In Search of Blue Jean Dreams

Growing up poor in the mountains of Romania, Anna Giurgiev dreamed of a young man in strange blue pants. She didn’t know that this dream boy was her future husband, clad in denim, a fabric she had never seen. She didn’t know that their lives would be restricted by Romanian communism, or that he would try to defect without telling her. She didn’t know they would be separated for months and watched by police. She did not know that she would become a nurse and raise their children in the United States. All she knew, as a teenager in the mountains, was that this boy would be part of her future. Many Roads to Here is a production of The Immigrant Story, a nonprofit based in Portland, Oregon, in collaboration with the Portland Radio Project. This episode was written by Caitlin Dwyer and Monica Salazar. Audio editing was done by Rick March. Original music was provided by Harmonia. The original interview was conducted in the Spring of 2019 by Caitlyn Malik. Our executive producer is Sankar Raman. For more stories, please visit theimmigrantstory.org or listen at the Portland Radio Project at prp.fm.