MWCC Student Shares Her Family’s Experiences With Travelling to the U.S.
By Kelly Johnson | Observer Contributor
Do you know anyone who has walked 4,000 miles over three months? What about someone who did that while carrying their infant children? To a place they didn’t know the language or if they would be accepted? The ambition of an individual to risk everything for a start at a new life happens every day, and you might be in class with someone who could share their family’s story with you.
Isabelle Mascary is a Professional Writing major at MWCC and is first-generation born in the USA. Her mother immigrated from Haiti at 17 years old, seeking better opportunities for herself and the future of her family. America provided many options over the years for Mascary’s mother to make a living, including attending cosmetology school, owning a children’s clothing business, and working as a CNA for more than 20 years.
Mascary is one of six children, raised in Dorchester in a home which regularly hosted family as they immigrated to the United States for a better life than Haiti could provide. Her mother would sometimes work 7 days a week and even worked 24-hour shifts on occasion. Mascary said that her mother worked hard because she wanted her children to educate themselves to be professionals, a path which is very important to Haitian culture.
Growing up in America, Mascary said the children in her family were always on the lookout for household goods and toys to collect. They regularly packed boxes of food, clothing, medications, and merchandise to send to family in Haiti. “Many resources have a purpose beyond what some Americans use them for,” Mascary said. Their family knew that things could be given a second life which hold value for others.
While growing up, Mascary can remember several aunts, uncles, and cousins staying with them for short periods of time when they first arrived in the U.S. from Haiti. In recent years, natural disasters in Haiti were in regions where Mascary’s father’s side of the family lives. About half of her father’s side of the family have been affected, including some family members who died during earthquakes and hurricanes.
Immigrants from nations around the world find their way to Southern and Central America, eventually traveling to the U.S. border for new opportunities. It is a journey which some people don’t complete, where death and attacks on migrants are witnessed. One cousin of Mascary’s, on the journey walking to the U.S. for medical care for kidney issues, hasn’t been heard from in several months. Another person on the journey with another cousin’s family broke their leg and had to be left.
When asked to provide advice to others regarding immigration, Mascary said, “Don’t pass judgement, assuming they’re here to take away from you. You can create opportunity for someone else, whether in pointing them in a better direction or physically helping.”
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