outside, fresh pupusas are being made on a hot griddle. jonathan's mom nina makes a dish of jellyfish, shrimp and pork, tossed with mint, carrots, red onion and peanuts, dressed with nuoc mam, the pungent vietnamese fish sauce. and mee kang, a rice noodle dish from central vietnam made with pork ribs, shrimp and chilies. very mixed up meal here. >> sylvia: yeah! >> anthony: awesome. lll did you speak english when you arrived here? >> sylvia: oh, not a word. i couldn't even say hi. so i learned it literally within a year. >> anthony: yup. >> sylvia: because i had to. by fifth grade, this one teacher miss spikes just made me feel like i was the smartest little thing in the whole world. she built up my confidence that i could do anything. >> jonathan: you know, we learned how to speak spanish first before we learned how to speak english. >> anthony: of course. so you came over in '78, did you say? >> jonathan: late '77. i was 10 years old. and we literally left on -- i wouldn't call it a boat, it was more like a raft. >> anthony: a raft.