By Karla Mateo
Introduction: The Battle Fuel
In evolutionary theory, the discovery of adaptation is a scientific breakthrough. It truly is magnificent for organisms to reinvent themselves to fit their environment to ensure their survival. The understanding of this theory is not too far off from the concept behind immigration. Individuals immigrate to another country and reinvent themselves by adapting to a new environment and culture to ensure survival. The characteristics of adaptation have managed to persist in human nature despite the years. Even as centuries go by, this action isn’t lost, and the wave of immigration in the world only rises. In 2017, the U.S Census Bureau and the Pew Research Center reported that an estimate of 10.5 million unauthorized immigrants form part of the foreign population in the United States, while 35.2 million are lawful immigrants. One must take into consideration the amount of children that form part of these statistics. They are, after all, the ones heavily affected by the drastic changes of immigration.
One must be patient and endure the struggles that come our way. This is how endurance and character are built.
According to the Poverty & Race Research Report, author Martha Cecilia Bottia says, “Fifty-five percent of all first-and second-generation immigrant children are of Hispanic origin” (4). Cherlin Gomez once formed part of the pool of immigrant children statistics in America, but it is one thing being a number on a statistical report to being an actual person going through life-altering experiences. Immigration can either alter a person’s life positively or negatively. There are many factors that contribute to the direction someone’s life takes. Bottia mentions that “in addition to language barriers, immigrant children often experience unique stressors associated with their migration and acculturation processes” (4). Despite these factors, it is up to the individual to decide which outcome their lives will have. Some might argue that the environment in which one finds themselves tremendously influences the trajectory of one’s life. This is a claim not to be rejected but analyzed. Cherlin Gomez came to this country with her parents hoping to achieve the American Dream. The hope of one day finally obtaining a state of stability, that being financial, emotional, or even spiritual, fueled their will to adapt, and prepared them for the fight ahead.
Even though Cherlin found herself in a positive environment her actions and choices ultimately were the deciding factors in her story. Cherlin abandoned the views of her old country, without forgetting her roots, and successfully utilized the opportunities offered to her in this new country and became a woman capable of achieving her goals; not a claim many products of immigration can make.
Background: 4-Lifers
Coming to America as an immigrant and experiencing the major shift in culture and environment, I found comfort in other people who shared my circumstance. I wanted to feel less alone and more understood. Cherlin was one of those people who helped achieve that goal. We met in our first year of high school. I remember walking into Ms. Ausen’s math class and feeling completely disoriented. To my luck there was a group of girls sitting by the door and I took a seat in the remaining empty chair. Cherlin was the only other Spanish speaking person in the group. The feeling such a simple fact evoked in me was as if I had just found a floatie in the middle of the ocean—reassuring. I remember being completely afraid of being unable to make friends in this new environment. I felt completely vulnerable and naked. But finding someone who shared my fears and insecurities, and bonded with me over our shared enjoyments was a great comfort. We found solace in each other and became less afraid about being in a new place. We had one another, and I could always rely on her for whatever I needed. We didn’t need to speak English since we could communicate in Spanish (we preferred that). We didn’t need to focus on understanding what the other was trying to say; we could ask questions at our will without the fear of being judged or mocked. We relished our mutual liking of the same music and food; Reggaeton and rice with beans for the win. She, as I did for her, eradicated my fear of never making friends in this new land.
Cherlin and I became closer as the years progressed, and our friend group grew. We found people who also shared our interests and cultural experiences. Throughout the years, we all managed to remain friends, and as our current group chat name suggests, we are indeed 4-Lifers. I grew to understand Cherlin more than I did in high school. As we entered the “adulting” stage of our lives, I saw another version of her. I got to see a different side of her mind that made me understand her more in-depth as a person. I saw the progression and regression of her life as events and circumstances came and went. I got to understand Cherlin as more than a student or a friend, and I got to see the ugliness and the beauty in her life that makes her, after all, human.
Eventually, I saw Cherlin for the success story that she is. She became the perfect muse for this oral history chapter on immigration and an individual’s will to adapt to the educational system in America in order to progress and survive. Cherlin proved to be an ideal survivor in the game of transformation and I wanted others to know her story. She successfully managed to take advantage of this country’s opportunities and became a woman of knowledge and skills, an idea that she most likely never imagined to entertain while she lived in Honduras. It’s easy for unguided children of immigration to become lost in a country where opportunities are all around. Just like there are good opportunities such as challenging college education and a successful career, there are also bad ones such as easier drug accessibility and gang affiliations. Every day that passes, I see Cherlin grow tremendously. I see her fighting to achieve those dreams of success and happiness we often discussed in high school and I see her become the example she wanted to follow. All of these attributes are what makes Cherlin Gomez the worthy person deserving of this oral history chapter.
Immigration: The Mystery in the Unknown
For twenty-four-year-old Cherlin Gomez, the departure from her home country, Honduras, had an enormous positive impact on her life, but for nine-year-old Cherlin, the promise of an American Dream did not seem like a worthy reason to abandon her nation. “I was used to the lifestyle over there,”she mentions when asked about her transitional experience (Gomez). It’s normal for individuals to get accustomed to what they know. Cherlin was used to “experiencing the crazy, poor, and sad life” in Honduras, and abandoning the familiar for the unknown can be pretty frightening (Gomez). It’s no secret that Latin American countries have high statistics of extreme poverty. In my own motherland, Dominican Republic, poverty lies in many of the corners of my beautiful island. For an individual used to seeing and even experiencing these circumstances of life it can be quite hard to transition to a new mentality where aid and opportunities are much more accessible. There is indeed a sense of mystery attached to the concept of immigration because you can never really know how your life will turn out in the new place. Your future writes itself after every choice you make, and pushing past the fear and challenges of being in a new country will lead you to a brighter future; this advice Cherlin knew to appreciate and exercise.
Leaving one’s own country for a new one where the language, culture, people, food, and lifestyle are different is an overwhelming experience that only the brave ones are willing to undergo. Adapting to a different quality of life can often seem impossible after being exposed to something entirely different since birth. Cherlin however, was one of the brave ones because despite her clear attachment to her roots, immigrating to America was perhaps the most significant development of her life. America is no longer a foreign country to Cherlin. New Jersey is not unfamiliar territory for her anymore. Newark is no longer a new city; it feels like home. “Every time I go out, uh, on a trip or whatever and I come, I, I’m like, okay, this is, this does not feel like home. I come back and I feel so much better and safe” (Gomez). What was once a new location serves now as a safe space for Cherlin: “I would describe it as a safe place for me” (Gomez). Perhaps this greatly has to do with her familiarity with Newark: “I’m not sure if it’s because there’s a lot of hispanic people,” or perhaps it’s due to her tendency of attachment, but nonetheless it’s hers and no one can take that away. I like to entertain the idea that just as Cherlin kept me above the surface in an endless sea of unfamiliarity, I also prevented her from sinking (Gomez).
“Every time I go out, uh, on a trip or whatever and I come, I, I’m like, okay, this is, this does not feel like home. I come back [to Newark] and I feel so much better and safe.”
Cherlin Gomez
Understanding how an immigrant can adapt to the new environment and culture they are exposed to is in their journey. It’s in the choices they make and the paths they decide to take. It’s in deciding which influence to follow and how much guidance they are willing to receive. Their life’s history includes the challenges they faced and how they overcame them. It’s in the effort they put into adjusting to their new reality. If Cherlin had just given up on learning English and decided not to graduate high school, I assure you she would not have been the focus of this chapter. Whether or not the individual succeeds in this change can only be measured by how willing they are to take control of their path and take advantage of the opportunities offered in this country, which may not even be possible in their native land. For Cherlin, her adaptation journey was tiresome and long, but success was never impossible.
Adaptation: The Road to Success
One of the biggest challenges Cherlin faced upon her arrival to America was learning the English language. Any bilingual person can recognize that learning another language besides your native one can be quite difficult and for Cherlin this was not any different. She mentions not knowing English before she came here but thanks to the wonderful educational support system she encountered, she was able to become fluent sooner than she ever would have hoped: “I had a fourth grade teacher and he would, every day in school, he would make me read a book and I would take one book, two books home, and I would read that book every day” (Gomez). Due to Cherlin’s diligence and the teacher’s eagerness to instill knowledge, the insecurity of speaking a new language evaporated from Cherlin’s body and confidence took over. “People would always tell me, my mom, my family members, they would always be like, ‘oh my God, you’re getting so good’ And that’s when I knew that all right, I got this” (Gomez).
However, for Cherlin adapting to the language wasn’t the only difficult transition she had to experience. Adapting to the school system in America proved just as challenging. Cherlin notes on the difference between schools in Honduras to schools in America:
In Honduras, you don’t really get the um, you don’t really get to choose your classes. The classes that they have is the ones that they provide to you…And, um, you can’t really, they don’t really provide with anything. They don’t provide with food, they don’t provide with, um, books, pencils, they don’t provide with nothing. (Gomez)
Coming from an educational system that made acquiring knowledge seem like a chore to a system that only facilitated the acquisition of knowledge, while it made Cherlin feel overwhelmed it made her learn faster and more efficiently. When you come from nothing and get presented with the possibility of becoming something, there is no thought process; you have to go for it because all opportunities should be taken advantage of while they last. Especially educational opportunities that can lead you to end up with a college degree and stable job. This credo is a condition my mother implemented on me, and it’s the motto all immigrants live by. It’s the motto by which I still live. It’s the motto that Cherlin lives by too. Taking advantage of the educational opportunities offered to her helped Cherlin adapt and make dreams that once seemed impossible a reality. She was on the road to success where what once seemed unattainable rests at the tips of your fingers, just waiting for you to take it and finally make it yours.
Conclusion: The Journey that Never Ends
There is an old proverb from my native country that says, “With patience and calm, a mule can climb a palm.” Discipline and patience are the reigning qualities to achieving one’s goals. One must not expect success to occur from dusk to dawn. It is a timely event that can take months or even years. And in reality, it’s a journey that never ends because success is not linear. It’s infinite. Every single day that passes is a day closer to what can be achieved. One must be patient and endure the struggles that come our way. This is how endurance and character are built. Leaving Honduras and moving to America. Encountering people that helped Cherlin become bilingual and guided her to take advantage of the opportunities in this country succeeded in leading her to become an intellectually mature and independent woman. This situation is what many can consider the road to achieving the American dream. One step closer to achieving that famous stability that many only ever dream of. The events in Cherlin’s life helped her greatly appreciate the outcome of it, and it now serves as a lesson that goals can indeed be achieved if there is determination and discipline because, after all, if there is a will, there’s a way.
Works Cited
Bottia, M. C. (2019). Who Are the Immigrants in the United States? Poverty & Race Research Action Council. https://doi.org/JSTOR
Budiman, A. (2022, December 1). Key findings about U.S. immigrants. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/08/20/key-findings-about-u-s-immigrants/
Gomez, Cherlin. “To Adapt or Not to Adapt. That is the Question.” Interviewed by Karla Mateo. Stories of Newark. 16 February 2023.