James Randall  00:04

Several segments of our podcast were recorded across varied audio capturing devices. We apologize for the dip in quality across these clips, and appreciate your support as we continue to develop our audio production capacities going forward into the future. Thank you.

 

Elliott Martin  00:23

Hello. Folks. My name is Elliot Martin, and today here with me is James Randall. We are students at Virginia Commonwealth University, and we're working on a project for Latino Virginia. Today, we will be telling the stories of various members of the Latino community, and we will share some of their stories and tell a little bit about their organizations and make a difference.

 

James Randall  00:49

That's our intent. Thank you all again for coming by and listening like Elliot introduced. My name is James Randall. We spoke to several community members as well as professional organizers in the Greater Richmond Latino community, also in Northern Virginia, we have some organizations and individuals represented. So we have a kind of spread, which includes the experiences of Latino folks in central Virginia and Northern Virginia, obviously, with a particular focus on the immigration experience and yeah, like cultural contacts in between these folks settling into Virginia. Thankfully, we have a lot of moving stories of folks' Personal Immigration journeys, as well as some a little bit of family histories, which we are very grateful to share with you folks today. And then additionally, we've got some information about the advocacy organizations, which our interviewees will be giving you some more information about, and we will also be introducing some of them, if you'll bear with us. Did you want to introduce CASA for us?

 

Elliott Martin  01:58

Elliot, yeah. CASA is an organization based in Northern Virginia which advocates for legislative change and the Virginia General Assembly, and has been doing that since 2014 among the things that They advocate for are immigrant driving privileges and community volunteering, volunteering in one's community that is, excuse me, in 2016 they launched the AmeriCorps program, which offers volunteering opportunities which can be flexible depending on a person's time schedule, and it helps get individuals involved in their communities and gives them job training and so forth. They also, they do things like help establish finances and teach individuals how to maintain a savings account, in addition to building credit affording different fees and how to eventually, how to purchase their own home. That's that's the goal. They provide workshops on document identification, documents and other sorts of services. So they also do education. They lobby for, they lobby the General Assembly and Congress for different programs, the Federal Education Department in 2015 showed a funding gap between rich and poor, and CASA addresses this by advocating for students to receive funding and an equal opportunity in education. I had the pleasure of speaking with Christian Martinez Limas from CASA, and I also spoke with the executive director of the Virginia Center for Immigrant Rights named Monica Sarmiento.

 

James Randall  03:58

Did you want to speak a little bit more? And that was VACIR correct? That's the acronym, right? Did you want to speak a little bit about that organization? 

 

 

Elliott Martin  04:08

Sure. VACIR is kind of a go between, between different immigrant communities, like the new Virginia majority Education Fund, the Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, the African American community, communities together, and other different communities of representing different nationalities and ethnicities and so forth. And VACIR serves as the meeting space they organize and coordinate efforts between these different organizations. They also lobby the General Assembly and things like that. So it's a pleasure to speak to them.

 

James Randall  04:55

No likewise, and I'm glad that you mentioned New Virginia Majority, because my interviews are all centered around that organization. So before giving you some information on the actual organizers that I had the pleasure of interviewing, as well as some of the community members they were serving and working with, just a little info on NVM. New Virginia Majority, or The New Virginia Majority is a nonprofit political advocacy organization, which was formed initially as a larger umbrella group out of the tenants and workers united organization up in Alexandria, Virginia, back in 2007 tenants and workers united, they were founded back in the 70s in Northern Virginia, and they're essentially the regional predecessor to the larger statewide work that New Virginia majority was founded on back 15 years ago, and since I haven't mentioned, they primarily organized Latinx and immigrant communities. So you know, not just folks from Latin America, but other folks who are also part of diaspora communities in the United States, and specifically Virginia, in addition to which populations say they serve, the actual on the ground work they do is registering, mobilizing and engaging with the public in order to quote, get out the vote as the kind of focus and origin, point and tenant and workers united suggests they organize among various marginalized groups. And you know from their website, these include Latinx communities, the African American population, Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, as well as youth communities, so called, quote, unquote, new Americans. And then also purposefully centering the demands and leadership of working class women of color in the organization, as well, as you know, for policy demands in order to, quote, end mass incarceration, build just economic policies, protect immigrants and preserve the environment. And again, they are doing this by centering working class people of color and immigrants, women and young folks. Long story short, they are doing these by lobbying institutions like the Virginia General Assembly for policy changes. One of these, as Elliot mentioned earlier, from one of his organizations that he interviewed, was the improvement of driving privileges and driver's licenses for immigrant populations. And that was something which passed the General Assembly a few years back, but then on a local level, because, as I mentioned, new Virginia majority organizes with a lot of different, you know, kind of economic classes and social groups in Virginia. The actual interview content we have for you folks today focuses on their efforts organizing in the context of Latino Virginia, and in terms of the interviews I worked with, you know, for today, specifically in the context of Richmond, at the Southwood apartment complex in South Richmond, you know, kind of Southwest-ish of Old Town Manchester, for you folks with some geographic knowledge of the city, and that was a very insightful conversation regarding, you know, numerous different issues, you know, kind of encompassing education, you know, housing, in the context of, you know, how immigrants navigate, you know, essentially, exploitative housing arrangements, or housing arrangements in which landlords are not doing their due diligence for their tenants, and it takes, you know, a community to organize and self-advocate for these changes. I don't, I don't want to take up too much space from the actual organizers and community members themselves, but just to kind of give you all a little bit of an idea, their stories are very powerful, and I'm very thankful to have had the opportunity to present them to you guys today. Otherwise, if you're interested in knowing a little bit more about what new Virginia majority does outside of what we'll be talking about today, they are also involved with the Virginia student power network, which are students who organize at various public universities across Virginia. There's also the Virginia black organizing collective, which you know, not only advocates for, but you know, is collectively, you know, run by organizers centered in Newport News and the Hampton Roads region. And then finally, there's the Asian Pacific Islander civic engagement collaborative, which, you know, similarly organizes these populations in Northern Virginia. And there's a few other less independent groups like those were specifically kind of hubs with a little more autonomy. They have chapters which will focus on various, you know, struggles locally. The Southwood apartments tenants demands, being one of them where they were helping people kind of articulate what their needs were, making sure that people were getting the legal support they needed, and essentially doing tenants organizing. So I think that's all I've got to introduce for you all before getting some more specific info about my particular speakers in each interview. But I wanted to let Elliot go ahead and also mention some stuff he had that he wanted to mention.

 

Elliott Martin  10:05

The individuals that we interviewed shared with us a lot of details about their stories as immigrants, about where they grew up, and about how their transitioning has been, how their education progressed, and things like that, and we hope to share some of that with you. Also, they discussed how what their life experience has been as they sought to assimilate into the broader American culture.

 

James Randall  10:31

Well, and then, not that that's wrong. I think assimilation and acculturation is absolutely the American context. But there's also talk about keeping one's culture alive, and some of the nuances there, like you'll have some folks talk about kids who are born stateside, whether it's the parents talking about them, or youth talking about their own experiences, their relationship to Spanish, and whether that's used in the home. So again, not to preempt too many of these conversations, but there's just a lot of interesting material that we hope you folks will appreciate. The following are segments from our interviews which address each interviewees immigration journey. Some address their pasts in their home countries or other American States prior to their ultimate homecoming to the Commonwealth.

 

Elliott Martin  11:15

May I have your first name please?

 

 

Monica Saramiento  11:18

Monica.

 

Elliott Martin  11:18

Monica, and your last name?

 

Monica Saramiento  11:21

Saramiento.

 

Elliott Martin  11:20

What year did you move to the US?

 

Monica Saramiento  11:24

My parents, my father, had originally immigrated to the United States, I think in like 1980 or 1981 I'm not exactly sure. So he was already here. He was, I think, living in Virginia at that time. So I was born in El Salvador. My mom, for the most part, single mother, so I was only like four or five when we immigrated here, and she decided to come first to California, where her siblings were. I don't remember much about the journey, but I came with my parents to have very few members of El Salvador, because there was only about five when I left, but I do remember some things. I remember how open the house was, which is very different than United States, a lot of family, I think, obviously very tropical climate, very different kind of diet. It was a lot slower, a lot more calm than the United States, but I do remember that there was a lot of stress and hostility and fear because of the civil war that was happening in El Salvador. So in the mid 80s, early 80s, that was the peak of the civil war in El Salvador. So I mean, I remember my great grandmother, unfortunately, when we left, that was the last time I got to see her. But I don't have a lot of memories, but what I do have, they're very vivid and very colorful.

 

 

Elliott Martin  12:52

You live in a city growing up?

 

Monica Saramiento  12:55

No, it was more like a town, and we lived in my grandmother's home, so it was a multi generational house. So my great grandmother was there. My grandmother had immigrated to the States years before, and we had a lot of family going in and out. And so it was House made up, I think of almost all women, yeah, do you

 

Elliott Martin  13:15

You have a big family?

 

Monica Saramiento  13:18

No. I mean, I think parts of my father my mother's side are definitely big families. My parents and I, I'm an only child, so it's, I think, quite unusual. So no, not a big family at all. Very small family, actually. So the only extended family that I got to know really well was my mother's side in Southern California while we lived there. And for the most part, they're all still in Southern California. As you can imagine, after 20 plus years and a few 1000 miles, the relationships aren't as close, but I was lucky enough to get to know quite a few of my cousins back in California. I think the last time I was there was like maybe three years ago. So every once in a while, I'll get to go out there. I don't think they've ever— I think one time in the last 20 years, a couple of the cousins came here, but for the most part, I've gone there to see them.

 

James Randall  14:06

Quería empezar con una pregunta, como básico ¿Puedes decirme tu nombre, edad y quien eres?

Elena Camacho  14:13

Bueno, mi nombre es Elena Camacho, aunque pues tengo mi primer nombre que es Daisy entonces algunas personas no saben Daisy Elena Camacho. Tengo 40 años y soy de Colombia. Yo soy de Bogota junto con mis hermanos, pero mis padres son de diferentes ciudades. Mi mama es de una ciudad que se llama Huila y mi papa es de un ciudad que se llama Cali. Bogota es la capital de Colombia entonces, la mayoría de las personas inmigran hacia Bogota buscando mejores oportunidades de empleo o universidades. Entonces pienso que mis padres, ambos inmigraron de sus ciudades y  se encontraron en Bogota. Yo tuvo las oportunidad de estudiar en Bogota, tanto me primaria, mi high school, mi secundaria, pero tambien, pude ir a la universidad y estudié trabajo social. Eh recuerdo que estudié en una universidad que era Católica y en ese momento había muy pocas careras pero trabajo social era algo que, que me estaba llamando la atención. Quería algo que me relacionara mucho con con las comunidades. Que pudiera trabajar a nivel de grupo o individual. No era como la carrera que piensas que te va hacer rico, que te va dar dinero, ni en Colombia, ni aca. Pero yo ya sabia que iba vivir en Estados Unidos entonces mi esposo en ese momento estaba aca y me dijo si estudias trabajo social lo has a poder tambien aplicar aqui. No va hacer como una carrera que va ser difícil de, de transferir. Entonces del trabajo social me gusto esa parte de pensar que podía hacer algo que pudiera impactar a la sociedad.

 

James Randall  16:11

¿Como llegastes a los Estados Unidos, y tenias familia aqui?

 

Elena Camacho  16:16

Bueno, yo llegue a los Estados Unidos por que mi ex-esposo para ese momento, él había venido a vivir aca. Y sus padres habían venido primero, entonces lo habían solicitado como un residente cuando los dos empezamos nuestra relación en Colombia él me dijo yo, “mi futura esta en los Estado Unidos.” No le había problema de viajar, pero tuve que esperar mucho por que cuando él vino, él tenia que esperar que sus documentos se pudieran hacer y todo entonces pasaron muchos, siete años esperandolo para yo poder venir. Entonces cuando vine ya traía como esa visa pero ya no venia sola por que él se había ido a casar conmigo a Colombia. Entonces ya ahorita venia–

 

Elena Camacho  16:57

¿Y por que Virginia?

Claudia Leolo 16:58

Por que ya tenia mas familia aca y ellos me acogieron.

Elena Camacho 17:04

¿Quienes tienes aca, en Virginia? Quienes estaban aca?

Claudia Leolo  17:10

Una tia y mi hermana. Mi infancia la recuerdo como una de las infancias mas bonitas, de hecho me gustaría volver hacer niña, pero no puedo. Muy bonita, con unos padres muy responsables y cariñosos, y la recuerdo en un barrio muy bonito, alegre, creando y creciendo me con juegos tradicionales, con muchos amiguitos del barrio corriendo por allí si no importa si nos vamos descalzos o con el pelo suelto o sucios o limpios siendo felices, como todos niños, y nada. Estudié en una escuela en mi barrio, luego fui al colegio y gradue hasta ahí mis estudios secundarios. En total, hice nueve años de estudios a llegaron bachiller. 

 

James Randall 18:03

¿Creíste con una religión? ¿Podrías hablarme de ello, y sigues siendo religioso, si eres religioso?

Claudia Leolo 18:10

Tradicionalmente mi familia es muy católica. Yo creo en Dios, si? Creo mucho en ese ser supremo, pero actualmente no voy tampoco a ninguna iglesia.

Marcela Salazar 18:27

Mi nombre es Marcela Salazar. Yo soy de Colombia. Naci y creci en Colombia, me mude a los Estados Unidos cuando--era dos mil y diecisiete (2017), hace cinco años y medio. Tengo un "background" en "business." Sin embargo cuando yo vine a Estados Unidos en dos mil diecisiete y mientras estaba todo el proceso de permiso de trabajo, residencia, y demas, comencé a voluntariar con una ONG chiquitita que se llamaba--se llama Ayuda, yo habia en DC. Y ahí eso como pico mi interés de trabajar de darle de regresa a la comunidad, y de trabajar con comunidades marginalizadas, y desde allí adelante ese es lo que venido haciendo con diferentes "nonprofits," cuando mude para aca para Richmond, y ahora que estoy, pues que soy empleado publica y trabajo para el Sistema de Escuelas de Richmond como una "dropout prevention specialist." ...Nada. Mi trabajo con la comunidad, especialmente, la comunidad Latinoamericana y la comunidad Afroamericana... Pues nada, son muy importantes para mi. Yo pienso que trabajar con comunidades vulnerables no es como un trabajo, si no como un estilo de vida, mas bien. Esto es un trabajo veinticuatro siete, tu teléfono suena todo el tiempo de personas buscando, de personas necesitando ayuda en cualquier sentido hasta--incluso hasta "Ey, presteme una oreja," porque necesita que me escuche. 

Elena Camacho 19:45

Ahora con la Señora Lady. Ella vive en Southwood, al igual a que Douglas.

 

Sofia Vega 19:49

Tu desea hacer este entrevista en anonimo, en cierto?

James Randall  19:56

Yeah! Eso es todo bien! ¿Me puedes decir su edad y un poco sobre usted?

 

Lady  20:02

Tengo cuarenta y siete años, cuarenta y siete voy a cumplir el mes de Noviembre que viene, en otro mes. Soy Hondureña, vengo de un pueblo bien humilde. Soy madre de cinco hijos, tengo tres en Honduras, y tengo dos aqui. Y... bueno, aqui estoy buscando lo mejor para mis hijos. Mi infancia fue bien bonita, aunque pele a la vez, pero... [Laughter] Somos dos hermanas, solo somos dos. Mi madre es una mujer luchadora, mi finado padrastro tambien fue un hombre luchador, que ellos luchaban para dar lo mejor para nosotros, y gracias a Dios estamos bien. Mi hermana es profesional. La única que no estudia fui yo, verdad la una que no estudio pero... nunca me ha ido mal en la vida, gracias a Dios.

 

James Randall 20:53

¿Creíste con una religión y podrías hablarme de eso? 

 

Lady 20:56

Catolica.

 

James Randall 20:57

Católica ¿Y sigues siendo religioso? 

 

Lady  21:00

Si, sigo siendo religioso.

 

James Randall  21:01

Y... ¿querias hablar un poco sobre sus hijos y su familia aqui en Virginia, o tambien en Honduras?

 

Lady  21:08

Como le digo, tengo tres en Honduras, dos aqui. Una esta estudiando en la universidad, la otra se va a graduar en el mes de Diciembre, gracias a Dios. El otro, lo mayor, lo tengo en Mexico, tratando tambien, y luchando para traerlo para aca. Llegue yo aqui a este país por un propósito, para darle lo mejor para mis hijos. Tengo a tres años empezar aqui en este país. Llegue a los--llegue a Nueva York, de una mes, después de un mes me viene para aca, pero Richmond me gusta bastante. Porque es una ciudad bien libre donde los deportes se sienten libre para jugar. Entonces, aqui estoy trabajando, tengo dos trabajos, trabajo de dia y trabajo de noche, aunque luchando pero ahí estoy.

 

Elena Camacho 22:02

¿Y tus hijos que estan aqui, que edades tienen?

 

Lady 22:05

El varon tiene ocho (8), nueve (9) va a cumplir en Diciembre. La otra tiene trece (13) años.

James Randall  22:12

¿Y como mudaste a Virginia desde Nueva York?

 

Lady 22:16

Me mude desde Nueva York para aca para Virginia porque me... trajo una amiga para aca para Virgina, y me gusto. Me gusta bastante. En primer lugar en la renta, que la renta no es tan... como en Nueva York y yo creo que, yo siento que si yo estuve en Nueva York yo no iba a poder como puedo aqui ahorita y... me gusta bastante.

 

Consuelo Camacho  22:50

Bueno, me llamo Consuelo.¿Mi edad? Tengo treinta y ocho años, vivo hace tres años. Dedique mas, pero hace tres años que me mude a vivir aqui en los Estados Unidos de--osea, si ya vivir, porque antes había venido y había ido a Miami una semana y pues por estar aqui para mas como conociendo, vacaciones, y me había regresado a Colombia. Y, soy Colombiana. Y luego, ya me vine para aca hace tres años, realmente, tres años llego aqui. 

 

James Randall  23:19

¿Como que te encontraste por la primera vez aqui en Virginia?

 

Consuelo Camacho  23:23

Cual fue mi... En realidad tuve una experiencia muy bonito porque vivíamos juntos. Soy hermana de Elena, vivíamos juntas, y ella pues ya estaba trabajando con la comunidad. Ella trabajaba en una organización, Sagrado Corazon, y yo llegue allí a estudiar Ingles y con ella. Pues, me aseguro un voluntariado con los niños, y pues me encanto trabajar con los niños--fui maestra en Colombia por diez años, entonces pues fue una experiencia bonita llegar allí con los chicos. Y allí ya me empeze a, osea, yo venia de Colombia de hacer voluntariado, ya venido haciendo algo de voluntariado con organizaciones, fundaciones y con Elena, pues, fue como continuar ese camino de voluntaria. 

 

James Randall  24:08

Second generation immigrants may have a different experience than their parents, depending on several factors, including their birth status, whether they are emigre dreamers, youth immigrants with at present recording tenuous legal status or a stateside born, naturalized citizens.

 

Elliott Martin  24:24

May I have your full name please?

 

 

Christian Martinez Lemus  24:25

Christian Martinez Lemus 

 

Elliott Martin  24:28

Would you mind telling me how old you are?

 

Christian Martinez Lemus  24:31

24

 

Elliott Martin  24:32

So you were born here?

 

Christian Martinez Lemus  24:33

My parents are from Guatemala, but I was born in Stafford or Alexandria, Virginia. Arlington, Virginia. 

Elliott Martin  24:38

Have you lived there your whole life? 

 

Christian Martinez Lemus  24:40

I lived in Stafford for a majority of my life. I still live in Stafford, but my office is in Woodbridge. 

 

Elliott Martin  24:46

Do you have family in Stafford? 

 

Christian Martinez Lemus  24:48

Yep. My both my parents live in Stafford as well. Correct. 

 

Elliott Martin  24:51

Where are they from originally? 

 

Christian Martinez Lemus  24:53

They were, they were born in Guatemala. 

 

Elliott Martin  24:55

When did they come to move to the United States? 

Christian Martinez Lemus  24:57

It was early 90s when they came over here. Yeah, they've been here ever since a little bit longer before I was I was born.

 

Elliott Martin  25:06

Did they grow up in a city in Guatemala? Or were they in a rural, rural environment, or what?

 

Christian Martinez Lemus  25:12

I am not sure, but I know they were in a little bit in the city for the most part. It was, it was the rural.

 

Elliott Martin  24:19

What made them want to come to the United States?

 

Christian Martinez Lemus  25:21

They came here for a better life and new opportunities over here.

 

Elliott Martin  25:26

Did they come directly to Virginia, or did they live somewhere else?

 

Christian Martinez Lemus  25:30

They both ended up. It took some time to maneuver the way over here, but yeah, Virginia was where they came.

 

 

Elliott Martin  25:37

What was it like? It must have been a big adjustment to move to Virginia from Guatemala. What was that like, or how's it been?

 

Christian Martinez Lemus  25:43

So for I, since I was born here, I was born in Northern Virginia, and I never had that same experience as them. But as with anyone coming to a new, new country, new speaking environment in general, it can be different and challenging for for some people, I'm not really sure on their experience, but experience for them, but I'm standing here great because of because of them and their hard work and all that.

 

Elliott Martin  26:09

Are you close with your parents?

 

Christian Martinez Lemus  26:10

Yeah.

 

Elliott Martin  26:11

What do they do for a living? What kind of work do they do?

 

Christian Martinez Lemus  26:17

So one works, one works with transportation, and one works in landscaping.

 

Elliott Martin  26:26

 Do you have any brothers or sisters?

 

Christian Martinez Lemus  26:28

I have an older brother and younger sister. They're both in Virginia as well.

 

Sophia Vega  26:31

My name is Sophia Vega. I was born in Maryland, and I moved to Richmond when I was about like six or seven years old. So I've been American basically my entire life, but my parents were both Colombian, and they both immigrated from Colombia to the United States, which honestly is a huge sacrifice that I couldn't thank them enough for and I was a student at VCU up until May of 2022. I just graduated with an undergraduate degree in political science and history, and at the moment, I'm working in New Virginia as a community organizer and also studying for my LSAT. So hopefully I would like to be an immigration lawyer in the future, to help out as much as I can with these communities. Honestly, my experience living in Maryland, if I hadn't moved would have been a lot more diverse. I went to viewers Mill Elementary, which is a school so diverse that Obama actually came to it the year after I moved to Richmond to like campaign. But I feel like I've grown up going to predominantly white schools. I've had a very white experience in life. I didn't really start connecting with, like, my Latino heritage until I was around like, like later in high school, because then I started making Latin friends, and I just started connecting a lot more with my culture. And you know, now it's my priority is, you know, to connect with my culture. Culture and be close to it. My decision to go to VCU was honestly driven by the fact that I didn't want to go to a school where I wasn't going to see any Latinos or any people of color. I didn't want to be the minority. I wanted to be in classrooms that were full of people, you know, with similar pasts as me, and you know, I hugely appreciate, regardless of the VCU history not being so friendly towards people of color in terms of gentrification and, you know, building buildings over slave burial grounds, it was just nice to have people that looked like me and people that knew where I was coming from. And it was also just nice to have professors who understood and wanted to educate people on that past, and like, our history is not just, you know, American history, and so when I graduated, I was definitely looking for something that had to do with politics. And this is just a perfect opportunity, because I could get experience in the workplace, but I could also help my community and just help people in general, which is something I've always really wanted to do. So it's awesome that I'm working at New Virginia Majority right now.

 

 

Douglas Hernandez  28:57

Hola, mi nombre es Douglas Hernandez, tengo veinte y seis años. Tengo en Virginia creo que alrededor de tres años de vivir aqui. Vivi la mitad de mi vida en Florida por que fui traído por mis padres creo a la edad como de seis años a Florida, y pase la mayoría de la parte en Florida pero creo que... Dios me trajo a Virginia hace tres años para que mi madre estaba separado de mi padre y quería verla por que tenia hace muchos años de no verla, y al vivir en Florida con--donde es un lugar multicultural, hay gente de todos los paises, colores, idiomas, es muchísimo. Pero todo el mundo en Floria es muy... egoísta. Todo el mundo solamente mira por si mismo no ayuda a nadie, entonces es todo el mundo contra todo el mundo, entonces no existe lo que existe en Virgina ques es una de las cosas por los cuales yo vine de visita, y me quede. Me gusto por que con comparando esto con aya no hay--yo si me viene en un tiempo de pandemia, si me mude aca en tiempo de pandemia. Me quede desempleado aya por la pandemia, pero aqui ayudan a la gente, ya sea que tenga o no tengas documentos legales, versus Florida, que en Florida no hay ayuda. Nadie te ayuda. No hay organizaciones sin... 

Elena Camacho  30:20

Animo de lucro? 

 

Douglas Hernandez  30:21

Sin animo de lucro, no hay… y todo. Ya tenia una como ventaja por que hablaba--podía comunicarme en dios idiomas. Entonces, tenia como podía yo atender en mi trabajo clientes de que hablar en Ingles o que hablar en Español que ni otro lugar. 

James Randall  30:41

These subsequent segments revolve around our interviewees personal experiences in making their lives in Virginia and establishing it as a permanent home for family and community.

 

Elliott Martin  30:54

How long have you lived here in Virginia?

 

Monica Saramiento  30:57

We moved here when I was about six, so we spent a year in Southern California and moved here, and then we were here until I was 11, so about five years in NOVA, and then move back to Southern California, and then back when I was 17. So I- My childhood was, I think, six years in California, five years in Northern Virginia, so it was pretty evenly split. But other than that, since I've been back from Southern California. Now, it's been 20 plus years that I've been in the area

 

Elliott Martin  31:33

When you were growing up, what was Virginia like? What was the immigrant community like? What sort of things did you do and how was it a big community supportive?

 

Monica Saramiento  31:44

I mean, it wasn't a lot of immigrants. There were, but nowhere near as now. I mean, I think I could count my Latinx, Latino you know, Latinx families. We lived in a Latinx complex, and it was somewhat diverse. There were some folks from all over Latin America, but it was nowhere near as big. It was definitely very predominantly white. And I also felt really lucky to just, you know, I think particularly in Arlington, the community was always so friendly and welcoming. And I have to say, that was really wonderful. And I still have friends that I met when I was five from here in Virginia. I remember this one friend and her family was Jewish, and they were just so kind. And I got to, like, they took me to synagogue, and I got to learn all about, you know, her faith, and it was just, I feel like, you know, Virginia is particularly fortunate to have so much abundance and wealth and all of that, and I think that really showed in the school system. So I feel really fortunate about that.

 

Elliott Martin  32:50

Did you come from a religious family?

 

Monica Saramiento  32:52

My mother was very Catholic, so we definitely went to Catholic Mass every Sunday. So I wouldn't say she was as conservative as some of the other Latinx mothers that I met in California, but compared, I think, to most folks, my mother was definitely a very strict Catholic and still is to this day.

 

Elliott Martin  33:12

You came over relatively young, it sounds like. Have you lived here the whole time, or?

 

Monica Saramiento  33:18

Both in California and Northern Virginia, although right now I'm living in DC. Yeah, for the most part, my whole life in the States

. 

Elliott Martin  33:26

Cool. What part of California, Southern California? 

 

Monica Saramiento  33:28

A city called Santa Ana in Orange County, California. So it's about an hour south of LA. I grew up about 15 minutes away from Disneyland. I was lucky enough that in high school, it ended up being my first job, which I thought was like the coolest first job in the world. I still think it was the coolest first job in the world, getting to go to jump on roller coasters and things like that in my free time. So it was a really fun job. 

 

Elliott Martin  33:51

What did you do there? 

 

Monica Saramiento  33:53

I started off in the stores like a regular cashier, and then eventually I just kept on being moved. And by the time I left Disney, I was one of those people that like reviewed photos before they went out to the public on back then, what was called the California Scream. I don't even know what they call it anymore, and Disney's California Adventure, but yeah, that's what I did. So I did a lot of seeing photos and things like that, before people got to purchase them and take them home.

 

Elliott Martin  34:21

How long have you lived in Virginia?

 

Monica Saramiento  34:23

So I've been back in the area. Goodness. I moved back when I was like 17. I'm 39 now, so do the math on that. So I've been here a long time. I definitely lived here longer than I lived there. So I've been back 22 years.

 

Elliott Martin  34:42

Okay, do you live in… Was it Arlington?

 

Monica Saramiento  34:47

So I actually moved to DC a couple of years ago, so I'm like in DC proper, so it's more affordable than Northern Virginia.

 

Elliott Martin  34:55

How has the immigrant community in Virginia changed over the years?

 

Monica Saramiento  35:00

Oh my gosh, there's so many more immigrants now than when I was a kid, which is so exciting, and it's so diverse. I think my favorite thing is that with diversity comes great ethnic food, which I think Virginia has some of the best Korean barbecue and Ethiopian restaurants in the country, in addition to Salvadorian restaurants. I think it's so wonderful to see how diverse Virginia has gotten, how big the immigrant population has gotten and which is substantially larger than it was, you know, 35 years ago, when I was a kid.

 

Elliott Martin  35:37

Where’d you get your education?

 

Monica Saramiento  35:39

I went to the University of the District Columbia in Washington, DC, and I went to high school in Southern California. I went to Century High School. So pretty, pretty basic. I was the president of the Latino Student Association, because I loved activism.

 

Elliott Martin  35:54

Was it a big school?

 

Monica Saramiento  35:56

It was not, I think it was something like four or 5000 students. It was very small school. I think in Southern California, I went to a high school that had something, I think, comparable, like two or 3000 students. It felt really tiny.

 

Elliott Martin  36:11

What did you major in, in college?

 

Monica Saramiento  36:12

Political science.

 

Elliott Martin  36:14

Did you do any extracurricular activities?

 

Monica Saramiento  36:17

I mean, I did the Latino Student Association for a little time. I think I did debate. Think that was pretty much it. I always had part time jobs and things like that that kept me busy, so I didn't have a lot of time for extracurriculars. 

 

Elliott Martin  36:31

When did you graduate?

 

Monica Saramiento  36:32

So I stopped, and then I finally got my degree, something like three, four years ago. I only had a couple of classes left, so I ended up getting my degree, I think in like 2019 I was, remember, my dad had started a small business. I was helping him with the business. I worked part time, and like, the little time that I did have, I think I did like debate, Latino Student Association, that was pretty much it.

 

James Randall  36:54

 

¿Diría que su experiencia personal ha dado forma en la que realize su trabajo organizacional?

 

Elena Camacho 37:01

Si, definitivamente, porque para mi el hecho de que yo soy inmigrante, yo soy mujer, yo soy Latina, yo soy madre soltera. Yo traje mis padres aca, que no tenían el idioma y mi hermano, mi hermana, mis sobrinos todos emigramos aqui a Virginia. Me hiso vivir lo que es ser discriminado, lo que es luchar para poder lograr cada cosa que tu quieres: un trabajo, como una posición, y te das cuenta, por ejemplo, si estudiaste en Colombia o algo, aqui no es igual. Aqui lo tienes que venir y como revalidar. Tuve que era mis papas trabajando en cosas que no era lo quisas ellos querian, pero que pero lo que les tocaba por que no tenian el idioma y del conocimiento o ver que tenemos que a veces caminar mucho por que no tienen en carro y el sistema transportación, pues no es muy amplio. Entonces mi propia experiencia me hiso a mi sentir: "Yo lo he vivido, yo se lo que es esto, yo puedo aplicar esto para mi trabajo," si? No es como yo voy a ir you know is como el la la comunidad a ofrecerles algo que, como decimos asi "pajaritos en el aire," como muchas promesas, si en realidad no lo has vivido, verdad? Entonces me llama mucho la atención poder a desarollar a mi misma, de pronto esa lider que esta adentro tambien, y la desarollando para decir a otras mujeres, "Usted si tiene esperanza, siga trabajando, y si va poder comprar una casa," por ejemplo. Por que yo tuve que trabajar muy duro para comprar una casa, y se que pago alto pero es algo que va a ser mio, verdad? Entonces esa experiencia, yo la llevo y lo puedo compartir a otros. Por ejemplo, mis hijos hoy pueden tener y disfrutar de una educación que tal vez nosotros no, yo no, pero mi hijo, el de veintiún años esta yendo a UVA. Y esta estudiando algo que el quise estudiar, si esta haciendo matemáticas o finanzas y esta viviendo una vida que todos debemos de vivir, verdad? Es ir a la escuela, estudiar, capacitarse, tener un carro, y cerca dia mejor. El otro esta en high school y tambien disfruta de tener un deporte, y eso es lo que yo estoy imaginando para los que llegan de Guatemala, de Honduras, de El Salvador. Si no tuvistes oportunidades en tu pais, es triste, pero si este pais te esta recibiendo y si el estado te esta recibiendo, a mi me encantaria que que el estado de Virginia acepte lo que esta ocurriendo, osea estan entrando y estan aqui. Pero que se prepare para que ellos puedan vivir bien, verdad? Para que ellos sientan que una universidad no es algo tan inalcanzable. Ya estas aqui, vamos a ver como hacemos para que tu vida este mejor y todo tu esfuerzo lo dejes en Virginia. Por que, pues el Latino inmigrante trabaja tanto, que hace que este estado definitivamente es mucho mas bonito, mejor, mucho mas mejor financieramente. Entonces, me encantaria que eso ocurriera, que pudiéramos pensar en una Virginia diferente.

James Randall  40:19

Dijiste antes que tienes dos niños, uno que se esta en universidad y el otro en escuela secundario. ¿Podrías hablar un poco mas de ellos?

 

 

Elena Camacho  40:30

Si. Si, bueno. Pues, tengo dos hijos. Uno se llama Juan Pablo, tiene veintiún años, y el otro se llama Lorenzo, tiene diecisiete. Ellos juegan ambos soccer desde muy, muy, muy pequeños y si que Juanpis quería ser como jugador profesional pero precisamente cuando buscaba esta meta vino el COVID y el programa de soccer en el college que le estaban haciendo lo se cerraron, pensó en otras opciones, verdad, y viajo hasta Boston, busco maneras alla, nos movilizamos, pagamos, y... Un dia lo llamaron y le dijeron que los que jugaban soccer iban a tener pruebida los que tenían becas atléticas y, pues, el no tenia ese tipo de beca entonces solo decidio ya no general seguir alla, y finalmente termino aqui en Virginia, pero... hace poco tampoco lo aceptaron el equipo, tal vez a niveles ya mas alto pero bueno el siguió perseverando y esta estudiando. El llego de seis años a este país, entonces habla bien el idioma pero tambien conserva mucho a el Español, y la cultura, y esta muy contento de que tiene mis papas aca--mi mama y mi papa. Lorenzo esta a punto de graduarse, esta pensando que puede tambien ir a la universidad y, no es como tan aficionado de el soccer pero tiene una vida mas tranquila. Es como un Americano en cuerpo de un Colombiano. El, como, que esta mas... se identifica mas con los Americanos, no entiende tanto como la cultura Colombiana, o un ya no quiere tanta la comida. Pero todavía seguimos asi como unidos; en el momento yo vivo con mi hijo menor, y el otro pues esta en la universidad. Entonces nosotros tambien buscamos de vivir, como, en el mismo vecindario, como, muy cerquita. Mis papas viven, como, a veinte minutos, mi hermano como a diez minutos por que si somos, como, bien... bien unidos.

 

James Randall  42:28

¿Que idioma utiliza principalmente en casa, y si quieras, como hablar sobre su experiencia, como, conservando idioma en el contexto Americano?

 

Elena Camacho  42:41

Si. Es importante, verdad, conservarse el idioma, y a la vez la comunicación efectiva con tu familia, no? Aveces el niño aprende muy rapido el Ingles, pero sus abuelos no lo van aprender. Entonces como se va a comunicar con su familia, o si vamos a ir a viajar a nuestro país ellos no van a saber. Nosotros siempre en casa hablamos Ingles y aun nuestros mensajes de texto y todo son en Ingles. Lo que si veo es que los hijos ellos ya no quieren hablar entre ellos Español. Ellos se sienten mas cómodos entre hermanos hablando en Ingles. Yo creo que mis hijos piensan en Ingles y  pues... nosotros, los grandes, pensamos en Español. Entonces es mucho mas facil. Pero si siempre les decíamos: "En esta casa solo se habla Español," y cuando ya nos venian hablar algo en Ingles: "Yo no te entiendo." Por que el problema es cuando te hablan en Ingles y les respondes en Español. Entonces pierden el idioma y pierdan la oportunidad de comunicarse entre padres e hijos; entre abuelos, tíos. Entonces ese es un proceso que nos costo un poquito, pero hoy dia ellos son "full-time" bilingües y tambien han tenido opciones de en las escuelas estudiar otros idiomas, como mi hijo esta estudiando Portugues y el otro esta habiendo Frances, y tambien hizo Latin. Entonces, lo vi tambien con mis sobrinos por que mis sobrinos llegaron un poquito mas mayores pero entre ellos dos como hermanos hablan en Ingles, pero toda la familia se habla Español.

 

James Randall  44:08

¿Usted se siente que los Estados Unidos es su hogar?

 

Elena Camacho 44:12

Si. Estados Unidos es mi hogar, aunque el hogar, en mi caso no es tanto por donde estoy, si no con quien estoy. Si? O sea, vivo con mis padres, vivo con mis hermanos, vivo con una comunidad linda: esto hace mi hogar. Tal vez si estuviera en otro lugar, pero estoy con ellos, lo voy a ver mi hogar. Pero mi hogar esta en Estados Unidos. Mi hogar esta en Virginia.

 

James Randall  44:39

¿Y como ha cambiado Virginia desde que te has mudaste aqui, en tu opinión? 

 

Claudia Leolo 44:44

En mi opinión? No se si ha cambiado mucho. Honestamente no conozco mucho la área metropolitana de Richmond, pero siento que ha cambiado un poco como moverse, pues he sido yo en comenzar a tratar de conocer y explorar mas Richmond y como funciona todo entorno pues, social, político. Yo siento que, que descubierto que necesita muchos cambios. Y que hay mucha necesidad afuera y antes cuando recientemente vine yo no podía ver eso tampoco porque normalmente cuando llegamos nos imaginamos en un trabajo, en horas extensas, y no vemos eso, entonces. No me aburri, hay gente que a llegado este país y dicen: "Me aburro, no tengo donde ir!" No me paso eso porque iba para todos lados con Elena, y ella me presentaba. Siempre tambien he sido social, no tanto como ella, pero tambien estoy social. Entonces ella me presentaba a mucha gente, y pensé que tenía familia aquí… Cuando regrese, bueno voy a hay la oportunidad de- si hay oportunidades y eso me di cuenta. 

Elena Camacho  46:06

Con respeto a tu trabajo en las escuelas, tu puedes ver igualdad? Al tema de asesorar a los estudiantes para una carrera o tu puedes ver que con los inmigrantes no hay casi asesoría de consejería o como. Esa pregunta la haría no tanto de tu trabajar, como profesional, si no mas bien de tu perspectiva personal, de lo que tu percibes?

Marcela Salazar  46:32

Dificil por que pues trabajo allí antes. Estoy en la mitad. Pero desde mi experiencia iba estado en las--yo hago como unas diferentes tipos de encuestados, sobre todo los chicos. Cuando estamos en temporada de graduaciones hacemos como encuestas a los chicos de: "Ey, que paso? Te asesoraron, alguien estuve contigo? Te acompañaron?" en ambas comunidades Afroamericana y Latinoamericano, y... encontrado en Latinoamérica. por ejemplo, que no reciben mucho apoyo por que no hay muchas escuelas que hablan Español, me entiendes? En mi concepto, pues, si yo no hablo Español yo busco--tenemos una cantidad de recursos para traducir durante--para interpretar y traducir--durante conversaciones y en mas pero, pues, parece que no les estan usando, no se. Eso es la experiencia que he tenido con los chicos y chicas Latinoamericanas que se han graduado ultimamente, que no reciben, como, mucha orientación. El programa que tenemos si lo tenemos. En cada escuela hay orientado diferentes tipos de orientadores que estan asesorando los chicos y chicas en lo que desean en la que hacer en el futuro, pero eso es mi experiencia.

Elena Camacho  47:51

Yo escucha de algunas madres de Southwood que me decían… Entonces, es como controversial y por eso me gustaria como interrogar un poco mas, creo que una de las metas que tambien tengo a nivel personal, y estado hablando con Nuevo Mayoría de Virginia, es que si somos una organización con educación. Puedan... podamos hacerle presión al sistema publico. De que, por ejemplo, Reynolds o los "college" que son públicos puedan tener clases de Ingles, por que muchos estudiantes que llegan de dieciséis, diecisiete años, entran a "high school" pero se graduan sin hablar en Ingles para ir a una universidad. Entonces, si podemos reunir a esos estudiantes y podemos hacer presión, en ellos si puedan tener clases de calidad que puedan hacer a cualquier clase de Ingles, y eso si seria algo para hablar después con... ese programa de...

Marcela Salazar  48:50

Con ganas. 

 

Elena Camacho  48:51

Con ganas.

 

James Randall  48:54

Cuales fueron otros, como, primera impresiones de Virginia, si ese tiene sentido? 

Lady  49:00

Bueno, la inicial que yo tuve aqui, tuve un experiencia bien dura, verdad? Porque uno, cuando uno... sufrí mucho, sufrí mucho con mis hijos. Empece a trabajar en el dos mil [veinte], en el tiempo de la pandemia. Yo salia de mi casa rogando a dios, trabajando en un hotel, donde llegaron muchas enfermos. Pero a la vez yo les pedí a Dios que me daba fuerza, que yo estaba luchando por mis hijos, trabajando por mis hijos, y que esa enfermedad que no me pegaba y no usaba mascarilla, no usaba guantes por que yo tenia fe en Dios, y yo no estaba siendo nada malo, y de alli yo empece a... yo empece agarrar valor, empece a querer mis amigos, me aconsejaban, me decía, "Lady, no... Busca con la manera como estar con tus hijos." Y... esta que iba la pandemia pasa mientra desde el año pasado. Mi hija de trece años [con que] yo vivía, sufría bullying, pero yo aguantaba por que yo no quería... Como hacerle, como le digo... A pesar de que le estan perjudicando a mi hija, pero ellos no querian ser daño a los que personas que hacian bullying a mi hija. Plata de prostituta, perdon la palabra. Marihuanera. Pero como yo crei mis hijos y tengo fe en mis hijos y yo siento y hablo con mis hijos como un madre. Le digo ya a mi hija: "Todo lo que se esta diciendo de ti yo se que tu no eres asi. No le hagas caso a la gente que te dicen estan--si ella esta hablando de ti, tu no te preocupes, la palabra le va ir al viento. Lo único que yo quiero contigo es que seas una niña bien estudiante, que hay muchas vocas de tapar." Y entonces, gracias a Dios, no me ha sido una niña tanbien tan malcriada. Es una niña bien inteligente we have, le dieron una reconocimiento, una diploma por ser inteligente en matematica, y les dieron otra diploma por ser inteligente en lenguaje.

 

James Randall  51:42

Si, felicitaciones tambien ahi.

 

Lady  51:43

Gracias. 

James Randall  51:44

Hablastes sobre su trabajo durante COVID en el hotel, y gracias por compartir a nosotras esa experiencia. Como, hoy dia, a que te dedicas?

 

Lady  52:01

Yo me dedico a trabajar, como yo le dijo a trabajo de dia y trabajo de noche. Solo llego aveces solo una o dos horas a casa, aveces media hora. Solo llego como hacer para dejar preparado las cosas a mis hijos--se cenan mis hijos, y de inmediato salgo. Lo mas tardado que entra a mi casa son doce. Lo mas tardado, uno o dos de la mañana.

 

Elena Camacho  52:28

En donde trabajas en la mañana, y...?

 

Lady  52:31

En la mañana trabaja en hotel, y de dia trabajo en limpieza. Y de dia trabajo en hotel, de noche trabajo en limpieza.

 

James Randall  52:38

Y como han sido esos, como, locaciones de trabajo? No... 

 

Elena Camacho  52:31

Lugares.

 

James Randall  52:42

Lugares, gracias, lugares de trabajo.

 

Lady  52:44

Por ejemplo, el limpieza de noche, tengo... En Powhatan tengo tres. Aqui en el centro de aqui de... En el downton tengo una limpieza ahi en la clínica. Y de la clínica, voy para otra clínica, y los Viernes y Martes tengo otra extra.

Elena Camacho 53:03

Para poder sostener su vivienda usted necesita tener estos dos trabajos, osea, si estuviera solo uno no podrías...

 

Lady  53:12

No podría, si no podría. Por que en el trabajo que estoy trabajando me paga mensual, pero estoy tratando este año que viene salirme de ahí para buscar otro trabajo, y tampoco no me quejo. Pero como madre soltera, lucha para poder mantener mi apartamento.

 

Elena Camacho  53:31

Cree que podría, si usted fuera--tuviera una compañía propia de limpieza suya, podría estar mejor que pensar en trabajar por horas?

 

Lady   53:49

Si. 

 

Elena Camacho  53:51

Y... Pero, si usted cree que si podría tener su propio negocio? O...

 

Lady  53:57

Si, podria tener 

 

Elena Camacho  53:59

Siento es que ese parte de programas es que los lideres ellos tienen muchos talentos pero tambien hace falta, como, esos programas que se puedan asesorar ellos para hacer como un negocio, como tener sus finanzas, como comprar una casa. Me gustaría, Lady... Como usted imagina que Virginia podría ser mejor para los inmigrantes?

 

Lady  54:26

Para mi es mejor por que en primer lugar los... La migra no molestan mucho, como en otro pais. Todo lo que somos inmigrante los últimos segur[a/o] aqui. Y muchas cosas mas, y muchas cosas mas... Aqui, yo a mi personal me siento segura. La gente tambien compartan ayuda, como por ejemplo cuando yo saque mi apartamento ahí mismo me dijeron que podria--yo no tenia los papeles suficientes, y me dijo la muchacha: "Con tu salma esta bien, saca un apartamento." Entonces para mi fue un alivio, empece a sacarme apartamento. Le dijo ellos que me dieron lo que saldria, de un cuarto, de dos cuartos... lo que saldria que me lo den. Pero me salio a uno de un cuarto, gracias a Dios, que ahí estoy con mis hijos. Como les dijo soy madre soltera, y lucho para yo poder pagar mi apartamento, y gracias por la ayuda que me dieron, gracias Sofia y a Claudia. Que cuando vino el conflicto al lado la mes pasada de los papeles que mandaron a la gente. A mi me llego una me digo de siete miles ($7000), y decia Dios mio! Y ahora que tengo que hacer? Y entonces me dijo una muchacha, tenia el numero de Sofia. Le llame a Sofia, le mande mensaje. O que lo había mandado primeramente a Claudia, osea que Claudia no estaba. Pero Sofia me tomo la llamada y me dice: "Usted Lady no te preocupes, yo le voy a ayudar, lalalalalala." Y ahí estoy, gracias a Dios, me dieron la ayuda... Y ahí estoy.

 

Elena Camacho  56:08

Si, cuantos se estan pagando de renta en ese apartamento?

Lady  56:12

Siete [ciento] cincuenta ($750).

 

Elena Camacho  56:13

Y, con eso entro, y al momento no le han aumentado? 

 

Lady  56:17

No, todavía, no me ha llegado el papel, estoy esperando que me llegue el papel. No se si yo soy que tengo que ir a la oficina, pero a mi no me a llegado ningún papel que me va a aumentar el apartamento.

 

Elena Camacho  56:28

Como usted se sintio cuando mira una carta que dice que esta debiendo siete mil dollars, y usted creia que tenia un aplicación con el plan de ayuda de renta, que se supone lo había hecho la oficina?

 

Lady  56:44

Mira, cuando yo vi ese papel, como yo les dije, dije: "Ay dios mio, y ahora que hago? Como tengo que pagar ese dinero?" Fui a la oficina, les dije, y habla la muchacha--por que cuando me dijeron aplicar, el primer mes fui a preguntar, les dije a la muchacha que si aun me habían aceptado la aplicación. Me dijeron que si, por que llegue para pagar supuestamente, la muchacha me dijo no pague, y me dijo: "Si usted paga, no le van a aprobar la ayuda." Entonces dije yo, "Ok," dije yo. Y entonces volví otra vez cada vez yo iba preguntar y la misma pregunta me decían a mi, que no, no tengo que pagar porque no me van a aceptar la aplicación. Entonces cuando llegue la papel a mi casa, "A donde voy encontrar yo ese cantidad de dinero?" Y fui a la oficina para quedar un acuerdo con ellos, y me dijo una de ellas: "Si usted paga tres mil setecientos ($3700) en fracciones podemos perdonar lo demas," me dijeron a mi. Y entonces les digo yo "Ahorita no lo tengo, pero cuando yo lo encuentro, yo lo voy a venir y pagar." Y entonces en eso, le llami a Sofia, y Sofia me tomo a mis datos. Y gracias a Dios, Sofia me dijo "No le preocupe, que te dieron la ayuda, y te va empezar a pagarte el mes de enero."

 

Elena Camacho  58:14

Ese fue plan de ayuda de renta? 

 

Lady  58:16

Si, fue plan de ayuda. Si, del estado.

 

Elena Camacho  58:20

– Que hoy dia ya no tiene fondos. Entonces, lo que decía Sofia es llamar al programa de ayuda de renta, investigar sobre el aplicación del inquilino o el "landlord," y hacer como un seguimiento para poderles dar respuesta a los inquilinos, fue como un mini campaña de "rent-relief," que se hiso dentro de Southwood. 

 

Elliott Martin  58:44

Where'd you go for university.

 

Christian Martinez Lemus  58:45

Yeah, I graduated from VCU. I graduated last year in May, May 2021 

 

Elliott Martin  58:51

why VCU? 

 

Christian Martinez Lemus 58:52

It was something it was something different from Stafford. I was always interested in the city, the city scenario, as well as the pep band at the university that was I was always in music growing up, and so joining the pep band. Joining the pep band was one thing I was looking at for each of the college universities I was looking at, and VCU was unknown, one known to be one of the best pep bands in the country, that was one of the areas. And in terms of like field of study, I was still figuring myself out. I was just looking at universities that had good programs where would fit best for me, and in my interest

 

Elliott Martin  59:31

What instrument do you play in the pep band?

 

Christian Martinez Lemus  59:34

I play trumpet. 

 

Elliott Martin   59:35

How long have you been playing? 

 

Christian Martinez Lemus   59:38

Yeah, I played since middle school in sixth grade. So let's see it's… it was about 11 years I really haven't had the opportunity to play since after college, but I've played for 11 years. 

 

Elliott Martin   59:49

What was your major at VCU? 

 

Christian Martinez Lemus   59:51

So I graduated with three degrees from VCU. I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness and political science and a Bachelor's of Science in Criminal Justice.

 

Elliott Martin  1:00:06

How did you get it into the field?

 

Christian Martinez Lemus  1:00:08

So I decided to major in those three things in my sophomore year at VCU. It was more of an interest in, well, Homeland Security was my primary degree, and just everything after 9/11 that kind of sparked an interest in majoring what I majored in and helping people. As well as just safety and security, regarding the science side of things, everything after the 2016 election that that kind of sparked my interest in the political world. I was a, I was like a senior in college, and that's the election going on. And so just learning in government and politics that that was something that sparked my interest in in that area of field and in criminal justice, just understand, and understanding any code of law or procedure was something of a spark in my interest.

 

Elliott Martin  1:00:54

Playing in a pep band during covid. Did you find you had a lot of performance opportunities? Or was it online? Or how did that work out?

 

Christian Martinez Lemus  1:01:03

So the last two years were interesting regarding pep band. I mean, obviously, once the pandemic started, we shut everything down, so we didn't play, or had any other opportunity to play, mainly because we didn't know what the virus like. We didn't know anything about it. We didn't have any information on it, especially when it goes to music and playing through air. So air is always spreading when we when we play into our instruments. So after, it took a couple months till we got back, and then, after learning the science and studies with music and covid, we were able to come back. Performance wise, we didn't really have much mainly because our band was so big and so large that the last two years were really just practice opportunity and just continue just to play and just and have that good moments with each other before this we graduate.

 

Elliott Martin  1:02:04

Do you pursue that stuff now, or do you plan it as a hobby nowadays? Or do you find that you did you have opportunities to play with other people?

 

Christian Martinez Lemus  1:02:13

So I haven't really had the opportunity after college. I've just been busy on a lot of other side projects. I've been working on myself on, but I'm looking to pick back up a new instrument next year and just start doing that again.

 

James Randall  1:02:29

Cual trabajo te dedicaste primero aqui?

 

Douglas Hernandez  1:02:34

Lo primero en Florida fue mi primer trabajo, fue... ya que mi papa trabajaba en un restaurante, al igual que mi tío. Al yo ya crecer y tener esa edad, en realidad no tenia la edad suficiente para tener un "full-time" pero... Se dio. Y con dieciséis años el "chef" del restaurante dijo: "El tiene solo dieciséis años, el es un niño, no puede estar con un 'full-time' afuera, pero si tu quieres yo puedo ayudarlos, y el va estar lavando los platos atrás donde nadie lo ve, y si puedo permitirle a trabajar mas."

 

Elena Camacho  1:03:15

Porque o que experiencia tienes de educación? Si llegastes temprano, tenias como tu escuela aca, e pensastes en ir al "college"? Estoy escuchando que pensabas desde pequeño como trabajo.

 

Douglas Hernandez  1:03:33

Mhm.

 

Elena Camacho  1:03:34

Pero, como estaba tu pensamiento de decir: "Voy hacer un profesional," o "voy ir a la universidad?"

 

Douglas Hernandez  1:03:40

Yo, desde pequeño, como tu dices, yo pensaba en trabajo porque quería ayudar a mi familia. Entonces, en la escuela, te preparan para hacer un trabajador, y nunca... Llendo a la escuela nunca, este, lo que--desafortunadamente como la política tanto como las escuelas nomas te enseñan a trabajar, e te dicen... A mi después de "high school" me hicieron el examen para saber que quería estudiar, y después decidí ya no estudiar mas, por que quería trabajar, uno, dos, porque no creo en la escuela. Por que? Porque la escuela te enseña a--tienes que tener un titulo para trabajar, para ser un profesional para que la compañia te emplee, este por vida, y retira a los sesenta y cinco [65] años, y... Entonces, si tu te estudias para graduarte en el "college," luego a la universidad, por ocho, nueve, diez años [8, 9, 10] para hacer un medico profesional, o que se yo, veinte [20] años, y luego te retiras con una deuda de setenta mil, ochenta mil [70,000--80,000] dolares estudiantil para cuando un dia consigues un trabajo, ya se que ganes dos mil dolares [2,000] al mes--a la semana, tres mil [3,000] dolares a la semana, un gran porcentaje de esto va para tus pago de tu deuda estudiantil, y... Después de setenta años terminas pagando tu deuda y te tienes que retirar y vas estar--Osea, yo pienso que la escuela debería agregar pero no lo van a agregar por propósitos, por intereses de la escuela y del gobierno. Es que, nunca te enseñan educación financiera ninguna de estas escuelas, ninguna universidad te enseña como manejar el dinero. Si te enseñan a trabajar por dinero para poder vivir, pero desafortunadamente el gobierno quiere que siempre el dependamos del credito, de la deuda para, poder hacer las casas y nunca te enseñan como en realidad poder hacer dinero para poder hacer que el dinero trabaje para ti, al revez de que tu trabajes por dinero y des tu tiempo por dinero. Entonces, yo nunca quise meterme en una deuda de esas para poder después estar pagándolas de por vida.

Elliott Martin  1:06:03

Many of our interviewees work for with immigrants rights organizations which are active in their respective communities. These organizations address, mobilize around and provide assistance for various community and individual needs. How did you come to work for the Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights?

 

Monica Saramiento  1:06:23

I had just finished up my third cycle, had worked with Planned Parenthood out in Texas, doing the first Affordable Care Act roll out for like a year, and I decided to want to come home to the DMV area, and the first board chair, founder of the coalition, Lenny Gonzales, contacted me, and she told me How they've gotten together several nonprofits, and that they had decided to create VACIR, and that they were looking for the first person to really manage the coalition. And one thing led to another, and I was fortunate enough to be selected for this position.

 

Elliott Martin  1:06:59

How did your experience growing up in in Southern California and Virginia lead into your decision to get involved with the Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights.

 

Monica Saramiento  1:07:11

I think for me, the biggest difference was that in Southern California, I was fortunate enough to see a lot of people who looked like me in positions of power and to be key decision makers, which wasn't as evident in Virginia, because I also grew up going to Virginia Public Schools, and that definitely gave more confidence and feeling validated in going in 

AUDIO CUT OFF

Angela Bullock  0:03  

Okay, welcome to this podcast for Dr Morales class. My name is Angela Bullock. I'm Joseph Roberts and yeah. So the very interesting experience interviewing our two interviewees for the Latino Virginia Project. The, once we started going through everything, I was kind of struck by the similarities, even despite the ages of everything. But I mean, that's also kind of true for us. 

 

Joseph Roberts  0:41  

Right. Yeah, exactly.

 

Angela Bullock  0:45  

When we did our practice interview together, we ended up figuring out that we live like –

 

Joseph Roberts  0:52  

Five minutes away. Yeah, right. It's crazy. We went to the same high school, yep, the same community college, and now VCU and we were also in a class together before this, and now we're doing a project together. It's just crazy.

 

Angela Bullock  1:07  

Was that Dr. Meachams class? 

 

Joseph Roberts  1:09

Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. 

 

Angela Bullock  1:11

Yeah, Although that thing was so that room was so huge,

 

Joseph Roberts  1:13  

I know it was, yeah, you could fit like 150 people in there. And there were, like, you know, 25 of us, yeah.

 

Angela Bullock  1:21  

Meanwhile, the class this semester was about the same amount of people, but a much, much smaller.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:28  

Yeah, right. We're in like these, like middle school esque desks, almost like, you know?

Angela Bullock  1:33  

It was, yeah, yeah, compared to, like the round, although, yeah, it definitely felt slicker last semester with the round with –

 

Joseph Roberts  1:43  

Yeah, it's like a whole six, eight projectors, exactly more modern feel, you know, I guess.

 

Angela Bullock  1:49  

A little bit more allowing a little bit more intimacy over those old school yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  1:54  

It was much better for like, a discussion class. Yeah?

 

Angela Bullock  2:01  

So I guess since the premises differences as well as similarities, because I'm about, about 10 years older than you.

 

Joseph Roberts  2:14  

Yeah, yep, yeah, I just turned 21 okay.

 

Angela Bullock  2:18  

Oh, so 12, yeah, okay. I just turned 33 and Yeah, and so then are the age differences in our interviewees, or is quite a few decades?

 

Joseph Roberts  2:34  

Yeah, it's what 40-50 years about. 

 

Angela Bullock  2:37  

So yeah, something like that. But it's very, it's very interesting. I said to see the similarities, because they end, even though one Ada Romano, who you interviewed –

 

Joseph Roberts  2:52

Yes, yeah,

 

Angela Bullock  2:53

– was born in El Salvador and mine, Aida Pacheco was born, or was born in New York, but with her familys from Puerto Rico. Yes, they both ended up, or Romano ended up in New Jersey, and then came to Virginia, and then… Yeah, Pacheco was born in New Jersey, New York area, and ended up in, yeah, right, the Richmond area. 

 

Joseph Roberts  3:31  

Yeah, it's just, it's crazy how they ended up in practically, like the same area, you know, like now, Romano lives in, in the city and Pacheco lives in, was it Goochland or –

 

Angela Bullock  3:42

Hanover. 

 

Joseph Roberts  3:45

– Hanover, yeah, okay, yeah. It's yeah, it's just, and we interviewed them in, I think, the same room, right? Yeah, yeah, exact same room in the library.

 

Angela Bullock  3:52  

But the Yeah, just kind of the, the oddness of the world, of kind of how, yeah, like, we ended up meeting each other under weird circumstances, living five minutes apart. Yeah. Now, while they didn't meet each other it was still very…

 

Joseph Roberts  4:10  

I've always, like, driven down the road and seen this house and like, “oh, they have horses”. That's crazy. Like, you know, horses are awesome. And, like, now I know you and I'm in your house. Yes, yeah, crazy to me, yeah,

 

Angela Bullock  4:23  

So yeah, so the, so, it's just very odd that these the similarities between these two women, even though, despite their differences of where they were born, their age difference and then, but then still ending up in the same area.

 

Joseph Roberts  4:51  

Exactly, yeah. 

 

Angela Bullock  4:42  

But you know, they're both of a Latino background. So, how do we – so we decided to set this up as kind of a compare and contrast of kind of four different areas. Yeah, so we have the four areas are going to be moving to Virginia. They both ended up moving to Virginia, 

 

Joseph Roberts  5:16

Yeah. 

 

Angela Bullock  5:17

Religion,.

 

Joseph Roberts  5:19

Yes, yeah. 

 

Angela Bullock  5:21  

Which was definitely much different and similar than I would have thought they kind of, they word it differently, but kinda come to the same conclusion.

 

Joseph Roberts  5:29  

Yeah, it was about the same kind of gist, but worded much differently. And yeah, and like they came, they arrived to it differently, yeah.

 

Angela Bullock  5:41  

Family, which seemed to be both important to each other. And then Covid, which is pretty universal, yeah. So let's get into it, yeah. So the first section we're going to cover is moving to Virginia. So tell you about Romano’s experience moving to Virginia. Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  6:03  

Yeah, so to kind of kick it off, when Romano first came here, they came from El Salvador and went to New York and lived in New York, and then when she was in eighth grade, they moved down here.

 

Angela Bullock  6:15  

Why did she, why did she move to why did they move to New York from El Salvador?

 

Joseph Roberts  6:21  

That was just the first place her father went when he came, because he came during the Civil War, so he just came, and that was where he went, and that's just what they knew they would live in their uncle's basement there. So I think it was, you know, just a place to live. And then they came to Virginia, because it was just like more affordable housing. There was other family down here in Virginia, but yeah, she came here in her eighth grade year, and she absolutely hated it. She said it was awful, especially in school. She just wasn't making friends. She said that she felt like she didn't fit in, and it was almost like…

 

Angela Bullock  7:05  

So let's hear from her

 

Joseph Roberts  7:08  

What was your experience moving here? Like, shocking from New York? 

Ada Romano  7:15  

Yeah, I hated it. Yeah. 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. Yeah, yeah. It's like, it's 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 just 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, yeah, and that was a shock to me. Got into a couple of fights at school because of that.

 

Joseph Roberts  8:11  

Yeah, just because you're [inaudible]. 

 

Ada Romano  8:14  

Yeah, I went to Midlothian middle. 

 

Joseph Roberts  8:17

Okay.

 

Ada Romano  8:18

For a year. Yes, alright, 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 want to.

 

Joseph Roberts  8:41  

You’re like an ‘other’ to them. 

 

Ada Romano  8:42 

Yeah like, “We don't, we don't mess with this girl. We don't talk to her”. 

 

Joseph Roberts  8:50

You wouldn't feel, you didn't feel welcomed here at all.

 

Ada Romano  8:51 

No. 

 

Angela Bullock  8:52 

So in comparison to Romano’s experience, Pacheco,  was [inaudible] adult was born and raised in New Jersey, and already had a daughter when she moved to Virginia, and her reasons are a little bit interesting, so let's hear from her.

 

Aida Pacheco  9:15  

You know, I think for me, it was, I came a few times. I thought, “this is really, really nice here” I liked it. The school system, you know, I was thinking about the public schools, and it was great. I thought maybe it was time to break the umbilical cord. And I had never, I mean, school was 20 minutes away. I worked in [inaudible]. I taught for a few years because I needed to go back and help be an inspiration, I think, and role model to kids, let them know that “don't let them tell you that you can't do this. Because look at me, you know, I was able to do it, and I came from your same background”, and so I felt compelled, you know, like my other you know, classmates that went on for PhDs or engineering or doctors and lawyers, I really felt that I needed to pursue that path, and I have no regrets. But, but anyway… 

 

Angela Bullock  10:15

So you're teaching,

 

Aida Pacheco  10:18 

And I was teaching, I actually went back to teach where I at the junior high graduated and the high school graduated, and I, you know, sponsored the club that I was once president of when I was in high school, and that's what, you know, we we did a lot of things. I started a dance group called Latin expressions that we ended up being on TV. I liked it so much. I brought in some adults, and I started dancing there too. So what prompted me to come here was I just felt like maybe it was time, you know, and I did also, I think, for my daughter, but I didn't really take into consideration, I didn't study the demographics of Mechanicsville. I didn't realize that it was one of the least diverse, probably. And very conservative. And so, you know, I was very active in my community – politically – voter registration and education and things like that. And anyway, it was, you know, worked for the city mayor in Trenton, New Jersey, and started the first Hispanic Serving human service organization in Mercer County there, and then to come here. And it was like, like, starting all over again, as far as I just didn't, didn't realize how difficult it was going to be in the beginning. Because I married, you know, I got married and came here because he was here. And I thought, “I’ll do that”. And like I told you earlier, my daughter and her friend were the first Latinas in the entire elementary school. My son was the first Mario from elementary school to as far as being an ethnic, ethnic name to high school. But there were, you know, it's growing. The diversity is growing, but it was very challenging there. But, you know, I do like it. I mean, they're right now, I've just got adjusted. I've met some great, amazing people here in Virginia, Latino, non-Latino, and I've been here now about 35 years since June of 1989.

 

Angela Bullock  12:08  

So yeah, definitely, both had a learning curve, but in different ways. 

 

Joseph Roberts  12:12  

Yeah, definitely. I think, definitely, like the different stages of life plays a big hand in that, you know, like Romano coming here, in school years, in eighth grade. And Pacheco coming here as an adult, you know? Yeah. 

 

Angela Bullock  12:29  

I find it interesting elsewhere in our interview with Pacheco, she talks about her daughter, Gisette, having kind of very, similar, it sounded to me as she goes into it a lot less depth, because it wasn't her direct experience, but the sounded very similar to Romanos, yeah, her daughter Gizette's experience. 

 

Joseph Roberts  12:52  

Yeah, experience with like kids in school and that, yeah, just that situation.

 

Angela Bullock  12:58  

So let's hear her talk about that real quick.

 

Aida Pacheco  13:01  

Gisette was not born in Virginia. Gisette was born, my daughter was born in New Jersey. My daughter is like an olive complexion, beautiful. She has more of that tajino from her father's side. So it was difficult for her, because being a girl, you know, if you I found out later, if you're not born and raised in Mechanicsville, you know, they just don't embrace you right away, right? And she wasn't blonde. A lot of girls are blonde, believe it or not, it was when I say lack of diversity, I really mean that. So it was difficult for her, because she liked to be, you know, she wanted to be like at that teenage year when she got to junior high, she was a cheerleader, she was very sociable, but it was not easy for her. The pressure of and also, I was a little bit more conservative because of my upbringing then a lot of the parents here. So, you know, going out and coming home at a certain time or going to somebody's house, I needed to know when, and I wanted to follow up with the parents. And it was, I mean, I remember a parent telling me, “Well, I trust my daughter”. And all I simply asked was, “Oh, I understand that you invited Gisette over. Thank you. Is there anything that I can, you know, that she needs? How much, any money, you know, what is your itinerary? So I know how much money to give her. To bring her, you know, food or something like that with her”, you know, things like that. And she came up with that. I'm like, “Oh, wow”. But for my Latino background, I was a little bit more conservative, and I think that was tough on her making that adjustment.

 

Angela Bullock  14:40  

So the next session we're going to cover is visiting family, because they're, but they have both moved away from their kind of core family

 

Joseph Roberts  14:51

Yeah. 

 

Angela Bullock  14:53

So they're, I guess, let's talk about their experiences with trying to visit again. I mean, with Romano, of course, the. Leaving under such much more dire circumstances than Pacheco, that's a little bit more difficult.

 

Joseph Roberts  15:08  

Yeah, so Romano, she would go back to El Salvador and visit her family, mainly her family there would be her grandparents, because a lot of her family was in the States, in Virginia, primarily. But, yeah, she would mainly visit her grandparents there. But you know, it's best to just hear it from her.

 

Angela Bullock 15:31  

Yep. So let's do that.

 

Ada Romano  15:34  

So we came in ‘95, it took a while for him to get my brother and my sister's paperwork together. Okay, so I think they came maybe, like two years later. I'm like ‘97. Okay, 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  16:06  

Okay, yeah, so were you guys pretty close to your grandparents? Because that's how you would go visit, right?

 

Ada Romano  16:10  

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

 

Joseph Roberts  16:27  

Yeah, 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 grandparents, and then, like, your family there, and then also in Canada and just your family spread out.

 

Angela Bullock  16:40  

This next clip is a little bit from later in the interview with Romano.

Ada Romano  16:45  

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, yeah? She has a house out there. So we live super close. 

 

Joseph Roberts  16:59  

That's cool. Yeah, so that closeness, like, obviously keeps your family, like, intact, and you guys all talk and see each other. 

 

Ada Romano  17:05  

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. Come over”. 

 

Joseph Roberts  17:18

Yeah, that's awesome. 

 

Ada Romano  17:21

It's helped mentally, like, as opposed to, like, as opposed to like, when I told you when I was in Baltimore, like I had nobody, yeah. 

 

Joseph Roberts  17:24  

There's so much family, yeah, yeah, so. 

 

Angela Bullock  17:28  

I guess that's another difference in our interviewees, where there Romano still has some family in New York, I think she said, Pennsylvania too.

 

Joseph Roberts  17:44  

Yeah, there was family in New York, Pennsylvania, a little bit even some in Canada. Yeah.

 

Angela Bullock  17:52  

So, yeah. So, like, those are a little bit easier to do. But she, yeah, she in a different section of the interview, she talked about how, like, her grandparents, who had stayed in El Salvador, she was not able to see them that a lot. But yeah, so then comparatively, Pacheco did not move that far from her family. There's also a little spread out, but not nearly as much, and definitely not in another country. Yeah, because she even visits her family in Puerto Rico, which is, yeah, is a United States territories. Yeah, it's a lot easier to, lot more permeable.

Joseph Roberts  18:38  

Yeah, easier back and forth, yeah.

 

Angela Bullock  18:43  

So, yeah. So let's talk about her experiences, or let's listen to her talk about her experiences of visiting family.

 

Aida Pacheco  18:51  

My great grandmother maternal, my paternal grandmother, all of them were born in Puerto Rico, except my when my grandmother came maternal grandmother came here. My father was born here. My grandfather raised my mom, and her sister, so they came here. She was like I said, she was eight, but, but that generation, they were mainly came from Puerto Rico. My generation was born [inaudible]. I was the pioneer. I was the first of my family from New Jersey to come to Virginia, two hours away.

 

Angela Bullock  19:34  

So, it's it sounds like, like all your families like, do you? Do you know of any family that, like you're still in contact with in Puerto Rico, on either side?

 

Aida Pacheco  19:45  

Yes, I go, actually, my mom's generation, you know, I would bring my mom to Puerto Rico when I was, you know, once I started working and so forth and so to, you know, connect with family. Most of her generation are almost gone. It seems like the younger generation, cousins of Puerto Rico, except for my father's side. I don't know much more of but I do go to Puerto Rico because I have friends and I still still have some family from my father's side that I go to visit. So we do still have that connection, very much so. And I still visit family in New York. I have, my father was one of like eleven and two remaining siblings I will visit in New York. I have one, two remaining siblings on my mom's side, and my uncle's wife. She's going to be 95 and so I go to visit her in eastern Pennsylvania.

 

Joseph Roberts  20:36  

All right. So with religion, they also both had kind of an overwhelming similar experience, but they came to, like a similar conclusion in different ways.

 

Angela Bullock  20:48  

Yeah, yeah, for different, for kind of different reasons. But yeah, that was interesting. Kind of the yeah, getting to the same answer, you know? I guess that's why you show your work in math class.

Joseph Roberts  21:01  

Yeah, exactly, exactly, but yeah. So Romano came to, you know, she considers herself agnostic. She's not religious, but she had grown up with the Catholic Church, but, you know, started questioning things. But just hear it from her, though.

 

Ada Romano  21:21  

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. 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, yeah, and my priest made me feel like it was my fault, that he made me feel like I had seduced this person who did this to me. Mind you, I was like…

 

Joseph Roberts  22:19

Like it was like, your sins instead of…?

 

Ada Romano  22:22  

I was a victim. Yes, instead of him 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. There's, there were a lot of things that were being said also that I didn't agree with. And I just Yeah. I started thinking for myself. 

 

Joseph Roberts  23:01  

Yeah, yeah, okay.

 

Angela Bullock  23:06  

So yeah. Then with Miss, with Pacheco, we'll listen to her real quick, but yeah just comes to very similar conclusions, but I think also seems to be a little bit more motivated by her experiences in the church when she was young. So let's listen to her.

 

Aida Pacheco  23:31  

Mommy was not – she was spiritual, believed in God, a lot of faith. Didn't, wasn't a church girl every Sunday. You know, but she made sure that we got our Catholicism. The elementary school had a partnership with the area Catholic schools, so it's basically essentially raised Catholic. And on Mondays, we would be let out early, and then we will walk over to the school for Catholicism. So I did my communion, I did do my confirmation. But I do remember it's communion after community that we had to confess our sins, right? And in my mind, I'm thinking, “Okay, so if Jesus Christ died for our sins right, and we believe that he saved us right for my sins. Then why am I confessing to somebody I don't even know, doesn't know me from hell, right?” So why am I? Yeah, that's funny saying hell, and we'll talk about religion. But anyway, so I remember agonizing over confessing my sins, like, “What am I going to say?” And then telling people, “You can go in front of me, you can go in front of me”. And finally, I just said, you know, I just want that personal relationship. So you know, I had to go through that for my confirmation. But really, there's certain things of the Catholic religion that just never really sit with me very well. It's particularly the hypocrisy. But I, you know, I switched Episcopalian. I even went to when I came here, went to non-denominational. And I feel that, that one of the things my mom would tell me that if you follow 10 Commandments, which really, when you think a look at the commandments are kind of universal, yeah, you know, let them guide you'll be all right. And I think that's kind of how I got, you treat people like you want to be treated.

 

Angela Bullock  25:14  

But yeah, so especially with this section, with their, their thoughts on religion, it seems to me that that really brings into focus the similarities of kind of a I mean, it goes Latinos are not a monolith. I mean, even with them both being Latinas, one was born in El Salvador, and one's family is from Puerto Rico. Those are very different places, but at the same time, those similar values have permeated for maybe different reasons. Yeah, it also just kind of, to me, shows that there are differences in people, but in the end, for the most part, they're probably this, like, a lot more similar than different.

 

Joseph Roberts  26:07  

Yeah, especially in like, small ways like that. And it's, it's just interesting how, like, those similarities are shaped through just like those different experiences, like Romano's experience she talked about, you know, it's different from what Pacheco talked about. And, I mean, it's just interesting how there's kind of culminate together into, I'm spitting out like the same, you know, result, in a way.

 

Angela Bullock  26:37  

Alright, so next section is going to be pretty universal for everyone, since it was literally global – Covid.

 

Joseph Roberts  26:50  

So, yeah, so I mean, Covid, like obviously impacted all of us, and it's a global pandemic. But um Romano had, so she had two big experiences with Covid, first, and just her personal life, and then also with her family life. So her personal life was really impacted because she was still in grad school. I mean, no undergrad when that happened, and it was her senior year of undergrad. Yeah. So, you know.

 

Angela Bullock  27:19  

As we currently know that's yeah, difficult on a good day. 

 

Joseph Roberts  27:22  

On a normal yeah on a normal level, it is. But she just went into, you know how she had to graduate in her living room. But you know, and just hear her talk about it real quick.

 

Ada Romano  27:38  

I graduated during Covid. I graduated in my living room. I watched it on TV. It was awful, yeah. And I had that situation where, you know, people drove by and said, “Congratulations”, like, it was awful. 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…

 

Joseph Roberts  28:06  

Did you have like a gown and everything and all that?

 

Ada Romano  28:10  

Yeah, I did, yeah, there's, like, while you watch scratch, 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. It was just like my parents, I think my boyfriend at the time, that’s pretty much it. 

 

Joseph Roberts  28:33  

Was there a party for you? Like, I know you said your family parties a lot. Was there a grad party for you?

 

Ada Romano  28:38  

That was pretty much it, the party was people driving by and, you know.

 

Joseph Roberts  28:43  

So were there any family parties like that, like, like, abrupted or interrupted? 

 

Ada Romano  28:50  

Yeah, 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 doing the thing in person. 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. 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 teach like that stuff virtually. 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. Yeah, 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, really, yeah. So that sucked.

 

Joseph Roberts  29:48  

And then kind of like, getting through it, yeah, I'm actually learning from it, yeah.

 

Ada Romano  29:52  

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

 

Joseph Roberts  30:14  

So, so it obviously interrupted school heavily, because you do everything at home. You graduated home. Did it affect your like, family, like working and things like that?

 

Ada Romano  30:27  

Um, I worked at Capital One at the time. And I got to work from home, yeah, 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. 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 that. 

 

Joseph Roberts  31:01  

To see the impact of it directly?

 

Ada Romano  31:04  

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. 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 aunt. 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. 

 

Angela Bullock  32:22  

Yeah, yeah. So Pacheco, on the other hand, had, you know, like had to learn how to deal with it. And as everybody does, she in particular, had to not only also had issues with family, but because where she lives in Hanover, they're not broadband yet. So she had to deal with the internet situation, because a lot of people were just like, Okay, well, switching everything to to zoom, but she also like, I guess is also where the age difference comes in, because she the time, it seems the time that Covid hit. She was naturally approaching that point of life where, like, she's kind of switching over and becoming the elder herself. Yes, elders were her. Yeah, she lost several people to Covid as well. Yes, here is Pacheco talking for herself.

 

Aida Pacheco  33:26  

Well, we are in a neighborhood where we still do not have broadband. They are they just installed the cable, and we're hoping they'll be coming soon. Thank God, because of the infrastructure bill, which a lot of people don't understand, but internet, yeah, access is part of that. So with Covid, I did not get Covid during that when it first hit on the first wave, my uncle did, and this is before the treatment. 

 

Angela Bullock  33:56  

Your uncle is in New Jerse?

 

Aida Pacheco  33:58  

He's in, well, he was living in Pennsylvania, so I did have a relative who passed from Covid, and what happened was that he had a health care for his son. My cousin, Danny, was born down syndrome with multiple complications that require care. So health care providers didn't make much money, and so you get sick, you know, and she was coughing. I remember my aunt said, you know, you might want to take care of that cough. She ended up in the hospital, and they received a call from the hospital that they got Covid, so they all got tested. My aunt and my cousin did not, but he got tested positive. They weren't. They were negative. And so the health care she passed, so he passed about a week or two later from that. Here, it was hard, because I don't have broadband. So to get connected to zoom…

 

Angela Bullock  35:02  

Oh, yeah, work from home. Yeah. It was…

Aida Pacheco  35:04  

It was really, really hard, and it was frustrating. And then the kids were told in my neighborhood we had a few kids when I first moved, maybe adults. I was all disappointed, because here had a whole bunch of Halloween candy and got all dressed up, and nobody came to the door. This was 35 years ago. Now we do have a few kids there, but I felt badly for them and for people who, you know, were working, of course, and they would tell us, “well, go to”, we didn't have high spin internet, so they told them to “go to, like, near the library or somewhere”. So, you know, we like, that's like a 20 minute ride, and it's a rural area, so if it's nuts and stuff like that that you, you know, you either can't do it, or if you do it, you're freezing, right? I mean, you can't leave the car on for a lot of time. If you can't go inside the library, they were just telling, “oh yeah, “Go to somewhere nearby”. So, yeah, it was for our family. It was a really, really tough period for us emotionally. And like I said, with the access to the world, you know, because you know the internet, yeah, you know, my mom passed. She passed. Mommy passed in 2019 so I took care of her 2019. Yeah. And I remember there was a thing where you couldn't, you know, I couldn't go. I couldn't go to my mom's funeral. She's in New Jersey. I took care of a lot of the beer, you know, red tape and all that stuff. But I couldn't go. I couldn't go to see my uncle. They showed a video, and they showed me a video of my mom. So, yeah, it was really tough. And then I had a cousin who couldn't go to our first family. That's when Covid started, but he was a kidney dialysis, so he died in 21 so we had 19, 20 and 21. And he was, you know, because of Covid, he was still trying to be very careful, and he did not die of Covid, but I think it really affected him being able to do certain things, and that was hard on us too. Covid was not a, it was a terrible period.

 

Angela Bullock  37:17  

So, yeah, there's a lot of powerful stuff, I would say, yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  37:22  

I mean, just listening, you know, seeing and doing one interview and then sitting in on yours was just really, like informative. And like, inexperience for me, I've never really done interviews like that. And I mean, just listening to somebody else's life basically, is, is really something special. 

 

Angela Bullock  37:41  

I think what we've kind of done here is an extreme benefit of oral history. So, I mean, we've kind of gone through these two interviews we were, I mean, one both fortunate enough to be present for each of them, but then to not only see their compare their experiences to each other, but then also kind of able to and, you know, in our own has experienced our yeah to our experiences, yeah, definitely a lot more similarities than differences.

 

Joseph Roberts  38:18  

I say so yeah like, and it really just shows you too, at the end of the day, like, you know, like, different backgrounds, different ages, like, we're all just people, you know? And it's like you were saying that it is the benefit of oral histories. It's just, you know, learning about each other and, like, the human experience and all, yeah.

 

Angela Bullock  38:40  

So thank you all for joining us and yeah, I hope you'll take some valuable lessons from this. Yeah.

 

Joseph Roberts  38:51  

So, I guess ta, ta, yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Bye.

Liam Franco  0:24  

For our podcast today, we will be reflecting on our individual interviews that we conducted earlier in Professor Morales class, part of the Latino Virginia Oral History Project. In this podcast, our themes are going to be conducted on four, we will both share our interviewees, Hispanic culture and their stories. 

 

Emily Portillo  0:45  

We are honored. to have spoken to both of our interviewees. They were wonderful, and this was a very fulfilling experience. And we are so thankful to have had this opportunity.

 

Liam Franco  0:56  

100%. Again, hank you for joining me for this episode, Emily. 

 

Emily Portillo  0:59  

Yeah, thank you. Liam, I'm super excited to dive in.

 

Liam Franco  1:02  

All right, fantastic. So let's get this under speed. So I had the chance to sit down with someone very special to me, my dad, Rodolfo Franco, though everybody calls him Rudy. It was a very meaningful conversation, and I figured instead of just diving right into the questions when I hit recording, I just let him take the floor. And what we shared honestly stuck with me in a very deep way, not just as a father and son moment, but really as a meaningful return to arms, as somebody who's willing to step up and move out into the world, especially now I'm going to be graduating very soon. This is more of a lesson for a man to man. And he would say…

 

Rudy Franco  1:46  

The main thing I would think that, you know, with all that social and economic changes that are happening to so fast, you know, everything is happening fast. I would, I would say that the main thing, one of the main things, is, you know, to learn, go to school, find something that you enjoy doing. Okay, first, okay, I'm not gonna tell you, you know, I mean, depending on, on what your aptitudes are, but you have to find something that you like in life. I mean, making money, you know, it's important, and that's your, your whole ultimate goal, right? You got to live off something. But with that, it's got to be something that you are passionate about, okay? You got to find that passion, because if you don't, you're going to be miserable all your life. You know you're going to go work nine to five in a job that you hate. And if that is the case, you know, I don't know about that, but that's just not the way that I would think. You know, to spend your life doing first. And then, you know, once you have determined what that is, you know, then you have to develop yourself as a person, you know? You have to do that. And enriching your, your character. It's one of the most important things that you can do. That's an investment that will carry you over everybody else. Meaning learning about culture of not just yours, but everybody else's. You know, learn about different people. Why do they think that way? Instead of judging other people, learn, understand. Why do people of different backgrounds think that way? Or, you know, live in certain way? That's important, because that, that will tell you, it will teach you a lot about other cultures. It will teach you how to approach different people of different backgrounds, okay? And it will allow you to succeed, because when you have a conversation like I do with people from the Middle East, from China, from Japan. I know, I read a lot about different cultures all the time ever since I was young, because your grandpa was good at that, you know?  He always told me that thing, you know, learn about them, learn about everybody else. I can sit with anybody of any background, and have a conversation about their country, their background, and they are amazed, you know, see that me, you know, sitting there and talking about Africa, South Africa, talking about, you know, countries in Africa, like Ghana, for example. I know a lot about Ghana, you know, because I have my good friend from the army. He was from Ghana. My good friend from Afghanistan, you know, Urdu. He spoke Urdu. And we always talk about that, the food and all this stuff. And people are amazed. India, same thing, you know. In Europe, just about everybody in Europe, I know a little bit about every country. So that allows you, as a person you know, to talk to other people, and those people will be interested in what you have to say when they understand that you are that you know a little bit about them, you know? And that's important, you know. I think you know, developing that as a person, you know, it's gonna get you places. It's gonna allow you to get to, you know, to be a better person. First and secondly, you know you're gonna see that things are not as what you know, you see on TV. You know, that's what I'm, that's the only thing I can say about that, you know, cultivate, you know your character. Learn about other people, learn about other cultures, learn about the world. It's important.

 

Liam Franco  5:55  

You've always inspired me to network and reach out and try new things, especially by going to VCU and living in an entirely different world than I grew up in and embracing that just to remain curious and learn on my feet. Yep, you got to find the passion, because if you don't, you're going to be miserable in your life. And that really hit me. I mean, how many of us feel stuck in jobs or routines that don't actually fulfill us? There's so much pressure. Put it like that, especially for young people, the next generation of future scholars in particular. Now we're leaving Covid and then such. To chase what's safe or financially secure or financially stable. But what happens when stability costs you joy? He even went ahead and say, “\you're going to go work nine to five in a job that you hate?” Now, on the surface, I respect anyone who goes to make their living the way they see fit, but doing the same thing for the rest of your life will lead to doubt, wouldn't it? And that's the thing, because he wasn't just preaching, he was speaking from the perspective of the working class, and it made me think, have I ever traded passion for security? Have I chosen what looks right over what feels right? These are questions I bounce pretty much on a daily basis, without my, without my go, go juice. In this case is Ruby Red Bull. And he didn't just talk about just work and what, what careers are for me outside of the university, and what careers will be there in history. He also talked a lot about our character, what, what men and women should strive to do when they're trying to find what they who they belong, and somewhere they should belong. And one quote that really stuck with me is “you have to develop yourself as a person, enriching your character”. It's one of those important things that you can, and that's an investment that will carry you every, everybody else, over than everybody else. Along the same lines, it reminded me that education isn't just about degrees. It's about learning how to treat people, how to adapt and how to stay curious. Moving on to my final points, that he also emphasizes the importance of understanding other people's cultures. He said, “instead of judging other people, learn, understand, why do people of different backgrounds think that way, or, you know, live in a certain way?” And that really resonated with me, especially today, when looking outside, looking at the students that come to VCU, when it's so easy to judge or stereotype, being curious about other. That can be a really big game changer. Yeah, he talked about how he's always made an effort to learn about different cultures, whether it be in in the interview, we talked about where he was, where he went. He spoke to people from Ghana, Afghanistan, India, Japan, then some. He said, “I can sit down with anybody of any background and have a conversation about their country, their background, their origins, their language, and they are amazed just how learning a little bit of something could transfer into a relationship and earn an environment of trust, a merit of trust.” And that's something I really admire about him, his curiosity to build those bridges. And finally, there was a really beautiful moment where he held, he held my grandpa, his dad, at the, at the highest modesty of respect who inspired all of his curiosity. He would say, “your grandpa was good at that. He was always, he always told me that, you know, learn about them, learn about people”. It reminded me a lot that we value doesn't just come from books, not a regurgitation of history. It comes from family, from mentors, from coaches, and the stories that we tell about ourselves and people after they pass.

 

Emily Portillo  10:14  

Liam, thank you so much for sharing that. Your interview with your father was beautifully done, and many of the subjects you talked on, I think, really reflect your strong father-son bond, which I think is a great addition to this project, especially paired with his story. I'm so glad your interview was meaningful and fulfilling, and I'm sure being able to speak to your father was wonderful. 

 

Liam Franco  10:39 

Thank you, Emily.

 

Emily Portillo  10:40

So I had the honor of interviewing Estela Knott – Latina Appalachian musician from Luray, Virginia, who now lives and works in Charlottesville, Virginia. She is the founder of the Lua project, a band of diverse musicians, which she shares, shared lots about in our interview. To begin, we will play an audio recording by Liam of the Lua project playing together when they were performing at a symposium here at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. 

 

[music]

 

Thank you for capturing that Liam, it was so lovely to hear her music after getting to know her through our interview. I had an absolutely wonderful time speaking with Estela. And she's a very inspiring individual, because you actually got to hear that audio yourself. I want to ask, what was the, what did the room, what was the room like when she played that? What was the reception? Was there a sense of togetherness? What was it like to hear that in person?

 

Liam Franco  15:21  

When she was – a good question, Emily – when she was playing her instruments, she and I noticed at the beginning, I captured the raw moment where they had to adjust their, their guitars or instruments, and their conversation, the bickering back and forth between husband and wife. Really, it's it's sold that this was a genuine moment, and they were improvising, and something that I think that their message conveying, or whatever, about Los Apalachias and the food and the music and the community, what I took away was the fact that they weren't ashamed or embarrassed, and they just learned to read the room, and everybody was engaged, and they felt a sense of everybody watching them and everybody's listening they they really captured that in moments to speak on behalf of what, what makes their their association so attractive when it comes to music and through that, making mistakes are the laugh. So to answer your question, they truly embodied a sense of camaraderie and joy in what they do.

 

Emily Portillo  16:33  

Well, thank you, Liam, and thank you again for getting that audio. I'm so glad we get to share it with the audience. Estela, when we, in our discussion with each other, she shared a lot about her experiences of being half Mexican and half Scott-Irish in Luray, Virginia. She discusses her family's immigration story, starting with her mother's immigration to the United States from Mexico and she was just 10 years old. She goes into detail about the Latin-Appalachian culture that she has helped grow and that she has contributed to and flourished in. And she goes in depth about her travels and how she ended up in Charlottesville, Virginia with her husband and two daughters, one of which, and this was amazing to me, but one of her daughters, her older daughter, Luna, which she talks about in the interview, actually performs in the Lua project group with Estela and Estela's husband David. She also talked a lot about what it's like to be Latin, being a Latina in Virginia, being a Latin American in America, in light of our current events and what it's been like for her in her time growing up in Virginia. So she first discussed her mother's immigration story, her childhood and growing up in Shenandoah Valley, and here she is explaining.

 

Estela Knott  18:03  

My mother is from Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, and she moved to the United States when she was probably about 10 years old. And they came legally and lived in El Paso, Texas for the rest of her childhood, until she married my father, who is from Luray, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley. He was in the military, and they met when he was stationed at Fort Bliss and they married and moved to Luray and raised me and my brother, along with about 19 other kids that were uncles, cousins, foster children, because my mother did a lot of interpreting for the courts and hospitals and social services and schools. She was the first interpreter in our area, and was also the first Latina and Mexican immigrant to move to the Shenandoah Valley that we know of, particularly Luray. She was the first one there. And so my growing up experience was growing up as a bi-racial, bi-ethnic child, Spanish was spoken in my home and English was spoken at school, when my father would come home from work, we would speak in English when I was hanging out with my Latina cousins or uncles and my. Mother, we would speak in Spanish. So I grew, I grew up speaking Spanglish, and I though my mother spoke some English, the kind of English that she spoke was very different than the kind of English that is traditionally spoken in Luray. So when she came to Luray, it was a bit of a challenge for her to understand people there, because in Loray, people speak with the twang, like Appalachian twang, and so that was a little bit of a challenge. It was a huge cultural shock for her, and definitely having her, her children and nieces and nephews and my uncles come through as they were growing as we were growing up, definitely helped with that.

 

Emily Portillo  20:59  

We then moved on to her family's hard work in both Mexico and the United States, and in this next audio, she will share about her grandparents on both sides and her family's working class background.

 

Estela Knott  21:16  

My father grew up poor working class, and my mother as well. My mother, my mother's parents, yeah, my mother's – my grandparents had a business in Mexico, but when they moved into the United States, still with their business, partially in Mexico, but also at that time, because of what my grandfather did, which is he was in the leather boot making industry. He made belts and hats and sofas and bars and bar stools. People would hire him in the United States, all across the border Mexico. It was very different. Then there wasn't this, you know, it was like you got a job that somebody wanted to hire you for. Then, you know, you say, I have this job that somebody hired me for. And then you would just come and you would do the job. And it's very different now. So he, he got hired to – he was very artistic. So he would get hired by bars and restaurants to come and do leather bars and stools and walls. I don't know if you've ever seen like, those really beautiful, like bars that have like leather and then they have those big brass pins in them, or around the edges of chairs or bar stools. So my grandfather made those kinds of things. And then he also got into boot making and hats and belts, so out of leather and snake skin and alligator skin and all those sorts of things. And so my mother grew up in a boot making business, or a leather making leather business. One of their children was deaf at birth, and so there was a school that he could go to in the United States. So one of the people that gave him work said, “look, there is a school here. So why don't you all try to get your papers so that he can learn how to read and write and speak sign language” and so forth. And so they did all the work to get, to get the kids over that they had at the time. And so my grandparents were very rooted in working for their children to have a better life, and so same for my father's side. My grandfather worked at the local mill, and my grandmother was a homemaker, which was very traditional. During those times they raised four children, and my father, my father, was the youngest, and so they worked very hard to make ends meet. And had, you know, some pigs in their backyard and some chickens to try to help supplement with food, and they raised a garden. My grandmother died when my father was 16, and his older siblings had gone off and started families of their own, so he hit the military as soon as he graduated from high school and went into the Army, and so that was his way of trying to get his life together and provide for a family. You know, when he met the right person, and then he met my mother. And they, my mother actually quit school, I think, in, uh late middle school, early high school, to help support her family. So together, when they got jobs to raise me and my brother, they were determined that we would, you know, go to school or join the military.

 

Emily Portillo  25:18  

Estela then discussed more on her education, her travels and how she met her husband, who she began playing music with. It was fascinating to hear all of the amazing places she's been. She also shared how her work in Charlottesville began, like the Lua project, and how central and Latin culture, how Central American and South American Latin culture, like her own, Mexican culture is present in the Shenandoah Valley and in the Appalachian region.

 

Estela Knott  25:46  

After leaving home to go to school, I went to Blue Ridge Community College in just out in Bridgewater, Virginia, just outside of Harrisonburg, Virginia, and I lived in Harrisonburg for a while, and then Charlottesville, and then Farmville, Virginia to finish my degree at Longwood. And then from there, I moved back to Charlottesville with my band, and it was here that I met my husband, who was playing with a Moli West African Griot in a band called Kaida. And we, he asked me, I met him at a club, and I was where he was playing jazz, and he said that they were looking for vocalists. And I told him I was looking into getting involved in just different music than I had been exposed to, and so that's how I ended up at the jazz club where he was playing. And so he's like, “well, jazz is cool, but they're all of these amazing styles of music in the world. And right now, I'm in this band with this grilled Moli West African Griot”, which is basically Griots, are carries – they carry the, the history in the culture of their people. You are born into this so your family is a storyteller, a musician, and uses music to tell those histories and stories. So Sheik Amalaji Abate, who we were playing with, carried the history of his people for over 500 years. It was a very intense experience being around him. He was so joyous and beautiful and just being able to, like, perform in his in his group was amazing, because being on stage with performing and in like, small, small kind of like house concerts or at weddings or specific kinds of ceremonies that they have like, it was interesting to see how the tradition of being a Griot works. Which is you, you come to someone's house and you sing songs about their family and their family history, and someone will say, will come up and they'll pay, they'll put some sort of like, give you a tip and say, “sing a song about you know this person”, and so they will, off the cuff, like, talk about this, this family and this person, and in a joking way, in a loving way, in a chastising way, you know like and really absorb like the personality of this person and the people that he would be singing to, and we were doing backup vocals, me and my friend Madeline, they would be just laughing and sort of nodding like, you know, as he's telling this story. And so I was just blown away by this, and that really got me thinking to myself, I really need to get into the parts of my own culture that I, you know, hadn't had an experience of growing up in, which is Appalachian culture, right? And so I, and my husband went on decided we were going to plan a trip. And we weren't married at the time, but he wanted to go to Brazil. I wanted to go to Mexico and, and live there for a while, and so we didn't want to break up. So we ended up going together, and we started in Mexico, and we lived there for a number of months, we traveled over land with just our backpack and an instrument on our backs, and we started with family, friends in in a place close to Merida called congal in the Yucatan Peninsula. And then from there, they were like, “oh, you should go visit this person and that person”. And then we met artists. And the next thing, you know, we're like, in almost every state in Mexico, Central and South Mexico. And then from there, people were like, oh, you should, you know, I have a friend in Guatemala, or I have a friend in Costa Rica. And so we'd literally went through Mexico Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and then from Costa Rica, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Venezuela, over the course of a year and a half and really absorbed a lot of amazing music. I am a musician through and through, but my music isn't based in, sort of reading music. It's based in how music fits within a culture, and how music sort of defines a culture, organizes a culture, and creates history around a culture, and so that has been my fascination for a long time now. We after being away for a long time, really got inspired by a lot of amazing mentors, mostly in Mexico, Peru and Brazil, and we felt the urge to come home and start like a Casa de Cultura, because they were everywhere, where we were traveling, these houses of culture that had musical activity like, think, music and art and history and agriculture and everything that sort of defines the culture of a town. They would host classes, workshops, talks, performances, festivals. And so we really, we were like, “man, we really want to go back and do this in the United States”. So we decided to come home and with a couple of other trips back and forth to visit friends and, and create music with our friends in Peru, for example, we ended up back in Charlottesville. We did end up on the west coast in Berkeley, California, for a while after we got married in 2004 because we were trying to find a place in the United States, where just to see if some place else felt like home. And it was amazing being there. The food was amazing. The music was amazing. There was every style of music that a person could possibly explore and find. But we are so deeply rooted here in Virginia, like this is both our homes. My husband's from Northern Virginia in Springfield, and so we felt a very strong connection. His father is from the Appalachians as well in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. And so we just feel a real connection to these mountains. And so we decided to move back home, and we started an early childhood music program called Blue Ridge Music together, where we serve families with children, birth through five years of age, because we really wanted to instill this strong sense of value for making music as a family, for as many families as possible. And then from that, as we were having our own children, we picked up the thread of Lua Project, which is our Mex-Alachan / Appalachiano music and culture project, and we've been working on that slowly with our family, Our two daughters and each other and our community for the past 14/15, years. And within Lua project, we make music, we record music, we do educational programming using our music in public schools, private schools, events, social halls, wherever people invite us to come and perform and play or do edutainment.

 

Emily Portillo  34:33  

I wrapped up our interview by asking Estela about the Lua project. She went into depth about her role in the Lua project, what the Lua project has accomplished and what each member of the band brings. Here she is.

 

Estela Knott  34:48  

I'm the founder of Lua project, and Lua project, Lua means moon in Portuguese, and we first picked the name like back in early, in 2000 when we started the group with our friend Kristen, who also still plays with us. And just sort of exploring like folk music from Latin America and Appalachia and country music, and we just started kind of blending it all together. And then really it started to get more refined in with, like, our own original music, like we started writing music, starting when we got back together in 200– I want to say 2009 or 2010? And we started kind of blending, blending the music. Our friend Kristen, who is steeped in old time music and Appalachian music, plays violin and banjo and mandolin, and he brings so much to the group. And then my husband David, who is a bassist and a composer and has this amazing ability to pull on all kinds of amazing like global threads, particularly this concept of the Atlantic basin music, and with with Africa and South America and South and Central and Mexico, it just this, sort of like how this music fuses together. So in our music, we've sort of through the years, have met people like Will Roman, who is in a group called Cadencia, and he is Puerto Rican, of Puerto Rican descent. He brings a lot to the group, because he not only has practiced and understands all of his Puerto Rican traditional rhythms from his culture, but also Latin rhythms in general. So he brings a lot to the group thats percussive and the important underlying rhythms. And David has this way of piecing together certain aspects of genres of music from different parts of these, these areas in the Atlantic basin. I bring myself, which is what I call Mexallachan. I love to write songs, and those songs are oftentimes based on stories that I, through people that I've met. I like to write about people. I like to write about things that have happened in our lives. I like to write about my experiences as a mother, and I like to write with my family. And so that is all intertwined in there. And then we have another key member of our group, is Matty Metcalf, who plays a lot of things. He plays – all the people in our band play a lot of different instruments. Matty plays piano accordion in our band. He plays accordion, Banjo, mostly, and then he is very steeped in like Irish traditional music, corridos and any kind of accordion music that you can possibly imagine. He knows about and has dabbled in Argentine – Argentinian tango, you know, corridos from Mexico, Irish music, you name it, English folk music. And so he brings a lot to the group in that way. Every now and then, we are lucky enough to have our friend Sophia Enriquez, who is a professor at Duke University, who's Mexallachan like myself, and she is an ethno-musicologist. She writes beautifully. She's an amazing writer and is a phenomenal singer, and she plays stringed instruments as well, and is learning a lot about son Jarocho music from Veracruz, from Veracruz, Mexico. And right now she has been in Mexico for a year, doing a sabbatical and studying son Jarocho music and music of Mexico. And so she comes and joins us sometimes and plays with us. My daughter Luna plays with us. She's been steeped in what we call Mexallachan / Appalachano music, and has written with us as well.

 

Emily Portillo  39:53  

I want to thank Estela for everything she is doing for her community and for answering my questions as in depth as she did. I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to interview her.

 

Liam Franco  40:04  

Now, Emily, I do have a question, of course, when you were speaking to Estela, did she ever bring up any associations or partnerships that she was working with besides the university to get the name out of Los Appalachios?

 

Emily Portillo  40:18  

Yes, she's a very active community member, specifically in the Appalachian region, not just in Virginia, but all throughout the Appalachians. In the Shenandoah Valley, she's a leading force. She's very active in the community with young community members, like in schools. She's also very active in her church, and, yeah, she's always very willing to spread her music and the goal of the Lua project with everyone, not just in the Shenandoah Valley, not just in Virginia, not just in Richmond, but you know, in the much wider area. 

 

Liam Franco  40:59  

Outstanding. Emily, I want to thank you for your time and for introducing us to Estela. And before we end up this podcast, let me. Let me go ahead and let this conclusion leave out with some, with some words to live by and a little bit of inspiration that I took from my dad. Our interviews – our interview showcase the remarkable perseverance, first off, and the commitments of my father and of Estela, hard working individuals, not just driven, but also eager to pass on what they've learned to anybody else who was willing to take the time to listen. See, the reason why I chose my dad to interview in the first place is because his perspective will be a valuable contribution, not only to the project, but also the highlighting of a successful case and positive assimilation into American culture. And these are his own words, which I intend to also bring up to speed, not just also assimilating between American culture and embracing Peruvian heritage, but at the same time recognizing that music, food and the language are also contributions to a more, much more broader gathering of like-minds who do cherish and share similar attributes, and way to express that through actual like community. And this case would be what I can take from Estela is that she is combining a domestic and close to the roots here in the states to culture with the Mexican culture as well, and integrating in both. Moreover, these cultural elements have since been a shared experience, even among my personal relatives who, who've been born here in the States. So the ability to take his story and reflect a kind of cultural blending really makes it genuine and personal. In all honesty, some of the scripted questions in this interview, but did echo a little bit of political circus, but I digress. What I really took away was that my father had indeed admitted to have faced a sense of persecution, but at the same token, he was willing to frame those hardships and experiences and to build, like I mentioned, the character of a man.

 

Rudy Franco  43:22  

Have I encountered racism everywhere I went here? Okay, but it's how you approach it. You know, it's how you handle yourself, and it is all about, you know, what kind of person you are. You know if you are going to feel like a victim every time, you're always going to be a victim, no matter where you go. You see, I am a firm believer in your abilities as a person. You know, I have always cultivated, I have always been a proactive person where – I'm not, I'm the kind of person that, that if I'm in search of something, I want to do something, I will research about it. I will work on it. I will get to know what that is, you know? So for the most part, you know, I have never had a situation where racism has stopped me from doing a job, or doing or getting a job, and yes, you know, I've been, I'm going to jobs, you know, where was very obvious that they weren't going to hire me because I was Hispanic, not because I didn't know the job. But like that, there were other 10 jobs that I could get, you know, so you got to be able to, to navigate those things, and that's just the nature of how life is in this country. At least, you know, from my experience. And again, you know, it boils down to the kind of character of your character, you know, if you are the kind of person that, because somebody doesn't like you because of your color your skin all the time, you're gonna just, you know, lay down and let it be then, you know, that's, that's you. But I’ve never been like that. If, like some people would say, if you have a door that closes on you here, there's another one that’s going to open over there.

 

Liam Franco  45:19  

He learned to navigate the harsh realities of discrimination by proactively engaging with different cultures and mastering this art of communication, learning to take it easy and to listen and through that. What I took away from our very, very eye opening conversation is that is this two big things, the ability to connect and compromise with deep people on all different spectrums, backgrounds, ethnicities, religions and races. Which then come to a sense of self reliance, especially through small talk and throughout interactions, either by sitting next to a fire with beer or having a cup of coffee. Life, he emphasizes it isn't about what you know. It's about how well you're able to speak and relate with those who are different from you.

 

Emily Portillo  46:11  

Thank you for sharing that, Liam. I like that you brought up how your father and your discussion was molded or altered by the interview questions that we are prompted with to kind of give a different perspective. In my discussion with Estela, she was more embracing of the politically motivated questions, and it was something that she wanted to discuss on. So I think that the difference in that just shows how beautifully diverse cultures can be, and it's been brilliant to mirror my interview with Estela, with your interview with your father, Rudy Franco. So thank you so much.

 

Liam Franco  46:53  

Thank you for your time, Emily, and this has been a joy and a privilege to really know and hear your stories. 

 

Emily Portillo  47:01  

Yes, thank you so much. That is a perfect way to mark off our podcast. 

 

Liam Franco  47:09

Have a good one.

 

Emily Portillo  47:12

You too.