Clark County (The Evening News)
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C.E. Branham
Discussion
American Dreams
Immigrants share stories of their life in the U.S.
As the nation celebrates its 230th birthday, The Tribune and The Evening News provides some tales of patriotism and independence from the perspective of a few local immigrants.
Summer Kimmel doesn’t need a holiday such as the Fourth of July to remind her of what she loves about the United States.
To Kimmel, living in the U.S. means “the opportunity to be all that you can and to do what you want to do. The freedom and opportunity are incomparable.”
Born in Wu, a small farming village in China’s Shandong province, Kimmel moved to the U.S. in 1992, after marrying Jeffersonville native Ken Kimmel. The couple met while both worked at a medical college in China.
Kimmel, 37, was raised with an older brother in her mother’s three-room house. “Materialistically speaking, we were very, very poor,” she said.
At 15, she left her village to attend a boarding school, where she completed her secondary education and prepped for college.
Fourteen years ago, Kimmel took a $4.25-an-hour job working in a New Albany restaurant. A year later, Ken and Summer Kimmel bought their first home.
Today — after having earned a master’s degree from the University of Kentucky — she teaches at Indiana Wesleyan and ITT Technical Institute and provides translation services for companies hoping to do business in China.
She previously spent five years in corporate America, working for Valvoline.
Raised an atheist, Kimmel embraced Christianity several years ago, after hearing a radio sermon about the nature of love. Kimmel’s mother had just come to live with her and Ken, and tensions were high.
“It was just such a change in my life,” she said. “The Bible started coming alive to me.”
Now a Charlestown resident, Kimmel is the mother of Marta, 7, and Walt, 3.
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Shai Yefet, 28, was born in Israel and moved to the U.S. two weeks ago. He works at the Green Tree Mall at the Natural Care booth, which sells nail and skin care products.
Yefet said he hasn’t seen much of a difference between his home country, thousands of miles away, and the United States.
“[The U.S.] looks the same [as Israel] ... the big difference for me, is it is very hard to find culture food here. In Israel, you can find it everywhere, but not here,” Yefet said.
While Yefet hasn’t seen a difference in the two countries as far as freedoms and liberties goes, he said he still plans to celebrate Independence Day. One of his favorite parts of living in the United States is Fourth Street in Louisville, which is where he plans to celebrate the Fourth of July.
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Diego Morales is “living the American Dream.”
The Guatemalan immigrant came to the United States about six and half years ago. Since then, he said, he’s fully absorbed the American experience — finishing his senior year at Silver Creek High School, attending IUS to further his education and now working as a political director for the Mike Sodrel’s congressional re-election campaign.
“I’m a believer,” said Morales. “I believe that God opened the door for me to live here.”
Right now, in the midst of a heated congressional campaign, Morales is spending much of his time traveling around Indiana’s 9th District. But he says for him, it isn’t even work.
“It’s something that I enjoy and love to do,” he said. “When I came here to America … this was my country. I will do anything for my county. I had nothing when I came here and this is giving back to my country.”
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Valerie Scott needed time before she became accustomed to the American brand of patriotism — an attitude quite uncommon in her native France.
American and French civil liberties and independence are quite similar; the difference is in how nationals of the two counties use them, Scott said.
“I think there is a strong national sense in the United States,” Scott said. “The French are nationalistic when we feel threatened. America is all the time.”
It’s uncommon for American-style flag-waving in France, and the national anthem is rarely sung without prompt, she said. Also, the French don’t celebrate their equivalent to Independence Day as feverishly as Americans celebrate on the Fourth of July, Scott said.
It’s simply not as joyous an affair for France.
“July 14 celebrates the beheading of a king,” not independence from another nation, Scott said.
Scott, a visiting professor of psychology at IU Southeast, came to the U.S. in 1992 and became a citizen in 1996. She celebrates the Fourth of July like other Americans, but wishes native citizens would learn more about U.S. history — particularly the story of the nation’s independence.
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Conrad Maasdorp came to America as a missionary 33 years ago. He said his native country of South Africa has changed so much over the past three decades that he almost doesn’t remember the exact date of the country’s Independence Day.
“South Africa’s Independence Day is not as big as ours — it’s May 31 if I remember correctly. But they don’t have big fireworks on that day,” Maasdorp said.
He is correct, South Africa’s Republic Day is celebrated on May 31. However, Maasdorp said that South Africans celebrate Guy Fawkes Day more than their Independence Day. Guy Fawkes Day is a celebration on November 5 in memory of the attempted Gunpowder Plot against King James 1 of England and the British House of Commons in 1605.
Although Maasdorp will be celebrating the Fourth of July at work — he is the assistant general manager for the Holiday Inn Express in New Albany — he is appreciative of all that the founders America did to ensure the freedoms and liberties that he enjoys today.
“Most people don’t realize the liberties we have — we can say anything we like. I don’t think most American’s realize how many freedoms we have compared to most other countries in the world,” he said. “We live in an awesome country.”
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Staff writers Charlee Beasor, Joseph Lord, David Mann, Larry Thomas contributed to this report.
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