Many Roads to Here

Reza Uddin was born in the epicenter of the Burmese government’s ethnic cleansing campaign against Rohingya Muslims. For the first years of his life,  Reza wasn’t aware of the institutionalized discrimination against the Rohingya. And then, when Reza was in high school, the Burmese government began denying citizenship to its Rohingya population. When he graduated college, Reza’s father gave him a...

It took Dr. Elizabeth Flores through high school, college, and medical school to really understand herself. Born in America, raised in Mexico,  her identity is wrapped up in both places. As it turned out, the physical United States was never her final destination. Many Roads to Here is a production of The Immigrant Story, in collaboration with Portland Radio Project. This episode was written by St...

Introducing Many Roads in Conversation, where we look deeply at issues affecting ethnic and migrant communities within the United States.  This inaugural three-part series will focus on the roots of anti-Asian violence. Joining us for the first episode of the series are Jennifer Fang, director of education at the Japanese American museum of Oregon, and Eliza Canty-Jones, editor of the Oregon Histo...

Tsering Dolma was forced to interrupt her life twice, first, when she had to flee Tibet for Nepal when the Chinese took control and then again when her father made a decision she didn’t know about. But she never gave up on a desire to advance  her education even while living her life in exile in the U.S. Many Roads to Here is a production of The Immigrant Story, in collaboration with Portland Radi...

Joe Kye fell in love with music in elementary school. But becoming a career musician was never on the table. After arriving in the U.S. from South Korea, Joe was expected to pursue a life of stability and recognition. Pursuing passion required money, connections, and a secure immigration status— all things Joe did not have. Many Roads to Here is a production of The Immigrant Story, in collaboratio...

Ruth Zuñiga grew up in a rural, evangelical Christian town in Costa Rica. Both restricted and supported by her community, she eventually set out on her own, becoming a psychologist and professor in the U.S. Her commitment to serving others, and to her family, led to unexpected new connections in Idaho, Alaska, and Oregon. Many Roads to Here is a production of The Immigrant Story, in collaboration...

Divine Irambona loves to challenge herself. Maybe because her life was a struggle from the moment she was born. Her mother died shortly after giving birth to Divine, in a Tanzanian refugee camp. She grew up walking miles to get to school and faced horrifying prejudice when she immigrated to the U.S.  To get to where she is today, Divine has turned to instincts and courage to survive, as well as th...

It’s 2010 and Johana Amani is 10 years old. She is speeding through the Congo in the middle of the night on the back of a stranger’s motorcycle. She and her mother and younger sister fleeing from domestic abuse and the political influence of her father. As they flee, Johana’s mother looks back at her two young daughters and says, “Look through the mirror and say goodbye to all your problems.” Alth...

Growing up poor in the mountains of Romania, Anna Giurgiev dreamed of a young man in strange blue pants. She didn’t know that this dream boy was her future husband, clad in denim, a fabric she had never seen. She didn’t know that their lives would be restricted by Romanian communism, or that he would try to defect without telling her. She didn’t know they would be separated for months and watched...

Things were going well for Jenny Munezero in Portland, Oregon. She was working in a rewarding career and engaged to a man she adored. But as the two families moved forward with wedding plans, and worked out the details of her dowry, Jenny found herself struggling to keep up with the details of the Burundi customs. Two months after she was born there, war broke out. Her parents, fearful for their l...

The first time Denzel Mendoza came out as undocumented he was on stage in front of a crowd of strangers.  That night, he didn’t just play his trombone, he let out the raw emotions of doubts, fears and hardship that had followed him throughout his life, letting himself be truly seen, for the first time, at this random jazz house show in Portland. After that night, life began to move quickly. A few...