While growing up in my household, I distinctly remember always seeing my mother spend any of her free time behind this sewing machine. She and I immigrated into the U.S almost twenty-five years ago to meet my father whom was already settled here. This is the only thing she insisted on bringing with us, in Ecuador she was a seamstress and had started her own small business but it was something that she could call her own. After moving here, she worked in multiple factories where I noticed as I grew up that none of her work or her person was ever appreciated. It was always more and more work but the conditions were always below acceptable. I would spend full days sitting with her not only at work but also in our home. Always right next to this machine not only telling her the designs I wanted for my dolls but also seeing all the clothes she made for family and friends when needed. These were the moments that made all the troubles worth it for her. This machine was the one thing that symbolized who she was in her own country and all she left behind in order to give her family a better future. She always explains that keeping the sewing machine lets her remember that some sacrifices are worth making.

– Ingrid Cabrera

Relationship:  unknown unknown