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What jobs did your parents work to get you where you are today? Readers respond

What jobs did your parents work to help you get to where you are?
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Some time ago, I posted a question on social media that scores of people responded to:

What jobs did your parents work to get you where you are today?

I shared a bit about my mother, an immigrant from El Salvador who worked as a nanny and a garment factory worker; she cleaned houses, polished car rims, drilled holes in doorknobs, steam pressed people’s clothes.

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What jobs did your parents work to get you where you are today? Readers share their stories.

“¡Échele ganas,” she’d always tell me. Give it all you got.

It’s a phrase, a call to action, many immigrants teach their kids early on to push them to aim high.

Here are a few responses to my Twitter thread.

Xavier Becerra

Xavier Becerra and his parents at his swearing-in ceremony.

Oscar Ramos

Oscar Ramos and his parents
Oscar Ramos, a high school teacher in Maryland, and his parents.

Elsy Guardado

Elsy Guardado with her parents, Argelia Guardado and Baudilio Guardado.

Elena Rhee

Helena Rhee with her parents.
Helena Rhee with her parents. She recently wrote a book about those childhood years when they, as janitors, would take her to work with them.

Emmy Ruiz

Emmy Ruiz

What jobs did your parents work to get you where you are today? Readers share their stories.

Nicolas Enriquez

Nicolas Enriquez and his father.
Nicolas Enriquez and his father.

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