Immigrant Stories

Most of us come from immigrant backgrounds. Both established and recently arrived community members migrated to the Aspen to Parachite region. The community has been built by immigrants across many generations.

Adelia Asplan

Adelia Asplan came to the United States from Belize in 1979. She was eighteen. Adelia came in search of a better life but she treasures the one she left behind. Learn More

Jerome Gamba

One hundred and fifteen years ago, Jerome Gamba's grandfather left Italy for the United States looking for work. He landed in New Orleans with little more than the clothes on his back. But he possessed rich family traditions. Here Jerome talks about one of those traditions that he and his family still practice today.

Aired May 14, 2008

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Neyma Rodriguez

In 2007, Neyma Rodriguez earned Garfield County's Humanitarian Award for her work as Resource Coordinator for the Family Resource Center. Here she talks about how her experience as a child influenced her career.

Aired May 28, 2008

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Nancy Crenshaw

As World War II ended, Nancy Crenshaw's parents fled Croatia for their lives as Hitler's facism was replaced by Stalin's communism. Here she talks about her parents' escape and the impact it had on their children.

Aired April 23, 2008

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Brisa Chavez

Brisa Chavez came to the United States from Mexico in 1980 when she was three. It would be the first of many crossings she and her family would make until they finally settled in Colorado when she was nine. Here she talks about the first crossing.

Aired 4/16/08

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Lance Tsosie

When Lance Tsosie was twelve his mother loaded him and his brothers and sisters in the car and left the Navajo Nation in search of a better life for her kids. Here he talks about leaving his homeland and his grandmother.

Aired 3/26/08

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May Zada

May Zada was born in Saudia Arabia and grew up in Jordan. In 1998, she immigrated to the United States with her American born husband. Her last job in Jordan was working as a flight attendant in the late King Hussein's Royal Squadron. Here she describes the late king and his power of observation.

Aired 1/23/08

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Xiangjie Chen

For most first generation American families there has always been one constant, work. Xiangjie Chen came to the United states five years ago from China. He was nineteen. Here he talks about work and family.

Aired 3/19/08

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Ana Ariza

When Ana Ariza was five years old, war broke out in El Salvador. For the next ten years, she and her brothers and sisters grew up in the midst of what often seemed like a nightmare. Finally, when she was seventeen, Ana’s mother was able to get visas for her children and bring them to the United States. Here Ana describes her childhood in El Salvador.

Aired 10/24/07

Learn More

Ricardo Torres

Ricardo Torres grew up in Mexico City the son of working class parents. His mother always saw education as the escape from the confines of poverty. She made sure her son got a college education by working long hours as a cleaning woman. In 1989, Ricardo came to Aspen to teach Spanish. Here,almost twenty years later, he remembers growing up in Mexico City. Learn More

Alicia Chiu

Alicia Chiu left Taiwan five years ago and came to Aspen to find a better life for her son. But there were times when she almost gave up.

Aired 2/27/08

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Eric Petrocco

Here Eric talks about his stint with the "Bushmasters" during World War II.

Aired 2/27/08

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Adriana Ayala

In 2005, Adriana Ayala was honored as Colorado’s Teacher of the Year. Colorado was recognizing what her students have always known-Adriana is devoted to helping young people succeed. Here Adriana describes how her experience as a teenager influenced her desire to help others.

Aired 08/15/ 2007

Learn More

Eva Shurman

Eva Shurman's parents witnessed Hitler's rise to power. They realized early on the danger he posed to their family and they fled to Italy and sent Eva to England to study languages. When she finished school Eva decided to immigrate to the United States with her boyfriend. Here she remembers her first days in America.

Aired 2/20/08

Learn More

H.J.Chee

H.J. Chee grew up in South Korea the son of a wealthy businessman. But when H.J. was fourteen the business failed and H.J.’s father fled to America to avoid loan sharks who were threatening his life. The family lost everything but their house and even the house was stripped to the walls. Two years passed and H.J.’s mother decided she had to go to America to help her husband move the immigration process along. So at 16, H.J. became the guardian and provider for his two sisters, twelve and fourteen, and his eight year old brother. It would be two difficult years before his parents could bring their children to the United States.

Aired 10/17/07

Learn More

Robert Zarlingo

At the end of the 19th century Italian immigrants in western Colorado were working the railroads and the dark, dangerous passages of the coal mines. By 1896, there were 457 miners working in Garfield County’s ten coal mines, many of them Italian immigrants. The money earned in the mines afforded many families like Robert Zarlingo’s,the opportunity to buy land and eventually become farmers and ranchers. But for some Italian immigrant miners their first job in the United States would be their last. Here, Robert Zarlingo recounts a dark day in 1913.

Aired 11/07/07

Learn More

Klaus Obermeyer

Klaus Obermeyer came to the United States in 1947 looking for a career as an aerospace engineer. After a series of off jobs he quickly made his way to Aspen where the ski industry was burgeoning. It was the cold lift rides in heavy wool clothes and something his mother insisted he bring with him from Germany that inspired Obermeyer’s international clothing industry.

Aired 08/08/07

Learn More

Meeta Goel

When Meeta Goel left India her grandmother made her make three promises. Meeta quickly discovered that those promises were impossible for her to keep in the new world she encountered.

Aired 09/12/07

Learn More

Calvin Lee

Nearly all immigrant groups have experienced discrimination in America, but none have experienced it as dramatically as the Chinese. In 1882 the United States established the Chinese Exclusion Act and for the next sixty years, the Chinese were the only ethnic group in the world that could not freely immigrate to the United States. But the resourceful Chinese immigrant community devised a way around this injustice. They created “paper sons”. Here Calvin Lee describes his father’s experience as a “paper son” immigrating to America

Aired 10/31/07

Learn More

Paul Salmen

In 1907. Dr. Paul Salmen’s grandparents arrived in Minnesota from Lebanon. During the next forty years they would raise 12 children, send 8 of them to college and six would serve the United States during World War II. Here Paul talks about their five-year journey to America.

Aired 09/19/07

Learn More

Luz Ford

When Luz Ortiz Ford left Bogota, Columbia she had just married an American from Kansas. She was leaving a very difficult life in a dangerous part of Bogata where few could be trusted. Her intense city life did not prepare her for rural life on the plains of Kansas.

Aired 08/29/07

Learn More

Sandor Varallyay

Under the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin tens of millions of people were executed or imprisoned in labor camps. These camps known as Gulags were little more than death camps. In 1953, Sandor Varallyay, native of Hungary, was confined to one of these camps. One December day in 1956 the secret police came for him and Sandor had to choose between life and death.

Aired 1/9/08

Learn More

Alexandra Yajko

Alexandra Yajko, who grew up in Poland, will remember a day in 1970 when she and her family were forced to leave their homeland to cross the Iron Curtain to a new life.

Aired 07/04/2007

Learn More

Paul Freeman

In September of 2007, Paul Freeman who is principal of the Glenwood Springs High School became a U.S. citizen. Paul was born and raised in Britain by his Irish parents who immigrated in the 1950's. Here he talks about how his childhood convinced him of the importance of education.

Aired 12/12/07

Learn More

Rosibel

Ten years ago, Rosibel’s husband died and she was faced with what she says was the most difficult decision of her life – stay in Honduras and watch her family sink into poverty or go to the United States and send money home. Rosibel left her ten and twelve year old sons with her mother and for the next five years sent nearly everything she made to her mother and her sons. Today both of her sons have graduated from college and have good paying jobs.

Aired 10/10/07

Learn More

Abraham Baeza

Abraham came to the United States in 2003 on a work visa and hopes to one day be a U.S. citizen. During this interview will talk about what he does and doesn’t miss about Mexico.

Aired 08/01/07

Learn More

Elsa Jimena Wagner

When Elsa Jimena Wagner came to the United States from Ecuador she came determined to become a U.S. citizen. Here she talks about her journey.

Aired 1/16/08

Learn More

Lupita Piña

Lupita came to the US from Mexico on a fiancé visa. She was sixteen and in love with a "blue-eyed American". She describes how she dedicated herself to leraning English and becoming an American

Aired 11/14/07

Learn More

Sabrina Ferguson

When Sabrina Ferguson left Venezuela for the United States she was leaving with Daniel, a man she had met four months before on the internet. She was trusting that Daniel was the man of her dreams, but she had her doubts along the way.

Aired 11/21/07

Learn More

Antonio

Antonio was five when his father brought him to the United States. Those first few weeks were the beginning of a long and difficult journey. Now, fifteen years later, he reflects on his first days as an immigrant.

Aired 11/28/07

Learn More

Julianne Heyman

In 1938, Julianne Heyman’s parents were jailed by the Nazis for being Jewish. They were eventually released and the family fled to Brussels, Belgium where they assumed they would be safe. One morning in May they awoke to find their journey to safety had just begun.

Aired 12/05/07

Learn More

Ashton Durrett

Ashton Durrett will recall the importance of supportive relationships to the immigrant family with his story of the tradition he calls “Overhome”.

Aired 07/11/07

Learn More

Ellen Quigley

On Memorial Day 1898 Ellen Quigley's mother landed at Ellis Island. She was 18 years old. Her family had sent her to the U.S. to escape the deep poverty of Ireland. Ellen's mother was never able to send money home, but she sent what she could. Here Ellen remembers her mother's dedication to her relatives in Ireland.

Aired 12/19/07

Learn More

Hank Bosco

Hank Bosco is recalling his father’s journey from Italy to the United States in 1904. Hank’s father was twelve years old, he spoke no English and he made the journey by himself with ten dollars in his pocket.

Aired 6/27/07

Learn More

Hanya Gottardo

Hanya Gottardo had a good life in Sofia, Bulgaria and never intended to be an immigrant. That all changed when she began surfing the web for someone she could practice her Spanish with.

Aired 07/18/07

Learn More

Jose Miranda

Jose Miranda and his American-born wife came to the United States from Venezuela in 2003. His wife had spent the last four years with Jose in the Venezuelan backcountry developing a 300 acre water buffalo ranch. It was time for her to be with her family, but it was also time to leave a country that was, according to Miranda, becoming more and more unpredictable.

Aired 09/05/07

Learn More

Stephen Bershenyi

The Bershenyis came to western Colorado from Budapest, Hungary in 1903. Stephen will recount their life journey as indentured servants to ranchers in the Roaring Fork Valley.

Aired 07/25/07

Learn More

John Scalzo

John Scalzo’s family came from Calabria, one of the poorest parts of Italy where many Calabrian families had to subsist on pennies a day. John describes how the strong sense of community and the ability to “make do” helped poor Italian immigrants succeed and prosper.

Aired 08/22/07

Learn More

		Adelia Asplan Adelia Asplan came to the United States from Belize in 1979. She was eighteen. Adelia came in search of a better life but she treasures the one she left behind. Learn More
		Jerome Gamba One hundred and fifteen years ago, Jerome Gamba's grandfather left Italy for the United States looking for work. He landed in New Orleans with little more than the clothes on his back. But he possessed rich family traditions. Here Jerome talks about one of those traditions that he and his family still practice today. Aired May 14, 2008 Learn More
		Neyma Rodriguez In 2007, Neyma Rodriguez earned Garfield County's Humanitarian Award for her work as Resource Coordinator for the Family Resource Center. Here she talks about how her experience as a child influenced her career. Aired May 28, 2008 Learn More
		Nancy Crenshaw As World War II ended, Nancy Crenshaw's parents fled Croatia for their lives as Hitler's facism was replaced by Stalin's communism. Here she talks about her parents' escape and the impact it had on their children. Aired April 23, 2008 Learn More
		Brisa Chavez Brisa Chavez came to the United States from Mexico in 1980 when she was three. It would be the first of many crossings she and her family would make until they finally settled in Colorado when she was nine. Here she talks about the first crossing. Aired 4/16/08 Learn More
		Lance Tsosie When Lance Tsosie was twelve his mother loaded him and his brothers and sisters in the car and left the Navajo Nation in search of a better life for her kids. Here he talks about leaving his homeland and his grandmother. Aired 3/26/08 Learn More
		May Zada May Zada was born in Saudia Arabia and grew up in Jordan. In 1998, she immigrated to the United States with her American born husband. Her last job in Jordan was working as a flight attendant in the late King Hussein's Royal Squadron. Here she describes the late king and his power of observation. Aired 1/23/08 Learn More
		Xiangjie Chen For most first generation American families there has always been one constant, work. Xiangjie Chen came to the United states five years ago from China. He was nineteen. Here he talks about work and family. Aired 3/19/08 Learn More
		Ana Ariza When Ana Ariza was five years old, war broke out in El Salvador. For the next ten years, she and her brothers and sisters grew up in the midst of what often seemed like a nightmare. Finally, when she was seventeen, Ana’s mother was able to get visas for her children and bring them to the United States. Here Ana describes her childhood in El Salvador. Aired 10/24/07 Learn More
		Ricardo Torres Ricardo Torres grew up in Mexico City the son of working class parents. His mother always saw education as the escape from the confines of poverty. She made sure her son got a college education by working long hours as a cleaning woman. In 1989, Ricardo came to Aspen to teach Spanish. Here,almost twenty years later, he remembers growing up in Mexico City. Learn More
		Alicia Chiu Alicia Chiu left Taiwan five years ago and came to Aspen to find a better life for her son. But there were times when she almost gave up. Aired 2/27/08 Learn More
		Eric Petrocco Here Eric talks about his stint with the "Bushmasters" during World War II. Aired 2/27/08 Learn More
		Adriana Ayala In 2005, Adriana Ayala was honored as Colorado’s Teacher of the Year. Colorado was recognizing what her students have always known-Adriana is devoted to helping young people succeed. Here Adriana describes how her experience as a teenager influenced her desire to help others. Aired 08/15/ 2007 Learn More
		Eva Shurman Eva Shurman's parents witnessed Hitler's rise to power. They realized early on the danger he posed to their family and they fled to Italy and sent Eva to England to study languages. When she finished school Eva decided to immigrate to the United States with her boyfriend. Here she remembers her first days in America. Aired 2/20/08 Learn More
		H.J.Chee H.J. Chee grew up in South Korea the son of a wealthy businessman. But when H.J. was fourteen the business failed and H.J.’s father fled to America to avoid loan sharks who were threatening his life. The family lost everything but their house and even the house was stripped to the walls. Two years passed and H.J.’s mother decided she had to go to America to help her husband move the immigration process along. So at 16, H.J. became the guardian and provider for his two sisters, twelve and fourteen, and his eight year old brother. It would be two difficult years before his parents could bring their children to the United States. Aired 10/17/07 Learn More
		Robert Zarlingo At the end of the 19th century Italian immigrants in western Colorado were working the railroads and the dark, dangerous passages of the coal mines. By 1896, there were 457 miners working in Garfield County’s ten coal mines, many of them Italian immigrants. The money earned in the mines afforded many families like Robert Zarlingo’s,the opportunity to buy land and eventually become farmers and ranchers. But for some Italian immigrant miners their first job in the United States would be their last. Here, Robert Zarlingo recounts a dark day in 1913. Aired 11/07/07 Learn More
		Klaus Obermeyer Klaus Obermeyer came to the United States in 1947 looking for a career as an aerospace engineer. After a series of off jobs he quickly made his way to Aspen where the ski industry was burgeoning. It was the cold lift rides in heavy wool clothes and something his mother insisted he bring with him from Germany that inspired Obermeyer’s international clothing industry. Aired 08/08/07 Learn More
		Meeta Goel When Meeta Goel left India her grandmother made her make three promises. Meeta quickly discovered that those promises were impossible for her to keep in the new world she encountered. Aired 09/12/07 Learn More
		Calvin Lee Nearly all immigrant groups have experienced discrimination in America, but none have experienced it as dramatically as the Chinese. In 1882 the United States established the Chinese Exclusion Act and for the next sixty years, the Chinese were the only ethnic group in the world that could not freely immigrate to the United States. But the resourceful Chinese immigrant community devised a way around this injustice. They created “paper sons”. Here Calvin Lee describes his father’s experience as a “paper son” immigrating to America Aired 10/31/07 Learn More
		Paul Salmen In 1907. Dr. Paul Salmen’s grandparents arrived in Minnesota from Lebanon. During the next forty years they would raise 12 children, send 8 of them to college and six would serve the United States during World War II. Here Paul talks about their five-year journey to America. Aired 09/19/07 Learn More
		Luz Ford When Luz Ortiz Ford left Bogota, Columbia she had just married an American from Kansas. She was leaving a very difficult life in a dangerous part of Bogata where few could be trusted. Her intense city life did not prepare her for rural life on the plains of Kansas. Aired 08/29/07 Learn More
		Sandor Varallyay Under the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin tens of millions of people were executed or imprisoned in labor camps. These camps known as Gulags were little more than death camps. In 1953, Sandor Varallyay, native of Hungary, was confined to one of these camps. One December day in 1956 the secret police came for him and Sandor had to choose between life and death. Aired 1/9/08 Learn More
		Alexandra Yajko Alexandra Yajko, who grew up in Poland, will remember a day in 1970 when she and her family were forced to leave their homeland to cross the Iron Curtain to a new life. Aired 07/04/2007 Learn More
		Paul Freeman In September of 2007, Paul Freeman who is principal of the Glenwood Springs High School became a U.S. citizen. Paul was born and raised in Britain by his Irish parents who immigrated in the 1950's. Here he talks about how his childhood convinced him of the importance of education. Aired 12/12/07 Learn More
		Rosibel Ten years ago, Rosibel’s husband died and she was faced with what she says was the most difficult decision of her life – stay in Honduras and watch her family sink into poverty or go to the United States and send money home. Rosibel left her ten and twelve year old sons with her mother and for the next five years sent nearly everything she made to her mother and her sons. Today both of her sons have graduated from college and have good paying jobs. Aired 10/10/07 Learn More
		Abraham Baeza Abraham came to the United States in 2003 on a work visa and hopes to one day be a U.S. citizen. During this interview will talk about what he does and doesn’t miss about Mexico. Aired 08/01/07 Learn More
		Elsa Jimena Wagner When Elsa Jimena Wagner came to the United States from Ecuador she came determined to become a U.S. citizen. Here she talks about her journey. Aired 1/16/08 Learn More
		Lupita Piña Lupita came to the US from Mexico on a fiancé visa. She was sixteen and in love with a "blue-eyed American". She describes how she dedicated herself to leraning English and becoming an American Aired 11/14/07 Learn More
		Sabrina Ferguson When Sabrina Ferguson left Venezuela for the United States she was leaving with Daniel, a man she had met four months before on the internet. She was trusting that Daniel was the man of her dreams, but she had her doubts along the way. Aired 11/21/07 Learn More
		Antonio Antonio was five when his father brought him to the United States. Those first few weeks were the beginning of a long and difficult journey. Now, fifteen years later, he reflects on his first days as an immigrant. Aired 11/28/07 Learn More
		Julianne Heyman In 1938, Julianne Heyman’s parents were jailed by the Nazis for being Jewish. They were eventually released and the family fled to Brussels, Belgium where they assumed they would be safe. One morning in May they awoke to find their journey to safety had just begun. Aired 12/05/07 Learn More
		Ashton Durrett Ashton Durrett will recall the importance of supportive relationships to the immigrant family with his story of the tradition he calls “Overhome”. Aired 07/11/07 Learn More
		Ellen Quigley On Memorial Day 1898 Ellen Quigley's mother landed at Ellis Island. She was 18 years old. Her family had sent her to the U.S. to escape the deep poverty of Ireland. Ellen's mother was never able to send money home, but she sent what she could. Here Ellen remembers her mother's dedication to her relatives in Ireland. Aired 12/19/07 Learn More
		Hank Bosco Hank Bosco is recalling his father’s journey from Italy to the United States in 1904. Hank’s father was twelve years old, he spoke no English and he made the journey by himself with ten dollars in his pocket. Aired 6/27/07 Learn More
		Hanya Gottardo Hanya Gottardo had a good life in Sofia, Bulgaria and never intended to be an immigrant. That all changed when she began surfing the web for someone she could practice her Spanish with. Aired 07/18/07 Learn More
		Jose Miranda Jose Miranda and his American-born wife came to the United States from Venezuela in 2003. His wife had spent the last four years with Jose in the Venezuelan backcountry developing a 300 acre water buffalo ranch. It was time for her to be with her family, but it was also time to leave a country that was, according to Miranda, becoming more and more unpredictable. Aired 09/05/07 Learn More
		Stephen Bershenyi The Bershenyis came to western Colorado from Budapest, Hungary in 1903. Stephen will recount their life journey as indentured servants to ranchers in the Roaring Fork Valley. Aired 07/25/07 Learn More
		John Scalzo John Scalzo’s family came from Calabria, one of the poorest parts of Italy where many Calabrian families had to subsist on pennies a day. John describes how the strong sense of community and the ability to “make do” helped poor Italian immigrants succeed and prosper. Aired 08/22/07 Learn More