Interview of Jose (Pseudonym)

Interview of Jose (Pseudonym)

This interview between Edwin Ramirez and Jose (pseudonym) covers Jose’s experience immigrating from El Salvador to the United States in order to escape the civil war in his home country in the 1980s. Jose describes the process of his immigration crossing the border into Guatemala, Mexico, and then the US. When in Mexico, the group Jose was part of was harassed by immigration police, they had to ride in the back of a delivery truck, and they had to walk through the desert to make it the rest of the way to the US border. Nevertheless, Jose and his group were able to make it to Los Angeles where Jose met up with his cousin. In this interview, Jose also speaks about his memories of childhood—both positive and scary, how he adapted to the US, and how the language barrier affected his work. Finally, Jose concludes with the story of his process of becoming a US citizen.

This interview was conducted as part of an undergraduate final project for the University of Maryland, College Park course IMMR 400 (Spring 2020). This course was led by Professor Robert Chiles of the Department of History, College of Arts and Humanities, and was sponsored by the Center for Global Migration Studies.

Edwin Ramirez

Center for Global Migration Studies

Spring 2020

The full rights of this oral history interview were given by the interviewee to the University of Maryland, College Park. This interview may be quoted from, published, or broadcast in any medium that the University of Maryland, College Park shall deem appropriate.*

*Interview recording is not available as the interviewee’s real name is used during the interview.

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English

Oral History

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Edwin Ramirez

Jose (Pseudonym)