Homepage – About Me

My name is Grace Velarde and I am a freshman at Ramapo College of New Jersey. I am a participant of the Honors Program at my school, and for my Honors Social Science Inquiry course, the class was assigned to create a website about a prevalent social problem. I decided to explore the topic of Hispanic immigration to the United States since various social issues stem from this occurrence, especially now with new restrictions being put in place due to concerns about safety. This fear is heightened even more so due to the COVID-19, also known as the Coronavirus. Blacks and Hispanics are most vulnerable to this virus, and although this pandemic in many ways is calling us to come together and unite, it is also separating us. New stereotypes are being formed and false and derogatory rumors are being spread about minority groups and the different races. Immigration overall is a controversial topic, but it is important to discuss it harmoniously with each other to form plans on how to solve the discrepancies, piece together the divides, and allow for peace to reign.

Being an immigrant myself from Kurgan, Siberia, Russia, the issue of immigration is deeply important to me. My parents adopted my sister and I from Russia when we were one year olds. Now, you may be wondering why I chose Hispanic immigration as my research topic and not European immigration. The reasoning behind this is the fact that Hispanics are considered a minority group whereas Europeans have generally been more welcomed by the United States than the other racial groups. That is not the main reason, however; I was adopted into a Cuban family, so I feel a personal attachment to this topic. 

Many of my family members are immigrants, so I know many stories of the struggles immigrants face in assimilating and trying to adapt to a new way of life. Most of my immigrant family members immigrated to the United States from Cuba under the regime of Fidel Castro, who came into power in 1959, to live in the United States, seeking freedom and opportunity and escaping from communism. My mother and her parents left Cuba when she was three years old in 1966 and my father and his parents left Cuba when he was eleven years old in 1970. My father and his parents did not come directly to the United States, however. They lived in Spain for four years and then immigrated to Puerto Rico before immigrating to the United States when my father was seventeen years old in 1976. My parents fled Cuba for the same reasons many immigrants flee their homelands; political and economic reasons. Cuba’s government was radically changing from being a capitalist government to a communist government at the time, prompting many Cubans to seek opportunity in a democracy, that mainly being the United States due to our nation’s freedoms as well as our proximity to Cuba. This political transition has happened to other Hispanic and Latin American countries, including Venezuela. Immigrants evidently flee for other reasons as well, such as religious persecution, war, and other forms of violence and oppression.

My parents additionally own a preschool in North Bergen, New Jersey, a town filled with Hispanic immigrants. My parents help the parents at the preschool pay for the education of their children through the Urban League of Hudson County, an organization that provides childcare resources and referrals, as well as youth, family, senior and career support programs. I have been volunteering my time and even fulfilling community service hours at their preschool by assisting when I am off from school. I have been volunteering for seven years since the sixth grade. Before then, I would help entertain the children and complete small tasks the teachers and my parents assigned me to take care of. I currently volunteer as an Assistant Teacher, working with the children and teachers by helping create curriculums and overseeing the children at play. I have been very immersed in Hudson County, New Jersey ever since I was a child, considering the fact that I also lived in North Bergen for two years before moving to Bergen County. I volunteered at two events my junior year of high school, one at the Jose Marti Freshman Academy in Union City, New Jersey at the North Hudson Child Care Fair, and the other at the North Hudson Community Action Corporation in Union City, New Jersey at the 11th Annual Health Fair. Hudson County, New Jersey is the region my research is focused on because it has attracted many Hispanic immigrants throughout history and also since a piece of my heart lies there.