Immigrant Voices Podcast Project

Perla from Guatemala

September 03, 2020 Deborah Season 1 Episode 2
Immigrant Voices Podcast Project
Perla from Guatemala
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

At the age of six, Perla came to the U.S. from Guatemala. As memories of her homeland faded, she learned the vocabulary of her new country while never abandoning the culture and language of her parents. Despite crowded living conditions, and the ever-present threat of deportation, Perla’s hard-working family persevered to build a secure home. Having completed her masters in social work, Perla, who is now a DACA recipient, helps other immigrant families to navigate their lives while she continues to dream of the day when she can come out of the shadows of her uncertain status, become naturalized, and to revisit the land of her birth.   

Deborah:
At a very young age, Perla came to the U.S. from Guatemala. As memories of her homeland faded, she learned the vocabulary of her new country while never abandoning the culture and language of her parents. Despite crowded living conditions, and the ever-present threat of deportation, Perla’s hard-working family persevered to build a secure home. Having completed her masters in social work, Perla, who is now a DACA recipient, helps other immigrant families to navigate their lives while she continues to dream of the day when she can come out of the shadows of her uncertain status, become naturalized, and to revisit the land of her birth.   

My next guest is Perla. So Perla, how old were you when you came to this country? 

Perla:
Hello. I was six years old when I first came to this country.

Deborah:
Was your country war torn? Did they flee, were there life threatening conditions? What was the situation?

Perla:
There was no war at the moment, but financial issues, safety issues, and concerns in our country were pushing my parents to, to leave our home and come to the United States. So financial instability and safety concerns. 

Deborah:
Do you remember anything from being six years old? Anything about the journey? What do you remember about your house? Was it a big house? 

Perla:
Yeah, Our house wasn't too big. It was, it was a very interesting house. Yeah. it was two floors. And, you know, in a country where, you know, you have rooftops that are not even closed, they're just kind of like open, you know, I remember just playing a lot in the rooftop. We had a front porch, which was closed. There wasn't much grass, it was mostly cement that we were allowed to play there. It was safe. It was close. It was safe. it was a small home. It was a, let's say a four-bedroom, three fiber home. Not a lot of space, but it's just, it was, it was fine too. I have a lot of members.

Deborah:
That's great that you can remember from when you were six. [00:03:00] Wow. You'll get back there someday. 

Perla:  
I hope so. It's still there. Boston to us was familiar. we had family members already established here for many years and it was. We always got to visit so possible was familiar to my siblings and I, however, when we stayed longer than we were used to. From what I remember is feeling confused, feeling lost, and missing my, my home in Guatemala a lot.

Deborah: 
You remember that?

Perla
Yeah. I have those memories from six years old. 

Deborah:
Anything else that you remember that stayed with you from that age

Perla:  
Adapting to, you know, I new country was very difficult. So language barrier was, it was difficult. I couldn't really communicate with other kids my age. And then this, this spoke to same language as I did. I remember being in Boston for first couple months in school. I couldn't really find friends that I could play with just because they didn't speak the same language as I did. So I remember that very clearly.  

Deborah:
Did your parents encourage you to learn English or did, or was it sort of a cultural imperative to keep speaking the native language? 

Perla:
At  home, we always spoke Spanish. So my parents always encouraged us to continue to speak Spanish. When we were outside, they encouraged us to speak English. They said both languages were going to be very important. Back then many years ago, schools in the Boston public districts, they were bilingual. So they had separate classes for kids who had just recently arrived and spoke only Spanish. But it was still hard to kind of adjust to it. 

Deborah:
What made it hard? 

Perla: I guess the different types of Spanish as well. We were used to speak in a certain way. Certain accent. And even though the other kids spoke Spanish, I still couldn't understand what they were saying. Especially families from like Puerto Rico, kids from the Dominican Republic, or kids from Colombia. Their accent was so different. I didn't know that other people spoke different types of Spanish, if that makes sense.

Deborah:
Yeah. Wow. 

Perla:
Yeah.

Deborah:
Did it all kind of congeal for you though? I mean, after a while, were you able to understand other dialects and other versions of Spanish more easily?

Perla:
I think as I was very fortunate to come here as a child, because as a kid, you know, kids adjust to environments very quickly. And although it was challenging, you know, we were able to, to get used to it and feel comfortable with other kids. Learning about different cultures from people's own perspectives, compared to like a book, that we were still learning in our own country

Deborah:
It must have been challenging though. Would you, do you remember like making your first friend who was American? Who, who didn't speak Spanish? 

Perla: 
I remember. Just making up words in English and hoping they would understand it.

Deborah:
Can you give me an example? Was it Spanglish?

Perla: 
It wasn't Spanglish, or maybe some other language that I invented. You know, I think asking kids to like play with me, like, do you want to be my friend? I would, I can't remember the exact words, but I remember their faces and. Going back many years ago, almost 20 years ago. I could just remember how they would look at me and be like, what are you saying? Continually asking me to repeat myself. And it was hard. It caused me to, to be very anxious. I was like, am I doing something wrong? And I was, but as a child, I didn't know.

Deborah:
In what ways has it helped you, being bilingual as far back as you can remember right up to today, how has being bilingual, helped you?

Perla:
Being a child who had to help my parents when we went out to the stores, when we went to doctor's appointments, whether it was my own doctor's appointments on my parents. Going to your local grocery store or anything like that. It helped me advocate for my parents and support them when these places didn't have people to support them in their language. So it helped me. It also with the same, it also caused me to feel a lot of pressure because I was alone with my older siblings, we were the ones translating things that were really for adults and. No, they put us in this weird position of a bigger authority than our parents, because we could understand English and they couldn't. 

 Deborah:
So you were kind of the adults in a way? 

Perla:
Yeah. 

Deborah:
How many siblings?

Perla:
There's five of us. 

Deborah:
Whoa. What are the ages of your siblings? What were they when you came? 

Perla:  
The oldest one, which is before me, she was about seven. She was like a year older than I am. The one after me, she was about, she was a little younger, so she was about five, and my brother was about nine months old. He was a baby. And then my youngest sibling was born here in Boston.

Deborah:
Is everybody bilingual? 

Perla:
Everybody is bi-lingual, yes. 

Deborah:
In what ways has your status as a dreamer been an obstacle? Or an asset or both, if you can tell me a little bit about that. 

Perla:
I think it has definitely been both. An obstacle has been that, you know, not knowing what my status was until going to college and figuring out that my journey was not going to look the same as everybody else's, and not understanding why; it was all because of eight numbers that I did not have, which was a social security, which wouldn't allow me to qualify for financial aid or really any financial support, or even apply for a job. Then the dream act was passed. The DACA was passed where students on June 2015, which that was a big, big difference. It made a big, big difference in our lives. 

Deborah:
In what ways? 

Perla:
Being a DACA recipient allowed me to work, and also allowed me to be able to apply for a driver's license, or driver's permit. I guess in a way, it gave me some type of freedom. And security that my freedom wasn't at risk anymore. 

Deborah: 
How about the freedom of your parents? 

Perla:
That's still, my parents' freedom is still something that we kind of juggle every day because they still don't have a status. And it's very difficult. It brings a lot of times like this, during this pandemic. No, they, they can't really qualify for any, you know, unemployment benefits. There's, they're almost like not, not noticed or acknowledged as hardworking people, individuals who work two jobs. 

Deborah:
Well, are they still working even, even during the pandemic? 

Perla:
Unfortunately not. Not at this moment. 

Deborah
Oh, they're not working now. 

Deborah:
So. Undergoing a big hardship, I would think. 

Perla:
Oh, yes. Yes. An asset of being a dreamer is that a lot of people recognize the struggles that. undocumented students go through. I think they see our, our efforts. They see that we want a better future. And I was very lucky enough where I attended college. my, my master's not my undergrad. My undergrad, I was just another regular student who had to pay lots and lots of money to go to school with no financial support at all. And that was a state school. For my graduate school, it was different, people recognized me, saw my hard work, and were able to support me, because they knew that I wanted this really bad, and without their own institution's private scholarships, I wouldn't have been able to pursue my dreams.

Deborah:
That's fantastic that you were able to finance it. How about the asset of, in terms of the kind of work that you do? I would think being bilingual and also having an insight into the plight of immigrants, it just kind of being in both worlds is got to be an advantage.

Perla:
It's definitely being bilingual has allowed me to work with so many individuals who have similar or different backgrounds as I do. And, being a clinical social worker, you work with many students whose parents are undocumented, who they themselves have been undocumented. So you get the best of both personal experience as well as, no, as a job and you understand both and it's living the best, best worlds. And because of my personal experience, I am now able to provide just to even more supports to those people who are going through similar things as I am. 

Deborah:
Well. how does trust figure into your work?

Perla:
Trust is very important. It's all of my work. If there's no trust in between the client and myself, which, you know, most of the time, I'm working with kids, then there's really no, no work that can be done. If there's no trust between the parents of the children that I work with, it can become very difficult. I always agreed with, "It takes a village to raise a child." And if there's no trust between two adults who are working to support child, then there's really no support that can be given to that, to that kid. It's hard. It's almost impossible. 

Deborah:
I would think that your status as a dreamer and being bilingual, and that the trust is almost, I don't know, I'm sure you have to earn it, but that it's, it's more automatic that because you're not an outsider.

Perla:
Yeah. another one of all of us.

Deborah: 
Do you have early memories from your, the country of your birth, and how old were you when  you realized that your status as a dreamer was going to have an effect on your life and your future? I know you said earlier that when you got to college age, you became more aware of it, but if you think back a little bit, what's your earliest memory of getting a sense that you were different? You know, other than, you know, I'm, I'm assuming you acquired language pretty quickly at the age of six, you know, and you don't have any accent, obviously, so I'll just ask that again. do you have early memories from the country of your birth? And how old were you when you realized that your status as a dreamer was going to have an effect on your life and your future?

Perla:
A lot of my memories from my country of birth just require, you know, our own home that we had, which to me was, this was fun. A lot of fun memories. Life in my country was very different. It was always warm. We were always outside playing. If we were, had to be inside, it was because it was time to eat dinner, or go to bed. I just have a lot of like, as a kid, a lot of just plain. That's all I could remember. 

Deborah:
More of a sense of freedom. Did that change when you came here? 

Perla:
I would say yes. We didn't have a home. We lived in an apartment, two bedrooms most of our years, our first years here, we had a share. It was a two-bedroom apartment. My uncle lived in one bedroom and basically my parents and my myself, including three other siblings at the moment, we were only four. We had to share one bedroom. So things were very different. There was no backyard. if you wanted to go play, you had to go to a park. 

Deborah:
How long did that last, that living situation? 

Perla:
I want to say maybe two years, three. It was a lot, there was a lot. It wasn't just one bedroom. It was too much.

Deborah:
Are there any particular incidents that happen during that time? Because of the crowded circumstances that you can recall, like a particular day, a particular event, or something that was either traumatizing or, something that brought joy. I, you know, either one or both?

Perla:
I think having my uncle around there was, well, was fun. We got to go check out like different places, you know. We got to do a lot of fun activities outside of the home. But when it came to like being inside the home in a very tight two-bedroom apartment, it was uncomfortable. We were kids and we always wanted to be running around and playing, as any other, you know, regular kid would want to do. And, and I think there was times where our uncle, It was like little bit hard for him to understand that.

Deborah: Did you all eat together? 

Perla:
Mostly, I believe it was mostly my own family, like my parents and my siblings. 

Deborah:
So you kind of did shifts in the kitchen kind of thing. 

Perla:
Yeah, I kind of. I feel like a lot of the times my uncle spent a lot of time eating out. He was young, but when it came to like, And focusing on his own personal stuff. I think space-wise as a kid, you're making noises, you know, you're running, you're playing. And I think sometimes adults required, you know, just some quiet downtime and as kids, of course, it was hard for us to understand that

Deborah:
Aside from the quote "American dream," what human dream have you had for yourself in your life? And have you accomplished it and what are your dreams today? 

Perla:
I feel like one of my biggest accomplishments, that I, one of my biggest dreams that I have accomplished so far is, you know, pursuing my master's degree. For me, that was just a dream. It wasn't something that I thought I would ever be able to do. And now I can say I did it. So that's accomplished. Now the dream is being able to buy my parents their own home and here in Boston, and have them financially secure, so they don't have to worry about working so much. So my dream is to give my parents a good life and continue to provide for them. 

Deborah:
Do, your siblings. Did they share that same dream? 

Perla:
Yes. They do. I feel like our parents have given up their own home back in our country, and this is a place to call home. Now. They, they love Boston. They admire everything about it. They talk about it like if they were born here. And I think it's only fair that they get to have a home in a place that they call home. 

Deborah:
Any leads about where you're looking to buy a home or is it about saving the money or what, what stage are you? Is your home search for them at this point with your other siblings?

Perla: 
I think that we always just dream of having like a home in Brighton. Brighton has always been the place where we've lived, and just having a home in the Brighton area, their backyard, something that we'll be able to financially afford as well. But make it. We always say, "If you're going to do it, do a good and do it big." If not, just continue to save it. So we know that when we want to buy a home, it's something that's going to be, you know, it's going to be big, it's going to be comfortable, and we want something really nice. So we're in the process of right now we just have ideas. Financially, we're still not there yet, but in a couple of years, that's my dream to get my parents at home, along with my siblings as well. 

Deborah:
Great dream! When you compare yourself to people, kids, your age, who haven't had to worry about their status, people who are, you know, citizens automatically, do you think that they have any concept of what you've done, or the sacrifices your parents have made?

Perla:
Not a lot of people understand. 

Deborah: 
Why is that?

Perla: 
I remember just having conversations where people would ask me, why do you still live with your parents? Or, you know, what do you hope to do? And my, what I've always said is I want to be able to have a home where my family can live, where there's a two or three-family home. You have them live upstairs and I live downstairs, but I want to make sure that I when I first buy a home, it's a home for my parents. And a lot of people don't understand that. They say, well, why? Why can't your parents do it? And my story is my story. So it's not something that I like to share a lot with everybody because of the fear that not a lot of people have been able to understand in the past. So they don't understand that my parents sacrificed everything. They came here with just the luggage and us. And they don't understand the sacrifice of living of my parents leaving in their home, and coming here and just starting from nothing.

Deborah:
So, because of your status, you've, you've never actually been to Guatemala since you were six, right? 

Perla:
That's right. 

Deborah:
Any desires to get there? Or are you feeling like it's hopeful that you'll be able to go on a track to citizenship? What, what are you, what's your gut say right now to you?

Perla:
One of my dreams has been to go back to Guatemala and just visit all their beautiful places. I dream about Guatemala all the time. I know that sounds silly, but I can just imagine like the volcanoes, all the beautiful places that friends or even family members talk about. And I want to be able to experience that, just experience my own culture in my home and. Yeah. So I, I hope to do that one day. Path to citizenship right now, with this current administration, is it's sort of difficult to look at, just because there's a lot of,  I don't want to say hatred, but almost like dislike against undocumented immigrants. And so you feel like they might not be any hope for it. Other people have taken different paths to become a citizenship, whether that's like, you know, marrying someone they love, marrying a citizen and exchanging their status from a DACA recipient to now, you know, legal resident or you was a precedent because there are other ways, but that way does not fit for everybody.

Deborah:
Right. Do you have friends who've done that?

Perla:
 
I've I've seen people, you know, find their husband, or their wives and fall in love and got married. And now they're able to travel anywhere they want. But for me, my time hasn't come, and I'll be waiting for that time, but I hope that something else comes before that. And so I would like for something else to come before. Marriage to me is a little scary. Yeah. 

Deborah:
How old are you now? 

Perla:
Twenty-seven. 

Deborah:
Twenty-seven. Wow. When you were thinking about this interview, what were some of the things you wanted to be sure to tell me?  

Perla:
When I first thought of this project, I thought about the many voices that have not been heard, or even my story. And I just wanted to be able to share it and hopefully inspire somebody who may be in, in pursuing their dreams at this moment, who might be a DACA recipient, or maybe have no legal status at this moment, just to inspire them, and let them know that dreams do come true if you pursue them, and if you try your best, and that undocumented immigrants are very resilient. And I hope that for someone who has no idea what I've been through or who would never probably understand what being a DACA or undocumented immigrant means. I hope that through my story, they're able to, to just, just hear what it's like.

Deborah:
Well, I really appreciate your being willing to, to share it. So what is exactly the status of the dreamers right now? In May of 2020, what, what's the situation? 

Perla:
Right now, I know that our status is for about every two years we have to renew it. Dreamers can continue to, to renew their status. Even through this pandemic. And so far, there has not been put a stop for anybody to continue doing that, to continue to renew their permit, to work, and to be able to travel within the United States. Other than that, there's really not much. 

Deborah:
Then you, you still pay, you pay taxes too, right? 

Perla:
Oh, yes. 

Deborah:
But you don't, you don't have a social security number.

Perla:
At this moment, yes. Now I do. After DACA was given, it allowed us to have a social security number to work and be able to apply for an ID or a driver's license.

Deborah:
That's great. 

Perla:
Yes, but our social security cards are very different compared to, are you a citizen, or a legal resident.  

Deborah: 
In what way?

Perla: 
In a way that it says this is it, it's printed on the social security number? It says this is only for work permit. It does not authorize any permit to The United States is just a work permit. So there are some benefits that we may qualify and some benefits that we definitely won't qualify at all.

Deborah:
I think the average American has no concept of the pressure that you live under 

Perla:
Every day

Deborah
Every day. I asked you a question earlier. I don't think you answered it about, like, when were you first aware that you were different from your classmates and that, that, that your status was different? I know you said it was, it became extra clear when you went to college. It must've, you must've been aware of it before that. Right. 

Perla:
And as you asked this question of, you know, when did I first become aware, a picture of my aunt driving on a Friday afternoon, just popped in my head. And I remember that day, clearly. She was driving. She also doesn't have a status and she would drive us around a lot with our cousins going to get ice cream, you know, movies. and I remember one time. She was stopped by a cop and was asked for her for her ID. No, of her driver's license passport, whatever she had. And I remember as she was pulling over for the cop to stop us, she, she was very worried. She continued to tell us that she loved us all.  

Deborah:
As though she might get dragged away. 

Perla:
Yes

Deborah:
How old were you then?

Perla:  
Sorry. I was about 11 years old. I want to say. 

Deborah:
So like in sixth grade or something. Wow. And what happened when they pulled her over? 

Perla:
Yeah. you know, I remember us laughing in the car. She had done nothing wrong. She just happened to be pulled over. I think one of her lights or something was wrong and can't remember, They asked her, you know, for any identification, she didn't have anything, but her passport from Guatemala. And the cop at first was very rude. And. I know that cops have a job to do, but I also think that we're all humans and we should be talked to as humans. And I remember just him yelling. I'm aunt saying, where's your driver's license from if the United States is in good tuning to act. So the ins she was becoming more nervous. She said I don't have one.

And then he stared at all of us in the back. Could imagine what kind of faces you saw. Because we all froze. It was like a moment of just everything froze around us. We couldn't hear anything, but him talking and he looked at us, his tone of voice changed and, you know, he warned her. He said, I don't really know specifically what he said to her. I think at that time I was just so traumatized and it was kind of like that freeze flight mode. And to me, I think I froze. Just remember seeing his lips move and tell her something and he let us go. Then when we went home, she explained to us that we have to be careful with cops. We always have to be good. That we can't do really bad things because, you know, if, if we were to do bad things, the cops would send us back home to Guatemala. We basically became afraid of cops. Every time after that, I remember, seeing cops everywhere, it was, it was traumatized. And it was like reliving that same experience. Again, they're going to take me away. They're going to send my family back home. So cops were us, my siblings, my cousins, and I have always been very traumatizing.

Deborah:
Has it changed at all? Have you, have you met any any law enforcement, people who have been nice to you who have maybe been immigrants themselves? 

Perla:  
We met a very nice cop in, I'm not sure how we met him, but I think it was at an event. I can't remember how, but he was very nice to us. And I  think that I was. When I was probably 17 years old. So I guess my fear of cops, or at least my perspective of the bad guys, which sounds funny, but the bad guys to me were the cops. Kind of changed until I was 17. but even when we're driving, even with people who have, you know, who can legally drive in the United States, that's still a fear that lives within me because I know that other family members who are in a car might not have a legal status. And I dunno, an officer will ask all of us for a status. So cops are still scary. As I would say, as a child, they were scary. 

Deborah:
And as an adult, do you have any kind of personal practice from meditation or anything that you do that, that offsets some of this stress, you know, anything that calms you down when you worry about these things, I mean, are you in fault with any group of other DACA people or have any personal hobby or something that, that you do that helps you not have to think about all these things. 

Perla:
When I see cops, whether on the street or like a traffic stop with someone that has nothing to do with us, I do a lot of like breathing, just taking really, really deep breaths, and just to help myself calm down. So I won't be afraid when I see cops. In general, as a DACA recipient within, on, you know, on, I don't know what's going to happen in the future. The way that I cope with this is I go on a lot of walks. I love nature. So just being out there, helps me clear my mind. But this is something that's always on my mind. Every second of my life. Because I have my parents, I have family members, I have clients, parents. So this is something that I think a lot, right? 

Deborah:
Not, not just personally, not just personally, but professionally, you're, you're swimming in it all the time.

Perla:
All the time.

Deborah:
Wow. 

Perla:
And there's an amazing student immigrant movement group in Boston. and a couple of years ago, maybe four years ago, maybe five now, I attended a retreat in Boston that they had. And they are the most amazing individuals. People who were younger than me, people who were older than me, people who were the same age as me, are leading this groups to inform, you know, to get allies, to get people informed about what it means to be undocumented, how to support them, just to get them educated. I went in, I went in as an ally because I had shared with one of the team members that I was still afraid to share my status. And the work that they do is incredible. Those people work every second of their lives to make a difference in my life. And one day I hope to do that. I hope to be able to continue to join in them and helping them. But it's hard. It's hard to come out to everybody as you know, someone with an unsteady status at those moments, because I know that it's not just me, it's my parents as well, and that can put their life at risk, but I hope one day I can join them and continue to advocate for millions of children like myself.

Deborah:
So you're saying belonging to that makes you a little bit more visible, which puts your parents at risk. 

Perla: 
Yes

Deborah: 
Oh, okay. Can you share the name of the organization?

Perla:
It's called a student immigrant movement, SIM. 

Deborah:
Student Immigrant Movement. And, and that it's just for Boston, or is it international? Is it national movement? 

Perla:
It's a national movement through the United We Dream. 

Deborah:
That's great. 

Perla:
And I just know the one in Boston called the Student Immigrant Movement. 

Deborah:
Wow. Well, this has been really good. I could talk to you for hours. I just wanted to let you know, and you may be aware of this, that, the Gardner had a GoFundMe page and they've raised several thousand dollars and they are trying to find out people in the Gardner community or extended community who need help. Either food, that have their rent paid. You know, they, they want to give money or gift cards or something out to people. So talk to your parents. If you think they need some help, don't let their pride get in the way, because the money needs to be spent on people who need it right now during this, you know, COVID-19 pandemic.

Perla:
Okay. 

Deborah:
Anything else you wanna tell me? You have a different youth than typical Americans. You'd just, you know, you, so having to be so responsible and so much respect for your parents and admiration for them, it's, it's very different from the typical American who's rebelling. Do you ever have friends who are kind of on this rebellious thing and you talk to them to let them know that they should appreciate what they have? Have you ever had a conversation like that? 

Perla:
I have. 

Deborah:
Anything you want to share? 

Perla:
I would just say living this American culture is so different because once you turn 18, everybody becomes independent. You do what you want. Your parents can't tell you much and being in the Guatemalan culture is totally the opposite. You can be 55. And if you still live under your parents' rule it's your parents' rules. That's what it is. That's what it is. And a lot of the times I'll tell them, "Oh, you have to be grateful." Or, you know, "Why don't you have sacrifices for your own parents?" and so many different perspectives and, you know, I can't force them to think the way that I do.

Deborah:
Did they listen to you? 

Perla:
I would say they'll take it into consideration, but most of the time, you know, they're used to what they're used to, so they all follow what they want.

Deborah:
Well, Perla, thank you so much for sharing so much with me. It's been great. 

Perla:
Thank you for doing this. This is amazing. 

Deborah:  I hope Perla’s story has given you a window into the life of one Dreamer, who despite her uncertain status, has been able to forge an independent life and career without ever abandoning her commitment and loyalty to her parents, the culture of her birth, and a passion to be a contributing citizen of her adopted country.

 Thanks to our funders
Thank you for staying with us right to the end of this episode. A special thanks to music consultant Michael Bluestein who provided royalty-free music as background for each of my guest episodes. The Immigrant Voices Podcast Project is the brainchild of Michelle Duval the Program Director at the Adult Education Program at the Gardner Pilot Academy in Allston, Massachusetts. You can learn more about the English for Speakers of Other Languages at our website www. gpaesol.com. or by emailing Michelle Duval directly at m.duval@live.com. Without the funding of Charlesview, Inc., and the support of Jo-Ann Barbour its executive director, this project would never have been possible. And a big thank you to all the guests who participated in the series of interviews, and to our listeners, we say thank you and do come back for the next episode!

 

Guest Intro for Perla
Memories From Childhood
Being Bilingual
Becoming a "Dreamer"
The Importance of Trust
Never that Same as Others
Dreams Past and Future
Having a Voice
Living Under Constant Pressure
Learning to Cope
Organizations for Change
Last Sound Bites