How did you get here?
Every family has a story, and every story starts somewhere. For many families in the United States, those origins begin in other countries. Immigration has brought many families to the U.S. throughout the country's history.
If your family immigrated to the U.S. at any time in the past, tell MPR the story that brought you here.
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Vicenta Valero, from Spain to "the winter tundra"
Where she's from: Originally from Spain but immigrated to El Salvador with family while youngWhy she left: Fled El Salvador around 1980 due to the outbreak of Civil WarWhere she went: Los AngelesWhy she went there: Drawn to and received help from family"Minnesota is where I've lived the most in my entire life.""I came to this country because I had no choice. . . . I was lucky and was able to get out before enduring what many of my fellow Salvadorans had to live through." -
Jody Scott Olson's grandmother became a U.S. immigrant at age 6 and a U.S. citizen at 106
Where her family's from: The Volga region of RussiaWhy they left: Ethnic Germans in Russia fled in the face of civil unrest around 1905-1906Where they went: Arrived in Texas, then to Colorado, Kansas, and finally WisconsinWhy they went were they did: Migrant farmers following work"They lost everything they owned. Everything they spent hundreds of years building They had to start over as migrant farm workers. . . . They eventually bought their own farm, land still owned by the family today, on a dirt road named after the family, Reichel Road.""I feel deeply connected to refugees. People facing terror in the face of war or at the hand of government, with nowhere to go."
Olson's grandparents and mother. What is you or your family’s immigration story? Share it with MPR. https://t.co/tdxMaFs7cU #tellmpr #immigrationstories pic.twitter.com/0Qtng4vg3m
— MPR News (@MPRnews) March 8, 2017
