Everyday Stories
Selected images from my own personal inventory, coupled with stories recounted to me of survival, sacrifice and happenstance.
Amadou
Sicily, Italy
Amadou sells inflatables on the public beach in Cefalu, Sicily. He works from 9am to 8pm every day. Each month, after his personal expenses are paid, he sends the balance of his earnings (200-300 euros) to his wife and 3 children in Somalia.
He hasn’t seen them in 5 years.
Dewi
New York City, NY
Dewi was originally named Hassan.
She transitioned 7 years ago after immigrating from Indonesia to Los Angeles, and then moving to NYC.
When she left Jakarta, her Muslim father disowned her and told her never to come back. Dewi works as a hair stylist in Brooklyn and sends her father $100 every month.
Maria & Romana
Brooklyn, NY
Maria & Romana are sisters from Guatemala. Between them, they have ten children. When their husbands abandoned them in 1996, they were forced to leave their children with relatives and immigrate to the U.S.
Maria cleans houses in Queens. Romana removes asbestos for a company in North Carolina. As of today, they have missed eight weddings, the birth of twelve grandchildren, ten high school and two college graduations.
Zaida & Maria Elena
Queens, NY
Two undocumented students were chosen by a committee of teachers to represent their high school
in a national student championship in Texas. Selected for their academic excellence, public speaking skills and overall leadership capabilities, these young women qualified for the event by developing an innovative sustainability project.Due to the current political climate, school administrators decided it was unsafe for them to fly to Texas.
A less qualified, yet properly documented pair of students went instead.
Mario Fulvio
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Mario, 31, is originally from Paraguay.
He left the capital, Asuncion, when he was 16, and hitchhiked to Argentina.
An orphan since the age of 12, he has no family that he knows of and has no reason to go back.
He lives in Buenos Aires, taking pictures of tourists in La Boca, in front of a tango mural. He doesn’t have formal status and has not applied for one. He lives day to day.
Arjun
Bremerton, Washington State
This is Arjun,6. His father, Syed, a naturalized US citizen from
Pakistan, was killed while serving as a technical interpreter for the
US Navy in Iraq.
He stands in front of a decommissioned ship, just like the one his father was stationed on.
Leydy
Havana, Cuba
Leydy, 24, worked in the Flower Market in Havana, Cuba.
She had been saving and borrowing for 5 years to fly to
Panama, planning to travel north through the coyote
pipeline, to eventually enter the USA.
The week she arrived in Panama, President Obama
changed the “wet foot/dry foot” status of Cuban
immigrants arriving in the States. She is technically
stranded in Mexico, where she has no status.
Her whereabouts are currently unknown.