Roberto Leni

Roberto Leni is from Chile. He came to the United States for he and his family were kicked out from his home country. He attended high school in the U.S. He was a very shy person and did not speak to many people. Roberto based his way of being and the way he wrote in Spanish.He felt that he was supposed to portrait himself in Spanish. He then realized that people saw him as a white person because of his appereance. Though he managed to write well in Spanish, he then realized that he could write well in English. Now he is a successful writer, he most likely lives in the USC campus and he is also a councelor at USC.

Oscar

"I was born in Michoacán, Mexico which is in the southern western part of Mexico on the pacific coast and I was brought to the U.S. when I was three and a half years old by my parents but my parents were actually here before me and my great grandparents were going back and forth so its interesting that way. It was a very financial experience that I had. I speak Spanish fluently, English of course and a little bit of French, I could speak it. I think it’s worth mentioning that I was first generation, I’m the first person in my family from both sides to go to college. I was very lucky that my parents back in the years were still able to arrange their papers really soon so I was only undocumented for three years.”

"El compadre has two sons that kind who are the same, age as me and my brother right. Kind of looks like us, not a lot but we were from a very very very poor town in Mexico. My family was a very hard working class. So we borrowed the clothes from these two kids who looked like us and their same age as me and my brother right. Kind of looks like us, not a lot but we were from a very very very poor town in Mexico. My family was a very hard working class. So we borrowed the clothes from these two kids who looked like us and their green card and everything. We got to the border and we are supposed to say who we are. I think my name was Oscar or something and I couldn't remember what my name was. So the immigration official asked me what is your name and I looked up to my dad and said 'what’s my name?' so I don’t know why that guy let us through. Maybe he felt sorry or something.”

“ ... So going to college for me wasn’t difficult...but there are still challenges being a first generation...I rarely call myself a Chicano because a Chicano is more like a political consciousness... ""The push pull factor occurs way long before we are born. It happens even before our parents meet and decide to have kids and a lot of push pull factors that happens within immigrants in particular are political factors that have nothing to do with our families sure my family was really really poor... and like sure we could have died like my grandparents brothers and sisters. But that’s not really the push-push factor. It’s the fact the economy that my parents saw that they could have a job there. So that was beyond my parents..."Grandparents came here first as Brazeros to work in the fields. "The push-pull factors is more than just what your family needs, it’s more you are at and people run where there is money and shelter..." People confused him anything but a student. My Family was very conservative and didn't support him with going to college because believed that it was not necessary.

Svenja

Svenja was born in a little town outside of Hamburg, Deutschland (Germany). Not much is known about Svenja's personal life in Northern Germany nor do we know much about her family. However, what we do know is that she traveled to Ireland one summer for vacation and meet a nice Mexican gentlemen there.

During that summer both Svenja and her nice aquaintances became closer to one another and ultimately fell in love with one another. The sad truth Auf Wiedersehen (Good Bye's) are sad. Therefore, after Svenja's return to Germany she decided that she wanted to pursue that romance to America. Svenja began to apply for a Visa that will eventually allow her to see her lover once more.

Svenja says, "I had to pay a lot of fees to get the student visa." Yet that was not an obstacle for her since since she also mentioned that getting a student visa in Germany is pretty easy, you just need to wait a few months versus Latin Americans.

When Svenja achieved to receive her Student Visa it was easy for Svenja to transition into American culture: She came from a first-world country, she was familiar with English, and could easily assimulate with the "dominant" culture in the United States.

Despite that she identifies herself more Deutsches (German) than she will ever consider herself American. Her love for the man she loves is the reason she decided to immigrate to the United States. Yet even though Svenja is able to assimulate into American culture she still encounters barriers and obstacles. For example, Svenja mentions, "The problem about being an international student is that U have to pay internatiional fees to go to college...You cannot vote...[and] I am only allowed to work 20 hours per week."

Svenja is forced to pay International fees in Los Angeles Trade Tech. However, she is not so much as a materialistic individual and does not want to be a burden on her parents by making them pay for her education. Rather then doing that, Svenja works the little she can after she applied for her work visa.

The ironic part about Svenja's partner is that he is also an immigrant. Yet unlike Svenja, her boyfriend was able to marry a United States citizen so he could get his legal status in the U.S.A. Svenja comments, "I am thankful for the woman who married my boyfriend...now he is getting a divorce," while giggling. Hence, Svenja's life as a Caucasian immigrant in America can be debated if whether or not her life is easier. But, when questioned if she missed Deutschland she responded, "I feel like a prisoner here [Los Angeles]. I miss walking in the forest."

kim panel

"Kim" is a female, who was born in South Korea in 1976. She was abandoned by her parents, who she believes were too poor to keep her. During the 1970s, the "silent war" in Korea caused a lot of poverty.

"Kim" was put in a helicopter, which went to Alaska. She was then adopted by a Caucasian couple in Oklahoma. She grew up in Oklahoma. Her father worked in a coal mine and her mother was a seamstress. However, they did not have enough money. "Kim" got her first job, working in her middle school cafeteria, in 6th grade.

She enjoyed reading the encylopedia because she was bored and she wanted to, "learn and study as much as possible."She earned a 3.8 G.P.A. in high school, but she couldn't get financial aid for college. She worked several, "random jobs," such as baby-sitting, tutoring, and in a Chinese Express. "Kim's" adoptive parents didn't support her desire of going to college, but they also never blocked her from it. She worked her random jobs to earn a paycheck and pay her way through school. An English teacher named Sherry Baker, was a great motivor for "Kim." She is now in a Ph.D program in U.S.C, where she is majoring in literature, creative writing, and poetry.

But as was growing up, she experienced several prejudices. People asked her ridiculous questions like, "What are you" and "Where do you really come from?"

She says that she would have preferred, "Where were you born?" because it is more considerate. She was also called a "China doll," she isn't from China, but from Korea. Growing up, she also heard a lot about the Asian, "model minority." It was the assumption that every Asian person was brilliant and wealthy.

Concerning today's immigration laws, she believes that it is wrong of the U.S. to make it difficult for foreign students who want to attend college.

She believes that anyone can become President because this is a "land of immigrants."
She sees herself as a "Citizen of the world," and she feels that "home is something you create.. where you feel love."

immigration kim

Immigration:Kim
Kim came to the US at the age of 5 months. She was born in South Korea during the time of the Korean war (also known as the Silent War). In Korea her birthparents didn't have the resources to take care of her, so the y relinquished her to an adoption agency that sought out kids from war stricken countries. She was adopted at the age of 4 months, abandoned, transferred to Alaksa, and finally adopted by a family in Oklahoma. Her mother was a seamstress and her father was a coal miner. Her parents were both Caucasian, in which they could not put a name on it. Growing up she would read the encyclopedia and excelled in school. She worked multiple jobs to fund her schooling activities. Upon making a college decision, her parents didn't support her choice to go to college. Though they never actively blocked her from going to college, they wouldn't financially help her. She had a high GPA, but it wasn't high enough to get scholarships. All throughout her life, people assumed that she was any race except Korean. They even assumed that she was an international student in college. The notion of Asians as being the model minority also effected her in her college experience. "The notion of [Asian Americans] being rich was invented in the 1980s by Time Magazine. She has now obtained her college education and in her opinion she feels that it is deeply immoral for US to hold capable undocumented students back. In her last words on the panel she claimed, "The land of opportunity is the land of glass ceilings.

Poet of the Border: Reyna Grande

The issues of citizenship and immigration are written not in laws but across the lives of those cut by the borders that divide us. We need more than newspaper articles to consider these issues; we need art. For our inaugural post, we highlight Reyna Grande, celebrated author of Across a Hundred Mountains.

Grande offers an interrogation of the psychic divide produced by crossing from one land to El Otro Lado. In this moving story, two souls share one fate as they struggle with the legacy of the loved ones who have left them and whom they have left behind.

Born in Guerrero, Mexico the author lived her own journey North to become an acclaimed author. She is now working on her second novel.

See her website and blog.