classmates's blogs

• Hector Porrata

Hector's family heritage was really interesting. I was amazed how his last name "Porrata" was only purchased by the poor. Both last names were separated and then came up to be a single lastname. It also was very interesting how the last name Porrata was bought.

• Gabriela Adams

It was really interesting how Gabriela's ancestors came from France and later settled in Vieques. After they moved to Vieques they decided to move here to Puerto Rico. Her ancestors family were really successful here in Puerto Rico since they owned a sugar cane plantation.

• Christian Virella

On Christian's blog the Italians immigration history really amazed me. Unfortunately they were not lucky at all, because through their migration process they obtained certain diseases. Once they stopped to be checked and supervise to see if they were to be good laborers in the U.S. in the future, those with diseases or physical illnesses were reported back to their homeland.

• Paullete Arquer

Paullete's family heritage was kind of interesting. Her family ancestors came from interesting places in Europe. Her maternal ancestors came from more places than her paternal ancestors. Today most of her family members are currently living in Cataluña Island. Like every single story i read her family did not encountered any problem with the US immigration law system because Puerto Rico is a commonwealth of the United States.

Culture Immigrant Heritage

I come from a family where some of my ancestors are descendants from Spain and others are originally from Spain.

My paternal great-great grandparents were originally from Spain. They came from Spain and settled in Coamo, Puerto Rico in the nineteenth century. Each generation from there and on were born and raised in Puerto Rico.
In 1983 my paternal grandmother moved with her family to the state of Virginia. By the time they moved to Virginia they were U.S. citizens and did not encountered any problems with immigration. However, they faced many language barriers, 20 years later they have asimilated the American ways of life and culture and consider Virginia there home.

The father of my maternal great grandmother, Flor de Maria Colom was originally from Spain. Her father came to Puerto Rico and met the women who later became his wife. Flor de Maria Colom, my great grandmother moved to Florida and by the time she decided to leave, she had America citizenship and so she did not faced any problems with immigration as well.

Both of families from my mother and father who had moved to the U.S. had consider the U.S. their home but their feelings of pride towards Puerto Rico had never change.

The video is telling that somehow, Muslim immigrants maybe a threat or a drag on German prosperity. Thilo Sarrazin, a member of the German central bank, argues that they are. Sarrazin's commemts and argues have triggered another debate on immigration in the country. The German central bank board member, Mr. Sarrazin and former senior city official in Berlin has long been a loud critic of German immigration policies.

In the last years of public outrage, the case of Sarrazin has grown far bigger than him. He was so against of Muslims that he wrote an Islam-critical book. His case is a case for his party, the center social Democrats and for the German political and media establishment.

According to Sarrazin's issue Muslims immigrants were a drag on German prosperity almost saying that they would cause more trouble to the country. I do think that it is for the safety of Germany to limit or deny access to Muslims in Germany. In response to this issue German government should restrict Muslims from coming to the country and keep up with Sarrazin's plan. His request about this issue is not a discrimination issue, Sarrazin's issue is mostly relating that the Muslims might be a bad influence in the country.

Journal

Some Germans were forced to immigrate to the U.S. Others were encourage by U.S. government officials to come to America to settle. In my case I was encourage by my family to immigrate to the United States for a better life. One of the reasons my family and I decided to immigrate to the U.S. was in search of safety, this was due to the extremely violent conditions in which Germany was living in. Freedom of speech was another reason I decided to immigrate to the U.S.


Before my family and I arrived to the U.S. we first needed to stop on Ellis island. On Ellis island German immigrants including us were checked or supervised. The supervision or check that was made to my family and I and all German immigrants was done to see who was allowed or not allowed into the U.S. What they did was checking what person could be a good laborer in the U.S. and so I needed to go up and down stairs for them to see if I was physically good and prepare. As you can read, this people in Ellis island were doing the checking process in exchange of benefiting the U.S.


Once having granted access to the U.S. my family and I decided to settled in the southern part of Minnesota. Not just us moved to the southern part of Minnesota but that many more other German immigrants settled in Minnesota too, making it a place for Germans. Later, the southern part of Minnesota became a popular place for Germans to settle. Than by the majority of the population in southern Minnesota being German population, the place became prosperous for German culture.


Since we were already American citizens and money was needed, neither did my family or I worried about being educated. German economy depended on agriculture. I worked as a farmer in large plantations and worked really hard since I first got to the U.S. to sustain and make my family profitable. My family and I were considered good farmers because we were steady and we had an efficient way of farming. This experience encourage me to keep up living life no matter how many obstacles were in the way because by them I learned how valuable is life and how important is to reach goals.

Life as an immigrant

The reasons of leaving my homeland were due to violent conditions. Many German immigrants had a hard time immigrating due to political issues. Some Germans disperse to the Western Hemisphere, some to Australia, and others to European countries. Germans were in search of an easier and better life with more opportunities.

The journey to the United States was not that harsh. Although Germany was constantly under attack making Germans to fled away. German emigrants were once in a while stopped by its rulers, but this encourage to the increase of the flood of immigrants leaving to the U.S. In 1709 more than 15,000 left to Britain and 3,000 crossed the Atlantic ocean to get to New York. Later on, modernization and inventions like the steam boat made it easier for Germans to immigrate. Routes through Britain were taken to get to the U.S.

An estimated number of German immigrants were living in Pennsylvania, but the majority of Germans were localized in the countryside. As Chinese immigrants made "Chinatown", Germans wanted to be profitable and so Germans wanted to take possession of a new enterprise. German faced problems with unity among themselves. Not all Germans once being Americans shared the same pride. Religion also affected Germans' unification. Not all Germans were religiously equal.

Immigrants in the case of Germans was not that difficult for them to immigrate to the U.S. I could be wrong by saying that Germans didn't had a hard time getting to the U.S. but it is true because through modernization immigrating became a piece of cake for them because they created their own routes and did not had to pay no one to transport them getting to the U.S. Ironically, the issues that Germans faced were cause among themselves, and so it cause divisions based on geography, religion, and ideology. 

If I were an immigrant during this time and I had to face all this trouble I would had risk it all because at the end of the day all the hard time they passed through was worth it.