Immigrant Stories | The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants

Welcome to episode 20 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants. I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz. If this is your first time listening, welcome, and if not, welcome back. I'm so glad you're here today.

In today's episode, I speak with Mariana, who came from São Paulo, Brazil as an adult. She received the opportunity to come to the United States through her employer, which was a dream come true! Even though it was a dream, there was still an adjustment period with learning how to do things in the United States. Even grocery shopping was different for Mariana.

She talked about when she visited Brazil for the first time after moving to the U.S. – it didn't feel like home anymore. She also talks about her biggest struggle in adapting to the culture here is being less affectionate, especially in the workplace. In the Latino culture, it's common to greet others with a hug and a kiss, even at work, but that's not a norm here, so it takes some time to adapt.

My favorite takeaway from this episode is when she mentions that her boyfriend hadn't realized all the opportunities this country has compared to other countries until he started dating her. We are very blessed in this country, spoiled even, but we won't realize it until we talk to others outside our community/culture or visit other countries. The United States has a lot to offer us, and sometimes we take it for granted.

After listening to the episode, let me know your takeaway.

P.S. Shout out to @immigrant.finance for educating immigrants about finances and helping them build their businesses. I mentioned them at the end of the episode because I took their business course! Chem them out!

Connect with Mariana on Instagram!

Connected with Heidy:

https://www.instagram.com/heidy.delacruz13/

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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Welcome to episode 19 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants Podcast. I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz. Today’s episode is with immigration attorney Gisselle Martinez. She and her family moved to the US from Colombia when she was twelve years old. They first moved to South Florida and then to Iowa, which was a complete culture shock.

The struggles she and her family went through when they first arrived in the US inspired her to become an immigration attorney. Gisselle is one of the founders of the non-profit organization Orlando Center for Justice for immigration.

OCJ serves and represents those who cannot afford private immigration attorneys in Central Florida. They also serve three immigration detention centers in Orlando for kids. These are children who enter the US without a guardian and are placed in these detention centers.

If you want to donate to Orlando Center for Justice, you can do so here.

Connected with Heidy:

https://www.instagram.com/heidy.delacruz13/

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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Welcome to episode 18 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants podcast. This episode is another sibling episode, but this time it’s two sisters, Sandra and Noemi. Their parents came from Mexico and talked about their experience growing up as children of immigrant parents.

They talk about having to help their parents out in the fields picking oranges in the summertime and then helping at their mom’s store on the weekends. It wasn’t until recently that they stopped helping their mom – when she closed her business.

We talked about the challenge of translating for our parents – with customers, important documents, or having to return items LOL.

Another challenge they had growing up as immigrant kids was their parents having to miss sporting events, awards ceremonies, etc. because they were always working.

Just an FYI, this episode was recorded outside at a coffee shop which is why you hear outside noise.

Sandra and Noemi own an online boutique called Limitless Wardrobe Co. Check out the clothes and accessories. The clothes are super cute!

Are you a child of immigrants? If so, what could you relate to – send me a message and let me know.

Connect with Sandra & Noemi:

Instagram

Facebook

TikTok

Connected with Heidy: 

https://www.instagram.com/heidy.delacruz13/

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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Welcome to episode 17 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants Podcast, I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz. This episode is very special because this episode is with my husband and his older siblings. They share their memories of living in the Dominican Republic and then moving to the USA. You will listen of their very humble beginnings and they struggle they endured adapting to living in a new country.

One thing I like about having this podcast and sharing these stories is that people can listen and understand that when immigrants come to the US things are not “handled” to them, like some think. Immigrants must work to get basic needs while learning how to navigate a new country and without knowing the language.

I wanted to record this episode with all three of them together because it’s interesting to hear how each of their memories differ even though they came together. Alex was 14, Leiky was 10, and Jonathan (my husband) was 9.

Connect with Heidy - https://www.instagram.com/heidy.delacruz13/

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.

Stay up to date with new episode information sent to your email - sign up for the podcast newsletter here!

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Welcome to part two of episode 16 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants Podcast. I am your host Heidy De La Cruz and today we continue with my conversation with Dr. Angela Gala.

In this episode Dr. Gala talks about the opportunity, she had to come to the United States with the Public Health International Leaders in DC. She also had the opportunity to travel to various countries because of her job. Finish listening to her incredible story.

Connect with Dr. Gala - https://www.facebook.com/angela.galagonzalez

Connect with Heidy - https://www.instagram.com/heidy.delacruz13/

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.

Stay up to date with new episode information sent to your email - sign up for the podcast newsletter here!

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Welcome to part one of episode 16 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants Podcast. I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz. Today’s guest is Dr. Angela Gala, Nutrigenomic Coach and she is from Cuba. We start the conversation talking about her life in Cuba. She gave the background of her parents, how they met, where they live etc. She provided some Cuban history about the revolution.

She had the opportunity to study in Russia for college, but first she had to do one year of college classes in Cuba but all the classes were in Russian, so she could learn the language. She shares about her time in Russia.

Connect with Dr. Gala - https://www.facebook.com/angela.galagonzalez

Connect with Heidy - https://www.instagram.com/heidy.delacruz13/

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.

Stay up to date with new episode information sent to your email - sign up for the podcast newsletter here!

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Welcome to episode 15 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants Podcast; I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz.

Today’s guest is Melissa Alves – she came to the US at age five from Peru. We talked about her first memories of the US – when she first arrived, she remembers waiting a long time in a station wagon at a gas station for her uncle to pick them up. And she remembers crying every day because she didn’t want to go to school because she didn’t understand the language. We also talked about her visit to Peru after moving to the US – years later.

Toward the end of our talk, I asked Melissa to provide one piece of advice to someone who may be thinking of moving to the US, and I mentioned the podcast had been listened to in 14 different countries; that number has increased to over 70 countries!

So, I want to take the time right now to thank YOU for making this happen, all the listeners and for sharing the podcast, and for supporting it. This wouldn’t have happened without YOU!! THANK YOU!!!

If you are interested in joining one of Melissa’s social mixers, please connect with her on Facebook.

Here is the link - https://www.facebook.com/Melis.M.Alves

Connect with Heidy - https://www.instagram.com/heidy.delacruz13/

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.

Stay up to date with new episode information sent to your email - sign up for the podcast newsletter here!

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Welcome to episode 14 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants podcast. I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz. In today’s episode I speak with Noor Pinna, she moved to the United States from Pakistan at the age of 5 because her father left his family. And she speaks about the journey coming here and honestly, it’s such an impactful story.

The connection wasn’t the greatest when we were recording and Noor explains why but overall, her story is still impactful. She has the funniest first memory of the US, which I thought was the cutest, and I feel like this story could be turned into a movie, after you listen let me know if you agree or disagree.

Noor talks a lot about her culture and I learned so much just from listening to her, I would love to know what is one thing you learned about Pakistan from this episode? Send me a message on Instagram letting me know!

Noor’s Bio

Noor Pinna is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) & shame resilient coach within her private practice for the past six years. She believes in providing a trauma-informed, holistic, spiritual, creative, and science-based approach. She helps women break free from the barriers of shame, become empowered to advocate and gain self-confidence, create resiliency, establish self-care rituals, implement healthy boundaries, and become a leader in their universe. Noor also works with Muslim men. Noor has done international mental health work, explicitly helping Afghan women. In 2019 Noor delivered her first Tedxtalk on Shame Resilience. She is in the process of publishing her first book, The Sun Still Rises which discusses themes of spirituality, faith, inner child wounds, compassion, self-love, and resilience.

Connect with Noor

Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/pages/category/Mental-Health-Service/Noor-Pinna-Therapy-Coaching-105949581290905/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/noor_pinna/?hl=en

Facebook group: https://m.facebook.com/groups/703349070089786/

Tedxtalk: https://youtu.be/2Kg7BIjA3p0

Connect with Heidy - https://www.instagram.com/heidy.delacruz13/

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.

Stay up to date with new episode information sent to your email - sign up for the podcast newsletter here!

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Welcome to episode 13th of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants Podcast; I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz. We have our first video episode with the founders of Little Dreamers Publishing, Nayeli, Nidia, and Nadia. Three sisters started this company to provide bilingual books to Spanish-speaking families.

We spoke about their journey of being undocumented in the US and then getting legal status through the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA). This act made hiring people without a work permit illegal and provided legal status to most undocumented migrants who arrived in the US before January 1, 1982.

We spoke about the importance of education and financial literacy, which is why they publish bilingual books about financial literacy, STEM, art, and culture. And we spoke about their experience visiting Mexico for the first time since they moved to the US.

Although they are all sisters, they all have different experiences and memories, and it was beautiful to listen to and learn more about their journey. I admire their strength and their drive. They didn’t let the hardship and challenges they experienced hold them back. If anything, they are using it to provide education to the next generation so they can do better.

In this episode, I mention the episode with immigration attorney Chris Acklin. This episode was recorded before it was published, but you can listen to it here. Chris provides information about the immigration process and how policy changes affect his job and migrant’s lives.

Connect & Support Little Dreamers Publishing

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/littledreamerspublishing/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi4dJzOCrjAgUlg9o7QSwTw

Connect with Heidy - https://www.instagram.com/heidy.delacruz13/

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.

Stay up to date with new episode information sent to your email - sign up for the podcast newsletter here!

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Welcome to episode 12 of The American Dream in The Eyes of Immigrants Podcast; I am your host, Heidy De La Cruz. Today’s guest is Adina Appelbaum, an immigration attorney, and financial/business coach. She and her husband run Immigrant Finance, where they help immigrants with their finances – like getting into investing and starting their businesses.

Adina tells us about her time in Egypt doing immigration refugee work and refugee work in Ecuador too.

Connect with Adina:

https://www.instagram.com/immigrant.finance/

Listen to her podcast – Immigrant Finance Podcast

Connect with Heidy - https://www.instagram.com/heidy.delacruz13/

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.

Stay up to date with new episode information sent to your email - sign up for the podcast newsletter here!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.