By writing this blog post about my family’s migration journey from Guatemala to the United States it has taught me a lot about my own family and the journey to how we ended up in Lynn, MA. It allowed me to talk to my dad about our family and ask him questions that otherwise I never would have asked. It also cleared up a lot of misconceptions about my own family and why our family dynamic is a certain way. By writing this blog, I learned a lot more about my Abuelita and her life and made me feel closer to her even though she is no longer with us.

Alongside this, I also learned a lot about Guatemalan migration and why many Central Americans had to move to the United States. This blog was very eye-opening for me because I had no idea that due to U.S. intervention in Guatemala there was a 36- year civil war and Guatemalans were essentially forced to migrate or live in the ruins, poverty and political corruption of the war. I was also able to share this information with my dad who had little knowledge of this.

For the end of the year holidays, I will be visiting Guatemala for 3-weeks and I think that by writing this post and learning about U.S. intervention in Guatemala I will be more aware of my surroundings and also realize why there are so many people in a state of poverty and homelessness. I will also use this opportunity to ask my maternal grandmother if she remembers any of this and her experience of what was going on. Unlike my paternal grandmother, my maternal grandma has never left Guatemala or had any urge to come to the United States.

Kate- From Morocco to Maine

Kate’s blog about her grandmother was very interesting to read and very informative. Previously, I did not know anything about Moroccan migration and I was able to learn more about Kate’s family migration but also of Moroccan migration. One aspect of her blog that I found interesting was the ethnic and racial identity among her family varied. Most of her family would say that they are Irish- American but her uncle and his children tend to embrace their Moroccan side a bit more. While her nuclear family would say that they are American, but her mother has recently begun to embrace her Jewish heritage.

One of the parallels I found between our families is that it was our grandmothers were the ones who migrated to the U.S. and set roots down for the rest of the family. They were both around 25 years of age and settled at a young age in an area where the family still currently resides. However, one of the main differences was that Kate’s grandmother did not choose to bring her Moroccan culture into their household and instill the culture into her children to pass it on for generations. While my grandmother wanted to pass down Guatemalan culture and tradition for the generations to come.

Diana- Senegal to Pawtucket

 Similar to Kate’s family migration I did not know about migration from Senegal to the United States. After reading Diana’s story, I was shocked that as a 6- year old you must still go the U.S. embassy and be interviewed because as someone so young there is only so much that you are able to say and understand about your situation. I think her story is also representative of many immigrant families in that they come to the United States for better opportunities not only for themselves but for their children. In Diana’s case, her mom made the difficult decision to come to the U.S. to be with her husband even though she had a job that she loved in Senegal. Her experience was different than my own families because Diana migrated at a young age to the U.S along with her family. While a majority of the family was able to be born in the U.S. due to my grandmother’s sacrifice.

Genesy’s Migration Blog

Reading Genesy’s blog I could visually see the “mini Dominican Republic” she was speaking about. Lawrence is about 45 minutes from where I live, and my uncle who is Dominican did live there for a majority of his life and his family currently resides there and I could sort of put into perspective Genesy’s explanation of how her family did not necessarily have to assimilate once arriving in Lawrence because the Hispanic/Latino culture was very much alive there. She also mentioned, “for my grandparents, they were taught to deny all ties to blackness because they lived during the Trujillo regime when black people were being persecuted and Dominican Republic’s president was trying to whiten the country.” I thought this was interesting because my uncles’ mother has openly expressed not wanting to be associated with black Dominicans and I never understood why and the reasoning behind it.

What I learned from not only Genesy’s blog but the other blogs as well is that each journey of migration is so different and unique. There is always going to be barriers to arriving in the United States and the way that the community accepts you. However, I think that the sacrifice and emotional toll of leaving your home country is evident throughout the blogs and that sometimes it is not something you want to do but something that you have to do for your future and that of your families. These blogs showed me that previous waves of migration and contemporary waves of migration are different in that now I believe it is much more difficult to enter the United States due to harsher immigration policies and the fear of being deported or going to detention centers.

Mary Waters- Ethnic Options

Waters explains symbolic ethnicity as having a choice to be able to express one’s ethnicity and culture. Symbolic ethnicity gives people a sense of belonging to a certain community and to be able to express themselves within that community. Symbolic ethnicity to my understanding is something that most people of European descent are able to connect with. If you are white, you are able to choose when you want to express your ethnicity and culture. For example, for Irish people, if they wanted to only express their heritage of St. Patricks day that is easily doable for them. However, for someone like myself who identifies as Hispanic/ Latino but more specifically Guatemalan, my ethnicity is not something that I can pick and choose when to identify with. I look Hispanic and other people can see that therefore, I cannot just choose to not be Hispanic on certain days because people will never see me as otherwise.