Joseph Roberts  00:03

Cool. Okay. I am Joseph Roberts. I'm interviewing Ada Romano today. It is April 12, at about 6:51pm in the afternoon, we're at Cabell Library. Thank you so much, Ada for being here and doing this interview with us.

 

Ada Romano  00:19

Thank you for having me.

 

Joseph Roberts  00:21

But so first I just like to start off asking, like, about your family, where you're from, your childhood, how you grew up, and everything?

 

Ada Romano  00:30

My family we're... we all were born in El Salvador. My dad came to the states in the 80s during the civil war in El Salvador. He was 18, so he did come here undocumented in the 80s, he had to escape the war. My mom was a teacher for 15 years, and so she was there during the war. She lived through it, and they didn't. They didn't get married till the 90s, but they were friends all throughout their childhood. So my dad ended up coming here to make money for his family. He was the oldest of all his siblings, so he was expected to make money and send it back. He didn't make it past, like fourth grade, I think, is how far he got in school, and then he worked the rest of his life. So he ended up in New York, and that's where he worked. And then they, I guess, he went back to El Salvador. Married my mom. They had me, and he brought us here in 1995 I was two years old. My mom already had my older brother and my sister from a previous marriage, and he got their paperwork together to bring them, bring both of them over here. We didn't have a whole lot of resources, a whole lot of money, because my dad was, you know, we he didn't have much of an education. He was just kind of working as much as he could to make ends meet with us, and then with my mom. She was working as much as she could, but she was also taking care of three kids. So we were we were living in, at first, we were living in, like, family's homes, like, you know, my uncle's basement. We did that for several years throughout my childhood, and then eventually, one of the biggest things that ever happened was us getting our own apartment. And so I think that was a huge deal for us.

 

Joseph Roberts  02:34

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  02:35

Because we went from living in, you know, family members basement to living in our own apartment. And my older brother and older sister. It was a two bedroom apartment, so we shared a one bedroom just the three of us. So that caused a little bit of drama, like we were always bickering about something.  Yeah, sibling like fighting.  Yeah. So we did that for a few years. That was back on Long Island, back in New York, so that was, I don't know, I guess, back until I was in like third grade. And then another huge accomplishment, my dad was able to save up, and then he bought our first house, and that was a huge deal.

 

Joseph Roberts  03:19

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  03:20

And then that was like a small, two, three bedroom house. I still was sharing a bedroom with my sister, but my brother got his own room, so we had a little bit more space. There wasn't a huge house, but it was our house. It was our first house. So that was a huge accomplishment for my dad. He was very proud of it. So from there, we kind of started leveling up a little bit.  My dad was just trying to make a better life for all of us, and that's pretty much how we grew up. We didn't have a whole lot of money. Once I went to high school, my brother and my sister both dropped out of high school.

 

Joseph Roberts  03:41

Yeah. Okay.

 

Ada Romano  03:55

I was the only one who graduated. And then I went to college, I was the only one who graduated from college. I did drop out at first...

 

Joseph Roberts  04:06

Mhm, yeah.

 

Ada Romano  04:07

...and I moved to New York with my boyfriend at the time, and I got pregnant, and then I had my daughter was still born...  ...at, you know, full term. So this is when I was living in Staten Island. This was right after high school.

 

Joseph Roberts  04:18

Okay. Okay.

 

Ada Romano  04:25

And I ended up coming back to Virginia to finish my degree, because I was just kind of, like, really determined. And yeah, I finished my degree, I got undergrad, and then I went to grad school. And my parents, at that point, just couldn't help me anymore, because they had their own financial issues. So I put myself through school. I worked full time, and was going to school full time, and now I'm here.

 

Joseph Roberts  04:52

So, um, so you guys had an apartment in Long Island?

 

Ada Romano  04:56

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  04:57

Right. So when your dad bought you guys' first house was that still in New York?

 

Ada Romano  05:02

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  05:02

 Yes, it was okay.

 

Ada Romano  05:03

It was, so the apartment was in Uniondale. That's Nassau County. So there's two counties on Long Island, yeah, Nassau County, Uniondale, that was the apartment. And then we moved to Suffolk County, which is on the eastern end of Long Island.

 

Joseph Roberts  05:03

Gotcha, yeah, all right.

 

Ada Romano  05:04

So I had to switch schools... Yeah... ...and the middle of...

 

Joseph Roberts  05:22

How old were you when you guys moved? Like, when the house was bought? Was this like, middle school or...

 

Ada Romano  05:27

Elementary school.

 

Joseph Roberts  05:29

Elementary School? Okay.

 

Ada Romano  05:30

Whatever, third grade.

 

Joseph Roberts  05:31

Yeah elementary school, yeah.

 

Ada Romano  05:33

That's in third grade, yeah,yeah. I just remember I was in third grade, yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  05:37

Okay, I gotcha, yeah, alright. Um, and with your siblings, so you said your two older siblings and older brother and sister...

 

Ada Romano  05:41

Yes.

 

Joseph Roberts  05:46

So they, um, were from a different father?

 

Ada Romano  05:51

Yes.

 

Joseph Roberts  05:51

Yeah, right. Okay, so, like, growing up, did you guys ever have like a, like a weirder, like a step sibling dynamic, or did it always feel like, like you guys were, like, blood siblings, because I have step siblings, and it doesn't feel any different, but, you know, like, there's some kind of a difference there. You know what I mean?

 

Ada Romano  06:08

Yeah, I think naturally, on my part, it didn't, because I was young and, like, I was just like, oh, this is my brother, my sister. But I think since they were older and they kind of had a little bit more understanding it was their dad that wasn't there. My brother has a different dad and my sister has a different dad. Okay, my sister's dad was actually married to my mom, and terrible person. He passed away, though, and then my brother's dad just was never in his life. So I think there was a little bit of resentment on their part because my dad was around and their dad, their dads weren't so, um, I wouldn't say they treated me differently. I think they kind of held that against me a little bit. But, you know, I kind of came out in, like, arguments sometimes.

 

Joseph Roberts  06:55

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  06:56

Um, but, like, I was younger, so I didn't really feel any differently.

 

Joseph Roberts  07:01

But it wasn't like ever, like a major divide between your siblings or anything like that?

 

Ada Romano  07:05

It did get to that point when we got older, not really me, but with my dad, like my brother and my dad, that's mostly where the issue was. Like with my brother and my dad, they got into arguments, and my brother was really angry with my dad, and just took it out on him.

 

Joseph Roberts  07:23

Okay, um, but going back to New York. So you said that you were in high school, and then you said you left and you came to Virginia, and then went back to New York with your boyfriend?

 

Ada Romano  07:34

No, um, I was in high school. I came here in eighth grade, to Virginia. Okay, all right, sorry, and then I did high school here.

 

Joseph Roberts  07:41

Okay.

 

Ada Romano  07:42

 I went to Monica High School.

 

Joseph Roberts  07:43

Yes, okay, yeah. Because we were talking about that.

 

Ada Romano  07:45

 And then I graduated. And I did two semesters at VCU. I was like, my second semester when I dropped out...

 

Joseph Roberts  07:54

Okay.

 

Ada Romano  07:55

...and then I met him, and I went to Staten Island with him...

 

Joseph Roberts  08:00

Okay.

 

Ada Romano  08:01

...when I was 19.

 

Joseph Roberts  08:03

Okay, all right.

 

Ada Romano  08:04

Yeah, so that's what all of that happened.

 

Joseph Roberts  08:07

Yeah and then after that, then you decided to come back and continue school at VCU?

 

Ada Romano  08:12

Yeah, yeah. I just came back, and I was just like, I need to finish my degree. And...

 

Joseph Roberts  08:15

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  08:17

...that's what I did. And I just kind of left that life in Staten. I was there for like three years. I was in Staten Island yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  08:24

Okay, okay, so when you came back, what degree were you doing at VCU?

 

Ada Romano  08:29

Um, I was I did journalism, like I declared Mass Comm when I came back. But originally, when I first started school. I was doing nursing. I was pre nursing...

 

Joseph Roberts  08:43

Oh okay, okay.

 

Ada Romano  08:43

...because my mom wanted me to be a nurse, but I hated it.

 

Joseph Roberts  08:46

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  08:47

 I like, volunteered at the hospital because she she's been doing housekeeping at the same hospital for like, 16 years now, and that's like, what she wanted me to do. And I absolutely hated it. I was like, I can't do this. I was like, This is not for me. And so I ended up switching to, like, forensic science, because I had all of like, the science credits already, like, you know, the science credits. And she, she was like, Well, if you're gonna do something, do something in science. And then that's when I dropped out. I was in forensic science. But then when I came back, you know, at that point, I was paying for school, but, you know, on my own, so I wanted to do something that I, you know, I want to make sure I wasn't wasting any money. 

 

Joseph Roberts  09:21

That you enjoy, yeah.

 

Ada Romano  09:22

Yeah. So I really thought about it for a long time, and I think, like, journalism was something that I wanted to do, so I stuck it out.

 

Joseph Roberts  09:31

Yeah, you went with that.

 

Ada Romano  09:32

Yeah. I went with that and I but I really made sure that that's like what I wanted.

 

Joseph Roberts  09:36

Yeah. So was that like, not enjoyment of like, Forensic Science and Nursing what kind of pushed you to drop out? Or?

 

Ada Romano  09:42

No, it was the it was the fact that I was a teenager who met some boy online that was in a band...

 

Joseph Roberts  09:50

Okay, okay.

 

Ada Romano  09:52

...and also the fact that my relationship with my parents was really rocky at the time, like I was the. One, the only one living with them. I was siblings were out of the house already, and I think this has to do with just our culture. They are just really they were really strict, and they didn't really let me have, like a college life, like I saw my friends just have, like a regular college...

 

Joseph Roberts  10:19

Yeah, the college experience.

 

Ada Romano  10:21

...experience and I didn't have that. So they were so strict, like they were, I don't know, I was working two jobs. I was working, you know, like, little minimum wage jobs, but I was working, I was going to school, and I didn't feel like they really respected me, and they, like, really crossed my boundaries, and we were constantly fighting, and so I just needed a way out, and so that was my way out.

 

Joseph Roberts  10:45

I understand, okay, so it was more like life than academic?

 

Ada Romano  10:50

Yeah, because I was doing fine, like, it, I didn't want to drop out of school. I just felt like that was my way out, yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  10:57

Yeah. I was only because I knew, like, sciences are much different from, like, journalism.

 

Ada Romano  11:02

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  11:02

Like, it's two separate spheres almost.

 

Ada Romano  11:05

Yeah, I don't get me wrong, it was hard.

 

Joseph Roberts  11:07

Yeah, no, I would imagine, yeah, I'm I'm very poor in like, math and science. I can't even begin to think how hard it was. But, yeah, okay, so um, so then you come back and you do journalism at VCU, and then you go to grad school as well?

 

Ada Romano  11:26

Um, yeah, I graduated, yeah. I graduated in 2020, and then I went up to because I wanted to go to law school.

 

Joseph Roberts  11:34

Okay.

 

Ada Romano  11:34

So I moved to Baltimore, so I got a job at the Baltimore Sun.

 

Joseph Roberts  11:37

Okay.

 

Ada Romano  11:38

And I was a reporter there, and then I wanted to do law school there. I was studying for the LSAT. I was alone. I was living by myself. I didn't have any friends or family over there, so I just think I got really depressed and unmotivated because I was like, I really don't have any support. And I was just having a lot of issues with like, substance use and drinking. And I just, I was like, I can't live like this. And I'm like, something is gonna happen to me if I just continue. Like...

 

Joseph Roberts  12:12

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  12:12

...I was doing fine with, like, studying for the outside and stuff like, but, you know, I couldn't put, I couldn't, like, how can I put this, everything isn't about academics. Like, my I had needed to be healthy, you know, physically, mentally, I couldn't just, like, go to school, but then, like, inside, I'm, like, dying.

 

Joseph Roberts  12:31

Yeah, no, yeah.

 

Ada Romano  12:33

So I talked to my mom and I told her, and I was really honest with her, and I was like, I'm gonna be honest with you, mom, like, I'm not doing well. Like, I'm really not coping, like, being lonely and, you know, living here by myself, I'm really sad, and she's like, You need to come back home. She's like, I know you really want to go to school there, but you're not doing well. So I came back home. They told me I could move back in with them while I was in grad school. So, you know, that would help me financially. I got a job as a producer here at channel eight, and I did grad school in like 14 months. I got I did the full time thing, so I was hustling...

 

Joseph Roberts  13:15

Yeah, just to get through, yeah. Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  13:17

...right, right through it. And I got better. I mean, I just, like, recovered really well. I really think that, like, not having my family or friends... ...like, really took a toll on me while I was over there...

 

Joseph Roberts  13:27

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  13:27

...and I was coping in like, really unhealthy ways.

 

Joseph Roberts  13:30

Yeah. I mean, yeah, just that aspect of being alone is, yeah, okay, Iunderstand, all right, so, um, to kind of branch off of education a little bit, but still dealing with your childhood. Did you guys grow up with religion at all in your house? Was that a big influence or not so much?

 

Ada Romano  13:50

I wouldn't say it was big, like they had. We're Catholic. We went to church every now and then, but it wasn't like an every weekend thing my parents or my mom really experimented with other religions, like she had like friends that would take us to different churches. But it wasn't consistent. You know, we didn't go to like one church consistently. Maybe when I was younger, we went to like a Catholic church a little bit more consistently, but they're definitely like believers, and they definitely have those like Catholic values. I did I was baptized.

 

Joseph Roberts  14:30

Okay. 

 

Ada Romano  14:30

I did my first communion and my confirmation, and that's it. I think I did my first communion in El Salvador.

 

Joseph Roberts  14:39

Okay.

 

Ada Romano  14:40

Um, but...

 

Joseph Roberts  14:43

So you would have been very young for your first communion. Or did you go back?

 

Ada Romano  14:47

I went back.

 

Joseph Roberts  14:48

Would you guys go back and forth?

 

Ada Romano  14:50

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  14:50

Oh okay.

 

Ada Romano  14:50

I went back, like every summer. 

 

Joseph Roberts  14:52

Oh, really, okay.

 

Ada Romano  14:53

I would spend it with my my grandma, because, you know, I was out of school. My mom was working, my parents were working, so I stayed with my grandma. While for the summer.

 

Joseph Roberts  15:01

Gotcha.  So how long did you...are you still going back to El Salvador at all?

 

Ada Romano  15:01

Yeah.  I haven't been since I was 15.

 

Joseph Roberts  15:07

Since you're 15?

 

Ada Romano  15:08

Yeah. So I haven't been in like, 16 years.

 

Joseph Roberts  15:09

Gotcha. Okay. So you had family there, but you guys also had family in New York because you had said you lived in your uncle's house?

 

Ada Romano  15:18

Yeah, we okay. So my my dad's family is huge.  His extended family is huge. So he has family in El Salvador, and then his extended family is here. Most of them have moved to Virginia, but there's still some in New York. And then my mom has family in Canada. I mean, we have family everywhere.

 

Joseph Roberts  15:22

Yeah, okay.  Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  15:38

Honestly, we have family in Texas. We have family in Florida, California, like...

 

Joseph Roberts  15:43

You guys are spread out.

 

Ada Romano  15:44

We're very we're everywhere, okay, yeah, we've taken over.

 

Joseph Roberts  15:48

So travel a lot when you were younger, especially back to back and forth from New York to El Salvador and Virginia and New York.

 

Ada Romano  15:55

Yeah, we went to Canada a lot too.  Yeah, we would take road trips to Canada all the time.

 

Joseph Roberts  15:57

Really? Okay. Yeah, which part of Canada?

 

Ada Romano  16:02

Toronto. 

 

Joseph Roberts  16:03

Toronto. That's cool. So back to kind of religion, kind of, are you still religious now at all?

 

Ada Romano  16:09

No, I would consider myself agnostic.

 

Joseph Roberts  16:13

Okay, yeah. So that was an influence growing up, and then did it just kind of fade out naturally, in a way?

 

Ada Romano  16:21

I think I, like, started questioning things, kind of when I was a teenager, and then also, like, I kind of had my own, like, negative experiences with the Catholic Church, like, so I'll tell you one, when I did my first communion, One of the things that we had to do was confess with our priest, and that was, like part of the process, or whatever. And so one of the things, because I was a child and I didn't understand this, I confessed about being molested when I was younger, as you know, I was like six years old when this happened as a child, I felt like I was at fault. I felt like that was so I confessed about it to my priest.

 

Joseph Roberts  17:07

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  17:08

And my priest made me feel like it was my fault. He made me feel like I had seduced this person who did this to me, mind you I was...

 

Joseph Roberts  17:17

Like it was like your sins instead of...

 

Ada Romano  17:19

Yes.

 

Joseph Roberts  17:19

Okay.

 

Ada Romano  17:20

Instead of, I was a victim.

 

Joseph Roberts  17:21

Yeah, like the reality of it instead of...

 

Ada Romano  17:24

Yeah and so, you know, I kind of had to, like, live with that for several years. And like, obviously, like, weighed really heavy on me, and I kind of had that like, resentment towards the, like, Catholic church, because I'm like, How can this, like, this person who's like a leader, they're supposed to be like a leader, do this to a child and, like, make them feel like something so awful, like, that is their fault, you know, so and then that's when I just started, like, questioning things. Like, there's, there were a lot of things that were being said also that I didn't agree with. And I just...

 

Joseph Roberts  17:59

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  18:00

And I started thinking for myself, yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  18:01

You fall away from the church like that, yeah, no I understand.

 

Ada Romano  18:03

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  18:04

Okay, um, yeah, I don't know. I've heard, like, similar things, like, people would break away from the Catholic Church itself.

 

Ada Romano  18:15

Yeah. I mean, like, just the fact that he would, I mean, excuse that from my abuser.

 

Joseph Roberts  18:20

Yeah, that's like a horrible thing that happened to you, and then it's yeah, that's especially for a child.

 

Ada Romano  18:26

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  18:30

Um, but anyways, so back to El Salvador kind of so like you guys, journey from so you came to New York initially when you were two. So did your father just bring everybody all the same time? Or was it your older siblings first and then? Or how did that all happen?

 

Ada Romano  18:49

It was my mom and me. So we came in 95 it took a while for him to get my my brother and my sister's paperwork together.

 

Joseph Roberts  19:00

Okay.

 

Ada Romano  19:00

Um, so I think they came maybe, like two years later from like 97.

 

Joseph Roberts  19:06

Okay.

 

Ada Romano  19:08

So they stayed with my grandparents in El Salvador for a couple years. So they helped raise us anyway. So, yeah, they stayed with my grandparents. They were taking care of them, and then they were able to come here. So they were older, and my sister was like nine, and my brother was like, 13.

 

Joseph Roberts  19:24

Okay.

 

Ada Romano  19:25

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  19:26

So were you guys pretty close to your grandparents? Because that's who you would go visit right?

 

Ada Romano  19:29

Yes, yeah, my my grandma, my grandpa on my mom's side, Papi Luis and Mommy Tina. They were amazing. They especially my grandma. Grandma, lovely, lovely soul. Love her RIP. Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  19:46

That's great. So that's so even with being, you know, countries apart, literally, you guys still have, like, a good relationship with your your grandparents, and then, like, your family there, and then also in Canada, and just your family spread out, everybody.

 

Ada Romano  19:59

Everybody, yeah. Yeah, I think everybody's stayed pretty close, like we always call each other. My grandparents would come visit. They would go to Canada too, to see my uncle.

 

Joseph Roberts  20:10

Really? Okay. 

 

Ada Romano  20:10

And my, you know, my my cousin's over there. The last time my grandma came here, I was like, 16. She came to Virginia. The last time she came. It was for like, Christmas, and then think, yeah, she passed away when I was 20. No, I was 21 actually was, like, right before, but it was right after my 21st birthday. It was my birthday is October 23 she passed away on the 24th

 

Joseph Roberts  20:16

Okay.

 

Ada Romano  20:17

Yeah, so, um, so, yeah. I think the last time I saw her was when she came to Virginia when I was, like, 16. Okay, yeah, so been a few years, yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  20:55

Okay, yeah, cuz you said you had gone back to El Salvador since you were 15 right? Okay.

 

Ada Romano  21:00

Yeah, and she came here, like, the next the following year. 

 

Joseph Roberts  21:02

Okay, gotcha, I understand.

 

Ada Romano  21:04

Yeah. So the last time I went to El Salvador was to see my grandfather, her husband that passed away. He was, like, not doing well, so we went to see him one last time.

 

Joseph Roberts  21:14

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  21:15

Um, so she died, like, a few years later. Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  21:18

Okay. So when, when you would go there as a child too, would you go, was it like a family trip, or would you just go by yourself?

 

Ada Romano  21:25

Um, I went by myself. I want to say a couple times. I do remember one time I went by myself. I was really little, and they had, like, a chaperone, like, situation, okay, I don't remember much about it. My mom just told me that she had to send me by myself. And I was like, that's a thing. And I guess they have, like, some kind of chaperone, I don't know.

 

Joseph Roberts  21:45

Okay.

 

Ada Romano  21:45

 Apparently that was a thing. But that was a long time ago, but usually it would be family trip, it'd be like, all of us going together.

 

Joseph Roberts  21:54

Yeah, okay I gotcha, cool, okay. And that was, like, the, like, the summer trip, kind of?

 

Ada Romano  21:58

Usually in the summer, yeah, I think usually during the summer, if not, like, winter break, like the Christmas.

 

Joseph Roberts  22:06

Yeah. Yeah, like school break.

 

Ada Romano  22:07

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  22:08

Okay, I gotcha. So I kind of want to move into, like, your life in Virginia.This is, like the Virginia project. So, um, when you guys first came to Virginia, what was like? What was Chesterfield like? Like, I know it's, it was, must have been different from it is now in some way. But like...

 

Ada Romano  22:31

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  22:32

 ...what was your experience moving here? Like, was it shocking from New York?

 

Ada Romano  22:36

Yeah. I hated it.

 

Joseph Roberts  22:37

Yeah?

 

Ada Romano  22:38

It was awful. I cried like every day when I went to school, I was like, I was just not used to it. It was just like, it seemed like the middle of nowhere to me, because we're from, you know, we're from highly populated...

 

Joseph Roberts  22:50

Yeah. Like, a huge populated area.

 

Ada Romano  22:53

...yeah. It's like, I was like, this is the middle of nowhere.  Mom and Dad, where did you bring me? So that, and also where I grew up was mostly our this is really diverse, like, well, I say diverse, but mostly black and Latino community, and I didn't really experience racism. So upfront, until I came here...

 

Joseph Roberts  22:58

Yeah. Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  23:26

...and that was a shock to me. Got into a couple of fights at school because of that.

 

Joseph Roberts  23:35

Yeah, just because you're plunged into like a white community.

 

Ada Romano  23:39

Yeah, I went to Midlothian, middle...

 

Joseph Roberts  23:41

Okay.

 

Ada Romano  23:42

...for a year.

 

Joseph Roberts  23:42

Yes, all right.

 

Ada Romano  23:44

And I just didn't feel like I fit in, like I was so different from everyone. And then people also didn't really make an effort, like I had, like, a couple of friends that I made there. But for the most part, like in my classes, people didn't really make an effort to, like, talk to me. I don't know they were, I wouldn't say, scared of me, but, like, they just didn't wanna.

 

Joseph Roberts  24:07

You were like an other, yeah.

 

Ada Romano  24:09

Yeah. Like, we don't, we don't mess with this girl. We don't talk to her.

 

Joseph Roberts  24:12

So, you wouldn't feel, you didn't feel welcomed here at all when you first came?

 

Ada Romano  24:15

No, at least not at midlow.

 

Joseph Roberts  24:17

Yeah, okay, that was eighth grade, right?

 

Ada Romano  24:19

Eighth grade.

 

Joseph Roberts  24:20

Okay, gotcha.

 

Ada Romano  24:21

Um, so I just did-I didn't fit in. I felt awful and like the neighborhood just didn't feel right. Like, I just, I just felt like we stood out. Like...

 

Joseph Roberts  24:33

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  24:35

...we're the only brown people here. Like, I just it felt so different...

 

Joseph Roberts  24:40

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  24:41

...and I don't know it's just I wasn't used to it, you know, I don't know it's like, so hard to, like, explain to somebody that it hasn't experienced it. Because, you know, back in New York, all my friends parents spoke Spanish, but, like, here. You know, if I brought my my friend over, there's no way that their parents and my parents can communicate because my parents don't speak English.

 

Joseph Roberts  25:06

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  25:06

So that's kind of an obstacle, like, that was weird, and I don't know, I felt almost like I wouldn't say embarrassed, but like, a little bit of shame that my parents couldn't speak English.

 

Joseph Roberts  25:20

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  25:21

When I brought like, my friends over, or like, their parents would drop them off and they couldn't talk to my parents like, that felt kind of weird to me.

 

Joseph Roberts  25:30

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  25:30

So it was just a lot of things, like, back in New York, all of my friends were mostly, for the most part, they were Latino. I even had, like, I had one friend, Asia, back in New York, her mom was black and her dad was Salvadorian, but her mom spoke perfect Spanish.

 

Joseph Roberts  25:47

Really? Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  25:48

And, yeah. And so she would communicate with my parents just fine.

 

Joseph Roberts  25:51

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  25:51

And so that was the thing I just didn't feel...

 

Joseph Roberts  25:55

There's like a heavy awkwardness and like an unwelcome... Yeah. Okay.

 

Ada Romano  26:00

But for high school, in ninth grade, I went to Monacan, and that was a little bit more diverse than midlow.

 

Joseph Roberts  26:10

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  26:11

And I made a lot of different friends there that did speak Spanish.

 

Joseph Roberts  26:16

Yeah. So it was easier to make friends in high school as opposed to your eighth grade year?

 

Ada Romano  26:21

Yeah, and I think I started opening up a little bit more too. Like, I just I was friends with all everyone. Like...

 

Joseph Roberts  26:28

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  26:28

...I was friends with the skater kids. I was an emo kid, but I was friends with everyone. Like, my best friend was a cheerleader, and, like, I had nothing in common with that girl.

 

Joseph Roberts  26:40

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  26:41

My other friend was, like, a little hippie girl, but also had nothing in common with her. And to this day, we're still besties, like...

 

Joseph Roberts  26:47

Yeah?

 

Ada Romano  26:48

...but she's like, a little, she's a biologist. She studies plants. She's like, we have nothing in common, but we are so close.

 

Joseph Roberts  26:55

Yeah, you're still friends I gotcha.

 

Ada Romano  26:57

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  26:58

So with a, like, a, I guess a bigger like Latino community at Monacan. That's that really what made it easier to connect I think?

 

Ada Romano  27:06

Yeah, and I think people were just a little bit more open minded, because that my friend, the little hippie girl that I'm talking about, my friend Audrey, um, she's white her, but she's her parents have lived in Mexico. She actually lived in Mexico.

 

Joseph Roberts  27:21

Really, okay?

 

Ada Romano  27:21

Um, because I don't know, I don't remember what her parents were doing. Um, but her mom's a teacher, and her mom speaks Spanish.

 

Joseph Roberts  27:30

Yeah?

 

Ada Romano  27:30

So whenever I would hang out with Audrey, she her mom was able to communicate with my mom just fine. I think that's like, why we were able to hang out so much...

 

Joseph Roberts  27:37

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  27:37

...because my mom felt comfortable with her, because she was able to communicate with her.

 

Joseph Roberts  27:41

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  27:41

So, you know, we, we hung out a lot, um, so there's people, you know, situations like that, where it just felt more more comfortable. I don't know, it was more accommodating.

 

Joseph Roberts  27:53

Was there more of, like, a sense of like, like, community with like, other Latinos, especially?

 

Ada Romano  27:59

Yeah...

 

Joseph Roberts  28:00

Yeah?

 

Ada Romano  28:00

Yeah, definitely.

 

Joseph Roberts  28:02

Okay.

 

Ada Romano  28:02

Yeah. And then when I started going to Monacan, you know, I was a freshman, and then I had two of my older cousins were seniors, and they're both football players, and they're big, scary boys, and nobody messed with me.

 

Joseph Roberts  28:18

Yeah, okay, I gotcha so your cousins, so how much of your family lived in, like Chesterfield when you guys moved here?

 

Ada Romano  28:29

So much.

 

Joseph Roberts  28:29

A lot?

 

Ada Romano  28:30

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  28:30

Is that why you moved here?  Yeah? Okay.

 

Ada Romano  28:31

Yeah. Because every you know, everything was so expensive in New York. So everybody started, I don't remember why they chose Virginia, but it was like one of them came down, and then a couple more came down...

 

Joseph Roberts  28:43

Then everybody was like yeah...

 

Ada Romano  28:45

...everybodies...

 

Joseph Roberts  28:45

I gotcha.

 

Ada Romano  28:46

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  28:46

So was it you guys all live in like, a close area? Was it all in Chesterfield? A close area?

 

Ada Romano  28:50

Yeah, that's pretty much where everybody still lives.

 

Joseph Roberts  28:53

Yeah, okay, gotcha, yeah. As you said, your parents still live over in Chesterfield.

 

Ada Romano  28:58

All my, like my aunts and my cousins kind of still live around there. I have one of my cousins, Taneja, who we've grown up together. We've always been super close. She, I live in Churchill. She lives like, two minutes away from me.

 

Joseph Roberts  29:09

Oh okay.

 

Ada Romano  29:10

Yeah, she has a house out there, so we live super close.

 

Joseph Roberts  29:13

That's cool.

 

Ada Romano  29:13

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  29:14

So that closeness, like, obviously keeps your family, like, intact, and you guys all talk and, see eachother?

 

Ada Romano  29:19

Yeah, yeah, it's nice because, you know, like, I live alone now, and I can just call her and be like, hey, I'm making dinner. Yeah and be like "Whats up"... Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  29:29

That's awesome. That's cool.

 

Ada Romano  29:31

Yeah, it's helped mentally, like, as opposed to, like, when I told you when I was in Baltimore, like I had nobody to talk to.

 

Joseph Roberts  29:37

Yeah, and then theres so much family...

 

Ada Romano  29:39

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  29:39

Yeah, that's great. Okay.

 

Ada Romano  29:41

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  29:41

Very cool, very cool. So I guess that and then a better experience in high school kind of helped your overall experience in Virginia, like...

 

Ada Romano  29:50

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  29:51

...after the like, initial like, bad experience of coming here.

 

Ada Romano  29:54

Yeah, and then my family was so close, we had. Parties every weekend. And, like, if you know anything about us, we party hard.

 

Joseph Roberts  30:05

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  30:07

We had parties for everything. Like, every weekend. It was someone's birthday, it was a baby shower...

 

Joseph Roberts  30:11

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  30:12

...it was...

 

Joseph Roberts  30:13

Always something new.

 

Ada Romano  30:13

...it was someone's graduation. And it would be like, even like, it would be like, someone's first, like, a kid's first birthday, and we'd be partying to, like, four o'clock in the morning, and all the uncles would be drunk.

 

Joseph Roberts  30:27

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  30:28

It's like, wait, this is the first birthday party.

 

Joseph Roberts  30:29

This is for like a little newborn baby, yeah.

 

Ada Romano  30:31

Yeah.

 

Angela Bullock  30:33

...we had a couple of those birthday parties, its where my grandmother broke her foot...

 

Ada Romano  30:36

Oh, no.

 

Joseph Roberts  30:37

Oh my gosh.

 

Ada Romano  30:41

Yeah...uhm...it's kind of died down a little bit now, because it was usually, like my great aunt's house, and some of them have, like, passed away so and then, like, my cousins have gotten older, and we've kind of grown apart a little bit because they have their own families now...

 

Joseph Roberts  30:55

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  30:55

...like my cousins have kids and stuff, and like, We live very different lives, like my cousins have our family men like we used to be so close. My, I have three cousins. We're all the same age. We're all born at the same year.

 

Joseph Roberts  30:55

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  31:10

It's me, Miguel, Bono, and Willie. And we were all born in 1993.

 

Joseph Roberts  31:14

Okay.

 

Ada Romano  31:15

And we were all so close, and we did everything together. Those were my boys. And now it's like, you know, Willie and Miguel have families. They got like, three kids, so they, I don't know, go to Chuck E Cheese on the weekends, and, like,

 

Joseph Roberts  31:29

Yeah they're doing stuff with their family.

 

Ada Romano  31:30

Yeah. And I don't do that.

 

Joseph Roberts  31:32

Yeah, no no, Chuck E Cheese is cool.

 

Ada Romano  31:34

Yeah. I used to work there.

 

Joseph Roberts  31:35

Really?

 

Ada Romano  31:36

That was like, my second job when I was in like, college. Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  31:39

Okay, yeah.

 

Ada Romano  31:41

Yeah. So it's gotten a little bit quieter, but my family still parties every now and then.

 

Joseph Roberts  31:47

Yeah, I understand.

 

Ada Romano  31:47

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  31:49

So beyond just, like your family being here and like the just like overall community aspect getting kind of better, did were there, like, any resources that, like, especially, I guess, with school that helped you feel more like at home in Virginia, in a way, if that makes sense?

 

Ada Romano  32:11

I will say, despite how I felt about the Catholic Church, my parents, they went to St. Augustine, which is it's off of Hopkins, like Chesterfield.

 

Joseph Roberts  32:26

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  32:27

That church is, like, it's huge. And it's like, it's where I did my like Quinceañera.

 

Joseph Roberts  32:31

I know the name...

Ada Romano  32:32

Yeah. And it's like, they do so much, like community, like outreach stuff. They have, like, festivals, they have all kinds of things. They also have like camps for like kids, students and stuff. Over the summer, I would spend a lot of time there, especially because some of my friends from high school would go there, and they just had activities for us to do, so I wouldn't be sitting at home board over the summer.

 

Joseph Roberts  32:59

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  32:59

And even though it wasn't like, sometimes we had to do, like, Bible study, but...

 

Joseph Roberts  33:05

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  33:05

...sometimes it would be cool stuff, like we would have little cookouts or a scavenger hunt or something like that. So that really helped me when I was in high school, and the fact that, like, I had a couple friends from high school that, you know, my mom knew their parents, so they felt comfortable letting me go. And it was at a church, so they felt comfortable letting me go to that.

 

Joseph Roberts  33:24

Yeah, okay.

 

Ada Romano  33:25

Yeah, so that was a big thing, so St Augustine, because they would go to those events.

 

Joseph Roberts  33:30

Yeah, okay, so it's more like the like event aspect of it, not like the church, you know?

 

Ada Romano  33:37

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  33:37

Okay.

 

Ada Romano  33:38

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  33:38

 I gotcha all right.

 

Ada Romano  33:40

Think all of us pretty much, like any, like, quinceanera, because we have our, like, religious ceremony there. Or like, my, like, any weddings, like in my family have been held there.

 

Joseph Roberts  33:52

Oh, really. Okay...

 

Ada Romano  33:53

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  33:53

...so your Quinceaneras aren't they're not, like a home party? You would you do that at church?

 

Ada Romano  33:59

We have a religious ceremony at first.

 

Joseph Roberts  34:02

Okay.

 

Ada Romano  34:02

And then we have a party.

 

Joseph Roberts  34:04

Okay.

 

Ada Romano  34:04

So, yeah, so the ceremony is like, an hour, and then we go, like, we had a venue that we rented, and then I had my party.

 

Joseph Roberts  34:11

What is the ceremony? I just don't know about it.

 

Ada Romano  34:13

It's just, it's just like...

 

Joseph Roberts  34:16

Just like...

 

Ada Romano  34:17

mass like...

 

Joseph Roberts  34:18

...oh okay like a church kinda thing.

 

Ada Romano  34:20

Yeah, he's just pretty much like, Oh, you're turning into a woman. And like...

 

Joseph Roberts  34:24

Yeah its a big step in your life yeah, don't be a sinner.

 

Ada Romano  34:28

...don't be a sinner. Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  34:30

And then the party part?

 

Ada Romano  34:31

Yeah and then the party, yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  34:33

That's cool.

 

Ada Romano  34:34

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  34:38

But kind of moving though, from like, high school, we already kind of talked about college a little bit. So how did you fall into, like your job now? Post college and like what you're doing now and all that?

 

Ada Romano  34:51

Working in news for a little about while I, like, kind of was over it.

 

Joseph Roberts  34:57

Yeah, this was with channel eight?

 

Ada Romano  35:00

Well, yeah...

 

Joseph Roberts  35:00

Cause you were a producer and then?

 

Ada Romano  35:02

That, and reporting.

 

Joseph Roberts  35:03

Okay.

 

Ada Romano  35:04

As a reporter before.

 

Joseph Roberts  35:06

All right.

 

Ada Romano  35:06

And then I did some, like, publishing stuff for a couple magazines over there in Baltimore too. So I wanted to do something that I don't know, I wouldn't say passionate, but I, like, struggled with, like, mental health, and I saw that they had an opening for NAMI, and I was like, I don't feel like this would give me some purpose, I guess. And so I just applied, and I got the job. And I think I really connected, because I was really vulnerable about, like, my journey with my mental health, and it, I mean, I mean, it was, it was good, because I got to connect with people that really needed our resources.

 

Joseph Roberts  35:45

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  35:46

And, you know, sharing my experiences and helping them with their experiences.

 

Joseph Roberts  35:52

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  35:53

So I just wanted to do something that was a little bit more meaningful. Not that, like, yeah, doing the news isn't, but I was...

 

Joseph Roberts  35:59

Yeah, meaningful to you.

 

Ada Romano  36:01

To me, yeah. Like, personal.

 

Joseph Roberts  36:02

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  36:03

Because, I mean, being a producer, I was pretty much just, like writing scripts for the reporter or not, the reporters, anchors.

 

Joseph Roberts  36:09

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  36:10

Editing scripts, picking camera shots, doing. It was just very mundane tasks.

 

Joseph Roberts  36:18

Yeah, it feels like you're now making more of a difference, like, with things you actually, like, you know, are more important to you.

 

Ada Romano  36:24

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  36:25

Yeah, okay. So can you explain kind of what, like, what you do with Nami. With Nami is, like, really about just kinda briefly, I guess?

 

Ada Romano  36:35

We do, we do all kinds of, we have classes, presentations that we do. One of the one that, one of the presentations that I'm in charge of, is called sharing your story with law enforcement. And it's basically, we train people to go to CIT trainings with law enforcement to kind of show them, teach them how to handle mental health crises better, so that they don't use excessive force, and that they're better trained to handle these kind of crises. So we do all kinds of trainings like that. We do classes, we do support groups. We also just have, we used to have a helpline. We don't need anymore. Our office doesn't, but we have a bunch of different affiliates all over the state that have helplines where you call in, and we give you resources for whether that's like housing, if you need help with any kind of financial assistance, we just have, like, a list places that you can call for for that, or if you need to find a therapist, or if you need a psychiatrist will give you, will help you find that.

 

Joseph Roberts  37:48

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  37:48

So a bunch of different things. So...

 

Joseph Roberts  37:50

Yeah, just a way to, like, access resources?

 

Ada Romano  37:53

Yeah. But I also do their social media website, yeah, yeah. So that's under my umbrella too. I kind of wear a lot of hats.

 

Joseph Roberts  38:01

Okay, yeah, yeah, you're pretty busy.

 

Ada Romano  38:04

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  38:05

Okay, so you have Nami is your full time employment. That's your full time job. But then you're also teaching at VCU on the side?

 

Ada Romano  38:14

Yes, I'm doing this one class this semester. Oh, also I translate at Nami.

 

Joseph Roberts  38:21

Oh yeah?

 

Ada Romano  38:21

 So I translate a bunch of their programs because some of them are offered in Spanish.

 

Joseph Roberts  38:24

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  38:25

So I take their like material that they have for their programs and translate it into Spanish.

 

Joseph Roberts  38:29

Okay, okay, I probably should ask, How long have you been with Nami? Should have asked that earlier.

 

Ada Romano  38:34

I've been there a year and a half.

 

Joseph Roberts  38:35

Year and a half? Okay.

 

Ada Romano  38:36

Over a year, almost two years now.

 

Joseph Roberts  38:38

Yeah, that's great. That's cool. That's cool. How long have you been teaching at VCU?

 

Ada Romano  38:42

This is my second semester. Okay, so I started last semester was my first so this was my second semester.

 

Joseph Roberts  38:49

What made you want to pick up VCU? Is it on the side, or as a part time job? Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  38:53

I saw it on LinkedIn, and it was like, one of my old professors was looking for instructors. And I was like, oh, this would be cool to do. Like, if they pick me. I really wasn't expecting them to, like, freshly out of grad school, they're not gonna. And then they were like, hey. They're like, you know, they already knew me. They knew my work. And they were just like, they interviewed me. You know, of course, I had to go through the whole process, of course, like, apply. Cover Letter, all that. And then they called me, and they were like, Hey, so congratulations. I was like, Okay. I was like, I've never done this before, so I was so nervous. But my first class was pretty great. Those they were really good.  They were, yeah, y'all are cool too.

 

Joseph Roberts  39:02

Do you enjoy VCU?

 

Ada Romano  39:05

Yes.

 

Joseph Roberts  39:05

Do you enjoy Nami or VCU more?

 

Ada Romano  39:17

I ,VCU more.

 

Joseph Roberts  39:42

VCU more, really? Okay.

 

Ada Romano  39:48

Yes.

 

Joseph Roberts  39:48

All right.

 

Ada Romano  39:49

Yeah. Nami has been a little stressful lately, especially with getting our funding cut.

 

Joseph Roberts  39:55

Yeah? I'd imagine Yeah. That's yeah.

 

Ada Romano  39:58

That's happening a lot lately.

 

Joseph Roberts  40:00

Yes.

 

Ada Romano  40:00

So one of the places that we get our funds from, they laid off like 19 people. And so everybody is kind of stressed at our office, and this is making the vibes really weird.

 

Joseph Roberts  40:11

Yeah, I'd imagine.

 

Ada Romano  40:12

 Yeah, it's just really stressful. And yeah, it's just, I don't know.

 

Joseph Roberts  40:18

So what do you like going forward? Are you going to try and teach more, maybe, or just stay with NAMI? Or?

 

Ada Romano  40:24

No, I'm trying, I'm not staying with NAMI. I'm probably going to look for another, like, full time. I'm actually applying to different jobs. Now, I've applied to the, like, community colleges.

 

Joseph Roberts  40:35

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  40:36

Because I know that they're probably looking for full time.

 

Joseph Roberts  40:38

I'm sure.

 

Ada Romano  40:39

Yeah. So I've applied to, gosh, what is it called? Now, it used to be John Tyler?

 

Joseph Roberts  40:44

Brightpoint.

 

Ada Romano  40:44

Brightpoint. There we go. They're looking, they were looking for, like, a full time communications.

 

Joseph Roberts  40:48

Oh, yeah.

 

Ada Romano  40:49

Yeah. So I, I've applied for them. There was other, like, positions with like, other universities. But it wasn't teaching. It was, like, it was other things.

 

Joseph Roberts  41:02

Yeah, just was like...

 

Ada Romano  41:03

It was kind of like director of something and communications. So I've just been applying to different positions.

 

Joseph Roberts  41:10

You want, like a teaching position?

 

Ada Romano  41:12

Yeah, I just, I enjoy teaching more than I do at NAMI right now.

 

Joseph Roberts  41:17

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  41:18

I don't think, I don't really, don't think it's just the the funding situation. I think it's just the the workload for what I'm getting paid. It's just not worth it.

 

Joseph Roberts  41:29

Yeah, I understand yeah, gotcha, there's, um, I know how we were saying that like you felt like impactful and like it was meaningful with NAMI is teaching, like, just as meaningful you think, because, like, it's like, you're spreading knowledge and you're...

 

Ada Romano  41:44

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  41:44

...you know, obviously making a difference teaching people. So?

 

Ada Romano  41:47

I feel like I'm actually, like, making connections and like, I don't know, like, I just, I feel like I can actually, you know, I've had professors before that. Like, are just there, I don't know, they almost feel like condescending and don't really like, make an effort to, like, connect with their students. And like, I actually make a connection with my students. I don't know if it's just because I'm, like, closer in age them, but...

 

Angela Bullock  42:13

I'm actually older then you.

 

Ada Romano  42:17

I know.

 

Joseph Roberts  42:21

I was gonna say, yeah, it seems like there's a connection. Because, I mean, like, you're...

 

Ada Romano  42:24

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  42:25

...this is happening...

 

Ada Romano  42:26

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  42:26

...because you're...

 

Ada Romano  42:28

I think that yeah, I just, I also just, like, want them, I don't want them to be bored. I mean, they're there for like, three hours. Like, last class was the same thing. They were there for three hours. I don't want them to almost three hours. I don't want them to sit there and like, god. Are like dread coming to my class, you know? So, yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  42:47

Yeah, yeah you want to be that, that good professor that everybody likes.

 

Ada Romano  42:50

I still want them to learn...

 

Joseph Roberts  42:52

Yeah of course. 

 

Ada Romano  42:52

I want them to get something out of it. But I also want them to enjoy it, yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  42:56

Yeah, because that is a big thing if you have a sucky professor...

 

Ada Romano  43:00

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  43:00

...you really don't want to go.

 

Ada Romano  43:01

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  43:02

Especially if it's a long class like that, yeah, really drag. So when did you, oh, just two semesters ago. Okay, so, um, you had said that they just picked you. Like, it wasn't, was it like, a big, not change, but, like, adjustment, I guess, to, like, last semester, to to teaching here, or you said you had a good class, did that help, I guess, go into, like, a teaching job?

 

Ada Romano  43:31

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  43:31

Yeah?

 

Ada Romano  43:32

And I was, I mean, I was given a lot of resources, like my old professor, Veronica, she, she was, she gave me, like, a bunch of tools. Veronica and Alex taught my capstone class way back when, and they gave me all kinds of things to, like, kind of work off of, like, their syllabus, um, whatever assignments they gave. And I just kind of, like, I didn't I was like, okay, this gives me an idea of, like, what I can do. So any old quizzes that they had to so I was like, okay, so then I use that as, like, a guide to do my things. So I wasn't, like, doing anything from scratch. I'm like, Okay, this gives me an idea of how I can do this assignment. So they didn't throw me in there.

 

Joseph Roberts  44:17

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  44:17

 Like, they just, like, blindly. They...

 

Joseph Roberts  44:20

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  44:21

...gave me an idea of what I was doing. Yeah. They gave me, like, a...

 

Joseph Roberts  44:23

That's awesome. I just didn't know...  That VCU was good, like that.

 

Ada Romano  44:27

Yeah. They gave me, like, a folder of things, and they're like, here's like, you know, list of quizzes that you can give, and here's some assignments that you can do.

 

Joseph Roberts  44:35

That's awesome.

 

Ada Romano  44:35

 Here's a syllabus, just, you know, adjust it however you want, and I was able to go through it and make it my own. Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  44:41

Cool. Nice. All right, so this is kind of a change in topic, but we're gonna kind of switch to COVID a little bit. So um, were you in Virginia when that started?

 

Ada Romano  44:53

I was in undergrad, yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  44:54

Okay, so you're still in school. So like, what was that like for you? I was in high school so I wouldn't know how it was as a college undergrad student.

 

Ada Romano  45:03

Yes, I graduated during COVID. I graduated in my living room.

 

Joseph Roberts  45:08

Really? Oh my god.

 

Ada Romano  45:08

Watched it on TV. It was awful.

 

Joseph Roberts  45:12

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  45:12

And I had that situation where, you know, people drove by and said, congratulations. Like it was awful.

 

Joseph Roberts  45:21

That's yeah...

 

Ada Romano  45:22

And I had a, it was in December, and what my parents did is they set up something outside, like, if somebody wanted to, like, come take pictures with me outside, but like, it wasn't even, like, yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  45:34

Did you have like, a gown and everything and a cap? All that?

 

Ada Romano  45:36

Yeah, I did. Yeah. There's like a...

 

Joseph Roberts  45:39

Did you wear it while you watched graduation?  Yeah, was there a party for you? Like, I know you said your family parties a lot. Was there a grand party for you?

 

Ada Romano  45:40

Yeah, there's actually a video of me, or, like, a picture of me, and like, my cap and gown and my heels and me in front of TV, like, I was just, like, my close, my close family was just like, my parents, I think my boyfriend at the time, that was pretty much it.  That was pretty much the party was people driving by and, you know, honking their horns.

 

Joseph Roberts  46:08

So was it even, like, family parties like that, like, abrupted or interrupted. I mean, yeah, byCOVID?

 

Ada Romano  46:15

Yeah. School was difficult because it was, you know, my, like, last couple semesters, and a lot of things were, like, hands on, like, I was in like, a lot of broadcast classes and, like, graphic design stuff, and a lot of that is, like, you got to be in class like, doing the the thing.

 

Joseph Roberts  46:33

In person, yeah.

 

Ada Romano  46:34

Yeah and then I'm doing this online, like, I can't learn like that. And so I was kind of BSing it because I'm, like, I was getting frustrated, like I was spending hours trying to learn this stuff, and I felt like I didn't really learn much because I was teaching myself, like there's really no way that you can can teach like that stuff virtually. Um, so I feel almost like I was cheated out of that. I wish that I would have gotten a little bit more help with that.

 

Joseph Roberts  47:01

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  47:01

Especially with like graphic design, we were, I was like a design class for like, newspapers and magazines, and I felt like I didn't get what I needed out of that.

 

Joseph Roberts  47:11

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  47:11

So that sucked. And then...

 

Joseph Roberts  47:14

Just that kind of like getting through it...

 

Ada Romano  47:16

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  47:16

...instead of actually learning from it?

 

Ada Romano  47:18

Yeah, and there was like an audio editing class too, that I really wanted to learn a little bit more audio editing. I eventually taught myself how to do that with, like, my YouTube channel, but I didn't learn in class with someone who knew how to do it, like, who would have taught me the right way. Like...

 

Joseph Roberts  47:34

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  47:34

...that sucked, too. I just had to get the assignments done. I didn't even think I did them the right way. Yeah, so.

 

Joseph Roberts  47:40

Yeah. What was your YouTube like? Was that, like a journalism YouTube channel, or was it just your own like thing?

 

Ada Romano  47:45

It was my own thing. Yeah, it was a, I was, I'm, like, really into like spooky things.

 

Joseph Roberts  47:51

Yeah?

 

Ada Romano  47:51

So I would go to like haunted locations and kind of, like explore and kind of, like talk about the location and why it's haunted.

 

Joseph Roberts  48:02

Give the like lore and stuff...

 

Ada Romano  48:03

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  48:03

That's awesome.

 

Angela Bullock  48:05

Do you know Latinas against Spooky shit?  Have you seen its...oh...I'll show you after.

 

Ada Romano  48:05

Yeah. Okay.

 

Angela Bullock  48:10

It's yeah, it's hilarious.

 

Ada Romano  48:13

Okay, send it to me. Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  48:17

Yeah. All right. Um, next thing, COVID a little bit, um, so it obviously interrupted school heavily, because you have to do everything at home. You graduated at home. Um, did it affect your like, family, like working and things like that, or?

 

Ada Romano  48:39

I worked at Capital One at the time, and I got to work from home.

 

Joseph Roberts  48:43

Yeah?

 

Ada Romano  48:43

Which was great. And my roommate also worked for Capital One, and she worked from home. So my parents, my mom, worked at a hospital, so I think that really took a toll on her, because she would, you know, tell me all these stories. Do you mind if I send a quick text?

 

Joseph Roberts  49:02

No, no, yeah, go ahead.

 

Ada Romano  49:03

My friend is at my house, and I think he has to leave.

 

Joseph Roberts  49:06

Yeah, go, go ahead.

 

Ada Romano  49:06

Let him know that he can leave.

 

Joseph Roberts  49:08

Feel free.

 

Ada Romano  49:08

Sorry.

 

Joseph Roberts  49:09

You're fine.

 

Ada Romano  49:24

I just, I left my friend at my house, and I've just, I told him to just go to the show.

 

Joseph Roberts  49:32

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  49:32

And I'll meet him later. Anyway...

 

Joseph Roberts  49:37

We are your way out of it, kind of.

 

Ada Romano  49:41

Okay. So COVID, my parents. My mom was at the hospital. My dad was doing maintenance for apartments. He's been there for a long time. Their jobs didn't really change. I think the hospital really took, like, a toll on my mom's mental health, because she had to see all of that...

 

Joseph Roberts  49:58

Witnessing. COVID, yeah. And the impact of it directly.

 

Ada Romano  50:01

Yeah, I mean, she would tell us about the like, freezer trucks outside the hospital, like she would see them with, like the bodies out there. One of the biggest things. So my grandfather on my dad's side, died from COVID, and he was in El Salvador, and it was so, like, surreal, because obviously we couldn't travel to see him. I would have, I would have, but we couldn't even go there to see him. Um, he got really sick, and then we pretty much saw him, like, pass away on, like, FaceTime. We all got on FaceTime to, like, say goodbye to him, like all of my cousins and stuff, and my aunts, and then at his burial, nobody could be there, like, because, because he had COVID. So my aunt, it was like my two aunts were there, but they had to stand at, like, the entrance of the cemetery, and they had, like, people in like hazmat suits that had to take him and, like, bury him, like nobody could be near. And that was really rough. And we just watched on, like, FaceTime, yeah.

 

Angela Bullock  51:18

What point of COVID was that? Like, that sounds super early.

 

Ada Romano  51:21

That was in August.

 

Joseph Roberts  51:23

Okay.

 

Ada Romano  51:23

So, yeah, that was August of 2020. Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  51:28

Yeah, okay. That is, was that the most like severe way your like family was impacted by it you think?

 

Ada Romano  51:36

Yeah, I was my grandpa, yeah, yeah. He was, he was struggling, but he was at home. And I don't think anybody else got sick, really like that in my family.

 

Joseph Roberts  51:49

Really? Okay.

 

Ada Romano  51:50

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  51:52

Did you ever get COVID? Or?

 

Ada Romano  51:53

I did, but not till way later. I got it, like when I was in Baltimore.

 

Joseph Roberts  51:57

Oh, wow.

 

Ada Romano  51:58

I like 2022, I think. And I mean, I got really sick, but it was just, like, a really bad, like, flu, I guess.

 

Joseph Roberts  52:06

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  52:06

I just was in bed for a while, yeah, like, two days.

 

Joseph Roberts  52:10

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  52:11

Yeah, yeah. I had a really nice neighbor who dropped off groceries. He was really nice. He just texted me, and he is like, I told him I had COVID. And he's like, You want me to go, like, get groceries for you, and he just left them at my door. Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  52:26

Thats nice, thats cool. Nice. Um, wow. So, um, how do you think so that was, like, your experience with your family, like being there and everything. How do you think, like, Latinos in general, were affected by, especially with that, like, if family members aren't in the states?

 

Ada Romano  52:48

I mean, a lot of us...

 

Joseph Roberts  52:50

Do you think, like a lot of people at the same kind of similar experience, not the same, but similar experiences?

 

Ada Romano  52:56

Yeah, yeah. Because a lot of us weren't able to go home. And I feel like, you know, a lot of families were impacted, and we were able to, like, I mean, in general, a lot of time we were not able to, like, say goodbye to family members before they passed, especially like grandparents and stuff, because it's not easy to just pick up and go back to your country.

 

Joseph Roberts  53:13

Yeah just fly over there.

 

Ada Romano  53:14

Yeah, for whatever reason. You know, sometimes it's like a visa issue, sometimes it's a money issues, you know, like, there's a lot of things that can get in the way. You know, I've had a lot of friends and stuff that haven't been able to go back home to, like, see their family member for the last time before they passed away. Yeah, and that really sucks. But I think that's a common issue, not, not like, outside of COVID.

 

Joseph Roberts  53:40

Yeah, I mean just in general.

 

Ada Romano  53:42

In general, yeah. But another thing about COVID, the way that, like Latino communities were impacted was, um, I think just like work, you know, a lot of people, and you know, a lot of people were out of work in general. But I just saw a lot of people in the community, like, I'm and, like, a lot of groups on Facebook like that were looking for work because they were laid off, or they were they didn't have work period. Like, so, yeah, that was rough.

 

Joseph Roberts  54:18

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  54:18

Thankfully, my parents still had their jobs.

 

Joseph Roberts  54:21

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  54:22

My sister, I think at the time, was also working at the hospital with my mom. Yeah, it was a difficult time.

 

Joseph Roberts  54:32

Yeah, to kind of move away from COVID and on to another topic. How do you feel like, now in Virginia, like, I know you went through a bad experience when you got here, and things get better. Do you feel like you're a part of like, do you feel like a Virginian in a way? Like you're a part of the community now, like you're you're here now, you know do you feel like good about being here?

 

Ada Romano  55:02

Yeah, I still claim New York, though.

 

Joseph Roberts  55:03

Yeah, yeah. Well you were there much longer.

 

Ada Romano  55:07

Yeah, we still claim New York. There's always like a running joke. It's like people that, like, lived in New York, just never shut up about New York.

 

Joseph Roberts  55:15

I have a friend and he lived in New York. I think they came here when he was like five, and he's, I'm from New York, and he's, like, you know, always has on, like a Yankees hat.

 

Ada Romano  55:29

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  55:30

He's very much like New York anytime I bring it up. No dude.

 

Ada Romano  55:35

That is so funny.

 

Angela Bullock  55:36

And I also do wonder if there was any, I would not be surprised if there was any Yankee jabs in your middle school and high school years?

 

Ada Romano  55:45

Oh yeah, I'm sure my it's funny, because my family is kind of divided, because most Long Islanders are Mets fans.

 

Joseph Roberts  55:55

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  55:56

But like in the city, they're like Yankees fans.

 

Joseph Roberts  55:58

Yes.

 

Ada Romano  55:58

But my family is split. Some of them are Yankees fans. And I have a couple uncles that are Mets fans.

 

Angela Bullock  56:07

Well. And then that's what's funny. It's like what I mean by Yankee is...

 

Ada Romano  56:10

Oh oh, Yankee in general.

 

Joseph Roberts  56:15

...use that term is like a yeah, oh you, yankee.

 

Ada Romano  56:17

Yankee yeah. It's usually the older people that, yeah.

 

Angela Bullock  56:21

Yeah. Like I was getting, like, was, choose between these two, like, Civil War hats when I was the kids of the history nerd and I was like, choosing blue one, and my Dad's like you ain't no Yankee?

 

Ada Romano  56:32

Oh my gosh, yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  56:36

It's just a cooler color.

 

Ada Romano  56:38

They yeah, I have gotten that before I was, oh, yeah, my, my, one of my ex's family. His dad was like, Southern guy, and he would call me, he would just like, I would say something related to New York. And he's like, Oh, I forgot you're a Yankee. I'm like, sir.

 

Joseph Roberts  56:59

Oh my gosh like. Come on that's ridiculous.

 

Ada Romano  57:03

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  57:05

 Yeah, do you? Are you a Mets fan or Yankees fan? Do you identify with a team?

 

Ada Romano  57:11

I don't watch baseball. I only really watch wrestling.

 

Joseph Roberts  57:15

Yeah? Okay.

 

Ada Romano  57:18

You know, and soccer, you know, I grew up watching soccer with my dad. He's a big soccer fan. Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  57:24

Nice. Well, you said earlier, you wrestle now, right? That's big. That's awesome. How long have you wrestled for?

 

Ada Romano  57:32

A year?

 

Joseph Roberts  57:32

Really?

 

Ada Romano  57:33

I've been doing it for a year.

 

Joseph Roberts  57:34

Gotcha.

 

Ada Romano  57:34

I started last year.

 

Joseph Roberts  57:35

What got you into that. Were you just, like, this is awesome. Or do you have, like, friends or something?

 

Ada Romano  57:39

I do have friends that wrestle, but I've always been a wrestling fan since I was a kid.

 

Joseph Roberts  57:44

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  57:45

I don't know, I just, like, put it off for so long because I was always so, like, insecure and like, I don't know I can't do this, but then I, like, tried it out, and I was like, I can do this.

 

Joseph Roberts  57:55

That's fun. It's pretty awesome.

 

Ada Romano  57:56

Yeah, and it's like, it's just a really good outlet for me. And I just love everything about it's, like, theatrical and, you know, it's also really a good way to, like, stay in shape. And you can make your own character, like, you know, I can make my own storyline, like.

 

Joseph Roberts  58:20

Yeah, do you have your own lore and stuff?

 

Ada Romano  58:20

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  58:21

That's awesome.

 

Ada Romano  58:21

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  58:22

That's cool. Do you have a wrestling name?

 

Ada Romano  58:24

Valentina Cruise and my finisher is called the cruise control.

 

Joseph Roberts  58:31

Thats awesome, thats cool, thats cool.

 

Ada Romano  58:33

It's a it's a submission, it's a Boston crab. It's like, if you know Chris Jericho, his finisher of the walls of Jericho. Thats what he called it. But it's just a Boston crab.

 

Joseph Roberts  58:45

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  58:45

 I just sit on their back and like, make them tap out.

 

Joseph Roberts  58:48

That's super cool. Um, I'm just thinking about wrestling now.

 

Ada Romano  58:57

I grew up with a bunch of boy cousins, and we would watch wrestling and then do wrestling, moves on each other and hurt each other pretty badly, break things, and our parents were so mad. Like, I don't know, I feel like we broke a few like tables.

 

Joseph Roberts  59:15

Oh my gosh.

 

Ada Romano  59:17

The couch one time.

 

Joseph Roberts  59:18

Oh my goodness. One time my brother and I, we were, like, we would, we didn't watch wrestling that we watched a lot of, like, boxing, so we'd box, but then, like, sometimes it would escalate into this, like, brawling, yeah? And one time we broke my bed and we could not tell my dad. It was like, we're cooked.

 

Ada Romano  59:39

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  59:40

We tell them, but that's funny. Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  59:42

We watched boxing too a lot growing up my because my, you know, my uncles and my dad, they were really into boxing. They would like get the pay per views, and we'd all get together at someone's house and watch them together. Yeah, that was fun.

 

Joseph Roberts  59:55

Yeah, that's great. Now I'm just thinking about fighting sports.

 

Ada Romano  1:00:01

I love combat sports.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:00:02

Its, yeah, really cool.

 

Ada Romano  1:00:04

And it's so cool because my niece, she's 16, and she's, like, really girly, and I didn't think she'd be, like, into it, but, like, it was, like, we were watching the Jake Paul, Mike Tyson fight, which was really lame, but that was the women's fight before that was so good.

Joseph Roberts  1:00:23

It was a very good fight.

 

Ada Romano  1:00:29

Yeah, but my niece was locked in like, she's like, and I was like, she's into it. She's into I was so excited. And then sometimes I watch wrestling with her. She loves watching the women. And I'm just like, I love that. It warms my heart.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:00:42

Yeah, it's, I, I try to watch MMA and stuff when I can. Now, I don't, I don't pay for it. I just kind of like, bum off my friend.

 

Ada Romano  1:00:51

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:00:51

Whenever I can get over to his house.

 

Ada Romano  1:00:53

Oh you're, you're that one, because everybody bums off of me.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:00:56

Yeah, yeah thats what I do. But, yeah, it's, it's it's super fun. I love watching fights. It's cool. You can go to the movie theater now and watch.

 

Ada Romano  1:01:06

Yes.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:01:06

Which is awesome, because I do that too.

 

Ada Romano  1:01:07

Yeah they did at the bow tire Movie land. They used to show, like, pay per views there. They haven't done in a while.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:01:16

I know you can watch right now, like, Regals and stuff. There's like a Regal near where I live.

 

Ada Romano  1:01:20

Oh yeah

 

Joseph Roberts  1:01:22

Yeah, it's...

 

Ada Romano  1:01:24

Next, next weekend is Wrestlemania. I'm ho- I'm hosting mania at my house.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:01:32

Okay, let's get our mind off.

 

Ada Romano  1:01:34

Okay, sorry, sorry.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:01:35

No you're all good but, to get back kind of into what I was talking about. But you feel like a sense of belonging more now in Virginia, now?

 

Ada Romano  1:01:46

I do, yeah. I mean, especially like being so involved with, like VCU and in like different communities here, like the music scene and the wrestling scene and, you know, having a ton of different, like groups of friends and stuff.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:02:01

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  1:02:01

I just feel, yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:02:03

Yeah, that's awesome.

 

Ada Romano  1:02:04

 I feel like I'm actually a part of the community here now.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:02:07

Yeah, that's great. Um, do you feel like a part of the Latino community here as well, or just like you're just in Richmond?

 

Ada Romano  1:02:18

I do. I do, however, I will say there is one thing that I have always gotten crap about. I'm so like, I'm really into like metal, like heavy music and stuff, hardcore, all of that. And for some freaking reason here, I don't get it, because up in New York, people that play this type of music are of all colors, all backgrounds.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:02:44

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  1:02:44

And especially in like, high school and stuff, um, people would like, tell me that I was like, white because I listened to this type of music, and I, I tend to get that a lot. Like...

 

Joseph Roberts  1:02:44

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  1:02:44

But for some reason here, people seem to have the idea this is white people music.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:03:05

Even now, you still get that a lot, that it's white people music?

 

Ada Romano  1:03:08

Mostly from, like, my cousins I don't know, like my family, like, just like, insinuating that, like, we don't listen to that, you know, like, I don't know. Like, I don't know. I went to see Slayer one time. They're like, Oh, you're going to one of those shows. And it's like, yeah. And they're like, I don't know what they ask them. Like, you know that they go to, like, Latin American countries all the time. You know, there's like, a huge metal scene in Latin America. Like, it's really ignorant to think that that's just white people music.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:03:41

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  1:03:42

There's like, a ton of metal bands and, like, in Latin America too, so and hardcore bands like you have no idea, yeah, so, but I've only really gotten that here, which is crazy, because, like, when I lived in New York, a bunch of my friends out there that play this type of music were Latino or black. I mean, they're white too, but it's like a mix.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:04:03

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  1:04:03

So I don't get why that happens here.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:04:05

I don't...

 

Ada Romano  1:04:06

It's weird.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:04:07

Maybe, like, not a bigger, like, Latino following of it?

 

Ada Romano  1:04:10

Yeah, it's not as diverse here. The scene is not as mixed here as it is up there. Gotcha, yeah? It's weird.

 

Angela Bullock  1:04:20

Just my very limited understanding of it. It's like, there's what's left of it is still very much like the old guard from like, the heyday of, like, the late 80s, early 90s. So those are, yeah, they would be white people. I don't know.

 

Ada Romano  1:04:35

It's so it's such a weird phenomenon, yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:04:39

Yeah, yeah. That is, yeah, another topic. Again, immigration is obviously a big issue right now. So just what are your like, basic thoughts on that, and especially with what's happening with it right now, with our current president and everything?

 

Ada Romano  1:05:04

Oh, I think that they're using every excuse possible, and it all boils down to racism. Like, you can't, like, spin any other way because they're deporting people that are even here legally. So like, and they're like, trying to say it's like, a mistake, like some kind of administrative issue. And I'm like, that there's no way.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:05:27

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  1:05:28

Obviously, like, there's no way that people can understand it unless you've lived it. Like, I guess my dad was undocumented. We were in a civil war. He did what he needed to do.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:05:41

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  1:05:44

It's a morality thing. That's how I feel about it. I also one of my best friends is here on DACA, and she now has a kid, and she has been like on edge ever since, like, his presidency, back in 2020, like, because she doesn't know if DACA is going away and then she's gonna be here illegally, but she's she technically, she came here legally.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:06:11

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  1:06:12

People don't understand that. It's like, if you have this like, such a like, narrow minded point of view about how people come here illegal and illegally and they're just here to, like, commit crimes, and that's not the case, like a lot of us. A lot of people do come here on a visa, and their visa just expires, or they're either here on a work visa, or they're here under some program like TPS. We in El Salvador, we're here under TPS, and they were getting rid of TPS too. So like, there's just so many different scenarios that people don't understand, that we understand, because we are going through it. Our family members are going through it, our close friends go through it. Is there bad in every community, of course.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:07:02

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  1:07:03

In every community.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:07:04

That's just like humans.

 

Ada Romano  1:07:05

Yeah. But for the most part, most of us, I would say, have come here to work and make a living for ourselves like that's just from my experience and my family, my close friends, and I don't know, I just it's really heartbreaking, especially seeing people that are being treated the way that they're being treated, and being deported and. And I don't know it's just like this idea and these false accusations about our people.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:07:48

It's like a very, like, negative false narrative that's been like, pushed for, like, a long time...

 

Ada Romano  1:07:53

For a long time.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:07:54

and it's still being...

 

Ada Romano  1:07:55

And it's getting worse.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:07:55

 Yeah, 100%.

 

Ada Romano  1:07:57

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:07:58

Everyone's here to commit crimes, and they're all here illegally, and it's not true at all.

 

Ada Romano  1:08:03

But it's, it's like, it's just racism, because they, they want to be, they're like, so stuck on this, oh, well, it's illegal. Or they're like, oh, it's illegal. But I'm sure they do a lot of it, like, we probably smoke weed that's federally illegal. Probably do other drugs that's illegal. But you're worried about somebody that's here to make a living for their family because they're illegal.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:08:04

Here to have a better life. Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  1:08:27

Yeah.

 

Angela Bullock  1:08:27

So, so that particular charge is a misdemeanor. Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  1:08:34

Yeah. So it's like, it's an excuse.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:08:37

Yes it is Yeah, especially compared that, I'm sure, of a very corrupt like evil acts a lot of people in...

 

Ada Romano  1:08:45

Yeah, yeah, tax fraud?

 

Joseph Roberts  1:08:47

Yeah right.

 

Ada Romano  1:08:47

 There's so many things going on under our noses that this is what you're worried about.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:08:51

Yeah. It's an excuse to, yeah.

 

Ada Romano  1:08:54

Yeah. That's how I feel about it.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:08:57

Yeah, so I guess that, like, we're kind of near, like, the end of my like, set questions. But um, is there anything else that you think you really want to, like, talk about that we haven't really gone over, like, involving you, or just, like, the Latino community.

 

Ada Romano  1:09:17

One last thing.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:09:18

Yeah?

 

Ada Romano  1:09:19

Recently the administration, they were saying that they were going to release all like migrant information, tax information, to the IRS. But weren't they saying that they didn't pay, they didn't pay taxes? So which one is it?

 

Joseph Roberts  1:09:36

Yeah, they contradict themselves.

 

Ada Romano  1:09:38

Exactly.  So you're releasing tax information, but they didn't pay taxes. So what tax information I'm make it make sense like so it's like a false narrative, and people just eat up these lies, and...

 

Joseph Roberts  1:09:39

Yeah. They do.

 

Ada Romano  1:09:58

...and it's just so unfortunate. Because, like, it just creates hate towards our community.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:10:07

It does.

 

Ada Romano  1:10:07

And then we're the ones who have to suffer with, I mean, just...

 

Joseph Roberts  1:10:12

Yeah, and that hate just breeds more hate. And it's...

 

Ada Romano  1:10:15

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:10:16

...there's no like, real reason for any of it. It's just racism and hate, yeah, perpetuated by, you know, like the government, which is horrible, but, yeah.

 

Ada Romano  1:10:32

It's scary.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:10:33

 It is.

 

Ada Romano  1:10:34

Scary time, yeah, but I do have dual citizenship, and El Salvador doesn't seem too bad, right now.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:10:44

You haven't been in a while.

 

Ada Romano  1:10:45

I haven't, you know, and the beach is pretty over there.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:10:48

Yeah, right. And, you know Virginia Beach....

 

Ada Romano  1:10:52

way better. The houses are cheaper, you know,

 

Joseph Roberts  1:10:56

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  1:10:59

But, yeah, that's it. I just would like to say that, you know, our community is very tight knit and we're hard working people. Of course, there's like that in every community, like I said before, but we can't group everyone together for, you know, one person a group of people's mistakes. I understand that. Okay, so, like, I'm from El Salvador, and like, we have MS 13, which has been a huge problem. But Ms 13 was created in the US as a result of people, like migrants, being pushed aside. So I would just encourage people to, like, do their research before they create opinions that...

 

Joseph Roberts  1:11:42

Instead of, like watching Fox News, and being like ah these people...

 

Ada Romano  1:11:45

Yes correct. 

 

Joseph Roberts  1:11:46

That's horrible. Yeah, it's a horrible way of thinking.

 

Ada Romano  1:11:48

That's yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:11:49

 It really integrated itself into, like, our American society, and it's really being put on, like youth now too, which is, like, horrible.

 

Ada Romano  1:11:59

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:12:00

It's like, ugly to see, yeah.

 

Ada Romano  1:12:04

It's awful to see, yeah, like young kids, especially like children, literally children.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:12:10

Like in middle school or high school. Yeah, doing that, it's horrible. Is there anything about yourself, your life you wanted to touch on anymore?

 

Ada Romano  1:12:29

There's a statistic that I saw recently that Latino women are more likely to get abused by their spouse or their partner, and I recently went through that, and it is scary, and I'm looking into why that's the case. That's why I was in the hospital. So it's really, I don't know what it is. It makes sense. I don't know it's because, like, I think that, like, I grew up where, like, that was okay, you know, like, it was okay for my great, great grandparent, my great grandma, my grandma, for their spouses to physically, verbally abuse them, and they just had because, Like, divorce wasn't a thing, so they just had to put up with it. But it ends with us, and my ex is in jail.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:13:32

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  1:13:32

And I have to testify against the next week.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:13:35

Okay.

 

Ada Romano  1:13:35

And I would like to break that cycle, because I that's never okay, and I hate that that's been a thing in our community, and it's been accepted for so long because it's created so much generational trauma. And I just like, I wanted to end here, you know my parents, my dad has never been like that with my mom. My dad's an angel. He's just a sweetheart. He's never talked down to my mom. So I didn't grow up seeing that. So when I experienced it in my relationship recently, it was like a shock, and I did put up with it for way too long, longer than I should have, but I'm doing everything I can to make sure that I get some justice. Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:14:21

Yeah, yeah. I'm sorry you went through but it's good that you're now, you know, doing everything that that's great. Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  1:14:27

Yeah. I feel I feel better. I feel safer now, and there's, you know, peace in my home, and I'm alone and I feel good.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:14:34

That's great. Yeah, he's in jail, yes, yeah.

 

Ada Romano  1:14:38

Yes, he is in jail, and I hope he stays there.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:14:40

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  1:14:41

He has been denied bond twice, so he is not getting out.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:14:46

Yeah, nice. Well, like you said, yeah, the cycle ends here.

 

Ada Romano  1:14:50

Yeah. And I feel like you have to, like, really, you have to be vocal about things. And like, it's really hard to, like, share things. Like that and like, people stay quiet, because I stay quiet for the longest time about it. I think I was just embarrassed, and I also didn't want to make him look bad. Um, but I think that it's really important to talk about things like that.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:15:12

Certainly.

 

Ada Romano  1:15:12

And I wanted because he's, like, he's been in like, several bands, he's like, a really big name, and like, the music scene around here. And I was like, no, like, you guys need to stop defending him and stop sweeping things under the rug, because this is why he's gotten away with it for so long, because he was abusive to his ex girlfriend, too, and I didn't know that, and if I knew that, I would have never lived with him.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:15:33

Yeah, yeah.

 

Ada Romano  1:15:35

So, um, I think it's really important to talk about our experiences and to put an end to it.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:15:43

That's great that you're able to, like, you know, these in jail, and you're able to actually, you know, talk about it, and, yeah, be active about it, you know...

 

Ada Romano  1:15:54

Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:15:54

...not just like, allow yourself anymore to...

 

Ada Romano  1:15:57

And I am so nervous about going up on that stand...

 

Joseph Roberts  1:16:01

I'm sure yeah.

 

Ada Romano  1:16:01

...because I know his lawyer is probably going to tear me apart. That's their job.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:16:04

Yeah. Um, that's what he's being paid to do.

 

Ada Romano  1:16:06

Yeah. But I'm trying to stay strong and like, I'm just gonna tell my story how it is. And...

 

Joseph Roberts  1:16:11

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  1:16:12

 ...I mean, he's there for a reason. There's enough evidence he's facing a felony charge for straying me. And he's there for a reason.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:16:19

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  1:16:20

So, yeah, um, but yeah, I just wanted to because that, you know, bringing it back to Latino community, that's, like, been a thing that women have been, I guess, told to just accept for so long, like, especially women in my, you know, in my family, I've seen it, and...

 

Joseph Roberts  1:16:40

That that's just like how it is?

 

Ada Romano  1:16:42

It's just like how it is because you can't divorce, like, it's like, divorce is worse than dealing with abuse, which is wild to me, yeah, but I told my mom, my mom, she said she's, she's really proud of me for standing up for myself, for fighting back, and she she, I know she wouldn't put up with that. Yeah, she dealt with that with my sister's husband, and she loved him, but not with my dad. So she just says that, like, you know, it's good that I'm being strong and doing what I need to do. And...

 

Joseph Roberts  1:17:17

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  1:17:17

...I met up with his mom yesterday because she came to pick up his stuff from my apartment. And, I mean, even she was a sweetheart and said that she was embarrassed, yeah, for her son, and that she was really sorry about what happened she didn't raise in this way. And I mean, I know that I'm not at fault.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:17:34

Yeah, no, so, yeah, no. Like, it's not your fault.

 

Ada Romano  1:17:37

Yeah, so...

 

Joseph Roberts  1:17:38

People like that should be held accountable for, yeah, things that they do. Like, that's horrible.

 

Ada Romano  1:17:43

Yeah. I mean, you're, you're a grown man.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:17:45

Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  1:17:45

You deal with the consequences.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:17:47

What Right and Wrong is Right, we're clearly wrong. Yeah.

 

Ada Romano  1:17:52

Yeah, yeah. So that's one of the generational curses that I'd like to break in our community. Yeah, not okay.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:18:01

Yeah. And like, you said, like, it starts with you this, like.

 

Ada Romano  1:18:04

Yeah, thankfully, I think, like, my generation and younger generations have are a little bit more vocal about things like that.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:18:14

Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's great. You know, I wish you the best of like, with especially next week, Tuesday?

 

Ada Romano  1:18:23

Monday. Yeah, Monday. I have to testify. I do have a protective order right now, but I'm trying to get it extended.  Yeah. So he doesn't and I'm trying to move to so he doesn't know where I live.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:18:39

Hopefully all that gets what he deserves, but that stays

 

Ada Romano  1:18:44

and stays far away from me.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:18:45

Yeah. yeah, yeah, but, um, yeah. Is there anything else at all or?

 

Ada Romano  1:18:52

No, that was my final statement.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:18:56

Yeah. Well, thank you so much for being here and doing this interview. This is like, awesome. You're very grateful.

 

Ada Romano  1:19:05

Thank you.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:19:05

Yeah, thank you,

 

Ada Romano  1:19:08

Yeah. I think that you guys are awesome.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:19:10

Thank you. We're done. Cool, awesome. Thank you. Good.