DEPARTED FROM
Michoacan, Mexico
ARRIVED IN
Los Angeles, California
YEAR
2002
AGE
11
NOW LIVES IN
Seattle, Washington
TRANSCRIPT
My name is Ulises Vazquez-Martinez and my first day in America was a little strange. When I first got here I went through a freeway and I didn't know what a freeway was. And also I remember looking at the window of the car seeing the skyline or seeing the city right below me and I was wondering why we were so high up and we were in a car which made no sense. Once we got to my aunt’s house then I realized that we were somewhere else besides Mexico and I remember asking my grandma about where we were and she said we were in America but to me America was where my mom was so I didn't believe her and I was in denial of where we were I knew we weren't home and I knew we weren't in America for sure cause my mom was in America and we kinda went and got some food at McDonald's when we got to McDonald's I got a McChicken cause I didn't know what to get that’s what they got for me. McDonalds wasn’t different or new cause we had a hamburger shop in Mexico and they knew Spanish so I could understand everything there, when I tasted the McChicken I thought it was nasty it was disgusting and later I realized It was ranch not mayo on it. I was 11 years old, the streets were the biggest new things I saw, everything else in Mexico was two roads one car on one side one car on the other and the streets here was three cars on one side and three cars on the other and two and two you know the streets were so big that I was afraid of jaywalking them or now that I know what it’s called but I was afraid of crossing them even though there was a crosswalk there because they were so big and I had never experienced something like that.
