My name is Dei, and I am a 21-year-old of Dual Citizenship. I was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in late 1995, but only lived there about a year before returning to my parents' hometown: Caracas, Venezuela. At the time, my father was enrolled in a Master's program at University of Pennsylvania. Throughout his studies, he was residing in Philadelphia with my Mom, to whom he was already married before moving into the US. At some point of the three years they lived there, they became pregnant and I was born.   And so, I was raised in Caracas, Venezuela. By the time I was in my senior year, the situation in Venezuela was critical: the country's economy was at its worst so far, and the educational system had been constantly interrupted due to political reasons. For these and many more reasons, I had to look for some new place to continue my undergraduate studies. Even though I saw myself as mostly Venezuelan because of having lived there most of my life, I decided to attempt to come to the other country I am a citizen of: The United States of America. I ended up coming here to California through the aid of a scholarship, which I earned through an audition performing the violin. I came by myself carrying all of my family's hopes and efforts on my shoulders, to become a Bachelor in Music Performance, and I came convinced I would not cease to make them proud.   The violin has been the voice with which I have been able to express my deepest emotions and follow my professional goals.

– Dei

Relationship:  Im/migrant Im/migrant