“This is what we have done for you, kids.”
I’m twenty-two years old, I live in Queens and it has been difficult to get used to a new
life; however, I’m studying at college now and I have made some friends, too. Up until I
was twenty-one years old, I used to live with my father and my brother in Peru, my native
country. Some of my relatives were near our house and living without my mom was a
complicated task to achieve since she came here on 1999. Rosa, my older sister who is
know thirty-nine years old now, came to the United States when she was seventeen years
old, she used to call home every month, Mami used to tell her about the difficult situation
we had in Peru, papi’s salary was good enough to support the family; but mami wanted
something extra, she wanted to send us to swimming classes in the summer, guitar classes
at the school during vacations, but papi’s salary was not good enough to satisfy those
wishes, he had money for school, only. Nevertheless, mami had a big job at home, so
Rosa told mami to come to States and have a rest, she said it would be such a great idea
to have a break on her everyday life and know another interesting place. Mami made a
decision and finally came here on April, 1999. At first I thought mami was going to be
back in a couple of weeks. One day I woke up and saw my brother coqui, as we used to
call him, by my side.
“Wake up, mami is leaving to the states,” he said,
I didn’t know what he was talking about, mami was leaving, I was about to start
school and wondering who was going to take me there;
“You are fourteen already, nobody has to take to the school, it’s only one block far,”
coqui told me.
1
It was true, I started my classes at eight o’clock at school and I had enough time
to get there if I went out from home at seven fifty, but I was sad and upset at mami
because she was leaving, I wanted her to stay by our side, but I knew it wasn’t possible.
Mami told us during breakfast what she had decided to do; she had talked to daddy, and
they both had made the decision, mami was leaving.
Time went by and I got used to a new life, new responsibilities and new goals in
my life, too. I can still remember those days with my cousins, playing tennis in the
middle of the street, or just chatting at anyone’s window. They were happy days, my
father used to get home at night from his job, and coqui my brother, and I, used to serve
him his dinner. After that, we three used to watch some TV or just talk about the things
we had just done that day.
We lived in Chorrillos, my neighborhood. It is one of those places where people
of medium social level live. There we lived with many of my father’s relatives. My
parents had worked hard to build that house, we moved in there when I was only onemonth year old. Papi and mami said that the place was filled of sand when they arrived
for the first time, lots of rats at night, bathrooms not at good condition to be used, and so
on; however, when I saw all that place that now we call our house, I realize about how
beautiful it is, how big it is, and inside, all the good things we have, TV’s, DVD’s
players, and so on, all the stuff that any child can wish. As long as time was going by, I
looked at my house once again, and I see how protective it is, how sweet, I realized about
how beautiful is to have a place where to sleep, a table where to eat, a comfortable couch
where to rest.
“This is what we have done for you, kids.” papi said to us.
2
“Will I, one day, have a house like this daddy?” I asked him.
“Of course!” mami said, “You are going to have an even more beautiful house than this
one.” And papi finished; “while that happens, this is always going to be your house.”
I didn’t know if I was able to make such an effort like the one my parents had done for
us, I wanted to have a family, support them and succeed in life as the way papi did it. He
had graduated from the university when he was fifty-six years old, he had studied hard
and I still remember those nights when I used to wake up in the middle of the night and,
there he was, at his desk with a book in front on him, trying to study for a test. Moreover,
I hand seen mami, worrying about every tiny thing that could happen to us to get there
and help us, she was always worried about our tests at the school, talking to the teacher to
see how well we were doing; in spite of our ages, coqui, who is five years older than me,
and I seemed to be the same kids as before for mami.
My life has changed, and I moved with my parents to New York City, coqui
stayed in Peru, now he has one child and another one who is on the way, to support. I’m
at college now, trying to get used to speak English all the time instead of using my native
Spanish.
I still miss my country, all the places where I used to go to, my neighborhood.
Peru is one of the countries in South America that has many interesting places; such as,
Piura, Ica, Trujillo, in the cost, and many others. You can breathe the air when you walk
along the beach, look at the great places it has. In the center, Lima, the capital, that many
years ago was called, “The city of the kings,” because the Spanish crew came to conquest
the city, to spread the culture and the race, too. Peru is one of the places that tourists visit
the most in South America, especially for Cusco, located at the center-south of the
3
country is well-known as the “Archeological capital of America.” However, the violence
on streets is one of the biggest problems the country has. Peru, as many other countries in
Latin America has a high percentage of poverty, another huge problem. That is my
country, the place where I was born, the place where I lived my childhood in, where I met
my friends, now I can remember the things I used to do, the parties where I used to go,
and I still hope to go back someday.
4
Posing in the picture are from left to right; my
grandma Emilia, my father Jorge, and my
mother Elena, they are in the day of their
marriage.
Posing in the picture are my parents;
Elena and Jorge. March 16, 1979.
Posing in the picture are from left to right; don Lorenzo (a friend’s
family) my grandpa Dionisio, my grandma Emilia, my father Jorge, my
mom Elena, and my mom’s father Celso.
5
The first week I arrived here. I’m in the Island of the Statue of
Liberty, NY.
My parents finally got together. Here, they are in the Island of the Statue of
Liberty, NY with the view of Manhattan as a background.
6
She was always by my side.
Jorge, my father works as a secretary on the Justice Palace, he works there since 1978,
and he has seen and experienced one of the worst governments the country has ever had;
the government of the President Garcia. Alan Garcia Perez is the actual president of Peru;
he was president for the first time since 1985 until 1990, that government is considered as
the worst government ever seen in the history of the country.
In the 1980’s, Peru was living a difficult political situation, the government of the
president Fernando Belaunde Terry had finished and the government of the president
Garcia was about to begin, Alan Garcia, the youngest president in the history of the
country, was elected when he was thirty-five years old in 1985. The first two years of his
government were not so complicated, the economy was stable and we had no many
problems; nevertheless, in 1987, the economical situation started to decrease, the poverty
in the country was one of the biggest problems we had; but, people believed that as long
as years went by, that would change. The economical situation got worse, the prices of
food started to show a high increase and salaries were not good enough to support the
family anymore. At home, papi didn’t have enough money to buy food, and when the
pay-day arrived, the government didn’t pay; they said we had to wait more.
I was born in 1985, so I didn’t experience the government of the president Garcia;
but my brothers, my cousins, and my parents told me about it, but what I do remember is
the Christmas’s eve in 1988, papi hadn’t got paid for about four months, we had no
electricity at home, no Christmas gifts, no turkey at the dining table, nor even TV to
watch, or radio to listen to, it was such a terrible night in December; anyhow, we were
7
together, mami, papi, coqui and I sat down at the table with a candle in the middle,
talking and remembering about the last Christmas we had had at home.
I still remember the first day at school. I was five years old and mami took me to
the class. My new teacher awaited me. When I saw mami was leaving I started to cry, my
teacher walked me to my seat, but I didn’t want to stay there. It was the first time I was
going to stay in a place where mami was not. I was scared because I didn’t know anyone
in there; soon, mami stayed for a few moments and finally left. I stayed crying, my
teacher tried to calm me down, but it was useless. I wanted mami back. As long as days
and months started to pass by, I got used to my new school, and I enjoyed running around
with my classmates, too. That was the time when I started to see mami worrying about
my staying at school, I used to see her talking to my teacher, if I had a homework to do,
she was there to tell me how to do it because she had already talked to my teacher, she
was always by my side. I realized about the effort mami used to do for me, I liked it
because papi; on the other hand, used to spend the whole day at his office, I think that’s
the reason for which I don’t remember too much about him being at home.
I started to make some friends at school; at the same time, I was very popular
because my mother had talked to everyone at school; the teachers, the instructors, and
even to the principal, everybody knew her already, so whenever she came in, everyone
told me;
“Hey Pablo, there comes your mami.”
That made me feel embarrassed and a little bit ashamed, too. However, at home mami
used to care about us, coqui and I, we had everything with her.
8
I still remember the attractive lunch flavor that surrounded me when coming back
home from school, those moments when we used to share everything we had.
Sometimes Rosa used to call home, and I had to run to my aunt Josefa’s house to
tell mami, she came back as soon as she can to talk to Rosa on the phone, they used to
talk for hours, mami took a chair, put it next to the telephone table and sat down for a
long time, until afternoons got darker, or until papi needed it to make a phone call. Rosa
lived in The United States since I was a four-month year old baby, I didn’t even
remember her, mami told me that I used to call Rosa “aunt,” instead of “sister.” On the
other hand, Enma, my other sister, lived in Huaraz, the place where mami was born. I
never understood why Rosa and Enma had grown up separately one from the other; they
are sisters, and what about us? Some of my questions don’t have answers yet.
I grew up with an idea on mind, Rosa, the oldest sister, lived in the United States,
Enma, the next one after Rosa, grew up in Huaraz, and soon moved to Buenos Aires,
Argentina where she got married.
While coqui and I played at home when child, I had a good time with him, he is
five years older than me, so soon that difference began to build a wall between our lives.
Soon he started to have more friends, most of them the same age as his, that meant, much
older than me, too. They began to go to parties while I had to stay at home alone because
I was simply a “child,” and I had no permission to be out of home until late at night. I
used to see coqui and his friends through the window, their shadows became smaller as
they walked away, I stayed alone at home, because sometimes my parents had something
to do and they left with my aunt Josefa and my uncle Lucho.
9
As I grew up, I started to have more friends, not only at school, but also in my
neighborhood. Pablo, a boy from my class at school, had the same name as me; Pablo
Cesar, when a teacher called either him or me, she had to look at any of us to recognize
us and see we were there. He was one of my first and best friends at school, he was
smarter than me, especially in math, he had no problems with it, while me, I had to stay
after class, or some times during breaks to ask my teacher to explain me the lesson we
had just had. But I was better at history or geography, while he was very lazy to write
important war dates, or draw maps on his notebook, he usually did it just a few minutes
before the class, with a pencil and no colors. I prepared my draws in a different sheet and
then, cut them and paste them on my notebook; I always got more points than him, which
made me feel much better, our competition was balanced.
While attending Junior High School, Pablo and I started to do a lot of things together, we
used to play soccer during breaks, used to talk about many things in class if it was boring;
we had a deal;
“If you make my Europe drawings for the Geography class, I’ll help you out with your
math homework!” he said.
“Of course! Great!” I said immediately, being glad because I was going to be helped with
math homework only if I made some drawings.
The school year was about to finish and Pablo told me he was going to stay at the
same school, “What about you?” he asked, “I’m going to stay, too.” I said. When we met
the next year, fourth grade in elementary school, we were so glad to get together again,
this time many girls and boys had registered at “San Alfonso School.” In our class, there
were seven new boys and five new girls. As a typical first day in school where nobody
10
knows anyone, Pablo and I were the only ones who spoke to one another. When the
teacher came in, everybody stood up immediately, as a respect signal. After some
months, we started to get to know to each other, and made a group, this time, Yonnel and
Zoila were our new friends, they were siblings, and came for the first time to our school.
Little by little we started making friends not only in our class, but also outside ours, the
one next to ours, fifth grade, was more crowded than our classroom. Melissa and Leslie,
Ronald and Jenny used to stand in the hall when we went out for break. We started
talking to each other and soon, to play together anything that came to our minds. My life
was a routine, I went to school in the morning, at the evening I came back home and had
lunch with mami, coqui had lunch hours later because his school was not near home, he
did something I wished to do alone but couldn’t, take the bus.
During my childhood, Rosa used to visit us for some vacations, one or two
months to remember how life used to be in Peru and then come back to the United States.
Coqui and I used to wait for her at the door hidden in a side to surprise her and hug her,
too. She used to take us to have some ice-cream in Miraflores, one of the most beautiful
places in Lima, have lunch in restaurants, something we did for birthdays or very special
events, only. We had a really good time with her. However, there was something missing
in our relationship, we were siblings, but I didn’t feel she really was, the fact of not living
with her affected me. I didn’t know her customs, her way of laughing, or her way to treat
people. Rosa was my sister, but I didn’t know her.
“It’s because she doesn’t live here with us.” My mom said.
“So, why doesn’t she come here and live with us?” I asked her.
“Because she doesn’t have a future here. She must be there!” she finished.
11
I didn’t understand when I was a child, why people had to leave their country to
go to another one, and start a new life. If I had the opportunity, I wouldn’t do it. Rosa
spent a few months with all of us and then left. We said good-bye to each other, hoping to
meet again in a couple of years. It was a custom to have her at home for a few months
and then let her go, that’s why I didn’t know her enough.
Years went by and I went to High School. I wanted to change from “San Alfonso
School” to another one, by this time I had more friends outside school and they attended
different school in Chorrillos, the place where we lived. Mami didn’t want me to change,
the principal was her friend, everybody knew me and that was advantage for her because
I was going to be under control and not misbehave, as she thought.
It was a big surprise when I saw Pablo sat down in one of the chairs, the first day
of class;
“Hey! I thought you were going to change and attend to another school!” he said to me;
“My mom didn’t want me to change!” I said with a sad smile in my face. “Neither did
mine!” Pablo said. We started laughing because we realized that we were going to attend
the same school because our mothers didn’t want us to change to another one.
“That is incredible, how many things do we have in common?” I asked.
“I have no idea,” was his answer.
12
At home, I had a second mother.
When mami accepted to come to the United States, we thought it was going to be for a
couple of months only; in fact, my sister, who had gone to Lima in 1998, told her to come
here, it was supposed to be an invitation only.
“Mami can’t leave us forever,” I told coqui.
Carlos, my sister’s husband, who had gone to Lima with Rosa to meet mami and
us, told mami to come because she used to work too much in Peru, she helped us to get
ready for school, clean the house, go to the supermarket, make lunch and dinner for the
family, and so on. Carlos encouraged mami to come and have a rest. She started to think
about the idea, but wasn’t very sure about it either.
Mami left on Friday, April 16. Early in the morning, coqui woked me up and took
me to the kitchen where mami was about to take breakfast, we were not so sad at first
because we thought that mami was going to be back in a couple of months, we were
excited for her, instead. Right after breakfast we went to our bedrooms to get dressed and
get ready for school, since my school was near home, I didn’t take too much time to get
there.
I can remember when mami left, we said good-bye to each other, and hugged one
another, and left home, some tears came out because it was the first time she was going
on a long trip.
After mami left and came to the United States, I stayed alone, my dad and coqui
were at home, but living without mami was digging a big hole in my heart. The first night
without her, the only thing I did was to think about her, would she miss me? I used to
wonder. After months went by, I started to have more responsibilities at home, now that
13
my mom isn’t home, coqui and I had to do the house work mami did, on weekends, papi
used to help us, too. Early in the morning, we used to wake up, coqui set up the table to
have the fastest breakfast we could, a cup of milk and a piece of bread; finally, we took
our books and went to school. As coqui studied in a school far from home, he had to
leave early to get there at the right time; on the contrary, I used to study in “San Alfonso
School” only one block far from home. I used to spend only five minutes to get there. At
first, I couldn’t concentrate on what I was doing, I used to think of what my mom was
probably doing, if she was ok, when teacher spoke to me, I answered nothing. Once I
finished classes, I went back home, as I took only five minutes to get from home to
school, I had no reason to get back late, my aunt Josefa knew it. That was an advantage in
the morning, but it became a disadvantage in the evening. When getting home, my aunt
Josefa used to have the lunch ready for me.
“Hurry up, wash your hands and come to have lunch,” used to be her order
everyday since mami left during the first months.
“Your mom is gone and now I have to take care of you, so if you have trouble and
your dad is working, come here, ok?”
“Ok!” I used to tell her.
“We’re not kids anymore, we can control ourselves,” coqui used to complain,
“Yes, but if we have any trouble we have nobody to talk to, either!” I said.
My aunt Josefa lives next to my house, and when getting there, I didn’t have to
knock on the door, I felt part of the family, I used to get in and talk to Esther, Lucho,
Veronica, we used to laugh about many things, we were a family. However, coqui never
felt connected to them, he felt part of the family too, but I think not as much as I did, he
14
didn’t used to talk to any of my cousins too much. The first weeks at home with mami
nowhere, I used to spend all evenings with Vero and Esther, watching some TV, or
playing some games, we did many things together, I am their youngest cousin, so they
took care of me all the time. Esther, the oldest, used to cook some meals when my aunt
wasn’t home, Vero used to help me with school work sometimes, because other times, I
used to lie to her;
“Really, we don’t have any homework, we did everything at school!” I said.
“Are you really sure?” she asked me.
“Of course, when have I lied to you?” “Don’t answer me.” I said immediately.
I used to have a great time with them, I felt I had someone by my side, I felt
someone was taking care of me, it was like daydreaming and when I woke up, mami was
nowhere, when is she going to come back, I wondered, with no answer because I didn’t
have it.
I was in third grade of High school when mami left, two years left to finish it. I
had always trouble with math, I was never good at it; that year, the first one without my
mom beside me, I had even more problem with math, when mami called home and talked
to my dad, he used to tell her that I wasn’t doing well at that course, he had talked to
some of my teachers, not all of them because papi had to sacrifice his lunch time to take a
bus and come to my school. Sometimes, by the time papi arrived there, most of the
teachers had left already. Mami told papi to talk to one of my teachers to come home and
teach me some personal lessons in math; “If you want to do well in math, we’d better
start now!” papi said. I didn’t want to study math at home, it was good enough with time
we had at school, but since that moment I realized that nobody at home could say
15
anything against mami’s decision, she was far away from us, and whatever she decided, it
was to be done.
After papi asked me for one of my teacher’s telephone number, and called him to
come home and teach me some lessons, I started to think that It was a benefit to have a
teacher at home, but the first day he came, almost all my friends were outside, they were
about to play soccer in the middle of the street, as we had been doing during the last ten
years, I didn’t want to take math classes, I wanted to stay outside, but I had no choice. As
long as my personal teacher started to clarify my doubts, I tried to understand math, such
a big deal, because I couldn’t understand why my friends understood them in one class
and I needed extra time to do it. At the end of that year, I passed my math class, I
remember that it was the first time that I was expecting for the exam to come, I wanted to
take it because I knew I had made and effort and I had studied, too. Mr. Pareja told I had
made a big effort, with some mistakes, but I had passed. I did it thanks to my personal
teacher, and thanks to mami’s idea, too. After that year I didn’t have too many problems
with math, I remember that I used to ask for some extra help to my friends outside the
class, and I finally got the idea.
At home, I had a second mother, my aunt Josefa. She used to help me a lot, and
whenever I wanted to talk to anyone about anything there she was, always asking; “Are
you ok?” I loved that question because I felt that mami had gone for some months, but I
had a great second mother by my side. My aunt Josefa used to encourage me to study
hard at school, and “be someone in life,” as she used to say, trying to say that I had to
achieve what I wanted in life, get an education and be professional, “You’d better have
something underneath your arm if you want to survive in this country,” she said, because
16
having something underneath my arm meant that I needed to have something achieved in
life. Her words always motivated me to go ahead all the time.
Mami came back to Peru on December, 1999. I had just finished my math exam,
and I ran home to tell my aunt, and there she was, I couldn’t believe it, I thought I was
daydreaming like before, but it was true, mami had come back and she hadn’t prevented
anyone, she just arrived. We hugged strongly, she hadn’t changed too much, she said the
same about me, they had been eight months without her. My aunt couldn’t believe it
either, but she set up the table and had breakfast, my cousins arrived home some hours
later and saw mami, they were amazed. For the first time in my life, I had seen my family
so happy and together at the same time that I couldn’t believe it. It was the happiest day
in my life since my mom had left.
For some reason, my mom was told that she couldn’t go overseas the United
States for at least six months. So she went back to Peru on December. After staying with
us for about one month, she said she had to come back here. “Why?” coqui asked, with
no answer. From that moment and on, we knew we were going to see mami only a couple
of months until she leaves again. I thought her coming here was to visit and know
different places, not to live here. “Will they get divorce?” I wondered, referring to my
parents, because I couldn’t understand why they had to be married and separated at the
same time, it took me a long time to understand what it really happened at home. After
mami left for the second time, I couldn’t believe that I was going to experience the same
things we all did the first time she left.
We were all alone again, but, this time, it wasn’t the same, I was about to finish
High School and had more friends, too. Pablo, who finished High School with me, used
17
to go to my house and take to his neighborhood to play soccer with his friends, they were
very rude and violent, I remember to have told him not to take me there anymore, but it
was a new experience for me, I was going out from my neighborhood, the place I knew
well to go to another one, an unknown place that I had to experience. I ended up playing
soccer with them almost every weekends; after the game, we used to go to a near store
and have some beers, talking about pretty girls, and video games, my life became more
sociable, this time, I didn’t have friends not only near my house, but also, far from it.
Some months went by, and mami called me home.
“You are going to take and English Course!” she said.
“I’m taking one at school,” I answered immediately.
“No! Besides school, in another place!”
“But I don’t like English!” I complained.
“I didn’t ask you if you like it, I said you are going to study it!”
“Thanks mom!” I said, showing my lower lip and upset at mami for her decision.
So one day I was watching TV at home, and papi came in, there was a TV
advertisement about ICPNA; (Instituto Cultural Peruano-norteamericano) an institute
where people went to study English. “That one seems to be a good one,” papi said, I was
still upset because I was forced to study something I didn’t like, I wanted to get to the
university and study to be a psychologist, English wasn’t at my dreams by that time.
I remember my first day at ICPNA, Pamela, the girl who sat down next to me,
asked me; “is it the first time you come here?” “Of course, I said!” it was obvious to be
there, I didn’t know a word in English and I had to begin from the very bottom. “I’m
sorry friend, I didn’t want to bother you!” I imagined that because of my answer she had
18
thought that it was a stupid question, it was, but in fact, it was a good step to start a
conversation and a possible friendship, too. That was the beginning of my friendship with
Pamela, this time, I had a friend who lived in another place far from my house, she
studied at the university to be a teacher, one of my previous dreams, before psychology
came to my mid. We used to go to parties together, and we talked for a long time on the
phone. Our conversations were sometimes based on her relationship with her boyfriend.
He, Carlos, lived in Miami, and she, in Lima. Their relationship was good until she
started dating other guys, she was in love with him, but there was something wrong I
tried to figure out. Alex, Pamela’s brother, studied at ICPNA too, and invited me to his
house to drink some beers and talk about different things.
From that moment and on, I realized that my experience with English had
improved, I made some other friends at my class, and the one next to ours and we all used
to get together at the cafeteria to discuss our homework and some other things, too. I
learned how to introduce myself, and started to like it, it was nice to look myself at the
mirror and speak in another language, we had cable TV at home, I turned it on in the
CNN channel and imagined myself sat down there, presenting the news in English. I had
a change with my English course, and, obviously, I realized that it was very positive.
I was in the last year at High School. I woke up in the morning, have breakfast
alone because by that time, papi had gone to work already and coqui had left because he
had to take the bus to get to his School too. I used to talk to myself when I felt alone, or
saw mami’s picture, trying to bring her back with my thoughts. I went to school in the
morning, in the afternoon, I came back home, my aunt Josefa used to have my lunch
ready, only one hour before the time to leave and go to ICPNA, and take my English
19
lesson. By that time, I realized that I started to like English, besides, it was located in
Miraflores, one of the most beautiful places in Lima, there, we used to go with Rosa
when she came to visit us and with an ice-cream in our hands, we used to walk along the
beach. I finished my first year in the program, the Basic Beginner, and was ready to get to
the Intermediate level year, it was different and, of course, more difficult, but I used to
practice a lot, “the more you practice, the better you will be!” told me my teacher at the
end of the semester. I remember I used to practice with myself by making short
conversations, I used to walk along the Arequipa Avenue, one of the most well know
avenues in Lima with a sidewalk in the middle for people to sit down and relax. I used to
pass through it for hours, practicing with myself.
“Hi, how are you?” I said.
“I am just fine, what about you?” continued.
“Fine, thanks. What is your name?”
“My name is Peter, what about yours?”
“My name is George!”
I used to practice these conversations for a long time, I remember many people’s
faces when they looked at me talking to myself, they should have thought I was crazy, or
maybe I had no friends, I didn’t care, what I was worried about was to improve my
vocabulary and my pronunciation, too. Soon I realized that my method to practice my
English was effective, and I started to see the results were my teachers congratulated me
for the pronunciation, and vocabulary. It was difficult to understand, at first, I didn’t like
English, I was forced by mami to study it because someday, I would come to the United
20
States and now, I love it, I practiced a lot to improve my grammar, pronunciation, and
vocabulary too. That was an enormous change, and it was positive to me.
Only one more block down from ICPNA, there was a French Institute. “Alliance
Française” was its name. When I finished my classes at ICPNA, I went there to ask for
some information about the French course. I was in the advanced course at ICPNA, and
about to finish, Pamela and some other friends had quit the classes because their priority
was the university, and mine was ICPNA because I studied nowhere else.
When I had the information about the French course in my hands, I took it to my
dad. I decided to talk to him about it while having dinner, coqui was there and we three
could discuss about the idea of studying French.
“You don’t want to go to France, do you?” coqui asked.
“No!” I answered.
“So, why do you want to study French?” he added.
“It’s a good question!” I said, wondering why I wanted to study French, and we
all laughed at that.
“It’s a good idea, and I have to talk to your mom about it!” my dad said to me.
“Remind me to tell her when she calls ok?” he finished.
I was about to finish my English course and ready to start a new one, this time, in
French. When I studied French, I was eager to learn a lot, I realized that English had
woken something up on me. I was interested in languages and began to make an effort to
concentrate on them.
There I made more friends, this time, were not my age. I understood that everyone
studied English because it was necessary for their careers, many people at ICPNA, said
21
that they were asked to speak English as a second language in their universities, so many
people were forced to attend an English class. On the other hand, people at “Alliance
Française” studied French because they liked it, so they were eager to learn it. In some
cases people had finished the university already; some of them were working on a Master
Degree, or start a second career. All those reasons avoided my fluent conversations with
them, obviously I hadn’t gone to the university. In that moment I started to feel bad about
it, I would have liked to go to the university as all my friends had; now I understand that
my plans were in another country rather than in mine, but in those moments it was hard to
get that idea.
One day I came to my class, and there was nobody in there.
“Bonjour, Madame!” I said, trying to practice three-word vocabulary in French.
“Bonjour Pablo” answered my teacher, who was a native French speaker.
She explained me that there was nobody in class because it had been cancelled; at
least that’s what I understood because she spoke very fast, so I had to change my
schedule and go to the morning classes. When I changed it, I met Patty, a girl who was
studying French because she liked it.
“Hi, what’s your name?” she said with a very smooth voice.
“My name is Pablo, what about you?” “Mine is Patty.”
Since we began to talk, our chats became more interesting, we used to talk about
music, our course, of course. It was nice to have Patty as a friend because I had a great
time with her, and I still hope she did, too. During the summer, we used to practice our
French lessons at her house, near the institute, she lived with her two siblings and her
parents, and they were very nice at me.
22
Months went by, and Patty and I were at the same class. One day, we met Juan
Carlos, a computer programmer who worked in a Computer Enterprise. He was in his
thirties, and joined us for our practice conversations at Patty’s house. He and Patty had
met before when they took one of the basic courses at “Alliance Française.” As Juan
Carlos was in his thirties and Patty was twenty-five, our conversations had to based on
some different topics despite I was only nineteen. We used to talk about family problems
and some other things, sometimes I used to feel that I was in the wrong place, but then I
came back to the situation and knew that it was good for me because I was learning how
to interact with people who were not my age. Placing my conversations in a higher level
helped me to realize about different things in my inner-self, discover a new “me,” I liked
it. After some months, we were almost in the advanced level, we had to take some oral
and written tests, so we three decided to go to Patty’s house and practice before take
them. Juan Carlos’s problem was speaking, he couldn’t develop his speaking skills, so he
asked me to help him out with it. I could do it because I had experienced my exercises in
Arequipa Avenue, talking to myself and making conversations with my imaginary friends
helped me to improve my fluency and pronunciation, too.
The day of the exam came along and we were almost ready, I may say almost
because Juan Carlos was very nervous, we were asked to take the oral test first. The oral
test was an interview with the teacher with two options; talk about any topic in the
previous sheet we had read about already, or pick one in that moment, the last decision,
of course, was taken by the teacher, so we didn’t know. Juan Carlos was the first one to
be called, his last name began with “A,” I was lucky because I thought I was going to be
23
the first one because my last name begins with “A,” but I don’t know why I wasn’t
called. When Juan Carlos went out of the classroom, he looked different.
“Come on, tell us what happened, what did you talk about?” Patty asked.
“I don’t know, I just spoke the first thing that came to my mind!” Juan Carlos
said, while we all laughed. We knew Juan Carlos was going to need good luck to pass the
test.
“It cannot be that hard, you exaggerate too much!” Patty complained.
“It’s only a test!” I said before hearing my name being called, in that moment, I
started to tremble while everyone laughed at me, too.
We had a great time that day, after the test I had some free time, Patty didn’t have
to work, and neither did Juan Carlos, so we decided to go to Miraflores, buy some icecreams and walk along the beach. It was a sunny day in the mid February.
When we were about to finish the French course, I didn’t know what to do next,
my plans of getting to the university didn’t attract my attention anymore because I knew I
had to come to the United States soon.
“You are very good at languages!” Patty said.
“Really? Do you think so?” I asked her.
“Sure, why don’t you study another one?” she suggested.
I wanted to study another language, but I wanted something else, what am I going
to study language after language for? I wondered. There was something missing in my
life, I had to make a connection among the things I wanted to do, I always wanted to
study to be a psychologist, or maybe a teacher, I could never decided.
24
My aunt Josefa, posing with her granddaughter Maria
Emilia, Veronica’s daughter.
Posing from left to right are; my uncle Lucho, Maria Emilia, my aunt
Josefa and Kalem (Lucho’s daughter)
25
I was immersing myself into an addiction.
While I made my decision, I stayed at home, I started to talk to some friends near my
house, and we used to go out at night, go to the pool club and play for some hours. The
same thing happened for about one or two months, I went out at night with some friends,
whose names I don’t even remember and now I know why, my life became a routine
from my house to the pool club. Placing bets while playing, winning and losing money, at
first only some coins, after some weeks it was really bad when I lost. One day, I was
playing at the pool club, I was with some friends playing and playing, the last time I had
seen my watch it was eight thirty, time wasn’t a problem to me because my mom wasn’t
home to control it, and papi got late because he worked too much. When I saw my watch
for the second time, it was two thirty in the morning, I had played so much that I hadn’t
even realized about the time, we finished the game and I left. When I went out of the
club, near my house, I saw one guy coming to me, it was Carlos, a guy who lives near my
house, one of my cousin’s best friend. We all call him “Cali.”
“Your brother told me you were not home and I knew where to find you!” he said,
worried about me.
“I’m sorry I didn’t see the time!” I answered, trying to excuse myself, but it was
futile.
“It is Monday man, you are not supposed to be that late!” he said to me.
“I said I’m sorry.” I repeated, trying to tell him that the conversation was
upsetting me.
Cali walked me home, in our way home, neither he nor I said anything.
26
The next day, I was thinking about what to tell my dad about my arriving-late the
night before, he didn’t say anything to me because he didn’t realize about it.
“My dad doesn’t know because he fell asleep, he was very tired.” Coqui said.
“But I did!” he added.
“I’m sorry, it won’t happen anymore.” I said, blaming myself.
“I really hope so, you can’t do that to my dad.”
When coqui finished his speech, he left, papi had gone to work and I stayed at
home, feeling guilty about the situation, it had been the first time it had happened
something like that at home, at least with me, coqui was older than me so he was allowed
to stay late at night outside, but I was just starting my new life outside home. After some
weeks I continued with my games at the pool club, I stayed until late at night and when I
got home, I said nothing.
“Sorry to be late!” became in a very typical answered to papi and coqui’s faces.
While playing with some friends one night, I saw Cali sat down in one of the
tables, drinking a soda, he called me up to talk to me for a while. My game wasn’t very
important because there was no any bet, so I decided to tell my partner not to play
anymore.
“Those guys are not your friends, are they?” Cali said, while he invited me a soda.
“No, I don’t care if they are my friends or not, I just play with them.” I said.
“What’s wrong with you man?” he asked me.
“Nothing, I’m just playing!” I finished.
But I knew what Cali was talking about, I was becoming in another guy. I was
immersing myself into an addiction, bets at the pool club attracted me all the time, I used
27
to spend the whole day there, I couldn’t leave it anymore. Where did my high level
conversation with Juan Carlos stay? I wondered, I didn’t know what was going on with
me. Fortunately, there was Cali to help me out with that. But I didn’t know if I could trust
him, he was in his thirties already, and I was not even twenty, I said to myself. But there
was something I had to recognize, I couldn’t live without a pool game, I was addicted to
that, and the “friends” who took me there simply disappear when I needed help.
After some weeks, I began to talk to Cali more often, and I felt my high level
conversation coming back to me, he is in his thirties and we talk about different things.
One day I realized that we could have a good time without going to the pool club, it was a
interesting game, but the place wasn’t, drugs everywhere, criminal people who arrived
there only to hide themselves from the police, many people around the neighborhood
knew that everyone who was in there was either a bad-known person or a criminal. But I
wasn’t a criminal, I wasn’t doing drugs, so I could go there with no problem, but I didn’t
understand that I wasn’t going to find good friends there, I was going to waste my time,
and spend my money, only.
I finally understood that the pool club was not a good example for me, I did it
thanks to Cali, who, besides that, helped me out to discover what I really wanted to do. I
started to come up with some ideas about my future, he helped me out by asking some
easy questions like what would you like to do, what are your skills. After some time, I
came back to the pool club to think about my sad future if I had stayed there, playing
pool all day, smoking, doing drugs, and stand in the corner of the street to bother
everyone who passes. I understood that my future was different and in that moment I
discovered why I didn’t even remember the names of my “friends” who took me there,
28
they didn’t do me a good favor, now I don’t blame them, I simply see them and say hi to
them, that’s all.
29
I became even more responsible.
As Cali helped me out with some decisions about my future, I knew I wanted to study
Italian. There was an institute only two blocks down from “Alliance Française.” I went
there to ask for some information about the courses, when I got it; I was decided to study
it because it was something I really wanted to do.
I met some friends there, but for some reason we were never close friends. My
teacher, (il professore Alessandro) a native speaker, was a very open minded person, his
Italian was very smooth so that it sounded great, I used to imitate the way he spoke. Once
again, I was conscious of the positive results of my practice in oral skills, I still
remembered my conversations with my imaginary friends, so I decided to keep on going
with my strategy, it worked out, too.
I took my nine-month program Italian course, I finished and at the end, I had to
make a final presentation about any topic I wanted. I talked about “Language as a
Cultural Expression.” I was very interested in the topic, so I decided to do it, at first, I
thought my teacher was not going to like it, but while I was talking to the rest of my
classmates, I saw him attracted by the topic. Any language we speak is an expression of
our custom, our typical words, expressions, and proverbs enrich our vocabulary and make
us able to express our culture on its highest level. That was the main idea of my
presentation.
“Molto bene Pablo.” Said my teacher Alessandro, with a glad expression on his
face.
I was delighted to have heard that. I finished my Italian course and I decided to offer
some personal classes at home. Now that I have finished my English, French, and Italian
30
courses, I am capable to assist my friends with their homework at school, university, or
institute. In some schools in Lima, they teach French as a international language, some
other schools prefer to teach English, some others prefer German, which I didn’t know a
word in, but I think it was a great idea to offer the classes and make some money for
myself. Definitely I couldn’t have designed this project without Cali’s help, he had never
gone to the university, but his knowledge was different, he set a good example to all of us
in our neighborhood. I started to offer the classes and some of my friends came to my
house, I used to have two English hours at the morning, followed by another two hours,
this time in French; after that, I took a one-hour break to have lunch at my aunt Josefa’s
house, and finally in the afternoon, I finished with three hours of Italian, two of them to
practice some reading and grammar, which was still difficult for me, and one hour for
oral communication, where we used to choose some topics and have short discussions.
When I was about to finish my English course, the idea of taking a Methodology
Course called my attention, I could do it because only the students who had finished the
three levels at ICPNA; basic, intermediate, and advanced, were eligible for that course, I
had, so I enrolled in my new Methodology Course. There, I learned how to interact with
students, how to organize an activity according to the level and objectives of the class,
how to activate schemata, how to give feedback, as long as I took each class, I became
more interested on it. After I finished, we, students, had the opportunity to practice our
teaching skills with the beginners, ICPNA had a program designed to train beginners in
English grammar level by offering them extra-free classes which were taught by us,
methodology students. It was a great idea because we had the opportunity to practice with
real students and give some extra examples to their difficult grammar problems.
31
I learned many things in those three months, so I put all my knowledge in my
personal classes with only one difference, I did it in three languages; French, Italian, and
English.
I made some money with those classes, but I consider most important to have
learned how to be responsible, managed my own money, earned with my own effort, my
dad used to tell me; “Now you know how important is to learn how to manage your
money.”
I offered dad to pay one of the bills at home, but he didn’t want me to because he
said that I had to learn how to distribute my money, I was just at the beginning, so I had a
long path toward responsibility and management.
Some of my friends were working on their Master Degree, and in order to get it,
they had to be able to speak at least two languages besides their own. So I trained in
fluent conversations, I used to propose them some controversial topics in order for them
to express their point of view, and most importantly, to be able to support their answers.
It was a great activity because we spent hours talking about abortion in Peru, which is
illegal, about the possible change from man-doing activities to computer-and-robots
doers.
I learned a lot with those classes, sometimes I used to think that I was learning
more than my friends were.
All this time working at home helped me to value my family, coqui and my dad
who used to be there with me all the time. Besides, I encouraged myself to improve my
classroom, there were some rooms at the second floor of my house that we didn’t use
because our house was very big for only three people. So I decided to take one of those
32
rooms and set up my classroom, I hanged some city-pictures in the wall, a TV I bought
with my earnings and a DVD player to analyze some movies that I used to play for my
students. Thus, I learned how to be organized with my classes, and responsible with my
time, too.
As I learned how to organize my classes, teaching became more interesting for
me, and one day a friend of mine told me about an English teacher in a small school near
my house, I knew it was my opportunity to teach so I applied. I remember the first day I
went to the school, a very small place attracted my attention, it was interesting because it
was a new school, few students and teachers, too. I got the job, and I began to teach
English. I had many kids as students, at first I didn’t like it because I hadn’t had any
experience with children and I couldn’t stand them either. The principal at “Monte
Carmelo School,” the place where I worked for two years, was Mrs. Melva. She
welcomed me the first day and introduced me to the other teachers. I remember most of
the them struggling with English. “But it’s easy,” I said. “The key for English is to
practice,” I suggested. Mrs. Melva asked me to have some English classes with my new
partners, so we did it. Rosa Alejo, Rosa Cueva, Enma, and Rocio were the other teachers
at Monte Carmelo, we had a great time at the school, as long as months went by, we
became in good friends. I was working in a small school as an English teacher, I had to
interact with parents with family problems, and different things; in addition to that, I was
making some money for myself, so I became even more responsible with it and I learned
how to manage it, too.
33
Many things ran through my head before coming to the United States, sometimes
I felt scared and I didn’t know why. I think some things that happened here will never get
out of my mind. It had been a normal and typical Tuesday in my student-life while I
attended High School in the mornings and ICPNA in the afternoons many years ago. It
was almost time to go to school, I took my books and said good-bye to mami’s picture
hanged in the wall at home, I remember I didn’t even know the exact day we were in,
only Tuesday, or Friday, or maybe Saturday, but I knew the exact date when I had to
write it down in the top of the page when I started my first class at school; when I did it,
it was September 11th, 2001.
We had been studying math, so we were all bored, after that class, we had sports,
so we were all getting ready to run to the patio to play soccer for at least five minutes
until our teacher asked us to do the exercises assigned to the class.
Hours went by and time to go home arrived. I put all my books in my backpack
and I left. When I got home, coqui was there because he hadn’t had class that day; he was
attending an Institute to take some courses for the university. The first thing I heard was
the TV all volume up, I came in to the bedroom and saw coqui in front of the TV.
“What happened?” I asked.
“The twin towers, you don’t know?” coqui said.
“No,” I said trying to tell him that I obviously didn’t know because I was in class.
“A terrorist attack in the twin towers in New York!” they fell down.
I couldn’t believe what I heard, but I did while I saw the images in the CNN
breaking news, two planes had crashed and made the two towers collapse. I had heard
about the twin towers being the highest towers in all New York City. I couldn’t believe
34
the terrible experience people had until I saw them throwing themselves out of the
windows, running in the streets crying and shouting, looking for their friends and
relatives, police men asking people to move on, and firemen seemed to have lost the war,
I didn’t know how to feel, until coqui said; “My mom works near there and we
don’t know anything about her!”
I didn’t know if I should cry, so I ran out to go my friend’s house, who had an
internet connection, asked him to let me send an e-mail to Rosa and find out how they
were, but the situation got worse when he said there was no connection, the airplanes
which crashed the twin towers had affected the telephone and internet system. There was
nothing I could do to find out about mami. She had told me months ago that she worked
in an apartment near the twin towers in lower Manhattan, she did cleaning service, but
not everyday, only Tuesdays and Thursdays, which meant, Mami had been there when
the twin towers fell down.
There was nothing I could do so I decided to attend my English class in the
afternoon at ICPNA, when I got there, everyone was talking about that and I didn’t want
to listen to them because that got me on my nerves.
After a couple of days we knew about Rosa and mami, they were fine, the tragedy
affected everyone here, but they were ok.
When days went by, and all channels presented analysis about the events I was
shocked by everything I saw, so many people who will never see their relatives or friends
anymore. All this made me think about my possible trip to the United States, I was
scared, would that happen again? I wondered, I started thinking about the United States
35
as a safety place, was it or not? What I really knew was that the catastrophe of the 9/11
had cut the life of many people in two pieces; the life before the 9/11, and the life after it.
36
Here, sharing an activity with some of my
students at Monte Carmelo School.
From left to right, me, Rosa Cueva, Rocio,
Astrid (the little girl) and her mother Rosa
Alejo. Monte Carmelo School.
From left to right, Enma, Rosa Alejo, Johana (Mrs. Melva’s daughter) Mrs. Melva,
Rosa Cueva, me, don Daniel (Mrs. Melva’s husband) and his son Luis Daniel.
37
New Land: New Life.
It was August 4th in 2006, I saw my watch and it was about to be seven o’clock, the taxi
that was going to pick us up to take us to the airport was getting home already, we had
already stuffed all our belongings and we were ready. We started to say good-bye to
everyone, cousins, aunts, uncles made feel the worst way I had ever felt, I knew I wasn’t
going to be back for a l-o-n-g time, I didn’t want to accept it, I felt really bad about it, I
couldn’t believe that day would arrive, I knew my life was changing since the moment I
went out from home. When we got to the airport, papi and I were very nervous because it
was the first time we were going on a long trip, I had never gone on an airplane and I
didn’t know how it felt. After we finished with the immigration check, we went into the
plane, many of the announcements were in English, I had studied it for three years but I
was very nervous, so when someone spoke to me in English I could barely understood the
idea. When we got to Newark Airport in NYC, we talked to the immigration officer.
“Do you understand English?”
“Yes, I can,” I answered immediately;
“So, take the elevator downstairs and make a left, there is a waiting room there,
take a seat until you hear your names being called!”
Wow! I exclaimed in my mind; “What the hell did he say?” he had spoken so fast that I
could barely get the idea. I was so nervous that I couldn’t even walk over a line. When
papi and I took the elevator downstairs, I was begging God to see the waiting room the
officer had told us about to take a seat immediately. Fortunately, when we got there we
saw the waiting room, there was almost nobody in there, I recognized some passengers
38
from our flight, we sat down until our names were called. While waiting, we saw the way
Immigration Officers checked the passengers’ belongings, I was scared and wondering;
“Will they do that to us?”, “No, we have nothing to hide,” papi said. “They checked that
when they see someone who is trying to hide something!” he added, “We haven’t brought
too many things!”
Another Immigration Officer talked to me at first, I handed in the documents we
had received at the Embassy of the United States at Lima and he opened it, I was very
curious about those papers, but I couldn’t see anything because he put them down; after
that, he asked me to sign some documents, to write my name on them, and press my right
finger with the ink at the bottom, too. When he touched my finger, he told me; “Calm
down, kid you don’t have to do anything else than that!”
Once again I was trying to guess what he had just said, but I couldn’t do it at all, I
could understand some words, but not the whole idea, it was frustrating because it was
hard to understand that I needed to pass through a process to get a fluent English, so I
couldn’t even give him an answer to his words; moreover, I was so agitated that I didn’t
even know how to tell him the way I felt. After some minutes of filling out all those
documents, he called papi, he came to the table, and started doing the same things, in that
moment I knew papi was even more nervous than me, because at least I had studied
English in an institute, but he couldn’t speak a word in English. I still remember his
immediate words; “Spanish please!”
“I have to help papi,” I said to myself, but the Immigration Officer didn’t let me
do it; “Go there and have a seat.” He told me. I had no choice, I had to go back to my seat
and wait for papi to come back, I begged God for the Officer not to ask anything to him,
39
because he wouldn’t have been able to answer his questions. After we finished with the
Immigration Checking we felt less nervous, now we had to pick up our luggage, and go
out to see mami; she, Rosa, and Emily (Rosa’s daughter), had been waiting for us
outside. Papi and I couldn’t believe that we had finally come to the United States, after a
long time that mami had come here, we could finally get together.
In the first week of August in 2006, we finally came here. The first night was very
hot, I remember I had to take a shower twice, and almost drank four bottles of water. Our
first house was a basement located near Rosa’s apartment. When I saw it for the first
time, I realized about how ironic the life was, we had been living in a three-floor house in
Lima, and now we lived in a basement that was closer to be a room than a basement.
While getting used to the new city, I didn’t do much, papi and I used to go to the
supermarket and buy some food, actually we didn’t buy too much because we didn’t
know how to buy the meat for the soup mami used to cook, so we bought some cookies,
and water, only. August was one of the hottest month for me that year; “Are you
kidding?” Rosa said; “it was more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit before you two come!” I
was surprised, how New York City could be so hot; anyway, we didn’t have that weather
in Peru, so we had to get used to it.
Mami works in Rye, where Mrs. Clara works too. Titi Lala, as we all call her, is
mami’s best friend. She is from Mexico, and came to the United States a long time ago,
she’s been with mami at every moment; finally, we had known the person who had been
with mami all the time, when she used to call me home, she said; “Lala is watching some
TV.” Lala lived with the Ruggeiro’s family, she works full time for them, and she’s been
with that family since their children were born; now she looks at the kids as her
40
grandchildren. Since mami works in Rye every Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and
Saturdays, it is much better for her to stay there at night; besides, she has the permission
from the family; it was too expensive for her make such a long trip almost everyday. It
was ironic for me because papi and I were supposed to have come here to get together
with mami as a family, or at least part of it, however, she had to leave to work, and now
we stayed alone at the basement, getting used to our new life by ourselves.
“Aren’t we supposed to stay together?” I asked papi,
“Yes, but your mom has to work and support the family while we both get a job
and start to help her” was his answer.
By the end of that month, Carlos, my brother-in-law, told Rosa that I could get a
job at the machine shop where he used to work, it was in College Point and Carlos had
talked to Tony, the manager, already.
“You can start there” Carlos told me; “It’s an easy job” he informed me. I was not
sure about it; it didn’t mean that I didn’t want to get a job, but I was unwilling to do
something I had never done in my whole life; a machine operator. During all my life my
parents had supported me, and living with them; I had a place where to live, something to
eat, a bed where to sleep, I had gotten a job in Peru thanks to one of my friend, and I just
never thought about getting a job like this one.
L&M Grinding Corporation was specialized in grinding metal pieces in a specific
size. It was my first day at my new job, I got early in the morning and just after me came
Tony, my boss. “Good morning, Pablo,” he said. “Good morning, Sir!” I answered. I was
very nervous because it was going to be the first time to interact with other people. A new
country, society, everything was really strange to me. My job at the machine shop was
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not too difficult; however, it required my five senses because I had to maneuver a
grinding machine. The first week was complicated because I had to get used to machines,
but soon I became familiar with them because Alex and Zviegnev, “the polish guy,” as
we used to call him, helped me a lot. Alex is from Ecuador, he is on his thirties, he came
to the United States twelve years ago, and is working with Tony since eight years ago. I
spent the first days talking to him during our fifteen-minute break, in that time, we had a
cup of coffee and talked about the life in a different country, Alex’s English was very
limited, so we always spoke in Spanish. As in every job, I found some problems, Tony
didn’t like Alex to speak in Spanish all the time, and Zviegnev found it repugnant.
“All this time listening to stupid Spanish!” he complained.
“You don’t have anything against Spanish, do you?” I asked
“Spanish is a language like any other, there’s nothing wrong with it!” I said.
“Don’t worry you are my friend, there’s no problem with you!” he said to me.
In that moment I realized that I was becoming in a good friend for Zviegnev. That
was a positive thing for me, for he worked next to me, and whenever I asked for help, he
was always by my side to give me a hand.
“How old are you?” he asked me once.
“I’m twenty one.” I answered.
“You are very young, you can be my son.”
As days and weeks went by, my chat with Zviegnev became more interesting. He
used to talk to me about his life in Brooklyn and I used to talk to him about my life in
Queens, he used to ask me about the things I wanted to do here.
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While I worked in the machine shop, I learned many things, Alex used to work
alone, he didn’t like anyone to help him; at first, he let me do it because I had nothing to
do, I wasn’t trained enough to run the grinding machine; but after a few weeks, I was. I
began to work with Zviegnev by my side, as we worked, we used to talk a lot. I realized
that he didn’t have a good impression about Alex, first of all because he was Hispanic, so
was I, but Zviegnev didn’t seem to have that impression about me, so I knew they were
not good friends, they only worked together, that was all. After some weeks, I realized
about another reason, Zviegnev hated Alex because he spoke Spanish and everyone there
spoke English, but Alex did speak English, but his English wasn’t very good at all. Is
there any racism here? I used to wonder many times, but I could never answer that
question.
I was experiencing a racism situation and I didn’t feel good about it; on one hand,
Alex was a countryman, not exactly from my country, but we were almost neighbors, on
the other hand, I had a good time with Zviegnev but he didn’t like Alex, sometimes I
wished we could all have a good time during breaks, but I knew it couldn’t be possible.
Tony used to talk to me many times during breaks, sometimes I didn’t know what
to talk to him about, it was embarrassing to have nothing to talk about, other times, he
spoke to me about his children, they were about to go to college, and he used to tell me
how intelligent they were, their GPA over 4 points, everything he said to me was new for
me, so I paid good attention to get the idea; besides, if I wanted to get into college, I had
to know about it. But sometimes I felt as if Tony wanted to tell me something else, as if
he thought that I could never get into college, does he think I cannot do it? I used to
wonder many times. Of course I can do it, I encouraged myself, I never wanted him to
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think that I am one more immigrant who comes to this country to make money and live in
a small apartment, sending money to the rest of the family every weekends. I didn’t come
here to do that, I came here to study hard and get an education, to face a new life and then
come back to my country to have my own business and help others. I was able to go to
college and get a GPA over 4 points too, I am capable to do it.
Despite those conversations with Tony, I learned something else, he encouraged
me to make an effort and accomplish what I wanted in life. He used to tell me that my
English level was very good, it didn’t seem that I had been only one month when I got
there; “Your English is perfect,” he said, I felt good when I heard that because it
motivated me to improve my English even much more.
I worked there for about six months only, I had to attend college and my schedule
didn’t help me at all, I had long breaks between classes and I couldn’t afford to get a part
time at the machine shop, so I had to quit my job and try to get another one.
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Posing in the picture are; Emily (Rosa’s daughter), Belen (Enma’s
daughter) Enma, and Sara (Enma’s daughter) This picture was taken in
Argentina, the first time Rosa went, and saw Enma after more than ten
years.
Posing in the picture, my two sisters and my three nieces.
Buenos Aires, Argentina
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I already know what my path is.
I am attending LaGuardia Community College now, and I have made some friends, too. I
still remember the first day I went to register, many people in a big room, I was so
nervous, it was the first time I was going to interact with other guys at my age.
I had been getting trouble understanding English; it was kind of complicated
because everybody seemed to have a different accent, so I wasn’t able to get the idea
easily. When I first got into one of the buildings, I saw many people in there, the
instructor in front of us welcomed us and indicated what to do, I had to register that day,
and I didn’t even know what course I was going to take. When I talked to the advisor
who was going to help me selecting my courses, she told me that I needed to take the
remedial courses first; that meant, math and essential readings, after having passed them,
I could take the ones on my major, Liberal Arts. I want to transfer to Hunter College,
where Rosa works as a secretary, I was impressed by everything in there, people from so
many different cultures, classrooms, the place, I really liked it; however, my GPA was
not good enough to get there, according to what Rosa told me, I had been out of high
school for almost five years, it was true, after going out from high school I started my
English classes, and I never went to college in Peru.
I’m taking three courses and one seminary freshmen. My math class is kind of
complicated, I was never good at math, I remember my math classes at high school where
my teacher used to tell me that they were nice and very easy; “I can’t do it,” was my
common complain; “You have to think that you can do it,” used to be his answer. Now I
realized about how importance mathematics is; besides, how easy it becomes when
paying attention to it, it’s not too complicated, but it is at some point, too. So I try to do
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my best, Mr. Lee, my teacher, is from Korea, he is very patient, but it is hard to
understand his English, sometimes his oriental accent makes me think he said something
different from what I was thinking about. In the classroom, there are people from many
different countries; some of them speak Spanish, but not all of them. I remember the first
day of class, I looked at my schedule sheet to check the classroom number, I think I was
so nervous that I checked it every two minutes, when I got in, there was a girl sat down
on one of the front seats; “This girl must be very responsible to be here twenty minutes
before the class,” so was I. In order to check if I was in the right class, and in spite of
being checking my schedule sheet, I asked her if that was Math 095; “Yes, it is,” she
answered me. I had a seat and got ready for my first class in the college, this time in a
new country.
Weeks went by, and I started to talk to Kasey, the girl I met the first day of class,
she got early in the morning and so did I, at first it was difficult to understand her English
because it is so fast, she was born here, and live in the Bronx with her fiancé, before they
broke up weeks later. It was nice to talk to her because I had the opportunity to practice
my speaking skills, besides; I learned new words, especially the ones we use in everydayconversations, in addition to that, I learned the different uses we can give to the word that
starts with “f” and finishes with “k” it was very nice to learn that, not because I wanted to
learn those bad words, but I wanted to know the language on the other side, the one
young people speak on the street, not the one teachers speak in a classroom. Kasey
helped a lot in my process of getting used to this new life, just by talking to me and make
me feel that I can do it, I can speak English with other people, I can interact with them,
I’m capable to do many different things. Our conversations turned even more interesting
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when the weeks went by, we used to talk about our math class, only, now, we talk about
our lives, the things we dislike, the ones we like. She told me about her German
boyfriend, she had been living with him for about seven years, they had traveled a lot,
and according to what she told me, they had a good relationship, too. My speech was less
interesting than hers, I hadn’t traveled as much as her, only once to come here, I didn’t
have a girlfriend from another country, but I tried to do my best. When we were in class
we used to talk to each other while the professor explained his class; “What is he talking
about?” she said, “I don’t understand anything!” “Neither do I” was my answer to her
comments, “Is this going to be in the test?” she asked me like whispering, “Yes, I think,
so definitely we’ll need very good luck” I said, while she laughed at it. At first, my
English was very close to the one in the book, the famous “s” in the verb when it’s third
person, or “want to” instead of “wanna” because that was the way I had learned English,
but Kasey showed me with her speech how to speak faster, and easier, as she said. One
Tuesday, we were in class, and suddenly, she looked at me and said; “I don’t get
anything, I’m going to the bath, I’ll be right back,” I think it was eight thirty, so she left,
the professor was explaining how to add fractions, and when he talked about adding
mixed number, I became more attentive because I hadn’t understood too much that topic
the class before. The class was almost done, and when I realized about Kasey, she wasn’t
there yet, she had been out for more than one hour, and I didn’t know why, the professor
left and I didn’t know what to do with Kasey’s books and belonging, we had agreed to
study after class that day, so I had to wait for her, when I went out with her books and
backpack in my hands, I saw her running on her way back to the classroom through the
hall, “Thanks a lot, you’re a very nice guy!” she said, as I gave her books to her. “It’s
48
ok!” I answered. “Are we going to study after class as we said?” I asked her; “Yes, of
course” she told me, so I asked if everything was ok, and she told that she had been
talking to her ex boyfriend, from now and on, because that last Friday he had broken her
up, “Almost seven years with him, and that stupid broke me up!” she said with anger on
her eyes. I didn’t know what to tell her, the only thing I thought was to tell her not to give
up, she wouldn’t be that way only for one guy; “there are so many guys all over the
world, you are not going to give up just because one of them broke you up, are you?” “I
think you are right!” she said, and that made me feel that what I had just said, was ok.
After that she moved to her mother’s apartment, now she lives with her, her sister and her
two children, “I hate them because I want to be alone and suddenly they call me up,” she
used to say, “I also have a six-year-old niece,” I said, but I don’t live with her; “That
makes a huge difference!” she said while we both laughed at it.
Another class I attend, and also the one I prefer is the Essential Readings class.
Mary Fjeldstad, my professor, is a very opened-minded person, but one of the things I
liked the most about her the first day of class was her English, it was so smooth and wellpronounced at the same time, like a melody, whenever I listen to her I wish I could talk
that way, too. At home, I used to practice in front of the mirror and try to speak like her,
but sometimes I speak so slow that I seem to be an old person who takes almost one
minute to tell only two sentences. In my reading class we discussed about many topics
the textbook suggested us. The textbook, written by Professor Fjeldstad, is very complex
and interesting at the same time, one of the topics that I liked the most is culture, it’s
almost at the beginning of the book, the book contains many articles written by many
people, anthropologists who experienced different cultures all over the world. Moreover,
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as almost everyone on the class come from different countries, the class and the
discussion becomes even more interesting because everyone talks about their own
experience. The first day I attended that class, I was nervous, but not too much, many
people sat down waiting for the professor in such a peaceful silence that if a needle fell
down, everyone would listen to it perfectly. When Professor Fjeldstad came in, she
welcomed us and talked to us about the course, the objectives and important things to
keep in mind during that semester. The first day I had no friends, in contrast to my math
class where I had Kasey as my first American friend. However when I got into the
classroom the second day of classes, I saw a pretty girl who was already in there, “Are
you coming to CSE 099?” she asked me, “Yes, I am” I answered, as a typical English
grammar textbook. I had a seat and told the girl;”Did you come the last class?” “No,” she
said, “What did you do?” coming to me to see the sheet Mrs. Fjeldstad had given us. I
showed her the sheet about; “The third bank of the river” one of the most interesting
stories I had read, and told her that our homework was to read it and elaborate some
questions we may want to ask about it, “Can I see it?” she said, and I gave it to her, “Why
you didn’t come the last class?” I asked, “I had a problem with the seven train,” she said,
in that moment I realized that seven train is a big problem everyone must face up
everyday, especially for people who come through this way. We were having a
conversation already, she was in the same class as me, and we had sat down one next to
another one, so I said to myself; “I have two friends now!”
“What’s your name?” I said;
“Samia” she said, “and yours?”
“Pablo.”
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In one of the first classes, Professor Fjeldstad asked us to do an introducing
exercise; the objective was to introduce ourselves in pairs by providing some
information, then one of them had to introduce his or her partner, as we were three in our
group we did it in that way, I knew Samia already, but I didn’t know the other girl, so that
meant that I was going to have a new friend.
Little by little I started to discover what my path is. I am about to have one year
living in New York City, and I think I have done many things, during this time, I got a
job, and I understood the responsibility that is to get money with our own effort; besides,
I have more friends now. Finally, I am attending college, which I consider, the most
important thing in my life, I know what my path is and I know that all my obstacles are
not behind me yet, I have to face many things.
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Our paths are different.
Now I understand that I can accomplish whatever I want. I am practicing my
English, I made some friends already, I got a job and made some money, too, I am
getting used to a new society, with many people from other countries, and a few from
mine. Now I realize about the path I need to follow, the things I need to do, and the goals
I want to achieve, one day, come back to Peru and share them with my friends, help
people who don’t have the opportunities to be helped. I understood that this life can be
very difficult to overcome, but we have something to do. I remember my friends who
stayed in Peru, who said good-bye to me the day I came here, Maria, Ruben, Antonio,
Katty, Maribel, Jonathan, were some of my friends whom I shared many experiences
with, I talk to them through the internet, but it’s not the same, our paths are different.
However, what I learned from them will be in my mind forever.
My family has changed a lot, Enma has two daughters already; Belen and Sara,
Emily, Rosa’s daughter, helps me out with my English everyday, coqui and Yessenia, her
wife, have one baby already, coquito, the days when we used to play together are gone
already, but we will belong to the same family forever.
I still have in mind what Antonio told me the night we were in a party in my
house, the last Saturday I stayed in Peru, it was late at night and we had drank some beer,
then he asked; “if you had the opportunity to change something in what you are going to
do, would you do it?” referring to my coming here, “No,” I said immediately, trying to
tell him that we have to follow our path no matter what happens; “whatever I have to do
to succeed in life, I am going to do it.”
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Here are some of my friends, from left to right; Mariella, Ruben, Cesar,
Katty, Antonio, and Maribel.
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Here are my parents at the Rockefeller
Center, Manhattan NY.
Here are my brother coqui with Yessenia, his
wife, and their son coquito.
Here, my mother and I at the Rockefeller
Center, Manhattan NY.
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