rooted in heritage, driven by change

This post features an experience from an anonymous student who shares their experience of having immigrant parents.

the journey here

While our interviewee was born in the United States, both of their parents immigrated from Santiago Matatlán, Oaxaca, México. Their father immigrated here with his uncle in the early 1990s due to the scarce job opportunities in rural México. Their father quickly adapted to the new culture, learning English and American culture. As a child of immigrant parents, our interviewee recognizes the struggles their parents had to go through that parents with citizenship have never experienced.

taking action

Being the child of immigrant parents and witnessing the unfair treatment that immigrants had to endure while living in this country inspired our interviewee to speak up. They lead other students at their school on important topics such as immigration reform, student activism, and promote community effort.

As a Mexican-American, they said they've faced discrimination in the past due to their ethnic features and brown skin. They shared that as early as elementary school, they experienced name calling and micro aggressions.

responding to the present

Present-day, our interviewee is horrified by the actions of I.C.E. and believes that what they are doing is "terrible". They've witnessed firsthand how families are being ripped apart in their own community and the trauma it has caused.

In an effort to respond to this behavior, they aim to spread awareness of the cruelty to those around them and encourage others to stand together as a community in order to fight for what they believe in.

culture that endures

One of their favorite ways to keep in touch with their roots is by cooking delicious traditional Mexican dishes. They also enjoy listening to traditional music, celebrating cultural holidays (such as Día de los Muertos or Day of the Dead), speaking Spanish, and learning a new Indigenous language to keep their culture alive.

They also wish to share their culture with others and do so by selling traditional Mexican ice cream every week. This offers them the opportunity to be engaged in and interact with their community and share a bite of Mexican culture with others. They believe that the ice cream brings together multiple generations of Mexican families by forming a connection. They hope to pass down these special cultural traditions through food, language, and music, the core values of a society.

a nostalgic dish

Our interviewee's favorite cultural dish is mole (pronounced mo-leh), a traditional Indigenous dish for the Zapotecs in Oaxaca, México. It's one that has been passed down for generations which their mother now cooks for her and her family to enjoy.