Full Transcript: Muhammed Alagi on Immigrating from Yemen
Muhammed: My name is Muhammed Alagi. Born 1/1/55, come in Hamtramck in ’79, beginning in 80s.
Interviewer: And where were you born?
Muhammed: Back in Yemen.
Interviewer: Where in Yemen?
Muhammed: In Ibb. Back then, where I grow up, all we have is just one old man sitting under a tree. We have no house to go to school in either and the village would sit under the tree and the old man teaching us. Some of the kids like it, some of them, they don’t. We used to get beat up, too. But now, everybody they have schools, everybody, they have schools, everybody learned language good, everybody go to schools. Back then, they don’t have no school, especially the country peoples.
Interviewer: Did you have to help like work on the farm?
Muhammed: I don’t like it but I did, yeah. And my mom, she used to have a cow, I used to watch the cow for her because it’s hard work, you know? It’s not a farm— small farm, you know? Like you go outside here and you see big land from here all the way to another street and there’s no machines back there, they all— all the human beings digging dirt and planning out lots. And you bend down all— some time you go, what do you call it, down the line from here all the way to the second street then come back. [Laughs]
Mostly farmer. It’s hard, grow up in a large family, poor family, you know? Back then, everybody, you know, poor, nothing— no money coming in from nowhere but farmers, you know. Sometimes you take the camels you take stuff you deliver supplies from one town to the other. That’s about it. They don't have no car. Last time I got over, 2010 I think, when I go to Mecca, I go there for a couple of months.
Muhammed: I mean the country you born in, the— it’s not easy to forget it, let’s put it this way. That’s where you had start. But my kids, they don’t like to go back. They like to be here because they born here.
Interpreter Omar Alkusari: City of Ibb--
Muhammed: Because they all walking, you know, they all walking from one town to the other as they all walking from one farm to the other as they all meeting in the city, you know, and you go shopping and all that and…
Muhammed: This was a big deal for our culture to have a camel because they don't have no cars. Lot of the houses in the mountain, you can’t— even if they have cars, some of the people have cars, can’t go to the mountain. So the camel is like taxi, like a car can carry everything— groceries, supplies— to the little village in there. So it’s big deal with the camel in back days. Yeah, we used to have like a few of them. I remember, they used to have— we’d rent them like a taxi, you know? Anybody want to go to the city and buy some stuff. My dad used to have like five of them. I used to walk with them sometimes from the village to the city like two days, three days, by the time I got home my legs swollen that big because we walking, carrying sugar or carrying flours, carrying peas. Sometime you ride and sometime you— they have so much stuff on the top of them you can’t ride them. You just pull them and— or walk after them. But they were big deal at that back days, yep. In the 40s and the 50s and the 60s and, it was big deal. Whoever had the camels, he was the best. Even they used to build the house, they used to carry the brick on the top of the camel, too. Everybody have a car now. Even if they don’t have no asphalt in the streets, you know, they have like, like a stone, you know, like you going--
Omar: Dirt roads.
Muhammed: Dirt roads, you know.
Muhammed: Then I left for Saudi Arabia when I was like 15 I think or 14. I start working there and I start, tucked a little bit money and we buy a cars and we open up a little shop, like a country shop and…
Interviewer: Why did you go to Saudi Arabia?
Muhammed: Work. See better life.
Interviewer: And your family also went or did they stay?
Muhammed: Some of them, not all of them.
Interviewer: What was that like, leaving some of your family?
Muhammed: It’s hard when you young, going too far, hard to get back to them unless you have money and you apartment and I mean I made it, I deal with it. I have the money, I send some little bit money, help them to get married then we buy cars and start [?] and we deliver, you know, on the the cars and all that.
I miss, you walking there, like, you can walk 24 hours on the street, this the only thing that I miss. You can walk there 24 hours on the street, everything is open. You don’t worry about who’s going to grab you, who’s going to kill you, who going to take anything from you, walk in the restaurant, you walking in the coffee shop, you walking in— but you know, Saudi Arabia’s a rich country, you got more, you know, more things you want, see more things you do. Thats only thing I miss. You can get mad 2 o'clock in the morning, you get up and you walk until 7 o’clock, 6 o'clock in the morning, no problem. But I know my kids don't care, don't like that. They like their American culture.
Interviewer: Did you want to come to the United States?
Muhammed: Yes. I was working with someone back in Saudi Arabia and I heard about it, you know? How was it and kind of better life it is and how you making money, you know?
Interviewer: And so you knew people who were already here in Hamtramck?
Muhammed: Actually we in Shane St. and Boulevard, that’s how we hit before when we coming here before there was no, [?] between 6 Mile, 7 Mile, Jeffersons and down on Boulevard there and we used to work at Chrysler Plant down there. There were white— lot of white people in Hamtramck and not many, much Yemenis but they're not just Polish, you know, could name it Ukrainian, Romanian, Polish, Hungarian, you know, theres not a— that’s why I said we should call it an international town. It was a— you know the best town for all the people to coming in and seek to live and at the same time not too far from groceries and you know [?] and all that. A lot of them doesn’t speak no English. When I come in, I thought I get lost, you know because between this and this and this.
Interviewer: And where were you born?
Muhammed: Back in Yemen.
Interviewer: Where in Yemen?
Muhammed: In Ibb. Back then, where I grow up, all we have is just one old man sitting under a tree. We have no house to go to school in either and the village would sit under the tree and the old man teaching us. Some of the kids like it, some of them, they don’t. We used to get beat up, too. But now, everybody they have schools, everybody, they have schools, everybody learned language good, everybody go to schools. Back then, they don’t have no school, especially the country peoples.
Interviewer: Did you have to help like work on the farm?
Muhammed: I don’t like it but I did, yeah. And my mom, she used to have a cow, I used to watch the cow for her because it’s hard work, you know? It’s not a farm— small farm, you know? Like you go outside here and you see big land from here all the way to another street and there’s no machines back there, they all— all the human beings digging dirt and planning out lots. And you bend down all— some time you go, what do you call it, down the line from here all the way to the second street then come back. [Laughs]
Mostly farmer. It’s hard, grow up in a large family, poor family, you know? Back then, everybody, you know, poor, nothing— no money coming in from nowhere but farmers, you know. Sometimes you take the camels you take stuff you deliver supplies from one town to the other. That’s about it. They don't have no car. Last time I got over, 2010 I think, when I go to Mecca, I go there for a couple of months.
Muhammed: I mean the country you born in, the— it’s not easy to forget it, let’s put it this way. That’s where you had start. But my kids, they don’t like to go back. They like to be here because they born here.
Interpreter Omar Alkusari: City of Ibb--
Muhammed: Because they all walking, you know, they all walking from one town to the other as they all walking from one farm to the other as they all meeting in the city, you know, and you go shopping and all that and…
Muhammed: This was a big deal for our culture to have a camel because they don't have no cars. Lot of the houses in the mountain, you can’t— even if they have cars, some of the people have cars, can’t go to the mountain. So the camel is like taxi, like a car can carry everything— groceries, supplies— to the little village in there. So it’s big deal with the camel in back days. Yeah, we used to have like a few of them. I remember, they used to have— we’d rent them like a taxi, you know? Anybody want to go to the city and buy some stuff. My dad used to have like five of them. I used to walk with them sometimes from the village to the city like two days, three days, by the time I got home my legs swollen that big because we walking, carrying sugar or carrying flours, carrying peas. Sometime you ride and sometime you— they have so much stuff on the top of them you can’t ride them. You just pull them and— or walk after them. But they were big deal at that back days, yep. In the 40s and the 50s and the 60s and, it was big deal. Whoever had the camels, he was the best. Even they used to build the house, they used to carry the brick on the top of the camel, too. Everybody have a car now. Even if they don’t have no asphalt in the streets, you know, they have like, like a stone, you know, like you going--
Omar: Dirt roads.
Muhammed: Dirt roads, you know.
Muhammed: Then I left for Saudi Arabia when I was like 15 I think or 14. I start working there and I start, tucked a little bit money and we buy a cars and we open up a little shop, like a country shop and…
Interviewer: Why did you go to Saudi Arabia?
Muhammed: Work. See better life.
Interviewer: And your family also went or did they stay?
Muhammed: Some of them, not all of them.
Interviewer: What was that like, leaving some of your family?
Muhammed: It’s hard when you young, going too far, hard to get back to them unless you have money and you apartment and I mean I made it, I deal with it. I have the money, I send some little bit money, help them to get married then we buy cars and start [?] and we deliver, you know, on the the cars and all that.
I miss, you walking there, like, you can walk 24 hours on the street, this the only thing that I miss. You can walk there 24 hours on the street, everything is open. You don’t worry about who’s going to grab you, who’s going to kill you, who going to take anything from you, walk in the restaurant, you walking in the coffee shop, you walking in— but you know, Saudi Arabia’s a rich country, you got more, you know, more things you want, see more things you do. Thats only thing I miss. You can get mad 2 o'clock in the morning, you get up and you walk until 7 o’clock, 6 o'clock in the morning, no problem. But I know my kids don't care, don't like that. They like their American culture.
Interviewer: Did you want to come to the United States?
Muhammed: Yes. I was working with someone back in Saudi Arabia and I heard about it, you know? How was it and kind of better life it is and how you making money, you know?
Interviewer: And so you knew people who were already here in Hamtramck?
Muhammed: Actually we in Shane St. and Boulevard, that’s how we hit before when we coming here before there was no, [?] between 6 Mile, 7 Mile, Jeffersons and down on Boulevard there and we used to work at Chrysler Plant down there. There were white— lot of white people in Hamtramck and not many, much Yemenis but they're not just Polish, you know, could name it Ukrainian, Romanian, Polish, Hungarian, you know, theres not a— that’s why I said we should call it an international town. It was a— you know the best town for all the people to coming in and seek to live and at the same time not too far from groceries and you know [?] and all that. A lot of them doesn’t speak no English. When I come in, I thought I get lost, you know because between this and this and this.