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Humans of A
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.”
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
“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.”
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.
“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].”
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.