I am Dr. Elena Delavega.
I am an associate professor of social work at the University of Memphis, and I am also
the associate director of the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change.
I was born and raised in Mexico City.
One of the things that was different about Mexico in the seventy's was that we did not
recognize things things such as attention deficit disorder.
I have attention deficit disorder.
I was not diagnosed until I was much older in the United States.
My father tried to have a business in Mexico way back in the day, and there were a lot
of challenges at some point during my childhood he decided that he wanted to immigrate to
the United States.
It took a very long time for him to finally have the guts to come here.
So, he moved in 1985 we up and left.
It was very traumatic for me because at that time I was doing quite well in high school,
and my mother came to us when they and she said we are moving to the United States next
week.
I was in shock it was was quite a disruption to my life.
I cried and I said I do not want to go, but of course that did not help me.
So I ended up a week later in Houston, Texas in a new school where I did not know anybody
I did not speak English.
People spoke to me and I just looked them, and then you respond how immigrants respond
when you are spoken to and you do not understand the language.
So, I just smile and said\'85 And I had no idea what had been said to me.
I am smart though, and I was able to learn English very quickly.
In fact, six months after we had moved to the United States I knew enough English to
go into regular classes.
I graduated from high school with a G.P.A. of 3.7 even though I had not known English
when I arrived.
However, as it often happens for immigrants I was not able to go to college.
It took me a very long time to be able to go to college we just did not have the money,
and I had to work to help my parents.
It was not until after I had already had my child at age 35 that I had the opportunity
to go back to college, and to get my education and for me that was one of the best things
that ever happened to me.
In fact, they happiest day of my life was the day I got my bachelor's degree.
What fears and challenges I had and my family had when we came to this country, well, one
of the most difficult things was of course not being able to speak English.
I did not know how to drive either.
That was very scary because I had never needed to learn to drive.
I was afraid of immigration officers.
I have always been afraid of immigration officers.
They have so much power.
They have all the power in the world in their hands.
They can make or break your life by the stroke of a pen and there is nothing you can do about
it.
I sleep with my passport.
I have it close to my heart.
It is really important to me.
I do not think American cities sense or people born here understand how very precious their
citizenship is.
How very precious their rights are.
\ How very precious their right to vote is.
If you come from such countries as Mexico, India, Mainland China, or the Philippines
there can be a wait of fourteen, twenty, twenty seven years to be even be eligible for a VISA.
So, when we ask immigrants, \'93Oh why did you get your citizenship right away?
Why do not you just apply?\'94 Well, because you cannot.
The load is harsh and it is very difficult and it is becoming harsher.
Those experiences shaped my research interest and also my passion for social justice.
Because I know what it is to try to do the best you can, to try to work as hard as you
possibly can and the system is just stacked against you in such a way that you are not
going to make it.
But I got my American citizenship recently.
I just took the oath of allegiance to the United States.
It was a moment of great pride for me.\ My name is Sumeiah Altareb.
I am a freshman at the University of Memphis.
I am majoring in electrical engineering, and I am originally form Yemen.
I am Sarah Altareb.
I am a physiology major, senior year at University of Memphis.
We came with our family.
It was not all at once.
First, my dad used to work here and he would visit us in Yemen every other year.
And then one time he could not come back because the situation in Yemen was complicated so
my sister and my mom went to visit him here and then we came.
It was more of individual fears or challenges.
Because when we came here we did not speak a lot of English.
It was really basic level, and that accent and culture and language that was a huge barrier
in school and outside of school.
You also have the fear of not being accepted in this society because we look different
and were from a different place.
We have different religion.
First we were thinking that language would be so hard.
Second, the culture was very different than we would have thought, and the way people
viewed was different too.
I used to be really afraid of any of any communication with people.
I think I have improved a lot and I already have some friends, and I can communicate with
people and feel comfortable, but and in the University of Memphis I felt a lot more comfortable
with the diversity.
It has been a really good experience here.
Whenever I see more girls that are wearing her hijab in the in the hallway or on campus.
It feels good and I feel like I am not you know a stranger.
People are different.
The friendship with them is actually I think is more valuable because you have different
experiences, and you learn from each other.
the opportunities that are available here are not are not available in my country, and
also I love that I can say what I want to say and I can always express my opinion.
It is not like there is no one can tell me you cannot say that.
You have to shut up or something because sometimes it happened out in my country.
We were not able to express ourselves.
I am nostalgic most of the time about Yemen, but memories from my childhood but when it
comes to here I do like the education.
I like how much there is diversity.
Because back home they all look the same pretty much.
Spoke the same.
Maybe even thought the same way.
But here it is like a whole new world and there is so many perspectives it is very valuable
I think to growing up to have that experience.
I am taking pre-med classes and I am planning to go to optometry school.
My hope is to become a eye doctor.
My hope is that I can be something or someone who can help change the conditions right now.
Diversity is very valuable, and you have to find a way to preserve that.
Because for me diversity has been one of the main things that that affects my thinking
and the way I approach problems and stuff.
For Americans, find a way to preserve and show that value of diversity.
I would like to tell the students in the campus to try to make friendship with any students
who are different from them because it is exciting it is fun, and you get to learn about
others.
I am Maria Naranjo.
I am a business information and technology and Mathematical Sciences double major.
I am originally from Rincon Grande, Mexico.
My family came here when I was about four or five years old.
I am from a really small town in Mexico and basically everyone does either farming or
they work in factories and what people make in a day is not sufficient to have a good
life.
So, when my dad heard about an opportunity to come to the U.S. to get a job here he took
it.
Because, even like having minimum wage work here was better than working in Mexico, and
at that point he already had a green card and it was not until I was about five years
old that we were able to get permanent residency, but it was difficult because my dad left as
soon as my sister was born and he would only come visit us maybe once a year for a couple
of days.
So, we were by ourselves and I remember like when I was little, and he would come visit
us I would not even recognize him.
So, he decided to bring this here for a better opportunity I still remember when I started
kindergarten here I was terrified because I absolutely understood not one word that
was said.
I had no idea what my teachers would tell me to do I could not talk to any of the other
students.
But because I was so young I was able to pick up English pretty fast so at least I was a
plus.
When I came here to the U.S. my parents wanted me to get an education.
That was one of their primary concerns, and that has always been my mindset that I was
going to come here I was going to finish school.
I was going to go to college.
I was going to get a good career, because ultimately I want to get a good job so that
I can help my parents and help support them and make them not so stressed about money
one day.
Well since I am a version aeration student my focus has been on finishing college, and
it is difficult because I am a first generation student to know what I am supposed to do,
and even like when I was going to apply to colleges I did not know the process I did
not know what I should do.
I did not know what jobs were available.
I did not know what I should choose as my future career.
It is really discouraging to see how people see immigrants and to see how they view us
makes me sad because they do not understand.
They think it is easy for immigrants to just come here, but it is not they do not understand.
My name is Fabiola Rivera.
I am a Freshman here at the University of Memphis.
My major is international business and I sm a first generation immigrant from Mexico.
My family immigrated here for work opportunities, and more importantly for me and my siblings
education.
I immigrated here when I was three years, old almost four, but we have gone back to
Mexico every summer sense.
So, it is still a really big part of me.
I think the biggest challenge me and my family have faced is definitely assimilating to the
culture here, getting comfortable.
Learning the language is deafening the hardest thing for my parents, and it was hard for
them to support us and help us in school when they themselves had very little schooling.
While they still cannot help us out with school but they support us with anything we need
financially.
Emotional support is always there, and honestly the biggest thing they have done for us is
definitely become citizens.
Making me and my siblings automatic U.S. citizens.
I did not understand exactly, but now being here in college and seeing that nothing and
no one can stop me and that I have so many opportunities that so many people just do
not.
So, to me that moment is the turning point I think, My experience at the University of
Memphis has been great so far.
I have had so much support from everybody I have talked to everybody have come across.
I am helping organize this event, this particular panel because it is such a big part of my
history and who I am.
I am am immigrant I had to learn the language.
I had to learn the culture.
I had to learn how to be American.
I had to do all that and so a lot of people do not understand the struggles of immigrants,
and how much they have to fight to be seen as American.
One of the biggest things I think I want everybody to get from this video is we have have not
all had that chance to be ourselves because we hide just so we can let others feel comfortable
with us.
You know we put on that whole facade that we are just like you, and we are not, not
all the time.
We have our own flavors, our own cultures, our own languages, that we would love to show
everybody but it is scary when people do not readily accept what we have to offer.
My name is Monica Casarin, and I am a freshman.
I am a Health Studies Health Science Concentration major, and I am a first generation immigrant.
My parents came here supporting trying to get a better living, better life, trying to
get out of the realms of Mexico to try to achieve their dream of me having a better
future and a better education.
It is a blessing that now they are very comfortable we are settled in, but the only problem is
me being a DACA student and not having the full eligibility of a full citizen student,
and being a DACA student I feel is one of the biggest accomplishments and I am proud
of my parents for coming over here because if it was not for them I would not see all
the possible possibilities and I would not even probably not even see that I would love
to be in the health care field and just join the possible limitless research that would
be taking place here in the United States.
So I am very excited to be here and I am very blessed and proud that my parents decided
to come here.
When I was one year old so I am from Memphis, Tennessee and I am a first generation student.
I always thought college was a necessity to be successful in life, but as I came down
the realms back when I was a senior in high school.
I saw that it may have been limited to me, but now I see it as an opportunity to go through
higher achievement and to get to your ultimate goal.
The University of Memphis has been a great experience for me.
I absolutely love the faculty, the staff, the environment, I feel so comfortable here
it is almost as if it is my second home.
And I am just very blessed to be here because if it was not for the Opportunity Scholarship
which I am an opportunity scholar.
I would not be here, and I am just very thankful for the Equal Chance of Education for funding
this scholarship.
With all this going on it does get me emotional.
It does get me down, because sometimes I feel like I am hindered from my own success.
Because of me not being born here I am from here, but I was not born here.
We do not get any government funded money for college so therefore when I saw my friends
applying for the Hope Scholarship, Lottery and other government scholarships University
of Memphis, me getting scholarships, federal aid FASFA.
I am not able to receive any of that.
People did not know I was a decade student.
I was just Monica Casarin and graduated from high school top ten percent of my class until
I come to college Monica Casarin an opportunity scholarship freshman and they are all just
so shocked because I did not want to be seen as a DACA a student, but now I feel like it
is more of an achievement than an obstacle.
Immigrants are not here to take your jobs.
We work the same way you work.
We just know the obstacles that we face we are just here to make a living for ourselves
as much as you are.
We just want to be a part of the U.S.
We want to work.
We want to help this country grow.
I mean it is our country as well.
It is not just limited to certain people.
I mean it is the country of immigrants so why treat immigrants such in such alienation.
My name is Diana Sanchez.
I am a freshman and my major is Social Work with the minor Spanish.
My mom she is from Mexico.
She is from Morelos and I am from Morelos Cuernavaca.
My dad, well he is my step dad.
My mom she migrated when I was just nine months old.
My dad, my biological dad, he was already here.
My parents split up, and then my stepdad he came around when he was like nineteen years
old.
It was so hard at first my mom she mainly were saying care of me.
We stayed with some family members and then she was trying to get jobs and it was very
difficult for her because she really did not know a lot English.
Like the only thing she knew was like taking care of me, and I was her like her main priority.
She would go and help my uncle clean like apartments, because he was like the owner
of them.
There is like a really lot of barriers because she really did not know a lot of English.
I am very thankful I mean because like without her, without both of my parents actually like
I would not be in the university right now.
I know like they have had a lot of stress, and a lot of like the situations that were
just like sometimes it feels like, impossible, getting out of it.
But I mean, I guess, they just figured it out themselves.
I remember this, I was like sitting on but I was like I was upset about like our financial
situation.
I mean, I want to say that I was embarrassed of it, because I would see the other kids
just you know with their new shoes, or like new markers and like you know like typical
stuff that children would be jealous of.
And then my dad he sat me down and he told me that their goal was to have our future
better than theirs.
My dad he was raised between a war.
So, he would see dead people.
He would see just like like kids just without their parents, because like you know there
they are separated.
They are helping me like you know get further my education more than they ever did.
My dad he did not finish middle school.
My mom she did not finish middle school.
So like them thinking that I am growing more like makes them like feel proud of what they
have done, and I am proud of them because they got me to this point.
It was always been my dream like to attend college to you know just like help my parents
when I would grow up.
I would have like this is this job, that I would love, that I would you know be passionate
about, and with that like my parents would not have to work anymore.
I would be like financially stable enough for them to like be part of my life, and not
struggle as much as they did when I was growing up.
I have had people call me wetback.
They just, I mean, It is hard because a lot of people do not.
I\'92m sorry.
It is hard because a lot of people do not notice that you know those words are just
going to stick with us especially me I mean I am not a very confident person.
And you know I am not and I am getting back at it because you know whatever they say it
is not going to affect me and more.
Like you know.
I am not going to be whatever they are going to say I am.
You know if they just want to go ahead and call me that I mean that is part of my culture.
Like you know if I am a wetback I mean I might be proud of it, because my parents taught
me you know and just ignore them it is not that important.
As coming forward, you know, into doing this is just you know like a really big step for
us because we can tell people, you know, like this is what is happening this is how we are
doing, this is how we are going to change it.
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