FOREWORD TO BITING THE BIG APPLE

By Marivir R. Montebon
New York City

We run an excerpt to the Foreword written by immigration lawyer Arnedo Valera, Esq, on the memoir Biting the Big Apple: Memoirs of a Journalist Turned Immigrant.

“Marivir R. Montebon’s memoir, Biting the Big Apple, lends an insightful and inspiring presentation of immigration patterns in the U.S., aside from the fact that it is at times funny and exciting. Her own diaspora is a not a typical one, however: Immigration was her only choice after her husband, a leader of the Filipino political party Bayan Muna’s chapter in Bohol, became a victim of a summary execution perpetrated by military death squads during the past Arroyo regime. She sought and has been granted a political asylum by the U.S. government.

Marivir is a dedicated journalist and writer I have worked with as the Managing Editor of the Migrant Heritage Chronicle. I also served as the lawyer for her asylum case. Thus I have all the trust and confidence that this Memoir will change the readers’ views about immigrants: They are not just nameless, faceless people who are often put down or suspected as “illegal”. Many of them, in fact, are talented and hard working individuals who could be great contributors to American society.

The story that this book tells is a long saga of crossing the seas. In this Memoir, one discovers that Marivir’s own family members were in fact part of the centuries-old Philippine diaspora. From the struggling great grandfather who left a young wife and small children in the tiny island of Siquijor in central Philippines, then lost his life in the asparagus farms in Stockton, to this journalist who has become an immigrant herself, this book has so much to share.”

Arnedo Valera is the co-executive director of the Migrant Heritage Commission and the editor-in-chief of the Migrant Heritage Chronicle which are based in Washington, DC.

The book took me five years in the making. Now it is here at last. Thank you so much to Nedo, and all those who have been part of this journey.

(For the eBook, please go to Amazon.com’s Kindle store http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00BHKHC9O/ref=mp_s_a_1?qid=1361241214&sr=8-6&pi=SL75 . Priced at $9.80, part of the proceeds go to the OSM! Educational Support Program)