Joes Interview Analysis - Essay Example

It was a matter of great interest to me while learning that how immigrants in an area can lead to social upheavals and riots, specially talking about how the Cuban immigrations to the Miami area in Florida created a severe unrest. The 1968 ghetto riot in the Liberty City community of Miami, Florida, was preceded by complaints of the black community of Miami against bad housing conditions, discrimination, their unpromising job future, economic exploitation, economic rivalry with Cuban immigrants and many other things, which then surfaced as a great revolt (Tscheschlok 1995). Interviewing Joe, a native resident of Florida, whose early childhood witnessed the effects of Cuban immigration, gave me an insight to the situation back then. It also interested me that what opinions, today after so many years do these locals have regarding the immigrants. Talking about Joe’s early life, he told me he was born in 1959 in Coral Gables. The house he was born in belonged to his mother’s parents which they had bought in 1953. Soon his parents moved out, buying a new house and were not living with Joe’s grandparents anymore. Out of the three houses he lived in, his oldest house, in a further west location, was declared unincorporated during the 1960s. Recalling the name change of the county from Dade to Miami-Dade which was accompanied with the voting of several people exercising their home rule powers, Joe called it ‘one big change in my life’. Joe agreed that the name change validated the acknowledgement of Miami as being internationally recognized and that ‘Miami-Dade County is the most popular County in Florida. He believes that during his lifetime, Miami has become more internationally accessible with loads of immigrants flocking in and people of different races seeking residence in here. I continued the conversation, delving further into the topic of immigrants which he brought into discussion. I asked him that living in Miami-Dade County since his childhood; his interactions with immigrants, specifically Cubans may have been numerous. To this, he started narrating me what had happened on the arrival of two Cuban immigrants when he was in primary school. The whole school threw them a party, welcoming them, since they were the very first Cubans to come to his class and school, Joe told as he indulged in a recollection of memories from his childhood with a smile on his face. I was curious to ask him whether they were very good friends with him or not. On my inquiry Joe let out a little laugh and told me that yes he was friends with him, but during the school hours only. He never talked to them after school. He told me it was because he lived in a completely different area from that of the two Cuban immigrants and that that period of 1960s was marred by racial isolation and segregation. I asked him what he had to say about the racial isolation and segregation which emerged as a result of the Cuban immigration during that period and he began by replying telling me what a deep connection he has had with immigrants since his childhood. He recalled that as a child, the turn of events in Miami-Dade County during late 1960s involving Cuban immigration to America, receiving a public backlash had stuffed their minds with the idea the Cuban immigrants were not good for them. They began staying away from them at school and isolated them but then he made a thoughtful mention that now as he reflects back, he realizes that many Cuban children like them were exiled without their families as they thought it was better for them, they must have been going through a painful experience of leaving behind their families for an indefinite period of time, relocating to a completely new place, facing a language barrier while trying to adjust in a completely different culture. He told me, and I was amazed to find out too, that his father’s family was Italian and they moved as Italian immigrants in the US whereas his mother came to the US from Germany and were German immigrants. Not only his parents are immigrants but he married a Chinese immigrant and he also has an immigrant stepson. So his amiability towards immigrants is something natural and he has no difficulty at all interacting with immigrants because of his wife. He believes that immigrants should not be a problem as long as they are coming to the US legally, by honest means and also if they adhere to the laws and obligations in the US. Favoring the immigrants, Joe said that he thinks the immigration process should be made easier than what exists as for now. Joe shared his thoughts based on his personal experience that if you are marrying an immigrant it should only involve true love. He added that he tried learning Chinese so he could overcome the language barrier between him and his wife. I retorted that if he had followed his parents in this regard since their parents had decided to marry an immigrant too. He laughed and began talking about them in general. He told me that they both had met in Brooklyn, New York and started living here after his father served in the army, then they eventually moved to Miami preferring it over New York because of a much warmer climate, fresher air and a cleaner environment because of lesser factories here. He told me that as immigrants, their parents did not face much of a problem settling here and as a middle class family they could afford school for him and his younger sister and the family didn’t have to worry about the living expenditures as well. He grew up to attend Miami Dade College and he got his bachelors degree from Florida International University in History. He worked in a junior high school as a substitute teacher but had quit the idea of becoming a teacher since he felt it was difficult to control 12 and 13 year old kids, he told as he let out a chuckle. He recollected that a friend had recommended him to become a librarian at the Miami-Dade County Public Library. Starting off as a part-time employee, he was soon promoted to a full-time employee and librarian and he simultaneously got his master degree through FSU online program. He feels that the FSU online program saved a lot of his money and also time, which allowed him to work and go to school. He tells that it has been 14 years working as a librarian, having worked in 7 different libraries in Miami-Dade County. He added that although Miami-Dade County was facing some economical problems in the past, he still feels satisfied about his income maybe because the economic condition is becoming better in Miami recently. I asked him if he had any early memory about the Civil Rights Movement to which he replied that he had none. Interviewing this very open minded individual I was happy to know his liberal views on immigrants, given that he grew up in a period which was impaired with heavy riots in response to the Cuban immigration. His small narration of the interaction with two Cuban children immigrants also opened me a new area to ponder upon, to think about the lives of the Cuban immigrants; especially children who would have come thinking that their reunion would be about a matter of months, where in some families could not even reunite for more than twenty years. Works Cited Tscheschlok, Eric G. Long Road to Rebellion: Miamis Liberty City Riot of 1968. 1995. Print. Read More