This whole semester one thing we really focused on was identity. No matter what we were learning about, it always found its way back to identity. So when deciding what I wanted to do for my final project, I knew I wanted to do something that not only talked about my family but also discussed who we are and where we come from.
Last year I took a class called Introduction to Latinos in U.S. History and for this class, I had to write an essay about someone’s immigration story. For this essay, I chose my mom and got to learn a lot more about her and her story. This inspired me for my final project but for this essay, I decided to write about my mom and grandmother’s stories. There was a major age difference between them when they came to the United States from Ecuador and I wanted to highlight this. My mom was 8 and my grandma was 29 when they immigrated. For me, I have not heard a lot of immigration stories from a daughter and mother who immigrated together and I wanted to tell the story of those in my family. It was really interesting to interview them and learn all the little details that I had never heard before.
I think when a lot of people hear or think about immigration stories, they think of someone who went through a lot physically trying to cross the border or someone escaping their country because of conditions there but with my essay, I wanted to show that that is not always the case for every person. There are millions of immigrants in the United States and none of their stories are the same. Yes, some stories can be similar but every immigrant has their personal story that only relates to them. My mom and grandma came to the U.S. because my grandpa sent them over here for better opportunities for his kids but my grandma took this opportunity differently. She was in a toxic relationship with my grandpa and this new chapter allowed for her to leave with her children to someplace new. Although getting their visas and coming to the United States was fairly easy, some sacrifices had to be made when they finally lived here. My mom had to give up her childhood to take care of her younger brothers and my grandma sacrificed watching her kids growing up because she needed to work all day to provide for her family.
I believe I have an interesting viewpoint on their stories because they both raised me. My mother had me very young at 17, so my grandma and her had decided that my grandparents were going to raise me. I actually did not know my mother was my mother until I was around 8 or 9 because I had been told that she was my older sister. Being able to have that double life and see both of their lives really lets me see who they are now as people and how their immigration stories have impacted them with long-term effects.
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