My father (middle) as a baby, and his brothers and his sister (right and left)
Below, my dad's baby picture and brothers and sisters on the right at school.
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as told to Samantha by her father, Robert Pimentel |
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This is a story about my father, Robert Pimentel. He is not an immigrant, because he was born in the United States. At least not at first. In 1970, he moved to the Dominican Republic at the age of 14 years old. He became an immigrant in that country for nine years. |
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His family wanted to move to the Dominican Republic because a lot of his relatives lived there. They also wanted him to learn the Dominican culture because both of his parents are from the Dominican Republic. When he arrived in his new home he was thrilled to see everything brand new. His neighborhood was just built but there was one problem. He did not know where to go because he did not know Spanish fluently. The hardest thing was that no English was spoken there. It was hard for him to learn Spanish. Everything was in Spanish, the TV, radio, and people spoke very fast. |
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Weeks after moving in, he started attending school. There he had to cope withclasses only in Spanish, another problem to face. He had to learn Spanish quickly so he could catch up with his classes. His favorite subject was English as a second language. The classes in the Dominican Republic ended early every day. They were from 7am-12 noon. Although they ended school earlier the work was very hard and so he had to spend time studying. On every test he had, there were no multiple choices. Every question had to have an essay answer. |
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The family decided to return to New York in 1979. My father felt like an immigrant all over again after being away and not speaking English for a long time. The family moved back to America because the economy in the Dominican Republic was getting worse and the family felt that the government was not doing enough about the situation. My father also wanted a better future in America. |
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His first job in America was album printing, a job he started less than a year later. He hated this job because it was so boring but he liked the people who worked there. For five years he continued to work there, even though he got very little money doing this job. My father is now working for the U.S. postal service. He is very happy that he moved back to the United States of America, because it's a country of great opportunities for education and careers. |
My father (middle) as a baby, and his brothers and his sister (right and left)
Below, my dad's baby picture and brothers and sisters on the right at school.
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