It is strange to realize how one tiny photo can provoke so much emotion and memory. For me, this is an important moment to look back at my childhood. My brother to this day, still shows me the world. We lived in a beautiful kibbutz near the Lebanon border for the very first few years of my life. Everyone helped each other- for 4 years my mother worked in the rose garden and my father was an avocado-picker. Born in Nahariya, my family would always say that I was their "souvenir" from Israel. Because of my mother, we spoke German at home. Because of the community - we spoke Hebrew with our neighbors and mostly Dutch with the other kids. We never played indoors, we were always outside. For us, this was our home until we settled into the United States, where my mother found a job to become a Lutheran Bilingual pastor. Our neighborhood now is mostly hispanic, and we were always able to communicate with this new welcoming and friendly community. We have lived here in New York now for almost 24 years- we have made a new home where our family and friends and neighbors from Israel and from all over the world come to visit. My brother and sister now live in Germany. My father lives in his home-country Spain. The world, at times, can feel small in my family. New York City now, more importantly, feels like home. 

– Josefina Solano

Relationship:  Im/migrant who arrived as a child Im/migrant who arrived as a child