From The Peopling of New York City

Hi, my name is Hifza. I'm 18 years old and a freshman at Macaulay Honors College at Brooklyn college. In the picture depicted of me here, you see that I'm wearing a hijab or a traditional head scarf to cover my hair. This is because my family and are Muslims, originally from Pakistan. Although my hijab represents an important part of who I am, it doesn't show the whole picture. Some of favorite things to do are surfing the internet, reading a variety of things, watching tv and goofing off with my little sister.

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How I became a New Yorker

As I said before, my family is originally from Pakistan. In fact both halves of my family are from a small city a few miles from the capital named Haripur. My father's family were farmers who lived in outer portion of the city. My mother's family was well off and lived in the city itself. So how on earth did my parents get together? Well, I have to talk about my aunt and uncle first. My mother's oldest sister married my father's older brother long before my parents. Their marriage was arranged by my grandparents who knew each other through business and it happened partially because my uncle was heading to America.
My uncle came to New York City in the 1970's and soon sponsored my aunt to join him. He later sponsored my dad who joined him in the 1980's. Life was hard for my father in the beginning because he knew very little English. He would send back part of what little he earned from his jobs here, back to his parents in Pakistan. Eventually, he got a better job and earned enough to go back and marry my mother whose marriage was also arranged. Mom arrived in Brooklyn in 1990 and had me on November 10, 1991. My brother came along the next year in November of 1992 and my little sister in the May of 1996. As for the rest, that is a story for another time.