My Family’s Journey

1. My Family’s Journey Stephanie Pardo By: Stephanie Pardo

2. My Family

3. Introduction I interviewed my 92 year old great grandfather Jose Martin Moreno and my Father. My great grandparents first lived in Uruapan Michoacán, they had four girls and one boy.

4. First Connection • Waves of immigration • 4th wave 1918-Present • My great grandpa started coming to the U.S. in 1937 as a contract field worker. He would work all over Southern California. • Although coming here to work in the fields paid him well and allowed him to provide for his family, his kids were getting older and he did not want to keep leaving them for such long amounts of time.

5. Second Connection Primary sector of the economy My great grandfather was offered some land and a house with a store attached in Zicuiran Michoacán, he decided to move his family to the land where he continued to work as a farmer. He grew corn and he also bought some cows, chickens, and pigs. By doing this he no longer had to leave his children to provide for them. To this day that same store is still there along with two more, on a couple streets away and the other next to his house in Uruapan.

6. Third Connection

7. Third Connection My Grandmother decided she needed to get out of this little town and get an education for herself and for her children. She left her three kids, my dad and his brother and sister with my great grandparents and came to stay with her brother who had already came over. She started working at an company that made emblems and went to school, after two years she saved enough money to bring over her kids. They moved to apartments in East LA, and went to school in there.

8. Fourth Connection Ghetto My parents both grew up in East LA, it is considered a ghetto because it has a minority of Mexican settlers. There is a lot of Mexican influence in the city, for restaurants to churches and even the building and store. My parents met in high school, the both attended Theodore Roosevelt High School in Boyle heights. A couple years after they graduated they had my brother.

9. Fifth Connection • Immigration Ladder • My parents moved every time to try to give us better opportunities and a better life. • After they had my brother they decided they wanted to move to a safer place to raise him, so they moved to an apartment in Whittier. • They lived there for a couple of years and decided they wanted a house so my brother could have a place to run around. They bought a house in South Gate and lived there for five years. • When my parents found out they were going to have me my dad decided it was time to move closer to his job in Pomona, So they they found a house they loved and we moved to Chino a month before my first birthday and we have lived in the same house ever since. Two years after me they had my little sister.

10. Conclusion Both of my parents have worked for the State of California for about 20 years now. My great grand parents live in Claremont with my Grand mother I really enjoyed seeing how far my family has come and I am grateful for everything they have done for my my siblings and I.