YouSaid · the spoken record

Bianna Golodryga

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73

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2022-02-24

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2022-02-24

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1

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1. “About that high school was the discipline that it instilled. We didn't have sports as a school, so we didn't have our homecoming and football games and any of that. But we did have to maintain, like I said, a grade point average. And a community that we built in whether you were acting on stage or you were part of the light crew, the sound crew, stage crew, costume design, everybody had their job and their role. And it was really important to us. And I think for a 14, 15 year old, that's a lot of responsibility to take on.”

   2022-02-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 479 — Bianna Golodryga · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

2. “You know, look, I give my parents so much credit because, again, I go back to never feeling that I was lacking for anything. They put me in ice skating and swimming and gymnastics and what have you. And one of the reasons obviously was to help me come better rounded person or rounded person and thrive in different areas. But also it was good daycare too. What are we going to do with Behana? And I just really enjoyed theater. And I think perhaps if I look into why theater specifically, I think it is a great escape for many people. And it's a challenge to sort of learn about other characters, become that character, have an escape from not that there was much, you know, I had something to escape from necessarily, but a change in a daily reality. And I think as a kid in a high schooler, what I really appreciated.”

   2022-02-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 479 — Bianna Golodryga · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

3. “It is a wonderful school. It remains a wonderful school academically. And while it's a public school, you still have to attain a certain grade point average and you have to audition to get in. And so that had that seemed promising to my parents. They liked that obviously coming from an immigrant family in the Soviet Union. Education was very important for them. They really invested a lot of time in making sure I could go to the best schools and obviously private schools were never an option for them. I did. I went to wonderful public schools in Houston and ended up going to the high school performing in visual arts. And I think another avenue that I don't know if it's being an only child or being an immigrant or another way I found to express myself was through theater as a kid. And so I majored, I auditioned to major in theater, the theater department there, and I got in and my claim to fame is that Beyonce.”

   2022-02-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 479 — Bianna Golodryga · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

4. “And so they really instilled that in me as well. But I would say out of all of the other areas where I wanted to fit in and assimilate, I really took pride in being Jewish and much more than I did being Soviet. And so for me, it was never an issue of having to be forced to do something. I quickly made a lot of friends in Houston. And then, you know, as I went, I moved to college, my parents then moved closer now in downtown. It would have made life a lot easier for me right away, but I'm proud of their success being able to achieve that.”

   2022-02-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 479 — Bianna Golodryga · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

5. “Yeah, we joined a synagogue and the congregation was in downtown Houston proper, which again has a large Jewish community. It was always a trek. It was a 45 minute ride that my mom, my dad, most of my mom, would make sure every Tuesday I go to Hebrew school, I go to Sunday school, we always belong to, and then Friday night, sometimes we go to services as well. So it was really important to my parents. I mean, anybody who grows up sort of an atheist country, like the Soviet Union was no one was able to really practice freely. So my parents didn't grow up having a bar about mitzvah. But, you know, in them, it was more of a cultural tie that you marry someone Jewish and that you continue the faith.”

   2022-02-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 479 — Bianna Golodryga · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

6. “Exactly, it works. It works. I didn't know how to read or write as a kid, so in Russian, so I later, you know, when I was 10 or 11, my parents got a tutor and I learned. But now, of course, and this is so cliche, you hear it from so many immigrant families when they grow up”

   2022-02-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 479 — Bianna Golodryga · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

7. “And so they kept insisting that I speak Russian and I refused. And so, you know, being the good capitalist my dad was suggested that he would start paying me. So $5 a week or whatever it was to speak Russian at home. And so I did. It worked.”

   2022-02-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 479 — Bianna Golodryga · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

8. “Yeah, forever wanted my name to be Michelle Smith. And anytime I had friends come over to my house, I would make sure my parents didn't speak in front of them and didn't speak Russian and make sure we have all American snacks. We never had snacks. It's sort of a telltale sign of an immigrant household. You don't have snacks. All of the food has to be prepared. I wanted to blend in and looking different, sounding different, you know, it just, it made you feel unwelcome at times. And so my parents, on the one hand, as I keep talking about wanting to assimilate and become Americans, they never lose sight of their culture and their background and it was important to them that I learned Russian and speak Russian and as much as they disagreed with the government at the time and communism and all of that and leadership there. They were able to separate that with Russia's Soviet Union's rich history.”

   2022-02-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 479 — Bianna Golodryga · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

9. “It saw firsthand everything my parents were going through, the highs and the lows and the layoffs and the struggles with the language. And you could see sort of even the persecution they would feel from colleagues, whether it's because of their accents or religion or what have you. As a kid, I think I just held it all in and tried not to upset them by telling them what I felt were probably trivial feelings and issues given what they were going through. And as you grow up, you realize, especially becoming a parent yourself, how important it is to just talk and you want to hear your kids. You don't want to hear them just say school is fine. Everything's okay. Don't worry.”

   2022-02-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 479 — Bianna Golodryga · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

10. “It, you know, it had its challenges. And I still have this trait and I come to realize it's probably negative of not wanting to upset my parents or let them down. And this was at a time when they both were managing two jobs at a time, working double shifts and just trying to get by. We were lower middle class and I never felt that I was lacking for anything. I never felt poor at all and I always felt I had everything I needed. But yes, I didn't have a nanny or our babysitter was the Filipino family, the lovely Filipino family that lived next door to us. I would stay with them until midnight and then they picked me up from the bus school bus. And I think I internalize a lot of things as an only child. And I also didn't really have much of an escape given that I was privy.”

    2022-02-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 479 — Bianna Golodryga · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

11. “Up and we had a that my parents bought their first house when I was five years old and a little cul-de-sac and all of our neighbors became my parents' best friends but yes going to school being I think the only Jew in my school if I'm not mistaken for many people I met I was the first Jew they'd ever met and then on top of that you know coming from the quote unquote enemy you know I was called Tommy Spy all the things kids are called and people are made fun of that are you know born in America was going back generations of American families just they have a funny last name someone will always find a reason and and there were just several reasons to make fun of me I guess”

    2022-02-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 479 — Bianna Golodryga · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

12. “Yeah, I was different and an only child growing up in a suburb of Houston, obviously Houston has a rather large and thriving Jewish community, but where we first moved, Channelview, Texas, I don't know. have yet to meet any other Jews from Channelview, Texas, to be quite honest. And on top of that, yes, we were Soviet immigrants. And at the time, in the 1980s, the Soviet Union was the enemy. And somebody named Bianca Rodrigo with parents named Jana Vitali with heavy accents. You know, you stand out like a sore thumb. And it was interesting because my parents met along the way other Russian families. But given where we were, given the lack of, you know, there weren't that many Russian immigrants there. And the reason why parents moved there in general was to assimilate and meet Americans and live next door to Americans. And that was our life growing.”

    2022-02-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 479 — Bianna Golodryga · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

13. “She's an IT. Yeah, she's an IT director and chief technology officer for a major oil company in Houston. And she is just, she's my role model, my rock. I mean, this is a woman who was a schoolteacher in Moldova and came here and developed a NAC for computers and technology and has worked at many large corporations and working her way up the ladder to be chief executive executive at a top Fortune 500 company.”

    2022-02-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 479 — Bianna Golodryga · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

14. “Six months. So my dad cleaned both my parents educated and this is just one of those great immigrant stories where you get goosebumps and only in America kind of thing. But he clean ship barges with parolees. As a job and a way to learn the language. And my mom worked for free at a local daycare mopping the floor so that I could have daycare throughout the day and spend some time with other children and start to learn the language. So my dad ended up getting a job in Houston, an engineering job. So that's how we left Galvison and moved to Houston and they've been there ever since.”

    2022-02-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 479 — Bianna Golodryga · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

15. “And he says, woman, you know, it's just the heat from the engine of the plane. There's no real heat like this. Like no one can live like this. Yeah, wrong. Yeah, you realize that it was still as hot. So the engineering didn't pick that up.”

    2022-02-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 479 — Bianna Golodryga · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

16. “No, and you can imagine what we look like there's a family story that my husband and everyone that knows me has heard many times. But when it was May and when we ended up moving to, we left Rome for New York and then spend the night in New York where my mom and dad and I were dressed in sweaters. It was a brisk spring day. And from New York, we flew to Houston, from Houston, a small plane flew us to Galveston. And as they got off the plane, we walked outside on the tarmac. And my mom, we were all just struck by this heat where she's carrying me and they'd never experienced something like this ever in their lives. So my mom turns my dad and asks her, where did you bring me?”

    2022-02-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 479 — Bianna Golodryga · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

17. “Brighton Beach to New York. It was New Yorker or Los Angeles. With all due respect to New York, I mean, I ended up moving here. I think my parents viewed themselves as contrarian, and if they were going to move to another country, they really wanted to assimilate. And so my dad said to my mom, you know, Shanna, she'd go to New York or Brighton Beach. And that was about it. That was her criteria. They wanted to go somewhere warm and not New York or Los Angeles or a lot of the other Soviet Jews were moving. So Haya said there's a family in Galveston, Texas that would love to sponsor you. And that's how we ended up in Texas, like Fish Out of Water.”

    2022-02-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 479 — Bianna Golodryga · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

18. “Also, I encourage my dad to go to the US. So, Israel was never really in the cards for them. They had always had their eyes set on the US and it was just a matter of where. And so they always tell a funny story. We left where we were allowed to leave the $270, $90 a person. So that's it. And a few belongings, some photographs, mementos, and that's it. And so my parents, as they're walking through the streets of Rome as the immigration process is taking place and the United States at that time is very welcoming to young immigrants, especially with educated young families, it was sort of checked all the marks there. And they kept asking other Soviet Jews where they were moving and where they were going and Haias, the Jewish resettlement refugee agency was our sponsor as they were for so many thousands of others. And my parents kept hearing that people were going to”

    2022-02-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 479 — Bianna Golodryga · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

19. “Yeah, and we left on Israeli visas. And so as many did, as most Soviet Jews left, and of course, once you're going through the immigration process, it was about a month, I think we spent in Rome and then in Vienna as we were going through the formalities of applying for visas and what have you, my parents had always, my dad, I'd always known that he wanted to go to the United States. And I think he had always had it ingrained in him. As much as Soviet propaganda tried to instill in them the sense of fear and greed and corruption and violence and drug abuse in the West, they could see through it. And he and my grandfather, who fought in World War II, a decorated veteran, had been a huge fan of the United States. In fact, I think he was just anti-anything Soviet. So even during the Olympics, he had always been rooting for America or anybody who Russia, the Soviet Union, was playing.”

    2022-02-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 479 — Bianna Golodryga · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

20. “Exactly. They got very serious very early. And they were part of the wave of Soviet Jews leaving the country at the time and going primarily to the United States, but also Israel. I was 18 months old when we left Moldova.”

    2022-02-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 479 — Bianna Golodryga · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

21. “I wish I could claim credit for this. This was solely my parents' decision in 1980. They had been newly married. I was born a little over a year after they were married. And they had my dad in particular had always yearned to move to the West and to the United States in particular just for more freedom, both economically and personally as Soviet Jews. You were only allowed to achieve to a certain degree in terms of both an education and career in Russia, in the Soviet Union. And he yearned for more and he had the support of his parents. And so when he first met my mom, they had a six-month courtship. And the first thing he said to her was, I'm planning to move to the United States. So unless you're serious about joining me, probably shouldn't be dating. And she said, of course, let's do it.”

    2022-02-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 479 — Bianna Golodryga · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

22. “But anyway, go ahead. I was born in Moldova, which is a small independent country to the west of Ukraine sandwich between Ukraine and Romania. And obviously it was part of the Soviet Union. And they also are experiencing similar separatist disruption in a region there, Transnistria, which is to Moldova's east and west of Ukraine. And it's a similar story. You have a country, a small, poor, one time was the poorest country in Europe. And they have a economy that's starting to pick up. A democratically elected president who has been very impressive over the past few years in making it clear that she is hoping to align the country more with the West, with Europe. And she now along With so many other European leaders are scrambling to try to bring an end to what we're seeing in Ukraine.”

    2022-02-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 479 — Bianna Golodryga · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

23. “Yeah, well, first of all, it's good to be with you. It's an honor. This is one of my favorite shows, and I told you that repeatedly over the past few years, so I'm thrilled to be joining you”

    2022-02-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 479 — Bianna Golodryga · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source