2g. Develop a question or topic of your own that refers to course texts and varies objectives. Acknowledge course objective(s) relating to your subject.  

Charles Colson

10 July 2010

Immigrants: A Threat to American Identity?

          The title of our text, Imagining America: Stories from the Promised Land, combines a couple of literary allusions.  It suggests not only the biblical exodus and journey of the Jewish people (with all the subsequent appropriation of the trope by various European immigrant groups), but it hints at Benedict Anderson’s concept of the nation as an imagined community.  When immigrants come to America they are entering not only a political community but a social community.  They bring with them not only a multitude of preconceptions but a plethora of cultural distinctives.  Simply adding their physical presence does not guarantee membership in the community that exists in the imaginations of the immigrants that came before them, yet people cannot live together without some things “rubbing off.”  While our seminar has considered the ways immigration and assimilation have affected the cultural identities of new arrivals, an equally important but less explored question is contained in the sixth course objective: how have immigrants changed America?  The answers can be found in material manifestations of our culture such as work, play, religion, and politics.

The “Puritan” work ethic has been considered one of the foundational characteristics of American culture.  The willingness to work hard in order to achieve material success is part of virtually every immigrant narrative.  Participation in the world of work has changed since the Puritans arrived in 1620 however.  European Jews who arrived in the late nineteenth century such as Max Goldstein (“The Breadgivers”) and Gitl (Yekl) got their start in small retail settings.  In the latter half of the twentieth century their descendants have made major contributions in the arts and entertainment industry.  Some historical niche business startups are almost proverbial—the Chinese laundry, the Italian restaurant.  The contemporary equivalent might be gasoline/convenience stores run by South Asians or Mexican restaurants.  “In the American Society” provides a twist: a pancake restaurant run by a Chinese immigrant.  Some businesses have become dependent on the presence of immigrants.  Western Union would have been superseded with the telegram if not for money orders remitting the hard-earned pay of landscaper laborers, masons, and sheetrock hangers to families in Mexico and Central America.  San Francisco’s Chinatown is now a major tourist destination.  Immigrants have changed American by contributing to its economic growth.

Language and food are quintessential markers of culture.  Language proficiency is considered essential for education (and hence, indoctrination into American values).  It is interesting to note that the proponents of English-only initiatives never include provisions to fund the English as a second language and bilingual education programs that might aid assimilation.  Nevertheless, such programs have become regular features of the American public education system.  Mrs. Hamma (“The English Lesson”) doesn’t seem to realize that her students have a more sophisticated understanding of life in American than they are able to express with their limited language skills.  English fluency will enable them to participate more fully in the society.  While Max Goldstein’s cry of “Pay cats coals” might have been enough to get him started, he did not stop there.  Shrewd economic motives have prompted stores and businesses to provide Spanish language signs, product labels, and phone menu options for those who are still more comfortable in their first language.  Similarly, grocery stores have recognized the demand for familiar ethnic foods and have begun to supply them.  Fatima and Ali (“Thank God for the Jews”) can find what they need at Halal Meats on Lexington in Manhattan or buy from the kosher section at Grand Union or Pathmark.  Americans have begun to appreciate the food immigrants brought to America and the number and variety of international restaurants has increased dramatically since World War II.  Sharing food, like sharing conversation, is a long-established method of demonstrating trust, signaling friendship, and getting to know people.

Entertainment is big business in the United States.  Not only has American popular culture been exported around the world, but it has become more international as a result of immigrant and minority contributions.  The commercial success of blues, jazz, hip-hop, and rap is probably the most notable example of the dominant culture’s incorporation of the “other,” but Latino artists have also become a major presence on the music scene.  American baseball and football have been joined on television and the sports pages by soccer (what the rest of the world calls “football”).  The presence of immigrants has contributed to the emergence of youth soccer leagues and school soccer teams.  The uses of leisure time and the occasions that call for time away from school and work are indicators of what a culture considers important.  St. Patrick’s Day achieved its status in the United States due to Irish immigrants who wanted to recall their cultural heritage.  American bar owners readily appropriated Irish cultural symbols to increase business (though Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night gives some support for the part alcohol plays in Irish culture).  Similarly, Cinco de Mayo, the commemoration of a Mexican nationalist victory over French forces at Puebla, was appropriated to sell more beer and tequila to Americans who knew nothing of Mexican history.  To the dismay of some traditionalists, in the late twentieth century American school curriculum began to recognize other holidays besides the Christian Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter.  Hanukah was added to the calendar, along with multicultural holidays such as Kwanzaa, Chinese New Year, and Ramadan.

When American families get together for the holidays, they often avoid divisive topics such as religion and politics.  Like the recognition of holidays, the public presence and subsequent acceptance of other religions is a way that immigrants have changed America.  Al Smith’s Catholicism was a major issue and may have contributed to his loss in the presidential contest with Herbert Hoover.  Nearly thirty years later, a Catholic descendant of Irish immigrants named John Fitzgerald Kennedy was successful in his bid for the presidency.  Catholic churches and Jewish synagogues are part of the landscape even in the largely Protestant Bible belt.  By the beginning of the twenty-first century, Islamic mosques had joined Buddhist and Hindu temples on American streets.  Jayanti and her Aunt Pratima (“Silver Pavements, Golden Roofs”) have a place to worship.  Not only were the religions of immigrants being recognized in public life, but members of the “dominant” Anglo culture were converting to Islam and Buddhism.

Perhaps more fundamental is the modification of the U.S. Constitution.  Though Indians and blacks were not counted as fully human at the nation’s beginnings, the thirteenth and fifteenth amendments to the U. S. Constitution laid the foundation for change.  Civil Rights legislation nearly a century later allowed more participation.  Political recognition of American minorities was complicated by the color code but may be related to acknowledgement of their cultural and military contributions to the country.  First and second immigrant generations have different views on the military service obligation in “El Patrón.”  Señor Martínez fought the Japanese as a Marine corporal out of a conception of civic duty; nineteen-year-old Tito engages in civil disobedience because he objects to the Gulf War on principle.  Uncle Lawrence (“American Horse”) has a shelf of war medals to show for his physical disabilities.  As a result of African-American and Mexican-American population growth, changes in electoral districts, campaign patterns, and legislative considerations followed.  The election of President Barack Hussein Obama, representing a combination of immigrant and minority success, is certainly a milestone in American history.

According to Russell A. Kazal, the concept of assimilation (and an Anglo-American “core” culture) has gone out of fashion among historians and even the general public.  “When diversity is a watchword, nothing seems so wrongheaded as identifying an American norm, let alone bringing all Americans into line with it” (437).  The work of theorists from literature and cultural studies may help us understand why this is so.  Antonio Gramsci’s concept of cultural hegemony, Pierre Bourdieu’s work on public education and popular tastes, Claude Levi-Strauss and his concept of bricolage for construction of meaning, Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of culture as a many-voiced conversation, and Michel Foucault’s emphasis on the role of “discursive practice” in reinforcing domination all provide insights into the workings of the process of cultural exchange and fusion that has reshaped American culture.  Selective appropriation and incorporation of elements from immigrant cultures is continually transforming the mosaic of American identity.  Immigrants make America exceptional.

Works Cited

Brown, Wesley and Amy Ling, eds. Imagining America: Stories from the Promised Land. Revised ed. New York: Persea Books, 2002. Print.

Cahan, Abraham. Yekl: A Tale of the New York Ghetto. 1896. White n.p. Web.

Candelaria, Nash. “El Patrón.” Imagining America: Stories from the Promised Land. Ed. Wesley Brown and Amy Ling. New York: Persea Books, 2002. 221-228. Print.

Divakaruni, Chitra. “Silver Pavements, Golden Roofs.” Imagining America: Stories from the Promised Land. Ed. Wesley Brown and Amy Ling. New York: Persea Books, 2002. 70-83. Print.

Erdrich, Louise. “American Horse.” Imagining America: Stories from the Promised Land. Ed. Wesley Brown and Amy Ling. New York: Persea Books, 2002. 210-220. Print.

Jen, Gish. “In the American Society.” Imagining America: Stories from the Promised Land. Ed. Wesley Brown and Amy Ling. New York: Persea Books, 2002. 158-171. Print.

Kazal, Russell A. “Revisting Assimilation: The Rise, Fall, and Reappraisal of a Concept in American Ethnic History” American Historical Review, 100.2 (1995): 437-471. JSTOR. 2 July 2010.

Mohr, Nicholasa. “The English Lesson.” Imagining America: Stories from the Promised Land. Ed. Wesley Brown and Amy Ling. New York: Persea Books, 2002. 21-34. Print.

Naqvi, Tahira. “Thank God for the Jews.” Imagining America: Stories from the Promised Land. Ed. Wesley Brown and Amy Ling. New York: Persea Books, 2002. 229-236. Print.

O’Neill, Eugene. Long Day’s Journey Into Night. New Haven: Yale UP, 1984, 1989. 9

White, Craig. LITR 5731 Multicultural Literature: American Immigrant Literature. English Department. University of Houston Clear Lake, n.d. Web. 9 July 2010.

Yezierska, Anzia. “The Breadgivers.” White n.p. Web.