Crossing the Valley Project

 

Introduction

            During this assignment, students were to conduct interviews with migrants who came to the United States after 1965.  I chose to interview my own mother, Mitra Delpazir.  Part of the assignment also was to provide a detailed analysis of migration and combine it with that of the experience of the migrant.  Hopefully the presentation that is to come provides a complete an eye opening adventure for the reader, while informing them of migration issues that exist around the world.

 

The Story of My Mother Mitra Delpazir

                Hello, my name is Mitra Delpazir and I am going to be talking of my journey to the United Stated from Tehran, Iran.  It all began when I was sixteen years old.  My father, who was a Russian architect who moved to Tehran years ago, decided I was being a bad child.  He decided that before things got any worse that he wanted to move me to the United States.  My father had ties to the embassy in Shiraz, Iran because he did architectural work with one of the women.  It took about three months or so to get my visitors pass.  At first, I thought I was just visiting, later I got my residency.   I moved here in 1978 and lived with my brother, who is about 12 years older than me.  It was him who told my father to moved me here since he was here, and my father knew that I respected my older brother and would listen to him.  My father and I boarded a plane that year and the flight from Tehran lasted about 34 hours, there was a layover in London.  At first I was angry that my father was doing this to me.  I feared that I would have no friends or boyfriends and that no one would like me.  I was afraid because I did not know the language.  The first stop in the US was New York, I fell in love with it.  Since I arrived on the fourth of July I just figured the US was a party city and that all the time there were fireworks and parties.  I got a reality check when we continued our flight into Kansas and I realized that I was here, in the middle of nowhere next to cows and farms and things were going to be a lot different. 

                At first my intentions were of any sixteen year old, I just wanted to party, meet boys, and make friends.  It took me about six months to pick up on the language through body language of others as well as help from my brother.  It was pretty difficult, especially in school when people would tell me that I’m a prostitute was a greeting, instead of hi how are you, I figured out the truth about that one fast!  Aside from that I became popular fast and I decided to stay in the United States and pursue my dream as a Beautician. 

                My father helped put me through beauty school when I was about 21.  Ever since I’ve been doing the same thing.  I got married at age 20, had my first daughter at 23 and basically was ready to call the US my home.  I would visit now and again but I really have and had no intentions of moving back.  I still have my beliefs in the Muslim religion, and practice holidays, but I also am open minded about the traditions here in the United States.  I have rarely experienced discrimination for my beliefs, and I have found that if you are open minded with people and their beliefs, they will be open minded as well.  I have learned a lot about people from my journey.

                Although before my arrival to the U.S. I can say I was skeptical and just wanted to go home, but now I call the U.S. my home.  I only wish that my children grow up and be successful.  I have learned that the biggest thing in the United States is to be friendly and give everyone a chance to state their opinions.  You learn a lot about people from their backgrounds, and I really believe that no matter where you are in the world, you can achieve any dream, but the opportunities in the United States are definitely a bit greater.

 

 

Analysis

            After my discussion with my mother I realized that there is a lot about her and our past that I was not aware of.  It’s funny how every morning you wake up and you really have no idea how your family or you even ended up at your current location.  If it weren’t for my mother’s journey to the United States, I can only imagine what my life would be like.  There are so many gender differences, power struggles, and differences in economy and politics. 

            I feel like if I would go back to Iran, I would have a major problem with the way women are treated.  For example, the shawl wearing, and basically the women are treated as less in status then men.  Men in Iran are seen as heads of the household, and women basically are bossed around.  If a woman is to be seen without a shawl over her head and fully clothed, she is shunned upon and looked at as a whore, and in a lot of cases she can get into trouble for not covering her face and often is harassed.  An example of this is explained in the book In and out of Morocco by David A. McMurray regarding Nadori women who paraded in the streets of Morocco after an independence movement.  Murray makes a point about how women who wore pants were harassed.  He states, “After independence, the girls on the street who wore European fashions were hounded back indoors by bands of boys…they threw stones at girls and yelled.”   Power struggles between men and women exist all over the world.  Even among the Hmong refugees from Laso that live in Wisconsin.  The Hmong women often took up duties that men felt lower status.  The author of the book New Pioneers in the Heartland, Hmong Life in Wisconsin by Joann Koltyk, states that, “Unlike men, who may refuse to work that appears to lower their status; Hmong women are more flexible and apt to take jobs that bring money in the household without regard to status.  The majority of the jobs for women were seasonal and agricultural.”  Obviously, these facts show that a power struggle that exists between men and women in many countries, especially in the Middle East.  Which is one of the reasons my mother came to the United Stated from Iran, although there were many other, such as money.

Migration has been going on for hundreds of years. Money is also a key factor in migration.  For example in Voyages by Cathy A. Small, she explains how way back in the 1880’s money was introduced to the Tongan’s by the European’s.  She explained that before the Tongan’s were introduced to money, they used Tapa cloth as a form of status, yet when the European’s explained the riches that could be bought, the Tongan’s desired this new found item called money.  She states, “Money was introduced to Tonga by European Missionaries in the nineteenth century, and was something to be used in the interaction of Tongans and Europeans…Imported foods, like imported goods generally, was associated with people of status.  Having and serving imported food as the turn of the century was a sign of great resources, and it signaled a higher more prestigious and cheif-like lifestyle.”  It is often this chief like lifestyle that encourages others to explore new opportunities in other areas of the country, where they can increase their status and expand their collection of desired belongings.  It is a fact that individuals leave their countries to come into other countries with better economies, such as the United States, so that they have more opportunities to increase their income.

            This brings me to my next point, that in some places around the world, an increase in wages brings more individuals from poorer countries to more economically rich contries, such as between Mexico’s and the United States.  Mexico is a country that is not necessarily poor, but is not as rich as the United States.  This is why a lot of individuals are coming into the United States from Mexico.  In an article by Maria Guadalupe Torres titled We Are Not Machines: Corporations that bring jobs must bring justice too, she states how most of the maquiladora workers barely make enough money in a forty hour work week to survive, and the money that they do make goes strictly towards their necessities.  In most cases also, women immigrants get the bitter end once they workers enter the U.S.  They are often “shunned into sweatshop apparel or servile house-cleaning jobs that offer the lease opportunity” as stated by Mike Davis in his article Magical urbanism: Latinos Reinvent the U.S. City.  Although many opportunities may be greater in other countries, it does not mean that life will be easy once entered into the U.S., as my mother realized.

            Although places like the United Stated, the United Kingdom, and many other wealthy nations offer a lot of opportunity, the journey is not easy.  Every individual must basically start from the bottom, unless they have links in, like my mother fortunately did.  The journey is vigorous and takes time, but until other nations who are not at rich such as Mexico, makes changes in their economy, the more wealthy countries will keep receiving immigrants.