Success paths of young immigrants in higher education and the professional world.
[Born in the Dominican Republic] There are many times that I feel very Dominican
[Ending Private Detective. Catalan Studies] and there are many times when I feel very Catalan.
We can be talking, for instance, about my country
and I go "yes, because it's my country and I love it"
"and is the most wonderful thing in the world", and so on.
Then they say, "and here in Barcelona?"
The I say "I'm not leaving Barcelona in my life!"
I'm in love with Barcelona. Barcelona is my home... I'm in the middle.
I come from a very poor neighborhood.
People my age, my girlfriends...
I went there last year and these girls have 3 and 4 children.
I know that if I stayed there I'd be in the same situation
because to me it would be normal.
It wouldn't be normal to go "well, I have to study." No, I would start...
"Look, I already have a woman's body. The boys tell me things."
Start hanging out with kids and some day, you know, you've gotten pregnant
and you must stay with that man and that belly.
And I I thank my parents very much for deciding "I'm leaving".
"I'm leaving because I want something better for me, something better for my child."
The first memory of Barcelona
Montjuïc Castle, and sure, you climb up there
You come from a neighborhood that... And you climb up there and see
Barcelona. And you've fallen in love no matter what.
I decided when I was 4 that I was staying.
I've been in this neighborhood all my life,
I have only moved around a bit.
The last time I moved was to go down there.
And I, with people... I did have a relationship with the young people in my neighborhood
because I had a a romantic relationship with a boy from the neighborhood, but
once this relationship ended
the local people, like, despised me.
I was speaking with them. I have always been home.
And they told me things like... I don't know, "you'll never get anywhere."
Or "because he was everything to you and he could become something or other."
And I thought "well, I'm sorry. I for one am studying"
"I want to continue studying, and you don't even have the EGB [primary education degree]."
Then, it was that pride, "see one day I will be..."
"I don't know, an astronaut, and you still be here in the neighborhood doing nothing."
Have you always wanted to study?
When I got to 16 I said "I don't want to keep studying."
And I had a fight with my parents
I told them I was studying for them.
That I had no interest in studying and I was doing it because they were telling me "study".
And, you know, as a little lamb that must obey, I studied.
I had difficulties with schoolmates, for example, or with teachers.
Especially with a teacher
I had many difficulties with her.
Because I didn't understand her; She didn't understand me.
And I got to a point...
That was in high school.
And I got to a point that I had to change High School
because I couldn't stand that teacher.
Throughout my life I have met many people who...
have stopped trying to push forward
because they have stalled and they stalled
because of the people they've ganged with.
I've had ESO [high school equivalent] friends, for example,
who had left school because, being foreigners,
had started ganging with other foreigners,
Both from their own country and others,
and built a sort of ghetto.
There were closed and
persons entering or leaving or the ones they didn't want in,
was always determined... by the place of origin.
At the University I was surprised because there were no foreigners.
At least in my class.
And then I began to see that yes, there was one girl but she doesn't look like it.
Or, across the whole campus there were two black people.
But it is strange because there's a lot of immigration.
Why not in college?
What led you to go to college?
The desire. The desire to know you...
You know, there's nothing wrong with being a waitress.
But knowing that you can get to be more than a waitress...
Because that's what I said, everyone can be a waitress.
I mean, everyone who wants to work can be a waiter.
Or can be at a newsstand, or whatever.
But knowing that you can reach the University because you have the ability
and you have the desire, and from there to have a degree
that you can develop. Why not? Not everybody does that.
And I think that people who don't is because they don't want to, not because they can't.
Since I was 5 I had the clear thought
that I wanted to be a midwife when I grew up.
When I got older I learned that blood makes me dizzy.
And knowing that I said "that's not possible."
Because anything could happen to me in an operating room.
Then wanted to be an actress.
And that didn't work out.
I began to study Private Investigation.
And not because I wanted to be an investigator
but because I didn't know what to do with my life
and that was the choice I made to keep studying
because I wanted to study. I didn't want to spend a year at home thinking
what I want to be in the future.
And I'm about to get my degree.
In this last year
I decided what I wanted to do.
I wanted to do Catalan Studies
because that's what I like. This is what beats me
And now that I know what beats
I know what I want to be, and
I want to become a University professor, teaching Catalan.
[Do you want to send a message?] If you are a foreigner... From Latin America,
my country, for example.
If you stay ther sitting on your hands you'll do nothing.
If you stay there and try to do something may be successful.
But if you can leave and come here, you will surely do something.
I advise everyone, mobilization.
In order to improve yourself.
Superaction