PROCESSING Lizzie Santoro
A Collection of Portraits and Stories by New Americans.
Kripa
I don’t exactly know who Americans are. Everywhere I go I see this country full of immigrants. Full of immigrants. I don’t even have American friends. Either their parents moved here and they were born here, or their ancestor moved to the United States a long time ago. Everywhere I go I see people from different countries. Me, myself, I’m from Napal. You, your ancestors are probably from Europe or something. I think it is strange all the things that are happening now with immigrants because, with most Americans, the only difference is whether their ancestors moved here long ago or just recently.
Kripa
Pamela
Immigrating to the United States was a difficult process in the sense that Iranians, since the Islamic Revolution, have always had a hard time traveling to the West. The visa process, the paperwork, the immigration processit’s a very, very intense process, and it took years and years and years for me to become a citizen of the United States. It took 15 years of paperwork and reporting to the police and so on and so forth. It was a long and intense process. But what was not so difficult about it was the fact that, when we were in Iran, we really were fascinated by the culture of the West. We spent a lot of time studying English and French and having private painting and music classes. I remember vividly that I was actually in my painting class when the city was attacked by Saddam Hussein. I was about 11, and we were having our break when my professor was giving a lecture about Matisse. We would paint for the entire duration of the class, but sometimes we had these breaks and during those breaks we actually got our little dosage of art history. Actually, those lectures inspired me to
become a professor in history of art and architecture. Anyway, I remember that on that day we were still in the classroom when the sirens went off. We were all scared. These are the moments that I remember from growing up in Iran which were extremely surreal. Thinking about Matisse, being fascinated by Matisse, and talking about him. Then, suddenly, you don’t know if the bomb is going to fall on your building, or not. If you’re going to be alive, or not. But we continued doing that. Sometimes people have this misunderstanding that, when there’s war in a country or when people are experiencing difficulties, that they’re basically doing nothing. But that was not the case at all. We knew that Matisse was important, whether we were going to die or not, we had to learn our Matisse. So that’s what we did.
Pamela
Michael
As a child, I never really flaunted my heritage or the simple fact that I was from another country. In retrospect, whenever I did tell someone I was from the Middle East, they would throw me a pity party, almost like people were supposed to feel sorry for me. Even the very few times when I did tell someone I was from the Middle East, almost nobody ever knew where Syria was on the map. However, as I began to grow into my adolescent years, I quickly felt the need to let people know where I am from. I now believe that it is almost my job to allow people to gain a new perspective on what being someone from Syria means, since there is so much negative stigma towards people from the Middle East. In other words, I want to be living proof that people should celebrate their cultural differences. I hope that by getting to know me, a person from Syria, people will realize that the harsh stereotypes that dominate Arab culture are simply not true.
Michael
Shaili
I wish more Americans understood that the immigration process is not easy. It’s hard. Some Americans think that it’s just a year long process, or a short process, but it’s not. It’s a very long process. And it’s very hard to immigrate and move from where you grew up to a new country and start a new life. It’s definitely hard.
Shaili
Mell
We are coming to the US, not the other way around. We have to get accustomed to your way of living and doing things. I don’t understand why they feel so threatened by us like “we’re taking their jobs, stealing their men and women, excelling and doing better than them.” We understand what struggle and poverty and hunger is, we come here to get better for ourselves. We are motivated to learn and do whatever schooling it takes because nothing is worth that suffering. Americans tend to take what they already for granted, get lazy, and when an immigrant is working hard and doing better, we’re somehow at fault. Nothing was ever handed to us.
Mell
Kareem
The positives definitely overcome the negatives overall, especially the living situation. Here, I can just walk down the streets whenever I want without being scared of anything. That’s just amazing.
Kareem
Hira
When I first moved to the U.S. we were living in Chicago. Even though the Islamaphobia was not as bad then as it is today, I was bullied because I used to wear a hijab. No one was talking to me. The school had moved me to a gifted section for math, because in Pakistan the math is very fast for some reason compared to here, and those kids there were like ‘she doesn’t deserve to be here, she’s a Muslim.’ They would say bad things about me. Things like that, so I wouldn’t go to school. I spoke with my father, and he said to me: you don’t have to wear hijab to be a Muslim. How you interact with people will let them know who you are and what you are about. So I took it off because I had a hard time blending in.
Hira
Jordan
I think sometimes some Americans might not understand the fears and the extra struggles immigrants have to go through and just how big a deal it is to go to a new place trying to get on your feet from there. Even if you were doing pretty well in your country, going to a new country and trying to figure the system out is a pretty difficult task. For example, when my mom first came here, she was nannying, and people took advantage of her by overworking her and things like that. People thought she wasn’t even speaking English because of her accent, and they sometimes treated her badly because of that. She also wasn’t prepared for the winter the first time, so she would walk to work and not have sufficient coats and just be freezing. I remember her saying one time that what should’ve been a 10 minute bus trip to work took over an hour because she just didn’t know exactly how to get where she was going and how the transportation system worked. I think people may think it’s easy to come over here and just assimilate really quickly, but it’s hard even if you’re from a place that speaks English.
Even though we’re citizens now, we still feel a little insecure about whether we’re truly safe because we’re immigrants. For example, when I was a child we lived in an apartment building and whenever there would be a fire alarm we’d immediately grab our bags that had our passports and all the documentation in them because god forbid it gets burnt up and we get sent back to Jamaica because we don’t have any proof of our citizenship. We still kind of do those kind of things today even though we don’t really have to. It’s just one of those things where you have to always be ready.
Jordan
Parshva
It can be hard being an outsider. That can bring a lot of feeling to you. That everything you were related to isn’t here. You think things like ‘I can’t ask that because I’m an outsider.’ But I can’t look back. I can’t curse myself by thinking ‘why should I be here’ because I’ve invested so much time and money over here. So long as the government legally allows it, no one should think it a problem.
Parshva
Alizon
I feel sad that people discriminate against immigrants, which to me is very ironic because their great grandparents or earlier generations were also immigrants who came to this nation for the same reasons as my family and others did. I believe that there are lots of people who feel superior to immigrants for the simple fact that they were born here, but if we think about it this country is a country of immigrants. Although I can understand their perspectives, that does not make them right because we are all people who deserve equal treatment. Overall, I think that American society is divided by those who reject immigrants and those who do accept us as one of them. I am extremely grateful to the latter group because, thanks to them, I feel welcomed in this nation and can proudly call it my new home.
Alizon
Sapna
Even when I was a little kid growing up in Pakistan, I had an encyclopedia and all I would do was learn about countries. I would just wish that I could see them, dance on their music, eat their food, wear their clothes. I was always a very, very diverse person, and I think that if you’re that person you avoid 90% of racism- just by being that person. When you are closed minded, you attract racism. With me, even when someone is making racist remarks, I don’t process it in my head as racism. I just take it as ‘okay, just another comment, it’s fine.’ I just have to behave so well that their misconception dies right there. Not by me answering, but by me showing by my actions. Santoro: Is that ever exhausting? To feel like you always have to challenge misconceptions? Um, sometimes I would say. Just sometimes.
Although, something I want to say is that I’ve made a lot of wonderful friends here. To give you an example, I was visiting Pakistan in December, and I was scheduled to come back shortly before Christmas. I had the option to just prolong my holiday in Pakistan because it was a holiday season in America anyway and just stay at my home and visit family, but I decided to come back because I have a huge community here. I just have to celebrate Christmas here. I have so many friends that are like families– their parents are great to me, their grandparents are very welcoming to me. I’ve made a life here. When I think of my identity I really consider America to be a really big part of it.
Sapna
Ziddi
I think that the most challenging thing to contend with was the status of Africans in America. I had to confront that as a child, and it was very different from what I was used to. I came from a majority African country. Where the president was African. The history of race had played out very differently in East Africa than it did here in America. I think that is the aspect of America that stands out most to me: its racial legacy and being in a marked body. My status would shift depending on whether I was in America or Tanzania, and not for any socioeconomic reason. Just, if you took this black body and put it in Kenya I had one status, but here... That is something I was continually aware of.
Ziddi
Juliette
I came from France with my mom, and I left my dad behind. My mom was a U.S. citizen, but my dad had to get a green card to come here. It took him three years. That was definitely difficult for us. My parents were married and had kids together. They were never arrested for anything. Never a problem. My dad even worked for the French government for over forty years, but it took him three years to come here. It took a toll on my family. It was a series of heartaches.
Juliette
Elli
I feel like it’s our generation’s job is to make sure our kids aren’t the way that our parents are. I see a lot of people’s parents– my best friend’s parents acutally hate me because I’m brown. She doesn’t like the fact that I’m not white. So, I just feel like it’s our job as a generation to make sure our kids don’t end up racist or very closed minded.
Elli
Akash
As soon as I stepped into the United States I experienced things in the immigration office, like they pulled me aside and took my baggage and they asked me to undress and everything. And it was like: Why?
It’s just a formality.
Is it for everyone or is it just for me? Well, if we feel suspicious about a guy we just do it. In what way do I look suspicious?
When I came here, I just came with a beard and they said try to remove the beard so that it doesn’t happen next time. So I said ‘okay, thank you.’ I wasn’t very offended. I understand why.
Akash
Mirian
I would really want people to understand how difficult it is to adapt to a new nation where you don’t know their language. People here sometimes can be very, I guess, rude, and they don’t understand that it’s very difficult to learn a new language. They’re kind of demanding– like ‘oh, you should. You’re in America. You should speak English.’ But it’s not so easy to get adapted to everything here right away.
Mirian
Yoon Soo
Recently, just a couple months ago, me and my partner became American citizens. The process was kind of phenomenal. I thought it would be just paperwork– that it wouldn’t actually do anything to me. That it was just a label. But then, I had to study the constitution. Things like freedom of speech, freedom to practice or not practice any religion, freedom to assembly, freedom to petition the government. I mean it was such a weird juxtaposition between what was going on in America politically– with Trump, with Hilary, with the popular vote, with ALL of the debate on the constitution and civil rights. Learning the basic rights of Americans as I’m trying to pass my citizenship test while listening to all of this was the most bizarre juxtaposition. I think it would have been very different if I became a citizen three years ago, when Obama was president. This was charged, and it had such deep meaning. But I’m so happy and so proud to be an American– on a deep kind of level.
Yoon Soo
Immigration is a complicated issue, and one that has been pulled to the forefront of America’s political discourse as a result of the Syrian refugee crisis and President Trump’s campaign platform of instituting a ban on Muslim immigrants and creating a stronger border running along Mexico. Unfortunately, in the course of waging the debate, the details and humanity implicit in the topic of immigration has been lost to generalities. This project intends to remind the American public of the human element that is inherent to and within immigration and convey its multi-faceted nature. This project was very much inspired by contemporary political debate in America. Few people even remotely understand America’s immigration policy or the affect it has on people. Consequently, the political debate on immigration, on who and how many we allow into America or to be naturalized, has rested primarily on rhetoric.
The choice to create portraits that focus almost exclusively on the faces of people who immigrated to the United States and pairing them with detailed accounts in their own words was done intentionally to express how unique the immigration process is for each individual who goes through it and how the issue of immigration is a human issue. When the American immigration policy is mismanaged, it results in human costs. These portraits attempt to stress the latter fact and to emphasize the individuality of each person photographed in a way that references the photographs used for official documentation, like passports and green cards, but that also rebels against the sterile and institutionalized look of such photographs in a way that is more expressive and individualistic. The ultimate goal of this project is to encourage the American public to approach the topic of immigration with more compassion and understanding.
—Lizzie Santoro