Real Life on the Stage: The Story of a Macedonian Immigrant of a - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Real Life on the Stage: The Story

• f a Macedonian Immigrant
• f a Macedonian Immigrant

By Laura Smetana I i l Aff i d P li i l S i International Affairs and Political Science 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

• ut. 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 y

High School 1999-2003

L tt f D t ti 2003 Letter of Deportation - 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 h th i i lif l h t “ ‘through the pain in life we learn how to appreciate joy’…I have had a lot of pain in the past 3 years enough for a lifetime some the past 3 years…enough for a lifetime some would say…” “ f d h b b “Music is a part of me and has been my best 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