What it means to be American: A Quest through Naming, Cultural Pluralism and Identity

When I think of America, I think of diversity, a “melting pot” as it is known. And without looking too far for the diversity within America, I can use myself as a personal example. In my personal tree of life. I'm 1st generation Colombian-American on my father's side of the family and predominately 4th generation Russian with a hint of Polish on my mother's side. Although for most of my life I grew up with my Colombian side, which is the culture I associate with. I grew up eating Colombian food watching Spanish TV shows—which was in part how I learned Spanish in the first place—and embracing among other cultural ways of life such as salsa music and dancing. But the question I always got, especially from Hispanic people, was why do I have this "white" last name?

My last name "Cutler" is my great grandfather’s last name from my mother’s side of the family. The story goes that my grandmother, aware of racial discrimination in America, figured that I would have better opportunities and an easier life, without so many obstacles or discrimination, if I had a "white" last name. And disappointingly, to a certain extent, she was right. And although I’m very appreciative of her acceptance towards my Hispanic culture and side of the family, I didn't have the chance to hear this story of my last name from herself as she had passed away later in my teen years when I found out. The issue of my last name has left me confused. Even though I have had the opportunity to change it, it’s just something I feel hesitant of doing as I’ve had this last name for so long and I’m so attached to it that I feel it would be like changing into a new person.

I've realized not only how a name determines how others in society perceive you, but the way you look does as well. In the Fall 2012 semester I took an art history course. One day I began talking with a classmate. And usually in conversation as you try to get to know the person more, some more impulsive than others, may ask you "where are you from?" And I have always had a problem with that question because, in my experience at least, it implies that you are from somewhere else. In other words, you're not the “typical” American because you look foreign or at better yet because you’re not white. And I wonder if white Americans would get that same question because when my family talks about coworkers at their jobs or random people they come across in their day to day lives, for example, they’ll describe white people as Americans. And so I don’t know if certain people are asking me where I’m from based off the way I look in a demeaning sort of way or if it is out of sincere curiosity. Also, I’m quite hesitant in answering that question as well, as I don't know if I should stay loyal to my family who were born and raised in another country that, physically, I’m not familiar with and say “I’m Colombian” or should I have the guts and say "I’m American?"

Nevertheless, I understood that what the classmate meant was, “what was my ethnic background?” I responded to the question by sating I was Colombian. She looked back at me and said "Ooooh, yes, I knew you were Hispanic because of your accent." The point of the matter is that I don't have an accent. I was born and raised in the United States and have never been out of the country. And English is my first language, so how can I have a Hispanic accent?

But it wouldn’t make a different if I did have an accent. What I have learned is that to be American you don’t have to look or talk a certain way. My family members have lived most of their lives in the U.S., they have worked hard in this country to achieve their goals and live comfortable lives; they pay taxes, and they are contributors to society in one form or another. Do they not have the right to call themselves Americans because they look Hispanic and have an accent?

Also, another problem I have with appearances is that some people associate those appearances with stereotypes. I’ve had people who reacted to my Colombian ethnicity as a negative thing, usually associating Colombian people with drug trafficking of cocaine, Pablo Escobar and terroristic-guerilla groups such as FARC. But all these things don’t dominate the nation or define who its citizens or cultural decedents are.

Despite all these complications, I'm happy to be American. It would be ignorant of me to follow this now clichéd American heroic narrative, of United States standing for freedom and equality for all. And so I know this country hasn't been, and surely isn't, perfect and has done many horrible things throughout its 230 plus years of history. However, it also has some great things to offer as well. Benjamin Franklin once said that “The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. [But] [y]ou have to catch it yourself.” That is why I still believe in the American project because this country gives opportunities to make better lives, you just have to go for it.

And I know that there are many people who come to this country who believe in that project as well. I can turn to my family who I believe are a prime example of that. I recently asked my dad that why did he come to this country, and he told me that it was to have a better life. And I asked him if he still believed in that today and he said, “of course.” That he would never have the life he has now if it wasn’t for America, finishing off our conversation with the typical patriotic bumper-sticker catchphrase, “God bless America.”

While my family has become more appreciative of the U.S. for the opportunities it has provided for them, throughout my American experience, I have grown closer, more interested in my Hispanic heritage and wanting to preserve it. Even more so, I'm appreciative of the fact that I have a special ethnic background that makes me different and more complex in a pluralistic kind of manner.

Last spring break I flew out with my girlfriend to Los Angeles. And as we were walking  down Hollywood Boulevard on the walk of fame looking for Jonny Deep, I saw all these stars with big names such as Meryl Streep, Morgan Freeman, Walt Disney, Patrick Swayze, to name a few. But the only one I felt compelled to take a picture of was one star: and that was Mario Luis Kreutzberger Blumenfeld (also known as Don Francisco). When I was younger I grew up watching this man in Sábado Gigante. I learned Spanish with the help of Don Francisco. And though at some point in my life I stopped watching it, I still watch it today every Saturday with my family. It is like our tradition. It is the only Hispanic show that we watch. Even though I'm watching it less and less because the segments get too repetitive, I feel a connection with that show as I do with my Hispanic heritage.  

There was a time couple months back that Sábado Gigante was promoting products from a German pharmaceutical company called Boehringer Ingelheim. And as Don Francisco is promoting this company he says their slogan as follows:  Nombre Alemán, Corazón Latino, which means "German Name, Latino Heart." And my family and I looked at each other and my girlfriend comments on how that is Don Francisco in reality. Because he has this German name, but at heart many things he has done and is doing, is for the Latino people. And I can relate to that because I may have a "white" last name, but my heart is with my Hispanic heritage. Therefore, part of being American is being diverse. To preserve ones culture at heart if one feels that connection.

This country is filled with so much diversity that it is not hard to find. But we need to maintain cultural preservation as constantly I have observed that many people are forgetting their language, their roots, their traditions, their heritage. That is not to say that American culture is my antithesis. I was born and raised in this country and it is normal for me to adopt certain American ways of life, such as horseback riding, and Amusement parks. I just think it’s important that people preserve their heritage.

So what does it mean to be American for me? It is not based off your name or the way you look. It is to be diverse, feel free to embrace your ethnic culture and preserve it. To accept others and their diversity as well—and even learn about it. It is to be positive and hopeful of a better tomorrow, and most of all chase your dreams. But what it means to be American for me is not a "thing." My identity is not a “thing.” It is all a process. What it means to be American for me right now is probably not going to mean the same thing for me later on in the future. I still have much more to learn, not only what it means to be American, but to learn more about myself. 

Here is a link to my video on Youtube. I would be honored to be part of the e-book project:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-aFmpU1HZ8&feature=youtu.be

Reaction to John Prendergast ‘s "How Apple and Students Can Help End the World’s Deadliest War"

You never realize how many horrific things happen in the world until you find out and someone tells you. That is the case with today’s talk "How Apple and Students Can Help End the World’s Deadliest War" presented by human rights activist John Prendergast.  The talk was started off with the shocking and gross reality of how an estimated five and a half million people have been killed within the last twenty years in the Democratic Republic of Congo: what Prendergast describes as the “world’s deadliest war”! But even deeper and more personal than that, he talks about the personal story of a Congoian women, who trying to survive in a country full of mass poverty as a teacher and as a seller of salt from mines, found herself being captured along with other women by militiamen to become sex slaves.

She along with some of the other women was able to run away and eventually found shelter after begging for food. But Rwandan soldiers’ happened to find out their location, tracked them down, captured them, and disturbingly raped them. The story of the woman Prendergast talks about is inspiring as the woman didn’t just give up and didn’t, in the words of Prendergast himself, “let despair take over”. Through her skills as a teacher and her courage and resilience as a human being, she was able to use her experiences to not only make herself stronger, but help other women who went through the same experiences and mentor them. She wanted “peace” and for “rape to end” as Prendergast quoted.   

These sexual assaults being done by militiamen and soldiers without any intervention from the government can leave one in confusion as to why this is happening in the first place. John Prendergast notes that “war happens from greed and grievances”. And because the Congo government, in which Prendergast describes frankly as a “mafia”, benefit economically from the minerals dug up in the mines by women, the Congoian government condones and cooperates with these “looters”.  As a result, these criminals use rape as a method, as a “weapon”, that can socially control and exploit the people and their communities for resources. The Congoian government—along with other African sovereign states—on average is about 60 years old. And so Prendergast makes the point that these types of atrocities happen when a new nation is forming. Although he does mention that there are leaders and activists in Congo who heroically fought (and continue fighting) against these crimes and help the victims. Also, slowly but surely criminals who committed these sexual assaults have been prosecuted in the justice system.

But the main point Prendergast wants to make is that there are things we can do as students, as people, to help put a stop to these terrible acts. He makes a strong case that we as consumers have control and influence over the electronic industries that are the ones that purchase these minerals from places such as the Congo and use them in their products such as the laptops and cell phones we use on a daily basis. Prendergast gave his own personal story he had in convincing Apple, a major leader in the electronic marketplace till this day, of where they are getting the resources from, and in turn, what the atrocities they are contributing to. Prendergast and his team had corresponded back and forth with the one and only Steve Jobs. And ultimately Apple was on board to regulating who they bought resources from creating a domino effect with other companies.

John Prendergast said that “history is altered through social movements, through interacting“.  Because of the knowledge we gain when we learn of these horrific acts committed around the world, and in particular, within Africa, we can contribute by taking actions in a variety of ways. We may not be able to go to the source (in this case Congo’s government), but we can reach out to our elective officials and express our concerns and what we care about, in which through their political influence can ultimately pressure the governments who are doing immoral acts so that those governments can enforce regulations, hold people accountable for the crimes they commit against humanity, and try to prevent it from happening in the future.  U.S. politicians, as Prendergast noted, not only want to hear from students and what they care about because of their own political interests that perhaps one day in the future we would vote for them. But they really care on an emotional level about what students’ want, what we as citizens’ demand. And so if these politicians’ realize that more and more people care about these crimes against humanity and want the U.S. government to address them, then they’ll work on it.

In a less political but more economical manner, we can express our grievances as consumers to the industries by simply writing them and telling them that we aren’t buying those products knowing that it comes from places such as the Congo where women are being exploited to produce these minerals and being sexually assaulted. These companies are constantly surveying and analyzing its target markets in order to understand what the consumers demand and what companies can do to accommodate them. And if they know they’ll lose money because people don’t want to buy their products for these reasons they will without a doubt change their methods.

We can also gather student polls and push towards campus initiatives encouraging universities such as Kean to make statements on behalf of the students’ grievances. We can also keep informed and find and follow organizations that we like who fight for causes around the world, such as John Prendergast’s own EnoughProject. I myself have struggled with the feelings of being helpless when atrocities such as the one in Congo are going on. Now I know that we students have more influence and control over the things that happen in the world. We have a voice.

Further Information:

 http://www.enoughproject.org/

“The Third and Final Continent”: America as a Land of Opportunity, As a Land “Beyond Imagination”

The famous maxim that we as American citizens (and even people worldwide) have known is that United States is the land of opportunity. And this is true in the story “The Third and Final Continent” by Jhumpa Lahiri. Travelling from Calcutta, India, to England, and “finally” to America in the 1960s, the narrator tells the inspiring, optimistic and significant story of his personal journey, assimilation and achievements gained in America. He came to America for a job opportunity to work in the Dewey library at MIT.  At first, the narrator finds himself disorientated, barely understanding how to cope with the cultural changes put in front of him when he arrives to the U.S. in Boston in comparison to his life in London. Although after a while of adapting and accustoming himself to the different changes such as eating cornflakes and milk as consistent meals, he finds himself renting out a room from an elderly woman who lives in a house by herself named Mrs. Croft, who plays a symbolic role in the context of the story.

Neil Armstrong (1930-2012) on the moon in July 1969.
He once said, "This is one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind"

Mrs. Croft can be said to represent a more traditional person in the sense of character, language, wardrobe and culture. But Mrs. Croft as a person represents something much more profound and timeless, which the narrator realizes later on in the story. Mrs. Croft would have the narrator sit down next to her and would comment on how amazing, or better yet, “splendid” it was that an American astronaut made it to the moon, making the narrator reply on how splendid it was as well. From their first interaction, this conversation between Mrs. Croft and the narrator would then become a ritualistic habit in which the narrator will endure out of respect at first but learn to enjoy later on throughout the weeks of living amongst each other.

At the beginning, even since his arrival to America on the plane, the narrator noticed the nationalistic and patriotic sentiment people had when the news was made public that two American astronauts landed on the moon and planted its flag there: as “[s]everal passengers cheered…’God bless America!’” (p. 174). But the narrator didn’t make much of it. From a historical perspective, which the author doesn’t elaborate much on, the Space Race during this time was very significant for citizens of the U.S. in the battling against the Soviet Union and against communism in the Cold War. However, from a more humanistic view, as reflected by Mrs. Croft, this event represents the possibilities of how far humanity can go.

Mrs. Croft was born in 1866, a time when the most deadly war of all times in American history had just ended.  Historian Drew Gilpin Faust shows how the death toll and the gruesome reality of the American Civil War left many Americans devastated by loss and how atrocious the war was, making it difficult for Americans to cope with the aftermath of the war and how to redefine them as a people and America as a nation. And so this was a historic event of human beings “doing the impossible” by landing on the moon in a positive way in comparison to a time when approximately 620,000 men (about two percent or six million dead in the United States population as of 2008) had died (many who not only died from disease but from killing each other in a mechanized, uncompassionate manner). This shows how people can change and how there is no obstacles humanity can’t overcome or limits to how far humanity can go. To paraphrase Dr. Zamora: Mrs. Croft is a “relic” from the past that teaches us  about the present and even shows how far we can go in the future. And the narrator is an embodiment of this relic that is Mrs. Croft.  

A Land of Ethnic Diversity

Meanwhile, the narrator is also awaiting his wife, Mala, to come from India. It was an arranged marriage and although he was aloof to the idea of an arranged marriage he warmed up to her as she did to him, oddly enough through Mrs. Croft. When the narrator introduces his wife to Mrs. Croft she said that Mala “’is a perfect lady!’” (p. 195). This is symbolic in the fact that here is a woman who grew up in the late-nineteenth century with traditional values, and rather than being prejudice (as one may think), she was actually quite open to Mala. And this reflects what the author depicts America as a country: as a land of acceptance. That America does not discriminate. It accepts anyone from any ethnic background and gives them the opportunity to make a better life for themselves: this is indeed a country founded upon immigrants and has, and continues to be, a country made up of people from all sorts of people from all sorts of different backgrounds. Mrs. Croft (as America), in the author’s views, also represents independence. Mrs. Croft had been living by herself and taking care of herself on her own. And the narrator and his family were able to have that experience of independence as well.

Interestingly enough, out of all continents all, the narrator decided to make his home in America. He came to America for an opportunity and made the rest of his life here. He did not grow up in a wealthy lifestyle in Indian (especially after the passing of his father), nor did he live a prosperous life in England, nor did he when he first came to America. But his experience through his travels across the three continents taught the narrator the important lesson to not give up, and overcome any obstacle that got in his way, just like the astronauts did by landing on the moon. Therefore when his son was “discouraged” the narrator told him that “if I can survive on three continents, then there is no obstacle he cannot conquer” (pp. 197-8).  

America gave him a solid job opportunity, helped him connect with his wife, in which he would gain much admiration and love for. It let him keep and embrace his Indian culture while also letting him assimilate in an entirely new one. It gave him his first home, and a son who attends an Ivy League school. America gave him and his family a better life that he couldn’t find elsewhere. While America is not perfect, and while we as American have critiques on the way this country has done things in the past and in the present, ordinary people from all over the world come to America to make a better life for themselves, making their own personal story extraordinary. It is something in the air within mainstream culture that can’t help but depict this country as a “land of opportunity.” And in my opinion, I think there is some truth to that.

Further Readings:

Read on the author's personal life in "Jhumpa Lahiri's Struggle To Feel American," NPR Books, November 25, 2008, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97418330

Interested in the time Mrs. Croft grew up in? Read Drew Gilpin Faust, The Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, New York: Random House, 2008.

Debunking Authority, Debunking Truth: Cha’s “Melpomene Tragedy”

What is objective reality? What is truth? Is there one definitive answer or is life, history and even personal, ethnic and national identity constructed by multiple interpretations? Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (1951-1982) in her chapter “Melpomene Tragedy” from her famous novel Dictee (posthumously published in 1982) addresses these issues of definitive truth and authority in a postmodernistic fashion. Given the colonial context in which Cha grew up with relating to Korea (her place of birth) and the colonial education she has received, she has a lot to say about authority and the way history and life is represented to us. Cha, in a sense, wants to undermine representation and how reality isn’t so straightforward, hence placing the reader, and even herself, in a realm of displacement. And we can see that through the vague manner of not understanding who is exactly the narrator is (except being female).  

In a letter the narrator writes to her mother, which may symbolically represent her motherland (Korea), her language represents authoritarian and deterministic attitudes that she grew up with. But she feels that despite being part of another nation and adopting another language (which is hard not to be part of) the narrator longs to return home. She writes, “Nothing has changed, we are at a standstill. I speak in another tongue now, a second tongue a foreign tongue. All this time we have been away. But nothing has changed. A stand still” (p. 34).

For those who have come from one country and has moved to another, one finds themselves disorientated at first. But slowly but surely we can’t help to begin following that path of embracing a mainstream culture by following certain ideas and ways of life. The narrator sees herself wanting so badly to keep her heritage, her ethnic identity that she had once grew up with. And in her letter to her mother she finds ways to justify that she is staying on that path no matter who else tries to impose another identity on her otherwise. For example, how American culture imposes itself on others. (Given the fact that Cha immigrated to America at a young age from Korea and how America played a role in the Korean War and the splitting of North and South Korea itself during the Cold War in mid-twentieth century, Cha knows firsthand in what that means.)

Imposing a certain set of ideas of what is right and what is wrong through authority is setting us up, as human beings, for failure. We are only seeing one side of the picture. Because there isn’t a right or a wrong answer as some may want to believe, but there are multiple versions and variations of how life is perceived and how we interpret it. And perhaps that is what the narrator was trying to say of American identity being deceiving because they promote democracy (as they had done with South Korea) in everyone having free will and choice, but they are taking away and changing something more valuable and important: their identity.

I pass a second curve on the road. You soldiers appear in green. Always the green uniforms the patches of camouflage [referring to Americans]. Trees camouflage you green trucks you blend with nature the trees hide you you cannot be seen behind the guns no one sees you they have hidden you. You sit you recline on the earth next to the buses you wait hours days making visible your presence (p. 38).   

            … Arrest the machine that purports to employ democracy but rather causes the successive refraction of her none other than her own (p. 41).

We possibly don’t, nor mostly likely can’t, have the answer to the big questions in life, but simply have answers. There isn’t just one form of living, but multiple ways. In which case, living with uncertainty and a life full of possibilities is a choice that we can embrace. And living a determined life ordered by whatever authority is something we can do away with.

Sandra Cisneros “My Name”: The Search for Individuality and Identity in America

Sandra Cisneros’ “My Name” is from her famous novel The House on Mango Street (1984) is an extraordinary text that touches upon themes of displacement, gender inequality, and of identity. Cisneros life and times is interesting, complex, and indeed complicated. And it is easy to see how her personal life translates into this text. Sandra Cisneros (1954- ) was born in Chicago and grew up in a chauvinistic, machista type of culture alongside six brothers, her Mexican mother and father. This made Cisneros feel isolated. She would even state that growing up it was like she had seven fathers instead of one.  Thus, Cisneros didn’t feel as part of that lifestyle and “My Name” is representative to her feelings at the time. Another crucial moment Cisneros also traveled a lot back and forth between Mexico and U.S. which gave her instability of who she was culturally, making feel like she didn’t belong to either. Although it can be interpreted that in her writing Cisneros did embrace biculturalism.

But who is Sandra Cisneros? That is based on interpretation. For example, some websites classify her as an American writer. But on her own website she doesn’t state what she would classify herself ethnically. She just writes how she was born in Chicago and about all the success she made in America through her writing. Yet again, she writes on the Latino experience, is involved in the Latino community and various organizations, and is currently living in central Mexico. Therefore, this is an important question to tackle when trying to understand Cisneros and what it means to be American.

The narrator of this text begins by explaining the definition of her name and how she personally interprets. Cleary doesn’t associate herself with her name because it represents not only represents “sadness” to her, but makes her feel inferior gender-wise. Her grandmother who had her same name (whom she inherited it from) reminds the narrator of that sad hope as she was victim of being mistreated due to the chauvinistic lifestyle that comes with the Mexican culture. The narrator feels that she wants a name that she can personally identify with. She wants to create her own identity, not have an inherited one.

Historically speaking, given that ideas of feminism had flourished influencing Cisneros during the time she wrote the text, the narrator’s break from her name does not only represent her transference to a more American identity but also to lift the stigma of being an inferior sex. As mentioned before, the narrator inherited her name, Esperanza, from her grandmother, which to the narrator “means sadness, it means waiting … [as Mexicans] don’t like their women strong.” Actually in an interview, Cisneros explained how when she was a grad student she created Esperanza when she was “feeling very displaced and uncomfortable as a person of color, as a woman, as a person from working-class background.” Although, writing the novel as a whole she never actually believed the impact she’d make on others. “When I wrote ‘House,’ when I started it, I didn't think I was giving voice to Latino women. I thought I was just finally speaking up. I had been silenced, made to feel that what I had to say wasn't important.”

 Nevertheless, Cisneros and her writing has made a major impact in the Chicano community, to the Chicano literary movement and contributed to the construction of the Chicana identity. The House on Mango Street in particular has sold over two million copies and is read in middle schools, high schools and in universities across the nation. All in all, the text in relation to American identity perhaps suggests that there’s no such thing as being “American.” It’s about finding yourself and who you are as a person and your place as an individual in the world at large.

Further Readings:

Audra McLeod, "Sandra Cisneros: An Interdisplinary Approach to The House on Mango Street,"  http://www.unc.edu/~dcderosa/STUDENTPAPERS/childrenbattles/SandraCisneros.html
Sandra Cisneros own homepage, http://www.sandracisneros.com/

                                          Sandra Cisneros and her early life

Mura’s “Fictive Fragments of a Father and Son”: Be Yourself, Don’t Lose Yourself

When we try to be somebody we're genuinely not, the result is that we end up losing who we really are: our identity. That is the problem that surrounds the story “Fictive Fragments of a Father and Son” by David Mura. The son is attempting to find who he is when he went to visit Japan, the place where his ancestors were from. By doing so, the son begins to historically analyzing who his father was and what has he become throughout time. Another typical prose that the narrator uses is to compare his father’s experiences with his own. One significant part of the text the narrator analyzes is the dropping of the atomic in early August 1945. While many people were celebrating in America of the event, the father seemed helpless, almost as if there is a part of him who feels that what happened in Japan affected in deep down. The father felt the need to ignore and reorient his feelings in a different direction that would justify who he wants to be, his desired American identity. “I am American…[the father] says to himself. I am glad we won…The sounds all over town joyous. He repeats his mantra over and over. He learns to believe it” (p. 352).    

            This event is significant, especially to the son, because it is a moment in which the son admits that “something changed.” It’s interesting because the father wants to be “American,” and despite that this story happened, at least in the son’s perspective, the father would claim these stories of him neglecting his ethnic heritage as stories of “fictions. Completely untrue” (p. 351).  This shows that in a sense the father is embarrassed of denying his ethnic background.

            The story transitions to the son when he attempts to understand his experiences within America. Particularly, the son thinks back to a moment when he found a Playboy magazine that belonged to his father which he described to be typical of American lifestyle: “like many other American boys, I discover my sexuality in the presence of a picture” (p. 353). What is interesting about this line is the language. The son identifies himself being American by saying “like many other American boys.” Although, this line also signifies how complex the term “American” is, as it is vaguely described. Not even the people celebrating the end of WWII are described racially or ethnically.  Nevertheless, the son was surely attracted to the white blonde woman in the magazine. Yet he felt guilty and/or shameful at the time because of that attraction.  Perhaps because of the fact that like his father (who was married to a woman who is “Asian”), the son felt that the white woman (like the white culture in America) is superior, “more prestigious” (p. 353). This also shows how the father, who wanted to be “American” so badly, felt guilt as he had an Asian wife.

The son realized that his father was oblivious to the racism around him. He had really believed he had become American. He had friends who were “less Japanese” and enjoyed American sports such as baseball; the father did not just adopt new lifestyles, he assimilated as much as he could.  Another big moment in the father’s life was his conversion to the Christian church, which not only made the father realize how much he associates with being American and less Japanese, but it sheds light on the narrator’s own personal identity crisis.  

He will convert, he will take up the cross, he will bring us to Church all through my childhood, up until the time we move from our middle class home in Morton Grove to our upper class one in Northbrook, a time when he is finally a vice-president, when religion is no longer needed. By then I will be estranged from the Church, an atheist, wondering what brought him to think a white man must be God (p. 356).

The conversion possibly symbolizes the father conversion to white America and its white God. And since the father, and as a result, his family (including the son), stopped going to church, it left in turmoil of finding his own identity, not completing a full conversion like the father. While the son got older, gained more consciousness and as he’s exploring and thinking back at these past experiences, it makes the son realize how frustrated he is with his father. The father broke from his history, his people and ultimately his ethnic heritage. As the son wrote in a poem, “’my father… worked too hard to be white, he beat his son’” (p. 353).

While the son is trying to make meaning out of his father’s complicated stories of identity, he realizes at the end his father was trying so hard to be something he was not that he has completely lost who he was. He lost his identity. That was his crime. As demonstrated by the breaking down of the father's name from Katsuji Uyemura all the way to Tom K. Mura. The assimilation in Anglo-American culture led to the father to lose himself as a person. The story represents problems of relations in regards to culture, gender, sexuality, relationships (especially between father and son), naming and most importantly the issue of identity within American society. Perhaps what we can learn from this story is something that has been told to us since we were young but is still significant and relevant today: don't be afraid to be yourself.  We often want to fit in within mainstream culture, but it is finding who we are that makes us unique as individuals. But at times that is even hard in itself.

Mukherjee's "A Father": A Struggle of Ethnic Identity and Culture Clash

A symbolic painting on clashing cultures by Nicola Verlato 

Sharati Mukherjee’s “A Father,” is a story that essentially symbolizes the struggle of ethnic identity. Mr. Bhowmick, a husband and father originally from India, comes to America with his more progressive wife (as Mr. Bhowmick would describe her himself) in search for the “American Dream.” However, Mr. Bhowmick, who’s more of a traditionalist, is more spiritually inclined than his wife. Nevertheless, despite spiritual differences, in a way his wife resembles, and is the connection, to his Indian past, now that they have officially settled in the United States. (And the wife too retains some of her traditional beliefs as she still cooks her husband a big breakfast every morning. In other words, she can be seen as he intermediary between Mr. Bhowmick and his daughter, Babli.) Babli, who along with his wife, have become, for the most part, “Americanized,” enriched by a more practical and materialistic lifestyle. In comparison to Mr. Bhowmick who has a more chauvinistic and sexist attitude, believing that women play certain roles in society, Babli represents a more feminist one (possibly due to the fact that this story was written at the peak of the Civil Rights Movement). 

While Mr. Bhowmick is geared toward his ethnic background, it is not to be confused for his appreciation of America. While he admits that America has provided him and his family a comfortable life (materialistically speaking). What really fulfills him in his soul is the culture he grew up with: it is a battle in which for Mr. Bhowmick spiritualism triumphs over materialism. Symbolically, Babli can be seen as his total opposite in the sense of personal views and lifestyle. It can be interpreted that while Babli (as America) can bring Mr. Bhowmick material comfort (as she is a successful engineer) when in need. However, she (as America) cannot bring him the level of comfort and fulfillment as his Indian background does (p. 341).

This brings Mr. Bhowmick to question his own identity, and which culture should he choose. The author allegorically places Mr. Bhowmick in a situation in which he had to choose to ignore the sneeze that his neighbor, Al Stazniak, made, which represented a “start of a journey [that] brings bad luck” in Hindu superstition (siding with American culture), or “admit the smallness of mortals, undo the fate of the universe by starting over, and go back inside the apartment, sit for a second on the sofa, then re-start his trip” (siding his original Indian culture). To his rationale “[c]ompromise” and “adaptability” is what made sense to balance “between new-world reasonableness and old-world beliefs” (p. 342). (This makes sense because he had already compromised a spiritually fulfilling life of “truth, beauty, and poetry” in India for materialistic life in America.)

Nonetheless, he chooses to go with what he was comfortable and decides to go back inside his home and pray to un-jinx the superstition. As a result, he happens to overhear his daughter vomiting. Many different reasons for why she is vomiting races through Mr. Bhowmick’s mind. His ultimate conclusion is that Babli is pregnant. He kept quiet about it until he found his wife attacking Babli over the pregnancy, as she was not impregnated by a man in the “traditional” fashion (the wife going back to her cultural roots despite being described as progressive). In contrast, before Mr. Bhowmick finds out that Babli got pregnant, he tried to keep a positive, more progressive attitude. But of course, his true ethnic background overcame that, as with the sneeze aforementioned, when he did come to find out the method in which Babli was impregnated: through a donor. And even though Babli was in favor of it, Mr. Browmick was the one who ended up attacking his daughter: it was a clash between cultures. While this story speaks to the reality of how people through different cultural backgrounds clash. What we can learn from this story is to attempt to be more open-minded to cultures and possibilities, not only to make us more tolerant but wiser as well.  

Carlos Bulosan's "I Would Remember": My Response

Some go through life without much suffering. While other pass through it in heartache and agony, surrounded by failed moments of happiness and especially death. This is the case with the life of Filipino writer Carlos Bulosan. After his mother had died giving birth to his new little brother, Bulosan as a child couldn't help but struggle with the tough questions that many of us ask when we lose a loved one: what is the meaning or purpose of life and death? Bulosan contemplates his mother death and his new brother’s birth in an existentialist manner:  “I could not understand why my mother had to die. I could not understand why my brother had to live. I was fearful of the motives of the living and the meaning of their presence on the earth” (p. 28).

Bulosan is consistently surrounded by ambiguity: there are some positive moments in his life, but that is temporarily pushed to the periphery as the dark moments of death overshadow them. It seems as though he lacked stability of friendship with the beings he came across, be it his mother, his carabao, Marco, whom he met on his way to America; Crispin, who Bulosan shared good and bad times with while being in America and also brought him unique reminiscent memories of his homeland; as well as Leroy, who played a very influential role in Bulosan's life and taught him "about living" (p. 32). The moment Bulosan met someone positive, he came across death. Whether from his homeland or in America, he was unable to find peace, stability, and even more so understand the meaning of death. Although, these characters all have symbolic meanings to them, historically tying into his life and times. Nevertheless, the narrator was strong enough to persevere. Perhaps what we can learn from Bulosan is that we shouldn't so much contemplate and understand the philosophy of death, but figure out how to move past it, grow from it, and most of all learn how to live.