Oral History Interview with Sherry Singh
"Sherry Singh," a DACA recipient, is an aide at a public school in Queens. Here, she tells her story of coming to the United States "backtrack" from Guyana at the age of eight to reunite with her mother in 1996. This interview has been edited for clarity and to protect the vulnerable.
Parbatee Mohan and Dan Persaud Oral History Interview
Daniel Persaud, a musician, interviews his grandmother Parbatee Mohan, a seamstress from a village in Berbice, Guyana about emigrating, her expectations of life in the United States, working to build their American Dream and her recent visit to India. The interview took place in the enclave of "Little Guyana" in Richmond Hill, Queens.
State Senator Roxanne Persaud Oral History
Roxanne Persaud, a New York state senator from Brooklyn, left Guyana in 1984, at the age of 17. Her parents and most of her siblings had already emigrated from the country several years before, sponsored to come to America by a nurse aunt. Sen.
Nariza and Ryan Budhu Oral History
Nariza Budhu, who emigrated from Guyana in the early 1980s, speaks with her American-born son Ryan Budhu, an attorney at a law firm, a photographer and past president of the South Asian Bar Association of New York. Nariza recounts coming to New York City for the first time to seek medical care for her toddler Ravi, who was born premature and had a heart defect.
Chitra and Pritha Singh Oral History Interview
Chitra Singh is a singer/songwriter and a nursing aide. Here, she and her sister Pritha, co-founder of the Rakjumari Cultural Center, an Indo-Caribbean arts and culture organization in Queens, share the family's history of double diaspora and some of the objects, including an intricately carved brass lota, that made the journey across generations from India to Guyana to New York City.
Kokila Bahadur Oral History Interview
Kokila Bahadur, a retired registered nurse, speaks with her niece Gaiutra about coming to America alone in her late twenties, when she was a married mother of two. She came as a nurse trainee at the Jersey City Medical Center in 1966, the year of Guyana's independence.
Salima and Aliyah Khan Oral History Interview
Salima Khan, a high school teacher and college adjunct lecturer in Queens, converses with her daughter Aliyah, an associate professor of English Literature at the University of Michigan and author of Far From Mecca: Globalizing the Muslim Caribbean.