Ask An Immigrant Anything, Wednesday April 25
March 28, 2018
Ask an Immigrant Anything
Wednesday April 25 | 7 – 8:30 PM
PPL is proud to welcome panelists Daniel Pontoh, Sebastian Fuentes, Eva Castillo, and Ro Mohammad Mustak Arif on Wednesday April 25 at 7 PM. No topic is off limits. The Seacoast community will have an opportunity to engage in a respectful, moderated conversation with their immigrant neighbors. Panelists will speak from personal experience and answer questions about identity, fear, discrimination, and belonging. Open to all!
Daniel Pontoh was born in Canada to Indonesian parents and when he was 8 migrated to the Seacoast area of NH with his family in 2001, where he has lived since. Daniel's perspective comes from having lived outside of the US in another Western country and not part of a large Indonesian community, to moving into the US into a large Indonesian community in a predominantly white area. Daniel has also organized efforts for immigrant rights and solidarity among other issues.
Sebastian Fuentes is in immigrant who has lived in New Hampshire for 17 years, and became a U.S. citizen two years ago. He is an ACLU volunteer community organizer and political activist.
Eva Castillo was born in Caracas, Venezuela and moved to Michigan in 1976, where she directed the Hispanic American Council. Upon moving to New Hampshire in 1984, she worked at the New England Farm Workers Council and the Latin American Center. In 2007 Eva was hired by MIRA Coalition as an organizer and Director of the NH Alliance for Immigrants and Refugees and Welcoming NH. Eva served six years as a Manchester Police Commissioner, chairs the Manchester Disproportionate Minority Contact committee, and the MPD Community Advisory Board.
Ro Mohammad Mustak Arif and his family were resettled in the USA in 2013. He was born in Myanmar (formerly Burma) and identifies as Rohingya, a population that made up almost a third of that country’s population before violence erupted in August 2017, causing over half a million Rohingya to become refugees. Throughout his life, Mr. Mohammad Mustak Arif was denied citizenship and education, and subjected to violence, because of his race and faith. Here in the USA, he works three jobs, as a medical interpreter, a case manager in a local nonprofit organization, and as a Founder/Executive Director of the Rohingya Society of Greater Nashua (RSGN), and participates in many civic activities in Nashua.
Ask an Immigrant Anything will be moderated by Laura Horwood-Benton, Public Programming and Community Relations Librarian.
