Reflection #4

My families immigration

My great-grandmother came to America when she was around 20 years old. She left Latvia during the time of World War One. She was nearly killed multiple times, and she claimed it was a miracle that she saw her 90th birthday. Her uncle Isaac who had already made it to America, and had made quite a bit of money, helped her family make the journey to America. Even if she had survived World War One in Europe, she being Jewish, would almost certainly have died in World War Two. She was lucky to survive, and I wouldn't be alive if she hadn't made it to America.

Like my family, Reyna Grande came to America to escape something, in her case extreme poverty. When her dad came and got her, she was quite diseased, and could have died before adulthood if she didn't get proper care. Not only would she possibly be dead, but she would definitely not have been as successful as she is today. Her success is in part thanks to the education she was able to get in college in America. Her dad pushed her to graduate, and she is now a successful author. Her life would be so different if she had not immigrated, just as I would not have existed if my grandmother had not come to America.

I knew that my family immigrated to the United States, but doing this project made me do some research and I learned a lot about my family's history that I never even would have known. I even read my great-grandmother's book I Refuse to Die, which I used as this reflections artifact. I did not realize why or when my family left Latvia, and I am glad that I now know. Almost everyone in a the United States is a descendant of a immigrant, and people should try to learn about their family history.