Welcome, yembe ni doz to the daily Elena, a podcast where I'll be sharing stories of people who are first-generation in the United States, in college, or in the workforce. Spaces where being first-generation can be both difficult and exciting to navigate. I'm your host, Elena, and I'm excited for you to come on this journey with me of meeting other leaders across the United States and getting inspiration and motivation as you navigate school, work, and life in general. In each episode, I'll be sharing stories of people who I personally find inspiring and who I want others to know to.
That's one reason I made this podcast. There are so many unique stories, lessons, and wisdom in Archimonilab and through a podcast, I can introduce you to people who have played an instrumental role in my own story. Each episode will be a mix of a personal story, whether that's my own story or a guest, in addition to educational components that relate to that story because in this podcast, we are lifelong learners and will end with some recommendations on books, influential people to follow on social media, and other recommendations that relate to each episode. Since this is my first episode, I want to share my own story of being a first-generation immigrant.
I want to share more about what that journey looked like. Being an immigrant in the US hasn't been easy, but this experience taught me a lot of lessons. For example, the importance of maintaining hope when it feels like there's many doors closing in on us and the importance of asking for help, like when it was time to apply for colleges or when I had DACA and I was filling out my DACA application. And also when I started looking at PhD programs and I had to go to mentors and other people in my life professors to help me fill out PhD program applications.
These are all examples of things I didn't do alone. I did it with the help of my community. And as you listen to my story, I want you to think about who's part of your own community and who have you turned to for advice or guidance or support when it comes to finding more information about school, when you started your first job or if there's current issues in the workplace that you're navigating or just other issues in life, I want you to reflect on who has been part of your own community. Now story time be Elena.
So I came to the US at the age of four and I like to consider myself a first-generation immigrant and I'll share more on that identity later. But I was born in Aki Lami Chukan, a small town nestled in between mountains along the coast of Mitra Kwan. And at the age of four, my family and I immigrated to Washington state and we joined my mom's extended family. They had already come there some years prior, so we were able to live with them and they helped us get settled in Madewa.
But I was raised in Madewa, Washington. It's a small agricultural town and the population there was about 5,000 people and the demographics. It was about 90% Mexican. But I love growing up in Madewa.
I can specifically remember the orchards that we were surrounded by bright green grass because people take really good care of their yard there. There's real grass which is exciting, blooming apple orchards and then the blue of the Columbia River. And also just how warm and hospitable the town felt. And that's because you know it's a small town if you're from a small town, you might know what I'm talking about.
But for the most part everyone knew each other and personally we had a lot of family there, a lot of extended family there especially from my mom's side. So shout out to my family in Madewa. And growing up my family worked in agriculture. And there's one orchard that stands out to me because every summer most of my family worked there.
And this was La Guerta de Maggie E. Richard, Maggie and Richard's Cherry Orchard. And my grandma worked there, my parents, my theos, my theos, my cousins. So every day in the summer for a few months this was a big huge family reunion.
And if you're not familiar with Cherry Orchards I'm going to explain what takes place there. After moving from Washington to Arizona I realized that when you let people know you worked in the cherry orchards people don't always know what you're talking about. And that was a weird concept to me. So I'm just going to help explain it so you can understand the context of it.
But in this cherry orchard our jobs were to arrive around 5am. And we all had plastic cherry buckets that had a strap. And then the straps would go around our backs and then the bucket would say in front of our stomach close to your chest. But our job was to individually hand pick cherries from each tree in this orchard.
And you had to make sure that the stem was still on the cherry. That was important. And then you had to minimize the amount of leaves that you would pick. And ideally you would pick no leaves.
But you pick until you can feel about two of those buckets which equals about one crate of cherries. And at first the buckets are light because they're empty. You have not started picking cherries. As the minutes go by, your bucket becomes heavier with the weight of the fruit.
And by the end of the day, your body is sore from all the picking you have done because you're picking your cherries, you fill your bucket, and then you empty it into a crate. But there's also big 10 to 12 step ladders that you have to carry around with you because you need to reach the higher fruit. And you have to be climbing the ladders throughout the day, moving them, adjusting them. So working in the cherries, it's a full body workout.
One that really does take a toll on your body. But that's what we did each day. One by one, each cherry tree eventually being stripped of all the cherries that had blossomed that year. I was the youngest of five in my family, and my role was usually to get the cherries that were towards the bottom of the tree.
And in Spanish, it's called barbiat when you get the trees at the bottom. I don't know the English term for that. Someone knows it, let me know. But I would often get sent to help my grandma with her cherry trees too.
And I would make around $20 a day at most. And this is one of the most vivid memories I have in my childhood and what growing up in Madewam meant for me and my family. We were hard workers, we were immigrants, working in agriculture, and family was at the center of who we were. So those three tenets continue to shape who I am today.
And it's continued to influence all of the decisions that I made as a first generation immigrant. And while my own story can probably be told in a few books, I'm going to really summarize it, but I'll continue to share more in future episodes. And yes, one day I will be writing a book, so I will make sure to share more when that happens. So you've learned a little about my background working in agriculture.
But I worked in the orchards and asparagus fields until about the age of 15. And the nice thing about farm work was that my parents only had me work in the summers. Now that was for me personally. I thought that was really nice because some of my classmates would actually go to work in orchards and fields before school started.
I can't imagine doing that. But when I went from picking cherries to working as a cashier at a grocery store, I really thought that I had made it in life. And then I worked as a cashier up until I graduated from high school, but I just remember thinking like this is the best job ever. But it did give me a little bit of a break from work that basically takes a toll on your body when you're working in the orchards.
And I'm going to touch a little on my educational journey too. But when I graduated high school, I went to Eastern Washington University and I followed my older sister's footsteps. We were both undocumented and we both managed to get funding for our undergraduate and master's degrees, which we earned at Eastern. So we became first generation college graduates and then we both transitioned into the world of first generation professionals, so many firsts for us.
Deferred action for childhood arrivals, also known as DACA, it played a huge role in my life, especially when my sister and I were venturing out to new states as we were both able to legally work after college. And at one point, my sister moved to Washington DC and lived there for a few years before coming back to Washington State. And then I moved to Arizona, which is where I consider home now. But DACA gave me the courage to know that I could legally work and go beyond the boundaries of my home state of Washington.
And Arizona has opened up its doors to me as I have found an amazing community of people here. Moving out was initially this idea that seemed very scary, intimidating, but I'm really glad that I was able to do that. And my older sister was someone who inspired me to kind of take that leap. I am now a US citizen and have continued my journey of being a lifelong learner as I'm in the higher education PhD program at the University of Arizona.
And while I have been fortunate enough to adjust my status, which I can solely attribute to my husband, shout out to the article, I continue to come from a mixed status family and this again heavily shapes who I am and a lot of the projects that I get involved in and truly shapes my identity. As a first generation immigrant, I found myself constantly seeking out support from my high school teachers, from my college professors and mentors, from my friends, from my family. These are all people that are part of my community of support and who have helped me get this far. I've also been a former supporter for me in terms of being undocumented.
I had a lot of anxiety growing up and that followed me throughout college, to workplaces, and the counselors I've worked with helped me identify unhealthy thinking patterns, which contributed to some of that anxiety that I had, but I've learned the importance of only taking on what I can handle, working on boundaries, and overall just prioritizing my well-being. I want to share three things that I'd like for you, my listener, to take away from my story so far. The first is to consider who is part of your own community. Is it family, teachers, or maybe it's your friends?
Reflect on how they've supported you with your own goals in life and give them a shoutout. That might be on social media or send them a private message. Gratitude is always appreciated. The second thing is to make brave decisions.
My brave decision was deciding to move out of state because it aligned with my future goals of eventually applying for a PhD program. Now it wasn't the easiest decision, but like I said, it was brave. Going out of my comfort zone meant I was growing in ways I hadn't anticipated. So I want you to think about what break decision will you make today or maybe this week?
And finally, remember where you come from and the strength in your story. My strength comes from knowing my family was able to financially support themselves through farm work and from knowing we were resourceful, always finding work when there was no longer work at one orchard. My strength comes from knowing my family always found a way to get by and so has my immigrant community. So a question for you is where does your strength lie?
And if you're someone who journals, this would be a great prompt to write about or if you doodle, you can come up with a really creative doodle for this. I would love to see how you've applied either of those three takeaways and if you do something, you can share it with me. If you wrote something and you'd like to share some thoughts, please do that. But you can email me at thedailyillenna at gmail.com and I'll be sharing responses in a future episode.
I know there are others out there who might relate to my experiences and I want to become part of your community of support. I want you to make brave decisions and I want you to recognize the strength in your story. I'm still figuring out how to best navigate school and the workplace. The main first gen, but my goal is that through these first gen stories, you can take some knowledge, wisdom and lessons and apply them to your everyday lives.
This next segment of the daily illenna is called Learning with Illenna, a segment where I'll share stats, facts and other educational information to help you better understand the stories told on this podcast. Because like I shared earlier in this podcast, we are lifelong learners. First, I'm going to provide an overview of policies in Washington State and in Arizona that were important to consider when I was going to school and when I decided to move from Washington State to Arizona. In Washington State undocumented students can go to college and pay in-state tuition.
This is thanks to House Bill 1079. Washington is one of 18 states that offers both in-state tuition and financial aid for undocumented students. That's one reason I'm very fond of this state. There have been countless leaders and advocates that helped advance these policies.
The other 17 states that also offer both in-state tuition and financial aid are California, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, not a state but they do offer the support. Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, and Virginia. If you just graduated high school or if you're about to graduate high school and your state is one of the 18 states that offers both financial aid and in-state tuition, you will most likely fill out an additional application to receive in-state tuition and financial aid. High school counselors are usually the ones equipped with this information.
However, if you don't feel safe reaching out to your high school counselor and you have questions on that process, please reach out and I'll get you connected to a trusted individual or help you find those initial resources. Another point on this is that if you're first taking classes at one college and then you transfer or you decide to take classes at a different college, make sure you fill out the in-state tuition forms again because they tend to be specific to the first college that you attend. An example of this for Washington State is that if you attended Columbia Basin College and then you transfer to, let's say, Eastern Washington University, you'll need to fill out that in-state tuition form again because that information doesn't always get communicated to the financial aid departments and you can ask the financial aid office about that just in case you notice that you're getting charged out of state or international student tuition. Now, onto my next point, I discussed DACA in terms of my own story because I used to be a beneficiary of DACA.
DACA stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and this was an executive action signed by former President Obama and it was thanks to the actions of many undocumented activists that DACA actually came into effect and was possible. Unfortunately, DACA does not offer a path towards legalization and at the moment there are no new applications being accepted. The reality is that DACA only helped a small portion of undocumented people and many individuals have been left out. If you're a beneficiary of DACA, please continue renewing your permit and if you have the option apply for advanced parole and I'll expand more on advanced parole in another episode as well.
Another point that I'd like to expand on, I had previously mentioned that DACA gave me the opportunity to legally work and while DACA has been the primary way that most people have been able to legally work for those who qualified for it, there are other ways for undocumented people to work and get paid. For example, having an LLC or other type of business and I personally met several people who have managed to make a living this way and I hope to have them on the podcast too so they can share knowledge and share more about how they did this. A great resource to follow to learn more about that entrepreneurial journey for undocumented individuals is Undocute Professionals. It's an Undocute Professionals network.
They are on Instagram so go ahead and check them out. And my last point to expand on, when I moved to Arizona, I had DACA but prior to moving here, I researched the policies for immigrants when it came to driver's licenses. In Washington State, I was able to get a license with no worry even though I wasn't a legal resident. In Arizona, it's unfortunate but you're only able to get a driver's license if you have DACA or if you have legal status.
Your driver's license is valid up until your work authorization document is valid. It's the same if you are a citizen. And another thing, in Arizona, I haven't been able to schedule appointments online at the DMV. I've had to go in person each time for things like renewing my license and I'm pretty sure that has to do because I haven't updated my citizenship.
But when I was when I had DACA when I was a permanent resident, you just had to go in person for everything. You couldn't please schedule an appointment. All this to say that our community is a resourceful one and that's one thing I definitely want to emphasize. If you are considering moving out of state, look up what those policies are so that you can make informed decisions and so that things don't catch you by surprise.
The recommendations for this week include checking out my blog, Undocute Joy, a former undocumented girl experiencing joy. When I first started going to therapy, I decided I would start sharing my story on my own terms and I was going to write about what made me happy, stories of growing up and my experience with being an immigrant. And you can read my blog by going to undocfijoy.home.blog. Check it out and let me know what peace you enjoy.
The second recommendation, check out Yossimar Reyes. Yossimar is actually the individual who inspired my blog, Undocfijoy. Yossimar is a nationally acclaimed poet, public speaker and performance artist. And as his bio says, he's the true embodiment of hustle.
Learn more about Yossimar through his website, yossimarreas.com. Thank you for tuning into the first episode of the Daily Elena, a podcast where you'll hear first-gen stories regarding how people navigate career paths, cultural identity and intersectionality and stories of success. Together, we'll continue building a strong network of support because even though it might be like we're the only ones trying to figure this whole life thing out, there's a strong form of use out of it and things you can offer mentorship and support. Thank you for tuning into the Daily Elena.
I'm your host, Elena, and it's been a pleasure bringing you first-gen stories. In our next episode, you'll be hearing from Eduardo, son of Mexican immigrants, army veteran, a first-gen graduate and professional who has transcended into the world of type. Tune in wherever you listen to podcasts to hear our next first-gen story.