The reason these pictures hold a special place in my heart is because my great grandparents are immigrants themselves. They migrated into the U.S from the Philippines in 1970, 20 years after having my grandmother. They migrated so that way the future generations of our family would have a better lifestyle. This is also important to me since my grandmother was a single mother due to the passing of my grandfather for majority of my father and aunt’s life. Since this was the case, my great grandparents tried their best to make sure my father and my aunt had an amazing lifestyle so that way he did not have to live the way that they did. My great grandparents did this in a sense by working every day in the fields for consistent amounts of hours just to make sure they could possibly provide for our family. By doing this, this allowed for my father to be humble about everything that he received since he did not always have that great of a lifestyle. These pictures also mean a lot to me in a sense that everyone in my hometown knew my great grandparents and my grandparents were hardworking people since all they wanted to do was be capable of providing for their family. Ultimately, due to the type of family that I come from I can personally say that my family has taught me to be humble and hardworking and that is the type of tradition that relates to my family’s immigration story. 

– Jaelyn C Agbayani

Relationship:  Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more