Immigration from Lebanon to New York to Bell , California

Mohammed Hijazi

Period 4

3/14/2012

    Migration to a successful life         

                                                                                                                                               

           This is a photo of my father, Abbas Hijazi, and his first child my older brother, Youssef. My dad was first born in February the 14^th 1956. He was born in a village called Yaroun, Lebanon. He has always been a hard working man trying to make it out alive in this world with great success. His hard working efforts brought him to the states to try his best making money and providing a family he can live with.

When he was younger, he used to wake up around 5 o’clock in the morning so that he can Pray his dues and finish work as early as he can so that he would be able to have the rest of the day off. He was getting too sick of his job so he decided to go to a school near the village and help out there. “Tobacco cultivation became a state monopoly started under the Ottoman Empire in 1884”, as shown in the article in land and people. My father started working with my grandpa cropping tobacco around 1966. That is about 82 years apart since people started having this kind of job. In the South, tobacco is called “the crop of steadfastness”, which means firmly fixed in place.

Once he started working with the school, he showed that he was smart enough to teach a religious class reading the Quran to students and explaining everything to them. He did this until he made enough to fly overseas and start living in the states. He really loved his job but as low as it was paying, he knew this wouldn’t be enough for him so he had to stop and look for another job. He then soon left to America.

 He landed in New York City. Things were very complicated for him over there, so he decided to come to Los Angeles where my uncle Ali was working and help him out with his store. Working in that store helped my father learning all about business, picking up his Spanish language. He learned English right here in Bell High Night school. Having all this caused my dad to make his own business, head out to Lebanon, marry the women he promised to marry, and raised his whole family here since the 1980’s.