Texas, District 34
Multilingual Immigrant Uses Her Skills to Advise Corpus Christi Business Community
Growing up under a dictatorial regime in Panama, Lorena Parada-Valdes longed to live in a democratic country. In 1979, she had her chance. That year, she was one of just four Panamanian college students to receive a merit-based scholarship to study in the United States. After graduating from Bates… Read More
After Leaving Extreme Poverty in Mexico, Student Dreams of American Citizenship
Had she not come to America, Monica Alcaraz would have faced a life of extreme poverty in Guanajuato, Mexico. The youngest of 16 children, she often didn’t have enough to eat. So when her older sister married a U.S. citizen and moved to Texas in 1986, Alcaraz—then four years old… Read More
Indian Native Finds Success in America, Gives Back to Adoptive Home of Corpus Christi
Indian native Kamlesh Bhikha grew up in an entrepreneurial family. His grandfather was a sugarcane and cotton farmer and his father manufactured diamonds, selling the gems he’d fashioned from rough stones. Bhikha also aspired to be his own boss. “The harder you work, the more you reap,’” he says. “And… Read More
Without Migrant Workers, Texas Shrimp Trawlers Forced to Tie Up Boats
In 2007, Andrea Hance and her husband decided to buy a shrimp boat. The couple had stable careers in South Texas — he as a crop insurance agent and she as the owner of a mortgage company. But they were looking for a new challenge and were taken with the… Read More
Haitian Immigrant Poised to Fill Critical Need for Computer Science Professionals
Ever since Sheila Laurore immigrated to the United States from Haiti in 2015, she has been working hard toward her goal: A degree and a job in computer science. “I like that in the United States you have the opportunity to get a better life. You can go to school,… Read More
How a Former Undocumented Immigrant Started a $3 Million Business That Created 80 Jobs
Jorge Fierro was making himself a burrito after his dishwashing shift when he got the idea for the business that would eventually become Rico Brands, a $3 million food business and employer of 80. “I opened a can of refried beans,” Fierro says, “and I just couldn’t believe how bad… Read More
Farm Union Organizer Leads 22-day Hunger Strike on National Mall to Fight for Immigration Reform
Over his seven decades, labor leader Eliseo Medina has, quite literally, proven his hunger for immigration reform. In 2013, the retired international secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), a man described by the Los Angeles Times as one of the… Read More
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