Center for New Americans
A Community-Based Education and Resource Center for Immigrants and Refugees in Western Massachusetts
Students, teachers and volunteers from the Center for New Americans meet at La Veracruzana on Main Street in Northampton to watch the inauguration Tuesday. Restaurant owner Martin Carrera is shown in the center.
photo: Sam Verran
Daily Hampshire Gazette
Newcomers to country take in inauguration
By Laurie Loisel
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
NORTHAMPTON - The dozen people clustered at the back of the Academy of Music watching Barack Obama assume the presidency may not have understood every nuance of the historic speech he gave following the oath. They are new to this country and still learning the language.
"I have a good feeling with him. He more than just a president," said Sukjai Hotchkiss, 38, a resident of Florence. A native of Thailand, Hotchkiss has lived in this country, she says proudly, for two years and five months.
Among the group were new immigrants from Mexico, Japan, Thailand, Nicaragua, Korea, Tibet and Costa Rica, all students at the Center for New Americans. They attended the Academy's screening of the inauguration at the invitation of Northampton Mayor Clare Higgins.
The mayor set aside 12 tickets to the showing when it was clear they were disappearing fast, and before she took to the stage to welcome the crowd to the Academy's screening, Higgins introduced herself to this small group and thanked them for coming.
"It's a unique United States trait when we go from one president to the next president," she said. "We have a history of it being peaceful."
"So," Higgins said, smiling broadly, "welcome."
Minutes later, when she addressed a raucous capacity crowd at the Academy, Higgins said: "There are 300 million people whose lives are going to change today."
Skarlleth Cuevois-Higgins, a Huntington resident who studies at the center, seemed visibly moved by Obama's speech, which she said made her think change is possible, not just because of what Obama said, but who he is.
"I trust him. He's a really great man," she said. "I also think he's a good president."
But the fact that Obama, his team and indeed the entire country have a long hard road ahead was not lost on her. "It's big work for Barack Obama, but he's intelligent and he has the conditions for change," she said.
Cuevois-Higgins and some of her fellow students from the center joined hundreds of others to watch the peaceful transfer of power on the Academy's big screen, while other students from the center watched on television at La Veracruzana restaurant on Main Street, where owner Martin Carrera threw a private party for them.
Laura Porter, who teaches English at the center, located in the D.A. Sullivan Square building at the corner of South and Main streets, said her students took great interest in the election and in Obama's candidacy.
In their hour-long class before they walked across the street to the Academy, she said they addressed the day's significance.
"Today we talked about what people hope to see change with Obama as president," Porter said.
Among their answers: the economy, health care, immigration policies and access to higher education.
Porter said she often uses current events as a way to teach her students English, so the inauguration seemed a fitting part of their lesson plan.
Mie Williams, 35, from Japan, now lives in Northampton. She came here from Canada, where she was studying in Vancouver until she met her husband on the Internet and moved to the city.
"It's great to be part of this historical event," she said amid the revelry at the Academy, just before Obama took his oath. Later she snapped pictures of Obama on the Academy movie screen.
She said she remembered watching television at a friend's house on election night and then later seeing people out on the streets of Northampton honking their horns in excitement as she drove home after results were announced. She believes the Obama presidency had a certain inevitability about it.
"I knew it was going to happen, that Barack would win," she said. "And it really happened. The time came."
Despite that inevitability, she said, she was amazed on election night. And even more so on Inauguration Day.
"It's almost unbelievable," said Williams, not yet a U.S. citizen.
"The United States has a black president," said Williams. "Who could believe such a thing?"
reprinted with permission of Daily Hampshire Gazette