Immigrating to America

Since immigration is a huge deal right now, I would like to explain a little bit about the history of immigration. The fact of the matter is that we are all technically immigrants because we are all descendants of immigrants- yes, even in Europe and the rest of the world. All humans used to be nomads, and countries/borders did not exist, so we have all immigrated from somewhere else at some point. Even if your family has been living in Europe or Asia for hundreds of years, they first got there by walking from somewhere else; we are all originally from Africa. Another example and a more modern example is America. The first European settlers that came and actually settled in America were from England. Nowadays of course there are immigrants from everywhere, which is what makes America, America. 

Immigrants offer so much to this country. For one thing, we get to eat food from so many different cultures. Being married to a Latina, and I say that with a capital L as it should be, I was appalled at what our last president did to the Latino people who came to this country by deporting and using bad rhetoric about them. And, just to be clear, I would have been appalled if he did that I wasn’t married to a Spanish woman, but being married to a person from a different culture makes you think about what is going on in their country more. I actually even have a little bit of Spanish blood myself. The first known Spanish ancestor I have that lived in Spain with a Spanish name was Ferdinando I (1380-1416), King of Aragon, Valencia, Mallorca, Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica who was from the House of Trastamara. His wife was Eleanore of Albuquerque whose father was Sancho Alfonso (1342-1374), 1st Count of Alburquerque.

Before I started to research my family, I thought I was just your typical European American with mostly Irish and British Isles ancestry, but I was wrong. I encourage everybody to research their family history and see that we all come from the same roots; because when you start studying all countries' histories and how they form, you will see how we are all connected and related with each other. You will start to see that we are all one big family living on one tiny planet. I believe that knowing more about your family history can help end racism. For all those who are immigrating to our country now, I thought this would help you out:  “Any alien who is physically present in the United States or who arrived in the United States (whether or not a designated port of arrival and including an alien who is brought to the United States after having been interdicted in the international or United States water), irrespective of such alien status, may apply for asylum in accordance with the section of this section or, where applicable, section 1225(b) of this title,” 1158. Asylum. I hope that we continue to let people from other countries and cultures into ours, because they make it better and more diverse and help us appreciate others more.