D: Hi. My name is Diego. I was born Colombia [but now] live in Rhode Island.

A: Why did you move?

D: From Colombia? We moved from Colombia in 1999 because of the earthquake that happened in my city and that kinda destroyed a lot of it. And then my parents had the chance to come to the United States. They saw that they were giving the visas. My dad had already tried to come to the United States, but they always denied his visa. And for some reason, the day that we showed up as a family, they gave us the opportunity to come.

A: Where these visas for displaced people?

D: No. I think it wasn't for that. I don't know.

A: Was it difficult to obtain this visa?

D: Yeah. Well, my dad had tried several times when he was single. And he went like three times, that he told me. But they denied him. This was before the earthquake when he was young.

A: Can you describe a typical day for you and your parents before the earthquake happened?

D: Before the earthquake... So I was eight years old. I just remember that I went to a private school, where I would get picked up early, like at 8 AM by the bus. And where I lived not many kids went to private schools. I wasn't very very poor, but people didn't really have a lot of money. So going to a private school was apparently this high thing. And I remember getting picked up around 8 o'clock, coming back home at twelve, and then leaving again at one to school, and then coming back at home around five. Twelve was for lunch. I remember my mom used to work for the court office, or whatever. She worked for the government the whole time, ever since she was seventeen. My dad used to work for a big company, which shutdown. And after that, he was unemployed for a good five years. So he needed to come, because he couldn't find anything if he stayed.

A: Where your parents happy overall in Colombia, or were they unsatisfied?

D: I think they were alright. I mean, I was too young to even know what was going on. But from what I saw, I think they were doing okay. They owned two houses; my dad didn't have a job, but he did things on the side. I remember him selling candies, or stuff like that while my mom worked for the government.

A: What was the most challenging obstacle when you moved to the United States at the age of eight?

D: I think it was making friends and getting used to this whole... It was just such a different vive. I remember being eight years old in Colombia—I'd be outside in my neighborhood the whole time. And when you come here, it's like no one ever goes out. And so when we first moved here, we went to Florida for like a week. Then we came to Rhode Island. And ever since, we haven't moved. When we got to here, we got to my dad's brother's house. And in that house, it was my dad's brother, his wife, and daughter—my cousin, the one that would spend time with me so it was really weird. We lived in that house for three months and then we got our own apartment. But it was just very different. I went from going out everyday and being with friends in neighborhoods and stuff like that, to being stuck in a room by myself not doing anything. I didn't know the language, I didn't know... So I think that was kind of hard.