"My first two years [in America] were spent in military housing watching TV.  There were no people who could speak my language.  What I think was my saving grace was that I had a daughter after five years of marriage. 

…she had learned to communicate in my language at home ... but my mother-in-law had said, 'Don’t speak the other language to our grand-daughter because we don’t know what she’s saying.'  My culture, my music, it wasn’t welcomed or encouraged in my in-law’s family."