Through my Lenses

I am an 18 years old, Hispanic female. I was born August 21, 1995 in Reyes, Bolivia. My first language is Spanish, but I'm more or less fluent in English. I grew up in La Paz, Bolivia with my grandmother and cousin who is more like my brother, until I was 11. I was then brought to the USA to live with my parents. In Bolivia my family is considers upper middle class, so while living in Bolivia I always had everything. I went to the best private school, wore the best clothes, and had everything I asked for; I was a spoiled little girl. I had everything, but parents. So although, I was spoiled I never behaved like such, because I knew how hard my parent were working to provide me with all those luxuries. Plus, my grandma always taught me how to share with the less fortunate. Every time someone would ring the bell asking for food, my grandmother would ask me to open the doors for them and invite them in. Nothing edible was thrown away, nothing wearable was deposed off. Everything unnecessary to us was given to someone that actually needed it. We lived in a big house, but although it was just my grandma, cousin and me during the nights, during the day it was always full of relatives. 
Once I was brought to the USA everything change, now my family is consider lower middle class, and sometimes poor , depending the season. The only family I have here is my parents, sisters, and my friends who are my chosen family. In this country I also became more mature, as I had to begin taking care of my two sisters since I was 12. My parents were always working, so in a way I am more of parental figure to my sisters than my parents. I also had to learn how to cook for them. My parents are also very dependent on me because their English is not as develop as they wish. We have moved around providence, 6 times if I'm not mistaken. We have lived in north, east, and south providence. I have learn to adjust quickly to changes, and to not get attached to anything or anyone. The one thing that has been consistent in my life is the generosity of my family. If my parents know someone in need of shoes they will take theirs off and given them to that person.
It was a drastic change for me to move from a Spanish speaking country which was full of tradition, religion, and a very different educational system.  I had to adjust to all of that plus to living with my parents who were like strangers to me. I have seen many things growing up in both Bolivia and the USA. I used to consider USA to be a lucky country because you couldn’t see poverty in the street like in Bolivia, but it has an equivalent which is not as obvious. These groups are the refugees and immigrants, who are not living in the street as far as I know, but some of them are barely making money for the day to day survival, sometimes barely feeding their family. I can honestly say all my experiences have made a very compassionate person, and I am open minded. I will never be stuck on my own ideas, I always make room for new points of views, and I think that is due to the fact that I had to adjust to many different drastic situations in my life. So when I walk into my field site, which is the International Institute of RI, I am open to learn as much of the refugees and immigrants as I can. I am not going there to judge, I’m going there to learn, and understand this new subculture. Furthermore, I can identify with the refugees and immigrants, they probably move around all the time, have few to no family living in this country, had to learn the language, and have become resilient. Making my field site even more important to understand. I think that having experienced both Bolivia and the USA’s culture allows me to see thing in a unique way.