The metal outline surrounded is with blue, yellow, and white strings and the faded outline of the island behind it makes you feel at home whenever you wear them. They were made in Saint Lucia, where my family comes from, and it has been passed down for two generations. My grandma moved out of her parents’ house in 1970. When she was twenty and after she had gotten her own place, she purchased the earrings and wore them everywhere. Seven years later, she had my mother, and twenty eight years later my mother had me. When I was two my mom and dad went to the U.S. Before they left my grandma gave my mother her earrings, which she almost never took off, and wished them good luck. In 2008, my grandmother took me to America in order for me to live with my parents after they got their lives set up. The day I saw my mother she was wearing my grandmother’s earrings, I asked her why she was wearing them and she said they helped her push through challenges. The earrings cost my grandma $15, but in terms of emotional meaning it’s worth millions to my mother and me. This is important to my family because my mother went to America in order to create a better life for us. The earrings helped remind her of the family who she was working so hard for.

– Chanel Montoute

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