Veronica Pokorny, November 10, 2021

Title

interviewee

Veronica Pokorny

interviewer

Morgan Reamy

Date

2021-11-10

Subject

BOCES

Citizenship

Community

Cooperstown Graduate Program (CGP)

Cooperstown, NY

Cooperstown Spanish Club

Culture

Dual Citizenship

Family

Immersion

Immigration

Latinx

Laws

Lima

Opportunity

Otsego County

Parenting

Peru

Peruvian

Zumba

Description

Veronica Pokorny (nee Miranda) is an active member of the Cooperstown community. Veronica was born in 1974 and grew up in Lima, Peru. While growing up in Lima, Veronica attended a private Catholic school where she was taught English, with her typical school day being half in English and half in Spanish. As a young professional, Veronica had various opportunities and jobs, but around her thirties she decided she needed a change of scenery and moved in with relatives in Florida in 2006.

Veronica has been successful in the United States and has taken advantage of all the opportunities that the country has offered her. In the interview, she emphasizes the great opportunities available in the United States as compared to those she had in South America. Veronica found her way to Cooperstown, New York in 2007. Shortly after her move, she met her husband, Tim, and they got married in 2008. She has made a life in Cooperstown and has given back to the village ever since.

Since moving to Cooperstown full time in 2008, Veronica has become very active in the community. She has become an active member of Cooperstown First Baptist Church, helped start the Cooperstown Spanish Club, assisted in several Cooperstown Graduate Program events concerning Latin culture and the Latinx community, and taught both salsa and Zumba.

Veronica offers a wide array of insights on what immigration to the United States from South America looks like and provides a perspective on small-town USA through the eyes of an immigrant. She also offers wisdom regarding the vast cultural differences she has experienced and how that affects raising her daughter and her actions within the community. Veronica lives by the words of “if you want to do it, go do it,” as she does what she wants and enjoys every moment of it, especially living here in Cooperstown.

I interviewed Veronica at her church, Cooperstown First Baptist. During the interview you will hear her talk about many of the things mentioned above. As English is her second language, Veronica does have a Peruvian accent, but that does not hinder understanding her words through the audio recordings. The following transcription is not completely verbatim, but it does preserve most of the information shared by Veronica throughout the interview.

Transcription

VP: Veronica Pokorny
MR: Morgan Reamy

[START OF TRACK 1, 00:00]

MR:
This is Morgan Reamy interviewing Veronica Pokorny on November 10, 2021, at Cooperstown First Baptist Church for the Cooperstown Graduate Program, Cooperstown Community Stories. So, to start off, when and where were you born and tell me about your upbringing, Veronica.

VP:
Well, I was born in Lima, Peru [in] 1974. And that’s okay, I don’t mind saying my age. I grew up there. I went to a private Catholic school, learned English since I was six years old. I went to college in Lima, for communication science so I have a bachelor’s degree. I worked in different fields; I worked in a bank while I was going to college part-time and then I worked at an insurance company in customer service as an executor of claims until I moved here when I was around thirty.

MR:
So how difficult was it to learn English while still living in Peru?

VP:
Actually, that was very helpful. The way that the nuns would teach us it was that we had a half day in English and half day in Spanish. So, they would break out the courses that way you were able to learn the word without learning it in Spanish. So, there was a lot of memorizing. But that’s why it is so hard for me to translate when someone is talking in English, and I have to turn it into Spanish because I’m thinking in English when I talk in English. So, it was good. I went to school until I was 17 and that’s how many years we had to learn English.

MR:
So, tell me about your journey to America and how you got to Cooperstown?

VP:
Well, so I was working my last two years as an executive of claims in an insurance company. It was a very, very hard [mine?] job where I didn’t really fit in. I got the opportunity to come and work. I did want to have a change in my life. I was at a point that I wasn’t really happy living or doing what I was doing there and with the support of my family and having family in Florida, I was able to find a job in Florida and I moved in 2006. While living in Florida, I met somebody who hired me as a nanny to move to Cooperstown for five months and as soon as we arrived to Cooperstown it was the first time I really enjoyed it, living in America actually. Just the hills, the seasons, seeing the animals around, it was just something so different from coming from a city, especially Lima that is very, very look-a-like to New York City, that’s what made me feel really in love. And also, my first Sunday I was able to meet people from the Baptist church here in Cooperstown and they were very open. That first day I had lunch with some couples in Stagecoach [Coffee]. So, I remember a very, very friendly community where even though I didn’t know anybody else around here, they would open their homes to invite me for Christmas or Thanksgiving, learning traditions that you have here and that’s how I love it. I met my husband a year later and then we eventually married here in Cooperstown. My family came from Peru, family from Florida came too, and all of his family and I feel very, very connected to the community that we have here right now.

MR:
So, tell me more about your family here in Cooperstown and back in Peru.

VP:
Well, my parents and one of my siblings is living in Lima right now. When I moved, I have two sisters and a brother, and they were all younger and living in Peru. Right now, my brother is working and living in Hong Kong. One of my sisters lives in Santiago de Chile and my other sister lives in Lima. That’s my direct family, and they are all in South America, well besides my brother who lives in Hong Kong. I do have on my mom’s side of the family living in Florida, most of them. My grandmother just recently moved from Florida to San Francisco where I also have family and they are all my aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters of my mom, and my cousins and their kids. I don’t have family in upstate New York besides my in-laws [laughs]

MR:
How do you like your in-laws? [more laughter]

VP:
I love my in-laws, they’re awesome [laughing together].

MR:
So how was the transition from Lima to Cooperstown and like the cultural shock [you may have experienced]?

VP:
I do have a very good experience because living in a city and living in Cooperstown where you feel safer in all the [sense of] what the word safe means. I really love it. I was ready for changes in my life, so I didn’t miss that much certain things I used to do back home. But I do miss dancing, I miss going to clubs and dancing, and going to the mall. You have just one, and it's far away. So, that part was really hard to transition. Also the fact that I got very, very—I didn’t realize what was happening to me when I was in my first February here and I was crying after seven at night, and I was like I don’t know what's happening to me and I didn’t connect that it was the lack of sun [laughter]. And I do find ways to enjoy myself. By that time I make friends and I turn into a Zumba instructor. If I couldn’t find a place to dance, I was going to make myself a Zumba instructor so people can dance with me, and I have been doing that for ten years.

MR:
So, what types of opportunities are present in the U.S. that you didn’t have back in Lima?

VP:
Well, the first realization is that I have a bachelor’s degree in marketing and communication science and when I worked in Peru I was working as an executive, so I was making good money for a person that was single and young. When I move here and I started working, you know, in a private club, country club. And they were paying me, I was making four times of what I was making in a month. So, in a week, I was making what I was making in a month in Peru. So, definitely I found that it was an upgrade in my income. And the other thing that I noticed when I moved up here in Cooperstown I work, I was nannying, and I was cleaning, and then eventually I started working in the country club. I was manager for a few years at the Cooperstown Country Club, and I noticed that definitely there are job opportunities everywhere. Sometimes it may not be your desired job opportunity, but if you needed money and you want to work there is opportunity for you to work. Back home there is no opportunity. And that’s a big difference, like we cannot have, you can work in anything you want here if you really want the money, you can put yourself to work hours and get it done, be able to support yourself. In Peru, there is not enough job opportunities for people that are [there], especially in the city. So, if you don’t have money to go to school because there are no student loans, you don’t go to school. If you don’t have money to go to a private school to grow up, to do elementary or high school, and there are not enough places in public school, then you don’t go to school. So, I believe in how many opportunities you have here in America are way more than any other place, especially where I grew up. So, to put myself through college, my parents were able to pay my first semester. But we were many siblings and many private institutions to pay. And I worked part-time in a bank to be able to pay for my college and to support myself still living with my parents. So here, if you don’t have jobs, you can collect unemployment or you have disability options and other options that in other places you don’t have. So, for me, I do believe that here you have chances; it may not be the one you want, it may not be the right one in the beginning. I babysit and I nanny for many years and I clean houses for very good money but I was waiting for the right opportunity and the moment came and I took it. And that’s how I build up myself and learning also the community, and the community gave me the chance to be able to move up. Right now, I am the agency manager of a small marketing company in town that is built by a mother that had a dream of having something for people that will be able to combine work with life with family. So, I am very grateful I work for her, and she is amazing. And I am there already since 2015 working for her. I grew. I also do projects for photography and filming besides the admin part of the agency. And I can't be happier.

MR:
What advice would you give to someone that is looking to move to America from like outside of the country?

VP:
Anywhere?

MR:
Or South America in particular.

VP:
Well, I think, you asked me you know how I like it here, you know. I did have family members coming over or friends coming over to visit and they like it for like a couple days. Because the type of living here is extremely different from where we grew up. Therefore, my cousin, young, ten years younger than me saying to me “oh my god what happened to you, you changed? There is no mall, there is no theatre, there is no movie theater, there is nothing to do.” And it’s because you are in that moment, for her especially, she is young, and she has other approaches in life that she likes. And definitely, you know, that’s something I feel that I was lucky that I moved to a place I really enjoy. What happened to people that were already here? That came from other countries. They just have to be patient and look for opportunities and don’t give up. And the fact that if you speak another language and you were not lucky to learn it when you were growing up, does not mean you can’t learn it yet, you can learn it now. You can be able to change the outcome of the things that happen in your life. So, if you feel like right now you are in a country where you don’t speak the language, you don’t have the right jobs, or you don’t make enough money. The good thing about America is they give you opportunities. There are high schools where you can go at night and you can learn English. There are people in the community that are willing to, you know, tutor. So, it’s not like “I can’t speak the language, I can’t work.” No, you can. I know people who don’t speak very well the language and they are working [small laugh]. So, it's possible. It's just a lot of willing. Yes, it involves community, yes. Moving to Cooperstown, I realized they are very open minded, they are very welcoming. I don’t feel in this town I’ve been pointed at. Definitely, we are small, skin color wise, I am the minority here, but I felt welcomed in Cooperstown. So, for my experience in Cooperstown, I have never had issues besides people that were not from Cooperstown.

MR:
Which is a lot. A lot come visit.

VP:
Yeah, and there are some, and sometimes you might have somebody that will say something inappropriate. But this not who I see the community build up in. We are raising with my husband, a seven-year-old daughter that we want her to understand that we are all the same, we just look different. But that’s the beauty, you know, how boring will it be if we are all the same. This is who we are, and we should embrace how we look, and how we love. And it’s really being respectful of everybody’s feelings and emotions. Sometimes we want to encourage other people to be as us, and we pass that line. And they all have the right to think and be the way they want, and I like that about Cooperstown. They are very open. And it’s the first time in somewhere where I feel like, somebody will ask me “Oh, you speak Spanish.” And they try to say a few words in Spanish, and they want to know what I am eating, and want to know what my favorite food. And they just want to learn. And that’s how I like this. And that why I move, that’s why I like Cooperstown.

MR:
Talk about how you are raising your daughter with your culture in the mix

VP:
So, we are very lucky to be able to go back home every year, besides this year. We were actually in Peru in 2020, February, before the shutdown. So, Marianna has been going to Peru since she was two months old. And she has a very strong connection with my parents and my siblings. We are constantly video chatting. She is exposed to the language. I know I am not giving her all the knowledge of the language as I should be doing. It’s all my fault, that’s alright. Yes, it is because I do have friends that work and have kids here and have kids that speak Spanish. So, my thing is, Marianna knows a little bit of Spanish. She’s happy to learn. She wants to be more Peruvian. Because I keep telling her that she’s half American and half Peruvian. She just looks just like me. Same skin color. She has the features of her dad, and he’s American. Raising her, it’s a little different. Especially because most of her friends don’t look like her. Embracing her in the way she looks is a constant work. Even though there is a lot of cultures here in Cooperstown. It’s just, she started noticing a difference when she started going to kindergarten, before she didn’t notice a difference. And she’s not being pointed at, but some friends, they are little, they ask questions “Why do you look like this? Why is your skin darker?” But because it’s just curiosity. I just need to help her learn, understand that it’s just that. And she just needs to answer, “because I look like my mommy.” And raising her and being able to get her a little bit of Spanish every day is a chore that I am taking. And I hope, my dream is taking her for a couple months to do immersion, so she would be able to be really, really speaking. So that’s my dream, to go back home for, a month isn’t enough, maybe two or three months and do a full immersion of the language and come back stronger.

MR:
Okay, so I am just going to ask you about the process in obtaining your citizenship [TRACK 1, 19:23]

VP:
Oh, okay [clears throat]. So I worked, I had a lot of jobs. I've always been busy, that’s just the way I am, that’s my personality. I can’t change it. If I like something I do it. If I don’t like it anymore, I stop. So, I do a lot of things. So, I was eligible for citizenship already a few years back and with elections coming up in 2016, I was encouraged to get my citizenship ASAP. So, I had an AMAZING friend that knew a lot about history, and his name is Will Walker. And he took time off his day for me to go and meet with him and just having him to teach me JUST the history that I need to learn for my test. Of course, he liked to expand to different battles that were not in the test but just because they are connected to other battles. It was very good, a lot of information. So basically, you sign up for your documents, you have to do your paperwork, you apply for the citizenship. They give you information on the website, questions that you will be asked. They give a written test—just a one sentence, an oral test—you know you have to say something, and then a few questions of history and civics. So, I did that. I went to the consul in Albany and to the officer. I did the test, I literally don’t remember [laughs] like besides they asked me “okay write ‘I pay taxes.’” And I wrote “I pay taxes.” And then he, at the end of all my questions and everything he said to me “well, congratulations, you know, you are now a citizen.” And they took my Green Card, and then you have to go against a judge. We went to Syracuse, and we were probably like a hundred people, different cultures, it was like a lot. I went with my mother-in-law, my husband, and my kid. And you have to, you know, put up your hand and say; you are presented by a lawyer to the judge saying, “these are people who want to be a citizen, do you approve their citizenship?” And they approve it, and they give you a certificate. I think it’s just a ceremony of you being welcomed to the country. And the judge, she was amazing. She was saying how proud, happy, you know that having these new community members as citizens in the country. And that was it. So, I am a citizen since, I think, July of 2016.

MR:
Just in time.

VP:
Yeah, just in time. And, yep, I’ve been a citizen. I don’t need my American passport anymore when I travel, Peruvian, sorry. I don’t need my Peruvian passport when I travel to Peru. I don’t need to make another different line than my kid and husband anymore. Because, as a resident you have different laws, especially because as a resident you don’t have an American passport, you have your country’s passport. And you need to keep renewing. So, yes, things are a little faster and different. And I can vote. And I have been voting, all the time, and the big difference between here and Peru is that in Peru by law you have to vote when you are eighteen when you have your ID. So, if you don’t vote you get fined. And you can’t do any documentation, you cannot cash a check, you cannot do any bank transactions if you don’t pay that fine. So, when you are eighteen and older, you have to vote until you are probably seventy or sixty-five when you are not, you can vote if you want to voluntarily vote, but you are not obligated. That’s something I don’t understand why how come it’s not like that here, because here people have the freedom of voting or not voting and there is just, you have to.

MR:
So, you have dual citizenship. How important is that for you to have dual citizenship – between?

VP:
In my country, you can have dual citizenship. So that means if I want to go to Peru and stay as long as I want to I can. If you, as an American, just go with your passport to visit Peru, you cannot stay more than 90 days. If you want to stay longer, you need to get a tourist visa. In my husband’s case, he wants to go longer than that and we want to live there for a year. I will have to go and make a special visa, residency for him because he’s not allowed. I will marry him in Peru one day [laughter]. I’m thinking an anniversary, we are already past ten years. So, maybe when we are like fifteen years maybe I will do a nice ceremony there and get married there to him.

MR:
Do the real thing [laughter] again.

VP:
Yes.

[END OF TRACK 1, 25:27]

[START OF TRACK 2, 00:00]

MR:
Okay, so, Veronica. How did you find yourself becoming more and more involved within the community here in Cooperstown?

VP:
Well, I think, I am very social. I like to be around people. I think, just, I think things came along that way. There was a Spanish Club built by other people. I love hosting parties and stuff like that, so I was able to make [various iterations?] of parties. Like Peruvian-style New Year’s Eve and at that time, we didn’t have Marianna. So, it was easy to commit myself to do certain things. Church, I would participate in whatever they wanted me to participate in because I was able to at the time. Tim and I, we like to do things together, but we also do things apart. So, it would not be a problem for me to do special events if I need to go somewhere. That’s how it happens. And knowing more people you get more involved in other activities. Right now, I do help certain organizations that are connected with what my daughter likes to do. So, I am involved with Otsego Area Rowing, which is a small non-profit that connects people who row in the area in Otsego Lake. Marianna was able to row a couple times in little sculls. Also, I am involved with another organization called Cooperstown Tennis where the goal is to try to give the opportunity of tennis to people who cannot afford a private lesson. So, we do this mostly during the summer, where you can do outdoor tennis.

MR:
So, did your experience at the country club affect your involvement or make you feel more in touch with the town?

VP:
Mmm, probably yes, I met more people that live her year-round. Yep, I met more people, yes, from the club and I still [am] in contact with some of them for other reasons, because they are year-round. This is a very small community. If you walk in town, you are going to meet people. And you’ll see them repeatedly, if you keep walking the same route and you do it at the same time. So, you will meet people. I feel like that was an easy way, how I know everybody. I have my oldest friend that actually went to Peru twice. And I met her. We cannot remember how we met, but we have known each other for over ten years now. And we are like “Where [did] we meet? How [did] we meet?” We don’t remember about that, but we have a beautiful friendship. And she came with us a couple times to Peru. So, I think it's just because you go around, and look and you see and you say hi. That’s something that’s also very common here, you walk around town, and people greet you. That’s something I never had in Peru, random people saying “hello.” But I think that’s the way you meet people here.

MR:
So, in the past you’ve worked with CGP on several community projects. Can you talk about those?

VP:
Yes, so that’s another thing, I don’t remember how I met Will Walker. But somehow, I got into “oh we are doing a Spanish dinner.” And of course, as soon as you say “Spanish dinner” even though I am not the best cook, in my family, my Peruvian family. I will try my best. I will be cooking, I will be building something, getting with the students at CGP and say “okay, this is the recipe, and this how we are doing it, and these are the games we normally have.” So, I participate in different dinners. And we were trying to do it more often, during the wintertime too. Something different to do during the cold season where you get a little bored. But I can’t remember how I met him, and I don’t remember how many years, but we have been doing it for a while. And, I actually did have a mini band with Will. Where he, because he also speaks in Spanish. Well, he plays the guitars and do the chorus, and I will be singing. And we would sing songs in Spanish. So yeah, we have, we have. I have a background in helping CGP before.

MR:
Do you remember what projects you’ve helped with? [TRACK 2, 5:45]

VP:
I'm pretty sure I helped with the community dinners that we have at CGP. The students would have to do a few research about culture, especially for those people who will come to the party. The Day of the Dead, I have helped with a couple of times. That’s mostly.

MR:
Do you enjoy sharing your culture?

VP:
Oh, yes, I love it. Oh, and actually I do have, there is a Spanish teacher at the high school. Her name is Anita Cleveland. And pre-Covid, she would call me and say, “Hey will you come over and talk to my students?” And I show them something. One time I taught them salsa. Another time I talked in Spanish and talked about my flag or my culture. Yes, I think anything that you can learn about other people, especially people that are living here is a benefit. Open your eyes to other things that are happening not only in your community but in the world. The one thing I talk to some CGP students a few years ago was that you never know where you are going to end up if you are going to school for museums. There are so many other cultures coming to that museum. So, it’s good for you to train how to treat and what to do with other cultures and races. And be able to be more open. Especially if you are a student that never left your state and you don’t see other people that are a little more different than you. And you need to get out there and do it now while you are at school. So, you get better about being more welcoming, and learn and be able to understand some types of traditions, and the way that people are. Before you get into the real world and work in a museum and then you have a cultural shock. [laughter]

MR:
So, in what other ways do you think you can bring the Latinx culture to Cooperstown? I know you had the Spanish club…

VP:
We have the Spanish club until COVID happened and then we did a Zoom. I was doing a Spanish get-togethers at the church on Sunday afternoons. We would teach something and then, we were inviting anybody who didn’t even speak Spanish just to get to learn something. As soon as COVID happened, and we had to shut everything down, we had some of them on Sundays through Zoom. It was very, very hard especially for kids. If things get better, and my schedule lets me do more things, I [will] definitely bring up a once a week get-together. I try to do things that will also help my daughter and how to feel about herself and her culture. At the beginning when she was very little, she didn’t want to learn Spanish. She didn’t want to hear it, she didn’t, she was only three or four. She was like “no Spanish, no Spanish.” And I think it’s because she didn’t see anything happening like that around her. She would go to [the] Brookwood [School], from 9-5. So, she would be all day at daycare speaking English. So, to come home and learn something else, it was just hard for her.

MR:
How do you think teaching Zumba and salsa has influenced your time here?

[TRACK 2, 9:44]

VP:
I think it has helped me with my workout. I had my daughter when I was almost forty, so I need to keep up with her. She’s seven and she’s very active. I love dancing, and there’s literally nowhere around here to dance. I have some American people dancing with me and I love it. I love the fact that they want to try something. Any move that you make is beautiful. It’s all your own way, who cares, you just have to feel it. And I do teach salsa, bachata, and merengue. I was teaching at the elementary school gym for the cotillion. So yes, I did a lot of stuff involving the Latin culture. And hopefully, we can start back [with] the cotillion soon. We will teach kids ballroom dance and three Latin dances. So, I will be in charge of teaching the Latin dances, very basic steps.

MR:
Are you aware of any Peruvian community in the region or near here that you are involved with?

VP:
We have a group that is only Latin, a Latin group. Most of our communications are through WhatsApp. That is something that here nobody uses. South America, Europe, and England we use a lot of the WhatsApp as a text message. So, we have a group there where we involve each other in any kind of events we have. We are mainly friends getting together, we don’t have anything per se Peruvian unless its Independence Day. Peruvian Independence Day we want to get together to celebrate, same as for any other country. My good friends are here, I have a friend that is from Mexico, I have friends that live in Cooperstown. I have Mexicans, and Peruvians. In Oneonta there is a lot more.

MR:
Have you seen that community grow since you've been here?

VP:
Yes, I noticed that many of them didn’t know each other. So, the group has been building up a little more. I do connect with other organizations farther from here, but in upstate New York. For me, it’s hard to go farther at this point. I try to embrace it here. If anybody wants to get together, we just try to do it. We always invite people who don’t speak Spanish just to get them to try food and dance.

MR:
You can get me to try food.

VP:
Yes, I will!

MR:
[whispering] Just give me a minute. What do you enjoy the most about being here right now, in our country, in Cooperstown?

VP:
What do I enjoy the most?

MR:
Yeah.

VP:
I think I am in the phase now where I really do things I like. I was able to grow here from babysitting, I don’t mind babysitting, you know that, babysitting and cleaning. To be able go back to work in what I went to school for. Do things that I like, and not things I need to do. I learn here that it doesn’t matter. You have to do things in the day that make you happy. At the end, nobody is here forever. So, you are better off enjoying. My husband’s philosophy is to do your retirement right now. And we try to live it. So, I am very, very grateful that I can combine work many times with pleasure, with being with my family. Tagging them along when I have to do something for work. So, if I have to do a photoshoot and they are able to be there, be the models, the talent. Spend a weekend in another town or county where we really enjoy doing things. I feel like at this point in my life I do things that come to my heart and make me happy. It doesn’t matter how much money I can make, it's not that. It’s how much you can really enjoy. And also half or more is about my daughter at this point because she is so little. So, I grew up now a new set of friends and they are all moms of Marianna’s friends. We actually like to be with each other. And I think that’s where my life is right now.

MR:
I am going to take something from when we talked a couple weeks ago. You said that when you got married, that there was a huge cultural difference between how you liked to do things and how your husband likes to do things. Do you just want to talk about that for a minute? [TRACK 2, 15:45]

VP:
Even though I learned English, my English wasn’t perfect to like be here and be fluent. I learn English every day, it never stops. My daughter keeps correcting me already on certain words. At the beginning it was a little bit of a language barrier. I think we learned to; we are very independent of each other. We give our space, but we are also able to do things together. I learned how to fish. I learned how to hunt. I learned a lot about the native fish in the area. I am very proud of what he does. We have certain differences, but I live in America, so I learn how to adjust. For example, in Peru we don’t have Santa Claus. We don’t have the Easter Bunny. We don’t have the tooth fairy per se; you know the tooth fairy. So, I learned that I have to just give my daughter the things that my husband thinks are good for her to have as child, these little dreams, and these little hopes. Especially because I don’t want my daughter to crash anybody else’s dreams and hopes [laughter]. So, we have to do certain changes in our lives. Like meaning I can’t go to Christmas time yet in Peru, because we don’t celebrate it that way. For us the major thing at Christmas time is the nativity. So, you can see rooms where they build paper hills with lots of houses and the nativity in the middle. That’s your major thing that you do at Christmas. Nativity and the music you listen to is religious, it’s all about Christ, and it’s all about Jesus. Here is the Christmas tree and Santa. And that Santa brings you presents that you pay for. So, there are things that I never, and we don’t celebrate Christmas on the 25th, we start celebrating it on the 24th. You eat almost around midnight time, you eat dinner, with your children at like eleven at night or whatever. At midnight on the 24th you all come out from your homes; you say “Merry Christmas” to your family. You go out the door and start saying “Merry Christmas” to your neighbors. And there’s a party. There are people in the streets with little lights, and we do have legally we can use fire- firecrackers, fireworks. Little ones. So, people will do that. I have to adjust to that, and not be able to open my present on the 24th and I have to start opening my present on the 25th. So yes, that is cool that things are changing. It’s hard yes, yes it's hard. It’s hard also to adjust to people in general, but when you have certain barriers. I feel like, the one thing that I personally think is that if you come to another country, you should learn some of that culture, you should embrace that culture too. You should be able to mingle with people of that country. It’s the same thing I would expect of people that visit my country. Is to learn something about my country, is to learn the language if it’s possible if they are living there for a while, you know? To be able to learn something about that country, because that is a respectful way to live. If you are visiting somebody’s house, you come and you be grateful for being there. I am grateful to be here. I am grateful to have what I have. I like to plan things here one way. When I go home, I just tell them “Please don’t talk about Santa, don’t talk about nothing.” I don’t want to confuse her. She lost one tooth one time when we were in Peru. So, the tooth fairy had to come all the way from America. And my parents were like “why are you doing this?” I’m like “this is how she is being raised.” She’s not being raised in Peru; she is being raised in America. And those are the little cultural things that we keep to her because that is how she is being raised here. So yes, the Tooth Fairy gave her a dollar and she was in Peru. She went all the way from the USA to Peru to give her a dollar and take her tooth. You know? So, yes.

MR:
I think this is going to be my last question. So, what would you say, or like tell someone, a young woman trying to find her—because you had to do that when you came to the United States—you were on your own, you had to find yourself and find your own way. So, what would you tell a young woman that was trying to do that same thing?

VP:
Well, you know, it's your own experience. The feeling of being out of your home and your comfort zone. The feel of freedom, full freedom because you are away from everybody, is sometimes a little overwhelming. I will say, be smart. Just pause before doing something that is going to change your life. Look at the pictures, look at what is going to happen later for the things that you want to do today. I told you I was a nanny for many years. Even though I said “Oh my god, I can't do this anymore, I want to do something with my brain. I want to be able to work.” Don’t just sit down and say “oh, I don’t want to do this.” No, go ahead and start looking. I was nannying but I was also looking if I could take another course and go to BOCES. I didn’t drive at the time; I didn’t drive for my five years living in Cooperstown. I was scared to death to hit a deer. I couldn’t. I couldn’t. I couldn’t. I couldn’t. My husband would drive me everywhere. I mean, the day I finally said, “I think I should drive” he was like “okay, let’s do this,” and I took a course. I feel like it was better to pay somebody $25 an hour and take my bus from Cooperstown to Oneonta. He would pick me up at the Oneonta bus stop. I would go to a car that had a second [brake pedal], something that would stop the car if it was an emergency with a “student” sign on the back. But I was able to learn properly, all of the rules that I need to learn to be able to get my license. So, don’t give up. But at the same time don’t be like whining about it. Just go look. And if you fail, who cares? It’s your own life. It’s your life, you can do what you want here. You just need to persevere. Take a road, “oh! that way- hmm I don’t like it anymore.” Change. How many people change their career when they are fifty? You need to make things to find a goal. f you don’t know, then what are you doing? One moment you were eighteen like me. I was seventeen when I got out of school and say, “oh my god, I don’t have a clue what I want to be in my life.” I took a break. But during the break, I did a little short career to learn how to do one thing or another. When it didn’t work, I went to college. But it doesn’t mean you have to stick with something if you don’t like it. But you have to be smart. If you are not 100% sure for something, and it’s a big commitment like big loans or stuff, just pause. You are better off looking at the options you have in life. Take a little break and find your way. And if you come from another country, take job opportunities first. When you have money in your pocket, you can make better decisions on what to study, where to go. Get a car. Put goals, put goals in your life. By half a year, I want to have a car. I’m going to save money, backtrack. If I need to make this much money, backtrack. I need to make this much per day, per week, per month. When you reach your goal, that is going help you to reach other goals. Make another goal. Six more months from now I am going to plan to do this. And if your goal changes? There is no harm. It’s your learning. So that’s what I would say.

MR:
Well, thank you for speaking with me today, Veronica. I really do appreciate it.

VP:
You’re welcome.

[END TRACK 2, 25:50]

Coverage

Cooperstown First Baptist Church

Cooperstown, NY

1974-2021

Creator

Morgan Reamy

Publisher

Cooperstown Graduate Program, State University of New York-College at Oneonta

Rights

Cooperstown Graduate Association, Cooperstown, NY

Format

audio/mpeg
24.4mB

audio/mpeg
24.8mB

image/jpeg
2224 x 1598 pixel

Language

en-US

Type

Sound

Image

Identifier

21-103

Abstract

Track 1, 19:23 - citizenship

Track 2, 5:45 - Cooperstown Graduate Program (CGP)

Track 2, 9:44 - Zumba

Track 2, 15:45 - culture

Item

Veronica Pokorny, November 10, 2021