Immigration
Tania as a little girl with her grandmother, grandfather, and mother
Family History
Tania's parents were first generation Brazilians due to her grandparents fleeing Russia and Poland amidst World War II. Both her mother's and father's side of the family are Jewish, which is why it became necessary for her grandparents to leave Europe as the brutality began. The violence and antisemitism directed towards Jewish people during this time also led to many other families fleeing European countries for safety. Tania has relatives from her father's side of the family who still live in Israel and as a child, she would visit them during Rio de Janeiro's summer. Her mother now splits her time between living in Brazil and living in the United States.
Why Leave Brazil?
As previously mentioned on the Early Life page, Tania visited many American family members during her childhood and when she made a trip for one of her American cousin’s weddings during her early adulthood years, she met her now-husband. They began dating and continued their relationship even as Tania traveled back to Brazil. She describes her thought process about moving to the United States as thinking, “eh, you know what, I think I’m going to do it,” because she had been dreaming about studying abroad since she was young. However, when her dad passed away when she was 19 and her family ran a family-owned business in Brazil, she had to postpone her plans of obtaining an education in America. So in 2005, when she had the opportunity to come to the United States and study, she was “super excited.”
Tania with her extended family from her mom's side
Tania's Immigration Journey
When she immigrated to the United States, she came with a student visa because she was going to be attending Emory University's Goizueta Business School to get her MBA. As she continued her education at Emory, she also continued dating her now-husband. After earning her degree, she got married, applied for a green card, and then after five years, Tania became a citizen.
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Transitioning from Brazil to the United States
Tania believes that the largest cultural difference from life in Brazil to life in the United States pertains to traveling to the beach. She explains that when going to the beach in America, her family needs to bring "a million things, but in Brazil you have the vendors." Because one can rent chairs and umbrellas and also buy food and "anything and everything", all one needs to bring is themselves.
Tania talks about her daughters on their trips to Brazil, saying, "My daughters will go bananas because they are like can we buy ice cream now, can we buy a bracelet, can we buy this, can we buy that. They have all the little bars on the beach so you can just have lunch there so you have so many people staying the entire day and you don’t have to carry anything. So that to me was a big difference when moving here."
A large family lunch outing in São Paulo, Brazil