Pop Singer on Coming to America

Camila Cabello is one-fifth of X-factor created pop group Fifth Harmony. You’ve probably heard the group’s tunes All In My Head, Worth It, or Work From Home playing on the radio at some point.

This week, Cabello wrote about her journey to the United States for popsugar. Cabello was born in Cuba to a Cuban mother and Mexican father.

When she was “almost 7,” Cabello and her mom presented themselves at the U.S.-Mexico border seeking admission to the United States. Cabello’s mom told her they were going to Disney World. They weren’t.

“I didn’t realize it then, but, boy, does it hit me now. I realize how scary it must have been for them,” Cabello writes. To leave “everything. To decide to start from the ground up.”

Cabello’s mom, a trained architect, ended up stocking shoes at Marshall’s and taking night classes to learn English. Her dad followed a year-and-a-half later, “literally risking his life for his family to physically make it here.”

I love her description of meeting other people from her first home: “we freak out. “¿De qué parte?” Because we have home in us. Because we brought it with us.”

She concludes:

This country was built on immigrants. People who were brave enough to start over. How strong we are to leave behind everything we know in hopes of something better. We are not fearless, we just have dreams bigger than our fears.

I’ll leave you with this video of Fifth Harmony’s first big hit, Miss Movin’ On, which was a fan favorite at my roller rink in Norman.

-KitJ