Immigrant Stories | The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants

Welcome to episode 30 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants Podcast. I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz, and I am on a mission to change the narrative of immigration one immigrant story at a time.

Today’s guest is Vera from Redeemed Christian Lifestyle. She is a Christian life coach who focuses on helping Christian professionals with their spiritual needs, and she runs a Christian teaching ministry for women.

We talked about her experience as a child of immigrants and some of the challenges she saw her parents face living in a different country. Her parents came from Nigeria, and one of their frustrations when they first arrived was seeing the commercials on TV of how Africa was being portrayed.

Vera gives some facts about Nigeria – like there are over 250 languages spoken in Nigeria alone! People wear Western fashion clothing, except for special occasions; they will wear their traditional Nigerian clothing. And Nigerians have two types of weddings – a traditional wedding and a white wedding.

One common theme with children of immigrants that I’ve noticed is that we battle with the sense of belonging and the conflict of having two different cultures. There is your parent’s culture (from their home country), but then there is the American culture (where we live)—trying to navigate through both causes friction between parents and their kids. However, as we (the children of immigrants) get older and have our own children, we understand our parents and their choices more.

Vera was the first guest I asked how she thinks the American differs between immigrants and native-born Americans, and I would love to know how do you think it differs, if at all? You can respond in the poll at the bottom or send me your answer on Instagram, and I’ll include it in the next episode! :)

With Love, Heidy

Connect with Vera:

Phone: 713-396-0954

⁠Instagram⁠

Redeemedchrisitanlifestyle.org

YouTube

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Welcome to episode 29 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants Podcast. I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz, and I am on a mission to change the narrative of immigration one immigrant story at a time.

Today’s guest is Mekdes Haddis. She is a speaker, author, business consultant, and coach. Mekdes came from Ethiopia to attend college in the United States. Her parents felt that receiving higher education in the West was the best thing for her. She attended her first year of college in Ethiopia. However, she felt called to ministry and attended a Christian college here.

We talked a bit about her life in Ethiopia when she first arrived in the US – how the roads felt so empty and how she enjoys the freedom of being who she wants to be here. Which is something people don’t get in certain countries. And I want to highlight this because those who have never been outside the US or haven’t talked to someone from a different culture may not understand.

Mekdes explains how the government in Ethiopia assigns careers for the people depending on the 12th-grade assessment results. For example, if your exam shows that you’re strong in math or science, they may assign you to the engineering or the medical field, and if you’re good at history or writing, they might assign you to teaching or business management.

We finish the episode by discussing Mekdes’s book – A Just Mission – Laying Down Power & Embracing Mutuality. You can read my review of the book here.

AMAZON, CHRISTIAN BOOK, BARNES AND NOBLE, IVPRESS.COM

With Love, Heidy

Connect with Mekdes:

⁠Instagram⁠

MekdesHaddis.com

Twitter

Facebook

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Welcome to episode 28 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants Podcast. I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz where I am on a mission to change the narrative of immigration one immigrant story at a time.

Today's guest is Burcu Onaranel. She is the owner of Joy, LLC, international speaker, and host of The Coffee O’Clock Podcast.  In her podcast she shares joy and inspiration with guest from all over the world who have inspirational stories to tell.

Burcu came to the United States from Turkey looking purpose. She had, what people called, "the perfect life" - she had a good career, made good money, had a car, had a degree, yet she wasn't happy. She took a huge risk, quit her job, moved to the United States without knowing English, only searching for her purpose.

Once the pandemic hit, she moved back to Turkey to be with her family during those uncertain times.

Her experience is different from other episodes I've had but I appreciate her experience because she came to the U.S. to find purpose. She wasn't running away from anything, she wasn't struggling in her home country, however, she was brave to move to a whole new country - the country of opportunities, to find her life's true purpose. And in the four years she was here, she founded her company! She now helps other entrepreneurs reach personal and business goals.

In the episode we talk about me being a guest on her podcast and you can listen to it here.

With Love, Heidy

Connect with Burcu:

Instagram

The Coffee O’Clock Podcast

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Welcome to episode 27 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants podcast! I am your host Heidy De La Cruz, and today’s guest is Andrea Rotondo from Liquid Cents Bookkeeping.

Andrea was 16 when her parents decided to move from Ecuador to the United States. Her dad got a great opportunity to take over a business in the US, and her mom always wanted to live here, so it was the perfect time for them; however, Andrea wanted to finish high school with her lifelong friends.

We talked about her experience in adapting to school here in the United States and how the diversity of South Florida was her biggest culture shock because there weren’t people from Ecuador in her community.

Andrea also shares how she became undocumented during the process of her sister petitioning her family (her parents and her). To this day, there is no explanation of what happened, but during this period when she was undocumented, she felt like she needed to be invisible so she wouldn’t get deported. Luckily, per paperwork was able to get fixed, but it affected various aspects of her life, like attending college, not being able to drive, etc.

We finish the episode talking about her business, Liquid Cents Bookkeeping, what she does, who she helps, and how you can connect with her.

Thank you so much for your support; I hope you enjoy this episode and learned something new.

With Love, Heidy

Connect with Andrea

https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrearotondo1/

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Welcome to episode 26 of The American Dream In The Eyes of Immigrants podcast. I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz and today’s guest is Chinedu Akunne from The Immigrant Investor Show.

His podcast is about highlighting the immigrant hustle, like pains, wins, and lessons, to help motivate those stuck along the way. It’s a monthly podcast that has been heard in over 45 countries. Chinedu and I connected on Instagram after one of my followers shared that she was on his podcast, so I asked him to be on mine!

Chinedu is from Nigeria and came to the United States when he was 17 for college. He’s a licensed pharmacist, real estate investor, short-termrental operator, and podcast host.

Right off the bat, we started talking about names and their meaning, so he gave us the meaning of this name, and he looked up the meaning of mine. So, I want to know, does your name have a specific meaning, and if you know why your parents decided on that name?

Chinedu talks about his experience with boarding school back home in Nigeria, which helped him transition to attending college in the United States because he was already used to not seeing his family often.

We talk about the culture shock he experienced was, how sensitive people are in the United States because growing up in Nigeria, people are more direct, and how the fashion back in 2005 was so different compared to back home going to a British boarding school.

I had such a great time talking to Chinedu and learning about his culture. Let me know if anything stood out to you in this episode or if you learned something new.

With Love, Heidy

P.S. Towards the end of the episode, Chinedu mentions that he writes five things he is grateful for daily; you, too, can practice gratitude with my gratitude journal, available on Amazon. And they are running a sale right now; you can purchase it for $6.02!!

Here is the episode mentioned on The Immigrant Investor Show about investing.

Connect with Chinedu

Instagram - Immigrantinvestorshow

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Welcome to episode 25 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants Podcast. I am your host Heidy De La Cruz, and we are celebrating one year of this podcast this week!!!! The official anniversary is April 19!!!! So, to celebrate, I am doing a $50 gift card giveaway on my Instagram starting tomorrow (April 19 until Friday, April 21, 8 pm EST). Follow me on Instagram for the official rules to enter the giveaway!!!!

Thank you so much for all your support this past year, and I cannot wait to see how far this podcast gets!!! All for God’s glory, Amen!

Alright, let’s get into the episode.

Today I talk with Rosana Acklin – who is from São Paulo, Brazil. And she came to the United States through the Au Pair Program. I’ll be honest, prior to this episode, I had not heard of this program, so I learned a lot with Rosana.

With this program, participants become nannies for the host families; however, there are requirements for both sides and here are a few:

Au Pairs requirements:

1. Must be able to speak English.

2. Between the ages of 18 to 26 years of age.

3. Successfully pass a background check.

4. Training/experience with kids

5. Must have a secondary school degree.

Host family requirement:

1. Provide an appropriate private room.

2. Be a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident fluent in English.

3. Pay a weekly minimum stipend based on the program selected.

4. Include the au pair in family meals, outings, and holidays whenever possible.

5. Limit childcare to no more than 10 hours and a maximum of 45 hours per week.

If you would like the complete list of requirements or are interested in the Au Pair Program, please contact an immigration attorney.

We talked about her struggle at the beginning of being away from her family and not having other Brazilians around where she lived. Now, there are more people from Brazil, but when she first moved to Michigan, she didn’t know any.

We also talked about her experience going back home the first time after moving and how she did not miss the business of living in a big city.

I truly enjoyed talking with Rosana about her unique experience of coming to the United States. I learned about the Au Pair Program and am excited to share this knowledge with you all.

Thank you so much for your continuous support, and I hope you enjoy this episode!

With Love, Heidy

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Connected with ⁠⁠⁠Heidy⁠⁠⁠

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Welcome to episode 24 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants podcast.

Today’s guest is Francy Devarie – the podcast host of “Life With Francy Podcast.” She came to the United States from Puerto Rico when she was 15 after she was married at 14! Yes, this is definitely a story to listen to!

Francy’s story is a story of hardship to triumph and is such an impactful story. It was moving to hear all the things she went through and see how much she’s thriving now. I was on Francy’s podcast sharing about my poetry book and what events led me to write those poems. You can listen to that episode here. And you can purchase the book here – just in time for National Poetry Month!

Thank you for your continuous support! Don’t forget to leave a review on apple podcast or Spotify.

Connect with Francy

InstagramLife With Francy

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With Love, Heidy

Connected with ⁠⁠Heidy⁠⁠

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Welcome to episode 23 of the American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants Podcast! I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz. Today’s guest is Marija Dobratic. She is a life coach and the host of Legacy Stories LIVE Podcast – another podcast elevating immigrant stories, which I had the honor and pleasure of being a guest on.

In today’s episode, we talk about Marija coming to the United States from Bosnia and her wanting to be a doctor, but she quickly found out how different the school system is here and that she had to be pre-med first before going to medical school. We talked about how different the transportation system is in the US compared to Bosnia, where you can walk everywhere. And her experience going back home to visit Bosnia with her family.

If you’d like to connect with Marija, you can follow her on Instagram and TikTok. Make sure to check out her podcast!

Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode!

Here are a few ways you can support this podcast.

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With Love, Heidy

Connected with ⁠Heidy⁠

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Welcome to episode 22 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants podcast. I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz. If this is your first time here, welcome; if not, welcome back.

Today’s episode is a little different – this story is about a grandmother, Martha Sherman, who came to the United States before World War I, and it’s told by her granddaughter Betsy!

Martha came from what used to be Russia but is now Ukraine. She fled because she was told to leave her home because she was Jewish. Listen to her incredible journey and all she endured while fleeing to the United States.

Toward the end of the episode, Betsy and I get into a good discussion about immigration and current policies. We both agree that there needs to be a better system in place, and we know that the current system is broken. However, there are things we can do in the meantime while reform happens. The simplest thing is to be kind. We don’t know what people have endured getting here, but now that they are here, let’s be kind.

Ephesians 4:32 (NIV) Be kind and compassionate to one another…

I had the pleasure of meeting Betsy because I was a guest on her show - Chatting with Betsy

Connect with Betsy: LinkedIn Facebook

Connected with Heidy

If you or someone you know would like to share their immigration story, please send me a message on Instagram.

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Welcome to Episode 21 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants Podcast; I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz. Today’s guest is the founder and creator of Ace Candles, Thalia.

Thalia is from Puerto Rico, the youngest of three, and she was nine when her parents decided to move to the United States. Although she knew English before they moved, she was still placed in the ESOL program (English for Speakers of Other Languages), and it took some time for her to adapt to schooling in the US.

We speak about the struggle of being bilingual and bilingual parents. It’s a struggle because sometimes we forget words in one language or we have to translate in our mind what we want to say from Spanish to English and also try to speak to our children in our native language so we don’t lose our culture, but we are more comfortable speaking Spanish.

If you are bilingual – I want to hear if this is something you relate to and how you overcome this.

Thalia gives us an insight into how they lived in the United States for the first two years, all five of them (her, her parents, and two brothers) in her grandparents’ garage, which was turned into a studio. I loved that she says she loved that time with her family because I’m sure others (me) would have resented having to live like that for two years.

We end the episode with Thalia talking about her candle company. Her candles are non-toxic, chemical-free, and smell AMAZING!

Check out Thalia's candle etsy shop here: The Ace Candles

Follow on Instagram

Connected with Heidy

If you or someone you know would like to share their immigration story, please send me a message on Instagram.

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review of the show - this will help the show reach more listeners. Thank you.

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