Personal Narrative: An Interview With An Immigrant

Moving to a completely place to another with so much unfamiliarity completely shapes who you are as a person and teaches you unique values. I decided to interview my mom, it was interesting to see how much I did not not know about her and the stories she told me about her life experiences. I learned about her struggles growing up and how being an immigrant affected her personally. We have a really close relationship and I feel that this brought us a little closer because I was able to ask her questions that I have never thought of asking her.

My mother’s name is Norma Yvette Aguilar and her childhood name was cookie or “la cookie” because she was dark, like a cookie. My mother was born in Guadalajara Mexico in 1976 and lived in Tapalpa, a neighboring town. She lived in a small house with two bedrooms with her mom, dad, and brother.

She came to the Unites states with my grandmother Maria, grandfather

The way she grew up and the way I grew up was completely different, she had to work really hard and she had many responsibilities that I never had to grow up with. My mom helped raise her sister and younger brothers. She also had a job at 15 years old, she would take Bart to a family’s house in the Oakland Hills. A question that really stood out to me was if you receive an allowance, because my moms answer was “no, I gave my parents n allowance” I asked my mom to clarify, and she said that she would give most of her pay to my grandma to help out with bills or groceries. Although she had a hard childhood, and had to grow up much faster then she should have, she is grateful for her dad bringing them to the U.S because of the opportunities that are out here. My mom was able to go to school and have good paying jobs, and in Mexico it is sometimes either or. Either you work and raise a family or you go to school, but in order to go to a good school you need