I was born in Ecuador and came to the United States at 12. Like many undocumented immigrants, I experienced economic, educational, and emotional barriers. Upon adjusting my immigration status, I took advantage of the chance to advance my education and enrolled in college when I was 35 and my daughter was two.
Twelve years later, I am a four-year doctoral student in social welfare at the CUNY Graduate Center, an adjunct professor at the Hunter College Silberman School of Social Work, and my 14-year-old daughter is an honor student herself.
However, when it comes to immigration, stories like mine are not what I focus my research on. Rather, it’s the experiences of people like my youngest sister, who, as the only American-born child in our immigrant family, encountered unique challenges…