WEBVTT

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[Music]

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My mom

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came here when she was seven years old

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to New York.

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My grandfather, my maternal grandfather

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worked for the embassy.

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So he was posted in New York. So they all

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came to New York and she's been here

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ever since.

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So 40 something years, I think.

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And my dad, he came here for college,

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an engineer in San Jose. So

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he came, he studied and he just decided

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to live here.

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And that's my story.

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It starts off with my dad moving here

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for his job

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back in 2003 and

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that just left me and my mom back in the

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Philippines

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um for about two years before we moved

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to join suit with him and just join I

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mean just like live

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with him and my grandpa was already here

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prior, but I don't really know what year

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he moved.

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And yeah, we we just been here since

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2005.

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Back in Philippines we were taught

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English as a second language,

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right? And I thought that coming here to

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the US I wouldn't really have a problem

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with that.

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However, it was really hard because like

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all

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everybody around me, like literally,

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everybody spoke fluent English and I'm

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still just like I know some words that

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they're saying but it's really

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like more complex just trying to like

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decipher what they're saying and all

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that and it's

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um it was hard going through that

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process, but eventually I

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I like learn to get along with it to

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like conform myself to the society.

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So my family comes from from mexico both

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my mom and my dad.

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And they came over in the 90s and they

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met each other like

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uh four years after they came over, and

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they met each other at work, and then

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they got together, and they had me and

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yeah, both of my parents were born in

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Egypt and

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lived there most of their lives all the

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way

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until college. They got married in Egypt

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and then my father decided that he

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wanted to come to America because

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it was the land of opportunity and

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dreaming and all that.

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My mother, they were both obviously like

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very torn to leave their family, but they

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left everything to come here so that me

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and my

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siblings could have a better life. My

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parents immigrated from

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Vietnam to here during the Vietnam war.

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So my dad, he came originally from China

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in Guangdong near Hong Kong and

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during the Vietnam war, he escaped from

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China through Vietnam and all the way

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through Malaysia as a vote person.

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So he went through a lot with his family

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and his four older sisters and his two

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parents.

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My dad and the rest of his sisters

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decided they wanted to go to America

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and really let their kids live the

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American dream

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and he was very adamant about wanting to

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stay in America

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seeing it as this wonderful country full

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of opportunities.

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So he went here when he was 21

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and he had to lie about his age to be

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able to go to

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an American high school. He went to San

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Jose high school which is very close by

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and he also graduated from San Jose

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state and

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he really took his education seriously,

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because he really wanted to provide for

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his family.

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And after everything was great he had a

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good job.

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He went back to Vietnam and that's where

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he met my mom.

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And my mom immigrated here, left

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everything she knew

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back in Vietnam and here we are

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with three kids and a happy family.