, old. He married when he was fifty and she was younger. She was beautiful. She taught at the university. She taught German, and literature. She raised my mom. She was just beautiful. I mean, I have places I’d love to visit but no people. I could be afraid of getting, like, robbed in the airport, ‘cos I look American, but. I had a beautiful childhood there. The parks, the forests, the monuments. There’s a big bridge on the water; it’s a beautiful place to visit. It was really poor; I had the one doll. It was like that. I was the only Jewish person in my school and everyone had uniforms that you have to buy and I went to kindergarten, first, and part of second grade there and the whole time they couldn’t afford to buy my uniform so this women sewed me a skirt and two blouses. In kindergarten it was up to here, up to below my knees, and then by second grade it was somewhere about mid-thigh and I just wore it. So it was like, like, you stick out. You just do. That’s how it was. People would call me names, the teacher would make comments. It was like, it was—because we were Jewish it was something like: "Look at the Jew." I had one girl that I was friends with who always had lice, so her hair was always cut short and people made fun of her. And we were friends.

I would love for my children to speak Russian or speak Hebrew. I feel like Israel is my home country even though I was born in Ukraine. All of our family’s been there for years and that’s where we wanted to go before we decided to go to America when I was younger. My mom told me about this. And they would only let my dad go and he wanted to go. He had to get permission from his father who then lived in Ukraine also and his father wouldn’t let him. So he had to stay and then he figured out a way for all of us to come to America together. But Israel is where, I mean, I’m Russian, Ukrainian, but I’m Jewish and I look at "Where’s our place?" and I feel like Israel is it. And New York [laughs]. We’re just Jews. I mean my family started with a guy in a village in the Ukraine who’s first name was Tsodik. And just our family name started from him, we don’t know where he came from, but he came from somewhere. Nobody knew he was, he didn’t have a family there, but Jews have just been traveling forever and they can’t stay. They stay for a little while and they realize they’re not welcome. That’s changing [now], definitely.

Right now I have my parents but I’m pretty much on my own, so, whatever family I might have in ten years will either be a family that I’ve started or a group of close friends. I’ve always wanted to travel but I’ve always thought that if I see someplace, that’s just like “this is me, this is it,” I’ll stay there. That’s why I wanna go look around. And that’s what, actually, instead of that work ethic that I’m supposed to have, being an eastern European Jew, I have just like the motivation to get out of America. See the world.

"Crossing Flatbush Avenue"

This is my aunt's story on how she moved from Trinidad to the U.S and where she's been since then. She wanted to remain completely anonymous, so I hope that isn't a problem.

At the age of 7, I was tricked into leaving my grandmother in Trinidad and Tobago to live in the US with my parents. I thought I was coming here for a vacation. I remember telling my friends that in two weeks I will be back. Not knowing that this 'going away' party my mother was having for us was really going to be something permanent. Since, I have lived in the US for 34 years with my brother, sister, mother, father, and briefly my grandmother. I have many relatives here throughout the states but what we term close relatives, aunts, uncles, and many, many cousins still resides there.

The thing that I wanted to see the most in the US was snow. We sang let it snow in Trinidad; however, it was an impossibility. I did not think about going to school here because I thought I was on vacation. I kept asking my mother, 'when are we going home?' but she would only say soon. The questioning got less over time and I found myself in a foreign school with foreign kids.

I did not expect much from the US, being that I was young but I was struck by the lack/no corporal punishment levied in school. In Trinidad, during the 70s corporal punishment was the norm for having dirty nails, shoes, in correct answers on exam. For example, if you have seven answers wrong on a math test, the class was asked how many got seven wrong. You would have to stand up then the teacher would ask you to stretch out the palm of your hand and you were given seven lashes. As a new student here, I found this to be strange. No corporal punishment? I also noticed my teacher had no control of her class. That was strange. The way Americans spoke was also strange. I was used to British and Australian accents than American. I grew up watching 'Skippy the Bush Kangaroo'. Even writing was a difficult task that resulted in many failing vocabulary exams. Is it ‘neighbour’ or ‘neighbor’? But after my second year in this country, I was able to master, to a degree, American intonations. To a degree, I still use what we call 'patois' which is not broken English. It is a mixture of different languages since we have been colonized by many European countries. For instance, an avocado is called a pear or zabuca. A chestnut is called a châtaigne which is French and an eggplant would be a melangine. I believe that mélange is from the latin word melongena

I do now if my lifestyle has changed since I grew up here but the values that my parents grew up with I had to adopt. Education was key. Since all we had to do was go to school my parents did not want to hear about any failing grades. There is always pressure to do things differently than how your parents did things. And, from time to time, you would hear, ‘You are becoming American’. My response is when in America act like an American.

I became a citizen because I was tired of being thrown against to wall to be questioned as an illegal trying to sneak into a European country. This happened on many occasions while I was studying in France. I was detained in Calais almost missing my ferry to Dover. I had to tell the custom agent that I did not require a visa for English since I was a citizen of the commonwealth and that they had the authority to deport me not the French. I already had a student visa for France. My only defense was to tell the custom agent that ten terrorists have already boarded the boat while they were wasting there time with me. The eventually let me go. Plus I could not even go to Luxembourg with my study group because I did not have an American passport. At that point I had had it and vowed to get my citizenship.

I think of myself as American when we are not at war.

I do not think all immigrants go through the same experience. There are some that are given asylum and seed money when they come to the US. For example, the immigrants of the cold war. Even now they are rewarded. There are others who have to sneak in and pray that immigration is not over their shoulders. My mother was lucky, fortunately. Her sponsors reneged on her contract, so she was able to leave them, obtained a lawyer to get her papers. However, my parents had to work at least three jobs between them in order to support us. I knew classmates who came to this country and their family was on welfare while their parents were allowed to work simply because they came from a different part of the world than me. Among people from the Caribbean, my experience is fairly common.

I have family in the Caribbean. I have traveled many times to see my aunts, uncle and cousins. And they have traveled here.

Hopefully, I would like to have the American dream and that is to own my own house in the near future.