One of the best ways to combat anti-immigrant hate is to support the work of immigrant artists. We can tell our own stories best, and our work is changing the narrative. #LaborDay #immigrant #migrant #immigration #migration #ImmigrantRights #MigrantRights #MigrationisBeautiful #art #artforchange #supportlivingartists
Title: “SEA Legacies: Commemorating 40 Years of Southeast Asian Diasporas”
The goals of the symposium are to commemorate the formation of Southeast Asian diasporic communities in the US over the past 40 years and to educate students and the community about Southeast Asian American heritages, experiences, and histories.
Events in no particular order:
A. Keynote: Dr. Viet Nguyen, Departments of English and American Studies and Ethnicity, USC
B. Panel: Vietnamese American Authors: Telling Diasporic Stories from Vietnam to the US
C. Panel: Southeast Asian Experiences
D. Panel: The Fall of Saigon: Political Background and Military Context
E. Roundtable: Alumni Experiences: Intergenerational Dialogue
F. Panel: CBOs & JOBs: Get to Know Local Community Organizations and Resources
G. Roundtable: Let’s Get Engaged! Students Share Opportunities for Campus and Community Involvement and Service.)
H. Panel: Preserving and Sharing Our Stories: The Role of Southeast Asian Oral History Projects and Archives
I. Digital Photo Exhibit: Vietnamese Americans: A Self-Portrait of a People
J. Exhibit: Letters from Vietnam
K. Film Series: Visual Stories of Diaspora: An Exploration of Southeast Asian History and Life through Films
L. Panel: Beyond the Fall of Saigon: Communism as Discourse in National, Community, and Identity Formations in the US and Vietnam
M. Panel: Global Perspectives on the Vietnam War
N. Panel: National Resource Center for Asian Languages and Vietnamese Literacy Development for Dual Language Immersion
O. Closing Performances: Southeast Asian American Expression and Performance
The SEA Legacies Symposium is generously sponsored by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and by Dr. Craig K. Ihara.
The SEA Legacies Symposium is organized by faculty, students, and staff of Asian American Studies, Modern Languages and Literatures, History, American Studies, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, Communications, Education, the HSS Office of Development, the CSUF Office of State and Community Relations, the Vietnamese Students Association, the Cambodian Students Association, and the Asian Pacific American Resource Center, and in collaboration with community partners.
Please contact Dr. Eliza Noh at [email protected] for more information.
Please don’t forget to share the eventbrite RSVP link with the campus and external community. All attendees, including speakers and yourselves, should register by Feb. 20th so that we can take a headcount for food:
Me: “So, what are you hoping to do after college?”
Jeffrey: “Graphic design. You know…if I can get hired!” (laughs)
I have been undocumented since 2002, the year I left South Korea with my family after the late 90’s financial crisis. My parents began working in a dry cleaning store (a “seh-tak-so”), where my mom was denied pay for at least a month under the excuse of “learning how to do the job.” That year, a lawyer who promised green cards for all of us turned out to be a scam, and we were left undocumented.
People and society itself refer to me–to us–as a hopeless case. Someone who doesn’t fit in, someone who can’t be heard, and someone who no one sees but a mere shadow. It seems like the only option is to give up, but I will never give up my American dream. Last year I applied for DACA, and I went back to college, hoping to become a doctor someday. That hope is at hold until our leaders in Washington decide. Now, I am coming out from the shadows and I am unafraid. Unafraid to be heard, unafraid to be seen.
I graduated from elementary school and middle school without having any idea of being undocumented. Then, my high school years began. During those years, my school decided to enroll some students to take college classes at a nearby college. I was one of those students. I remember how, in the application, there was a part where we had to fill in our social security number. I didn’t know whether or not I had one, until my older sister informed me. Even though I didn’t have a social security number, I never considered myself to be undocumented…until I realized I couldn’t do certain things my other friends where doing, like travel. I couldn’t go visit my grandparents, couldn’t drive, couldn’t get financial aid for college.
By the end of my high school years and the years of college, supposedly the happiest and most memorable times of one’s life, I had nearly broken under the weight of my undocumented status. I lived in this invisible bubble, screaming inside “please, someone save me”.
I lived my early years thinking I was like my peers, an American. I assimilated into this country’s culture, picking up the language quickly without a trace of a Filipino accent. It wasn’t until the end of my sophomore year of high school did my life start to fall apart. I found out limitations against me and privileges I would be denied.
It was time for college applications, and I found that I couldn’t apply for financial aid because I didn’t have a social security number. The only way to afford paying for my tuition and to help my parents with their needs was by working hard, and so I did, but unfortunately I couldn’t stay in college, since tuition kept going up. So I decided to keep working and helping my parents pay the bills.
With immigration reform, many like me will be able to achieve their dream of integration, mobility, and safety, not just for DREAMers like myself, but also for people like my father, who was exploited by his employer because of his status. I intend to actively share my stories to encourage more of us to take care of one another, to bridge individual histories and transform them into a collective future.
the official @ sweden twitter account was recently shut down because of too many triggered, white, swedish males.
Happy birthday to Hollywood director, writer, and producer Allan Dwan, who was born this date in 1885 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dwan was born Joseph Aloysius Dwan and immigrated to the United States when he was just 7 years old. He studied engineering at Notre Dame and was interested in the new motion picture industry. The opportunity to become a scriptwriter presented itself and the rest, as they say, is history.
Dwan began working in Hollywood in 1911, and over his 50-year career, he directed 125 motion pictures, working with stars such as Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, John Wayne, and Shirley Temple. He earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and, in 1976, was awarded the Career Achievement Award by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Allan Dwan died on December 28, 1981.
Photo: Moises
Photographer caption: Moisés is a Venezuelan immigrant, the crisis has brought him to Argentina. The positive thing about this uprooting is his freedom.
Photo by Carloman Macidiano Céspedes Riojas (San Isidro, Argentina); Buenos Aires, Argentina
From January 19-25, 2019, impacted communities, social justice and advocacy organizations, and other allies across the country will launch a national week of action to stand with Southeast Asian American communities as they continue to be terrorized by policies of mass incarceration and deportation. This week of action, which spans 15 cities across the country, is on the heels of one of the largest Southeast Asian deportation flights in United States history and coincides with Martin Luther King Jr. Day. In honor of Dr. King’s memory, we call on our country to remember the three evils—racism, militarism and poverty—that continue to devastate and divide Southeast Asian, Black and Brown communities: bit.ly/SEAAWeekofAction
The timeline below was developed to help the public learn about the connection between US imperialism and war in Southeast Asian and the current struggle of Southeast Asian immigrant and refugee communities against deportations. A downloadable PDF version is available which can be folded into a mini-zine.
1953
The U.S. provides military aid to France to suppress Vietnam freedom fighters, helping France maintain Vietnam as its colony.
1961
U.S. involvement in the “Secret War” in Laos deepens. U.S. presence in Laos aids its military presence in Vietnam. The CIA recruits Hmong and other ethnic minority groups living in Laos to guerilla units fighting for the Royal Lao Government. Details of this war were not disclosed to the public, and were often completely denied.
1963
A U.S.-approved military coup overthrows President Ngô Đình Diệmin of Vietnam.
1965
President Lyndon B. Johnson deploys American combat troops to Vietnam. Domestic demonstrations against the U.S. war in Vietnam begin.
1964-73
The U.S. drops more than 2.5 million tons of ordnance on Laos over the course of 580,000 bombing missions. This is equal to a planeload of bombs every 8 minutes, 24-hours a day, for 9 years.
1965-1973
The U.S. drops 2,756,941 tons of ordnance on Cambodia. This is more than the Allies dropped in the entirety of World War II. Information about the first four years of bombing was not made public until 2000.
1968
My Lai Massacre – US soldiers kill as many as 504 Vietnamese civilians including 119 children & 27 elderly.
1973
The U.S. & North Vietnam sign a ceasefire agreement.
The U.S. withdraws troops from Laos.
1975
The U.S. War in Vietnam comes to an end.
U.S. war and military presence in Southeast Asia leads to the rise of oppressive governments in both Cambodia & Laos. After a 5-year civil war in Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge captures the capital city of Phnom Penh and a genocide of 1-3 million people begins in Cambodia.
The U.S. authorizes the entry of 130,000 evacuees from Vietnam, Cambodia, & Laos.
1978
A second wave of refugees begin to leave Vietnam, many by sea. Journeys by boat are dangerous and many refugees don’t survive the trip. Many countries become unwilling to accept refugees.
1979
The UN establishes the Orderly Departure Program to deal with various waves of refugees leaving Southeast Asia. The U.S. becomes the largest country of second asylum. People continued to leave their homelands as a result of the U.S. War in Vietnam through the early 1990s.
1980
U.S. Congress passes the Refugee Act.
1987
In California the Creation of the Gang Reporting Evaluation & Tracking database heightens the profiling and flagging youth of color as gang members.
1980s-1990s
Many Southeast Asian refugees resettle in already underserved neighborhoods and must compete for low-wage jobs or face unemployment. Many lack access to health care, mental health services, and support for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
The rise of the school to prison pipeline: over-stretched public schools with inadequate resources lead to disengagement and dropouts with youth then being pushed into violence and juvenile detention facilities with few pathways to return to school.
1994
A national report finds that more than 30 percent of all Southeast Asian households in the US depend on welfare for survival. Among Cambodian and Laotian communities in California, the percentage of those on welfare reaches 77 percent.
The state of California passes Proposition 187, denying undocumented immigrants public services like education & healthcare.
The state of California passes Proposition 184, Three Strikes Sentencing Initiative, the nation’s toughest mandatory sentencing law.
U.S. Congress passes the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, the largest crime bill in the history of the U.S. It provided for 100,000 new police officers, $9.7 billion in funding for prisons, $1.2 billion for border control, deportations, asylum reform and a tracking center for immigrants with convictions., $1.8 billion to reimburse states for incarceration of immigrants who also had convictions. . It also expedited deportation for immigrants who are not lawful permanent residents and who are convicted of aggravated felonies.
1996
U.S. Congress passes the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, a welfare reform bill. Immigrants who were on welfare were immediately removed if they were in the US for less than 5 years. Only immigrants who have been in the US for over 5 years can receive welfare.
U.S. Congress passes the Illegal Immigration Reform & Immigrant Responsibility Act, setting mandatory detention and deportation laws that apply retroactively, making refugees and lawful permanent residents vulnerable to deportation. Forms of immigration relief previously available to people with convictions are eliminated. It also eliminates judicial review for cases.
2001
U.S. Congress passes the USA Patriot Act after September 11th, ushering in a new era of racial profiling, immigrant detentions, and deportations.
2002
First repatriation agreement between U.S. and Cambodia for Cambodia to accept deportees.
2008
The U.S. signs an agreement with Vietnam not to deport Vietnamese immigrants who entered the U.S. before July 12, 1995.
2017
The U.S. sanctions visas for Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar to pressure them to accept deportees.
2018
The U.S. goes back on its 2008 agreement with Vietnam in an attempt to deport more Vietnamese people.
More than 110 Cambodian people are deported in the calendar year, the highest number in U.S. history. 750+ Cambodian, 200+ Laotian, and 550+Vietnamese community members have been deported since 2002.
Additional sources: Legacies of War. “Secret War in Laos.” Legacies of War, legaciesofwar.org/about-laos/secret-war-laos/; Taylor Owen. “Bombs Over Cambodia.” The Walrus, thewalrus.ca/2006-10-history/; Ashley Dunn. “Southeast Asians Highly Dependent on Welfare in U.S.” The New York Times archive, https://www.nytimes.com/1994/05/19/us/southeast-asians-highly-dependent-on-welfare-in-us.html.
Robert Segama was born in 1982 in a small town about two hours away from the capital of Peru, Lima. The town he grew up in was in a remote area where low-income families built their own houses. “There was no water or sewers. We had to bring water from a mile away from where we lived.”
In Peru Robert lived with his mother and grandfather until he graduated high school. At the age of seventeen Robert arrived in the United States on a cold February evening to live with his father, stepmother and brothers. At first he had a hard time adjusting, and struggled with the language barrier.
“When I moved here I didn’t know the language, I had been going to some institutes in Peru for it but it’s not the same. You hear people speaking fast and it’s very difficult to understand. When I first got here I started going to Dorcas International Institute in Providence, where I spent a few months there to understand English better.”
Robert did not let the language barrier hinder him from succeeding, and one of the things he did when he first arrived was go to Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island where he enrolled in English classes. After graduating from the program, he attended Rhode Island College and enrolled in the English as a Second Language (ESL) program so that he could pursue an Associate’s degree in business. A year and a half later he opened a dry cleaning business. He kept the business for 3 years however later decided to continue with school and focus on completing his Bachelor’s degree.
The language barrier, though one of the most difficult was not the only obstacle Robert faced. Robert struggled to find that sense of belonging especially in a culture that is so individualistic.
“When I came here I think what was most difficult was to feel like you belong here. It is a different culture, different way of living and very independent. For example, who’s going to give me a ride? You can’t just walk around here, everything is very far away.”
Despite the rocky start, Robert feels at home here in the United States. “Little by little this place became my home.” Further, while Robert still identifies with his Peruvian culture and goes back every so often, in a way the United States is more of a home to him than Peru.
“Little by little the place where I came from it wasn’t really my home anymore. Everyone was leaving and people were getting busy with families and work. Every time I kept coming back I was more there as a visitor than as a citizen. Little by little I started making friends here”
Robert also states that coming from Peru to the United States after having lived the way that he did was really an improvement.
“It was a real improvement for me to come here from Peru. You know, the showers, hot water and where we lived there were really no roads, just dirt.”
Today Robert lives with his family; his wife, also from Peru and two lovely young children, a nine year old girl and five year old boy in Johnston Rhode Island. He also works in management as a training manager at a Fortune 100 company.
While Robert has come to accept American culture as part of his new identity he still holds true to many aspects of his Peruvian culture. For example both his children speak Spanish in addition to English and he still enjoys Peruvian food every day. Robert and his family also go back to Peru every so often to visit their relatives who live there.
Written and complied by Liv Halvorson and Esther Ssozi
Dancing and eating at the Greek Festival/ Video, photos
Fellow Rhode Islanders,
This year, “I Have a Dream” turns 50 years old. It is simply one of the best speeches of the 20th century – if not of all time. Throughout the years, I often think about the prophetic words Dr. King delivered with such unwavering fortitude and conviction to a crowd of more than 250,000 who were drawn to the National Mall to hear him speak on August 28, 1963. I consider Dr. King one of my heroes. He is a visionary with the spirit and soul of a prophet; he forcefully and openly advocated for what we all hold so dear – freedom, dignity, equality, a decent wage and ending poverty. Dr. King understood the “power of the pulpit” speaking out about injustice. He effectively accomplished this in his writings, especially his call to action in the moving and gut-wrenching 1963 “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” Dr. King was a brilliant orator who touched our hearts with his insight into giant and important themes particularly in the “The World House” chapter of his 1967 book “Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?” He writes: “The large house in which we live demands that we transform this world-wide neighborhood into a world-wide brotherhood. Together we must learn to live as brothers or together we will be forced to perish as fools.”
As we honor the timeless words of freedom and justice put forth so eloquently by this American legend, I am reminded of how “I Have a Dream” has resonated with me throughout the years. Dr. King in the speech notes: “But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.” It is that legacy of ensuring “the vaults of opportunity do not go empty,” which has guided me in my work to improve Rhode Island. This past summer on August 1 we became the tenth state to enact marriage equality. In May, I signed an Executive Order to promote diversity, equal opportunity, and minority business enterprises in our state. In addition, I fully supported and approved allowing undocumented students who immigrate to Rhode Island to pay in-state tuition rates at our public university and colleges. I have been steadfast in my commitment to make sure that all of our state’s students receive a quality education – especially in our urban cores.
As you may remember, less than 24 hours after my swearing-in as Governor, I fulfilled my campaign promise and repealed E-Verify. The executive order allowed us to engage in a comprehensive dialogue with our immigrant communities, law enforcement agencies, and all interested parties. In October, affordable health-care choices will be made available for all Rhode Island individuals and families and small businesses through our health exchange, HealthSource RI, which is shaping up to be a model for the rest of the country.
All of these initiatives send a message well beyond our borders that Rhode Island is a great place to live and work. As you know, our state was founded on the principles of diversity and tolerance – which is what Dr. King fought for and was the core of his “I Have a Dream” speech. In his words: “We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off… .” It is the “fierce urgency of now” that keeps me working hard and guides me in my efforts to move Rhode Island forward.
Sincerely,
Lincoln D. Chafee
Governor
Join Guatemalans in Rhode Island in celebrating their heritage at the 3rd Annual Festival Guatemala on Sunday, September 9, 2012 from 10am to 6pm at Roger Williams Temple of Music in Providence, RI. For more information contact [email protected].The festival is coordinated by the Guatemalan Center of New England.
For many Guatemalans, Rhode Island became a passing point on the way to political asylum in Canada–simply a temporary stop-over. In the 1980sand 90s, the Guatemalan community became more visible, settling in places like Providence, Central Falls and Woonsocket. Today, Guatemalans can also be found in large numbers in Aquidneck Island (primarily Portsmouth and Middletown) working in nurseries and running their own lawn care businesses.
When Guatemalans first began to settle in Rhode Island, one of the biggest attractions for them was that it was a peaceful place, especially compared to cities like New York and Los Angeles. Many of the first Guatemalans to reach Rhode Island were from small farming communities, and the rural feeling of Rhode Island–and particularly Aquidneck Island–made them feel very much at home.
The first reported Guatemalans began to arrive in New England in the early to mid-1960s. Those were the years of the civil rights movement, and many women and African Americans were moving out of jobs as domestic workers into better-paying ones. There was a need to fill these abandoned positions, and employment agencies in Boston reached out as far as Guatemala searching for domestic workers. By the late 1960s and early 70s, many of these women eventually found their way to Providence when city life in Boston became too overwhelming for them and their families. At that time, the Guatemalans who arrived in Rhode Island found very few Hispanics living here. The only services that were available to them were limited ones offered by the Catholic Church. Many Guatemalans felt isolated from their people as they sought places to speak their language or for the familiar foods that they needed to cook their native dishes. The only Hispanic business where they found a bit of comfort was a place called Fefa’s Market, a restaurant and market in South Providence (owned by Josefina Rosario), which sold many Latin American staples. Eventually Guatemalans looking for food that reminded them of home ended up at Roger Williams Park, where a Guatemalan family pulled up their truck once a week to sell tortillas.
Feelings of isolation were often expressed by many Hispanics in Rhode Island, including one Guatemalan woman interviewed for this project, who considers herself and her family to be one of the first to arrive in Rhode Island in 1962. Because of her undocumented status when she and her family reached Rhode Island, she remembers very little about her life in the West End of Providence, where she and her family lived in hiding in the home of a friend for almost two years. Even at the age of eight, she recalls living in fear that they would be found by authorities, and the loneliness sometimes led her to wish she could return to her country just so she could walk outside and breathe the fresh air of her familiar world. During her interview, she commented on the irony of hearing her parents talk about coming to America to find a more stable place to live, a place where they could gain economic security and safety, and to be free to walk the streets without fear of government oppression. At that time, there were three such families from Guatemala who had been brought to Rhode Island through the Catholic Church, an entity that at the time was not readily prepared to give them the appropriate services needed to become contributing citizens of the U.S.
Formal records show that during the 1970s and 80s Guatemalans began to settle in high numbers in the West End neighborhood of Providence, and also in the Olneyville neighborhood of Providence–on Westminister Street and in the vicinity of Saint Teresa’s Catholic Church, where a Spanish mass held every Sunday made them feel at home. The areas around Broadway Street in Providence, just east of Olneyville, are also heavily populated with Guatemalans. There are also pockets of Guatemalans in northern Rhode Island, in places like Central Falls and Woonsocket. Remarkably, in North Providence, a small community developed in the 1990s, one that includes Quiché-speaking Mayans, an interesting phenomena that raised a new set of social barriers for this community.
According to one Guatemalan who has lived in Rhode Island since the 1960s, the Guatemalan community today is still very isolated. Many individuals do not get involved in political advocacy or find it hard to access state social services for which they qualify primarily because they are accustomed to fearing anything public or government sponsored. The Guatemalan community today lives quietly in Rhode Island, and still relies on some assistance from the Catholic Church and other social service agencies, yet they have formed two organizations in an effort to educate their community about issues of amnesty and immigration reform. A number of restaurant and markets that sell Guatemalan foods are now serving the large number of Guatemalans who live in Providence and Central Falls.
In the year 1970, Naglaa Gaafar was born in Alexandria, Egypt. After devoting her early years to family and receiving her Bachelor’s Degree in English Language and Literature, as well as a Master’s Degree in Applied Linguistics from Alexandria University, Naglaa reached a pivotal point in her life. A yearning for something more and an undeniable sense of courage led Naglaa to travel 5,324 miles across the Atlantic to Dartmouth, Massachusetts, at the age of 28.
“I think there comes a point…when you feel that whatever you’re looking for does not exist where you are, and you have to take a risk and explore somewhere else. And I took a very big one.”
Naglaa’s journey began with an opportunity and desire to further her education. She received a scholarship for her master’s degree and attained a teaching assistantship for the professional writing program at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Her life progressed rapidly, as she married her husband and moved to Rhode Island six months after her arrival.
A continuous sense of feeling welcomed in Rhode Island and interacting with good natured people paved the path that transformed Naglaa from an Egyptian woman into an Egyptian American woman. Encouraging professors, supportive in-laws, and community oriented neighbors pushed Naglaa and her husband along as they built their life together. The couple took root in a small apartment, with one car, while both husband and wife worked multiple jobs and attended school. About a year and a half into their marriage their responsibilities grew with the addition of a third family member, their daughter. Life was hectic and busy, but Naglaa loved everything about it.
Naglaa has been working in higher education for 21 years, beginning when she still lived in Alexandria, Egypt. Her first full time job in the United States was at Cornell University. She worked her way through multiple positions, from faculty to administration. Currently she works at the Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI) as the Director of the Center for Excellence and College Readiness. Naglaa’s passion for teaching, however, remains the same. She has always kept one leg in teaching and describes its importance in this way: “Now I teach part time, it’s my passion.” While teaching does serve some self-interest, Naglaa is also doing some systematic bridge building between administrators and professors, two groups that sometimes struggle to understand each other.
The troubles caused by misunderstanding are not unique to Naglaa’s chosen profession in education. She frequently witnesses a misinterpretation of immigrants and their intentions by US-born citizens. Naglaa wants immigrants to be viewed as people who bring their rich cultures and add to what already exists in America, not take away from it.
“I want to contribute. We are not here to take anything away from anybody. We are here because we took a chance on ourselves. We put life in a bag and said goodbye to every dear person to our hearts. It was gut ripping, but we said we were going to plant roots here.”
Naglaa has lived in the United States for 16 years, yet she has remained connected to her Egyptian family and Egyptian roots. She travels to Egypt once a year, however, the sense of coming home isn’t felt on the journey there; it is felt on the journey back. Naglaa is who she is because of the experiences she has had as an immigrant living in the United States. She identifies this country, the place where she established her own family, as home and finds value in the individualistic culture of the United States.
“What I would say about my experience here is, what happened to me coming through my journey is I was able to shed a skin that was given to me and find my own spirit…If you’re here to know more about yourself, this is the perfect environment because you are on your own.”
Naglaa’s confidence, charisma, and enthusiasm for life are contagious. These qualities are evident through her story and the way in which she encourages growth in students at the Community College of Rhode Island:
“Everywhere you go there will be people who think that they are better and people who are going to think that you are less, and that doesn’t matter. It only matters what you think of yourself. If you treat yourself with respect, and as an equal, the world tends to respond to that.”
Written and compiled by Colleen Andersen and Claire O’Connor
Sandra Cano was born September 9, 1983 in Medellín, Colombia where she attended Catholic school and enjoyed swimming. Her father was a manager of an airline company in Colombia. During the 90’s rebels were kidnapping business-owners to hold for ransom. Unfortunately, Sandra’s father was on this list. He was kidnapped and ready to be killed, when miraculously, a former employee, who Sandra’s father had helped years ago, let him go saying, “He’s not on the list. Take him back home. He doesn’t have any money, he is just a man working for the company.”
After two weeks of being separated from his family, he was advised by his boss to seek political asylum in the United States. He traveled to Rhode Island to be with his son who was studying in an exchange program at Brown University. Upon Sandra’s father’s arrival to the US, he was advised by the government to bring the rest of his family with him, so that they would be protected as well.At age 17, Sandra was a student at the University in Colombia and had dreams of being a journalist or news reporter, but had to sacrifice her education in Colombia to move to the United States to find safety. She arrived to Pawtucket, Rhode Island in September 2000, where she and her family reunited with her father.
Sandra, reluctant to leave because she was already enrolled in the University, promised her father to live in the United States for six months to learn English. She was unprepared for the setbacks she faced, especially because she had already gradated high school in Colombia after 11th grade, but was placed back in high school to complete 12th grade in the United States. This was most frustrating since she had to attend the same English as a Second Language (ESL) class with her younger thirteen year old brother, who constantly teased her.
Despite this frustration, Sandra continued her life in the United States. She received her Associates degree from the Community College of Rhode Island. Sandra then transferred to Rhode Island College, and completed her bachelor’s degree at Bryant where she was able to obtain a scholarship. Most recently, Sandra obtained her Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the University of Rhode Island.
Sandra is now the Assistant Vice President of Business and Community Development for Navigant Credit Union in Central Falls, Rhode Island. She never gave up her journalism dreams; she volunteers at a Latino Public Radio station where she hosts her own public radio show. In addition, to her professional career, Sandra serves her community in Pawtucket, Rhode Island as the first Latina to be elected to the School Committee.
Serving in a public office as a young, female immigrant, Sandra feels that her leadership capacity is sometimes questioned. Some members of the community consider her accent a weakness, and assume she is uneducated. As a young Latina she still struggles to have her ideas heard and taken seriously. Sandra hopes to combat negative stereotypes and push forward a positive vision that immigrants and refugees are not looking to take advantage of, but to help make the Unites States a better and stronger country. She explains,
“There are a lot of negative perceptions about immigrants and refugees, and people don’t know their stories… I want you to understand that I’m coming here to contribute to this country; I’m not coming here to take away from this country. And, we all together could be a community. I mean, everybody is an immigrant, other than Native Americans.”
Despite facing some adversity, Sandra felt encouraged by all who believed in her. She continues to take a stand on issues important to her community.
“Every time somebody would shut the door on me… somebody else would give me that encouragement to continue…In Pawtucket we have a lot of work to do…it is still very divided. So, [we have] the Latinos here and the Cape Verdeans on this side of the city, and the white, Irish, and French Canadians on this side of the city….and they’re not really integrating. So, I would like to work together, or do something to try to help.”
Sandra still misses the family reunions and traditions of playing soccer at her grandparents’ home back in Colombia but it looking forward to starting a family of her own in Rhode Island. Sandra’s desire to have a happy and healthy family comes from her dad, admiring how selfless he was in doing everything he could to help his children create successful lives in the United States.
Sandra envisions a bright future ahead for the ocean state.
“I want equal access opportunities for my [future] kids in terms of education [and] job opportunities. I want a Rhode Island that has a positive economy…And I am positive for the future of Rhode Island. I think that more than ever we have had our struggles, and this time communities and people are getting together…to put our vision forward; a positive vision forward.”
Written and compiled by Colleen Dusel and Katy Foley
Andrew Mangeni was born in the nation of Uganda, in East Africa. As a young boy he started his schooling in Uganda, and later on in England. With the urging of his uncle who was a medical professor at Brown University, Andrew came to the United States in 1990 to pursue his higher education.
He received an associate in fine arts degree from the Community College of Rhode Island, and later went on to complete his bachelor of science in music education (cum laude) at Rhode Island College. Andrew then began teaching music in the Smithfield Schools while continuing his education at the University of Connecticut, where he obtained a master’s degree in music education. In the fall of 2002, he began to teach as an adjunct professor at Rhode Island College, while maintaining his job in Smithfield. Currently, he is attending Boston University to receive his doctoral degree in music education and continues working at both Rhode Island College and the Smithfield Schools.
When Andrew came to Rhode Island, he felt both welcomed and unwelcomed. Some people embraced him fully, like the family at his church who took him in “like he was their own son;” they even gave him the very first car he drove in the United States. Andrew quickly became friends with a fellow foreign student from Guatemala named Stuardo, and the two became like blood brothers; to this day their families remain very close. On the other hand, others were less eager to welcome Andrew; some people were quick to judge him because he spoke differently from them, or perhaps they thought that as another immigrant he had come to take opportunities away from society. Andrew explains that:
“They [immigrants] add to the fabric of our community. Many of them are simply looking to improve themselves… If someone is looking to improve themselves chances are the community in which they settle will improve as well.”
In fact, that is exactly what Andrew has done. In 2008, Andrew and his wife Anna became ordained as pastors at New Dimension Church, where they are serving the local community to build stronger families.
Andrew states that he was always blessed with great opportunities growing up, whereby he always had three meals a day and did not lack much growing up in a blessed household; he credits his parents for giving him the opportunity to acquire a good education in Uganda, England and later on in the United States. Currently Andrew has settled in a city with an economically diverse population; however, it was not until he returned to his native Uganda in 2009 that he fully recognized the impact of his blessings compared to others around the world. On this trip to Uganda Andrew was able to visit remote village areas where he saw a lot of people [especially children] living under severe poverty conditions.
“While we were driving on the streets of Kampala at night, we were shocked to find little children between the ages of 3 and 8 years… who were abandoned on the streets to beg for food into the late hours of the night.”
After seeing this Andrew and his wife Anna together with other friends decided to start a non-profit charitable organization to help widows and orphans; in 2011 they started AAM Global Mission and Pennies On Purpose (a capital campaign), with the sole purpose of building schools that service orphans and helping widows create small farming businesses to improve their sources of income. Andrew considers helping less fortunate people as his greatest achievement in life; his passion for education and charity combine to create this accomplishment.
“I believe that if I had not received the gift of education I would not be where I am today; if it were not for education you would all not be where you are today. So we want to use education to help widows and orphans get back on their feet and become self-sustained, that’s my greatest desire.”
Andrew and his family are planning to return to Uganda this summer, along with a team of volunteers to complete building a school they started in 2013. Andrew’s future includes retiring from teaching and dedicating his life to serving widows and orphans through AAM Global Mission. Their hope is to build over 100 schools over the next ten years around the world, and through education projects they hope to reduce poverty in Uganda and in other countries such as Haiti, India, Guatemala and several others.
Andrew hopes that one-day Rhode Island will be more diverse.
“I want a kind of Rhode Island that is Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” kind of Rhode Island; that’s the kind of Rhode Island I want for my children. I want my children to look at a person of any race and receive them without any reservations. I want my children to sit down and enjoy the same brotherly relationship that I have developed with my friend Stuardo from Guatemala… I want, a Rhode Island where people really respect each other, where my kids respect any kind of person, background, and I think that would be a better Rhode Island for all people.”
Andrew loves Rhode Island and would not move to live anywhere else—since this was the first and only US state he has ever lived in; he feels a very deep connection and claims to have been bitten by the “Rhode Island bug.”
“I’m proud to be an American. I became an American last year [2013]. The United States has become my home; I’ve been living here for the past 24 years, and it’s a big chunk of my life. The United States is home for me”
The Mangeni family currently resides in Lincoln, Rhode Island, and is looking forward to another mission trip to Uganda early this summer.
Written and compiled by Lizzy Tighe and Brian Millham
Stephanie Alvarez was born in Cali, Colombia in 1994. When Stephanie was only six months old her parents uprooted their lives and headed to the United States. As cooks, her parents found jobs in Providence in the culinary field and struggled to offer their children a better life in the United States.
“Well like a lot of other people, they came for the search of better jobs, and a better place to raise a family. They chose [Rhode Island], I think, because they heard a lot about economic opportunities, and it was a small state and seemed like a good place to settle.”
Settling in Central Falls, Stephanie was raised with Colombian values infused in her life. Although she does not remember Colombia, she still identifies with Colombian culture, largely in part because of her mother’s influence. She was taught Spanish as her first language and is proud to be bilingual.
“Growing up in Rhode Island was great, but it was really hard. My first language of course was Spanish, my parents knew next to no English; so going to school was really tough without knowing English. I got made fun of a lot for my heritage, and as a child that really affected me.”
Stephanie is currently a student at the Community College of Rhode Island and hopes to transfer to Providence College to pursue her dream of becoming a pediatric surgeon.
When she is not in school or working full time as a Certified Nursing Assistant at Waterview Villa Nursing Home in East Providence, Stephanie is taking care of her two-year-old son, Christopher, whom she refers to as “the absolute joy in my life”. She is raising him to be bilingual; with a strong sense of Latino values that she believes played such a pivotal role in her life.
Stephanie hopes to one day be able to travel back to Colombia to see the rest of her family, especially her older brother. Her parents did not have the financial means to bring the entire family to the United States and had to make the hard decision to leave Stephanie’s older brother back in Colombia as the rest of the family went to Rhode Island.
Since Stephanie left Colombia at such an early age, she does not actually know her older sibling personally, but rather has a relationship with him through social media. This has a deep impact on Stephanie who wants nothing more than to have her family in its entirety together in the United States. “You know, we have been trying [to bring family members to the United States] for a really long time. It has been a long and tedious process, hopefully one day it will happen.”
Stephanie feels a special bond with other immigrants in Providence, regardless of their home country. She is proud to be an immigrant and loves that Providence fosters such an open environment to all foreign-born individuals. She hopes to see a continuation of this cohesiveness between the immigrants in Providence and is glad that she can be a part of it. Stephanie’s ultimate goal is to see a world in which immigrants are totally accepted for who they are.
“When you first come here to America, it’s going to be really hard. It’s still hard for my family. So I think if we all work harder, then we can be a more welcoming community.”
Stephanie hopes that one day equality with reign over prejudice. She wishes this not only for herself, but for her young son Christopher as well.
“As he is growing up, I just want him to have opportunities; opportunities to be who he wants to be, and [to] grow up in a safe environment. I don’t want him to be judged or stereotyped as different…I want a Rhode Island that will welcome him. That will be supportive of him. Not just for him, but for everyone. I don’t want him to be judged, or looked at differently. That’s the Rhode Island I want for him”.
Written and compiled by Melissa Keiser and Michael Finnerty
Oraine Christie was born in a very small, populated area in Kingston, Jamaica.
“Kingston, Jamaica is a very small area but it’s very populated and in that population everyone wants to achieve their goal and come out with something.”
Growing up in Jamaica he held various jobs which included working for an insurance company as well as networking for various companies such as a mobile company out of England. In Jamaica, the process is rather different in order to go to college.
“In Jamaica you have to pass certain amount of exams in order to go to college and so forth. I went to one of the elite high schools in Jamaica.”
About two years ago, Oraine was able to come to the United States on a work permit for a company that he had a connection with through work. “I first came here because my cousin in Jamaica he has a girlfriend that worked up here and the company normally takes people from my country to come up here and work for usually certain amount of seasons so on and so forth.” Coming to the United States would allow him to generate a higher income than he would in Jamaica. “I am actually going after what I want to do, so that’s a big difference in my life.”
Upon arriving to the United States, Oraine started off in the Dorchester area of Massachusetts where he had some family members. However, his main motivation was to receive his General Educational Development (GED) in order for colleges and universities in America to recognize his diploma so he enrolled in a GED class at Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island.
After graduating with his GED from Dorcas International Institute, Oraine begin his journey to Harvard. He is currently attending Harvard Extension and will soon transfer to Harvard University, his “first and only choice”. “[Harvard] is where I wanted to go.” At this point in his life, Oraine considers attending Harvard his greatest accomplishment. However, Oraine has his sights set on the future and strives to attend Oxford University for his Master’s in Business Administration (MBA). He also plans to go to law school.
“I want everyone to be like ‘Oh he has an MBA from here and another one from here and then Esquire at the end of his name’….I’ve wanted to be a lawyer since I was young…I want to be able to be someone in life and I don’t want no one to be able to walk all over me. In Jamaica I would have given an arm and a leg to become a lawyer.”
The constant movement between work, school, and socializing serves as a strong hold against sleep for typical Jamaican lifestyle, and Oraine had to adjust when he first arrived.
“It is slow. Because I’m always up and about, as soon as it hits 6am I am up, that is just my natural clock. So when I’m up I try and make myself as busy as possible during the day because if I don’t I will not sleep at night.”Not used to all the down time here in America, Oraine tries very hard to be busy during the day, that way he will be able to sleep at night.
Oraine has one complaint about the weather here in New England and that is that it changes too often; “Today will be good and then tomorrow it rains, then the next day is good and then rain! The fluctuation kills me!”
Since his arrival, Oraine has not lost touch with his close friends and relatives. “We are in constant communication.” He hopes to soon visit friends who are now living in Canada and England. Oraine is also headed back to Jamaica come summertime to visit friends and family and celebrate his upcoming birthday.
Oraine does not plan to slow his pace any time soon, in fact he is just beginning. As a loving father of a five-year-old son, Oraine works to give his child the opportunity to achieve his wildest dreams.
“The other day he told me he wanted to be an artist, so I told him ‘draw’. It is America! He is the only thing that will keep him from accomplishing his dreams.”
Oraine describes a certain drive embedded in his mind upon coming to America, “…everybody only got one life to live and you can’t let someone go and take that from you”.
Written and compiled by Emily Matthews and Phil Lynch
Komlan Soe was born in Toe Town, Liberia. At the age of three, a civil war broke out forcing Komlan and his family to flee to a refugee camp in Ivory Coast, where his family survived on little rice, cornmeal and flour distributed by UNHCR. At the age of seven, he started first grade at a school established by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and other non-profit organizations. The school was in unfinished buildings and on under trees, where Komlan and other youngsters would sit and learn their basic Math and ABCs.
In 2002 when civil war erupted in Ivory Coast, Komlan and his family fled to another refugee camp in Ghana. While in the camp in Ghana, Komlan’s curiosity and passion for education grew stronger. Komlan took a high school entrance exam, and he came first out of 70 applicants. He later received a scholarship to a prestigious boarding school, where he was able to sit, for the first time, at comfortable desks and discovered a passion in international affairs.
With his father already settled in Rhode Island, Komlan and his family migrated to Rhode Island in November 2005 as refugees sponsored by Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island.
It was a bittersweet family reunion because his two sisters and a brother remained in Ghana. His welcome into Rhode Island with a sign greeting him and his family was an experience he would never forget.
“It was… I’m finally in the United States. Yes that’s good. It was like a dream.”
As an immigrant, the transition of life in the United States was difficult. The first time Komlan saw snow, he was in disbelief. He was also not accustomed to the American sports, or the food, and did not understand why some people in his new community did not give up their seat to elders on the bus.
In 2008, Komlan began his studies at the Community College of Rhode Island after more than three years of delaying college in order to work and help his family financially. In 2010 he transferred to the University of Rhode Island (URI) where he became heavily involved in different activities while pursuing a dual degree in Political Science and Sociology. While at URI, Komlan worked as a Teaching Assistant and held down a full-time job. He graduated in May 2013; a dream he had finally achieved. “I am the first in my family to graduate from college.”
Komlan now works with the African Youth Development Initiative, which he co-founded to empower and engage African and African-American youths around issues such as violence, education, and African culture and history. He not only hopes to engage the youth in Rhode Island in the discussion of what is going on in their state, but also hopes to see more challenging education systems for those young students:
“One day you will be actively involved to bring about change. So the mobilization of young people and then challenging young people… challenging them to get involved is the most important thing I think I can take from that.”
His hope for immigrants is that they should no longer be viewed as victims, rather as survivors. As an immigrant, he saw the ways in which the civil wars affected his family and those he loves, but he says he is very glad he is in America.
“To be an American is to have a story,” says Komlan. He has spent years now getting comfortable sharing his story, and telling people about his past. Komlan believes it is important to remember where you come from, and that having pride in your roots is what makes America so great and unique. It is diverse with many different people, he says, yet everyone shares a common ideal – to make their lives better.
Komlan hopes to attend grad school at Harvard University or Columbia University to continue his passion for education. His biggest goal is to one day become a diplomat to speak, and have a voice for those who don’t. He has since been back to Ghana and Liberia and feels he is needed back in his native homeland, so he plans to help.
“An African proverb which I always refer to says, ‘You are… because we are.’ And that means everything that is done has to be done collectively. One person’s success is everyone’s success and people have to hold together”.
No matter what challenges face him, Komlan smiles and stays determined to get through it.
Written and compiled by Delia Egan and Joseph Thuillier
Carlos Parada was born in Santa Cruz, Bolivia on February 7, 1986. When Carlos was only six years old, he and his mother left Bolivia for a fresh new start in the United States. They came directly to Cranston, Rhode Island and stayed with Carlos’s uncle until they were able to get an apartment.
Even at such a young age, Carlos remembers life in America as a struggle at first. He found difficulty adapting to the English based school system since he only knew Spanish at the time. Not only that, his mother placed him into first grade despite the fact that he was only six. He had cousins that were already in that elementary school and no one could baby sit for him if he attended half-day kindergarten.
Despite the obstacles, Carlos learned English quickly and was able to adapt well to the American culture. Carlos also had a lot of help from his cousin’s aunt who was the English as a Second Language teacher at the time and refused to even acknowledge Carlos if he tried to speak Spanish to her.
“She forced me to talk in English…She would say, ‘No try to communicate to me in other ways besides using Spanish.’”
In high school Carlos played soccer, volleyball, and tennis and stayed involved in the community. After graduation he found a strong passion for immigration related issues when he began volunteering at the Diocese of Providence as an assistant to the immigration caseworkers. While staying involved with the Diocese he attended Bryant University where he received a degree in finance. After graduation he returned to work for the Diocese full time. Currently he is an Immigration case manager Carlos also takes part in a Bolivian festival here in Providence, Urkupina, by dancing to folk music.
Carlos broadened his horizons while at Bryant as he took part in classes that had him get involved with the community even more so than before. He took part in a management class where Carlos and his group worked with the Diocese of Providence where they ran a citizenship class and assisted twelve adults who were preparing for the U.S. citizenship test. Carlos and his team would help the adults with interviewing skills, grammar, and the history of the United States.
Through teaching the citizenship classes Carlos developed his skills as a leader while also preparing himself to become a U.S. citizen, which he will undergo next year. Carlos and his mother both received their residency four years ago, one of his biggest accomplishments.
“I think getting my residency to be here legally in the United States is important because if not I would have had to go back home and wait for my residency and that can take a long time… To go back home, to live somewhere where I didn’t grow up, would be out of my comfort zone.”
Having lived in Rhode Island almost his whole life Carlos considers himself American and wouldn’t want to permanently move back to Bolivia.
“Rhode Island is awesome; everything is so close by. I’m a big foodie; I love restaurants. I eat out a lot and I love coffee. I love coffee shops; Rhode Island has some of the best coffee shops. I like supporting local business and mom and pop shops. I like little hole in the wall places in Providence, and there’s a ton. There’s the Coffee Exchange, which has coffees from all over the world from South, Central America. “
His favorite restaurant is India, on Hope Street and a Bolivian and Peruvian restaurant, Los Andes, on Chalkstone Avenue. Carlos has an optimistic view on diversity and community, believing that society is becoming more progressive and that acceptance is more relevant each day.
“I think we are all immigrants ourselves. We come on a boat, plane… We come here to better our lives and better our families back home.”
Written and compiled by Trey Tremblay and Lauren Waag
Michel Schtakleff was born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon, but his parents were Bulgarian and Palestinian, He came to America not by choice, but in fear of becoming the next civilian casualty of the growing Israeli-Palestinian civil war. Prior to then, Michel enjoyed Lebanon very much, and did not want to leave.
“One other really disturbing moment for me, that I will never forget is that of New Year’s celebration from ‘75 to ‘76. Everybody who had a gun, and many people had guns, militias of all kinds, decided to shoot up in the air all at the same exact time. The sky was blood red like Armageddon. Even though they were not shooting at each other but they were shooting up in the air it was a sick form of celebration. The noise was deafening and I felt sick to my stomach. It was horrific… So after that my parents said you need to go…”
Michel actually had a choice between going to Europe or the United States because he had family already in Europe and in several states in America. He decided on California, where his brother lived. While in Lebanon, Michel attended a multicultural school and was taught English. This made his adjustment to life in California easier. Rather than struggle with the language barrier, Michel found that he struggled with the idea of identity.
“I never thought of [of my identity] before I came to California. What is my identity? Where am I from? Because I used to be with people who are similar, people who are from all over the place. We didn’t ask each other where we are from, because we are from all over the place! So it doesn’t matter. When I came to California, the first question was, “Where are you from?” And I would say ‘oh, I was born in Beirut.’ And they would say, ‘Oh so you’re Lebanese?’ ‘Yes, but I am also Bulgarian, I am also Palestinian, I am also all of these different things!’”
After spending time at California Institute of the Arts, Michel and a friend decided to open their own graphic design studio focused on graphic design for websites; for “dot-commers.” They decided to relocate and start their business in Rhode Island. However, just before they opened, the dot-com sector crashed and the bubble burst, leaving them closed permanently before they even opened. Michel, despite this obstacle, enjoyed Rhode Island thus far, and decided to stay. “I didn’t want to leave Lebanon, but I never went back. Never visited, and I don’t have the desire to.”
Michel has taught classes in the arts and English as a Second Language at various colleges and schools including, Oakwood High School, Community College of Rhode Island, Bryant University, and Roger Williams University. He currently teaches English at the International Institute of Rhode Island. He now knows how much he enjoys teaching, and plans on continuing to do so in the future. Michel also creates film documentaries on various subjects.
“There is a documentary I want to produce, that is related to “Global Soul”… [Immigration] is politicized and there is such negativity and people that come here looking for work, everything is politicized and it is not helpful, especially because we are a country of immigrants. It seems like every group that comes in after 50 years, they discriminate the next group that comes in, and on and on and on. But now it is getting bad for the people who come here; there are a lot of unnecessary problems. I see it with my students. They are struggling and now they have to add it to their burden.”
Michel is a firm believer that in order to make things easier for immigrants coming to America in the future, the key is access.Michel believes that had he not had the language skills already honed before coming here, he would not have had the tools necessary to properly adapt. By giving immigrants access to the proper resources, together we can help make things easier for them.
Michel believes that he is truly fortunate that he was able to migrate to America without some of the common struggles that others face. He does not take for granted that he was able to follow his dream of being an artist, teacher, and filmmaker, despite being displaced from his home country.
“My greatest accomplishments…are ahead of me. The fact is that I am happy that I have been able to produce artwork that I can reach people and the fact that I have found out that I love teaching. And when you realize that you have something that you can offer and you enjoy it. That is the best thing that can happen. Teaching is a great thing because you are doing something and being useful.”
Written and compiled by Alice Horne, Logan Bruneau, and Rachel Backner
Dominique Gregoire was born in France in a small village in the center of the country in 1948. As a child, Dominique enjoyed the time he spent vacationing on the farms in the countryside in Brittany. Some of Dominique’s best years were in Paris as a college student at Sciences Po and the Paris Faculty of Law where he enjoyed the culture that surrounded him. After finishing his studies in 1970, Dominique went to work as the Chief of Staff in Normandy where he helped develop the city center.
Soon after, Dominique met Donna, a woman from Providence, Rhode Island, and married her. After starting a family in France, it was decided that Dominique, Donna and their two daughters, Julia and Claudia, would make the journey to the United States where there were better job opportunities.
Upon arriving to Rhode Island in 1986, Dominique and his family stayed with his in-laws for a few months until they could sell their homes in France. Staying with family made the transition very smooth, and for the most part Dominique felt welcomed.
“There were some times that I was confronted with people that did not accept me. That was somewhat of a challenge.”
Dominique gained employment relatively quickly in Rhode Island. His first job was working for a modular home company that transported homes to people and set up the houses at the foundation. Dominique then worked for the Governor’s Office and later for the City of Providence.
Dominique is now retired from mortgage business and has been working on a project he calls the “Jewel of New England” which includes a place for pedestrians to walk freely, with tons of cafes around the downtown Providence area. He also has ideas that would increase transportation so that more people would visit downtown. Currently, Dominique is considering finding another job position in the non-profit sector, possibly in the education field.
Dominique believes that Rhode Island can be a great state if the people come together towards a common goal.
“The state of Rhode Island is beautiful. The coastline, the towns, and Newport. People are easy-going. There are a lot of people who have done a lot for the state and we ought to give them credit.
When thinking about the future Rhode Island Dominique wants for his children, he imagines “a place where they will have good professional opportunities and a place where they will be able to contribute to the community. A place where they will be able to raise their children, comfortably. And a place where it is fun to live is very important. An urban environment that is fun to be around where you have cultural opportunities and festivals.”
For the last 15 years, Dominique has been the president of the French Alliance of Providence, which offers language classes, lectures and concerts at their headquarters on Smith Street. The French Alliance allows Dominique to stay connected to his home country and language when he isn’t traveling to France.
A large part of Dominique’s life is his two daughters, Julia and Claudia. He has taught them certain values so that they have grown up to be the women they are today.
“You have to be ambitious, have goals, and be educated. We insisted on education with our children and they’ve gotten a good education, but also the values of family, love, affection and taking care of each other. That’s what we tried to do and so far it has been working.
Although Dominique enjoys living in the United States, he is concerned about inequality, gun violence, and the amount of people who are incarcerated. He believes that the United States has a lot of potential to fix these problems, but it will take time and effort.
“To a certain extent, I really love this country and I think it has enormous potential. We have people with imagination and creativity and we have the best colleges. People create things every day. But we still have a long way to regain the soul of this country.”
Written and compiled by Jacqueline Shepard and Jake Scearbo
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I relettered this comic about one of my constant depression triggers, which is lack of productivity, and how my identity is so wrapped up in my work and craft(even when logically, I know that is not true or healthy!).
It’s not really something I’ve completely gotten a handle on yet, either, honestly.
The past two months have been so stressful for my partner and I, probably even more stressful than our final year of university. I can’t lie, we nearly broke up on more than one occasion due to all the fighting and stress. Immigrating to another country is a fucking awful process, especially for those coming from non-English speaking backgrounds.
The fact is, as of 14/08/019 we have only one week until his current student visa expires. The most important step is his IELTS test, and if he doesn’t achieve a 6 by the end of this week, we’re basically fucked. He has taken the test twice already, $350 each test, and both times he scored 5.5. He’s got one chance left, otherwise its all over and he’d have to go back to Korea. I am freaking the fuck out.
AND THEN
Last night, his third test result came in the mail. We weren’t speaking to each other (after having yet another stress-fuelled argument), but he made me open the envelope for him. I nervously glanced at the box that said “Overall score.”
HE DID IT. HE FUCKING DID IT. THIRD TIME IS THE FUCKING CHARM BABY. I fell to my knees and started crying and immediately all memories of past arguments washed away. I can’t believe it. After almost 4 and a half years, he did it. He’s finally able to apply for his Temporary Graduate Visa! We are one step closer to permanent residency!
