WHAT IS YOUR IMMIGRATION STORY?

My name is Connie, and my father migrated early in his life from Honduras. He started as a merchant marine back in the 60s. Back then it was easy to obtain a green card. He lived in New York and on one of his trips back home, he met my mother. They started dating and got together, had four kids as he was traveling and working as a merchant marine back and forth to us. And as we were growing up, he decided to bring us to the US, which was New Orleans. We moved to New Orleans, myself and my three other siblings, which was four of us. As this was all happening, he and my mother separated and she didn't get to come with us as we came to the US. As the oldest, I had to help raise my siblings when I was 14 years old. I helped raise my siblings and my father fell ill so he had to move back home to Honduras where he could be well taken care of while we were here in school, leaving me at 15 in charge of my siblings. All the pressure fell on me as the oldest. My mom heard the story and found a way to come after us. In her journey here they had to walk through jungle, through desert, cross rivers, sleep in the dark under the jungle and under the trees. And it took her about a month to get to us. She suffered but at the end she made it to her kids. I was 18 when she made it here. She started working three jobs to help pay the rent. And it took me a while to graduate high school, but I was 20 when I graduated high school. 

I started working when I was in the ninth grade. I was going to high school, working after school, then gas station during the weekend overnight. And yes, once I graduated high school, my mom was here. I held a full-time job. I didn't get a chance to go to college. So, I had to work full-time and help file for my mom as I became citizen. So, I filed to a petition for my mom so she could become legally documented, and we made it. It took about three years, but she became a permanent resident of the US.

WHAT DOES YOUR CURRENT JOURNEY LOOK LIKE?

My siblings did really well. One graduated from with a doctorate in pharmacy. I have my own business right now. I have a nail salon. I've had it for 11 years now, going on 12. And one of my other sisters has a nightclub and my little brother has his own trucking company. I've been able to go to school, I've gotten my BFA and I'm working on my master's right now. But that wouldn't be possible if my parents didn't work so hard. 

My kids have done a good job speaking the language around us. We are also always cooking the traditional foods in the house like machuka. And in our cultural dance we have 10 different dances. And during Christmas and New Year's we have a tradition to dance to the drum and sing. One of the dances is a war dance from back in the day when we were exiled from St. Vincent and the Spaniard wanted to fight us for the land. The mask that we used was so they wouldn't do anything to the women because they wouldn't know that it's a man wearing it so they can confuse the enemies thinking that it's women. But it's actually men wearing the mask and the skirt. And we did win the war through the mask and the costume and then beating the drum and dancing and making them confused.

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