HISTORY PRESENTATION B2

HISTORY

Grace Landers, Taylor Leatham, Lyna Edwards

Presentation

start

index

7. Esther Mendoza 3

1. Esther Mendoza 1

2. Matvey Ivanov 1

8. Matvey Ivanov 3

3. Ruth De Luca 1

9. Ruth De Luca 3

4. Esther Mendoza 2

10. Esther Mendoza 4

5. Matvey Ivanov 2

11. Matvey Ivanov 4

12. Ruth De Luca 4

6. Ruth De Luca 2

13. Citations page

Esther Mendoza

dear diary, This morning I woke up at just the crack of dawn to bid my family farewell while I went to wake Rosa for some bread and butter that my mother prepared for us the previous night, she insisted I keep a document of all my travels for all future generations to use as a guide for there own journey so I guess this is the beginning. Anyways the ship left at like 5:00 in the morning we just barely made it but we did. There were so many people there so we couldn’t get a good spot the first couple of nights but after a week or so we found a place where all of us could sleep together at least we were together now. It was hands down the worst 6 weeks of our lives in a constant state of starving and cold even thinking about it sends shivers down my spine but we just made it to Ellis island and I can barely believe it.

Matvey Ivanov

I can’t wait to go to America today. We’re being drawn by one of our mules from the family farm. Even though we lived on a farm we weren’t very successful. We mostly are only able to grow peas, cabbage, and spring onion. We can sell the peas and spring onion but the cabbage isn’t very successful. I and my sister usually get sent to the shops with the money we earned. We can’t afford much but I love the bread from the baker, they’re good and cheap. We get what we can but I also have a habit of taking things without paying. I never seem to get caught though, baba says it’s stealing and I won’t go to heaven if I keep doing it but when I go there again I try to pay extra if we have extra money again to make up for what I stole. I also pray to god for forgiveness every time. I worry for baba, I have an older brother, Boris, and he says that baba is fine but I know that baba isn’t too fine. I believe if I pray every day she’ll be better, I know it. We lived in sarow. I can’t wait to see the streets of gold, I wonder if I can take some while I’m there. We arrived at the docks, I can’t wait.

Dear Diary, Ruth De Luca, February 17th

As soon as I woke up at 4:00 on my last morning at home, I only had one thing on my mind: my journey and new life in America. Papà, my brother Bruno, and I are going to America because Papà’s farm idea didn’t get anywhere and he wanted to find a better place to work that would guarantee enough money to keep a roof over our heads. We left Mamma, my uncle Arthur, and my sister Maria back at home because Mamma insisted on saving money and she says when Papà gets rich, we can bring the rest of the family. We made it to the boat at 5:30, and it left at 5:45. I am not sure what I was expecting and how the trip to America would’ve gone, but it wasn’t this. It’s so crowded, it’s cold, and we are starving. I wish Mamma had packed us a little more food than she had because we can’t have any more than a few bites of food if we want to live through this trip. It’s only been two weeks since we’ve gotten onto this ship but I hope we get to America soon because I am not sure how much longer I can spend on this ship.

Esther Mendoza

Dear Diary, Today we arrived at the entrance to America and i I couldn't believe how close we were to freedom and how much better our lives will be here from all the stories i hear about America it will be amazing. Soon enough we find our spot in line and then we waited. we waited there for hours before it was finally our turn we sent along all of our possessions for inspection we then went through a legal evaluation then finally after the medical exams we left for our new life 4 hours later, but that doesn't matter now what matters now is finding somewhere to spend the night my mother says she had some friends we could stay with that moved here a few years ago all she gave me was a slip of paper with an address and 50 bucks so I hail a carriage and soon enough we arrive at our first house in America.

Matvey Ivanov

Dear Diary, Baba says we’ve nearly spent a month at sea. I can see a tall green statue of a lady from the boat. Baba says it’s the statue of liberty. The greenness reminds me of how many times I’ve thrown up on the boat. I think it might be the rocking of the boat or I caught something one of the other people had. There are a lot of people on board. We’re shoulder to shoulder. There isn’t much food on board and the food that is there is terrible. I miss the bread from the baker. It was sweet and fluffy. I’m pretty sure the food on the boat has gone bad. Boris says I need to stop complaining and be grateful I’m even eating anything. He’s kinda rude but I can’t be mad he’s my brother.

Dear Diary, Ruth De Luca, March 7th

On the day after I had arrived in America, Papà told me and Bruno that we would also have to look for work. At first, me and Bruno said that we’d help Papà with his work and farm with him, but Papà said that we couldn’t work with him and that his job was no longer as a farmer, and he didn’t have the money to get land to farm. He told us that we would have to look for our own work to help our family out. That was going to be hard because me and my brother can’t read or right, let alone speak enough english to get anywhere ourselves. After a few days of learning enough of the basics in English, me and my brother set out for work. After a few hours of trying to find work, me and Bruno got hired at a factory. We were told that we would start working at an instant. When Bruno and I went into the building, there was smoke and a lot of boxes everywhere. What I noticed the most was that there were more of women and children than anything.

Esther Mendoza

Dear Diary, We arrived at the address today which worried me because of how ‘beaten up’ it looks according to Antonio but it's a roof over our heads and that's what's important. Anyways I started looking into some local schools for rosa and found one that's only a few blocks away I feel so lucky to be here right now. Later on, I start helping Anita, my mother's friend, with dinner she wants to make a traditional matzo ball soup and I was so excited I loved this as a kid and can't wait to have it again it's a bit complicated so we went out to the market and bought some ingredient and that's when it hit me how expensive this all is and I got a bit overwhelmed. After we finished dinner we held a long arvit prayer for a new life here in America.

Matvey Ivanov

dear Diary, got my new name today. It made me cry, they refused to call me Matvey and named me Matt instead. They said it would be short for Matthew. I don’t even know how to pronounce that. They called my brother Bob because his accent was too thick for them to understand. My sister is named Anastasia and they call her Anne. Not even anna, this is so unfair. I don’t like these Americans very much. They’re supposed to be kind but how kind can they be if they won’t even say our names properly?

Dear Diary, Ruth De Luca, March 12

On the day after I had arrived in America, Papà told me and Bruno that we would also have to look for work. At first, me and Bruno said that we’d help Papà with his work and farm with him, but Papà said that we couldn’t work with him and that his job was no longer as a farmer, and he didn’t have the money to get land to farm. He told us that we would have to look for our own work to help our family out. That was going to be hard because me and my brother can’t read or right, let alone speak enough english to get anywhere ourselves. After a few days of learning enough of the basics in English, me and my brother set out for work. After a few hours of trying to find work, me and Bruno got hired at a factory. We were told that we would start working at an instant. When Bruno and I went into the building, there was smoke and a lot of boxes everywhere. What I noticed the most was that there were more of women and children than anything.

Esther Mendoza

Dear Diary, its been a couple of weeks of living here and Antonio has managed to get a job that helps out with food on the table and with the rent, but rosa seems to enjoy life here a lot more we've been slowly but surely crawling our way out of poverty and into a comfortable life but for now, we are stuck living in a small tenement with Anita and her family which is okay for now but I just want a better future for rosa and all people like us immigrants looking for a better life and so I have decided to get a job in the fashion industry and I start next week I hope this can be a new chapter of our new life in America.

Matvey Ivanov Dear Diary,

It’s been 8 days since we got to America. It hasn’t been to great. We’re squished in this tiny little room in a building. We live with 2 other families and they have 4 kids each. It also smells really bad in the city. There’s always smoke coming from the place where Boris works. The streets are also always filthy. Boris says i’ll need to get a job soon. I don’t want to get a job though but he says i’ll need it to support the family. I miss home, I wish I could go back but i’m stuck here. America wasn’t what I expected it to be.

Dear Diary, Ruth De Luca, May 3rd

Today I asked Papà when would Bruno and I start school, and Papà said that we don’t have the time to go to school because we have to go to work. Papà also believed that we didn’t have to learn a lot of English anyways. I kind of get why but at the same time, I want to know what the people on the streets and at work are talking about. I sometimes hear people calling me and Bruno things like “Guinea” or “Wop”. Those are the only words I can recognise, all the other things they said I couldn’t understand, and Bruno was the same way. Instead of thinking about what my co-workers might have said, I started thinking about other things. While I worked, I thought about the reasons why I was here, and why I couldn’t work with Papà. Like we need more money to pay rent, and that I am not only a child, but a female. I am not sure what that means but I didn’t like it. I thought about Mamma and Maria, and what I would write to them about.

Citations

Esther Mendoza:

• Fernández, James D. “The Forgotten Spanish Diaspora in the US.” EL PAÍS English Edition, 26 June 2018, english.elpais.com/elpais/2018/06/26/inenglish/1530010322_582091.html.

Ruth De Luca:

• Pellb. “The Life of an Italian Immigrant in America.” Modern US History, 20 Dec. 2019, https://blogs.dickinson.edu/modern-us-history/the-life-of-an-italian-immigrant-in-america/.
• Italian-Americans: The History of Immigration to America.” GRAND VOYAGE ITALY, 28 Aug. 2017, http://www.grandvoyageitaly.com/history/italian-americans-the-history-of-immigration-to-america.
• Davidson, James W., et al. American History. Boston, New York, Pearson, 2016.

• Carr, Raymond. “Migration of Spain.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/place/Spain/Migration.

• Davidson, James W., et al. American History. Boston, New York, Pearson, 2016.

Matvey Ivanov:

• “Pacific Link: The KQED Asian Education Initiative: History: Angel Island: Russian American Immigration.” KQED, 17 Sept. 2014,
• https://www.kqed.org/w/pacificlink/history/angelisland/russia.html#:~:text=Nearly%203%20million%20Russians%20entered,up%20through%20World%20War%20II.
• Davidson, James W., et al. American History. Boston, New York, Pearson, 2016.