Every week, the AWM is excited to bring you stories written by our visitors in our Story of the Day exhibit, which features typewriters that visitors can interact with directly, or our newest temporary exhibit, My America: Immigrant and Refugee Writers Today. Check back weekly for new stories, and visit My-America.org to see a virtual version of the exhibit, share your story, and possibly be featured here!
Part of our newest temporary exhibit features an interactive station that allowed visitors to write their family’s story on a luggage tag and stamp it with the reason their family came to the United States or how they’ve moved within the country, whether it was Family, Refuge, by Force, for Freedom or Opportunity, or a different reason. Below are four stories shared in the exhibit, which opened to the public November 21, 2019. Visit My-America.org or comment below to share your family’s immigration (or migration) story.
“My parents moved here from Michoacan, Mexico for better opportunities.”
2/10/20
“My Uncle Peter immigrated to America from Greece, where he used to live with a family with 20+ children. He moved to Chicago, from the LA area he immigrated from and used to work at a hotel. He has a successful life, and has a happy life as an old man.”
1/17/2020
“My grandmother met and married my grandfather in Africa (they were both English).
My dad’s family was Irish and in America during the famine, settling in Maine in 1840s/50s.
2/1/20
“My grandmother immigrated with my aunt to the United States from the Philippines in order to pursue a better career and job in medicine in the US.”
2/6/20