Two Mexican Immigrants’ Journey: The History of Mexican Immigration in the U.S. and the Impact it Had on My Life
I have lived twenty-two years on Earth without a clue on how two immigrants from Mexico went on to shape my life in every aspect. Two immigrants coming to the United States in search for a better opportunity is why I am here today. These two immigrants’ journey here has been unknown for me yet impacted my life. Those two people are Juan and Gloria Flores, my grandparents.
For my migration memoir project, my proposal is creating a slide show consisting of the history and statistics of Mexican immigration into the United States at the time my grandparents came, as well as the stories my grandparents tell me after my interviews with them. Some questions I want to answer for my project are the ways in which my grandparents faced opposition in coming to the United States, personal hurdles they dealt with leaving home, and how they think they impacted my life as well as the lives of my family. Other questions are the attitudes people had about Mexican immigration in the 1960s and questions about the number of Mexican immigrants coming to the U.S.
Some research I have done for my project include a document by Alexander Belliaeff called Understanding the Mexican-American in Today’s Culture from 1966. This document dives deep into the history of Mexican immigration and has excellent graphs that demonstrate the statistics of immigration. In addition, I want to use the book I am reading for class, Homelands, to connect with the some of the questions I will ask my grandparents. In the book, the author, Alfredo Corchado, felt isolated and alone when he moved to Philadelphia in the ’80s, but after meeting other people like him, he didn't feel the same as he did when he arrived. The plan is to ask my grandparents about those feelings they may have faced leaving their home country and coming to the U.S. One last literature I want to use in regard to the question I will ask is a peer-reviewed article by Veronica Montes titled The Roles of Emotions in the Construction of Masculinity: Guatemalan Migrant Men, Transnational Migration, and Family Relations. I want to use the concepts from this piece and add it to questions about my grandfather’s specific journey here. I think this will be great to ask because there is this type of masculinity that Latino men practice that denies them an opportunity to show emotions. I want to see if that is what my grandfather dealt with.
In conclusion, my whole point of this project is to learn and understand more about my grandparent's journey to the U.S. I don’t speak Spanish, so it has been hard for me to connect with my grandparents as well as hard to get in touch with my culture and the history of Mexican immigration. I hope this project teaches me more about the history of my own family and the real impact it had on my life.
