Nebraskans will celebrate National Immigrant Heritage Month in June

***For Immediate Release***
June 1, 2018

Contact, Christa Yoakum
Nebraska Is Home Coordinator
Office: (402) 438-8853
Cell: (402) 890-5662
Email: cyoakum@neappleseed.org

 

Nebraskans celebrate Immigrant Heritage Month

Local events will recognize contributions made throughout Nebraska’s history by immigrant families

LINCOLN — In June, Nebraskans will celebrate our state’s proud history, which continues today, of immigrants making valuable contributions to our state during National Immigrant Heritage Month.

Through festive community events and telling stories of shared history, Nebraskans from all backgrounds will recognize how immigrant families of many different origins are united through the ways, big and small, that they enrich Nebraska every day.

“National Immigrant Heritage Month allows us to celebrate the long-standing tradition of immigrant Nebraskans making valuable contributions to our state,” said Christa Yoakum, Coordinator of Nebraska Is Home. “During National Immigrant Heritage Month, Nebraska families across our state can share their own family’s story, and recognize that no matter where your family is from, we’re all united as Nebraskans. Both long-time residents and families that recently have come to Nebraska can stand side by side to celebrate each other’s contributions to our culture, our state’s history, and the current steps we’re taking together to build a strong future for Nebraska.”

Events Include:

June 2 – North Lincoln Summerfest, 11:00 am-6:00 pm, LUX Center, 2601 N 48th Street, Lincoln

June 7-10 – Santa Lucia Italian Festival, Lewis and Clark Landing, Omaha

June 8-10 – Loup City Polish Days, Loup City, NE

June 16 – World Refugee Day, 10:00 am-4:00 pm, Joslyn Art Museum, 2200 Dodge Street, Omaha

June 12-16 – New American Dish, 11:00 am- 2:00 pm, Cafe Durham (inside Joslyn Art Museum, 2200 Dodge Street, Omaha

June 16 – “What We Carried: Lincoln,” a storytelling project by photographer Jim Lommasson, highlighting the journey of the Yazidi community from Northern Iraq to the Lincoln with a focus on the items brought with them on their journey. Joslyn Art Museum, 11:00 am.

June 15-17 – Stromsburg’s 66th Annual Swedish Sommar Festival

June 19-20 – Oakland Swedish Festival, Oakland, NE

June 22-24 – Clarkson Czech Festival, Clarkson, NE

Also during National Immigrant Heritage Month, Nebraskans will have stories of their families’ recent and distant immigrant backgrounds featured at NebraskaIsHome.org.

3rd annual Lincoln Unites! celebrates Lincoln’s strength through diversity

Lincoln held its third-annual and largest-ever Lincoln Unites! festival this May, where Lincoln families celebrated a welcoming community and enjoyed the rich cultural diversity of Nebraska’s capital city.

A moving citizenship ceremony in the morning celebrated 30 new American citizens, who were originally from Liberia, Mexico, China, and other countries, together with many friends, family, and neighbors in attendance.

In the afternoon, hundreds of Lincoln residents of all ages paraded through activities, food, and performances at the Nebraska History Museum on Centennial Mall. Kids had a chance to try pupusas from El Salvador,falafel from Iraq, and to see dancing from South Sudan.

“One of my favorite parts of living in Lincoln is the opportunity to learn and experience a whole tapestry of cultures through my neighbors,” said Lee Kreimer, Welcoming Associate at Nebraska Appleseed. “On Saturday, I traveled the world just by heading over to Lincoln Unites!”

Afternoon performances included Lion Dancers from Vietnam, musicians and dancers from Fiesta Mexicana of the Heartland, and more music from Edem Soul Music and Elias Eedo. Colorful and thought-provoking student art decorated the walls from the “Many Faces, One Lincoln” art contest hosted by the LUX Center for the Arts.

“It has been exciting to see this festival grow in just three years,” said Christa Yoakum, Nebraska Is Home Coordinator. “It is truly a collaborative effort by local nonprofits, businesses, and the city of Lincoln, and it showcases something really special about our community. It was so much fun to see Lincoln neighbors enjoying one another’s cultural heritages.”

Nebraska communities celebrate largest Welcoming Week ever

Nebraskans showed their commitment to strong, inclusive communities with events across the state that brought together new and long-time neighbors during Welcoming Week 2017, the largest ever in Nebraska.

From South Sioux City to Lexington, from Crete to Omaha – Nebraskans hosted potluck meals, film screenings and community festivals.

This year there were more than 700 events across the country where community members came together to recognize that being a welcoming community for all makes us stronger economically, socially, and culturally. Nebraskans volunteered with citizenship clinics, learned struggles of young people learning English and preparing to graduate from public schools, and gathered in support of young Nebraska DREAMers.

We recognized that being a Nebraskan is what unites all of us while coming together over music, food and fun!

Neighbors came together to share potluck meals in Hastings and Sioux City (where the event crossed state borders with neighbors from Nebraska, South Dakota, and Iowa). In Lincoln, people gathered to share an Ethiopian meal and learn about the food, the hospitality, and the story of the chef. They finished with dessert at a Turkish bakery owned by a young Yazidi refugee who learned to make the delicious treats after fleeing Iraq and living in Turkey. Neighbors shared dance, culture and great food at United by Culture in Lexington.

Refugees exchanged stories with their neighbors at the Omaha South Library. More neighbors learned about the challenges and triumphs of students learning a new language and the education system in a new culture.

Across the state community members showed that inclusion starts where you live and shared their own welcoming messages that included “Bienvenidos,” “A Welcoming Nebraska is the best Nebraska,” “From one immigrant to another: You are welcome and loved here,” and “You make our community complete.”

See more Welcoming Week photos on our Facebook page

Nebraska communities show how welcoming is done

Mohamed Omar, owner of an African Store in Schuyler, Neb.
Photo by Marcelo Asher Quarantotto

Many Nebraska communities are recognizing the value of welcoming new neighbors and making their communities a place where everyone feels welcome. Several Nebraska towns are now being recognized as leaders in what rural communities can do!

Welcoming America has highlighted these great efforts in “A Cornhusker Welcome” with photos and stories of Nebraska neighbors of diverse backgrounds – immigrant and long-time residents – working together to build strong communities.

Places like Crete, Schuyler, Columbus, Lincoln, South Sioux and others are bringing together leaders from schools, libraries, business, nonprofits, city governments, and faith institutions to plan for community inclusion and to find creative ways with local flair for neighbors to meet neighbors.

Partners like Center for Rural Affairs, Justice For Our Neighbors, Centro Hispano Comunitario de Nebraska, Heartland Workers Center and many more statewide and local nonprofits serve as valuable resources committed to supporting local welcoming efforts.

Nebraska communities to celebrate National Welcoming Week

welcome_week_logoNebraska communities are holding events celebrating how our towns are made stronger by welcoming new neighbors from all different cultures and backgrounds during the 5th annual National Welcoming Week September 16-25.

National Welcoming Week is a nationwide series of events where communities bring together new and long-time residents in a spirit of unity to raise awareness of the benefits to everyone of a welcoming community. In 2015, there were 245 events in more than 80 communities across the country during Welcoming Week, with more than 22,000 people participating.

 

Lincoln Welcoming Week events

Harvest Moon Festival – Asian Community and Cultural Center

Saturday, September 17

Antelope Park, Lincoln

Contact: Shelia Dorsey Vinton, Executive Director

Lincoln Arts Festival – Lincoln Arts Council

September 24-25

Southpointe Pavillions, Lincoln

Contact: Lori McAlister, Program Director

This year’s Lincoln Arts Festival will feature the “World Stage,” with music and dancing from cultures around the world.

 

Crete Welcoming Week events

Crete has enthusiastically embraced the welcoming movement and will hold several events bringing together long-time and new neighbors during Welcoming Week.

“When We Stop Counting” film screening and panel discussion

Thursday, September 15

Heckman Auditorium, Doane College, 7:00 p.m.

Contact: Dulce Castaneda, Crete Community Assistance Director

“When We Stop Counting” is a 2010 documentary that follows six Hispanic high school students in Crete, living their personal struggles and triumphs while bearing the pressure of their parents’ backbreaking sacrifice in hopes of achieving the American Dream.

After the screening, there will be a panel discussion with several of the now-grown students who will share their lives and experiences after high school.

World Dish Potluck

Wednesday, September 21, 6:00-8:00 p.m.

Crete High School

Contact: Dulce Castaneda, Crete Community Assistance Director

Community members will contribute their best dishes from all over the world for a community-wide potluck dinner. Afterward, Justice For Our Neighbors will host an “Immigration 101” training to educate local community members about the current U.S. immigration system.

 

Omaha Welcoming Week events

“New American Dish”

September 8-14

Block 16, 1611 Farnham St., Omaha

Kitchen Table, 1415 Farnham St., Omaha

New American Dish is an exciting exchange of food and culture with food inspired by Omaha’s newest neighbors from across the globe. Local restaurants will feature signature dishes created in collaboration with a New American (refugee or immigrant) woman that highlights the restaurant’s unique concept and the flavors of the woman’s home country.  Five percent of the week’s sales from these restaurants will go to the New American Women’s Alliance, a program of Omaha’s Refugee Empowerment Center.

Immigrant Heritage Month – Elizabeth Jane’s story

Note: This is a post from Nebraska Is Home intern Adoni Faxas.

June is Immigrant Heritage Month. Throughout the month, we’ll be celebrating both our diversity and our shared American heritage by telling the stories of individuals that, together, comprise a uniquely American narrative.

I believe that America was a land of immigrants, and people can come. I think, “Why do we have label people like this?” I think everyone should be allowed to come to the United States, but very few people think that. I think it’s the land of the free and the home of the brave and people should be able to be allowed to come when they want.

I am a Hispanic/Latina, that’s how I identify with myself. I’m proud of my mom and my grandma and what they had to put up with. I realize now that it wasn’t an easy life for my mom and she had a lot of prejudices here, as we all do, some more than others.

 

Heritage: Mexican-American

Identities: Hispanic/Latina

Elizabeth Jane

It started with my mom when she passed away in June, four years ago. While we were going through her things, we discovered trunks, and inside of these trunks were documents, photographs, and letters. I didn’t really recognize the enormity and the value that I had at that time, but I wanted to preserve it for my own’s sake, so I grabbed as much as I could. I had all of those letters from my grandma and from the relatives from Mexico that I was curious as to what they said. No one seemed really excited about it, and then I emailed Dr. Lola Lorenzo, who’s the adviser for the Spanish major, at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and she got me in touch with Dr. Isabel Velázquez, a Spanish professor at UNL. From there I met with Dr. Isabel and Kate Walters, the head of the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities at UNL (CDRH). They came out to my house and they kind of saw what I had and they were really interested in the letters.

My grandmother was always a puzzle, and my mom was always kind of a puzzle too, because she would never talk about where she came from. Every time I would ask who her dad was, she still wouldn’t wouldn’t say a thing about who her father was or anything, she would just always give the thumbs down signal. The caregivers who took care of her actually got her to write down a little bit of information on like a little story. My grandmother’s name, as I always knew it was, Jesusita Barros Torres, and I knew my grandmother’s maiden name was Flemate. And so my mom and my uncle’s last name never changed. My mom and my uncle were always Baros, and then we just got to be more curious where my grandma came from too. Now, I know that my grandmother’s original name was Liboria Flemate, and she was born July 15th, 1896. Among the documents that I have, she had listed her name differently as Jesusita Flemate. We still don’t know where Jesusita came from or why she decided to change her name. She was married and had two kids. At some time Jesusita must’ve gotten pregnant again with my mom, and she was born October 30th, 1921, in Zacatecas, Mexico, and my grandma must’ve come up to the U.S. some time between 1921 and 1926. My grandma swam across the Rio Grande River with Santos and Jess, my mom and my uncle, on her back and that’s how she ended up getting into the U.S.

Now, I see and understand the amount of courage it took my grandma to come up here all by herself, not knowing the language, not knowing anybody, coming into a foreign country, and having to leave her whole family behind. For me it’s like, “Would I have done that, would I have had the courage to do that?” I don’t know. It was all for a better life for her children. My mom and my uncle were able to go to grade school and also went to junior high. Afterwards they started following the migrant sugar beet path and they left Albuquerque, NM all of a sudden to go to Wyoming and then to Denver. My mom by then had gotten a job and was out of school. She started working for the railroad and my grandma worked for the railroad. My grandma later ended up in Ft. Lupton, Colorado and was able to buy a lot there. My mom met my dad in Denver at a dance and they got married in 1946. My dad and my mom moved back to Lincoln, Nebraska, where my mom ended up moving in with my paternal grandparents.

I think it’s really neat to know all of this stuff.

I acknowledge that both my grandma and mother came to this country as undocumented immigrants and that’s where I come from. My mom being in southeastern Nebraska and even how she was able to live with people that she didn’t know. She changed her name from Santos to Sandra, so when she would go back to Colorado, she would be Santos, but when she’s over here in southeastern Nebraska, she’s Sandra. My mom at that moment was becoming acculturated being with my dad. They loved each other very much. She married my dad, who is a U.S. citizen. My dad, before he retired from the Burlington, he did all of this documentation to get her her own social security, her own I.D., and her own railroad retirement number.

She got her Social Security number and she got everything else, and so she was taken care of for the rest of her life, and my dad didn’t have to worry for when she passed away. My grandma became a U.S. citizen. It took her 9 years and it was quite a struggle with the INS back then. She started in the 1950s and she didn’t succeed until 1964. She received her citizenship papers and was able to go back down to Mexico to finally seen her kids that she left down there 40 years ago. She had left these kids and she never saw them again for 40 years, which I thought was “Wow, that’s amazing!

I believe that America was a land of immigrants, and people can come. I think, “Why do we to have label people like this?” I think everyone should be allowed to come to the United States, but very few people think that. I think it’s the land of the free and the home of the brave and people should be able to be allowed to come when they want.

I am a Hispanic/Latina, that’s how I identify with myself. I’m proud of my mom and my grandma and what they had to put up with. I realize now that it wasn’t an easy life for my mom and she had a lot of prejudices here, as we all do, some more than others.

Immigrant Heritage Month – Fernando and Cameron

“The big realization for me when I left my insulated town was that I have no idea what it is like for other people to live.”

Fernando’s story:

fernando+cameronI am from El Paso, Texas. I guess I am a first or second-generation immigrant. My grandmother is from a small village outside Chihuahua, Mexico. My dad is from El Paso, Texas. He was raised in Ciudad Juárez, which is on the border.

I was born in Austin, Texas but raised in El Paso. It is very much like Mexico; the population is over 80 percent Mexican. The food, the culture, the family are all very important to us.

How did I end up in Lincoln? Scholarships. It was between here and Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Albuquerque is very similar to El Paso, so I decided to go somewhere different. I had never actually been a minority before coming to Lincoln!

Growing up, I was raised Mexican, but I am sort of the black sheep in my family because I don’t speak Spanish. My mom is the epitome of Tex-Mex. She looks Mexican, her family is all from Mexico, but her Spanish is very broken. I consider myself Mexican, but if I tell that to a Mexican exchange student, for example, they would say I’m not Mexican because I don’t speak the language.

 

Cameron’s story:

My great grandfather is from Switzerland. He came over sometime after World War II. I’m originally from Scottsbluff, Nebraska, which is closer to Denver. It is a predominantly white area. General education of issues has been a very real challenge for me after having left home. I didn’t even think climate change was real until I got to college. They didn’t teach it in our high school.

The big realization for me when I left my insulated town was that I have no idea what it is like for other people to live. Now I have just become a lot more open to everybody’s perspective and experiences.

Immigrant Heritage Month – David and Jezharela

June is Immigrant Heritage Month. Throughout the month, we’ll be celebrating both our diversity and our shared American heritage by telling the stories of individuals that, together, comprise a uniquely American narrative.

“A lot of people don’t realize what others sacrifice to come here. They don’t always come because they are poor or need a job. Like my dad, he was a professional in Mexico, never worked a day in his life in the fields or in manufacturing. And then he came here and had to work in a bean packing plant, minimum wage, for years. The blow to his pride was immense. But, he was willing to do anything for the success of his family.”

David’s story:

david+jezharelaMy father is from the Ukraine; he immigrated after World War II to Canada and made his way to a refugee settlement camp. So I was born and raised in Canada, it’s where my mother is from. We had a lot of the same television shows that Americans watch but we also had a lot of homegrown talent that we are proud of. When Brian Adams won some sort of award we would always root for the Canadians, the John Candy’s and Jim Carrey’s of the world.

I went to the University of Toronto for my undergrad and University of Windsor for Law School. I came to the U.S. in 2000. I had met a gal in California. We met at the right time and got engaged. I moved down here to Lincoln and got a new job.

I practice immigration law. I give someone hope and a future here in the United States. I have not yet met anyone who is not excited to become a U.S. citizen. To me, it is a great benefit and exciting opportunity. We do our best to try to work with people who are doing it the right way and at the same time call the government on mistakes that they make. The majority of what we do is business-related, a lot of people from Europe and Canada, entrepreneurs who want to set up shop here. And when they come they don’t want to leave. So that is the next step to try to help them with business visas.

Immigration is a hot button topic in the press but it is one of these issues where you are often taken advantage of if you are undocumented. It is much easier for somebody like me because of the NAFTA agreement and the similar cultural experiences. If my wife and I came from a different culture, if I was Latino or Chinese for example, I would expect to be asked a lot more questions in an interview than I personally received. At times I think there is an institutional bias that people see a certain type of skin color and feel like they have to look out for something.

The funny thing is that when I was a kid I wanted to be Prime Minister of Canada. I was very happy in Canada. The issue with me was that I just hadn’t found the right person, and I happened to find her while on vacation in California. She was in school and really there was not a comparable program in Canada. And here I was studying U.S. immigration law in Canada, and it was a perfect opportunity to make the move. I feel like my opinion is valid now that I’m a U.S. citizen. I can vote and I can have an opinion on what this country does in the world. Before it was always “Well you Americans think this or that.” This is my country now. It feels good, it is a source of pride.

 

Jezharela’s story:

I was born in Tijuana, Mexico. I got to the United States when I was seven. I have three siblings who are deaf, so my parents wanted to give them a better education — one that we could only get in America. We moved to Nebraska when I was seven. My brothers didn’t understand much of what was going on. We left our dog behind, and I cried when we crossed the border. I never went back. The different culture and language was a big adjustment. I consider the United States my home, but I still feel like a piece is missing. That deep connection I have to some other place is difficult to explain. Here it feels like some place I was brought to and just had to deal with. We have done well, but in the back of my mind I still wonder what would have happened if I had stayed.

I work in immigration today interestingly enough. For professionals there is a way in, for normal people not so much. A lot of people don’t realize what others sacrifice to come here. They don’t always come because they are poor or need a job. Like my dad, he was a professional in Mexico, never worked a day in his life in the fields or in manufacturing. And then he came here and had to work in a bean-packing plant, minimum wage for years. The blow to his pride was immense. But, he was willing to do anything for the success of his family.

My father is a pastor of a Spanish speaking church here in Lincoln. When I graduated from high school with honors, I couldn’t get scholarships. I often wonder if I had gotten them, where I would be now. It feels like this barrier that has been in my life for a very long time. People just do not understand these barriers.

Imagine how much greatness people could contribute not only to the country, but to the world with the proper opportunities. And this is all through no fault of our own by the way. I was brought here, I didn’t choose it. I thought about going back, but I never had a driver’s license, I never had anything there so to the Mexican government I am basically dead.

Immigrant Heritage Month – Sourabh and Madeline

June is Immigrant Heritage Month. Throughout the month, we’ll be celebrating both our diversity and our shared American heritage by telling the stories of individuals that, together, comprise a uniquely American narrative.

“If you tell an Indian person you are going to meet them, it is generally a time of day as opposed to a time on your watch… Over here it is like a four-dimensional coordination of time. I would miss class a lot initially because I didn’t think I had to be there on time… Then I realized that was an expectation here.”

sourabh+madelineSourabh’s story:

I grew up in India and came here in the spring of 2006. I got into an engineering college in India, but I didn’t really like it much and I wasn’t happy with the way we were being taught. My brother had already come to Omaha, and I got a scholarship to the University of Nebraska. He helped set things up for me and made some connections for where I could live. So I figured I would come over and try out America. I grew up with HBO and a lot of American films, so this culture was not alien to me. Of course there are a few things that you’re not prepared for. For the first two years, people could not understand what I was saying, but they were very nice and did not coming off as being impatient.

You live in a very different expectation with time in India; things are very different here in that regard. If you tell an Indian person you are going to meet them, it is generally a time of day as opposed to a time on your watch. Organically, these two people will figure out where to meet. Over here, it is like a four-dimensional coordination of time. I would miss class a lot initially because I didn’t think I had to be there on time. I would see other people show up on time, and then I realized that it was an expectation here. But with other Indian students it was all over the place. An email would say, “Let’s meet here in the evening.” And there would be a steady stream of people for two hours before the meeting actually began.

It is hard for my parents now that I’m gone. What is that syndrome called? Leaving the nest? Empty nest! That’s right. I went back home after a year or so, but after that I hadn’t seen them in about nine years. They only recently came to the U.S. to see me and my brother. They stayed at my place for a couple of months. It was really difficult to not see them for so long.

I stay connected through the news and what my friends write and what they post online. I feel the things that my peer group in India is affected by are similar to things Americans are affected by. For instance, how the economy affects your ability to get a job and the issue of upward mobility. I feel my friends here are worried about that just as much as my friends back home. We have similar social outrage. You have (violence in) Ferguson (Missouri) here, and something similar in India. People feel stymied by the government. So there are more similarities than we often think.

 

Madeline’s story:

I love hanging out with Sourabh because he is passionately and unabashedly weird. We need to encourage that weirdness in a place where palettes can often be bland. I am Scottish and English. There is also some Norwegian in me. I am not very connected to my heritage. My parents have some stories, but they are hesitant to talk about it for some reason, and it is harder now that they are divorced. My parents met in California and moved to Nebraska, but most of my family is from Iowa. I have no ties to Nebraska other than my parents.

Immigrant Heritage Month – Peggy and Pepe

June is Immigrant Heritage Month. Throughout the month, we’ll be celebrating both our diversity and our shared American heritage by telling the stories of individuals that, together, comprise a uniquely American narrative.

“Mom came here all by herself looking for work. She was chasing the American Dream. When she first came over, she learned English by listening to people speaking it in the cotton fields. She would listen to them, go home and watch soap operas to try to better understand.”

Pepe+peggyPeggy’s story:

My mom’s side of the family is from Ireland and my dad’s side is from Mexico. I moved here in 1983. I moved away from Lincoln for just a few years for grad school, so I have been here a long time. I grew up in Omaha and I was going to college there and was unhappy. So I wanted to come down here and check it out, and I liked it. It is an easy community to live in, an easy place to be able to bike everywhere you want to go and it is really affordable. I knew Pepe was Mexican, and my last name gives away my background even if my physical features don’t. People used to think I was adopted because of my last name, Gomez. But there are so many people like me out there.

My dad was born in Omaha, but his parents are both from Mexico. There are two stories, I don’t know which one is true. The first is that my grandparents came from the same village outside of Guadalajara in Mexico and they knew each other there. They came separately to Omaha and reconnected there and fell in love. The second story, which is more juicy, is that my grandmother was born in a village in Guadalajara and my grandfather was born in Mexico City and he and his brothers took off and went to California and stayed for a while and then went to Omaha for work.

He supposedly told my uncle, “If somebody ever comes knocking on your door saying that I am their father, you should probably believe them.”

Pepe’s story:

I was born here in the United States. My mom’s side of the family is from Chihuahua, Mexico, and my dad’s side is from Texas and Germany. I have been here in Nebraska since 2004. I was looking for work, figured it would be a two month stay. Plans have a way of organically changing when you make them too far in advance.

My parents split up when I was six, and my mom came here to America. I really don’t know much on my father’s side other than he was part German. Mom came here all by herself looking for work. She was chasing the American dream. When she first came over, she learned English by listening to people speaking it in the cotton fields. She would listen to them, go home and watch soap operas to try to better understand. She said she was in complete culture shock when she got here.