ABSTRACT
My interviewees were recent immigrants to California, a state where most people come from elsewhere. Viviano’s family settled in California two generations back. I was born in California, and I live here now. But when people ask where I’m from, I say, “I am in the fi fth generation of people in my family who have moved into or out of California, often more than once.” After living elsewhere most of my life, I brought my family to California in 1999 so I could go to graduate school and transcend my identity as an English as a Second Language (ESL) instructor in a small-town community college.
