From Tehran to Oregon: Mitra's Journey of Resilience

Mitra Vazeen shares her compelling journey from Tehran, Iran, to Astoria, Oregon.

As a young teenager, with only a handful of English words in her vocabulary, she faced significant challenges but ultimately developed a profound love for the United States. 

As political turmoil enveloped Iran, Mitra's educational pursuits led her from Iran to the UK, and finally, to the US, where she fought to stay amidst immigration hurdles. 

Her dedication culminated in receiving a master's degree from George Fox University, funded by ingenious eBay sales.

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[00:01] Jan: Are you looking for an inspiring listen, something to motivate you? You've come to the right place. Welcome to women of the Northwest, where we have conversations with ordinary women leading extraordinary lives, motivating, inspiring, compelling. Welcome to women in the northwest. Today, my guest, my extraordinary woman guest is Mitra Vazeen. Welcome, Mitra.

[00:27] Mitra: Thank you, Jan.

[00:29] Jan: So you did not grow up in the United States?

[00:34] Mitra: No, I did not. I was born and raised until I was about 16 years old in Iran, Tehran, Iran. I was born in a big capital city of Tehran, but my relationship starts with the United States. When I was 13 years old, my uncle was the acting Iranian ambassador in Washington, DC. And that summer, one summer, my uncle and my family, we met in London, you know, and my father was talking to him and saying how much he wanted me, you know, to improve my English. So my uncle offered that I could go and stay with them for a year and go to a junior high school. Of course, I had nothing to say. I didn't have a vote. Next thing I knew, I was on the plane with a diplomatic visa entering the United States. So we lived in Bethesda, Maryland. My aunt took me to a junior high, they called them in those days. Maybe they still do. But now it's middle school, and I was enrolled at an 8th grade. I probably knew ten words in English. It was very difficult. So the first day when I went to school, I very clearly, vividly remember this, that one of my teachers was trying to ask me that if Iran has a lot of oil. And I didn't know what oil meant, so I had to come. I asked him to ride it so I could come home and ask my cardinal cousins, you know, what oil meant. So it was very difficult. But that's where my love affairs started, with the United States. From the time we went through the drive through and the freeways and, you know, and that was 1970. And in 1970, Iran was still a very developing country, still considered third world. And. But I was lucky to have been born in an affluent family, you know, upper middle class. And so the fact that my parents used to take us, you know, to European trips, you know, it helped me, you know, but. So that was my year of 8th grade in around Washington, DC. Then we would go to Delaware, Rehoboth beach, you know, and just have fun. I just love the United States. So I went back to Iran, and by this time, my English had had improved and my father was able to enroll me at an international school in Tehran. And I'm sure you are familiar with them, and so the international school of Tehran at that time was for the children of ambassadors and diplomats and business, foreign businesspeople who could not go, you know, like, to Persian schools because all of our subjects were in English. And to tell your whole life and times have changed is that when I was going to the international school in Tehran, they were a lot of Israeli students and they were our good friends. You know, in those days, Israel had an, I see. Ambassador in Iran. They had their airline office ll, you know, it was just like, things were, things were like, I can't relate to what's going on now, but at any rate, so then when I graduated from high school, a revolution was taking over in Iran. And I went to, things were starting to happen. You know, it wasn't a total, you know, overthrown of the shah's regime. So I went to a private college in Richmond outside of London for two years and studied political science because my mother and I were in agreement that I needed to be an ambassador. I worked for the foreign service following the. I know.

[04:42] Jan: In your dad's footsteps.

[04:43] Mitra: Yeah. My uncle, you know, my father was the, he was trained here in the fifties by the inter pole and police department. And so his last post was he was the representative of the police department in the parliament of Iran. But, you know, when you are a teenager, you don't have too many accords with your parents. But this was like, yes, I wanted to go to foreign service. So I was studying political science in London, and I could have gone, you know, and studied in Europe and got a bachelor's degree, but I had a good taste of the United States, that I wanted to come back. So I told my parents that I wanted to go to the states and get my bachelor's degree. Well, then when I, I went to the University of Akron, Ohio, they were, they were a group of university chancellors and vice presidents that they were the guest of the Shah of Iran. And I got to meet some. And because I hadn't made up my mind, you know, there was a revolution going on and whatnot. We really didn't know what we wanted to do. So I met the provost at the University of Akron, Ohio, and he said that he could enroll me at the university. So I got there end of September, early October, late for all my classes, you know. So what happened was I got incomplete in some of my classes. And in order for me, I went with a student visa. You know, I went to the us embassy in Tehran and got a visa or student visa. So what happened was I had to take twelve or 14 credits. I can't remember how many, but I talked to a counselor and asked there, should I go on to study political science or should I study, like, journalism, mass media communication? And my counselor advised me that I would find more jobs with journalism, you know, in that nature. And so I went into mass media communication, and I didn't know what was I in for, because it requires a good command of the english language.

[07:06] Jan: What year was that?

[07:08] Mitra: It was 1979.

[07:11] Jan: Yeah. And then mass media consisted of. Not a lot of the Internet then.

[07:16] Mitra: No, nothing. I was very lucky. Our university had a radio station, and all of my classmates were going there for internship or work-based learning or whatever, you know, practicum, they call it.

[07:31] Jan: Yeah.

[07:32] Mitra: And I was lucky enough to one of my journalism teachers, newswriting. She was just so impressed that I was, like, really struggling to make those sentences. So she was the news director at the radio station outside of Cleveland, WDBN, and she got me a job, like an internship, to work from midnight till the morning, it was four credit hours. And then in the morning, I would go and take another 16 hours classes every week in the summertime. And they registered.

[08:10] Jan: And when did you sleep?

[08:12] Mitra: I didn't. I was really just like a zombie because they had. At that time, they had taken the American hostages in Iran, and there was an executive order from President Carter to not renew our visa. So overnight, we became, as what they call them in those days, illegal alien. And we were paying out of school tuition. We were paying twice as much. It wasn't like now that anyone can go to school for free. So I had to take all these credits to finish. It was my last semester, and studying journalism was very different. Like I said, I had to, like, write everything. And like you mentioned, you know, it wasn't like Google. I could.

[08:56] Jan: No, no Google translate.

[08:58] Mitra: I had to look at every word in the dictionary and write it in my book and try to. But I was, like, tenacious, and I'm gonna do that. And I think it was the best thing I did is studying journalism, even though I didn't get a chance, because every time I wanted to be on the air, they would. In those days, you had an accent. You couldn't get jobs. The best thing was when I became a CEO or, you know, I got jobs. I was very capable of writing memo. I was capable of helping managers who worked under me that. No, you need to use an adverb. Here. You can send this out. You know, we're sending this, you know, to government officials. It's. You know, it's representing what we are doing. So studying journalism really gave me just help me being able to write English well, you know, speak English well, write English well, it gives you a little edge in life. That will always help you. Even when I went on to get my master’s degree, it helped, you know, writing. Yes. So that was good. So when we came here, then we had to stay here. So we went through deportation hearings, this and that. And finally.

[10:22] Jan: So at that point you were living on your own, though your parents weren't with you?

[10:26] Mitra: Yeah, my mother was.

[10:27] Jan: Oh, your mother was.

[10:27] Mitra: My father was in Iran hiding. And finally, I think in 1981, he was able to escape through Turkey and come to the American embassy and come out. They were very difficult times. Our lives had changed. We were introduced to a very working-class life that we didn't know. Even though my parents had brought money from Iran, we had no survivors. We didn't know, like how to, how to be financially conservative or frugality. We didn't know. Right.

[11:07] Jan: Because you always had.

[11:09] Mitra: Yeah, I still, you know, I was still looking for Christian Dior purses, you know, and when I was a student. Whereas I should have. But at any rate, again, that gave us a lesson about garage sales and estate sales in this country that we didn't know, you know.

[11:27] Jan: Yeah.

[11:27] Mitra: So I'm always proud to say that I'm gonna bring you now forward in, let me think. I think it was 1998 that I decided to go back to school at the age of 40 and get my masters. My husband and I moved to Astoria in 1992. We opened the restaurant for a short time and then I started teaching at the college. Few classes like this, sociology teachers education, English as second language. But then I just thought that I needed to go back and get my masters. But my honor and proud thing to say is that garage sales and estate sales paid for my master's.

[12:19] Jan: Really?

[12:20] Mitra: Yes, because eBay had just started.

[12:23] Jan: Oh.

[12:24] Mitra: And I had no computer knowledge. I had never touched a computer. I contacted George Fox University in Newburgh, Oregon. And that's a very nice Quaker school. Very nice. I really enjoyed, I really enjoyed my time at George Fox. And so when they asked me if I had an email, I had no idea if it was sold at a shelf at Fred Meyers or anything. I just said no, but I can get one. So at the time, I think there was an Internet. They had just started an Internet service in Astoria for displaced fishermen. Oh, yes, fishers. Yeah, at the time. So it was 1998. So I went there and I spoke with the director, who was the husband of a friend and very helpful and he said he could set me up with an email. And for someone who's never touched a computer, and I always thought, at 40, who needs a computer? I'm too old. I don't need a computer. I'm not going to ever learn a computer. I took online classes. I was the first, very first few people that took a few online classes. Of course, we had to go take many, many books classes on campus. So I had to go at forties, stay in the dorms. I went through their teachers education program and master's degree. They had some classes at Clatskanie and I, they would send professors to Clatskanie. I. But this is my claim to fame, that my master's degree was paid by garage sales and eBay. I think I sold $60,000 that year, which all went to George Fox. That's how much it cost to do a master's in 1998.

[14:21] Jan: And then you use that to teach your master's. Or did you just.

[14:26] Mitra: No, I got it. I got it. It always gave me an edge when I applied for other jobs because I was more credentialed. What my masters helped me in a way that the discussions, the, like I said, the Quaker way of life, just the fact that no argument is ever resolved until all parties come to an accord. Can you imagine that? What a world it would.

[15:00] Jan: Yes. Yeah.

[15:03] Mitra: Just being pacifist, you know, just they really. I was very happy that I could see a religion, that they were practicing what they preached.

[15:13] Jan: Yeah.

[15:14] Mitra: And I appreciate, I really appreciate that. And in those days, I used to smoke cigarettes. I used to have to step away from the kids, have my cigarettes because there was no alcohol or cigarettes. So that was a really cute experience for me. We lived in Astoria. My husband would drop me Monday mornings and pick me up Friday afternoons. But I really enjoyed my time at George Fox. And I always say I'm a born again American. But I think when I got a degree from George Fox, now I'm also born again Oregonian.

[15:51] Jan: So what brought you to Australia?

[15:55] Mitra: Do you know, I like to swim. And I had heard the water was so cold on the coast here. So every time my husband said, do you want to go to the coast? And I'm like, why do you want to go anywhere near the water where it's so cold and you can't swim? So one day he said, well, let's go. And we came, Highway 26. And I always say I have a very unsophisticated response to why I came to Astoria. We came over the bridge from Warrenton to Astoria. And I saw Astoria and I saw the water, and I said, can we move here? And of course, my husband said, sure, if you like to live here, so we can. Yeah, he was from Seattle, so he enjoyed the water.

[16:42] Jan: Yeah, yeah, it was beautiful. Yeah.

[16:45] Mitra: That was very, very simple how, you know, I fell in love with us. Just the beauty of it. And then, of course, when I came to Astoria, I just loved the people, you know? And it's like when people say mayberry, and I'm thinking, you weren't even here in 1992 when they were. A lot of ant. Bees are still around, you know, it's a nice town. People are darling. But then Americans are good people. But, yeah, especially in the small towns, there is innocence, and I love that innocence, you know.

[17:21] Jan: So being someone from another country and then an immigrant, being an immigrant, has that led you or given you empathy or whatever for more other immigrants in the area? Just the things that they need to learn or they need to find out or figure out?

[17:45] Mitra: The empathy is that when people come to this country, they come for betterment of doing their lives for the betterment, whether it's for political unrest in their own nation or to reach better economic status or standards. So to me, when America is the only place on the earth that has the dream, the American dream. So when people come to the United States in pursuit of the American dream, they have to learn the language, they have to learn the culture, and they have to learn the American way of life. So, and this is what I used to share with my students, and I'm going to give you an example of what happened yesterday. So the empathy is, if you want, you come to America, be an American. In the old days, we had for immigrants the expression the melting pot. We all came to America. We all became very much American. Now, sociologists refer to that concept as it's a salad war. You have the Vietnamese year, you have the Lebanese year, you have the Chinese year. And it's not as much a melting pot. It is a melting pot. It is a melting pot, but it's a.

[19:19] Jan: But it's still separate communities.

[19:20] Mitra: It is separate. And my thesis for my masters was English only for America. And I can be politically incorrect about the language. It's beautiful to speak other languages. Just really nice. Amazing. But if you want to be anybody in this country, you have to know English. And I used to tell my students, if you want to be a dishwasher, why did you come to the States? You know, the sky is just so high that you can be anybody you want. I really believe that in the United States, to some extent, you can do a lot. You can't be anybody you want, because if you don't have the money or the connection or whatever it takes, but it's the land of opportunity. And even in 2024, it still remains the best land of opportunity. And that's why we see a lot of people want to come to this country. But no, I don't have empathy for people to come to this country and use our resources and live like they lived in their own country. I believe that they need to learn English because you see accidents that they can't read one way. There are catastrophes. I mean, it really is catastrophe. And, you know, they're painting here, and they're very nice Latino people. And they said, I asked them, they're Latinos, and some of them are Mexicans. Nice, good working, good work ethic. And their supervisor speaks English very well. And I took liberties yesterday, and I went up to him and I asked him, are these young men, where are they from? And he said, Mexico. And I said, you know, they need to learn to speak English. They absolutely don't know any English. And what it becomes, becomes a survival skill. I think it's a disservice when we tell people, okay, you don't need to speak English. It's a disservice. You want them to stay. You want to get the upper hand, you know? And so he thanked me. I said, and I'm really saying that as a teacher, as a mother, they need to speak English. And, you know, because we have a tendency, even when to think of, I'm a second-class citizen because I have experience. Sometimes when I start speaking, people underestimate me because I have an accent. The sad part is anyone who has an accent, I think they speak another language fluently. They know another language that I don't know. Instead of cherishing that and celebrating that, we tend to think, oh, they're not as smart. Do you know what that now imagine when someone doesn't speak. You know, we want to. I don't want to use any examples that may be not appropriate, but we need to be able to communicate with human beings in, and especially that English is not the global language. English is the language of, you know, planet Earth. We need. We need to speak. So that's the answer to your question.

[22:44] Jan: When.

[22:44] Mitra: Iran. Iran.

[22:46] Jan: Iran.

[22:46] Mitra: Iran is like, I jog, but really, Iran. It's pronounced Iran. Thank you.

[22:51] Jan: Thank you for my corrections.

[22:52] Mitra: Yes, no, that's okay.

[22:55] Jan: Is they're not the ability to become what you want, you know, in the way that we can in America?

[23:02] Mitra: Of course not. Of course. I don't even think in. Even in western European countries, you can be what you want, let alone in the Middle east or Africa or South America. You know, you go to places, and.

[23:22] Jan: So whatever you're born into, that's what you are.

[23:24] Mitra: Yeah. You know, there is not a caste system like it is in India, you know, but because of economic disadvantages, people are not able, you know, to realize their dreams or their needs. Even going to college is not like here, you know? And one of the reasons that I work for job Corps was because in my heart, I think it's patriotic, because it's service to the country, because anytime we do betterment for our communities, we're contributing to less crime, less poverty, you know, we're fortifying the workforce. But for now, you know, I'm volunteering at the college. It's an honor, you know, it's an honor to keep the college doors open. It's not just an education hub. It's also an economic hub. It pays people's, you know, house payments. It's an amazing place. It pays their car payment. It sends their kids to college. And we need, again, you know, they need to be more conservative, fiscal. We really do need to look at the college like, you know, are we gonna do this? If we had to write a check, were we gonna run the college as if it were our own company, you know? Right. So. Yes, the way. Yes. Because when I first came, I started. My first job was at the college. I couldn't find any place else to work or anything, you know, so I started teaching part time at the college, and I loved that. The pay was good, you know, it was something good, you know.

[25:13] Jan: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, and education does raise the level of, you know, your community, you know, in all kinds of ways.

[25:23] Mitra: Couldn't agree with you more. Absolutely.

[25:26] Jan: Yeah.

[25:28] Mitra: Yes. Education is good.

[25:30] Jan: It is. Was there anything else you would like to share?

[25:35] Mitra: I just want to say that I love America. I want to thank Americans for being so generous, kind, opening their hearts and homes to people who come to this country from all the way from Ellis Island to today. And I just hope that we have a better immigration system where people come here with dignity, that they don't have to jump over the fences, that there is law and order and nothing, just like you, you and Ed, beautiful people, and thank you very much. It's been a beautiful journey.

[26:14] Jan: Well, this has been a pleasure. Thank you, Peter.

[26:17] Mitra: My pleasure, Jan. Thank you very much.