Personal Narrative: My Transition Of Mexican Immigrant Parents To America

My family comes from a humble background. My grandmother started working at the age of 13, with small jobs in order to feed her siblings. My grandfather worked many hard labor jobs in order to provide for our family. With my grandfather’s hard work, he was able to bring my grandmother, my two uncles, my father, my mother, my brother and I into the U.S. My grandparents decided to migrate to the U.S because in Mexico, they had nothing. They had enough to eat but they were still struggling to come out of poverty. When my grandparents migrated into the U.S my grandfather would still work a blue collar job, until he fractured his spine and couldn't work anymore. Nevertheless, that did not stop him from working. He began selling in swap meets, selling

I come from an immigrant family and I have had the privilege to be exposed to different social, cultural and economic realities all my life as I constantly navigated across cultures. Aside from family origin in Ecuador, I was born in Virginia and lived in the Caribbean (Puerto Rico) for six years. The biggest influences on the way I see life comes from my immigrant parents. I have learned to perceive their differences and appreciate their interactions with me.

No one get’s to choose what environment in which they were raised. I grew up in a very difficult environment that has affected me in various ways. Although it has left some very scaring memories, it has made me who I am today.

Someone once told me “Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.” I guess it wasn’t important to me at the time and therefore I chose to ignore it, little I knew the wisdom these words carried.

A year and a half ago I moved from Venezuela to the US with my family; since then I have tried my best to make this sacrifice worth it and make my family proud. Leaving everything that you own behind and moving somewhere new with only a couple of luggage with you is extremely difficult economically, which is why my family is currently experiencing financial difficulties that make it more difficult for me to be able to afford the costs of a good college education. I currently work 3 jobs cleaning houses to help my family, however, it is still not enough to afford a college education. Being an immigrant is a part of my identity and it has shaped my character into what I believe is a hard-working student and person. At West Marshall high school

Being an immigrant is a mind numbing experience. I didn't know a speck of english and I barely understood my teacher. I had to adjust to the whole new culture. But at age 6 that was easy. I quickly figured out that in here we didn’t have to pray every monday. I didn’t have to put on a uniform everyday. I can easily get free food from the cafeteria when my mother signed me up for the free lunch program. In America I didn’t have to smell the canal and street trash anymore. In just 3 weeks my whole life changed. I got used to it for about 2 years, then I had to go back. Back to the gang-filled, starving, broken house that I was born in.

My family moved from the Middle East to United States because of a number of reasons. The primary reason was the education infrastructure. The education infrastructure available in United States is perhaps the best in the world and this is probably what my parents thought when they moved into the country. The second was job because my father was working and he was provided a better opportunity to the work in this country, seeing the salary hike and other factors he decided it was in the best part of the family and all that we moved to the United States. Earlier, it was difficult because being from a different racial background presents you many challenges and you have to somehow manage those things. My family found it difficult at the start to communicate with others and make friends but slowly it all started to shape well. There were more and more people coming for

Even though I may be identified as a typical Mexican American, I'm not average. I have always been the kid who stands out from the rest. Besides having a thick Spanish accent, I don't look like the common Mexican, my skin color is significantly darker than the rest. I have been and still, am perceived as Asian and Middle Eastern. Even though I explain to many that I'm Mexican many don't believe me, specifically, strangers. This misconception of my ethnicity causes me to be different from others, not just because of my appearance but the experiences I possess of it as a result. Having been treated as other ethnicities that face severe discrimination has allowed me to learn and understand the problems they face on a daily basis. Thankfully I have not faced a dangerous encounter but I have experienced some

As the youngest among 5 siblings, I was born in Sierra Leone and migrated to the United States at the age of 7. Specifically, my parents first settled in Brooklyn, New York. During this period, my parents and I alternated between shelter homes and section 8 housing across Brooklyn and Manhattan. Because of constantly relocating, I attended various schools across the different boroughs. While I migrated here at a young age, my parents were above the age of 60. Since they are considered elderly, the government supports my parents with social security income (SSI), food stamps, and Medicaid; though, they never worked in the United States. After entering high school, my parents and I moved to Maryland. Similar to New York, my parents constantly

My father migrated to the United States from Mexico in the 1980s, due to the impoverished conditions including the high rates of unemployment. As a result, my father became a United States permanent resident, which granted him with the opportunity of petitioning for his entire family. In 2000 we obtained our United States permanent residence cards and my family and I migrated to United States along with my father seeking the American Dream. In the midst of all, my father, my sister, my brother became United States citizens, however, my mother remained a permanent resident. Furthermore, both of my parents have been my utmost role models for my siblings and I, where we lived in a pleasant civil house. My father worked incredibly hard to maintain

As the eldest of three kids, I am who I am because of my younger sister and brother. Coming from an immigrant family, my parents worked full time at their restaurant. They had to care for the customers, the finances, kitchen supplies, and food; money was their priority because that money was for me and my siblings. From the first day I started kindergarten, I was extremely independent. Everyday after I got off the school bus at approximately 2:45 PM, I walk home and eat a bowl of cereal. I studied completed my homework, and on the occasional times my dad was home, I asked him to correct my answers. All that changed two years later when my younger sister started her kindergarten year.

I moved to United States an year ago since my family immigrated to US in 2013. Initially, I struggled to get adjusted to the new environment and culture. But within months, I adapted to the new environment, which boosted my confidence in myself that I can react positively to a change and make most out of it. In Texas, I live by myself as I attend South Plains College and work two part time jobs. I believe the decision I have taken to move to Texas, leaving my family in Missouri, helped me to be an independent and strong woman. I earned a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry, Math and Physics from the fourth ranked University in India. Furthermore, I was honored to work as a Student Director as well as the Script writer of my University Theater team

I am a Nigerian immigrant and I lived in Nigeria until I was seven. There are numerous differences between Nigeria, a non-western undeveloped nation, and the U.S. For example, very trivial things like constant electricity, clean water, quality education, and access to quality healthcare are often unavailable or extremely expensive in Nigeria. Though retrospectively, I feel like I was deprived as a child, these things were a reality for me at the time. Fortunately for me, my parents were able to move our family to the United States, more specifically New Jersey, to give my sibling and I better opportunities, and this transition was a very happy time for my family. However, this change was not without hardships. Firstly, I had to adjust to just about everything from the way the classrooms were structured, to the type of semantics used to refer to things.

Up until just a few days ago, I knew very little about my family history. The only item of information I was positive of was that my grandmother (on my mom’s side of the family) is of Italian decent. After calling my grandma and spending hours talking on the phone, I was surprised to learn that not too long ago my family made their journey from Italy to the United States.

My husband and I came to the United States of American in 1995. We have been living in Syracuse and Liverpool in New York, Stuart Draft and Crozet in Virginia.