Becoming American, Becoming Ethnic - Essay Example

Becoming American, Becoming Ethnic The United s of America is a uniquely diverse country varying widely in its composition of ethni linguistics, religion and race. It has continually served as the favourite destination for the immigrants from almost all over the world. Although several factors have driven such large number of people to the States one of the major causes that pulled them was the economic opportunity offered by this country. There are instances when the different ethnic groups have melted into one another and stood as one, yet in their daily lives most of the people following a particular custom behave differently from the ones belonging to some other custom. Relating to my origin and the migration: Out of the diverse origin of the immigrants, the countries that top the list are Mexico, India, Philippines and China. Arab Americans are also one of the many ethnic groups that constitute the United States. Although born and brought up in the United States I can trace my roots to Saudi Arabia. I am thankful to my great grandfather and my grandmother since their vivid oral testimony has helped me to gain a deep understanding of my past and origin. This has helped me to the greatest extent to produce this paper on the becoming of an American and being ethnic. My fifth great grandfather, Faiz Basha, originally resided in the Arabian Peninsula. After the unification of the various tribes and emirates of the Peninsula the place came to be known as Saudi Arabia. He had two sons, Omar and Adil, who looked after his business once he had grown old. While the elder son, Omar agha, married and had three children, the younger one remained a bachelor. He was very good at accounts and with his intelligence ran the business well. In 1947, a year before the Arab-Israeli war broke out, Omar agha died of tuberculosis that had no cure at that point of time. The responsibility of the family shifted upon Adil agha. By that time the political atmosphere became very unstable in Saudi Arabia. The business also saw a bad turnover and could not feed all the mouths in the family. Amir, the only son of Omar, who was ten years old, had to leave school. The situation grew worse day by day and Amir jan started staying indoors with his sisters, mother and grandfather all day and night. In that air of tension several Palestinians and Egyptians migrated to the United States. Adil agha also considered migrating to the US. In 1949, he wrapped up from Arabia with whatever little money and some precious stones he had, and came down to the States with his old father, sister-in law and the children. Life in America On reaching North America Adil agha and family landed in the coastal city of Miami in Florida. The first few months in Miami were pretty tough for my family. Adil agha had taken a small rented shack in a corner of a street and with the help of the generous landlord Adil agha managed to get a job as a mechanic in a car repairing shop. It was not easy for the family that came from a conservative Muslim background to adapt to the greatly new ways in America. After a few days Amir jan used to trot down the lane to where his uncle worked and assisted him in work. But his grandfather was very particular about the education of the children. After a few months Amir jan left work and was admitted to a free school in the locality. At that time it was not a custom to send girls out to schools. Yet, Adil agha sent the two girls to a girls’ school. The locality had few other Arabian families and the children became friendly with their children. With passage of years, my family had become legal permanent residents (LPRs) in USA and Adil agha bought a small room for making a shop where he sold grocery. He started making good money and by the time could also marry off one of Amir agha’s elder sisters to a Arabic businessman’s son. It took place following traditional norms as much as possible. Still then my family had not assimilated themselves with the Americans and considered the land as foreign. On graduating from high school at eighteen Amir agha left Florida and travelled further inland in search of a job. He came to Alabama took a job at a printing press in Birmingham. Although the others in my family had stuck to the cultural identity of being descendants of the Arabian tribe, Amir agha had become much open-minded on staying in the USA since the tender age of eleven. It was easy for him to find the job since he had learnt to speak English well during schooldays. He met and married the press owner’s daughter, Tasia Aygi, whose family was an immigrant from Russia. On settling down in Alabama he brought his family from Miami to live with him. The story of my father’s upbringing To Amir agha and Tasia jan my father was born in 1968. They now lived a decent living in Birmingham and my grandmother fondly says that his husband cherished the opportunity to live in the States. This country inculcated a mindset in him that was much broader than that possessed by the people who had spent most of their lives in the Arabian Peninsula. My grandmother was more inclined to rear their child under her husband’s religion. My father, Joseph, got exposure to the Muslim ways of life and their traditions as well as the Russian Orthodox Christianity to which my grandmother belonged. As he grew up he mixed well with his American peers and found himself assimilated to the American culture. He jovially attended all family celebrations that took place in his home or my grandmother’s place. But within himself he could not identify with any particular religion, neither that followed by his father nor that of his mother’s. The education that he received made him liberal and independent. My grandfather’s younger sister was married to a groom from a well-to-do Muslim family of businessmen who had their origin in Lebanon. My father grew up with a sense of rich ethnic heritage which was present in his past but on adopting the profession of a doctor he had crossed all mental barriers that could tie him to a specific ethnic group. He fell in love with my mother, Marion Adams and married her. My mother was born and brought up in the USA after her grandparents had migrated to Alabama, but her roots were in Texas. My feelings about my homeland My mother has always encouraged me to lead a morally correct livelihood and respect the changes that come with passage of time. My father, however, holds on to one value that has been an integral part of any true Arabian’s life; honor is an irreplaceable component of life and he holds on to it at the cost of anything. As a second generation American I hold the values that my ethnic decent has imparted to me in great respect. All the times I spoke with my grandparents digging out rich stories buried in the past, I felt a sense of oneness with my forefathers who had taken all the trouble to come across the ocean from the far Middle-east to this land. But, at the same time, I always feel at home to think of America as my own place and feel proud to call myself an American and merge with its newly emerging rituals. Comparisons with the essay in Becoming American, Becoming Ethnic The essay named “The Loss of My Family’s Ethnic Ties and the Strengthening of Their American Identities”, in the book Becoming American, Becoming Ethnic is written by a student Rachel Koch. She has decided to talk to her grandmother, Julia Koch, and find out about her past. It appears that the author’s grandmother is much assimilated to the culture of America and as a third generation American she has been able to relate well to the stories that her grandmother had to say. While writing about her father at one place in her essay she has mentioned, “... his parents no longer regarded themselves as Spanish or Russian; they thought of themselves as Americans, and transmitted this belief to my father.” (Dublin 51) I have noticed a very distinguished connection between the history of my past and the author’s experience. Like her grandmother had married an American-born son of Russian immigrants, my grandfather also got married to a Russian immigrant, although not American born. Like Julia my grandfather had quite adapted to the American way of life and always felt lucky to stay in the United States. Yet there is one point of mismatch. While she suffers from a sense of loss of a religion to identify to (Dublin 51), I feel privileged to be born to family of diverse cultures on one hand while being able to cherish the liberty of being an American woman. Reference Dublin, Thomas. Becoming American Becoming Ethnic. SUNY Binghamton: Temple University Press, 1996 Read More