One day wealthy, another day derpived

The

The Economic Modernization in China affected my family. The modernization of 1976 made my family lose everything. The chaos leads my family to move from a big fortune to a simple nothing. Due to the incident, my grandfather experienced harsh times because he got

cheated by his own family and still had to maintain his own household. At that time, my father took over the family, so he became the head of the family, and decided to move to Venezuela for good in search of a better life. After my family moved, the sun started shining because everything got better after the nightmare.

My grandfather’s sister was the main reason why he lost everything. Due to the crisis in China, she was scared to be left with nothing. Her parents did not inherent much for her because she was a girl, and they assumed she would get married. She, from selfishness, stole everything from my grandfather and left him with not even a single penny, though only a shelter. Since they did not see this happening, my grandfather had sold the house where they were living, which was considered a mansion, and search for a small house. Therefore, the family including my grandmother, aunts and uncle, and my father had some resources to survive with.

The crisis was still present, families were still affected, but my family fought to overcome it

. My father felt the need to help the family since my grandfather was too old to work. Due to the crisis, my father did not finish school. He went out and worked to help the family endure. When my family was economically stable again, everything in the house changed. My aunts got inattentive to keep the work, since they worked at the house stitching fabric. My aunts started focusing on playing Maijoh, Chinese dominoes, and they spent the whole day playing without notice, the work-time was gone when they started to get tired. My father was not able to speak up, since he is the youngest child of the family, and never said a word. More than ever, my father was scared of being in an economic crisis again, so he went out in search of job where he could maintain the family because he saw that stitching was not a choice to support them.

The economic crisis settled, and families were more stable. Seeing that China was no longer in chaos and my family was in better conditions, they decided to move to across the world. Venezuela was the land where my father thought they would have for a better life. My father started studying again, but he as well did not finish because he observed that people had successful businesses, or at least he would earn more capital than working for somebody else. After going through the economic crisis in China, my father was attentive that going through such thing was really worrisome, and started a business with my uncle making Piñatas and selling party supplements for kids. The store had been an enormous adjustment for my father since it was his first time owning his own business. Furthermore, the party supplement store was doing great in the heart of Valencia. Therefore, my father decided to have another store. Due to the experience he had in China, it reminded him that people needed resources and supplies such as food, and household supplements, so he decided to open a supermarket.

The Economic Development in China was a big transformation for my family because my grandfather was the head of the family. He went through the most complicated time. My family was so wealthy one day, and the next day everything was gone! They had all these changes and emotions that made them realize that nothing is more important than a family being together. After the incident of the Economic Development, my grandfather taught my father that money is not the key to maintain the family because you will never get all the money in the world, and money does not guarantee the happiness of a family. My father taught my siblings and I to have a regard for my grandfather, not only because he is the elder of the family, but because he is the hero of the family. Until now, I still regard my grandfather as the family hero. Even though, he is not here in this world anymore, my family and I would not have the knowledge of the importance of what a family really is without him.

The Calm after the Storm

The Calm after the Storm

Have you ever heard the proverb “After the storm, comes calm”? This proverb was a just famous proverb to me before I experienced a serious financial crisis in Korea. There was a severe economic crisis in 1997, and many Koreans had a hard time. Many businesses closed down, so many people lost their job. People who didn’t have any money to live couldn’t borrow money from bank, for the bank’s interests were much higher than before. The crisis shook not only the root of the Korean economy but also my family. My family had lived ordinary lives which didn’t have any critical situation or misfortunes until the crisis. At that time, I thought that the storm which attacked my family would never stop, and a peaceful calm would never come back. We all had to make an effort to get over our situation. Even though we had a very hard time in the crisis, we overcame the crisis and found new happiness.

One of the influences of the crisis was that my father lost his job. He had been an elementary school teacher for thirty years. The crisis caused a radical cut in the staff. One day, the principal called my father and his coworkers, and then he explained that he had to lay off some teachers because of the school didn’t have enough money to pay them. So, my father submitted his letter of resignation. At that time, my father was the breadwinner in our family. Someone had to get money for family, so my mother tried to search for a new job, but it was not easy for her. She got married with my father as soon as she graduated from the university. So she didn’t have any chance to get a job. Besides, my father didn’t want her to get a job. That’s why finding a job for her was so difficult.

Finally, she found a job as a babysitter. My mother learned that she had to sacrifices for my father and my siblings.

The other influence of the crisis was that my brother’s business closed down from the financial crisis. He had really dreamed about his own business since he was a high school student, and he worked very hard for several years to save money. Three years before the financial crisis, he opened a car dealership. He got a bunch of money from his business, so he could do whatever he wanted to. A sweet moment was a momentary joy to him. Unfortunately, nobody wanted to buy a new car at that time. People wanted to buy used cars, or they just used public transportation. I never forgot my brother’s tears when he closed down his business.

The last influence of the crisis was that the crisis made me more passionate and determined about my dream. I had studied art since I entered high school. Although the tuition fee of art institutes was very expensive, I never worried about the money. My parents always supported me, so I didn’t need to worry paying for school. After the crisis, everything changed. I couldn’t enter university after graduating high school. Most parents pay their children’s tuition in Korea. However, my parent couldn’t pay my tuition that time, so I had to save money. Most art universities’ tuition was very expensive, and some public universities’ tuition was cheap compared to private universities. To enter a public university, I had to study hard and have good drawing skills. Besides, I had to get good grades. I found a part time job which could make money as study how to draw. I hired an art institute as a teacher. I taught elementary school students and practiced drawing after teaching young students. I studied very hard as saved money for tuition. After a year, I entered a public university.  

The financial crisis in Korea made my family stronger than before. We all truly worried and supported each other. People realize what is important or not after passing through difficult situations. Our family realized that family is the most important and precious thing on earth. After a few years, my father got a new job at another elementary school, and my brother opened new business. There are unpredictable accidents in our lives. If I never had any experiences like the crisis, I may have never learnt how to overcome difficult situation wisely. The severe storm made me strong and wise.

Losses of a Good Cause

Imelda J. Munoz

As people sometimes say, “Good things don’t always turn out to be so good”. It’s not that hard to agree. While Ronald Reagan was in office in the 1980’s, he set up an amnesty law for immigrants, which was passed in 1986. It is said that people who immigrated to the U.S. before 1986 were able to get legal document papers to stay in the U.S. This amnesty benefited some people such as my parents. After the amnesty of 1986 was passed, many of my family members immigrated to the U.S., but did not have the same luck. In fact, our family began to disintegrate. It became difficult for immigrants to find a job, and many of them decided to go back home to Mexico. Even though this amnesty gave my parents a chance to stay legally in this country, it got to the point where we were being separated from our extended family and didn’t have the chance to reunite with them after many years.

The amnesty helped my parents get their legal document papers in 1986 and have high hopes for succeeding in the U.S. My parents immigrated to the U.S. in the 1980’s. My mother was nine, and my father was about fifteen, and neither of them had legal papers to stay in the U.S. My father told me that when he came to the U.S., he was planning to work for about two years the most and then go back to Mexico. That’s what many people used to do at that time. In 1986, President Ronald Geagan was in office and he decided to make an amnesty that gave immigrants the opportunity to have legal papers if they had been living in the U.S. before 1986. Reagan did not have a lot of support from the congress, and my parents were worried about what might happen if it did not succeed. Luckily, my parents finally got their papers. They found jobs easily and were able to go back and forth to Mexico whenever they wanted to. Proudly, my mother got her citizenship and now has great opportunities of working in a job that she is satisfied with.

After 1986, many of my family members came to the U.S. from Mexico, but did not have the same luck. For example, one of my uncles tried getting his legal papers, but it was too late for him to get them right away. He was sent back to Mexico, and it took about two years to be able to come back to the U.S. and get his papers. His hopes for returning to the U.S. vanished more and more each day. My father decided to help my uncle get his papers as soon as possible. In addition, he would also call him once in a while to see how he was doing and to let him know how the status of his application was going. This whole situation became more stressful for my father each day, and my uncle became more desperate. It was then that my uncle decided to immigrate to the U.S. again even though he did not have his papers. Consequently, my uncle was not able to find a decent job. Instead, he has been working in a factory that pays him less than the minimum wage. Sadly, he has not tried going back to Mexico no matter how bad he wants to.

This amnesty has also led to disintegration between my family. Until now I’ve heard that I have many family members around the U.S., such as in Indiana, California, Texas, Kankakee, Nebraska, North and South Carolina and many other parts of the U.S. Sadly, I have not gotten a chance to meet them all. My parents have told me that the reason many of our family members have not come to Illinois is because those other states are more affordable, and it is easier for them to find jobs there. I was also told that most of them are scared that they’ll get sent back to Mexico. It is such a hard situation because without knowing it a few years ago, I found out that my next door neighbor is my father’s cousin. It was like a cold bucket of water was poured on my head since I was starting to have a little crush on my neighbor’s son, but he is really my uncle.

Nevertheless, this amnesty of 1986 gave my parents the opportunity to have good jobs and to be part of the U.S. although it has also led to disintegration of our family despite the fact that we’re all in the same country. Many other families got separated as well, and many immigrants did not like this at all. It became difficult for them to find a job and forced them to return to Mexico. Various immigrants’ hopes of reaching the American Dream have now vanished. One thing I know is that some of them will keep trying to get the life they’re looking for and have the best for their family. Even though people say that “Good things don’t always turn out to be so good”, I think that every individual’s attempt to reach a certain dream will pay off.

The Illusion of a New Beginning

Brenda Araisa
November 1 2010
ESL 100
The Illusion of a New Beginning
The day everything went wrong was the day my past and present generations took a different path. From the years 1910 to 1920, there was a revolution in Mexico which, lasted almost a decade. The cause for this revolution began because of a disagreement in a president’s election and social issues in the country. Consequently, families had to abandon their homes and jobs, and their kids had to stop going to school. After that, many families were estranged because their fathers felt forced to participate in the revolution while the rest of the family had to remain hiding in the mountains to protect themselves. Due to the Mexican Revolution of 1910, my great-grandmother migrated to the United States, and this move affected my past generation’s lives and the generations to come.


When the Mexican Revolution of 1910 began my great grandparents felt forced to leave their homes. One of the reasons for this was that my great grandfather had to participate in the Mexican Revolution while, keeping his family safe. If my great grandfather had not volunteered for the Mexican Revolution, he would have been judged as a coward by other men. Of course he did not want this to happen, so he decided to go to the revolution. My great grandmother and her children remained hiding in the mountains with hardly anything to eat. Many people that were also hiding began getting sick, and unfortunately many of them lost their lives. When the revolution was over, many families had lost their loved ones. In my great grandmother’s case, she had lost a husband, her kids had lost a father, and they had also lost the hacienda that they once owned.



In addition, affected by the economy and the loss of their husbands, many women decided to immigrate to the United States while leaving their kids in Mexico with other family members. For instance, my greatgrandmother could not afford to support her children and left them with her sister in Mexico. She came to the United States with her youngest daughter who was my grandmother, and began working in factories. My great grandmother worked for several years and began saving her money. She knew she would never have enough money to bring all her kids to the United States or to rebuild her hacienda. However, she knew her kids in Mexico would be able to have food on the table each day. A few years later, she went back to Mexico to be with the rest of her children.




Finally, when my grandma got married, she faced a difficult job in the U.S. My grandma had always disliked working in factories and when she came back from Mexico, she had no choice but to do it. Next, everyday that she worked for the factory, she felt overwhelmed by the way the other workers and her were being treated. For example, my grandma would not always leave from work at the time she was supposed to and she would get paid the same amount of money. My grandma was tired from the way she was treated in her job, but she had no choice but to continue working. My grandparents worked in the United States almost all their lives, while their kids remained in Mexico. Soon my mother got married to my father. Similarly to my grandparents they decided to come to the United States and they had three kids. After that, all my mom’s brothers and sisters decided to come live in the Unites States and also raise their kids here.


As a result of the Mexican Revolution of 1910, and the loss of my great grandfather’s life, the world of my past generations and my generations was turned around. After the revolution was over my past and present generations tucked a new beginning. When I think of about the past, I do not feel sad or sorry that my family ended up living in the United States. I feel thankful and proud of what my family has been able to accomplish to make sure that my family had a good upbringing as our lives were changing.

New Life

It has been two and a half years since I came to the U.S., and a lot of things have changed. My whole life changed. Many things changed for the better, but there are also a lot of things that I miss. I don’t think just about my family and friends who stayed in Serbia, the country were I was born, then the moments through my life that were making me happy. It was hard and it still is at some point. What gives me strength is that my coming to America was something what I wanted since I was a kid. Looking from that side of the story, a lot of my dreams came true, but I had to change my lifestyle and face so many challenges.

The challenge that came to me first was the new way of living. I was twenty-four years old when I came to the U.S. All those years I lived with my parents, which is quite a common thing for my country. People live with their parents until they get married, and sometimes even after that. Because of the economic situation, you can say that young people in Serbia depend much more on their parents then young people in America. In my family, I never had to think about housework like washing dishes, doing laundry or preparing food. Of course I was always there to help, but simply that was not my job. It is not something that I am proud of, but I never did laundry in my life before. That changed with my arrival to America. I had to learn and accommodate to a lot of new things for me. Now I wash dishes and do laundry only by myself, but still food that I make sometimes tastes like a rock.

Of course I had to think about the money as well. I was now financially independent. I never had real job in Serbia. I tried couple of times to work in construction and waiting tables. I was even a volleyball referee, but mostly due to the economy it just didn’t work out very well. I had to depend on my parents for money. Every time that I wanted to go out for a drink, buy some clothes or any other single thing, I had to ask my mom or dad. That is something that I didn’t like at all. It is not that I couldn’t have as much as necessary, but I was just in the age when I was ashamed of asking for money. I couldn’t do it like that any longer, and that was the main reason why I moved to America. When I arrived here, I had arranged job in advance for a couple of months. It was great for the beginning. I even bought a car after only two months of my arrival. To do that in my native country could only be a dream for me. However, it wasn’t easy like that all the time. Now I have to pay the rent, bills and food. Everything you need you must earn it by yourself. If you don’t work, you cannot survive. I had to struggle a lot. Still this is the experience that I wanted. Right now, yes, I work hard, but I can afford enough to enjoy with things that I couldn’t have in Serbia. I can buy a car and buy clothes that I like, not only cheap clothing, I can also travel to places I could see only on TV in the past and much more.

Finally the hardest part of adapting was that I had to give up exercising, in order to make enough funds for living. Exercise is something that has followed me through my life. I tried different kinds of sports as a kid, but I loved volleyball the most. I played it for twelve years. I hated the days when I didn’t have training. Sports, actually, volleyball helped me to travel through the country and even visit some neighboring countries, to make a lot of friendships and of course to stay healthy. I also studied College for Sport and Physical Education, so I had exercise all the time. Coming here I was disappointed when I realised that you can play a volleyball, more than recreational, only at some colleges. There are no professional indoor volleyball leagues. On the other hand, even if there would be a league where I could play, I don’t think I could make it. In the past year, my weekly work hours have been almost even double more than normal work hours. With even some other requirements sometimes I don’t even go to the gym for a month. Being in shape is what I miss so much.

Even though I miss a lot of things that I used to do before, I have become independent and I changed my lifestyle in the way I wanted to. Some people still ask me if I made a mistake by coming here. Sometimes they even make me really think about it. I left everybody overthere. I left college and old habits that I truly liked. But I do not regret it. I started a new life, and I think a better one. It is still not the life that I was dreaming about, but I think I am on the right track. Being in America and the things that I have done so far, for me, is a dream come true.

Ghost Festival

Do you believe the ghost exists in this world? Whatever you believe or not, Ghost Festival is one of festivals that exists in many big counties. America calls that Halloween, on the other hand, Ghost Festival in China call Chinese Ghost Festival or Spirit Festival. Many older Chinese think Ghost Festival is horrible but they also think it is sacred. For that reason, when Ghost Festival is coming, Chinese people would arrange some traditional things in that day.

In China, the Ghost Festival is on the fifteenth of July in the lunar calendar. On the fifteenth of July every year, my family would prepare a lot of special Chinese food to worship the dead souls because they believed if they did that, evils would never came to our home or appear. In United States, Halloween is on the October thirty-first and it originated in Europe 2,000 years ago. However, as my family and I are Chinese, we don’t really care about that day because we think American ghosts are not very horrible. Anyways, sometimes we still watch scary movies or TV show at that day. And prepare a lot of candies to offer children.

When I lived in China, I remember my mom and grandmother would burn paper money, incense or other valuables all made from paper, such as house or a car. Besides, we would stay at home at night and go to sleep before 12am in that day because we believe ghosts would find someone to replace it to go back hell. I remember when I was six years old, my mom told me if I didn’t go to sleep before 12am at that day, I would see the spirit and it would catch me because I was not a good kid. However, I went to sleep about at12:30am, and I didn’t see anything. On the other hand, Halloween is like a nice festival for children because they go outside and pick up some candies form strangers or neighbors. For this reason, my sister and I would buy a lot of candies to offer other children. However, if I trick or treating in China, the older people would think I am a crazy or may be the ghost control my body and they never open the door when a stranger to push the ring at that day.

Moreover, unlike American, many Chinese people are very superstitious. For example my family would wear simple clothes at that day and never wear red clothes because my grandmother said ghost like to catch people who wear red. Also, when that day is coming, my mom forced my sister to fixed up her hair. In Chinese tradition, long hair is not very lucky, especially on the Ghost Festival. Unlike Chinese people, many Americans would dress up as a ghost or witch because they think when the ghosts see them, the ghost would scare and fly away. However, my sister and I never did that because my mom said it was childish behavior.

Each country has diverse ways to celebrate festival, like Ghost Festival. In China, Ghost Festival is one of important festival. Some older would tell younger people about the history and their experience of the Ghost Festival. For that reason, most Chinese family still keep that traditional culture every year in every where.

From East to West

Chinese and Amercian, each of them has a great influential culture in the world. As I came to United States for about a year, I've experienced how Amercian lives and I'm understanding their culture. Many people may ask and want to know the differences between these two cultures. In my opinion, the best way is to observe people's values. In this case, We can know how different they are via seeing their religion, education and living custom.
Chinese has various religion. When I was a kid, I've heard a lot about Chinese mythology. One of the famous is the coming Mid-Autum Festivial whcih is about the mythology of moon. But the most powerful and influential thought is Confucianism, is the most important thought of Chinese, nowadays it even became a religion. Confucianism emphasizes the respect of the elder, take care the younger. In social system, it recommands a standard of etiquette, in political view, Confucianist has a stand of being loyal to the lord, and the lord deservedly be concern and love his people. Besides these, Taoism, Buddhism are also important in Chinese culture, some of my friends in Hong Kong are believed in Buddhism. And there are uncountable ethnic religion in Chinese population. On the other hand, American are mainly believed in Protestant Christianity, I can usually see plenty of people go to church in every weekend. To more, Christian religion is even affecting American politic. For example, from the presedent to witness on court who will swear with a Holy Bible. Christian Church is inalienable to American culture.

In education, Chinese is more rigid than American. Since acient China, examination was valued as the standard of selecting talent. Till nowaday, Chinese education still can't break away from the standard of exam. Credentialism becomes a social consensus, It's just like what the natives said "stuff the duck". In tradition, Chinese education not mainly focus on science knowlege but humanities, we can understand this by the flourish of Confucianism. But American is different. People proffer active learning, exam is only a part of anuual credit. People believe in science power, and think science can improve civilization. Critical thinking is also suggested, and teacher always encourage me giving my creativity and having a strong communication during the study.

The biggest different between them is the people's living custom. In general, compare to the American, Chinese is conservatives. I often told to being modest, always attenting other's feeling. Chinese praise Collectivism that when things happened, people always said "make sacrifice for the group". In American's view, personal value is more important. As same as the spirit of the nation, personal freedom is the main point. In America. Although team-work is also imortant, individualism is definely infrangible. Then, people also being brave in show-off themselves. They also giving their opinion freely and without scruple. American is more open-mind than Chinese, some of my friends even think that having sex is very ordinary.




Why there are differences between different culture is because of each background of religion, education and values. To turely understand a culture, these is surely not enough. But we can get a general view by watching their value. Every culture and thought must has defects, to improve ourselves, I believe it's good to study others advantage. And my Amercian study life is still under way.