It all begins in a group of Islands called the Azores, back in nineteen-sixty six. The Azores is a group of nine islands in the middle of Atlantic Ocean, off the cost of Europe. The Azores is the most western point of land that belongs’ to Europe. That’s where I was born, in the most southern island that belongs to the Azores; the island is called Santa Maria. Santa Maria was the first island in the Azores to be discovered back around 1424. But after thirteen months, my parents moved to the most northwestern island call Flores. Flores, means Flowers. That’s where I spent most of my childhood with my brothers until the age of eight. Especially with my brother Rui, who has just past away a few years ago. He was a year and a half younger then I. You see, I'm the oldest out of seven, so my brother Rui and I were close. We did things together growing up on the island. I had two other brothers but they were very young at the time. Rui and I went to school together for a few years. We went fishing with our dad often and on Halloween we made our own masks out of cardboard. I also remember going to the beach and picnics with the family around the lakes. We had a hell of a good time. Understand that the island has many different kinds of lakes, more than I have ever have seen since. They vary from deep to long and many different colors and even white water lakes that look like they're made of milk. This is what I remember from my youth. But around 1973 - 1975, my aunt asked my parents to come to the United States. My family talked about it and agreed to do it. So they completed all the paper work to come to the United States. But they where denied several times. On the third time, it took so long, my dad said "To hell with it all". So he bought a taxicab and started to work with it in his free time. The day after my father bought the cab, the paper work was approved. They got all the necessary paper work, and completed everything that had to be done. My mother wrote to my aunt to tell her that we were leaving on March 8 1975 with the time and flight number and to meet us at Logan airport in Boston. My parents arrived in the Boston airport march, 8 1975 with five children aged from one to eight, not knowing a word of English. But that was not the problem. The problem was no one was there waiting for us. That’s right, no one. They tried to call the house, but nobody answered the phone.  If you could only picture how my parents felt at that moment in time. We were too young to realize what was going on. But my dad being a very resourceful man told us to wait while he looked around. My dad came back very happy. He told us he had found someone that spoke Portuguese! We had to go to providence, Rhode Island, so we took a cab to the Greyhound bus stop. The bus took us to Providence it took about one hour, maybe a little longer. So after arriving in providence, we took a cab to my aunt's house. But there was one problem. Nobody was home. Yes, we were one step closer, but what now? One of my parents knocked on a neighbor’s house. Thank god they spoke Portuguese, and knew who my aunt was. They told us to come in with our luggage and sit down and wait while they tried to get a hold of them. About thirty minutes later, all the family was there. We were all happy to see each other. They asked why we didn't write to them telling them that we were to coming. Three days after we arrived the letter showed up with all that good news that we were coming to America. So life begins for us in America. Dad went to work in a factory. Now he was not too happy working in a factory, because he was lock up all day. That’s not how my dad lived his life in the Azores. But on the other hand, my mom never work before. In the Azores she had someone to cook and clean her house at lease once a week for her. That does not mean that we only ate once a week or the house got clean once a week. My mom liked to work because she liked to see her name on the paycheck. If I'm not mistaken, it was about seventy cents or so per hour. About six month after we arrived, my dad said we were moving back to the Azores. Mom and dad talk about it. They agreed to try it here for another six months. Now a year went by. My mother asked, my dad to go back. His replied was, “forget about it. I'm going to open my own business". It’s going on thirty-four years now in the U.S.A. Thank you all and have a nice day!!!!!!