Arrival VR: Miriam Shares Her Family’s Immigration Story

Brookline Interactive Group (BIG) and its project, the Public VR Lab, are proud to present the latest interview from Arrival VR. This co-created immersive storytelling project is the first national virtual reality (VR) filmmaking collaborative project curating immigration stories of Americans from pre-1620 through 2018 and incorporating them into a visual XR/VR timeline. The Brookline Community Foundation has awarded a generous grant to BIG to support their efforts to record immigration stories from the Brookline community to contribute to this project.

Members of the public are invited to participate in this project and share their family's immigration stories at BIG's studio in Brookline. We'll be holding the next interviews on October 22 and November 19. To learn more, please visit http://immigrationvr.com.
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Please introduce yourself and tell us where you immigrated from. How old were you, and what were your parents’ hopes when you moved to this country?

“My name is Miriam Fine and I immigrated when I was five years old with my parents. My mother and my father and my grandmother came from Romania. Their hopes were that we would have new opportunities and all the freedoms that were not existent in Romania at the time.”

Who did you move to the U.S. with, and who who did your family leave behind? Did anyone come after you?

“It was my mother and my father and my grandmother - my father's mother. On my mother's side, her family had already left Romania to go to Israel. My father's sister was living here in Brookline and he very much wanted to come here. So we came here. We left behind my uncle (my father's brother) and his family. But a lot of our family on both sides had already left Romania. So then we didn't really have anybody left in Romania…there wasn't that connection to Romania, it was really kind of severed in many ways.”

As time has passed, how has your experience compared with what you or your family expected in coming here?

“In terms of what my parents hoped for...I think it very much fulfilled their dreams. I mean, it's kind of a classic story. We didn't have anything, my mother was 28 years old when she came, didn't really speak any English, had her whole career here. [She] was given an opportunity and had a really great career as a computer programmer...

“We moved out to the suburbs, had the house with the lawn and all of that kind of…typical American life.”

What were some of the more difficult parts of coming to a new country, especially from your perspective when you were very young - was it a difficult transition?

“I have some pretty vivid memories of walking into my kindergarten class and speaking no English…and I also spoke no Hebrew. So it was these two new languages and a new culture in many ways. Adjusting to that was really hard, I felt very different at the time. I have some really strong memories of how stressful that was...feeling very very different from everyone around me, not being able to communicate.

“I had a really kind kindergarten teacher who I'll always remember, but it was pretty stressful. I really was just anxious, I think, so that was my kind of perception. But you know little by little…I learned English and kind of assimilated.”

Where did you find strength in the difficult times? Were there any special friends you made, or any connections that helped you get through it?

“I think I found strength in my family even though I did make some friends, I never really felt comfortable…in the greater world outside my family. I did eventually, but not when I was a young child. It took me a while to develop that comfort. I was probably like…nine or ten before I started to really feel comfortable and developed close friendships with my peers, and then from then on it was good.”

Did you ever feel unwelcome during your early years in the U.S.?

“I think because I was young and, you know, I think children are children and they will pick up on differences…it's hard to know how much of that was really happening or how much of it was my perception. But in general I think the community was very welcoming and my family had a lot of absolutely…crucial support from people in the community who helped new immigrants.

“Jewish Family & Children’s Service set up our first apartment, and I'll never forget walking in and seeing that they had put all that attention to detail, like a little tablecloth and the few dishes and the furniture. That made us feel really welcome. Even as a young child I could sense that and feel that.”

Do you have any cultural traditions that were brought from your home country that you still use at home? Do you still speak your first language at home?

“I don't speak my first language at home. I can understand Romanian and I spoke it with my grandmother who never really learned English. But…I think it gave me interest in languages in general, so I've studied other languages.”

In what ways do you think migration has made you a stronger person, or changed you?

“Seeing my parents go through that, and now as an adult looking back...the risks they were willing to take, the bravery that it took to start all over again...

“It's inspiring to me as an adult now. It's given me a lot of empathy for anybody who's in that situation and the challenges that they face.”

What do you wish more people knew about immigrants?

“I don't know if a lot of people fully realize how kind of overwhelming...that feeling of being in a completely new culture [is]. Even under the best of circumstances, like even when you have support, much less when you don't, it's very very difficult.”

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About Arrival VR
Led by Brookline Interactive Group, and its project the Public VR Lab, Arrival VR is a nationwide collaborative curating immigration stories of Americans from pre-1620 through 2018 in a visual XR timeline. The project has fifteen partners across the United States, and will be shared online, in virtual reality, at film festivals and at arts and cultural organizations nationwide with a curriculum for engaging community dialogue about immigration. The project ponders a shared experience and visual timeline of the commonalities and complexities of American immigration throughout history using XR as a platform for a field-building strategy for emerging media.

About the Public VR Lab
The Public VR Lab is growing a field for Community XR that promotes accessibility, digital inclusion, and diversity. The Lab is disrupting traditional media communications in community-based civic media, journalism and arts, cultural and educational organizations by providing XR Toolkits, equipment, training, cohorts, artists residencies, fellowships and content in the public interest. The Lab is a project of Brookline Interactive Group, a next generation public access community media arts center. www.publicvrlab.com