Tag: immigration

Pastor walks 150 miles in the name of immigration

Bishop José Garcia during “El Camino del Inmigrante,” “The Walk of the Immigrant” (Photo/Esteban Garcia)

Bishop José Garcia, 63, just finished walking an average of 12 miles a day, for 11 days straight. Not for exercise, but for the basic rights of immigrants.

“El Camino del Inmigrante,” “The Walk of the Immigrant” in English, was a 150-mile pilgrimage from August 20 – 30, aimed at highlighting the challenges of the current U.S. immigration system, one of them being hunger of immigrants. The walk started in Border Field State Park on the U.S.-Mexico border and ended at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles, with various stops in between.

Garcia, who resides in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., with his wife, is currently the director of church relations at Bread for the World – a non-partisan non-profit organization focused on educating policy makers, and the public, about hunger in the U.S. and abroad. He also serves on the board of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition.

“It’s been very emotional walking with the people and listening to all the different stories and the reasons they are doing the walk,” says Garcia who was accompanied by approximately 120 other walkers. “One of the individuals that I met told me that as they were crossing to come to the U.S., two of the people in their group got sick and were not able to keep the pace, and the coyote told them they had to leave them behind. This person told me they felt miserable, guilty, all these emotions walking away from these two individuals…”

Walk participants placing crosses in the sand. Each cross represents a deceased individual who lost their life crossing the border. (Photo/Johnny Lim)

“I would like to create awareness of the plight of the immigrant and call to attention the political leaders, especially the candidates for the Presidency, for the need of immigration reform here in our country. We are doing this advocacy, because we see the connection between hunger and immigration.”

According to research conducted by the Center for Immigration Studies, nearly 70 percent of Mexican immigrants, and their U.S.-born children, live in poverty. Many immigrant families are farmworkers who are hungry due to low wages; they also often don’t have access to health services, and work in hazardous conditions.

“Immigration reform is more than giving citizenship but dealing with the laws and systems of why people leave their countries to begin with,” continues Garcia. “These men and women are bringing values, morality, their faith, and traditions that will contribute to making this a better country. It’s not only about what they get, but what they give.”

The Christian pastor of more than two decades, says he empathizes with immigrants, because he himself migrated from Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico to the mainland U.S. at age 27. Since the island of Puerto Rico is a commonwealth of the U.S., he did not go through a lot of the legal issues other immigrants do, but some struggles he could relate to, he says.

“[I would receive] a patronizing attitude,” says Garcia, who in addition to studying at a seminary, holds a master’s degree in public health from the University of Puerto Rico and a bachelor’s degree in biology from the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico. “Because I spoke Spanish, I was considered not smart enough. There were also stereotypes about our food.”

While working as a state bishop from 2004-2014 at the Church of God of Prophecy in California, Garcia explains he was like a pastor of the other pastors in his state – making sure that they fulfill their duties.

“Pastors have different issues. Many of them had congregants who were undocumented,” says Garcia. “That’s how I began doing advocacy for them – for immigration reform. Listening to their stories are very moving. One of the things I took for granted is that people live in fear – never knowing if their families are going to be separated. They felt that they couldn’t claim those rights. That’s why I engage in this work of advocacy.”

He says a typical day for him, today, deals with meetings concerning strategies, signing letters, making press statements, representing law makers, trying to engage leaders, and mobilizing people locally.

“My favorite part of my job is being on the field with the people crying for justice who are treated unfairly,” says Garcia. “God requires us to love one another, and the scripture teaches us to care for the stranger, and that for me is an affirmation of the work that I’m doing.”

What piece of life advice would he give his younger self?

“Be informed and engage in justice for those who don’t have a voice.”

August 31, 2016
In My Mother’s Words: 60 and fabulous

Belgica en La Ciudad Vieja de Cartagena de Indias.

My mother and I got back from a two week vacation in South America yesterday. We spent time in Colombia and Argentina. We’ve done mother/daughter trips before and always have a great time. However, this is our first trip since she retired. This time we had a FABULOUS experience.

It’s amazing how much her demeanor has changed since retiring. It’s almost as if she got 25+ years back. In Colombia, she reunited with a great friend after 19 years. We went to Medellin and Cartagena. She bought herself a hat, and I lent her a pair of my sunglasses. That was the beginning of this new side of her I had never seen.

After Colombia, we headed to Argentina and met up with my brother in Buenos Aires. We hung out and even did a free walking tour. During the tour, you walk across what (some) Argentine’s claim is the world’s widest avenue – 9 de Julio. Naturally, as my mother and I are trying to hurry up and cross, I suggest we take a selfie. Like I said, she never says no.

When we landed at the Miami airport on the way home, my mom told me how she remembered the first time she landed there when she immigrated from Honduras. In the last few years she’s traveled the world. An opportunity she’s certain she wouldn’t of gotten had she stayed in her homeland.

You know sometimes people teach you the greatest lessons by not saying anything at all. I just observed her. She never got tired of walking. She never said no when I’d ask her to go sit at a bar with me. She was honestly more fun than most other people I’ve traveled with!

I told my brother that being with my mom shows me it’s never too late. After this trip, I’ve learned I need to try not to constantly feel like I need to rush or am running out of time. If I can be a quarter as fabulous and fun as my mom is when I’m 60, then in reality, I will have wasted no time at all.

Victoria Moll-Ramirez is a broadcast journalist based in Atlanta, GA. She is originally from Miami, FL and had the great fortune of being raised by the sassiest, spunkiest, wisest, most hysterical Honduran woman in the world. Victoria’s mother, Bélgica, is 60-years-old, resides in Little Havana (Miami) and enjoys a good margarita accompanied by a heartrending ranchera. Victoria blogs about her mom’s funny and wise sayings on, “In My Mother’s Words.”

July 3, 2015
Cooking With Granny: Korean style pork belly

Caroline with her grandmother

In the first episode of Caroline Shin’s “Cooking with Granny” series, her adorable grandma, Sanok Kim, shares her simple yet delicious recipe for Korean-style pork belly. During her interview, she is joined by her friend, and together, they recount their dangerous journeys from Soviet North Korea to U.S.-occupied South Korea.

Caroline Shin is a multimedia journalist based in NYC. Recently, she launched “Cooking With Granny” – a Web series in which grandmas teach how to cook traditional dishes from their cultures while simultaneously sharing their funny, sad and surprising experiences with immigration and multiculturalism in a world that’s very different from today’s. Shin was previously a video editor at New York Magazine and holds an M.A. from Columbia Journalism School.

March 3, 2015
The co-founder of P.F. Chang’s shares his recipe to success

Co-founder of P.F. Chang’s Philip Chiang (Courtesy Philip Chiang)

Philip Chiang always wanted to be an artist, but life had other plans for him. At 67, he is the co-founder and consultant for the 200-plus Chinese restaurant chain, with a nearly $1 billion revenue, P.F. Chang’s.

Chiang’s parents left China in 1949 to flee Mao Zedong’s communist dictatorship, and so Chiang spent most of his childhood in Japan. At 14, he migrated, with his mother and sister, to San Francisco’s Chinatown.

He credits his success today to his mother, Cecilia Chiang, who has been nicknamed “the mother of Chinese food in America” and is also winner of the 2013 James Beard Foundation Award for lifetime achievement.

Cecilia Chiang, 95 (Courtesy Philip Chiang)

At a time when the U.S. was only familiar with Cantonese cuisine, she introduced Mandarin cuisine of Northern China by opening the Mandarin restaurant in the 1960’s.

“She wasn’t a restaurateur – she just somehow got into it,” says Chiang proudly about his mother. “She became very successful and well-known – so things worked out. I think the intention was just to pay the bills.”

He goes on to explain that his mother was the seventh daughter of an aristocratic family. She grew up in a large courtyard home characteristic of upper class families, but the family lost everything during the Chinese Communist Revolution.

“She’s a survivor,” says Chiang, who learned most things, including recipes, from his mother.

While he was an art student in Los Angeles, Chiang used to help his mom out at the Mandarin, when it moved to Beverly Hills.

“I was the busboy and did miscellaneous stuff around the restaurant,” says Chiang, not knowing at the time how that would come in handy later on.

The experience actually inspired him to open his own restaurant, reflecting his own personality – simple and laid back. He called it Mandarette.

“It was a more casual, younger cafe,” says Chiang. “I liked the fancier food that my mom had, but I craved more everyday food – casual dining, instead of fancy that my mom was doing.

He opened Mandarette in Los Angeles where, he says, everyone is on a health kick.

“The food was lighter fresher, more health-oriented…and that’s what attracted people,” says Chiang.

As luck would have it, one of his customers there was Paul Fleming – owner of the famed Ruth Chris Steakhouse. Fleming became a big fan of Chiang’s food and asked him to help him open up a Chinese food restaurant in Scottsdale, Ariz. That was the first P.F. Chang’s which opened in 1993.

“It was never meant to be a chain,” recalls Chiang. “After we did the first and second one, there was still no thought to do a chain. It just kept expanding, and we went along with it, and it grew.”

The Los Angeles resident says what he believes led to the chain’s success is that they serve the Chinese food which he himself likes to eat.

“Clean and simple,” says Chiang, who is now helping P.F. Chang’s with its international expansion when he’s not pursuing his art career (he just joined Instagram with the name “ChiangPhilip” to display his latest paintings inspired by nature). “I’m still doing the same thing 20 years later.”

He says being a restaurateur is a very difficult career, but his recipe to success is simple:

“In the end, I think people don’t need something different, just something really good,” says Chiang. “Very few people can do something well – even if it’s just a burger, or a salad – just do it really well.”

February 25, 2015