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The New American Dreamers
Story by Jane Gordon | Photo by Julie Bidwell
 Benjamin Franklin fretted about the huge influx of immigrants to America after the Revolution. “Unless the stream of these people can be turned away from this country to other countries,” he said, “they will soon outnumber us so that we will not be able to save our language or our government.” One hundred years later, the New York poet Emma Lazarus, herself the product of Portuguese Sephardic Jews, wrote a far more tolerant salve to address the worries surrounding immigration. Her poem, which continues to grace the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, was a resounding welcome to the millions of immigrants who arrived in the United States:
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Another 100 hundred years have passed since Lazarus wrote her lines, and immigrants to the United States still see in their visions a land of opportunity and dreams. To make those dreams a reality, the four featured here have embraced an ethic of hard work as a path to success. Halima Sarwar brought her individualistic brand of Afghanistani cooking to town; Raja Arabolu built relationships that helped him open his own company; Renata Kirejczyk became an entrepreneur in children’s clothing; and Andrei Brel is an executive who, with his wife, also owns a new business on New Britain Avenue. Their stories are compelling examples of how immigrants have shaped American life, just as life in the United States has continued to shape them.
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Halima Sarwar
Native country: Afghanistan
Proprietor, Shish Kebab House of Afghanistan
When I was a kid in Afghanistan, we had a good life there. My father used to work for the government. But after the Russian invasion, we couldn’t stay. My father was put in jail. He had a friend who worked in the government who helped him get out.
My father sent my brother to live with a friend in Colchester in 1981 because of the Russian invasion. He didn’t want my brother, who was 18, to have to join the army. My family followed later.
We had always heard about the U.S., what a great country it was, and we loved the way people had their freedom here. I was 14 years old when I left Afghanistan. My father picked West Hartford because of the school system. We had an Afghani community here, and being with Afghani families was important to him. He spoke Farsi, we spoke Farsi.
None of us spoke the language when we got here, and that was very hard, especially when we were trying to rent a house in West Hartford. But we did find a place, and we were very happy after that.
When we first got here, my father opened a franchise, Chicken Delight, on Albany Avenue in Hartford. I used to work there part-time while I went to school. He opened Shish Kebab House of Afghanistan [in Hartford] in 1989. In 2002, he moved to California, and I decided it was time to move to a better, more convenient place, so we moved the restaurant to West Hartford Center. Business is very good. We love West Hartford. I am a citizen. I don’t remember when I became one, it seems so long ago. I’m married with four children: 20, 19, and two little ones, a 4-year-old and a 3-year-old. I think the most important part of the culture is the language, and I speak Farsi with my kids at home. My kids’ teacher told me it would be easy for the kids to speak English later on. My oldest son speaks very good English and Farsi, and that’s why I try to keep up the same with my family. My husband is now the vice president of the Afghan Society of Connecticut. We have dinners, and on special occasions we get together to eat and celebrate. The kids learn about our culture.
I went back to Afghanistan in 2006, 25 years after I left. I felt like I was a tourist there, and that was shocking. When I came back here, I appreciated it more. People don’t appreciate it here, but we do. We have seen the other side. In 1992, I went to India. I came back and I said, ‘There’s nowhere like here.’ Life is good here.
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Raja Arabolu
Native country: India
Owner and principal, R Agency, an insurance and financial services firm
Even though I love India, it is crowded with teeming millions and it was very chaotic growing up there. That was one of the reasons why, as a youngster, I kept looking to see where I could go. I wanted to leave because I like a sense of order. In India, progress was slow. If you want to get somewhere, you need a lot of help and connections. Almost everything seems to work via bribe system. In America, if you work hard and smart, obstacles are easily crossed over.
My sister, who is a doctor, left India to go to America in 1977. She was my guiding light. A lot of Indian doctors were migrating at that time, and still are. She had no family in America. She started working as an intern at the Nassau County Medical Center on Long Island. I arrived Sept. 3, 1980. I remember arriving at JFK, and she was late because she wanted to buy a welcome cake, and I stood there saying to myself, ‘Gosh I’m all alone.’ I was just short of 24.
My sister took me to large department stores; I had never seen such large stores. That was truly amazing and overwhelming. She took me to eat at a pizza grinder place in her attempt to introduce me to new food, which was kind of messy for me. She was heartily laughing at me as I tried to eat an eggplant grinder with cheese, and it was going all over my beard.
My father also influenced me. He worked for the United Nations when I was 16, and he was posted to Manila, Philippines, where I visited my parents. Years later on, he was posted to the Middle East, and I stopped there, too, on my way to my dreamland – USA.
I attended Delhi University and graduated with a bachelor’s in English literature. I came to Connecticut to do my post-graduate studies at the University of Hartford, where I got my M.B.A. in finance, marketing and international business. I rented rooms in different homes over the time of my studies. Although I spoke English well and didn’t have a heavy accent, I speak more like an American today. I trained myself to deliver my speech and diction to be understood with ease.
In India, I was afforded many comforts of life. I didn’t have to work. Here I was working at the school cafeteria doing very menial tasks. I was appreciating and learning from that. I had never had to do that. I said to myself, ‘This is good, very good for me.’ My willingness to jump in, I believed, was a great character-building experience. I am a resident alien. That’s what a
green card holder is described as. I am seriously considering citizenship because the world has changed a lot. I married an American woman, and I have two children, and this is my home. I’m not going anywhere.
It’s difficult, though, to maintain an Indian identity. I was raised Hindu. My wife is half-Irish and half-Swedish and was raised Catholic; her mother came from County Kerry [in Ireland]. We celebrate and acknowledge Christian holidays. I have assimilated into the culture fully. We do celebrate Diwali, too – the Indian festival of lights – so the children have some idea of my background. But it’s very difficult for me, time not permitting, to deliver my side of the culture.
I still miss parts of growing up in India, and part of that is food-related. But this country offers you the opportunity to succeed unhampered. I love it here. I totally love it. I’m very happy I came here with no regrets, and I love being here from many different aspects. It’s clean. It’s orderly. I have had the opportunity to pursue what I wanted to do. A good niche for me was afforded through my business – an insurance agency – where I take care of people. That is a very gratifying experience. I pinch myself as my family and business prosper and grow. An American dream come true.
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Renata Kirejczyk
Native country: Poland
Proprietor, KUBOOS – A Children’s Boutique
My sister has been a big influence in my life. Her decision to come to the United States for a year on a student exchange program and study the English language was the main reason I came. She had such a great time visiting the states and studying, I decided it would be a good experience for me, too. I did meet my future husband here, which was a motivating factor!
I am not a citizen. However, I am considering applying for citizenship because I started a family here and my future is now in the United States. From day one, whenever I speak with people, I let them know that I’m Polish. I am very proud to be from Poland and I use my heritage to maintain this identity. My culture holds many deeply rooted traditions that have beautiful meanings. With this respect, my family here celebrates the holidays in Polish tradition. The United States is a great country, but because there are so many different nationalities here, it becomes very easy for people to adopt new values rather than maintain their traditional ones.
My mother, sister, relatives and friends are all back in Poland, and I miss them very much. I left right after finishing my university studies and ended up staying here. I have met a few special friends along the way and hope to keep them close to me but what has been most supportive in making this transition has been my husband and twin boys. They keep me focused and make me very happy to be here! The birth of my twin boys has been inspirational. Second to that was the opportunity to start my own business, KUBOO’S – A Children’s Boutique. It was through my boys that I ventured into children’s fashions. My sister and mother had sent the boys some clothing that I couldn’t find anywhere around here. After some investigation, my husband and I starting importing and retailing these unique European fashions for babies and kids. A short time later, we opened a store in West Hartford Center. I didn’t realize it at first, but I have a real passion for my business. It’s been very rewarding and inspiring to offer these special products to the U.S. market.
When I used to think about the U.S.A, I thought about Florida, California, Las Vegas, New York City, etc., where everything is so iconic. However, I have to say, Connecticut is nothing like that. Everything is much more laid back and smaller than the iconic places, so it is a bit similar to my hometown back in Poland. Also, the United States was viewed as a symbol of a way to earn easy money. And although there are many more opportunities here, if you want something you still have to work very hard for it.
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Andrei Brel
Native country: Belarus
President and executive director, Juniper House adult day care
Owner, with wife Zhanna, of Elmwood Kitchen, provider of gourmet meals to seniors
I grew up in Minsk. When I was 31, I was a construction engineer, and when Gorbachev and perestroika (restructuring) came, I started to do commercial construction because it was allowed. I had two children, though, and I calculated that they had a better chance for safety and education in the United States. I was thinking about their futures. The stereotype of Russia is that of the Russian mafia and the government, and I never knew what would happen tomorrow. Instability is a big problem there.
My father came to the United States in 1978 by himself and was living in West Hartford. My mother had died. I came here because he was here. I, my wife, and my two children are now all citizens.
Language was barrier No. 1 for me. Culture shock was No. 2. Everything was different – food, clothes, our apartment. We couldn’t find jobs, and I was trying to find any job I could. I interviewed for a warehouse job and the manager said I was overqualified. I couldn’t get a management job because I didn’t speak English very well.
My wife learned how to do nails and became a nail technician at Westfarms. She worked nights and weekends, which wasn’t easy for our family. Ten months after we arrived, I found a job with the state of Connecticut as an eligibility worker in the Department of Income Maintenance, now the Department of Social Services. I got lucky. Sometimes in my job, I was needed to translate for others. This helped me to improve my language skills. All the while, I was taking English classes.
We speak Russian at home. It is a goal that my children read and understand Russian. A lot of my friends continue to do Russian things, but otherwise we have embraced all things American. Thanksgiving is our favorite holiday, because it is a holiday of immigrants.
Before we came here, I think we thought that everything was beautiful here, and everyone was wealthy, and life was easy. We learned you have to work very hard to achieve your goals. Not everyone – not even in this country – is successful. I saw people in my state job who were on welfare, people who were unemployed and homeless.
But our family life here proves that this is a country of opportunity. We bought a house in Simsbury in 1997. If you work hard, and pursue your goals, if you get an education, it’s unbelievable what you can achieve here. I finished my master’s degree in social work at the University of Connecticut, and it wasn’t easy, but I had a lot of support. People looked at us as newcomers and tried to help us. The Russian community helped. I have nothing but good impressions of the United States.
I have a 20-year-old son who is a sophomore at Marist College, and a 24-year-old daughter who graduated Hobart and William Smith Colleges and is a graduate student in school psychology at the University of Hartford. We are going to celebrate 15 years here, and look at us. We have good jobs. And the kids – I’m very confident about their future.
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