Roxanne Persaud's Passport Photo on Arrival in US

DESCRIPTION
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. Persaud, who identifies as Black, reflects on her biracial identity and the word "dougla," which in the Caribbean is a pejorative used to describe people with Indian and African foreparents. She remembers her grandmother Sarah Ralph and her grandfather Jasper Persaud, the son of Indian indentured immigrants, who met and married in the Guyanese capital of Georgetown in the 1930s. Sen. Persaud remembers packing Indian sweets and Guyanese fruit in her suitcase for America and regrets leaving behind the family Bible, Jasper Persaud's Bible, in which he had noted baptisms and confirmations for his children and grandchildren.

ADDITIONAL METADATA
Subject(s): Roxanne Persaud
Type: Photograph
Source: Archival Creators Fellowship Program

PROVENANCE
Collection: Gaiutra Bahadur Fellowship Project
Donor: Roxanne Persaud
Digitizer: Gaiutra Bahadur
Item History: 2020-08-24 (created); 2022-05-12 (modified)

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