Brenda Quesada
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Brenda Quesada
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Can you share with us the story behind your immigration to the United States?
“I remember we left Cuba and went up through Mexico and Texas - through that border. I remember when we got through, they separated us - my dad from me, my mom, and my brother. This was in 2003. My dad had to go through his own immigration and they had to ask him questions about legitimacy and things like that. My brother and I were in a hotel room and I just remember being excited like ‘We’re in a hotel room - awesome!’ But my mom was in tears, because she didn’t know what was going on. She didn’t know if we were going to be sent back. My brother, who’s seven years older than me, was consoling her. At the time, I didn’t know what was going on and was just asking, ‘Where’s dad?’ And my mom was like, ‘Don’t ask that.’ It was very difficult because my mom still hasn’t learned English and I don’t think she wants to. We live in Miami where almost everyone knows Spanish, so everyone communicates just fine. My dad has learned English but he still has an accent. It’s kind of hard because he has a job and he helps doctors input things electronically. But he still struggles a bit to speak English well enough for his colleagues to respect him. Because when you have an accent, you’re looked down upon even though he’s probably smarter than a lot of them. Just because he has an accent and can’t communicate as well, doesn’t mean he doesn’t have the intellect to do so.”
Since coming to Hopkins, have you encountered anything directed towards immigrants that you feel is a misconception or something you want to clear up?
“There is a stigma that immigrants come from lazy families or families that don’t want to do work. Being an immigrant does give you an identity complex, because we struggle with whether we are worth the sacrifice that our parents made for us. It’s so difficult to traverse that for me sometimes, because I have friends who say I’m as American as they are and that they give me worth to be here. It really isn’t your place to say that - I know that I’m worth being here. It’s that assumption that I’m not worth it until someone tells me I’m worth being here."
- Brenda Quesada
Brenda Quesada