My Family's Journey to America
- Vanessa Brandenburg
- Glendale
- UNITED STATES
- 18
It all started out in England. My great great grandfather lived in England with his parents. They were a very poor farming family. They were a very close family even though they struggled with money issues. They had a very difficult time getting enough money to keep their family going, But they loved each other dearly.
My great great grandfather got up one morning and decided that he was going to move to America to get away from the poverty and start over. He took a very long journey and traveled to America and ended up in Arkansas. He looked for work for a long time and found one on a farm. There he met my great great grandmother and quickly fell in love. My great great grandparents got married and then they soon started a family. They had four kids, one of which was my great grandfather John Foster. My great grandpa John Foster was a very good kid. He had good grades and he was good at sports. He started elementary school and met Lucy, my great grandmother. They use to play “kick the can” together. They soon developed a crush on one another. They met in third grade and quickly became inseparable.
There is one thing you have to understand, my great grandfather John is White. My great grandmother Lucy was from Spain. This was looked down upon. Even though she had light skin and looked white and they were in love and completely happy, none of the family on either sides wanted them to be together. No one from the community wanted to allow them to be together either. My great grandpa John’s family hated my great grandmother Lucy because she was Spanish and my great grandmothers family hated my great grandpa john because he was white. My great grandparents told me that they would be walking down the street holding hands and people would yell at them and call her very racial and discriminatory names.
One day my great grandparents got fed up. They decided that they would move to California to get away from all of the criticism. They packed all of there belongings and they hopped on a train to California. They settled in a little beach town called Ventura. They were married and had four kids, one of which died during childbirth. The oldest was my grandmother Jaquoline May Mahon. Money got too tight to raise such a big family in Ventura County, so they decided that it was best to go back to Arkansas where work was good and land was cheap. My Great grandparents bought a little farmed and started a new life. Then when the children grew up a little, my great grandparents still had a dream of living in California. So they decided to pack up their things, throw the kids on a train, and go back to California. They got back to California and things were perfect. The kids did well in school; all got married and started families. My grandmother had my father and he had me. It’s all history now.