Authors: Thomas Dublin
ISBN-13: 9781566394390, ISBN-10: 1566394392
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Temple University Press
Date Published: April 1996
Edition: 1st Edition
More than at any time since the 1920s the issues of immigration and ethnicity have become central to discussions of American society and identity. Becoming American, Becoming Ethnic addresses this contemporary debate, bringing together essays written over the past eighteen years by college students exploring their ethnic roots--from the experiences of their forbears to the place of ethnicity in their lives.
The students range from descendants of Europeans whose families immigrated several generations ago to Asian and Latin American immigrants of more recent decades to African Americans and Hispanics--some have more than one ethnic heritage to grapple with, while others have migrated from one place to another within the United States. Together their voices create a dialogue about the interplay of ethnic traditions and values with American culture.
These are moving personal reflections on the continuities and changes in the ethnic experience in the United States and on the evolving meaning of ethnicity over time and across generations. Despite vocal concerns in recent years about ethnic divisiveness, these student writings show how much many young Americans share even in their differences.
About the Author:
Thomas Dublin, professor of history at the State University of New York at Binghamton, has taught courses on immigration and ethnicity for nearly 20 years. He has published several books, most recently Immigrant Voices: New Lives in America, 1773-1986 and Transforming Women's Work: New England Lives in the Industrial Revolution.
Acknowledgments | ||
Introduction | 1 | |
Life after Terceira | 15 | |
Coming to Terms with My Heritage | 20 | |
The Family History of a Fourth-Generation Pole | 29 | |
My Paternal Forebears | 38 | |
The Loss of My Family's Ethnic Ties and the Strengthening of Their American Identities | 45 | |
What's a Tyrolean? The Immigration of Mario Leonardi to America | 52 | |
Turetzky Family Assimilation: From Grandparents to Father to Me | 62 | |
Changing Worlds: The Immigration Experiences of My Paternal Grandparents | 68 | |
Roots Paper | 75 | |
A Family History | 82 | |
My Austrian-Italian Ethnicity | 85 | |
East Side Story: What West Side Story Left Out | 92 | |
Three Generations in America | 102 | |
Where I Stand and Why | 108 | |
A Challenge of Loyalty | 115 | |
A Bicultural Experience | 125 | |
My Family History | 130 | |
Being an Other | 135 | |
Discovering My Ethnic Roots | 143 | |
The Experiences of My Parents in Italy and America | 149 | |
Getting to Know My Parents So That I May Know Who I Am | 158 | |
Finding Home | 163 | |
The Assimilation Problems of My Family in America | 171 | |
The Oreo Cookie: Black on the Outside, White on the Inside | 183 | |
Should I or Shouldn't I? | 187 | |
My Experience with Immigration/Assimilation in America | 193 | |
Leaving Home | 198 | |
Being Indian in America: My Ethnic Roots and Me | 206 | |
My Immigrant Experience | 213 | |
Triple Identity: My Experience as an Immigrant in America | 217 | |
Two Poems | 224 | |
Afterword | 229 | |
Appendix: Sample Roots Paper Topic | 235 | |
Notes on Contributors | 237 |