The Journey to Texas By Brooks Harrison and Ana Lopez

Ana's Story:

Texas has been my home for 15 years so far, it has changed my perspective of how I used to live. I was born in a small country called El Salvador in Central America, where I lived for four years. While I love my country and its culture, I have grown to love Texas just as much. How I first got here is a blur to me, since I was incredibly young when my family made the trip to Texas. My dad decided to take us to the United States for a better future and better academics. He first got us resident documents for my mom and me. After some months, we carried it out and came to Houston, Texas.

We started living with my grandmother at first since my mom had barely found a job and my dad didn't have his own home yet. I got to visit some nice places as a kid, like an aquarium, zoo, and even some insane waterparks. There are many things I like about Texas. Texas has many things I've enjoyed including the food and culture revolving around Hispanics like myself. Many of the restaurants around my area have things I used to eat in my own country. Not just my own culture but many other Hispanics and other races have many things in communities that spread their culture, music, and food around. As much as I love Texas and its communities, there are sometimes people who bring you down. Some months after I started school, for some reason I started school at an early age with pure English rather than Spanish, it was tough as a little kid who only spoke Spanish, but in the end, I got to learn another language and become bilingual. However, in many instances, I have been misjudged for my ethnicity in my own community, even my parents. One personal experience I had when I first came here was at school, I went to mostly an all English-speaking school and it was difficult at the time but what made it especially difficult were the teachers who acted very disrespectful towards me for not speaking English. As teachers, they should have been more understanding. Many people overlooked the situation and it did not get any better. I was not allowed to speak Spanish at school and that changed my accent and the way I spoke Spanish. This experience was very changing for my experience in Texas because I felt robbed of my own native language. There have been many instances where my mom and dad had the same issues and it affected them as well. After some years, when I finished elementary school, I decided to go back to speaking Spanish at school and in public places. It was a hard decision to make at the time because I did not want people to look at me weirdly or think wrong of me. As time went by the community grew to be more accepting of Spanish speakers and it was a great push for many people since they felt they didn't need to hide their native language anymore. This was my personal experience here in Houston, Texas that changed my way of thinking and perspective of the world we live in.

Sources: Noel Lopez (Father of Ana Lopez), Rosibel Lopez (Mother of Ana Lopez)

Brooks' Story:

My name is Brooks Harrison and I am a fourth-generation Texan. My family arrived to Texas in 1929. My great grandmother, Carrie Lee Palmour Harrison traveled from the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, where she was born and raised, to Abilene, Texas in 1929. Carrie went graduated from and played collegiate basketball at Oklahoma Presbyterian College, now Oklahoma State University, in 1928. After graduating from OPC Carrie met her future husband, John Weldon Harrison. The two would soon get married and move to Abilene, Texas. Once settled in Abilene, Carrie became a teacher at a local school, while John used his engineering degree from LeTourneau University to become a cotton engineer. Carrie and John Harrison built fine lives for themselves in Abilene, both making enough money to live comfortably. One year later, on August 2, 1930, Carrie and John Harrison had their first child together, John Ray Harrison. John Ray would be the first of four children between Carrie and John, as soon as Robert, Hattie Ann, Ben, and Don Harrison would soon be born. Carrie and John would raise their children in Abilene, where John Ray, Robert, Hattie Ann, and Ben would attend high school. They lived in Abilene until 1952, when John Harrison received a job offer to work at NASA in Pasadena, Texas. So, in 1952, Carrie, John, John Ray, Robert, Hattie Ann, Ben, and Don loaded up and began their new lives in Pasadena, Texas. Upon arriving in Pasadena, John Harrison began his engineering job at NASA, while Carrie stayed home to help the children and raise Don, who was only 12 years old at this time. Similar to the lives Carrie and John had built for themselves in Abilene, the Harrisons were able to live comfortably and happy in Pasadena. A few years later, when Don turned 14, he enrolled at Pasadena High School, where he would play on the baseball team and be a part of the 1957 State Championship winning team. At this same time, the lives of John Ray and Ben had also been changing rapidly. Ben was selected to play for the Houston Buffs, a baseball team in Houston that was the minor league affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals organization. John Ray built a campaign and ran for Mayor of Pasadena, where he was successfully elected mayor. Carrie was extremely proud of her children's accomplishments and made sure to always let them know just how proud she was. After Ben's baseball career ended, he became the business manager at IUOE Local 347, a labor union located in Texas City, Texas, which would go on to become one of the largest labor unions in the state of Texas. After graduating high school at Pasadena High School and college at Texas Southern University, Don would soon follow in John Ray's footsteps into the political scene in Pasadena, becoming a city councilman for District C in Pasadena. However, tragedy struck in 1989 when John Weldon Harrison, the husband of Carrie and father of John Ray, Robert, Hattie Ann, Ben, and Don, had died. This hit the Harrison family hard, as their father had always been a role model for the children and the main source of income for the family. Carrie Lee Palmour Harrison would survive the next 11 years without her husband until sadly, a terrible battle with cancer would take her life on October 17, 2000. This has been the story of my family's move to the great state of Texas and the lives which they built for themselves.

Sources: Brooks T. Harrison (Father of Brooks Harrison, Son of Ben Harrison), Ronnie Harrison (Brooks Harrison's 2nd Cousin, Son of Don Harrison), John Ray Harrison Jr. (Brooks Harrison's 2nd Cousin, Son of John Ray Harrison)

Hard Work to Live a Better Life

One of the key comparisons between both stories is the hard work that our families endured in order to create better lives for themselves here in Texas.

For Ana's family, her father had to collect documents to ensure their residency, and then upon arriving in Texas, had to quickly find a place to live. Ana's mother started immediately looking for jobs and looking where they could enroll Ana to receive the greater education that they had always wanted. They did all this while not being able to speak very much English, showing the resilience and drive Ana's family had.

For Brooks' family, Carrie Harrison had to find a job as a school teacher while John Harrison had to find an engineering job in order to support his wife and allow them to have a roof over their heads. Brooks' family truly showed their drive and determination when in 1952, John and Carrie Harrison packed up both themselves and their five children and moved to Pasadena so that John could pursue a job that would better allow him to provide for the needs of his family.

Both families had struggles and faced challenges when moving to Texas, but with their will and determination to create better lives for themselves and their families, they were successful.

Better Education Was the Goal

Another comparison that can be made between these two stories is that both families cared very much about getting the best education for their children.

For Ana's family, this was one of the main reasons that her family came to Texas. Ana's family knew about the schooling in El Salvador and felt that the education in Texas would allow Ana to have more success in the future when compared to the education she would have received elsewhere.

For Brooks' family, education had always been important. With Carrie Lee and John Harrison both graduating from college, they believed education was key for success. Because of this, they wanted to give their children the best education possible, so they enrolled their children in Abilene High School. Thanks to John and Carrie Lee's push to make sure their children were receiving the best possible education, all five of their children would go on to graduate from college.

Both families valued education and wanted to put their children in the best situation to promote future success. Because of their passion for education and wanting the best for their children, they were successful in doing this.

Tragedy Strikes

The final comparison that can be made between these two stories is the tragedies that both families had to face. There were many struggles for both families.

For Ana's family, Ana had to face bullying and criticism from both teachers and students when she began schooling in Texas, due to the fact that she did not speak English when she first arrived in Texas. This affected Ana and caused her to become self-conscious about speaking her native language. After finishing elementary school, Ana successfully overcame this issue by making the brave decision to speak her native language of Spanish as she pleased, choosing to ignore the criticism and bullying. Because of her brave decision, Ana successfully overcame this issue.

For Brooks' family, a tragedy occurred in 1989 when John Harrison, the husband of Carrie Harrison and the main source of income for the family, tragically passed. This affected the Harrison family immensely as John Harrison had always been a role model for the children and had always provided for the family. But, by coming together and helping each other, the Harrison family was able to overcome this tragic loss and help to support Carrie Harrison through her final years. While this was a tough blow to the family, they were able to successfully overcome this tragedy.

Both families faced tragedy, but by persevering and working through these tragedies, they were able to successfully overcome these struggles.

Conclusion

While both families have very different stories on how they arrived to the great state of Texas, there are many aspects that are shared. This shows that no matter how different we believe we are from one another, we can all come together and share our stories with each other. Whether it is a situation like Ana's family traveling a long journey from El Salvador, or Brooks' family where it is a quick trip from Oklahoma, there are just some things that will never change. If we all shared our stories and found the true connections between each other, the world would be a much happier place. This project was extremely inciteful and allowed connections to be made that without it, would have never been discovered.