Tongue Shakers by Shaheed Margie;

Author:Shaheed, Margie;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Hamilton Books
Published: 2012-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Coming to America

Jesusita Valencia, age 81, Female

Birthplace–Cali, Colombia

Occupation–Seamstress (Retired)

Mother Tongue: Spanish

Speaks: American English

Margie: Describe your life in Colombia.

My mother died when I was 8 years old. For the first 2 years I went to live with my father and stepmother. Afterwards I was raised by my grandmother. At 12 years old I met a family of sisters who became my friends for life.

When I got married to my husband he had one more year of college. After he finished, he and his friend started a business in Cali. My husband was a mechanical industrial engineer who made wrought iron fences. He was independent and he wanted his own business so he branched off from his friend and started his own business in my father’s garage. He bought some machines and things went well for a while. We were having our children then, four in all so I was at home with them. In the meantime Fanny, one of the sisters from the family of sisters I grew up with was doing contract work in the States where she lived in New York City. It was common for Colombian women to work as maids in the United States under a contract. Once the contract was fulfilled they gained legal status and were allowed to remain in America as residents.

After a while the steel industry went into decline and it became harder to get the materials necessary to make the fences so my husband’s business began to suffer. My husband wanted to leave Colombia because of the bad economy but we had not decided where we would go. America became the choice after we visited the consulate and the line for the United States was short. Plus, I did miss my friends dearly and wanted to be near them in New York City. I came to America with my young daughter, Myriam on December 3, 1961 with plans for my husband and other children to follow. My husband found employment quickly when he entered the States and he eventually earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Queens College.

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