Because my mom wore these clothes to America, there are very important. In the year 1983, my mother, grandmother, and uncle traveled from their home country, Jamaica, to the United States. My mother brought four outfits to America. She was able to keep them all these years; After all the moving from different homes and states. When I was a little younger, my grandmother gave me one of the articles of clothing, a soft cotton blue and white dress that my mother had worn when she was around that age. In Jamaica, they call it a "three sister dress" because of the three layers on it. My mother told me she might have worn the dress on the Fourth of July, even though the holiday didn’t mean anything to her because by then, she had only been in America for about a month. Although I can no longer fit it, wearing the dress made me feel more connected to my mother and made me think more about her life before marriage, and before kids. These clothes are important to me because they represent a difficult time in my mother’s life. These clothes connect me to her immigrant experience. She had to adjust to a different culture ( and climate). Her life changed immensely after moving here.

– RB

Relationship:  Child of im/migrant Child of im/migrant