When my mother moved here from New Delhi, India, all of her family’s photos were lost. Thankfully, one photo survived. It is a folded-up family portrait of my grandfather, my mother, and her younger brother. The photo was taken during the late 60s. My grandfather is wearing a grey suit with a full head of hair and a strong-looking face. My uncle; probably 4 or 5 at the time, was wearing a toddlers outfit with shorts and baby fat still showing. Now, it is hard to picture him as that small child while considering his current silver hair and aged face. My mother; 6 or 7 years old, is wearing a frilly white dress with a plain headband. And unlike my uncle and grandfather, my mother is instantly recognizable due to the shape of her face and the roundness of her eyes.  The role this photograph has in my mother’s immigrant history is that it represents who my mother was in India and the life that she and her family left behind. As far as I know, this is the only photograph my mother has of her family before they moved here. As such, this picture of my mother’s family represents all that they were in India. Of course they brought certain precious personal belongings; for example my grandfather brought his tenor saxophone that he played professionally in India, but I feel that the photo better illustrates who they were before they came to America. 

– Michael J Miranda

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