Immigrant Daily

One American Life…Now Legalized

Maria Andreu -- once an "illegal" American.

A wonderful story by Maria Andreu, describes her path to becoming a “real” American.  The underlying question for me while reading her story is what does it really mean to be an American?  Is someone’s birth in this country the defining factor?  Why?  What about people like Maria who were born outside of the US, but spent their childhood here.  When do we form our identities as Americans?  What about those of us who have more than one national identity?  While growing up in the United States and going through the American educational system, we are constantly bombarded with the concept that supposedly represents the fiber of American culture – a melting pot of cultures.  If this is what gives our country its identity, then why do we try to seal our pot?

The saddest part of her story for me comes at the end:

When I went for my interview at the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the caseworker looked at me quizzically when he heard me talk in unaccented English and joke about current events. Surely this American teenager did not fit in with the crowd of illegals looking to make things right.

How would this reaction change if Maria had a different complexion?  My father once told me that when he first arrived in the US from then Czechoslovakia, a dispatcher (my dad was a truck driver) told him: “with an accent like that, you are lucky to be white.”

The issue of immigration in this country is a multifaceted problem.  It is not only about where you were born and whether you broke The Law when you arrived here.  It is also about what you look like and whether you fit in.  But what does it mean to fit in, when our country’s heritage is so diverse?  Naively, I always thought the only two things that made us American were our desires for freedom and pursuit of happiness.

Thank you Maria for sharing your story with everyone.