Westward. Encounters with Swiss American Women

Rosa wanted to discover something new: Why not America? “At that time the immigration laws were not as strict as later. Due to the system of quotas I could apply for a Green Card.”

“Are you ready?” the official in the American Consulate asked. The Consulate’s answer to her application for immigration had come surprisingly fast. Too fast! She hadn’t expected an answer so soon. “No, I said at first, I can’t leave within two months. Mother was desperately unhappy. ‘Mommy, I will just go for four months’, I comforted her. And I really meant it.” Then everything went very quickly. Rosa gave notice, filled two suitcases with clothes, shoes and a few books and on November 12, 1959, flew to New York via Lisbon. In her purse she had 2,000 dollars, her Green Card and the address of a hotel in Manhattan. She thought, “I will use up my money and then we’ll see.”

New York – breathtaking and exciting. Rosa knew nothing and no one. But she was determined and without fear. “A hotel room on Times Square had been reserved. I didn’t know that Times Square at that time was so infamous. I didn’t like it there, and after a few days I moved into a boarding house owned by a man from Austria. But he had his eye on me and continued to bother me so that I had to move, this time to another place on West 72^nd Street. The room with a heater and a small kitchen felt like a small piece of home.”