The object I chose was this is a worn out wooden jewelry box my mom keeps in her room. It has a metal detailing on top with the imagery of flowers and vines.
I always knew about this box, my mother puts her favorite jewelry in it and keeps it on top of her dresser. When I asked my mom for something to share, it was a surprise to me when she told me it had significance and a history to our family’s immigration. The first person to own this box was my great-grandmother from Haiti. What my mother told me this was passed down to her when she immigrated to the U.S. in my grandmother’s footsteps. At this point my mom had my older sister. My grandmother also had been given this box from her mother when she had immigrated to Dominican Republic from Haiti. This was gifted to her by the time my grandmother had her first child as well. Both my mother and grandmother refer to it as ‘Caobita.’ It comes from the word caoba, which is mahogany in Spanish. Although I wasn’t aware of it before, it’s something important to me as it will continue to be passed down from one generation to another.

– Claudia Sánchez-Jean

Relationship:  Im/migrant Im/migrant