I sat in front of a lady who I have known my whole life, but yet today she looked different. That is because today the sweet old lady I sat across from was not just my grandmother, but my interviewee. Aurea Beringer was born on August 4, 1940 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I know the basics of her life, such as she moved to the United States when she was in her twenties, then back to Brazil, but only to eventually end up back in America again. However, with everyday life, I never bothered to make an analytical observation of her. Today was different as I looked at her with an interviewer's perspective. I noticed the thin lines of wrinkles indicating for her 78 years. Her short white hair, pinned back to make sure it isn't in her way. And lastly …show more content…
As I set up for the interview, we make small talk. From this I gather that overall she is satisfied with life, yet still frustrated with family troubles. Currently living in her daughters house, Aurea often butts heads with her son-in-law, since she is perpetually unimpressed with his standards of cleanliness. Nevertheless, she is also grateful for them as they took her in after things got shaky with her other daughter which she lived with. I have observed that it is important for her living situation to involve a watchful eye over her. Since the death of her husband about five years ago, her age has slowly started to show itself with small things, such as forgetting an oven on. The issue of age and forgetfulness is something that became apparent to me while conducting this interview. Many details of major events in her life has just become a void. Yet regardless of this, on Saturday February 17, 2018 for the hour and 20 minutes I interviewed Aurea Beringer I was able to gather lots of information. As she shared her experiences of her introduction to American life with me. This included her observations on food, technology and race within America. With all this, I chose to focus this paper on the contrast of American culture because before this interview I never thought about the issues immigrants face from a cultural