At 17 years old, Diego Guaman recalls, he saw his mother sobbing: His brother had been detained by U.S. immigration authorities. That pivotal moment led him to become involved in local politics.
Guaman’s experience growing up in a family with mixed immigration status — and family separation — helped him understand the challenges that undocumented people face, he said. Those experiences and challenges may be familiar to many immigrants who arrive in Minnesota. Oftentimes, immigrants flee their home countries due to war, famine, natural disasters, economic turmoil and political prosecution. Arriving in the United States presents new hardships, too. During their early years here, family memories can get lost.
On February 20, a panel of Minnesota artists, historians, and community advocates discussed how they’ve worked to record and preserve immigration stories, and shared how other immigrants can do the same for their families.
The event, “My family immigration story — and yours,” was hosted by Sahan Journal and MPR News (through its North Star Journey Live project) and brought together a live audience at the St. Paul studios of SPNN. In addition to recounting their own family stories, panelists presented the benefits of sharing immigration stories with younger generations amid the barrage of changes on federal immigration policies. The experts included,
- Diego Guaman, an Ecuadorian immigrant and the interim director of Movimiento Comunitario Minnesota, an advocacy and resource organization for communities of color.
- Julie Vang, program manager for Green Card Voices, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit that records first-person narratives of immigrants and refugees to publish as books.
- Marian Hassan, a Somali American educator and children’s book author.
- Saengmany Ratsabout, an independent scholar on Southeast Asian migration history who helps record Lao history.
The conversation started off with panelists recalling their own immigration journeys, often starting with why they left their home countries and came to Minnesota. The immigration event itself, some said, represents just a snippet of a longer and complicated history.
Asked for her account, Marian Hassan found herself hesitating: “Which story to tell?” she said. The story about political turmoil in Somalia, the exodus, her arrival – all these experiences represent her life as an immigrant.
As a daughter of Hmong immigrants, Julie Vang talked about how her parents used the resources around them -– such as handmade fishnets — to make an abundant life. The Secret War in Southeast Asia — remembered in the United States as part of the Vietnam War — forced her parents to make many sacrifices and seek refuge in Thailand.
“The decision was to leave for safety, because they wanted to live,” Vang said. When her parents crossed the Mekong River in a handmade bamboo boat, she said, her mother was afraid of the water. Her family lived in the refugee camp for three years.
“I, on the other hand, love the water,” she said — a symbol of how she’s tried to break the cycle of generational trauma.
Saengmany Ratsabout’s family also stayed in a refugee camp in Thailand, he said, after fleeing from Laos. Ratsabout and Vang are part of the Southeast Asian communities in Minnesota that are marking the 50th anniversary of the first migration into the United States.
When he was two years old, he said, his family sold their last ration of rice to pay someone with a boat to transport them to Thailand.
“From the perspective of Thailand, we were undocumented immigrants seeking asylum,” he said.
Ratsabout saved some of the documents from that transitional time: things like plane tickets, x-rays and medical records, and immigration papers.
“I had all my siblings’ and my parents’ x-rays. I’m seen as the de-facto historian of the family,” he said. These materials played a part years later when he co-founded the Immigrant Stories Project at the University of Minnesota’s Immigration History Research Center. For one of the project’s first video stories, he brought his plane ticket to illustrate his immigration journey.
“In high school, there was no curriculum. I didn’t understand my own history. It was not until college that I did my own research on my history,” he said. “That’s one of the reasons why I continue to be part of multiple projects to document the experience of immigrants and refugees.”
Starting a conversation about family history
Each of the panelists explained the methodology they use to share immigration stories through different mediums — and how they navigate the difficulties.
Some conversations may start casually in the kitchen and the comfort of home. When that happens, Vang said, she sometimes takes out her phone to record the voices of her relatives as they share stories.
But doing the same work in her role at GreenCard Voices can sometimes require more sensitivity. Vang said some immigrants are worried that voicing and sharing their experiences could present dangers for others in the community.
For example, Vang described how GreenCard Voices created a special edition of a book featuring interviews with Afghan students. Instead of video interviews, they used voice recordings, and only showed their faces in photo-illustrations.
Vang also mentioned a card game called “Story Stitch” that helps people of different backgrounds to open up conversations about personal stories.
Over chai tea and samosas, Hassan said Somali people can talk endlessly and share personal stories.
Through her own storytelling project, Sing-Again Lullaby and Oral History Project, Hassan is working to produce a bilingual collection of children’s lullabies, as sung by the grandmothers. Somali lullabies carry messages and cultural values that are often unwritten, she said. The project will be available online for families, educators and future generations of Somali Minnesotans.
Ratsabout recalls that he originally found it difficult to approach his parents with questions to ask about his family’s experiences. But after conducting many interviews with immigrants about their journeys, and leading the Immigrant Stories Project, the time was right. He had the recording equipment and thought to himself, “Why not interview my parents?”
From hearing their stories, he said, he learned about his parents’ love story and the hardships they’ve endured. Ratsabout said he passes down stories about his childhood to his own children.
Guaman discussed how he pursues his storytelling efforts through traditional dance and ceremonies. The preservation of the Mexica-Anahuac culture has had a “powerful” effect to bridge the younger generations and the older generation. His organization, Kalpulli Tlaloctecuhtli, is preparing for an upcoming ceremony on March 28 and 29 for the Mexica New Year.
Where to watch and hear the conversation
Watch the livestream recording of the full conversation here.
Listen to the conversation on mprnews.org here.
If you’re a St. Paul resident, the Saint Paul Neighborhood Network will air recordings on the conversation on its TV Channel 19. Here’s when you can see it:
- 3 p.m. Monday, March 3
- 3 p.m. Wednesday, March 5
- 9 a.m., 11 a.m., and 2 p.m. on Thursday, March 6
- 3 p.m. Saturday, March 8
- 9 a.m. Sunday, March 9
- 9 a.m., 3 p.m., and 7 p.m. on Monday, March 10
- 9 a.m. Tuesday, March 11
- 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 12
- 9 a.m., 3 p.m., and 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 13
- 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Friday, March 14
How you can preserve your family’s immigration stories
Preserve your family’s story through the Immigrant Stories Project.
Check out how newly arrived immigrants and refugees are sharing their stories with Green Card Voices.
See the Minnesota Historical Society archives of immigration stories from immigrants and refugees.
