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Date: 5/31/2022
TURNERS FALLS – Marise Lyra knew the El Salvadoran ballad would make her feel sad. She said, “It brings a little sorrow.”
“No Ilega el olvido,” which translates to “Forgetfulness does not come,” made Lyra, a nursing instructor at the Center for New Americans (CNA) feel again the sadness of those who emigrate to the United States to start new lives. The ballad, the first performance of the CNA’s annual fundraiser, Immigrant Voices: A Celebration of the Arts, refreshed the emotions she felt upon arrival here in 1998, a sharp mix of joy and hope for the future and the sadness of losing the life she knew before.
“This sorrow reminds us of all the sorrow, all the feelings,” Lyra said, “all the sadness we carry when we decide to leave everything behind and come here.”
CNA, a Northampton nonprofit, eases the transition into a new American life. The center helps immigrants with language instruction, resettlement challenges, employment assistance and legal services. Lyra, who left Brazil to come to America, found the center a safe haven in a society fraught with new dangers.
“When you arrive and you don’t know anybody, and you don’t know anything,” Lyra said. “The Center for New Americans becomes like a house, safe for you to be in, a place you come to learn English [and] you come to find support from the professionals, the teachers.”
The students became teachers on May 22 at the Shea Theatre. The annual fundraiser offered students the chance to display the arts of their home culture, including those of six South American countries and Spain, Thailand, Guinea, Nepal and Cape Verde. The program featured a fun video on how to cook pad thai, a popular dish of Thailand. Dancers swirled their brilliant skirts. A balladeer with a guitar sang and strummed. Students read poetry, drummed and sang with lots of audience involvement.
The balladeer, Javier Luengo-Garrido, of Chilean descent, sang a song, “Todavia Cantamos” – “We Will Sing” – that suggests past terrors. The song was written by Victor Herredia after his sister was “disappeared” by the military dictatorship. Luengo-Garrido dedicated the performance to Marty Nathan, a local activist who passed away last year, who often requested the song.
Victoria Maillo de Aquilera, from Spain, read her poem, “No me siento de aqui y yo no soy de alla,” that spoke to a loss of emotional moorings and a sense of insecurity that immigrants often feel. Her poem, “I don’t feel like I am from here and I am not from there anymore”, includes the lines, “I think in Spanish and I have to speak in English … I am Meilo here and Maillo there, and sometimes they make me feel silly in both.” The poem repeats the title a number of times, emphasizing the emotional difficulties Maillo and other immigrants live with.
The center’s spring fundraiser, according to Laurie Millman, executive director of the CNA, was first staged six or seven years ago, with a two-year break during the coronavirus pandemic. Millman voiced great admiration for the center’s clients, who tend to be determined, goal oriented and entrepreneurial. They also tend to be persistent and methodical.
“Our students tend to set goals and do things one step at a time,” Millman said. “They will get their certified nursing assistant certification. Then they will study for the drivers license test. Then they will look into buying a house … The people we work with are very determined and very persistent, as a rule.”
CNA’s assistance is focused on those services that most help new arrivals integrate into local towns. The center operates three facilities in Northampton, Amherst and Greenfield for language instruction, training for home health aide certification, and preparation for finding and keeping a job. Securing identification, which is essential for opening bank accounts, applying for a green card and citizenship, are another leg up CNA offers newcomers.
Employers value the desire of CNA students to better themselves and their lives. The center offers connections to employers including River Valley Food Coop, Amherst College Dining Services, Cooley Dickinson Health Care, Greenleaf Foods and Yankee Candle. The jobs may not align with the skills a student brings to America, but offer financial stability in a new culture.
Millman said, “Often people start in jobs that help them to earn a living while they become proficient in English, then work on finding something that aligns more with their training. It’s often a multi-step process.”
Lyra, who has earned baccalaureate and masters degrees, couldn’t get past step one in Brazil: training on how to use a computer. Then she came to America and connected with CNA.
“They offer free computer classes,” Lyra recalled. “I was like, I can’t believe it. Too good to be true. I had a computer class!”
Lyra also recalled when she danced in a previous CNA fundraiser. Nervous and distracted, she didn’t realize the importance of the fundraiser itself in her life. The showcase of ethnic arts reconnects her, she realized, to a small community of other determined and resourceful newcomers and new citizens.
“As an immigrant, it means so much to me,” Lyra said, “when you see your people, people like you, bringing what they brought from their country, which is so few with them, and showing it to me. It just brings so much to me, in my heart. It’s very moving for me. I go home and I carry it for awhile.”
The Center for New Americans stages a poetry reading in the fall and a naturalization ceremony at the Northampton Courthouse on July 4. For more information call 587-0084 or visit the website at cnam.org.