Interview Part 1: Angela's Personal Origin Story

On your Facebook profile pic you’re holding a sign with the word immigrant; Could you share a little bit more about your background?

Angela: Yes. I actually just gave a talk on my immigrant experience so I've been in that space thinking about it. So I moved here to raleigh in 1994. I had graduated from high school in 1993 in Colombia and I had just turned 17 years old. My only chance to go to a university was to go to this public university, which was the biggest public university in Bogota, Colombia called La Universidad Nacional. To get into this university you had to take this really hard admissions test and I did not pass. That was the only chance that I had, you know, there was no money to do anything else. I had to wait six months to reapply so my mom and dad, kind of like came together and decided that it would be a good idea for me to come to the US because I had an uncle that lived here. So yeah, I arrived in February of 1984 and I stayed I never went home.

So the decision to move to North Carolina was sort of arbitrary there wasn't any reason in particular that you decided to move here?

Angela: It was because I had family here, which is how a lot of immigration happens. My father had a brother [Carlos Salamanca] he had a restaurant and a family here so it just made sense. I was only going to come to study English. I think that [my parents] were worried that I was going to get in trouble because I was in love with this boy so they sent me off (laughs). Uh, but yeah that’s how I landed here in Raleigh out of all places.

Me: My immigration story is kind of similar. I had family here in NC as well and we ended up moving her