WASHINGTON — Nasim Bolandparvaz said she was too young to understand what culture shock meant back in the early 1990s. At age eight, she left Iran with her parents and younger brother, heading to the United States, a country about which she knew almost nothing.
As America turns 236 years old on July 4, Bolandparvaz, now a U.S. citizen for eight years, said the colors red, white and blue have blended into her blood.
“I am definitely proud of being an American, and I hope more people from different parts of the world come here and make it even better,” Bolandparvaz said in a phone interview.
But the 20-year-old junior at University of California Irvine will never forget the hardship her family endured on their journey to the United States.
Many immigrant families have similar stories about their struggles to get to the U.S. and live in a new culture without losing their native cultures.
Bolandparvaz’s father, Hamid, got a degree from the University of Alabama in the 1980s, then returned to Iran to bring the while family to the U.S. Bolandparvaz said the move was especially hard for her mother, a traditional, conservative Iranian woman.
“It was very hard for her to adjust to the western culture here,” Bolandparvaz said. “Everything here was totally differently from what she experienced at home. She came here to let me and my brother have a better future.”
Bolandparvaz also found leaving Iran difficult: Besides the sorrow of farewell, the uncertainty of the new destination, new culture and new people also bothered her. Nevertheless, with Iran struggling with the aftermath of the First Persian Gulf War, leaving was a must-do for Bolandparvaz’s family, she said.
After making a short stop in Atlanta, the Bolandparvaz family eventually settled in Sunnyvale, Calif., in a neighborhood that now has attracted a lot of Iranian immigrants. The whole family became citizens in 2004.
Bolandparvaz, now a summer intern at the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, said she has become adept at switching between the two cultures.
“I definitely see a mix of both cultures on myself,” she said, “I have no issues at all now.”
Ariana Romero, 22, has a triple -cultural identity. Her father came to the U.S. from Nicaragua at age eight; her mother came from Iran at 17. Like Bolandparvaz’s family, Romero’s mother left Iran due to the country’s domestic conflicts while his father’s family immigrated to the U.S. for economic and educational purposes.
“I was blessed to have the opportunity to grow up in America, but I always remind myself where my family came from and I hope to find my roots there one day,” Romero said.
My Lan Tran, executive director at the Virginia Asian Chamber of Commerce and a first-generation immigrant, fled Vietnam to escape the communist regime in 1975. But life in the U.S. was not any easier at the beginning. She did not speak English and was put in a refugee camp in Arkansas. Now, Tran has more than 30 years of experience in business development and international trade. She said as the country is celebrating its Fourth of July, immigrants today still face severe challenges.
“The economy is lingering, and there are lots of competitions there.” Tran said, “Only those who work hard, have higher education, skills and abilities to keep up with new technologies can survive.”