Oral history interview with Jhoana Monroy-Espinoza

Collection

Identifier: SR12275

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This oral history interview with Jhoana Monroy-Espinoza was conducted by Sankar Raman on February 5, 2018. The interview was recorded for The Immigrant Story, an organization that documents and archives the stories of immigrants and refugees in the United States. In this interview, Espinoza discusses her early life in Pachuca, Mexico, and the journey to the United States in 1997. She talks about life as an undocumented immigrant in Beaverton, Oregon, including her education and the racial discrimination she and her family faced. She then talks about becoming a teenage parent and refocusing on her education. She talks about marrying her partner and being denied a green card due to her undocumented status; the deportation of some of her family members; and applying for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. She talks about studying at Portland Community College and her plans for the future. She closes the interview by discussing the stress of living with undocumented status, the systemic racism in the United States, and her work with the Dream Center.

Dates

Creation: 2018 February 5

Creator

Monroy-Espinoza, Jhoana, 1991- (Interviewee, Person)
Raman, Sankar (Interviewer, Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Joint copyright for this interview is held by the Oregon Historical Society and The Immigrant Story. Use is allowed according to the following statement: In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/

Biographical note

Jhoana Monroy-Espinoza was born in Pachuca, Mexico, in 1991. Her family came to the United States in 1997 and they settled in Beaverton, Oregon. She later applied for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which provides protections to some undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children. She enrolled at Portland Community College and was director of the Dream Center, a project affiliated with PCC. She earned a bachelor’s degree in social work from Portland State University in 2020. She has two children.

Extent

51.2 Megabytes (1 online resource (1 audio file (55 min., 25 sec.))) : MPEG-4

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Oral history interview with Jhoana Monroy-Espinoza conducted by Sankar Raman on February 5, 2018, for The Immigrant Story. Espinoza was born in Mexico and became a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. She attended Portland Community College and Portland State University.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of The Immigrant Story, July 2020 (Lib. Acc. RL2020-018).

Publication note

An article about Jhoana Monroy-Espinoza, "In Limbo O’Er the Land of the Free" by Sankar Raman, was based on this interview and published on The Immigrant Story website at https://theimmigrantstory.org/in-limbo/.