By Kemi Seriki
What about other children of immigrants from other communities?
Background:
Since the beginning of my community conversation about the intergenerational relationship in the African immigrant community, I have always been interested in exploring other immigrant communities whose immigrant stories are similar to those of African immigrants. I wanted to learn about the children of other immigrant communities whose parents migrated from Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia. Some of the questions I was hoping to have answered include: Do children of immigrants from these countries understand why their parents migrated to America and their lives before migration? Are the children aware of and acknowledge the challenges their parents went through during migration? After relocating to America, are the children of these immigrants aware of the hurdles of their daily lives as their parents try to make ends meet to provide for their family and one day fulfill their American dreams through self-actualization and see through that their children succeed? How are the children of immigrants giving back to their community, and why should they prioritize giving back? As I read through diverse research publications on immigrants’ experiences, which mainly focus on the challenges and the obstacles of meeting the need to provide for themselves and their families, there needs to be more exploration of their strength and resilience. Many research publications mentioned that children of immigrants tend to give back to maintain a continuous connection with their ethnic identity. It is a way of appreciating ethnic relations and is seen as an extension of kinfolk. Immigrant children witness the daily struggles of their parents and community at large, as a result, tend to develop a sense of duty and obligation to give back. Many successful children of immigrants dedicated their time to giving back to their community to serve as examples for the younger generation.
Children of immigrants from Latin American countries
I started this project by focusing on the Latin American immigrants who are also members of minority communities and, most times, reside within the same neighborhood, which mainly includes African Americans, West Indians immigrants, and African immigrants. Since my exploration focuses on children of immigrants, I searched for books written by children of immigrants from south America and concentrated on their collective experiences. I also searched for children of immigrants whose life story is evidence of beating the odds and, despite their successful career, did forget to give back or make it a priority to render their skill to their community. These children may have witnessed members of their families struggling to provide for them and/or listened to the stories of the daily struggles of immigrants with the hope of giving better lives to their children. As many said, these anecdotes developed a sense of community and a solid aspiration to give back. Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, the author of The Undocumented America, and Irma Olguin, the founder and CEO of Tech Hub in California, fit the profile of children of immigrants using their expertise to give back to the Latino community.
Karla Cornejo Villavicencio gives voice to the voiceless
Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, the author of The Undocumented Americans, migrated along with her parents from Ecuador at a very young age. Her book gave accounts of the hidden lives of undocumented Americans. Cornejo Villavicencio completed her undergraduate studies at Harvard University, and during her senior year, she wrote an anonymous essay published by The Daily Beast about her experience as being undocumented. She received offers from literary agents to write a memoir which she declined. Instead, Villavicencio incorporates her family’s story with the stories of the other undocumented immigrants to present to the readers the most painful and demoralizing circumstances undocumented immigrants regularly face in their new homes. She shed light on her own family experiences and unveiled other immigrants’ lives by allowing their voices to be heard through their individual stories. She exposes the struggles, the persistence, and the gravity of self-respect undocumented American carry along with navigating through a ruthless system of employment and dealing with negative projection from other members of society that perceives them as others.
Immigrants Parents’ Expectations and Striving for the American Dream
Cornejo Villavicencio was raised in a home where the father works tirelessly to provide for his family in jobs familiar to countless undocumented immigrants. She is sometimes aware of the humiliation the father receives from the employer and the general public he was employed to serve. Sometimes experiences make a person become courageous and speak up for those who do not have a voice to speak for themselves. At fifteen years old, Cornejo Villavicencio remembered calling the restaurant where her father works as a delivery man pretending to be a newspaper reporter to get an abusive manager fired. Most immigrants would not like to see their children experience the same inhumane treatment they received from many of the citizens of their host country. The mission for most immigrant parents is to secure upward mobility to ensure a finer future for their children. As a result, there is an intense emphasis on successful academic performance many parents believe would later secure a better lucrative career.
A familiar story told by many children of African immigrants, Cornejo Villavicencio also grew up in a home where she may have felt pressured to succeed in school. She was a child who was raised to fulfill her parents’ expectations. Villavicencio was nurtured to validate her parents’ sacrifices as the pride of joy in obtaining the American dream. As she recounted in her story when she was in second grade, Villavicencio got 85% on a math test, and she hid the result from her parents. When the parents found out, the father was more understanding and spoke in parables to ease his daughter’s anxiety. Mother’s reaction was different. She stated, “My mother took me aside and asked me who the first man on the moon was. Neil Armstrong, I told her. Now name the second man on the moon. I don’t know, I said. Nobody does, she said. If you’re not number one, you are nothing”.
Undocumented are the hidden labor force that keeps America moving
Cornejo Villavicencio stories of The Undocumented Americans reveals that immigrants are the backbone, the workforce that helps rebuild and restore American cities and states as the nation experiences significant crisis such as weather disaster or terrorist attack. They perform the most dangerous job with lower pay, and many have become acclimated to despicable exploitation. Even though many undocumented experiences these ill-treatments, there is nothing they can do about it because the employer would threaten deportation. With empathy and a desire to help, Cornejo Villavicencio started by interviewing undocumented immigrants from the cleaning and rebuilding crews after September 11 and spoke to the cleanup crew after Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Ida, and many considerable disasters in America, including in Florida and Texas. She visited Grand Zero, Staten Island, Miami, Cleveland, Flint, Michigan, and New Haven, Connecticut, to interview those willing to tell their stories. Cornejo Villavicencio wrote about housekeepers and maids who have been physically and sexually assaulted, groped, or raped while on duty. Many of these women have their wages stolen, and with the threat of deportation, they are forced into silence by their employers. This particular story reminds me of Nafissatou Diallo and the sexual assault she experienced in 2011 while working as a maid at the Sofitel hotel in NYC. IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn sexually assaulted Diallo, and after extensive public humiliation of the victim, the case was settled in a civil lawsuit. Dominique Strauss-Kahn was criminally charged but never criminally convicted in the case.
Cornejo Villavicencio investigated how events such as the Flint Water Crisis and other crises harm these vulnerable populations without provisions of services available to the general population with citizenship status. She interviewed two men who took sanctuary in a church in New Haven, Connecticut, as they resisted deportation. Cornejo Villavicencio exposes the lack of legitimate health care for many undocumented immigrants in Miami due to ineligibility for medical insurance. She divulged into the story a pharmacy that provides prescription drugs to this vulnerable population without a prescription issued by a doctor. When medications are unavailable, Cornejo Villavicencio disclosed that there are home treatments called “folks medicine” available in Botanica, familiar to immigrants from South America and the Caribbean.
Cornejo Villavicencio uses her journalism expertise to give the voiceless a voice by documenting the stories of the most vulnerable member of society. The author discusses the psychological impact of being a child of immigrant and undocumented. She discussed her mental health diagnoses, which she said include borderline personality disorder, major depression, anxiety, and OCD. Cornejo Villavicencio is a PhD candidate in America Studies at Yale University.
Irma Olguin – From cashing in bottles and cans as a child to becoming a Tech Mogul
I came across the story of the incredible work Irma Olguin is doing in Fresno, California, on TED Talk. Olguin is the CEO and co-founder of Bitwise, whose objective is to produce a diverse tech workforce in underserved communities across the United States. Due to my interest in her story, I later listened to other interviews she was featured on multiple podcasts. The host of Latino Founder Hour, where she appeared, talked about the selfless work Olguin has been doing in the communities. He emphasized Olguin dedicating her career to opening doors of tech opportunities to the communities left behind and asked Olguin, “how do we clone you.” Irma Olguin is the granddaughter and daughter of a Mexican farm worker in Central Valley, where her family worked tirelessly to make ends meet during her formative years. In one of her interviews, she said, “I did not realize that we are poor until much later that I realized that not everyone struggled in that way.” In the community where Olguin grew up, there are similar stories of generations of immigrant families working as field laborers struggling to pay rent, light bills, and provide necessities for their families.
Accidental moments lead to a different path
In one of her interviews, Olguin reflected on her life journey about where she is today. She said that her life’s present accomplishment was not planned “but these accidental moments that put me on a completely different path so that I get to live the life that I lead today.” When Olguin was in high school, she did not consider herself a college-bound student. During her high school years, she was sitting in one of her classes, and the school announced that eligible students could go to the cafeteria to take a PSAT test. Olguin purposely gave the test a try to get out of school early because she never thought her family could afford to send her to college. Guess what? She did very well on the test and was offered a full scholarship to attend the University of Toledo in Ohio. Her family members are happy and proud that Olguin is going to college on a full ride, but how could her family afford to pay for transportation for their daughter to go to Ohio to claim her scholarship? Olguin worked at fast food during summer and collected recyclable bottles and cans to pay for the $78 Greyhound bus to Ohio.
When Olguin arrived at this immense college campus and in an environment where she did not know anyone, she was still doubtful. She was experiencing imposter syndrome as she said to herself, “please don’t let this be a joke.” Olguin walked up to the new admission table and spoke to a staff member who asked her about her major so that she could direct to the appropriate building. Olguin recounted that the lady handed the school catalog and instructed her to go through it to determine what she intended to study while at the school. As Olguin looked through the catalog, she spotted a new glass building. The college freshman said to herself, “wouldn’t it be neat to take classes in a glass building.” The building happens to be the college of engineering. The rest was history, and Olguin majored in computer science and engineering.
What does the future holds?
Instead of going to Silicon Valley or working in a big tech company after graduating college, Olguin returned to Fresno to give back to her community. She took various jobs, including teaching in a public school in computer programing and network technician for a school in the area. In the scheme of things, she was working on plans to provide coding instructions to members of her community who may have yet to have the opportunity to do so. In 2013, Olguin partnered with Jake Soberal, a fellow Fresno with similar family background, to start Bitwise Industries. They are both aware that there are limited career opportunities in their hometown and they initiated teaching members of their community coding. With her experiences growing up in a community with limited resources, Olguin understands that Bitwise has to provide other services beyond teaching coding. She recognized that many members of the community might be experiencing food insecurities, transportation problems, and inability to pay their monthly bills. The company focuses on obstacles that may hinder individuals from learning. Bitwise developed strategies and implemented services to address these issues.
As she said in her TED Talk, “The U.S. spends a trillion dollars scaling up a workforce for this country.” Bitwise applied for government funds and used the money to pay students who registered in the program. The company applies for education grants from diverse companies and utilizes the money for students’ tuition. In her interview with Zomorodi of NPR, Olguin said, “We talk about the lift from, you know, earning $21,000 a year to, in three years, 80~plus thousand dollars a year.
Forbes magazine, issued on February 24th, 2021, reported that Bitwise Industries secured $50 million in Series B funding from Kapor Capital, JP Morgan, Motley Fool Ventures, and ProMedica. The report indicated that the company had raised $100 million, and its valuation was estimated at $200 million. I visited the Bitwise Industries website to view the extraordinary contributions this company makes in changing the lives of the underprivileged members of the diverse communities it is built to serve. My critical observation of the website is that the operating team came from various backgrounds. The company continues to expand its services to multiple states, cities, and counties in America.