Oral history interview with Bernal Cruz, 2019 February 25

This oral history interview with Bernal Cruz was conducted by Sankar Raman on February 25, 2019. The interview was recorded for The Immigrant Story, an organization that documents and archives the stories of immigrants and refugees in the United States. Julianna Robidoux was also present.

In this interview, Cruz discusses his family background and early life in Guatemala City, Guatemala, including his father's career in the Guatemalan army; his Mayan heritage and culture; and his education. He shares the history of the civil war in Guatemala and talks about his family's experiences during the war. He describes the reasons his family sought asylum in the United States, and talks about the asylum process. He discusses his experiences in Portland, Oregon, as a Guatemalan immigrant, including his education, his social life, and adjusting to cultural differences. He talks about working as a mediator during high school, about his education in neuropsychology at the University of Massachusetts, and about working as a therapist for Providence in Portland. He then talks about his career change in 2014, after earning a master's degree in community-based social work from Portland State University; about his marriage to Karey B. Lakey; and about his work with unaccompanied minors and immigrant youth for Morrison Child and Family Services. He speaks at length about his volunteer work with organizations assisting refugees, and closes the interview by discussing his experience in Italy as part of Harvard's online refugee trauma and recovery program.