Harrisonburg 360 Allison Fagan

In this episode of Harrisonburg 360 titled “Home,” we had the privilege of interviewing David Figueroa, who is a junior at James Madison University. David is generation 1.5 because his parents relocated to the United States from Honduras. This podcast episode will highlight
David’s story as he speaks about his successes, struggles, and motivation to finish school. He reflects on his time in K-12, the teachers that impacted him, and how he found his support systems in college. We will also examine the literary work of Journalist Jose Antonio Vargas. In Jose’s essay, “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant” he shares his experience as an undocumented immigrant. He accounts his personal journey from the Philippines to the United States, as he establishes what it means to be an American from his perspective and his experiences. Jose reflects on his hardships that he had to overcome, such as correct paperwork, hard decision-making, and struggling to find support systems. Our group will discuss the ways family, identity, and support intersect with education.


Links:
Vargas, Jose Antonio. “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 22 June 2011, https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/magazine/my-life-as-an-undocumented-
immigrant.html.


“Temporary Protected Status.” USCIS, 19 Apr. 2022, https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/temporary-protected-status

This episode, Lost in Translation, was produced by Emily Killmon, Hannah Knick, Charlotte Lawrence-Hovey, and Alayna Saunders. Our narrator was Jaime Cañas. Lost in Translation covers Jaime’s experience as a generation 1.5 immigrant from El Salvador. Jaime immigrated in 2001 following an earthquake in El Salvador that allowed him and his family to stay using Temporary Protected Status. Jaime describes growing up managing the extra responsibility of being the family translator, being more independent scholastically, and finding people to help him through it all. We explore the themes of responsibility, support, and logistic obstacles as Jaime explains how he navigates life as an immigrant.


The information used in our literary discussion can be found here:
Contreras, Ingrid Rojas. “The Paris Review  -  Translation as an Arithmetic of Loss - The Paris Review.” The Paris Review,
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2019/06/18/translation-as-an-arithmetic-of-loss/.


Nayeri, Dina. “The Ungrateful Refugee: We Have No Debt to Repay.” The Guardian, 4 Apr. 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/04/dina-nayeri-ungrateful-refugee


“Temporary Protected Status: An Overview | American Immigration Council.” American
Immigration Council, 24 Aug. 2017, https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/temporary-protected-status-overvi
ew#:~:text=Temporary%20Protected%20Status%20(TPS)%20is,be%20deported%20to%
20those%20countries.


“ Community Support for Migrants Navigating the US Immigration System.” American Immigrant Council, 26 Feb. 2021,
https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/community-support-migrants-navi
gating-us-immigration-system

In this episode of Harrisonburg 360, MIXED, Izabella Pezza recounts her experience having immigrant parents, growing up and living as a mixed-race person, and her understanding of how her family's dynamics have shaped who she is. Izabella, a sophomore English major at JMU, has aspirations to be a Creative Writing professor. In combination with references to Izabella's Oral History interview, conducted by Emily Graff, our group made connections to We Came All The Way From Cuba So You Could Dress Like This? by Achy Obejas in our literary discussion. This
episode’s host was Zoe Lublin, the research and content producer was Grace Keeler, and the audio producer was Oliver Cigich. This episode was unique because Izabella was not only the narrator but a member of the class, and acted as team manager for this episode’s group.


Link to short story discussed in episode:
https://latinosexualitygender.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/obejas-we-came-all-the-way-from-cub
a.pdf


Bibliography of Additional Relevant Information
Chigas, George, and Dmitri Mosyakov. “Literacy and Education under the Khmer Rouge.”
Genocide Studies Program , Yale University,
https://gsp.yale.edu/literacy-and-education-under-khmer-rouge.
Humans Win. “Affections.” Storyblocks,
https://www.storyblocks.com/audio/stock/affection-bxz2g2oz8k69tat9h.html
Obejas, Achy. We Came All The Way From Cuba So You Could Dress Like This? Cleis, 1994.
Sean Fischer. “We Are Millennials.” Storyblocks,
https://www.storyblocks.com/audio/stock/we-are-millenials-hb4f1xgf_0hk4brm9cq.html
So, Anthony Veasna. Afterparties. Grove Press UK, 2022.

In this episode of Harrisonburg360, our group discusses the experiences of two women as they immigrated to the United States in 2001. Paloma Saucedo immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico with her then-partner, while Jinky Knox immigrated by herself from the Philippines in order to continue a relationship with an American man she had met. Although Jinky and Paloma first arrived in different areas of the country, eventually they both settled in Harrisonburg, VA. This episode analyzes Jinky and Paloma’s initial perceptions of the United States and how those perceptions were challenged and changed by their experiences. Throughout this podcast, we compared and contrasted the immigration narratives from these two women in order to highlight the intensity of being exposed to an unfamiliar culture from another country. In conclusion, we highlight how the theme of community transcends both Paloma and Jinky’s stories, highlighting how cultural differences do not hold individuals back from seeking out and forming new connections.

Notes continued for those interested:

A reference to Valley Aids Network, as mentioned by Paloma: http://www.valleyaidsinfo.org/

A reference to the changing immigration laws for the year Paloma and Jinky migrated to the United States: https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/post-911-policies-dramatically-alter-us-immigration-landscape

In a collaboration between Candy Foster, Anthony Salazar, Molly Boucher, and Rachel Hoffman, we present this episode, “Bravery Displaced.” When creating this podcast, we took into consideration a multitude of challenges that immigrants still face unfortunately, in today’s society. We examined specifically what caused each of our interview subjects to leave their home country to seek asylum in the United States, the impact of educational opportunities, and the importance of women’s rights. Our two subjects, Salwa Mahdi and Osman Rezain are both from Kurdistan region, which encompasses eastern Turkey, northern Iraq, and Western Iran, as well as, smaller parts of northern Syria and Armenia. Osman is from Iran and Salwa is from Iraq. Our podcast will explore the courage and resilience of our two interview subjects as they fled their home countries of Iran and Iraq to seek political asylum in the United States.


Our first interview was conducted with a man from Iran named Osman Rezain as part of the Shenandoah Valley Oral History Project. Osman was specifically from the region of Kurdistan, an area that underwent Islamic Revolution in 1979 and this was heavily reflected on the country’s new culture and made things difficult for non Muslims like Osman, Osman’s education was greatly impacted by the cultural revolution, because the educational focus was religious rather than focus on traditional subjects like mathematics, science and history. In our second part of our episode, we talk to Salwa Mahdi, who lived in Iraq where because of “morality” police and vigilantes, enforcing their country discriminatory laws against women and non Muslims forced many citizens to seek asylum in the United States. Salwa Mahdi is from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. She has an undergraduate degree in business with a focus on statistics from a university there. She was forced to leave Kurdistan when Saddam Hussein declared the organization she worked for were criminals. She fled to Guam with her brother, where she waited five months before being given asylum to the United States. Courage and resilience our common themes in our episode as we discover their fight towards their respected causes.


Relevant material included in today’s podcast:
Excerpt from Dina Nayeri's The Ungrateful Refugee
Link-https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/04/dina-nayeri-ungrateful-refugee
“We have no debt to repay.” Like Salwa who had a university degree from Iraq, but could only first find work in a factory because their English language skills were weak. Dina talks about how our mother, who was a medical doctor in Iran could only find work in a pharmaceutical factory, where her bosses and co-workers would question her intelligence daily, though they had a quarter of her education. Her accent was enough if she took too long to articulate a thought they stopped listening and wrote her office unintelligent. This is a common issue that immigrants face when they first arrive in the United States, the inability to speak English.

Bibliography:

The Ungrateful Refugee: ‘We Have No Debt to Repay’. 4 Apr. 2017, www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/04/dina-nayeri-ungrateful-refugee.

This episode was created in order to highlight the narratives of two immigrants from Vietnam and Mexico; Que Hang Pham and Willie Chavez. In this episode, we draw attention to Que Hang and Willie’s different experiences as emigrants, specifically noting Que Hang’s experiences navigating the American education system, as well as the educational experiences of Willie’s children. Referencing Dina Nayeri’s “The Ungrateful Refugee,” we hope to establish the differing experiences had by immigrants as they establish new lives in the United States and navigate the American education system.

“The American Dream” podcast episode was inspired by those who helped make it possible, specifically Que Hang Pham and Willie Chavez, Dr. Fagan, and the JMU libraries’ special collections and digital specialists. It was their guidance that gave us the privilege of sharing the voice of Que Hang Pham and her story. This episode was produced by Lizzy Kubica, Jasmine Frank, DJ Monsale, and Sean Walsh.

Que Hang is a Vietnamese immigrant who came to America with her family at the end of the Vietnam war. She was an 8 year old girl doing her best to transition into American life. Her and her family rebuilt their lives from the ground up. Que Hang utilized her new opportunities to seek out success in her education and adult life.

Bibliography

Nayeri, Dina. “The Ungrateful Refugee.” The Guardian, 4 April 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/04/dina-nayeri-ungrateful-refugee Accessed 23 April 2021.

Chavez, Willie, oral history conducted by Theresa Staropoli, 10 February 1993, The New Cultural Pluralism in the Shenandoah Valley, SdArch8, Special Collections, Carrier Library, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Va.