The Search for Experiences
The Immigrant Experience
The Experience of Young Brazilian Dreamers
In this class my goal was to become technologically fluent enough to create a platform for my and others' immigrant experience through a website and ignite talk.
This class also fulfills the technology fluency requirement of Southern Connecticut State University Liberal Education Program. Beyond showing off a slice of my identity this portfolio serves as an assessment of my growth as a learner.
Building a Body of Experiences
Growing up I had always felt like there was an ethnic conflict within myself due to immigrating from Brazil to America at only 3 years-old. Throughout my childhood I met many Brazilian friends close to my age going through the same thing at the same time; and was given insight on a variety of struggles they faced, so I felt their experiences must also be shared. />
The picture to the left is my friend Matheus and I during our first time in Wildwood. I first reached out to my friend in this picture, Matheus. Matheus told me, "The most difficulties happened to me at home. My mother and father both had to take up two jobs just to take care of me and rarely had time for each other like they used to. Catching up to the American lifestyle was easy at first for me, everyone was pretty chill to me since I don't look too foreign and they helped me in class and mostly learning slangs, but it became very difficult after the American lifestyle caught up to my mom and dad, since divorce and separation was not common in Brazil. I eventually moved back to Brazil and am now living in Portugal and the best thing that came out of it was me getting recruited on the spot to be a ballboy at the World Cup since I could speak some English. I do regret not going to school after leaving though if anything."
Pictured below are my best friend Arthur and I doing some Power Rangers poses on a day of a daycare recess. I have known Arthur the longest, since I was 3, and we have had extremely similar experiences growing up here but we mostly just use that to our advantage for inside jokes. He was surprised when I actually wanted to change the narrative and converse about a struggle we face that we still have not found a solution for. Arthur told me, "I feel like sometimes I go through phases where I feel more white (American) or more Brazilian, like it all depends on what's going on in your life. For me, I feel like I'm more "American" during the school year. I usually am in the books more and don't have as much time to talk to my family and spend time with them, match that with work and it's really a struggle to have some good home time. Summers are probably the closest thing you and me get to feeling like we're in Brazil, off the weather and off all the churrascos. I pretty much felt like it comes like the seasons since I was like 12 so I would just say the biggest difficulty is switching code on how you speak to someone, you know Brazilians swear a lot (we laugh as he throws out all the profanity we secretly say in Portuguese in white publics) so sometimes I gotta be careful on how I'm talking to someone I just met or to not have an American accent when speaking Portuguese that our parents stayyy making fun of us for.
Ignite Talk
My Ignite Talk was specifically about my immigrant experience growing up and how it affects me now. I talk about the divide I felt in myself being nurtured by both my Brazilian parents and an American environment.
Backstage Posts
Link to My Ignite Talk Slideshow Since I Could Never Find My Video on Our Website
- My Ignite Talkslideshow