Artifact #2 - Immigrant Interview 1

Artifact #2 - Immigrant Interview

Gemma Crowell
April 10, 2016
College of Southern Nevada
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Flor Hatcher is a 62 year-old woman from the Philippines. She was born in 1954 in

Dalaguete, a rural area in Cebu, Philippines. She has four other siblings. Her family are religious

Catholics, they went to church on Sundays, and they speak the local dialect, Cebuano, and the

national language, Tagalog. In addition to her parents, her immediate relatives also played an

important role as caregivers and companions for her and her siblings. Her grandparents were

honored and respected, like the American Indians, she sought a "daily contact with grandparents,

who monitor children's behavior and have a voice in child-rearing practices" (Manning &

Baruth, 2009, p. 87). Her family lived in a neighborhood where people could get out of their

house and easily converse with the neighbors. She knows most people's names and played with

other children on the street in front of their house. She recalled it was fine for her to hold hands

with her girlfriends but not boyfriends, confirming that "physical contact between members of

the same sex is permissible but is not acceptable between members of the opposite sex"

(Manning & Baruth, 2009, p. 124).

In 1969, when she was fifteen years old, her family moved to Manila, Philippines. To

help her parents and her younger siblings, she worked as a nanny. In 1980, the family she was

working for moved to the United States and they brought her along with them on a B-1 visa. She

remained with that family and worked for them for ten years. She said that they took care of her

papers, so they must have been able to acquire a ten-year visa for her for the duration of her stay

during that period. Before the trip, she felt both apprehensive to be going to another country and

excited to be seeing and experiencing new things. She thought that people would be less friendly

and helpful as she heard stories of Americans not socializing much with their neighbors. She also

knew that people work harder in the USA than the people she knew in the Philippines that had a
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more relaxed and carefree lifestyle. She recalled that in the beginning of her stay in the country,

she felt a little bit frustrated that people did not quite easily understood her when she was

speaking because of her accent. Just like the Greek-American Helen, whose "father spoke

English with such an accent and with such difficulty" (Manning & Baruth, 2009, p. 143),

sometimes people could also not understand her. She had tried to change her accent to sound

more American but, at first she felt like the African-American Paul and, thinks that her

"language works fine at home, so (she) doesn't see any need to change" (Manning & Baruth,

2009, p. 56). She realized that she was wrong with the helpful part because, she found out that

more people here in the USA helped her than if she had been faced with the same problems if

she was in the Philippines.

One major help that she received from certain people was ten years later, when her visa

was about to expire, she was told to either go back to the Philippines or find someone who will

help her get proper documentation to stay legally in the country. She recalled being introduced

by a friend to a gentleman named Jesse Hatcher, who was a US Army veteran. They got married

in 1991, and with her new husband as the petitioner, she applied for a resident alien card or green

card shortly after. Even though she knew that she could apply for citizenship soon after, she

never entertained the idea and was content with her green card. During her marriage she fell into

a role where she stayed at home full time to be a housewife and a mother to their two children

while her husband provided for them, made most decisions for the family and controlled their

activities. Even without becoming fully aware of the stereotype, as an Asian-American she

acquired "the role of the female in the family (as being) subservient to the male, the performance

of domestic chores, and the bearing of the children" (Manning & Baruth, 2009, p. 129).
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Flor remembered that she never thought to change her status until eight years later, in October of

1999, when she began the process of application to become a US citizen. Her fewer recollection

of the process was that it was free from hassles. There were no big challenges that she faced.

When she applied for citizenship in the mail, she sent in her $250 payment, and then received a

response in the mail notifying her of her upcoming interview. She said that she was interviewed

three weeks later from the date she received the notification. Even though she studied US civics

and history with the materials provided her, she recalled her interview to be easy and the

interviewer was a friendly man who made good-natured jokes to help ease her nervousness

during the interview. After the interview, she waited for a few more months and was sworn in as

a citizen of the United States in May of 2000 in the Las Vegas City Hall, for a total of six months

waiting period from the moment she submitted her application papers.

She immediately went back to visit the Philippines for the first time after she officially

became a citizen. Later on, she went on to work at a fast food restaurant, where she stayed for

seven years. She is now currently residing in Anchorage, Alaska. Flor said that she loves living it

here, she loves the scenery and has made many friends.
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References

Manning, L & Baruth, L. (2009). Multicultural Education of Children and Adolescents. New

York: Pearson.