NOCTILUCA Spring 2016 Vol.XXI Issue 11

Humans of A

Liliam Ocampus, Cuba “My name is Liliam, I am 16, and I was born in Via Clara, Cuba, but I lived in Havana, Cuba for 7 years. “[In Havana] I lived in an apartment. “The problem is, you have no money to go

“My family, my fa- ther, and my mother got ap- proved to be political refugees. My brother does not fall under the status of a political refu- gee, but he is here too. “It took us a year to be approved. My dad had tried before but didn’t get approved. This is the second time he tried. “Appleton North is pretty diverse, there are a lot of different cultures. I feel at ease here. I don’t feel discrim- inated here. “I would like for peo- ple to know that I have an edu- cation. We are very similar. We are not exactly same because I come from a different back- ground and different culture so I have different values, but it doesn’t mean that I am much different from others, the other people here. I don’t want peo- ple to think that because I am from a different country I am less educated. When I came here, I thought I would not be able to fit into the system. Mostly, I thought it would be very hard. I feel like I can defi- nitely [handle school].”

anywhere, but there are places you can go for free. We went dancing a lot. “I arrived here May 20, 2015. I spent a day in Miami, and then I came to Appleton. We are political refugees, and we were told to go to Appleton, assigned by the World Relief Program. Po- litical refugees are people who have a choice, having been in disagreement with the political regime in Cuba, or the govern- ment. “These are the people that participate in protests and all kinds of manifestations of your disagreement, openly. You can apply to be a political refugee, and if you are approved, they bring you here and assign you a place.

“In my case, I am not a political refugee. I came here fleeing poverty and vio- lence, because it is a really violent situation in Hondu- ras. It is not safe. My mom and I came with my little sis- ter trying to flee the violence in Honduras and look for bet- ter opportunities here. “It’s mostly, like, a kind of violence. Gangs that are absolutely out of the law, but they have power, they have weapons, there is a lot of drug trafficking and narco- war. There are drug lords that have a lot of trouble and no one is safe.” “It is very hard to make friends as a community because of the language bar- rier. I want people to know that I am a good per- son. It is really hard to make friends, but there are a lot of good people in this area who help you a lot.”

Vera Meza, Honduras “My name is Vera Meza, and I come from Hon- duras; I am 16 years old. I was born in Juticalpa. Like a small city, there are many places you can visit that are nice. There are rivers. No beaches, but lots of rivers and hills and high places you can go up and see the whole view of the city. I used to go to school, and after spend time at my grandmother’s house. I used to go out a lot with my friends.” “I arrived here July 4, 2014, and spent one day in Texas, and then I came here on a bus.”

The Noctiluca had the opportunity t view various international students, fellow North students would be able their incredible stories that brought t this seemingly distant little hub in Ap Wisconsin. These are the stories of who shared.