- 8 hours ago
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🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:09I'm sorry, we're gonna go again, are we clear?
00:11Whole thing? Why the fuck not?
00:13Yeah, yeah.
00:16Speedy.
00:19Long, long ago in a land far, far away,
00:23a wee fat Scottish boy was watching television
00:25when he saw astronauts landing on the moon
00:28and he thought to himself,
00:30oh, how do I get to be like those magical men in the rocket ships?
00:35A voice came to him and said,
00:36first thing you gotta do is get yourself to America.
00:39And that's what I did, because I was that fat wee Scottish boy.
00:43Now, look, see that hill over there?
00:46That's Mexico, not just the hill, there's a lot more Mexico behind it.
00:49And then that river there, that's the Rio Grande,
00:51and this here, this is the United States of America.
00:54A lot of people from over there want to come over here.
00:57In fact, a lot of people from all over the world want to come here.
01:00Now, I know why I did it, but what about everybody else?
01:04What is America?
01:06Is it a promise? A contradiction? A dream?
01:10Everyone has their own idea, including me.
01:13I wasn't born here, but I love this place.
01:16I want to show you why I became American.
01:19On purpose.
01:29I'm an immigrant, but a lot of people wanted me to come here.
01:33You know, they just all happened to be people who lived in Scotland.
01:37But I came anyway.
01:40I took my oath to be a citizen on February the 1st, 2008, in Los Angeles.
01:46It's a big deal becoming a citizen.
01:48It's like getting married, but to a country.
01:51Except there wasn't a fight and no one was drunk,
01:53so it wasn't like a wedding in my family.
01:56Till death do us part.
02:02In my opinion, there is no view in the world that can't be improved
02:06by turning to someone you love and saying,
02:08Look at that.
02:10A shared experience with someone you care about
02:12makes that experience even better.
02:15That was the feeling I got when my dear, lovely pal,
02:19KT Tunstall, became a citizen.
02:21KT is a Grammy-nominated rock star.
02:24She was born in Scotland too,
02:25and also became an American citizen,
02:28but only recently.
02:29So she's not at my level of America.
02:32So I brung her to Texas to learn herself.
02:37Starting with cowboy hats.
02:41Big-ass Texas cowboy hats.
02:43Because pound for pound, gallon for gallon,
02:46nothing says you're American like a cowboy hat.
02:49You got your steps, your ridge top, your cattleman,
02:52your pink pony club, your giant foam novelty hat.
02:56American every one of them.
02:58Well, maybe that last one is made in China,
03:00but you get the point.
03:01Have you ever had one in your life?
03:03I've never, ever had a cowboy hat.
03:05Poor KT.
03:06She desperately needs one.
03:13That is like J.R. Ewing's hat.
03:15I was obsessed with Dallas, the TV show,
03:17when I was a kid,
03:18because it was on in the 80s in the UK.
03:22Oh, we can't afford it.
03:25In the 1980s, Dallas was huge in Scotland,
03:28probably because of all those hats
03:30and money and sex and oil.
03:33But mostly the hats.
03:34All those great characters.
03:37J.R., Sue Ellen, the old lady.
03:41Shania?
03:42The Jonas Brothers.
03:44B. Arthur.
03:45OK, it was a long time ago.
03:47I don't remember all the names,
03:48but I do know that we all wanted to come to America
03:51and live like they did on Dallas.
03:54You stay there, right?
03:55You be J.R., right?
03:56And I'll be Sue Ellen.
03:57Hold on.
03:58Right?
03:58Are you ready?
04:03J.R., what the hell are you doing?
04:05Not now, honey!
04:06We're making a deal!
04:11Hello.
04:13How does one mount?
04:14Do you go in the stirrup?
04:17There you go.
04:18There we go.
04:18There you go.
04:19Hey!
04:20Yes, sir.
04:20Katie and I are now American citizens.
04:23We both don't have hats.
04:25It's a woeful situation.
04:26It's terrible.
04:27I mean, because I feel like we're not proper Americans.
04:29We can fix that.
04:31Do you know anything about hats, my friend?
04:33I know my hat size.
04:34Which will be?
04:36Seven and three quarters.
04:37Really?
04:38Yeah.
04:39That's quite a large hat, sir.
04:40I'm Scottish.
04:41We've got very big heads.
04:42Here.
04:43Silver belly.
04:43Silver belly.
04:44See, I feel that's more my speed.
04:47Yeah.
04:47Bow in the back.
04:48That is great.
04:49Yeah, I like it.
04:50That makes me feel good.
04:51It looks great.
04:52Now we have to get you a hat.
04:54Oh, that's good.
04:55That's very sexy.
04:56Let me just get on my side and talk about that.
04:59Hey, let's pretend that we're riding the range.
05:01Yeah.
05:01Yeah, right.
05:02Bow in the back.
05:03So tell me how you got here.
05:04Well, the store of golds.
05:08My dad was a physicist and he got a sabbatical to UCLA in California.
05:13When I was four.
05:14In LA.
05:15When you were four.
05:16Do you remember it?
05:16And I had a completely American accent.
05:19Like valley girl accent.
05:20Shut up.
05:22I was like Cher from Clilas.
05:24Wow.
05:24There's like, my dad made little recordings and there's me going, I want a drink of water.
05:29That's so bizarre.
05:30Yeah.
05:31I had no idea about that.
05:32And some of my first memories are California.
05:33And it's like grape flavor and orange trees and swimming pools and sunshine at Christmas.
05:40So it kind of imprinted on me.
05:42But I just always wanted to get here.
05:45I think becoming a citizen is different from living here.
05:49I remember the ceremony and just kind of getting an idea of the commitment of it.
05:55Yeah.
05:56Just going, you know, you give up your allegiance to any other nation.
06:00Right.
06:00And you would bear arms.
06:01You'd bear arms.
06:02And I was like, wait, what?
06:03You probably don't want me to.
06:06Yeah, look, there's probably better options.
06:08Yes.
06:09But you do feel.
06:10It feels serious.
06:11Yeah.
06:12And you end up feeling proud and protective.
06:16Yes, protective.
06:17And I think that also you, when you come from outside into America as a country, it is this
06:24incredible experiment.
06:26I know.
06:26And you really understand that nowhere else on the planet is willing to try this experiment.
06:33I know.
06:34You and I coming here and deciding to take part is part of what it's becoming.
06:41It's an ongoing thing.
06:43It's an ongoing, constantly changing experience.
06:46Right.
06:47And we try and do it the best we can.
06:49What is that?
06:49It's that old line.
06:50It is the mark of civilisation of someone that would plant a tree in the full knowledge
06:54of knowing they would never sit in the shade of it.
06:56Never sit in the shade.
06:56Yeah, exactly.
06:57I feel very lucky.
06:59So many people would love to be American and they can't do it.
07:03I know.
07:04Many people have died.
07:04Yeah.
07:05Many people died today trying to get this.
07:07Yeah.
07:08And I've got it in my hand and I've done it.
07:09And it's a big deal.
07:11It is a big deal.
07:12It's a huge deal to become an American.
07:14Glad you did it too.
07:15Yeah, I am too.
07:16Okay.
07:16Maybe time we mosey along.
07:17Hey!
07:18Oh my God.
07:18I feel like I've been in the saddle all day.
07:21Calamity Jane over here.
07:22Oh yeah.
07:23Who would I be then if you were Calamity Jane?
07:24You'd be Billy the Kid or something.
07:26I'd not Billy the Kid.
07:27I'd be the ancient Bob or something.
07:31Ancient Bob.
07:31Ancient Bob.
07:32No, I'd be the guy who'd say they're coming in here and shooting all around.
07:36I think I saw them.
07:38I don't know.
07:39They went it that way.
07:45Where are you from?
07:46Mexico.
07:46I was born in Mexico.
07:47I was born in Colombia.
07:48My father's side is a lot of Scottish.
07:51Oh, okay.
07:51Yes.
07:52Sorry about that.
07:53I appreciate it.
07:55German.
07:55He's from Mexico.
07:56And I have some Japanese too.
07:58My parents are from Rwanda.
07:59I'm adopted from the Philippines.
08:01I'm Liberian.
08:02From Colombia.
08:03And then on my mother's side, French and German, but lots of Irish as well.
08:07Okay, so you're kind of a control freak who's a drunk and a little bit impolite in restaurants.
08:11I try to keep it on the low key for the drunk part, yes.
08:14There's more opportunities here in the US, for sure, than Colombia.
08:17I believe that's really American to have the opportunity of a better life.
08:21When I come here, the doors are open, you know?
08:24I was able to become something that I don't think I would have had the opportunity to.
08:29What did you become?
08:30An engineer.
08:31Do your families, do they have contact with your family back in Liberia and Rwanda?
08:36Yeah.
08:37I was in Liberia last year.
08:38Oh yeah?
08:38Did you like it?
08:39No.
08:40You wanted to come back to America?
08:41I did.
08:42I wanted Chick-fil-A.
08:45So they don't have Chick-fil-A in Liberia?
08:47No.
08:48Just rice.
08:49Yeah.
08:50We're good?
08:51Ladies, thank you so much.
08:57Shut up!
08:59When I came to America, I was young and full of passion.
09:02Passion was the name of a cheap peach-flavoured vodka in the 1980s.
09:06Surprise, surprise!
09:08Back home I'd been doing stand-up, music and acting for a while, but I always knew if
09:13I wanted to be an artist, to really do it, then America was the place for me because,
09:18in my opinion, America gives you the best shot to take your passion and turn it into success.
09:24That's passion to passion, not passion to peach vodka.
09:27No one's getting successful while on peach vodka.
09:32So, Craig, what are you doing in Miami?
09:35I hear you asking your adorable Scottish accent.
09:38I mean, besides walking around like a total boss.
09:41Yeah?
09:42Sup, fellas?
09:43I'm here to do art.
09:45I have to express my feelings after those kids stole my jacket.
09:48What is this name?
09:49That's my name, Seafoam.
09:51Seafoam.
09:51I love it.
09:52Now we have to paint over it.
09:53Oh, I'm going to, yeah.
09:54Right on.
09:55And to help inspire two big stars from Miami's electric street art scene.
10:04Golden and Dissum.
10:06Like me, both of these gentlemen came to America to follow their artistic dream.
10:11Is this for the 250?
10:12Yes, sir.
10:13Ah, I love it.
10:14Very nice.
10:15It's very nice.
10:18Dissum and Golden are just like me.
10:20Except cooler, I will admit.
10:21But just like me, they felt in order to thrive as artists and as people, they had to get
10:27to America.
10:28I was born in Venezuela.
10:30Yeah.
10:30Did you come here when you were a kid?
10:31I came here when I was 18, 19.
10:33Yeah.
10:34I was running from a very extreme childhood.
10:37Yeah.
10:38And I was running towards like a future.
10:42Yeah.
10:42That definitely I didn't have down there.
10:44I grew up in a family with 11 uncles, all engineers.
10:48And I was the first grandson.
10:51And it was me.
10:52I started doing tattoos and graffiti at John as a kid.
10:55So my family didn't understood why I was like that.
11:00I remember when I was like 12, I came to New York and I see these two cops standing in
11:05the door of the airplane with tattoos and piercings.
11:09And I've been fighting for two years with my family for this.
11:12And I'm like, then I knew I was just born at the wrong place.
11:15Yeah.
11:15You know?
11:16You belong in a different place.
11:18I told my mom, I'm leaving.
11:18I'm going to move here one day because I felt like I could be me.
11:22My mother and my father met at an art university in Panama.
11:26And I have artists on both sides of the family.
11:29From then on, we had the, we're in Panama.
11:32We had the invasion of Panama.
11:33Right.
11:33Following that, you know, leaving all that, you know, the war pretty much, you know,
11:37we ended up coming over here to the U.S.
11:39So do you think in Central America or in South America that you'd be able to be the artist you
11:45are now?
11:46Not in my country, no.
11:47Yeah.
11:47Maybe in another country, but not there.
11:49It's the land of the free, right?
11:50Land of the free.
11:51It's been built by immigrants.
11:52And, you know, I mean, I personally, I'm proud of being an immigrant, you know?
11:57Yeah, me too.
11:57And being a positive influence, you know?
12:00In America more than anywhere else in the world, we're allowed to express ourselves freely, right?
12:05Street art is just like regular art, except it's outdoors.
12:09You are, like, good with the can and the bros, though.
12:11I said, Golden, you got another assistant, bro.
12:13I know.
12:13You're hired.
12:14Yeah, yeah.
12:14Seven bucks an hour.
12:16$7.25.
12:17$7.25.
12:18It's al fresco fresco.
12:20Look at that.
12:21It's pretty good.
12:21That's clean.
12:22When people see a tag in a building, it's like they see it like something simple, but
12:27that is someone that focuses their life into that.
12:31That's why it looks so fresh, so stylish.
12:34Like, the first thing you write is your name or a penis, you know?
12:38Like, that's what you do.
12:39You're a child.
12:40Yeah.
12:41And then you learn, and then...
12:42I like that you said, because that's the first thing I drew is a penis.
12:45Yeah, yeah, yeah.
12:45That's the first thing I've ever done.
12:47Everybody, the first thing you draw is a penis.
12:50Now we're gonna do some spray paint.
12:51All right, let's give the painting a try.
12:53All right.
12:53You see this one?
12:54Yeah.
12:55Angle it up.
12:59That works.
13:00I feel like I look at it and all I can see is this line sticking out of it.
13:04Step back.
13:05A lot of times, especially when you're at a wall, you've got to step back and look at it.
13:09You know what?
13:10It's okay.
13:10Yeah.
13:11I feel like it's all right.
13:12I think it's cool, man.
13:13Yeah.
13:13I feel like it gave a little thing.
13:15This is my...
13:16I did this now.
13:16Yeah?
13:17It's a collaboration.
13:19With graffiti art in particular, I think it's such an American form of art, because it
13:23starts out like you're a bunch of outlaws, like you're the Founded Fathers.
13:26For sure.
13:27It's a revolution.
13:28Everybody's like, oh, these guys are bad, and it's all gonna end badly.
13:31And then slowly over time, it becomes this multi-billion dollar business.
13:34Absolutely.
13:35It changes the whole world.
13:41Yeah.
13:42There you are.
13:44There you are.
13:45I love it.
13:46Let me just do something for you down here.
13:48I'll just do you one of these.
13:52Oh, no.
13:53Yeah!
13:54That's a keeper.
13:57You know what?
13:57We've got to leave that on there.
13:58Fuck it.
13:59It stays.
14:00Fuck it.
14:01That's funny, man.
14:04It stays.
14:07It stays.
14:09Like a lot of Americans, my entry point to this country was New York City.
14:14And that is important.
14:15To me, it was important anyway, because New York is so diverse, so multicultural.
14:21But it's also unique.
14:22The exotic smell of pee, hot dogs, and weed cannot be replicated anywhere else on this planet.
14:29New York has an iconoclast spirit.
14:33That's a fancy way of saying,
14:34Hey, I'm walking here.
14:36I know it was that way for me.
14:38And I know it was that way for my friend, Salman Rushdie.
14:42Salman has faced down lunatic attacks and attempted murder for his iconoclast spirit.
14:48So it's only natural that he would end up being an American.
14:53This is your funniest and most beautiful book.
14:55Well, thank you.
14:56It really is.
14:57Salman's latest book, The Eleventh Hour, is a collection of short stories, one of which is called Oklahoma.
15:03America holds a kind of almost mythical quality in the story Oklahoma.
15:08It has this mysterious unfolding.
15:10Yes.
15:10Have you been to Oklahoma?
15:11I have been to.
15:12In fact, I had a nice experience in Oklahoma.
15:15I've always had a nice time in Oklahoma.
15:17New York for me has been, is almost equivalent to what I think about as America.
15:21Because I'm a, you know, I'm a big city boy.
15:24Yes.
15:25You know, I'm not really a countryside guy.
15:27No, I don't think of you as that.
15:29Have you ever been on a horse?
15:30Have you ever done anything?
15:31I have been on a horse.
15:32I was mostly terrified.
15:33Yeah.
15:34I fell in love with the idea of America long before I ever came to America.
15:39Yeah, me too.
15:40Yeah.
15:40All of us new Americans have an idea about America before we ever get here.
15:45Everyone has a vision and an opinion about the United States.
15:50Even if they never get here.
15:52It's because we are not just a country.
15:54We are an idea.
15:56How does it shape up to the real thing?
15:58Because you, like me, became a citizen, right?
16:00Well, the thing that America began to be equivalent in my mind to me was New York City.
16:06Right.
16:06What I like about it is its incredible diversity.
16:10Yes.
16:10I remember when the Soccer World Cup was here in America, you would walk down like Flatbush
16:16Avenue and you would go past bars and there'd be like the Croatian bar and then there'd be
16:21the Brazilian bar, the Nigerian bar, full of Americans cheering for all their different
16:28countries of Oregon.
16:29Right, right.
16:30One of the reasons that I'm here living in America is because of my admiration for the
16:35First Amendment.
16:36Yeah.
16:37You know, I think that's an amazing thing to put in your constitution.
16:40Yeah.
16:40The freedom of speech, the freedom of assembly, the freedom of belief.
16:46There's no other country that puts that in the constitution.
16:49I know.
16:50And the pursuit of happiness.
16:52And I think immigrants come to a country because they want to be there.
16:54Yeah.
16:55I mean, if you're born in America, you don't have the choice.
16:57It is what it is.
16:58But some of us make the choice to come here.
17:00And that has to be an optimistic act.
17:05It is an act of optimism to become an American.
17:08You're trying to put aside old ideas and start afresh.
17:11For example, how can the English, the Irish and the Scottish ever get along, even in the
17:17new world?
17:18Well, obviously the safest place would be a bar.
17:21Matt Gilbert and Scott Walker are newly minted Americans.
17:25I met them for a drink when they were celebrating in that understated British way.
17:30So, an Englishman, a sort of Irishman, and a Scotsman go into a bar, right?
17:39This is the party for you.
17:42You are now a proud American citizen.
17:44How long have you been in a citizen?
17:46About two weeks.
17:46Yeah.
17:47How long have you been here?
17:48Uh, since 2019.
17:50Do you miss the chicken shops of South London?
17:52No.
17:53You sat the test already, right?
17:55Yeah, yeah.
17:55Did you do well?
17:56I mean, clearly you did well enough.
17:58How did you do?
17:58I did okay.
17:59I did okay, but I did mine in 2008, I became a citizen.
18:03The test was pretty much, the three branches of government, they asked about that.
18:06Yeah, three branches of government.
18:08I think the toughest one they asked was, if the president wasn't going to be the president
18:12anymore, or the vice president isn't a president anymore, who's going to be the president?
18:17Right.
18:17And what did you put?
18:19The leader of the house.
18:20Right.
18:20I put George Clooney.
18:22George Clooney?
18:23There you go.
18:24I figured that was a good one, because everybody likes George Clooney.
18:27Yeah.
18:27What made you want to be a citizen?
18:28For me, it was sort of the ability to, like, vote here.
18:34The right to vote?
18:35Yeah.
18:35Yeah.
18:36It was, like, a big deal for me.
18:37Also, I couldn't do my job in London.
18:41So what you're telling me is opportunity.
18:43Opportunity.
18:44And the right to participate in government.
18:45Yeah.
18:46Also, like, our American dream is different.
18:49So, you know, we're white men, aren't we?
18:50So it's, like, kind of a lot easier.
18:52How will you, as a new American citizen, go about changing that?
18:57Voting.
18:58And I think that's the main thing.
19:00Participating in democracy, which is what we want to do.
19:03That's how I felt.
19:04And I remember coming here and thinking everyone was so cool and it was just normal.
19:08So normalized that you could just do all these things.
19:10And, like, that was very impressive to me.
19:12I feel that's the spirit of the place.
19:14I think so.
19:15And that's why I've always been very adamant that I feel that New York is a distillation,
19:18almost, of America.
19:19Because it takes all those artistic and personal freedoms and extrapolates them into this mad city.
19:27Sometimes I'm sort of just wandering around.
19:28I'll be in the most touristy place.
19:30I'm like, this is incredible.
19:31Yeah.
19:32Like, you know, I take it for granted maybe often.
19:33Not Times Square either.
19:35That's too far.
19:36I was going through Times Square the other day and a kid came over to me and he was trying
19:42to give me some pamphlet or something like that.
19:44Oh, yeah.
19:45Bullshitting me.
19:45And I said, do I look like I'm from out of town?
19:47And he said, I'm not kidding, he said, no, you look like you're a dick.
19:53While it's fun to spend a little time with these new citizens, it's appropriate to remember
19:58that not everyone who became American had a choice.
20:01I chose to come to America, as did many others, but obviously that's not the whole story.
20:07This country also belongs to the descendants of those who did not choose it.
20:12Enslaved Africans forcibly brought here and Native Americans who were forced from their
20:18ancestral territory.
20:20Out of that painful history comes the resilience and diversity that still shapes who we are
20:26today.
20:26If we ignore that part of the story, we're not telling all of it.
20:30It's part of who we are as Americans.
20:36What's the most American thing you can think of right now?
20:39My grandfather came to me from Ecuador.
20:41To him, it was a cheeseburger and a Ford Mustang.
20:46Being able to work and send his kids to schools and have better opportunity for them.
20:53One thing that I think about America is freedom.
20:56Also the dream, American dream.
20:58What is the American dream?
20:59You can work hard and achieve your goals.
21:02What do you think the American dream is?
21:05The ability to embrace your aspirations.
21:08Be happy.
21:09Be happy?
21:10Yes.
21:11Be happy, build your own future on your own way.
21:14I ran a marathon.
21:15Oh, you're right.
21:17Congratulations.
21:17The American dream.
21:19What does it look like to you?
21:19I think just having the opportunity and options to do whatever you want to do.
21:25Yeah.
21:25Whether it's running a marathon in New York City.
21:27Yeah, freedom of religion.
21:29Freedom of choice.
21:30Just everything.
21:31Freedom.
21:31You can be yourself.
21:32Yeah, I get it.
21:33I think I can smell someone enjoying their freedom.
21:36Yeah, yeah, right now.
21:38I can smell it.
21:39Yeah.
21:39It's happening.
21:48In 1975, I came to America for the first time.
21:52My dad and I got a cheap flight from the old country to visit my Uncle James and his family
21:57on Long Island.
21:58On this trip, I went to a bowling alley.
22:01And for the first time, I tasted root beer over crushed ice, and I smelled the aroma of rented shoes.
22:08To this day, the taste of root beer and the smell of feet still mean freedom to me.
22:23Do you know how to bowl?
22:24I do.
22:25On you go then.
22:26Alright, let's do this.
22:26Alright.
22:28Those pillars of democracy, foot smell and root beer, were also a beacon for Abdi Noor Iftin when he dreamed
22:34of escaping the vicious civil war in Somalia for the teeth-chattering freedom of Maine, the way life should be.
22:43He's now a proud American and the best-selling author of the book, Call Me American, a memoir detailing his
22:49journey.
22:50When you become an American, some things, like patriotism, come quickly.
22:55Other things, like bowling, as you're about to see, take a little longer.
23:00There you go.
23:01That's it.
23:03That's not bad, I guess.
23:05One.
23:05Yeah, yeah.
23:06You have to knock that one down now, don't you?
23:09Yep.
23:09There you go.
23:10That makes me feel more comfortable.
23:14No!
23:15Oh, boy.
23:16How did you get into American Poe Coaching?
23:19There was a woman in our neighborhood.
23:22She ran a little movie theater.
23:24We sat on the dirt floor.
23:26We watched action films continuously because the woman only had seven films.
23:32What were the movies?
23:33Do you remember?
23:34Commando.
23:35Right.
23:35Rambo.
23:36The Terminator.
23:37Just what you want when you're a kid with PTSD in a war zone.
23:40Yeah, yeah.
23:41Exactly.
23:42But actually, it was pretty good entertainment.
23:45We're sitting in the movie theater and we were playing a quiz.
23:49What did he say?
23:50You know, when Arnold says, I'll be back.
23:52Because, of course, you don't speak English, right?
23:54We did not.
23:55That's how we learned it.
23:56Is that the first idea of you wanting to come to America?
23:59Was these movies?
24:00These guys?
24:01That is where the window cracked open.
24:04I was like, I want to go there.
24:06So you learned English from Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger?
24:10Yeah.
24:10Yeah.
24:11You speak English a lot better than Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
24:14Yes.
24:15Yes.
24:15Better than both of those guys.
24:17I agree.
24:17But the good thing is, like, they spoke, they said a few words.
24:20Right.
24:21So there's a little bit of time.
24:22Yeah, yeah, yeah.
24:23Exactly.
24:24Now, I wasn't a journalist professionally.
24:26Right.
24:26As soon as I spoke some English, I started recording secret audio diaries from Somalia
24:31that could get me killed.
24:33So it was an extremely dangerous move that I had to do so that the world hears.
24:39All of my audio diaries were actually aired by a radio station based in North Carolina.
24:45Then so many people partied.
24:47I had no idea you were such a badass.
24:50I didn't have any choice.
24:52It's just like, I die or I do something, you know?
24:54That's crazy.
24:55It was either of those.
24:56I became the storyteller to the Americans.
24:59But it was a long way from coming to this country.
25:03I had no idea if I would ever do that.
25:04Why were you so fixated on coming to the United States?
25:08Because I really wanted to be a full human.
25:12For example, in Somalia, no schooling, no hospital, no clinic, nothing like that.
25:17If you get injured, you might die bleeding.
25:19I have friends who died like that.
25:21And I kept thinking, I need to be someone who has rights and freedom and access to the basic things.
25:29How did you arrive?
25:31There's this lottery system.
25:33Yeah.
25:33It's called the visa lottery.
25:34This is like the golden ticket.
25:36Like literally the...
25:37Literally, yeah.
25:38There's no other way that I can get to the U.S. other than this.
25:41There was a pretty good chance that I could get denied.
25:44Even with the golden ticket?
25:46Well, yeah.
25:46Guess how many people apply for this golden ticket?
25:48I don't know.
25:4920 million.
25:5020 million?
25:51Every year.
25:52And how many get them?
25:53The U.S. State Department only has 50,000 visas available.
25:57For 20 million applications?
25:58That's crazy.
26:00It is.
26:02Alright, it's me to go first.
26:03Let's do this.
26:10Yeah.
26:16Beat that.
26:17For Abdi, getting into the U.S. was a dream that required an incredible amount of luck.
26:23Coincidentally, so does my bowling game.
26:26Don't do that.
26:26There you go.
26:28This is fun.
26:29We're evenly matched.
26:31How did you get here?
26:33Because it was a visa lottery program, the government wouldn't help at all.
26:37Right.
26:38I had to go to a family who heard my story on the radio.
26:41Yeah.
26:42They got involved in supporting my process to come to the United States.
26:46They live in Maine, and now they become my family.
26:48So if you're wondering, why do you spend your Thanksgiving and Christmas?
26:50That's where I am.
26:51That's great, though, man.
26:53I'm so pleased to hear that.
26:56We've talked to a lot of people about freedom.
26:58What does that look like for you, the idea of freedom?
27:00In this country, if I wake up tomorrow and decide to drive my own car from Maine and head all
27:08the way to the other end of this country, I can do that.
27:12Freedom to you is being able to go where you want.
27:15Right.
27:15Choices.
27:16Absolutely.
27:16I think freedom hits different when you come from my background.
27:19Yeah.
27:20That I can appreciate each mile that I drive knowing that I can do that.
27:25It's amazing.
27:26To me, it's more than a vacation.
27:28It's, um...
27:29Freedom.
27:30Freedom.
27:31Absolutely.
27:31Literally.
27:32Yeah.
27:34This is it.
27:35You can still win.
27:36You need 21 points for the game.
27:40Two strikes.
27:41All right.
27:44Okay, you can technically still get another strike.
27:50Oh, no!
27:52Oh, no!
27:54Get another roll.
27:56Yeah.
27:56All right.
28:01Oh, no!
28:03Oh!
28:04Look at that!
28:05Yeah!
28:06All right.
28:08Now, Abdi and I both suck at bowling, which is our right.
28:12As Americans, we're free, except from harsh judgment by the chodes of the internet.
28:23You have to understand, in 1975, getting from Scotland to America was like getting from America to the moon.
28:30It was a different world.
28:32One small step for a man, one giant leap for a wee fat Scottish boy.
28:48Mike Massimino is a former NASA astronaut.
28:51He helped fix the Hubble telescope twice and set a record for the longest spacewalk on a mission.
28:56He also comes from an immigrant family with very humble beginnings, and yet he still found his way from Long
29:03Island, New York, to outer space.
29:06To me, an astronaut is still one of the most American jobs there is.
29:10Mike and I are at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, where we're talking about what it means to
29:15have the guts to go to space, or the guts to immigrate to America.
29:20Your second name is Massimino.
29:22Yes.
29:23Yeah.
29:23So I'm thinking Italian.
29:25Yes.
29:26Yeah.
29:26Was it your grandparents came here?
29:28Yeah.
29:28All four of my grandparents immigrated in the early part of the 20th century, all from Sicily.
29:35The American dream for them is come here, better life, raise your family.
29:40It wasn't necessarily for them.
29:42I think they did it for their future generations.
29:44Which you are.
29:45And that's what I think it was all about.
29:48They came here with the aspiration of a better life for future generations.
29:51You go from Sicily to space?
29:53Yeah.
29:54Two generations?
29:54Yeah, quite amazing.
29:55I mean, that's unbelievable.
29:56Yeah.
29:56You and I are the same age, right?
29:58Yeah, exactly.
29:58Yeah, like a month apart, I think.
30:00So we watched the moon landing when we were kids.
30:02I remember watching it.
30:03Do you remember watching it?
30:04Oh, absolutely.
30:05It changed my life.
30:06It definitely changed my life.
30:09Growing up in Scotland in the 60s and 70s meant growing up between two superpowers in the middle of the
30:14greatest pissing contest in human history, the Cold War.
30:19And nothing said Cold War like the space race.
30:24Wait, I feel we can do better.
30:26Let's do it again.
30:29The space race!
30:32There you go.
30:35The US and the Soviets went back and forth.
30:38Rockets, satellites, capsules, dogs, monkeys, Sputnik, the Vomit Comet, even a few ex-Nazis.
30:45Do you get to be an ex-Nazi? I don't know if I feel that's true.
30:49Anyway, we both threw everything we could at cosmic dominance.
30:52But in 1969, America hit a gut punch to those commie bastards.
31:01The moon landing.
31:04650 million people around the world watched the moon landing.
31:08That's like Katy Perry's Instagram.
31:10This was a global calling card.
31:13A statement that American greatness was dominant and that I could be part of it.
31:18At least that's how I saw it.
31:20This is the face of a young man who is about to manifest his own destiny.
31:26When I saw that, I was six years old, you know, like as you were going on seven that summer
31:31of 69.
31:31Even the build-up to it, you know, seeing those guys, they're just like, you know, had the American flag
31:36on their arm.
31:37And they just, to me, symbolized everything that was good.
31:40I wanted to be an American. I didn't think I could be an astronaut.
31:43Let me ask you something.
31:45All right.
31:45Because those guys, the moon guys, the guys who walked on the moon, they commented that the feeling was, throughout
31:51the world, it was, you know, an American accomplishment.
31:55But in a lot of other countries, helped them participate.
31:57Did you see it that way?
31:58Did you feel like, oh, these are American.
32:01Or did you feel like it's, we're doing it.
32:03Do you know what, in Scotland, what we were saying was, you know, Armstrong's a Scottish name.
32:07Really?
32:08Armstrong's a Scottish name, aye.
32:10So basically, it's Scotland landing on the moon.
32:12You know, technically.
32:14We're all immigrants.
32:14Technically.
32:15It was a lot about, you can't go directly to the moon from Scotland, you have to go to America
32:19first.
32:20Which I think is still true.
32:21Maybe it's maybe because America might, in some way, symbolize the whole world because everybody came from somewhere else.
32:28Well, that's what I think America is.
32:29I think America is a great accomplishment for humankind.
32:32I mean, look, even now when people are still bleating on about, you know, the problem this and that, everybody's
32:38still trying to get here.
32:39Yeah.
32:39You know?
32:40Yes.
32:40Yes.
32:50Your family, every immigrant family, which is like most of us, you have to take those risks.
32:56And that becomes part of the American spirit, right?
33:00Yeah.
33:00The idea that we're going to get on a boat and we're going to go to a country we've never
33:04seen before, the whole family's going, or just the kid is going.
33:07They said goodbye and that was it.
33:09You know, they didn't go back.
33:10No.
33:10But leaving that all behind with whatever possessions you had and coming to a new place.
33:14And that becomes part of the spirit.
33:15Right.
33:16Because that, in some ways, I think, pointing to the shuttle here, that's easier than what they did.
33:20Yeah.
33:21To take that risk.
33:22That was a true risk.
33:22And so that's the kind of people that came here.
33:25And I think as a result, we're able to accomplish these things.
33:28It's amazing.
33:39As an immigrant from Europe, nothing is more emblematic of the journey to becoming an American than the Statue of
33:45Liberty and Ellis Island.
33:47I still have the gift shop plastic Statue of Liberty I got when I was a kid.
33:52Here it is.
33:54Isn't that cool?
33:54I adore her.
33:56No, you can't have it.
33:57If I was going to give it to anyone, I'd give it to my dear friend, Adriana.
34:01She is a second-generation Italian-American, a best-selling author and an acclaimed director and screenwriter whose work focuses
34:09on immigrants and their descendants.
34:11She is also the 2025 recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.
34:17I can think of no better way to see that lady than with this lady and have her show me.
34:22My God, are you so excited?
34:25Yeah, a little bit.
34:27There she is.
34:28It's a hell of a thing.
34:29Isn't it?
34:30Every morning, I go over to the water and I look at her.
34:33Every morning.
34:35It just reminds me like I'm so lucky I'm here at all.
34:38My immigration story doesn't come through here, but it feels like it.
34:43How many times have you done this?
34:44Every time a cousin comes to town, I take her.
34:47I've never done this.
34:49No.
34:49No.
34:50Oh my God, I get to show you everything.
34:59There's life in this place.
35:01There's spirit.
35:02Look at this.
35:04This is what my grandparents saw.
35:06This is where they lined up.
35:09Kills me.
35:10Kills me.
35:17Between 1892 and 1952, over 12 million immigrants came through this place.
35:24In fact, 40% of Americans today can trace their roots back to this island.
35:30Megan, my wife, Megan's grandfather, Andrew Wallace Cunningham, was an orphan in Edinburgh, and he came through here.
35:43He's like a little kid.
35:45Can you imagine the story that got him from Edinburgh in?
35:48Can you imagine being a street kid?
35:50Is it?
35:51And getting that idea that I've got to get to America.
35:53And to be a wee Scottish boy on your own.
35:56Oh my God, all by yourself, and just on that ship, and just trying to make a friend.
36:01When do we eat?
36:02I'm in my 60s, and I was kind of uncomfortable on a 10-minute ride from my Nan.
36:08I was like, oh, it's cold.
36:10I need a sandwich.
36:15I imagine my grandparents standing here.
36:20That, like, says America to me.
36:22That's the future.
36:24Getting online for your family, for your future, for the children that are yet unborn.
36:30And whoever was at that table, keep your name, change your name, misspell your name, that all happened in here.
36:39And just imagine how they felt standing here.
36:42It's a cathedral.
36:44Yes.
36:45It's not some empty promise.
36:47It's a cathedral to a real promise.
36:49An opportunity.
36:51Opportunity.
36:51Opportunity.
36:52Opportunity.
36:53An ambition.
36:53And like, if you work hard, man, you'll make it.
36:56There it is.
36:59That's America.
37:03What was the name?
37:04Bonicelli.
37:05Bonicelli.
37:06And it's really a beautiful thing to just come and read the names.
37:10Because when there's a name, then there's a person and an identity and a place in history.
37:16I mean, Max Glickman.
37:18Welcome to America, Max.
37:20Max Glickman.
37:21Hey, how are you doing?
37:22He's a door glazer.
37:22Welcome.
37:23Look at this one.
37:24Filomena Barbieri Giuliano.
37:27I don't think she's Scottish.
37:28I just want to see any Fergusons.
37:30There we are.
37:31There's my peeps.
37:33Did you find them?
37:33Robert Ferg.
37:35Yeah, yeah.
37:35There's tons of them.
37:36Don't you just feel like the magic of it?
37:40Yeah.
37:42I need to get a selfie with Megan's grandfather.
37:45Here they are.
37:47You got your family?
37:48Uh-huh.
37:50Andrew Wallace Cunningham.
37:51There he is.
37:52You got him?
37:52I got him.
37:53Don't tell me we're like on either side of the wall.
37:55Is that perfect or what?
37:57Yeah, yeah.
37:57You're right there.
37:58We're right here.
37:58We didn't even plan this.
37:59This is amazing.
38:05These people?
38:06In that big circle?
38:08They made that.
38:09They built it.
38:10They made that.
38:12That's unbelievable.
38:13Isn't that great?
38:14Yeah.
38:15Well, my grandfather made the shoes.
38:17Yeah, what?
38:18I'm making the shoes for all the people who make that.
38:20He made the shoes and the boots and my grandmother made the clothes.
38:22I'm going to come through here.
38:24Oh, my God.
38:25I'm going to make all the shoes for all the people.
38:28Please, the wall is weeping.
38:29They can't take it.
38:31So, the word immigrant, you've said this, it's a...
38:36It's a word of honor.
38:38It is a word of honor.
38:39And a word of honor comes with a bond.
38:44And it's a sacred bond.
38:46You come here, and you own it too.
38:51It belongs to all of us.
38:54Not one group, not one family, not one person more than another.
38:58It belongs to all of us.
39:01Bring the good stuff from where you're from and leave the crap where it was.
39:07This is the new world.
39:08Bring your heritage, bring your culture.
39:10Bring it.
39:10But bring an open mind.
39:12Because it's America.
39:31All right.
39:34You ready for this?
40:12I came to America with the crazy dream of making it in show business.
40:16And guess what?
40:18I still might.
40:19It's America.
40:20America.
40:20And this dance keeps going.
40:23In the meantime, if I do nothing else on this show, I want to illuminate for my fellow Americans the
40:30thrill and exhilaration that comes from joining the land of the free.
40:35If this sounds trite, I don't give a rat's ass.
40:39I believe America truly is the best idea for a country that anyone has ever come up with so far.
40:47We are from everywhere.
40:49We are not just a nation.
41:04We are not just an ethnicity.
41:05We are a dream of justice that people have had for thousands of years.
41:12America made us.
41:14And we made America.
41:31All right.
41:33Back to Scotland then.
41:36We're Shrek and Fiona.
41:37We're here all week, everybody.
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