Interview with Mr.Chappell

Before conducting this interview there wasn’t much that I knew about my former supervisor, Emiliano chappell. Only thing he every talked about was volleyball and his two children and his many vacations. He was a very private man yet friendly. He was born in the states to Bruce and Laura Chappell. I learned that his mother was a nurse in New Mexico, up in the mountains is where is where grew up. She met Bruce after an automobile accident as his nurse. She came to the states in 1968, to start her new life with her husband. I also learned that he Milio speaks very little English. Growing up in the mountains were rough, there is no running water because you can’t put pipes in mountains so they use stream water for cooking and other daily use. His family back in Mexico look to his mother as the American queen because of the economic difference. Laura is able to afford more by being over here in the states and when she goes to visit takes gifts for the entire family. According to Milio, She visits her family at least twice a year. I learned a lot by doing this assignment, like how not to be quick to judge an immigrant or foreigner because you never know why people have come from other states, whether it’s by force by family or government or for a better life to support themselves and family. The videos that I watched were similar to the life of Laura’s growing up. How, some may ask? She grew up in poverty and know what it’s like not to have electricity or running water. The living conditions are worse than here in America.

My names is Emiliano chappell, I was born in Gainesville Fl. in 1969. My father is American and my mother is Mexican. My mother met my father in Mexico while taking care of him as his nurse after an automobile accident at the age of twenty-one. They fell in love and she came to the states with him. They first settled here in Gainesville because my father was born and raised here and very established He was attending the University of Florida at that time and was also an employee there. My mother spoke Spanish fluently. There aren’t many stories of immigration in our family other than our mother, she shares it amongst our family of her travels. She talks about the lifestyle mostly, and living conditions are different up in the mountains about how there wasn’t and still isn’t any running water. The water comes from wells and water tanks that are placed at the house. She had a rough life style, everything built up because it in the mountains. They are very closely knitted, and family is extremely important. They support each other more than American families. My mother has brought over some of the traditions from Mexico like the birthday celebrations and the cooking. The typical Mexican food but made like real Mexican food. The tradition of the three kings after Christmas. I don’t speak very much Spanish, English is my primary language, being that I was born and raised in the America and didn’t have to apply it much to my daily life. Since my mother has moved to America she doesn’t speak that much Spanish because her family her is predominately English-speaking but in Mexico visiting that’s all she speaks. She still has a house over in Mexico. She just got back about two weeks ago, she usually goes twice a year for two weeks to visit her mother. My grandmother is ninety years old and very active. We have a large family. She has five sisters and five brothers. I consider myself to be a combination of white and Hispanic, some refer to me as a Chicano, but I’m not your typical Mexican. I stand about 6’1, which is not a typical Mexican size, and again speaks very little Spanish. I don’t think that I get treated differently personally based on me being Mexican but I do know there is some underlying stereotypes and prejudices against some of us. Things has gotten a little more modern back where my mother grew up, I can tell just by looking at the pictures, they have antennas, not cable but TV’s. Mexico City is very modern but up in the mountains, her homeland, they still cook on wood stoves, some people have gas tanks for heating and cooking, no running water, and I don’t think there will ever be, because you can’t carve pipes into mountains. The population has grown over time but I’m sure it’s very much the same in those areas. Facebook has opened up an avenue to communicate and to connect with my family in Mexico that I don’t get to see very much. I think it’s funny that they view my mother as the very rich American woman, when we are just in the middle-class. In their eyes that’s considered wealthy, that’s just the cultural difference from what we have here and what they have there. When she visits she brings gifts very everyone, so that gives them another reason to look forward to her visits.