Adversity Backs Down
Perfect white benches line up a long pathway as a glare from the bright gold plated road travels for miles, until it meets the blue sky in the distance. Tall green trees placed so perfectly along the gold road overflow with fountains of the finest melted chocolate. So smooth and rich one drop would satisfy any craving for desert. The sound of birds chirping filled the streets in a harmonizing sound. A far away land mixed somewhere in between the clouds and sky is how eight year old Teobesta Ashenafi pictured America. With no knowledge about the land of opportunity she let her imagination as a young kid create what she thought of as a perfect world.
As an immigrant from the Far East African country of Ethiopia, Ashenafi and her family traveled to the U.S. for the first time, with no intention of leaving in August of 1995.
Fast forward to September 2008, I sit in a quiet dim lit house across the kitchen table from a well-educated student. She is wearing a sweater that reads UC DAVIS on the front her hair in perfect curls lingers to the middle of her back. She tilts her head to the side and gently closes her eyes. Trying to collect her fondest memories of her childhood in Ethiopia.
Ashenafi had just finished the second grade, and it was that summer her parents told her the big news. Their family was moving to America. Normally the process of moving to America is quit grueling and tiresome. It involves numerous visits to the embassy and countless hours of filling out paperwork. However Ashenafi recalls a different story. Her family entered in a lottery called The DV which stands for The Diversity Immigrant Visa. Certain countries are allocated a number of these each year with hopes of enhancing the representation of those immigrants in the U.S.
Many native Ethiopian enter in it each year. The lottery allows for lucky families who qualify to receive permanent resident visas for the United States. For many people it was a slim to none chance of winning. However for the Ashenafi family it was a blessing in disguise. After wining the lottery a surprising three times before, her family repeatedly refused the offer. The life they had in Ethiopia was comfortable and well established. Her mom was a teacher and her father a well-known farmer with in the community.
Much to their surprise they won the DV for a fourth time. Nothing short of a blessing from God they decided to finally take it. Ashenafi’s parents decided the opportunity that could be given for their children in America was more than what Ethiopia could offer. Deciding to put their comfortable lives on hold. They chose to move to Freemont, California. “I was eight years old and my brother was 16, they decided it was the perfect opportunity so we took it and never looked back,” Ashenafi said.
Generally Ethiopian immigrants make their way to the U.S through government visas or green cards given to them by the U.S. embassy. When the 1980 Refugee Act was passed there was a heavy arrival of Ethiopian immigrants in the U.S. between the years of 1982 to 1994. According to the Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America, Ethiopia was the most heavily represented group in the U.S. from Africa during that time.
As more memories started to resurface Ashenafi laughed when recalling the first plane ride she took. “I was only eight, and they didn’t teach you geography, so I had no sense of how the world was shaped and the different continents. When they told me we were moving to America I thought it was somewhere up in the sky. I remember early in the morning leaving from the airport in Ethiopia I was sad to leave the rest of my family but excited for what was to come,” she said. After a two day plane ride with stops in Frankfurt, Germany and New York Ashenafi and her family finally arrived at the San Francisco airport on an early August summer morning. There she was greeted by tons of family and friends. It was that day she took a first bite out of the American culture, the McDonald’s happy meal hamburger.
The transition for Ashenfai was rather smooth. She grew up speaking both English and Amharic, the native dialect of Ethiopia. The language was hardly a challenge besides a few slang terms and facts about pop culture she was up to speed. However the comfortable life her parents once lived in Ethiopia did not transfer over so smoothly.
Once you are here it was about making it in this society. “I grew up in a very strong Christian based family my religion and culture is very important to me,” Ashenafi said. “One thing my family and I had to learn here was that everyone is out to support and fend for themselves. Where as in Ethiopia it was all about what you can do to help raise up your community.” Her parents were firm believers in leading by example. They decided to go back to school and both received degrees at U.S. colleges, working hard they made sure their children understood why they were going through all that trouble. “My family gave me a really comfortable life; they provided me with the tools I would need to succeed. Everything they have done and continue to do is for me to have great opportunities in life,” She said
Like many immigrants the hard work of making it to America is only half of it. Tessema Shifferaw an immigrant from Ethiopia who made his way to the U.S. through a student visa in 1973. Claims that most Ethiopian immigrants go into some type of service work once they get to the U.S. Metropolitan cities on the East and West coast are flooded with Ethiopian immigrants who take job’s as cab drivers, work at parking lots, airports hospitals, and very few own their own business.
Though these job titles remain embedded in Ethiopia-American culture, Ashenafi proved to strive for something much bigger, she claims to be a very proud person. Proud of her culture, proud of her religion, and proud of where she comes from. Ashenafi says she is different from most immigrants because she never had a fear of being different. “Even at a young age I always walked with my head high. This is me; I am from Ethiopia and proud of it, take it or leave it. I had a family who backed me up in whatever I did so I was never afraid to show who I was,” she said. It is these strong characteristics instilled in her from parents, strong culture, and religious backgrounds that helped prepare her for some of life’s most tragic obstacles one can face.
In the fall of 2002 Ashenafi was starting her sophomore year of high school when her father fell victim to cancer and died. The stress and peer pressure of being a teenager and the death of a father can tear one down emotionally. However Ashenfai did not let the challenging obstacles she was faced with break her down. “I knew there was work to be done and I had to do it. I made a promise to my father and still to this day I make sure I keep it. My mother has done everything for me since my dad passed,” she said. “Going to school so I can provide an easier life for her and myself is what I strive to do now. It is my duty as well as my drive.”
Now a senior at UC Davis with a major in biological sciences and a minor in African studies she plans to graduate and receive a bachelor’s degree in spring 2009. Unlike most of her peers Ashenafi's story is very different. She came from a comfortable well off lifestyle in Ethiopia, to the working world of America. Faced adversity but never let it take her down. When asked if she ever feels significantly different than Americans the only thing that separates her she claims is the right to vote. “I am not a U.S. citizen, so I can not register to vote that is the only significant thing that I believe makes me any less different that any other American,” she said. Ashenafi believes America is the one place where you can work your way up the latter and believes she is a living testimony of that.
In a society where people and things are constantly being overlooked by our daily activities it is people like Ashenafi that help motivate others to strive for excellence. “I believe I am the American dream in the making, I haven’t and will not give up what I have set to achieve in my life. I think our experiences make us who we are. I have grown and will continue to grow. Every up and down I have experienced is thru God. If it weren’t for him I would not be able to carry on after my falls,” Ashenafi said.
The story is as old as time, some say rags to riches, others call it the American dream. Yet, knowing that one can work their way up to the top with nothing but family, faith, and motivation behind them is always refreshing. No matter how dusty the storybooks get sitting on the shelf. The tale of a person’s passion for success and drive to give back to those who sacrificed for them is a timeless one that will never get old.
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