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This Place, Our Words

Nelson, Ecuador:

"We came here – like the majority of immigrants, I think. We left Ecuador, came here – first of all because about two or three years ago our country saw the beginning of an economic debacle, that is, tremendous economic problems, a bankruptcy of the country. Our position in Ecuador was really good. We had a good economic position. I have a degree in administration. We had a poultry farm with ten thousand chickens. We had a distributorship and some other businesses and we lost all of this. This created the type of resentment that causes one – that makes one – that compels one to immigrate, and clearly, this is the country one thinks of as the best to which one can go.

Nelson and Ana with their daughter, Ana Daniela and their son, David. [photo: M. Davis]

"This, basically is our reason for coming to the United States. We lost everything in our country and we are making a new life here. I would like to speak about this because in the beginning it was very difficult due to the new experiences that we had. Let me say that in my country I would be described as a man of business. In this country I am defined as an employed laborer.

… The North Americans think that—in great part, they think … that we are … that we are all laborers, we are all like that. They form a completely erroneous stereotype. Through my experience at work, I can repeat what I said before about the language barrier. The language barrier was an enormous obstacle that presented itself, for example, when our boss, our manager, or supervisor – however you want to put it, gives an order in English, and really, sometimes one does not understand him. What does the boss think when this happens? He thinks that we do not have the capacity to do the work and truly does not understand that the problem is the language. Perhaps if we understood and dominated the language well, or if he, let us say, were to give instructions in Spanish, the work would be well done. This happens to many Latinos. That is why, many times, Latinos are relegated to jobs that are … that really … do not require them to use much English, or do not require that they utilize their intellectual capacity, precisely because of the language barrier. This does not, however, mean that these people (or we because we are speaking of Latinos), do not have the capacity for solving problems – whatever they may be. I have a degree in business administration. I have said – I have seen things in these businesses that I know I would really be able to improve. But what does the supervisor say? "That Latino, what can he know?" But truly, if he only knew that this Latino had his own businesses in Ecuador. …

Ana, Ecuador:

"Yes, the change was very difficult – adapting oneself. It is like a new world, no? One comes here and does not know how it will be or what may occur. It was very difficult. We have come through difficult moments – at least on my part – in adapting.

"I was alone. At the beginning I did not have a car – my husband worked all day and I stayed at home with my daughter. Well, not having a car and living in a condominium – when one goes for a walk everything looks the same. It was very difficult, very difficult. Then, one month – well, two months after I came here I became pregnant. It was terrible for me because – well, we had not planned for this child and being alone in a strange country, without being able to speak the language, without health insurance – it was very hard. After giving much thought to the situation, we decided to go ahead and have the baby and we are really very content with the two children we have.

"It was very difficult for my daughter also, understand, because in our country we lived on the beach; we had our own home, had lots of space in which to walk; we had animals. We lived on the beach and had a beautiful view. We had a really lovely house facing the sea and from the balcony we could observe the beauty of the sea and feel the sea breezes and, well, as Nelson already explained we had to leave there, come here, and one sees a completely different world, no? And the not knowing what is going to happen, or what will come to pass. It was very difficult. … I also got the flu, and being pregnant – it was awful. These were very difficult moments – very difficult, indeed. I had fever; I could not get up. I could not attend to my daughter. My daughter had to eat and I didn't even have the strength to get up and prepare her soup or change her diaper. Sometimes Nelson came home at midday, and he, desperate – helped me to change her diaper or give her something to eat. Seeing me so sick added to his stress. Yes, they were really very hard times that we lived through.

"Without family, without anyone to even give you a glass of water or prepare something for you – oh, no, those were really difficult times."

José, Honduras:

"Well, based on the education I had, it was supposed, or rather, it was thought that I would be able to get a degree in theology or become part of the priesthood within eight years because I already had previous preparation, and so I was granted the eight years here. After this period of time, a decision would be made as to whether I would remain in the United States working with the Catholic Church; whether I was going to become a priest and go to some religious community; or whether I would return to my own or some other country to work as a priest. The truth then is that I would be here for a period of eight years. But those eight years – if I had remained in the seminary, I would not be talking here now; I would be preaching. But that did not happen and now I am preaching and teaching our community to learn to live in America by means of a radio station and through the medium of written communication. As I stated I have worked for the newspaper "La Voz" and also for a radio station in Miami that was called "Radio Única"; I am still working in cooperation with them. So the answer to the question: "How much time?" is eight years – they were eight years without a definite path, without knowing what was going to happen after that.

A religious celebration in Memphis with roots in Latin culture. [photo: A. J. Wolfe]

"Now, the idea is different. Now I have no idea how much more time I will be in the United States. I will be in the United States until the day that I perhaps have some reason to return to my country, but with the misfortunes that my country has suffered, who knows. Everything that we had built … I had already had intentions to go to Honduras in 2000 to start a computer school to continue my career in journalism and also continue to – well, to educate other young men. I had hoped to support myself through this computer course in newspaper writing. However, because of the terrible destruction that came along with hurricane Mitch, my house was carried away, my home was destroyed, my family was destroyed, our properties were destroyed. We had to go into debt in order to be able to help them – to give them aid and build a new house for my mother who still lives there. [For these reasons] All these plans fell through. Now I haven't a clue. I do not know when I will be able to reach those goals that I had – that is, how long I will be staying in this country in order to be able to realize my goals. I still have no idea. I am older; my family is also older. The family situation has changed greatly – on a social level – both here and in Honduras and I am thinking in a different way, not as I did before.

"The national resources of the Republic of Honduras have always been based upon the exportation of bananas, coffee and pineapple. This was the source of income for most of the people. Before, it was the production of sugar cane, but since all of this is also being eliminated; they are no longer cultivating cane. Now, instead of harvesting sugar cane like they did before, it must be imported. This has created a really critical situation in our country. Many of our people worked cutting the sugar cane and since there is no longer work cutting cane, the sugar cane workers have had to immigrate to Belize or other countries, or come here to the United States. The cutting of coffee is longer required. There are no more coffee plantations and therefore there is no work. The people have to immigrate; the farmer immigrates to the city, and the city people get themselves ready to go to the United States. Immigration of Centro-Americans, our Americans, and from other countries to this country will not end – even if they put metal walls on the borders."

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