Our Stories

Thomas Edmunds Marshall was the first generation American in my family. He was originally from Wales, but moved to England as a young child and had grown up there. Religion has always been a big part of my family’s life, since my uncle and my grandfather are pastors. The importance of religion has been passed down from generation to generation, and it began with Thomas’s involvement in religious tolerance. In England in the 1700s, religious prejudice was a large issue. The government was completely anti-Catholic, and other religions were always getting misinterpreted by outsiders. He needed to leave England in order to escape from the religious prejudice. The colonies were still a very new development, so he decided that they were the best place for him to go in order to start a new chapter in his life. The rest of his family didn’t come to the colonies with him because they weren’t financially able, so he moved to a completely different country all alone. Once he came to America, he bought a small piece of land in Virginia, and began farming. He didn’t have much, so his farm wasn’t too big and wasn’t too profitable, but it gave him enough money to stay in the colonies where he was able to express his religion freely without having to worry about what others thought about his beliefs. He saved every penny possible so that he could help his parents afford to move to the colonies. Finally after two years of both he and his parents saving all the money they could, his parents were able to move to the colonies to live with him. If Thomas hadn’t been so involved in religious tolerance, then my family may not still be so involved in our religion. Even though his action of coming to the colonies may not seem like it would impact his ancestors other than where they live, it has made a lasting impression on one of the most important things in our world, religion.

We left the day after my 7th birthday party. I wasn’t worried about goodbyes that day… I couldn’t possibly imagine that that day would be the last time I saw some of the people that mattered most to me. That was the best day of my life, so why would I picture the next day as anything different?

A lot of people might say I’m not an immigrant, but I do not believe anyone can label me except for me. Americans don’t consider me an American because I have Brazilian pride and don’t look the part. My parents don’t consider me a Brazilian because I didn’t grow up the same way they did, and all the other Brazilians treat me like a “gringa”. The amount of pain that I feel because I do not fit in any box is immense because I never feel at home. In the United States, I feel like a Brazilian. And in Brazil, I feel like an American. No matter which place I’m at, I always feel like a part of me is missing.

In the United States, I miss my family, my support system, my friends, and what I call my childhood dream. I miss my family and I have guilt every day that I took my mom and dad away from their families. I feel guilty that I’m missing out on my little cousins’ life. I miss the support that my family and the community around me gave me. I miss my old school and the friends that I loved. It angers me that I am distancing myself away from everyone because it just makes me have more to miss and more pain to suffer. To this day, every time I come back to the United States from Brazil I cry as the plane takes off. I cry because I always wonder; What if I never left?

My subject is my great grandfather Alexander Fekete. He was born in the year 1910 in Budapest, Hungary and moved to Clementine, New Jersey along with his brother and his mother in the year 1922 at the age of 12. When he first got to the United States the greatest problem for him was the language barrier. (He claimed) At the age of 12 years old he has to enroll into the first grade so that he could learn the language and be on the right pace for school at the same time. He graduated high school and went to college for one year. Once he left school he had to work harder than most. Being an immigrant and a young adult, the depression hit him hard and he was forced to work as a cook for the civilian conservation corps (CCC) throughout the depression. He later married my great grandmother Rita who he only knew for a short time when she died or alcoholism around the age of 40, after having my grandfather and his brother and sister. From then on Alexander raised my grandfather and his siblings until they all moved out. He spent the rest of his days watching baseball with a beer in his hand surrounded by his family until he died on March 22^nd 1992. He’s now buried in Burlington, New Jersey, 12 miles from my grandparent.

My name is Beina Hallman. I was born on April 31^st, 1968 in Surat, India. I was raised in Surat, India, but at the age of 10 I immigrated over to the United States. My father went over first to make sure we had a stable life when we came over. We had to leave my eldest sister behind, because we didn’t have enough money to pay for her travel. I was devastated that she wasn’t coming with us, and that she had to stay with our cousins back in India. I traveled to Mississippi, U.S. with my mother and my second older sister to meet my father. The reason we came over to America was for more educational opportunities. My sister was supposed to undergo an arranged marriage, but our father did not want us to be uneducated housewives. He wanted us to have all the opportunities available to us, so that we could become successful. My first months in America were not what I imagined. I was bullied in school; I was called names and my country was constantly criticized. I was bullied to the point that a girl pushed me down the stairs, but fortunately I had my sister there to defend me. I had studied English in India prior to coming to Mississippi, but my English wasn’t as good as most. The language barrier between me and my classmates was difficult and I imagine a breeding ground for my harassment. My biggest challenge was getting acquainted with the norms in society. I miss a lot of aspects about India, but it took a while to not incessantly miss seeing the beautiful farmland and the comfort in familiarity. Later I settled in Charlotte, N.C. I worked as a computer engineer and eventually was moved to company manager. I met my husband at work and we had our beautiful children Sarah and Jason. I feel sorry for my children because even though they have a good life, they missed the culture I experienced growing up in India. We don’t celebrate Indian holidays and traditions in our household. I tried to sign my daughter up for Indian dance class, but she didn’t want to. I feel that my children and in a way, myself have lost our culture. There are more opportunities in America, but in seizing them I lost a part of who I am. 

My mother, Shweta Naphade, is from Mumbai (otherwise known as Bombay), Maharashtra (a western state in India). She was born to a middle-class family. Her mom was a housewife and her dad was a civil engineer in charge of building bridges and roads of the city of Mumbai. Almost everyone from an educated middle-class family in her time aspired to be an engineer or a doctor. She worked hard in her childhood studying more and partying less. All that hard work paid off and her rigorous education got her to the USA.

After coming to the USA with $100 in her pocket, a bag of clothes, and a baby that was 14 months old (my sister), my mom first learned to drive. Then she got a job in IT industry as a programmer. Her engineering background in computer science helped her build a life in this new country with my father.

At first, my mom didn’t know anyone in the USA, but over time, after she moved to Cary NC in 1995, she met an astounding number of fellow Indians, including many from her home state of Maharashtra! Many more of her family members have since moved to the USA and live throughout the country. Also, now thanks to technology such as Face Time and Skype my mom can communicate with her family in India frequently.

My mom faced some major challenges when she came to the USA. The primary challenge was adapting to life in a different culture. “Different language, different rules and regulations,” she says. “The American English had different nuances than the British English taught in Indian schools. So at first, it was hard for me to communicate effectively with people at work, but within a few months I lost my accent (mostly) and caught on.” On a less crucial note, she adds that “after living in India’s warm climate for the first part of my life, adjusting to winter in NC was a quite difficult. I was definitely not used to either snow or ice.”

My mom thinks that despite recent happenings in this country, “in general, Americans are respectful towards immigrants. I love the concept that anyone who comes to America and works hard can climb the ladder of success.” My mom loves this country for one reason most of all: for being able to fulfill her American dream.

Suja Thomas came to the US from Kuwait by way of India to pursue her graduate degree in mathematics. Born in Kuwait in 1988 to Indian parents, she grew up immersed in both Middle Eastern and Indian culture. She learned to speak Arabic, English, Hindi, and Malayalam, a regional language from a South Indian state. When the Gulf War broke out, her family took shelter in their house. After two days, an Indian consul aided their passage to an airport to escape the country. They were nearly detained multiple times, but managed to reach the airport unmolested. The evacuation plane took only women and children, but her father was allowed on the plane to help her mother, who had surgery just before the start of the war. The plane flew to an airport in Afghanistan, where the Indian passengers on the plane had to stay overnight while the Indian foreign minister negotiated with the Afghanistan government to allow the passengers to take a plane to Mumbai. The family moved to Chennai to be with relatives, which was her first time living in India. She completed her secondary education there, and moved to Delhi to get her undergraduate degree in mathematics. Afterwards, she became interested in moving to the US to pursue a graduate degree. A friend of hers living in the US convinced her to come, and she began her advanced studies in mathematics, but quickly realized that this wasn’t the right path for her and transferred to taking biomedical engineering at UNC chapel hill. She remained in the US after graduating, and currently works at a local startup as a data scientist.