‘I had no lunch in 5th grade’
LOS ANGELES: Actress America Ferrera, who was one of six children with a single mother, recalled that while she “didn’t know the facts” about her family’s poverty at the time, she spent her 5th grade going to school with no lunch.
“One of the most vulnerable memories of childhood is that my mother was a single mother and I was the youngest of six kids. It was touch-and-go, and we struggled.
“I didn’t even really know the facts, and I was too ashamed to ask but I basically spent all of 5th grade going to school with no lunch and getting through the school day hungry.
“That is an experience that shapes you as a child when you’re so personally acquainted with what it means to be in a different circumstance to people around you.”
The Barbie star is the daughter of Honduran immigrants.
She said she was confused, growing up at a time when the American dream had promised her “equality and freedom” and yet having to go through an experience that didn’t match what she had been promised.
“Being taught that there is equality and freedom, I deeply believed in the American dream.
“But it wasn’t long before it started to feel confusing. I was, I believe, in third grade when there was a proposition on the Californian ballot that would basically take away public services from undocumented families including children in public elementary schools.
“I remember my mom pulling me to one side before school and saying: ‘If somebody comes and asks you where you’re from, you did nothing wrong. You don’t need to be afraid. You were born in this country.’
“I was so young and I didn’t understand.
“I was quite young when I realised I had a sense of my identity. I hold on to the feeling that there is justice and equality but I was having an experience that didn’t reconcile, and so I became aware of things because I had to.”