Dania Ramirez Quotes

I think being an immigrant makes me overly optimistic.

The immigrant experience had a profound effect on me. It taught me the importance of hard work and the value of being entrepreneurial.

Coming from the Philippines to the U.S. did shape me in that it gave me perseverance.

As an immigrant, I learned by watching other people.

Well-meaning Europeans sometimes argue that unlike the U.S., their countries are traditionally 'homogeneous' and have little experience with immigration.

The immigrant experience in 'Ilustrado' was only a small part of what I intended to be a broader look at the Filipino experience, even if that broader look was itself merely a specific perspective.

Rather than be asked to abandon one's own heritage and to adapt to the mores of the new country, one was expected to possess a treasure of foreign skills and customs that would enrich the resources of American living.

America is remarkable, don't you think so? When I came to Washington, I was twelve years old. I spoke English with an English accent. It was assumed that it would go on in that way.

For decades, Indians have immigrated to the United States, joined our communities, and raised their families while maintaining their cultural heritage.

I want to deal with somebody who comes from another country to the United States and has a family that comes. I don't care if it's a black family from Jamaica or a Hispanic family from Mexico. These issues need to be dealt with, but they need to be dealt with in the entertaining way.

Immigrants want to change our values and our way of life.

Anyone who comes out of Brazil at a young age and comes over to Europe has got to have a big heart and a big personality.

As a child, it was really hard because I'd be thrown into a new school and have to make new friends, or I'd sit in class for months without speaking the language, but as I got older, I welcomed the possibility of discovering new cultures and languages.

I am proud to be the granddaughter and daughter of immigrants who were brave enough to leave their homes and come to a whole new world with a different language and culture and immerse themselves fearlessly to start a better life for themselves and their families.

I reflect back on my mom's journey, someone who was an immigrant to Canada and came not knowing anything and figured it out tremendously. I reflect back on that a lot.

I see the American experience as being defined by the immigrant paradigm of rupture and renewal: rupture with the old world, the old ways, and renewal of the self in a bright but difficult New World.

I thought it was quite wonderful coming to America. I think immigration is a very difficult thing, but America is a very wonderful place.

I don't know if it's because my father's from Argentina, that I'm the son of an immigrant, I don't know if its because I'm Jewish, but I have always been mindful that the best insights occur when you have some kind of an outsider perspective.

I'm married to an American, so I guess that has changed my perspective on the subjects I can write about.

I want people to experience what it's like being from Haiti, coming to America, being Wyclef - multicultural, multilingual.

I'm a first-generation American, so I had friends from several cultures while growing up, including Indian and Iranian friends.

Some of my lowest points were the most exciting opportunities to push through to be a better person.

America is this incredible mosaic of immigrants, so people really want to be anchored in some kind of culture as well as the one they are living in.

My identity is not based on performance; it's based on something that's pre-determined by someone else, and I don't even understand what that is because I'm an African who came to America.

II grew up in Australia, but I'm not from there originally. Like, my dad's South American, so I know what that's like to grow up in a culture that's not your own.