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Canadian Immigrant Finds a Welcoming Home in Fort Wayne
Vivianne Belanger had a comfortable upper-middle-class upbringing in Montreal, became an accomplished flute player, and earned a bachelor’s degree in musical performance at McGill. After graduating in 2008, she came to the United States to continue her studies at DePaul University with the principal flautist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. “I’d met him at a […]
Read MoreImmigrant from the Dominican Republic Constructed Vibrant Architecture Firm in Greater Salem, and Lays the Foundation for Other Young People to Pursue a Career in Architecture
Darguin Fortuna grew up on his grandparents’ rice farm in the Dominican Republic, but threw himself into schoolwork to pursue a degree in architecture. At 20, he was two years into that program when he and his mother received green cards. “My mom had first applied years before, and I hadn’t known if I’d get […]
Read MoreCameroonian Immigrant and Family Plant Resilient Roots in Massachusetts
Cameroonian-born and French-educated computer scientist, Laurier Hamidou Tabayi, received a diversity visa in 2011, and arrived in Massachusetts with her husband and two daughters. But it wasn’t the transition she expected. The visa program provided no guidance about how to get established with housing or work. Soon after arriving, for instance, the family had the misfortune to […]
Read MoreMexican Immigrant Founds Food Business
When Gretel Barrita was ten, her parents divorced. Her mother, a restaurant cook in Oaxaca, México, moved to the United States for more opportunities, leaving her three children, including Barrita, in the care of family. “It was heartbreaking,” she said. “I missed my mother terribly.” So, at 15, Barrita crossed the border alone to join […]
Read MoreMexican Immigrant Helps Secure Sick Days for Everyone in Santa Fe, Regardless of Immigration Status
In 2005, Verónica Velázquez and her husband moved to the United States from the rural state of Michoacán, México, for better opportunities. They landed in California but had trouble finding work. “I wanted to be able to send money back to my family in Mexico,” she said. But “no one wanted to hire someone who […]
Read MoreGuatemalan Immigrant Works to Secure a Safe and Humane Environment for All Workers in Santa Fe
Iris Madely Alay was born to a single mother in rural Escuintla, Guatemala, and dropped out of school at age ten to help raise her siblings. “I liked school, but I had to leave,” she said. “I had a sad childhood because I didn’t have my father around, and my mother had to dedicate herself […]
Read MoreDominican Immigrant Gives Back to Her Massachusetts’ Community
In 2014, Carmen Tejeda was a single mom and second-year business major in Santo Domingo — but on what she now calls a youthful whim she decided to drop out of college and move to the United States to give her infant son a better life. Tejeda traveled to Boston, where a friend worked in a […]
Read MoreKenyan Immigrant Supports Fellow Community Members’ Journey to Achieve Their Full Potential
When Wangari Fahari was 20, she represented her native Kenya at the U.S. Open Taekwondo Championships in Atlanta. “I’d always dreamed of coming to America — that’s why I worked so hard,” she says. Fahari moved to Dracut, Massachusetts, to join family, and enrolled at Middlesex Community College on a student visa. But she couldn’t afford […]
Read MorePeruvian Immigrant Invests in Making the Community Welcoming for All
Peruvian professor and professional musician Nayo Ulloa, specializes in the Quena, an Andean pre-Columbian flute, and singing. He plays music from all the Latin American countries, but specializes in Peruvian music, including the main three folk styles of Peruvian music: indigenous pre-Colombian music, music from the coast, and traditional and contemporary Afro-Peruvian music. In 1981, […]
Read MoreIraqi Immigrant Finds Refuge in South Bend
In 2003, Dr. Rose Alyousif fled her home in Iraq with her husband and one-year old-daughter and moved to another country in the Middle East. The couple’s mixed Sunni-Shiite marriage made the family targeted, and they feared for their lives. Ten years later, they were resettled in South Bend with their three daughters – ages […]
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