Alma Logue Interview

Alma Logue, a good friend of my mom, came into the United States when she was 24 years old. She grew up as the youngest of 9 kids, which is actually quite common in Mexico. She had lived in Tampico, Mexico her entire life until coming to the States. She originally came to the US with a tourist visa as a young girl, but when she turned 24 she applied for a work visa, received it, and moved to the United States, specifically Austin, Texas. However, when she met her husband, she moved to Greensboro, North Carolina to be with him. She then started the process to becoming a full-fledged citizen of the United States of America. The process went quite smoothly for her, given the fact that she had been fortunate enough to enter the country legally and without issue. An amusing issue that arose during the process were her fingerprints, which were always impossible for the scanners to read, and she ended up having to have them documented twice each time she visited the Immigrations Office in Charlotte. She also found that the process of becoming a legalized citizen, while not particularly difficult, was quite lengthy, given the amounts of applications they receive on a daily basis. The drives to Charlotte on a monthly basis were also an ordeal unto themselves. However, she became a legal citizen of the US 3 years ago and has been happily living here ever since. One of the biggest culture changes she noticed when she moved here was how little connection we have with our families, both immediate and extended. In Mexico, families will often live very close to one another in order to be able to hang out with each other on a regular basis. However, here in the US, families will often spread apart and only come together for significant holidays (Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc.) and scheduled family reunions. Ms. Logue is definitely a success story, showing how a person from an entirely different country can successfully find a home here. However, for every case like Ms. Logue’s, there are dozens more who weren’t so lucky, and Ms. Logue even called herself “extremely fortunate” for the ease in which she entered the country. Special Thanks to Alma Logue for agreeing to meet with me.