Heather Minette Schutmaat

The New World Immigrant Narrative: A Fusion of Immigrant and Minority Narratives

One of the most interesting and unique narratives I have read throughout my study of multicultural literature, as both an undergraduate student of Humanities and a graduate student of Literature, is that of the New World Immigrant. As I discussed in my midterm essays, the American Immigrant Narrative and American Minority Narrative often overlap in terms of “discrimination and marginalization by the dominant culture on account of racial and cultural differences” yet they differ greatly in terms of voluntary vs. involuntary participation (objective 3d). However, for New World Immigrants, which include Mexican Americans, other Latinos, and Afro-Caribbeans, their identities do not completely fit the model immigrant or the minority identity. Instead, they find themselves somewhere in between, or combine elements of both experiences, and the New World Immigrant Narrative becomes a fascinating fusion of both Immigrant and Minority Narratives (objective 3e).

Like Old World Immigrants, New World Immigrants voluntarily leave their country of origin and enter the United States for economic progress, human rights, or in short, the opportunity for a better life. Yet, like American Minorities, New World Immigrants often resist assimilation to the dominant culture. The reasons for resisting assimilation are “past historical experience of involuntary contact and exploitation by the USA,” the color code, and in some cases, their proximity to their country of origin.

Involuntary Contact

A powerful representation of involuntary contact and exploitation by the United States is Lorna Dee Cervantes poem “Poema para los Californios Muertos” which demonstrates the United States’ invasion and conquest of Mexico. Cervante writes, “The high scaffolding cuts a clean cesarean / across belly valleys and fertile dust. / What a bastard child, this city / lost in the soft / llorando de las madres / Californios moan like husbands of the raped, / husbands de la tierra, / tierra la madre.” In this stanza, Cervantes’ use of words such as “cesarean,” “belly valleys,” “fertile dust,” “child,” “raped,” and “tierra la madre” which translates to “the mother land” evoke images and feelings of purity and innocence that are corrupted by the United States, as well as the profound loss “Californios” experienced when their territory was taken from them.

Another reference of the New World Immigrants’ past experience of involuntary contact and exploitation by the United States is in the short story “How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie” by the Dominican American writer Junot Diaz. In this satirical short story, which reads as an instruction manual for young Dominican American males on how to date a girl depending on her race and class, Diaz refers to the United States military intervention in the Dominican Republic:

Supply the story about the loco who’d been storing canisters of tear gas in his basement for years, how one day the canisters cracked and the whole neighborhood got a dose of the military-strength stuff. Don’t tell her that your moms knew right away what is was, that she recognized its smell from the year the United States invaded your island. (IA 277)

The involuntary contact represented in Cervantes’ poem and Diaz’s short story reflect the American Minority experience, as this kind of contact and exploitation by the United States “can be compared to the U.S. dominant culture intruding on American Indians” or the dominant culture’s oppression of African Americans.

            As we have examined in the Traditional Immigrant Narrative, Old World Immigrants generally submit to assimilation, “a process by which distinct ethnic groups become more like other Americans, especially in terms set by the USA's dominant culture” (objective 2a). We see this complete process of assimilation in stories such Gish Jen’s story “In the American Society” as well as in Early European Immigration stories such as “Yekl: A Tale of the New York Ghetto” by Abraham Cahan. However, historical experiences of exploitation by the United States often cause New World Immigrants to resist assimilation like American Minorities rather than embrace the dominant culture like Old World Immigrants.

            A perfect example of resistance to assimilation for this reason is in the short story “The English Lesson” by Nicholasa Mohr. In this story, an English class of adult immigrants is giving oral statements about where they are from, why they are taking the course, and what their plans are for the future. Like Old World Immigrants, the students “All had similar statements. They had migrated here in search of a better future…” Therefore, “The Lesson” certainly resembles an Immigrant Narrative. However, “among the legal aliens, there was only one who did not want to become an American citizen, Diego Torres, a young man from the Dominican Republic, and he gave his reasons.” In Diego’s statement that follows, Mohr illustrates why Diego resists assimilation:

" . . . and to improve my economic situation." Diego Torres hesitated, looking around the room. "But is one thing I no want, and is to become American citizen . . . . I no give up my country, Santo Domingo, for nothing . . . I come here, pero I cannot help. I got no work at home. There, is political. The United States control most the industry which is sugar and tourismo. . . . Someday we gonna run our own country and be jobs for everybody. My reasons to be here is to make money, man, and go back home buy my house and property. I no be American citizen, no way. I'm Dominican and proud! That's all I got to say." (IA 25)

In this passage, the character Diego Torres is expressing an immigrant attitude in stating that he has come to the United States in order to improve his economic situation. On the other hand, he is voicing a minority attitude in stating he does not want to assimilate or become an American because of negative foreknowledge of the United States. This simultaneous expression of both attitudes is what characterizes the New World Immigrant, as Diego finds himself “’in-between’ or creating a new immigrant identity that doesn’t completely fit the model immigrant or the minority identity.”

The Proximity of Home Countries

While “early examples of American immigrant literature or the immigrant narrative usually start from the ‘Old World’ on the other side of an ocean,” New World countries are closer to the United States, and such proximity also plays a role in resisting assimilation. In other words, while the vast, physical distance between the Old World and New World made it easier for Old World Immigrants to leave the past and their countries of origin behind, for New World Immigrants, “nearness of a home country makes the break with old world and old identity less complete.” Kristin Hamon explores this difference between Old World Immigrants and New World Immigrants in her thesis introduction:

The normative plot of the immigrant places the protagonist in situations where one’s old identity is adapted to a new world by accomplishing certain tasks (e.g., hard work) and the conquest of certain obstacles (a new language or livelihood). But what happens when an immigrant protagonist diverges from these expectations? Compared to the archetypal immigrant journey from the old to new world, many Mexican American narratives defy a path of automatic or total assimilation. The historical base of this difference from other immigrants is the continuous physical border between Mexico and the United States and the mixed identity the border creates.

As Kristin Hamon further explains, the role that the proximity of a country of origin plays in resisting assimilation is most prominent in the Mexican American Experience. However, such proximity also plays a role in the narratives of other western-hemisphere immigrants such as Diego Torres in “The Lesson” who plans on making money in The United States and then returning to the Dominican Republic to buy a home and property. Moreover, the nearness of a New World Immigrant’s country of origin ultimately results in the new world immigrant preserving his or her culture rather than fully assimilating, which differs from the Old World Immigrant Narrative, and is more characteristic of the American Minority Experience.

The Color-Code and the Afro-Caribbean Experience  

             Throughout American Minority Literature, we see the color code play a significant role in the oppression and discrimination of African Americans. As I discussed in one of my midterm essays, “Through assimilation, immigrant cultures become ‘unmarked’: ethnic markers (distinct language, clothes, hair, makeup, perfumes) disappear.” However, “minority cultures may remain ‘marked’ by physical differences (skin color, body styles, facial characteristics) and cultural styles” making it more difficult for American Minorities to assimilate. These distinct physical markers include, “the color code.” A firm example of such discrimination based on skin color is in Frederick Douglass’s narrative when he says, “When I got through with that job, I went in pursuit of a job of calking; but such was the strength of prejudice against color, among the white calkers, that they refused to work with me, and of course I could get no employment.” Although Mexican Americans are affected by the color code to some extent, it plays a more significant role in the experiences of Afro-Caribbeans because of their physical similarities to African Americans.

Afro-Caribbeans certainly fit into the category of immigrants as they come to United States voluntarily with “immigrant attitudes of individual progress, assimilation, and the American Dream,” yet they also suffer the consequences of the color code because of their dark skin color. Owing to the color-code and the white-black dichotomy of early USA, Afro-Caribbeans may be regarded by the dominant culture “less as normal immigrants than as African American minorities.” In the poem “America” by Claude McKay who immigrated from Jamaica to the United States in 1912, we are delivered classic immigrant language describing America, such as “Her vigor flows like tide into my blood.” However, in McKay’s other poem, “The White City” he writes, “My being would be a skeleton, a shell, / If this dark Passion that fills my every mood, / And makes my heaven in the white world’s hell.” Although we feel the awe of America in “America,” the second poem “The White City” allows us to see that because he is associated with American Minorities, his immigrant experience is compromised. Furthermore, because Afro-Caribbeans are also faced with color discrimination, they “may assimilate to African American culture rather than to the dominant culture formed by other immigrants.”

Hybrid Identity vs. Loss of Identity

While the experiences of New World Immigrants are undoubtedly similar in terms of past historical experience of involuntary contact and exploitation by the USA, as well as resistance to assimilation and their relationships to the dominant culture, I believe an important and interesting question to ask is how the identities of New World Immigrant differ. Though I haven’t read a sufficient amount of New World Immigrant Narratives to approach a definite conclusion, I found it striking the way that the identity of the Dominican American narrator of Junot Diaz’s short story “How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie” differed so immensely from the voice of Sonia Guevara’s essay “Being Mexican American.”

            In Junot Diaz’s story, the narrator seems to have a hybrid identity, encompassing such multiplicity that he is able to manipulate his identity to fit particular situations. In contrast, Sonia Guevara’s essay conveyed a sentiment of considerable loss, particularly when she says, “There is a Spanish phrase that goes like this, ‘Ni de aqui, ni de alla.’ Roughly translated this means, ‘not from here, and not from there.’ And that’s exactly how I feel. Where am I supposed to feel completely comfortable? Houston is not a home. There’s no family, there’s nobody to share anything with, but Mexico doesn’t really like me either. I sometimes find myself feeling completely lost in this world.” This question of identity is something I intend to explore beyond the course, but also serves as a reminder that while we unite narratives under labels such “Immigrant Narrative” and stamp immigrant groups with titles such as “New World Immigrants” because of the similarities of their experiences, each immigrant narrative is still as unique as the individual who writes it.