I come from Puerto Rico.

My birth date is June 18,1962.

I was born in Guayama, Puerto Rico.

I came to the United States in 1978.

I left the island with me, nine brothers and sisters and mother and father. We came here, to the United states because my father..... well, we lived good but it got to a point when my father left his job and he decided to take us out of school. We had a dream to finish our studies, to progress and live better. And so my brothers and sisters had a dream to progress, go forward, become professionals and within all of us crying we spoke to my parents and they decided to come to the United States to find a better future.

I loved my little island. I loved the hot weather, the food, the music, everything, everything. I loved my island .

The reason why we came to Philadelphia was my father decided to come to Philadelphia is because he came to Philadelphia at 18-years-old, he lived here for many years and he knew where to go. That's all I know.

We traveled here on airplane. The airplane was good and comfortable. When I saw it (airplane) I thought it was pretty, looking at the sky and ocean. For me it was an adventure. But when I finally got here I was so SAD! because when I came here it was nothing like my Puerto Rico.
My home has rich parts of Puerto Rico - it were much beautiful than that. The hillsides of Puerto Rico, the cities, the beaches, the parks, the out-doors, the houses that have many doors. Puerto Rico is like a house in a park where someone can go out and already is having a GOOD TIME with everything. It's a happiness.
Well, the cold frustrated me a lot, the language frustrated me a lot. I didn't want to go to school because of the language. I had a lot of problems. But I finish school thanks to my mother because I didn't like it, I wanted to leave but in the end I finish, I finish high school at Kensington. Thanks to my mother who's always crying and asking me to finish.
But when I came to the United Sates I didn't like anything, I didn't like anything. I didn't like school, I didn't like the city, everything. Everything was UGLY! When I came to the United States I was 16-years-old.

I consider when we came we had a lot of luck in Philadelphia. Because to find a place to live for 12 people is difficult. My father rented a house and the man who he rented it from gave the house to the city. The house belonged to the city. My father found out and the neighbors and friends explained to him that the house belong to the city and they told him what he had to do.
My father went down to city hall and they gave him the house. My father was grateful to God and a man gave him $1 [million dollars?] although he wasn't supposed to get the house. But he had a family so it was good. So we fixed and cleaned the house. 'Til this day we are still the owner of the house we love, we have memories in it, there is where our life started in the United States. The house we have here - compared with the one we still own in Puerto Rico - is small and old compared to the one in Puerto Rico. It has 6 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, a balcony, it has a garden, parking. There's a balcony in the back of the house, it has it's own fruit tree. It's like a mansion compared with the one we have here. But, thank God, because we came to the United States to progress. I say the United States is the land of money and to progress.
Whoever comes here to progress, they progress and whoever comes to destroy themselves, destroy themselves. The house here was very uncomfortable but we adapted.
We adapted to the house and everything was reach and everything came together. We lived good with a purpose and we reach a dream. Some achieved very little and others achieved much, but we all work for our dream.

My cousin also came with us. Which he also came with a dream that he achieves. He makes a lot of good money, he's married and his sons all go to college. So coming with us help him achieve his dream, too. Now he lives in Puerto Rico, he built a house there.
I came with my mother, father, my seven sisters and three younger brothers. I'm the the fourth child in the family.

The most beautiful memory that I have of my island is the place where I was born and where I was raised. It was a place very happy, a neighborhood of family, which for me I loved very much.

The difference when came here were that in Puerto Rico we didn't study. Here we work and studied. I finished high school, my older sisters studied, worked, they went back to Puerto Rico, they made a career, they became professionals. The younger ones stayed here. We  taught them [the younger siblings] the language Spanish so that the tradition wouldn't die, also they progressed.
They became professionals. One of them became a professional here and he went back to Puerto Rico. I finished high school, I met the father of my kids. We made a beautiful wedding, I had my 4 children and I'm working hard so that they may achieve their dreams. The difference is that life here is much easier and comfortable. Here is much easier because we walk a couple minutes to school or we took the bus and get there in 15 minutes.
But in P.R. it was more liberated because we all like each other and everyone talk to one another. Here we were alone. No one talk or anything. Everybody was for themselves. It can never replace my Puerto Rico, it's my island, my language.

Well, I expected that the U.S.......... I heard it was the land of money. I thought we would live in a high building where it'll be very pretty, something new. To live in a high building to look at all the cars and buildings. I expected to see buses full of people. I expected to have a lot of money.
I expected to go out to the beach, I would have a lot of friends, go to the rivers, parks. I thought I was coming to something very pretty. I would never imagine that we came to something ugly. We came here at night time. The first thing I saw were walls. When I saw that I was very sad. I didn't want to see that, I want to see something beautiful. Is all people whom I didn't understand and I was sad because this place was nothing like my Puerto Rico.

I don't know....... but what I want to do now is go back to my island because I don't want to stay here. My purpose now is to take care of my kids, help them be professionals and lead a good life. One wants to be a psychologist, nurse, teacher, and a police officers. So I wanted to help them first and then go to Puerto Rico.

Comparing Puerto Rico and Philadelphia, Philadelphia is UGLY. But Philadelphia now and then some places are still ugly and others have progress. Like when I walk on 5th street (El Bloque De Oro) all that was sold was jewelry. There was joy, jewelry, restaurants, a lot of clothes. Now days (El Bloque De Oro) isn't what it use to be. Now there aren't anyone jewelry stores, there aren't a couple of cloth store, it's not the same. It's (Philly) more horrible then before but there are some good things. We have the supermarkets, doctors offices are closer now, it's improved. Some. The parks have hookers and more drug dealers than before.

The language gave me problems, the cold got to me, the streets were difficult. I would go on my street to get home, and I was on another. Kids used drugs in Philadelphia and were violent. I've never seen a fight in Puerto Rico.

Talking, dressing, things like that.

I did have a job when I come here but my father gave me money.

I went to school, I tried to do my work and I lived here for a long time. I had no choice but to stay.

I think so because I married here, my children were born here, and I know they will progress here.

Elementary and a little bit Middle School.

One day I did because I miss my Puerto Rico.

I want to go back home to my island and be happy again. In the sun.

I work in a factory where all I did was put whatever my boss wanted me into the box and put it into the trucks that came everyday. But I had to quit because the boxes were to heavy and my parents didn't want me to get hurt.