Gianna: Peruvian Immigrant American Hero
By Michael Boyajian
When Gianna was teenager twenty two years ago in her native Peru she knew one thing and that was she wanted to go to America to make something of herself. Knowing no English she paid thousands of dollars to get to the U.S. knowing nothing of the risks involved like violent assault and rape.
Nonetheless she made it into the country and made her way to Baltimore to live with her aunt. But she was very unhappy here knowing little English and afraid to go outside fearing arrest. The sight of police and even helicopters caused great anxiety in her going back to her border crossing so she was a prisoner in her aunt’s home unable to embark on her American dream and unwilling to return home to Peru she virtually cried for two years.
Then Gianna left her aunt’s house to live with a Peruvian family in New York City and they eventually found housing for her in nearby New Jersey. She found work as a nanny for an upper Westside activist Betsy Malcolm. Betsy provided her with encouragement and support especially when a friend of Gianna’s explained that she could and should go to school to improve her English and prepare to get into college.
Hillary Clinton says it takes a village to raise a child and this was the case with Gianna, with support from Betsy and friends she learned English and enrolled in Manhattan Community College. She graduated there with an Associate Degree in Business Administration.
It was around this time she met an American man that was to become her husband leading her to citizenship. He convinced her to continue with her education. She wanted to be an accountant but somehow fate led her to enrollment at the Fashion Institute of Technology and she graduated from there with a B.A. in fashion design.
She worked for a time in this industry, moving to exclusive Westchester where she and her husband live today with their two daughters. But like a moth drawn to light this was not enough for Gianna. She knew she had more to her future that was yet to be discovered.
She got together with a business partner and together they created a sweater company, G2C, and today though they are struggling with the tough economic times they are hanging in there with their business plan. The sweaters they design are produced in Gianna’s native Peru and elsewhere so she has given a little back to her homeland while attaining her own American dream in the U.S.
Gianna believes that hard work, determination and a willingness to educate oneself is the ticket to success in this country, something that can be done here but not for the most part in the Third World. She also says she would not have made it without the help of others like Betsy Malcolm.
She is coming out and telling her story now because she feels she must do what she can to help other immigrants who have become the target of political extremists looking to gain power at the expense of immigrants the very group that built this nation into what it is today.
She has never forgotten her humble roots or Peruvian background so returns to Peru to see old friends and family on occasion and she is looked up to there as a poor girl who lived on a diet of potatoes yet managed to get to America and become a woman of means making her an immigrant hero, an American hero.
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