Real Life on the Stage: The Story of a Macedonian Immigrant of a Macedonian Immigrant By Laura Smetana I International Affairs and Political Science i l Aff i d P li i l S i April 25, 2008
UN 2005 World Estimates -190 million international migrants - 13.5 million refugees Ashley Cecil
Vasil Garvanliev
Strumica, Macedonia Strumica, Macedonia
Rising Tensions 1993-1997 s g e s o s 993 997
Chicago, Illinois – age 12
“I would want to say hi or how are you to I would want to say hi or how are you to someone …but I could not let anything out. It hurt so much…it was 2 years of y f silence and tears before I allowed myself to comfortably speak to people…” – Vasil Garvanliev
“The assimilation process was the p hardest…it went from hating America…to loving it but being embarrassed by being g g y g Macedonian, to hating my family and not speaking to them…” p g - Vasil Garvanliev
Musical Identity in America High School 1999-2003 y
L tt Letter of Deportation - 2003 f D t ti 2003 and and Return to Macedonia
Starting over in Milan, Italy… and in Toronto, Canada
Vasil singing “Pomogni Mi” (“Help Me”) at the Eurovision Finals in Macedonia - 2007
Vasil’s Future? “ ‘th “ ‘through the pain in life we learn how to h th i i lif l h t appreciate joy’…I have had a lot of pain in the past 3 years the past 3 years…enough for a lifetime some enough for a lifetime some would say…” “ “Music is a part of me and has been my best f d h b b friend, drug…on and on…and been my shoulder to lean on every time something goes shoulder to lean on every time something goes wrong.” - Vasil Garvanliev
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