# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
America's Sources of Immigration (1850-Today)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Houston is the most ethnically diverse major city in the country - Los Angeles Times

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Houston's stunning growth and high-volume immigration have turned it into the most racially and ethnically diverse major metropolis in the country.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
So even though their economic outlook is worse, more people are saying they have either achieved the dream or expect to do so.

What gives?

We asked Barry Glassner, who is a professor of sociology at the University of Southern California and studies contemporary culture and beliefs.

"You want to hold on to your dream even more when times are hard," he said. "And if you want to hold on to it, then you better define it differently."

In other words, people are shifting their definition of the American dream. And the poll - conducted on April 1 to 5 with 998 adults, with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points- indicated just that.

The Times and CBS News asked this same open-ended question four years ago and again last month: "What does the phrase 'The American dream' mean to you?"

Four years ago, 19 percent of those surveyed supplied answers that related to financial security and a steady job, and 20 percent gave answers that related to freedom and opportunity.

Now, fewer people are pegging their dream to material success and more are pegging it to abstract values. Those citing financial security dropped to 11 percent, and those citing freedom and opportunity expanded to 27 percent.

Here's some respondents' answers that were put in the category of freedom and opportunity:

"Freedom to live our own life."

"Created equal."

"Someone could start from nothing."

"That everybody has a fair chance to succeed."

"To become whatever I want to be."

"To be healthy and have nice family and friends."

"More like Huck Finn; escape to the unknown; follow your dreams."

Those who responded in material terms were hardly lavish. Here's a sampling:

"Basically, have a roof over your head and put food on the table."

"Working at a secure job, being able to have a home and live as happily as you can not spending too much money."

"Just financial stability."

"Owning own home, having civil liberties."

Mr. Glassner said, "For the vast majority of Americans at every point in history, the prospect of achieving the American dream has been slim but the promise has been huge."

"At its core, this notion that anyone can be president or anyone can be a billionaire is absurd," he said. "A lot of Americans work hard, but they don't become president and they don't become billionaires."

Still, he said, Americans have always believed in possibilities. And they have consistently said over time that they can start poor in this country and become rich, regardless of the economy or their circumstances. The 72 percent who feel that way today is down from the 81 percent who felt that way in 2007, but 72 percent is still a very high percentage, especially given the downward economy.

"It would be hard to find another country where it's as high," Mr. Glassner said.

The percentage of people who say the American dream does not exist or is only an illusion has remained low - 3 percent today and 2 percent four years ago. As one such person put it to our pollsters last month: "A bunch of hooey."

By the way, the phrase "the American dream" is generally agreed to have been coined first in 1931, in the midst of the Depression. In his book, "The Epic of America," the historian James Truslow Adams wrote, "It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain the fullest stature of which they are innately capable."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
In a Sour Economy, What Happens to the American Dream?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
So even though their economic outlook is worse, more people are saying they have either achieved the dream or expect to do so. What gives? We asked Barry Glassner, who is a professor of sociology at the University of Southern California and studies contemporary culture and beliefs.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
They have no need of our help
So do not tell me
These haggard faces could belong to you or me
Should life have dealt a different hand
We need to see them for who they really are
Chancers and scroungers
Layabouts and loungers
With bombs up their sleeves
Cut-throats and thieves
They are not
Welcome here
We should make them
Go back to where they came from
They cannot
Share our food
Share our homes
Share our countries
Instead let us
Build a wall to keep them out
It is not okay to say
These are people just like us
A place should only belong to those who are born there
Do not be so stupid to think that
The world can be looked at another way

(now read from bottom to top)
Brian Bilston's website
Jon Kuhrt has worked with people affected by homelessness and poverty for 25 years. He is a former CEO of WLM and is now a government adviser focusing on how faith and community groups address rough sleeping. He lives with his wife and three children in Streatham, south London. He likes football...but loves cricket. View all posts by Jon Kuhrt

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
They have no need of our help So do not tell me These haggard faces could belong to you or me Should life have dealt a different hand We need to see them for who they really are Chancers and scroun...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
From the hottest new restaurants to art galleries and Bruce Lee's former studio, read on and discover the best of Chinatown.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
American Voices / Immigrant America 04 - The Melting Pot

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
During this week of Thanksgiving - the most American of holidays - NPR is spending time thinking about what it means to become an American. The answers come from three noted authors - Junot Diaz, Jhumpa Lahiri and Joseph O'Neill - who've written about newcomers to the United States.
Nationality, tradition and belonging: The themes of Jhumpa Lahiri's fiction spring from the complexities of the author's own life. Born to Indian parents in London and raised in Rhode Island, the author of Unaccustomed Earth and The Interpreter of Maladies says she's struggled for four decades to feel like she belonged in America.

"For me," Lahiri tells Morning Edition's Steve Inskeep, "there is sort of a half-way feeling [of being American]."

But, she says, her parents never thought of themselves as American, despite the fact that they applied for and received citizenship.

"They've lived here now for more than half of their lives, and they raised a family here and now have grandchildren here. ... It has become their home," says Lahiri. "But at the same time, for my parents, I don't think either of them will ever consciously think, 'I am an American.' "

Lahiri says her parents were always isolated from mainstream American culture. Despite the fact that they spoke English, they were "betrayed by their accents." If the family went to buy a washing machine, the sales clerk would talk to Lahiri, assuming her parents couldn't understand.

"The accent, the fact that my mother wore traditional clothing - that marked them immediately as soon as we went out in the public sphere," says Lahiri.

Growing up, Lahiri's loyalty to her parents conflicted with her desire to fit in: "It didn't matter that I wore clothes from Sears; I was still different. I looked different. My name was different," she says. "I wanted to pull away from the things that marked my parents as being different."

Lahiri says her parents didn't mix with her friends' parents in an easy, comfortable way - not because they didn't want to, but because there was a barrier that they couldn't overcome.

"I think this was a two-way street," she says. "It wasn't just that they were afraid or unwilling - there was a fear, an unwillingness on both sides."

Lahiri says creating characters who also struggle with the immigrant experience has helped her confront the truth of her life.

"A lot of my upbringing was about denying or fretting or evading," she says. But through fiction, Lahiri says she's learned to accept that her parents will always be tied to two different parts of the Earth.

"It has been liberating and brought me some peace to just confront that truth, if not to be able to solve it or answer it," she says.
Book Tour is a Web feature and podcast. Each week, we present leading authors of fiction and nonfiction as they read from and discuss their work.
Jhumpa Lahiri won a Pulitzer Prize for her first effort, the short story collection Interpreter of Maladies. Her second work, the best-selling novel The Namesake, was adapted into a Hollywood movie directed by Mira Nair.

For her third book, Unaccustomed Earth, Lahiri has returned to the short story form. Once again, she expertly plumbs the Bengali-American experience, following immigrants and their offspring while traversing borders and expectations. Upon publication, the book debuted at the top of The New York Times best-seller list.

Dwight Garner, senior editor of The Times' Book Review section, wrote in his blog: "It's hard to remember the last genuinely serious, well-written work of fiction - particularly a book of stories - that leapt straight to No. 1; it's a powerful demonstration of Lahiri's newfound commercial clout."

The collection of eight stories takes its title from a passage from Nathanial Hawthorne's introduction to The Scarlet Letter: "Human nature will not flourish, any more than a potato, if it be planted and replanted, for too long a series of generations, in the same worn-out soil. My children ... shall strike their roots in unaccustomed earth."

In an interview with NPR's All Things Considered, Lahiri said that when she read those words, she stopped. "I just thought about how much they stand for everything that I had been writing about: the experience of being transplanted, and people being transplanted."

Born in London and raised in Rhode Island, the author of Indian descent traveled regularly to Calcutta while growing up. Lahiri has written about the pressure she felt to stay loyal to the old world while being fluent in the new. That tension both fuels and graces her stories.

This reading of Unaccustomed Earth took place in April 2008 at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in Washington, D.C.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Jhumpa Lahiri's Struggle To Feel American

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Nationality, tradition and belonging: The themes of Jhumpa Lahiri's fiction spring from the complexities of the author's own life. Born to Indian parents in London and raised in Rhode Island, Lahiri says she's struggled for four decades to feel like she belongs in America.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship: Why America Needs Immigration Reform

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This afternoon President Obama met with the inaugural members of the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship (PAGE) at the White House, along with Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, the PAGE Chair.

Established by the Department of Commerce, PAGE is a group of successful American businesspeople eager to share their knowledge and experience to help develop the next generation of entrepreneurs at home and abroad. Members have agreed to participate in an ongoing dialogue with policy makers globally, acting as goodwill ambassadors in discussions about how to create an environment where creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship can grow and thrive. They will also participate in outreach and mentorship activities to help promote start-up culture, and energize their own personal and professional networks to challenge and inspire budding entrepreneurs and raise awareness of the many resources available to them. They will work with Entrepreneurs Across Borders, an UP Global initiative, that will connect highly successful entrepreneurs with hundreds of cities in the United States and around the world to help spark grassroots startup growth.

During their meeting, President Obama thanked members for their commitment to this cause and discussed the critical role that entrepreneurship plays in spurring job growth and sparking innovation. He urged them to use the PAGE platform to help others learn from their experiences, benefit from their networks, and inspire new business owners to create economic opportunity in their own communities, throughout the country and across the globe.

The inaugural members of PAGE are:

--Rich Barton, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman, Zillow (Seattle, WA)

--Tory Burch, Chief Executive Officer, Tory Burch; Founder, Tory Burch Foundation (New York, NY)

--Steve Case, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Revolution (Washington, DC)

--Helen Greiner, Chief Executive Officer, CyPhyWorks; Co-Founder, iRobot Corporation (Danvers, MA)

--Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman, LinkedIn (Mountain View, CA)

--Quincy Jones, Chief Executive Officer, Quincy Jones Productions (Los Angeles, CA)

--Salman Khan, Founder and Executive Director, Khan Academy (Mountain View, CA)

--Daphne Koller, Co-Founder and President, Coursera (Mountain View, CA)

--Hamdi Ulukaya, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Chobani (New York, NY)

--Nina Vaca, Chief Executive Officer, Pinnacle Technical Resources (Dallas, TX)

--Alexa von Tobel, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, LearnVest (New York, NY)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Readout of the President's Meeting with the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This afternoon President Obama met with the inaugural members of the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship (PAGE) at the White House, along with Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, the PAGE Chair. Established by the Department of Commerce, PAGE is a group of successful American businesspeople eager to share their knowledge and experience to help develop the next generation of entrepreneurs at home and abroad.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How Immigrants Defined "Typical" American Fashion

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
WASHINGTON -- Immigration reform advocates arrived on Capitol Hill Monday hoping to bring pressure on politicians before the expected release of a compromise proposal in the Senate.

Among the lawmakers and activists from Voto Latino were actors America Ferrera, of "Ugly Betty" fame, and Wilmer Valderrama, of "That '70s Show," both making emotional appeals.

Ferrera, declaring, "My name is America," also called on other Americans to let members of Congress know there would be an electoral price to pay should they fail to enact the first major overhaul of the immigration system in nearly three decades.

"2012 was a historic year in the United States," Ferrera said. "We came together to make sure we showed up at the polls and we did."

"I say to any American who is out there, who is ready to join us, that you Facebook, tweet, write letters, call members of Congress," she added. "Make sure they hear from you, that they know without a doubt in their minds, that keeping their jobs depends on them supporting comprehensive immigration reform."

Valderama followed, explaining how even when his immigrant family could't afford food or rent, the American flag waving outside their window gave them hope.

Watch Ferrera, above, and Valderrama, below:

BEFORE YOU GO

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
TV Star's Immigration Message: 'My Name Is America'

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
WASHINGTON -- Immigration reform advocates arrived on Capitol Hill Monday hoping to bring pressure on politicians before the expected release of a compromise proposal in the Senate. Among the lawmakers and activists from Voto Latino were actors America Ferrera, of "Ugly Betty" fame, and Wilmer Valderrama, of "That '70s Show," both making emotional appeals.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In a recent interview, White House chief of staff John Kelly told NPR that undocumented immigrants are "not people that would easily assimilate into the United States, into our modern society." And he listed a few reasons why:

"They're overwhelmingly rural people," he said. "In the countries they come from, fourth-, fifth-, sixth-grade educations are kind of the norm. They don't speak English ... They don't integrate well; they don't have skills."

Kelly was talking specifically about immigrants from Latin American countries. But a century before, this line of thinking was used against another group that didn't seem to be able to "assimilate": German Americans.

At the time, these roughly eight million Americans were the country's largest non-English-speaking group. Many had come over in a migration wave in the late 19th century. Once here, they built restaurants and guesthouses that, in the German tradition, each had their own beer brewery. In 1910, the U.S. had 554 German-language newspapers, as well as German-language school systems that coexisted with English-language schools.

"By 1917 these immigrants who came to Cincinnati or St. Louis or Milwaukee or New York or Baltimore were fully integrated into American society," says Richard E. Schade, a German studies professor at the University of Cincinnati. But when the U.S. entered World War I, these immigrants came up against a new "anti-German hysteria."

Because Germany was one of America's adversaries in the war, many Anglo-Americans began to fear that German Americans were still loyal to the Kaiser, or German emperor. Suddenly, German Americans became "hyphenated Americans" who suspiciously practiced their own traditions instead of "assimilating" into Anglo-American culture. As President Woodrow Wilson once admonished: "Any man who carries a hyphen about with him, carries a dagger that he is ready to plunge into the vitals of this Republic when he gets ready."

With the war, German Americans became a perceived security threat. They also got a new nickname.

"The number one American term for Germans in the first world war w[as] 'the Huns,'" Schade says. "The Huns in the Middle Ages swept into the plains of what is now Russia and invaded Europe, and that term became associated with the Germans." According to this stereotype, German Americans were "a race of barbaric raiders" who spoke a language other Americans couldn't understand.

All of this anti-German sentiment did two things. First, it motivated Anglo-Americans to push back against anything German. States banned German-language schools and removed German books from libraries. Some German Americans were interned, and one German American man, who was also targeted for being socialist, was killed by a mob.

Secondly, in response to this, German Americans began intentionally "assimilating" to avoid becoming targets. They changed their names to English-sounding ones, renamed German streets, and began to speak German only in private. In public, they spoke English.

As a result, most Americans descended from German immigrants don't speak the language or practice German cultural traditions (like beer after church on Sundays, which Anglo-protestants considered immoral). Rather, they have become part of the category of white Americans.

However, there are still some remnants of the time when millions of Americans spoke German. Kindergarten is a grade that English-language schools adopted from German ones (the word is German for "garden of children"). And in Cincinnati, where Schade lives, one former German American neighborhood is still known as "Over-the-Rhine" -a reference to the river that runs through western Germany.

Fact Check

We strive for accuracy and fairness. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
When German Immigrants Were America's Undesirables | HISTORY

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Woodrow Wilson thought German Americans couldn't assimilate.

# data[].attributes.body
SONIA MANZANO

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
One of America's most influential Hispanics -- 'Maria' on Sesame Street -- presents a powerful novel set in New York's El Barrio in 1969T...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano

There are two secrets Evelyn Serrano is keeping from her Mami and stepfather.
Her true feelings about growing up in her Spanish Harlem neighborhood, and her attitude about Abuela, her sassy grandmother who's come from Puerto Rico to live with them.

Then, like an urgent ticking clock, events erupt that change everything. The Young Lords, a Puerto Rican activist group, dump garbage in the street and set it on fire, igniting a powerful protest.

When Abuela steps in to take charge, Evelyn is thrust into the action. Tempers flare, loyalties are tested. Through it all, Evelyn learns important truths about her Latino heritage and the history makers who shaped a nation.

Infused with actual news accounts from the time period, Sonia Manzano has crafted a gripping work of fiction based on her own life growing up during a fiery, unforgettable time in America, when young Latinos took control of their destinies.
★ View newspaper clippings and press photos of the Young Lords era from 1969. Purchase:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
There are two secrets Evelyn Serrano is keeping from her Mami and stepfather. Her true feelings about growing up in her Spanish Harlem neighborhood, and her attitude about Abuela, her sassy grandmother who's come from Puerto Rico to live with them. Then, like an urgent ticking clock, events erupt that change everything.

# data[].attributes.body
CRISTINA HENRIQUEZ

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Cristina Henríquez is the author of The Book of Unknown Americans, which was a New York Times Notable Book of 2014 and one of Amazon's 10 Best Books of the Year.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
this book features a panamanian boy.

that is central america!!
central america is not something you see being featured in books.
YA or not.
you just don't.
nobody really knows about us.
no one knows about us salvadoreños (que viva mi pulgarcito).

nobody knows about el salvador, the smallest country in central america. 🇸🇻

nobody knows about nicaragua 🇳🇮
or guatemala 🇬🇹
or belize 🇧🇿
or panamá 🇵🇦
or honduras 🇭🇳
the most people will know about CA is costa rica 🇨🇷

my central american heart has never been bur...more

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
this book features a panamanian boy. that is central america!! central america is not something you see being featured in books.YA or not.you just don't.nobody really knows about us.no one knows about us salvadoreños (que viva mi pulgarcito). nobody knows about el salvador, the smallest country in central america.

# data[].attributes.body
XAVIER CORTADA

# data[].attributes.body
JHUMPA LAHIRI

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Quick Facts

IN THESE GROUPS
"For surely it is a magical thing for a handful of words, artfully arranged, to stop time. To conjure a place, a person, a situation, in all its specificity and dimensions. To affect us and alter us, as profoundly as real people and things do.""I never felt that I had any claim to any place in the world ... In my writing, I've found my home, really, in a very basic sense-in a way that I never had one growing up.""I had been wanting to write in a slightly different way with [The Lowland]. I didn't want the book to feel heavy, because I felt that the book was heavy-I mean that the story was heavy, the material was heavy, the situation, the circumstances, all of this was very weighty. And I didn't want the writing to feel heavy. ... I wanted to have some sort of lightness.""The idea of meeting writers of the books I've read doesn't interest me. That is to say, I wouldn't go out of my way. If the book is alive to me, if the sentences speak to me, that's enough. A reader's relationship is with the book, with the words, not with the person who created it.""When I am experiencing a complex story or novel, the broader planes, and also details, tend to fall away. Rereading them, certain sentences are what greet me as familiars. You have visited before, they say when I recognize them.""I think writing something new each time is a very daunting, scary journey. And I just want to have the strength, and the clarity of mind, to continue to make those journeys.""If certain books are to be termed immigrant fiction, what do we call the rest? Native fiction? Puritan fiction? This distinction doesn't agree with me. Given the history of the United States, all American fiction could be classified as immigrant fiction.""Writing in another language is humbling. It's so hard. How I explain it to people is that I feel as though I've tied my right hand behind my back on purpose and I'm writing with my left hand, and I recognize how much sloppier it is, how much more awkward it is, how much more out of control it is in a way. But I also love doing without so much.""The part of the earth that I've always felt most at ease with is not the ground, but sort of the water's edge." Show All Groups

Name

Jhumpa Lahiri

Occupation

Author

Birth Date

July 11, 1967 (age 51)

Did You Know?

Jhumpa Lahiri's first novel, The Namesake (2003), was adapted into a 2007 film directed by Mira Nair.

Education

Boston University, Barnard College

Place of Birth

London, England, United Kingdom

AKA

Jhumpa Lahiri

Full Name

Nilanjana Sudheshna Lahiri

Zodiac Sign

Cancer

Jhumpa Lahiri is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author known for works of fiction like Interpreter of Maladies, The Namesake, Unaccustomed Earth and The Lowland.

Synopsis

Born on July 11, 1967, in London, England, to Bengali parentage, author Jhumpa Lahiri published her debut in 1999, Interpreter of Maladies, winning the Pulitzer Prize. She followed up in 2003 with her first novel, The Namesake, and returned to short stories with the No. 1 New York Times best-seller Unaccustomed Earth. Lahiri's 2013 novel, The Lowland, was partially inspired by real-world political events.

Background

Nilanjana Sudheshna Lahiri was born on July 11, 1967, in London, England, to mother Tapati and father Amar, a Bengali couple who immigrated to the United Kingdom from Calcutta, India. Lahiri's father, a university librarian, opted to relocate to the United States for work, eventually settling in South Kingstown, Rhode Island, when she was still a small child.

Thanks for watching! Visit Website

With the family nickname, "Jhumpa," coming to be used by school teachers, Lahiri went on to attend Barnard College in New York, focusing on English literature. She then joined the student body of Boston University, earning three literary master's degrees before receiving her doctorate in Renaissance studies.

Thanks for watching! Visit Website

Thanks for watching! Visit Website

Pulitzer Prize for Debut

Upon completing a Provincetown, Cape Cod, residency, Lahiri was able to share with the world her first book, a collection of nine stories, Interpreter of Maladies, published in 1999. The work's depth-driven plots allowed glimpses into the lives of characters both in India and the States. Interpreter won an array of honors, including the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Hemingway Award.

In 2003, Lahiri followed up with The Namesake, a novel that followed the lives, perspectives and changing family ties of the Gangulis, an Indian couple in an arranged marriage who relocate to America. The work was adapted into a 2007 Mira Nair film starring Irfan Khan and Tabu, with Lahiri acknowledging that she felt a connection to the director's sensibilities.

Best-Seller: 'Unaccustomed Earth'

Lahiri returned to the short-story form via her next literary outing, 2008's Unaccustomed Earth, with the title taken from an introductory passage found in Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter. With prose focusing on the lives of immigrant clans and U.S.-raised children, including a linked trio of tales at book's end, Unaccustomed Earth reached No. 1 on The New York Times' best-seller list.

Lahiri is renowned for the finesse and poignancy of her prose, with the ability to subtly, mesmerizingly build an emotional connection to characters. "I hear sentences as I'm staring out the window, or chopping vegetables, or waiting on a subway platform alone," Lahiri said of her writing process in a 2012 interview with The New York Times. "They are pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, handed to me in no particular order, with no discernible logic. I only sense that they are part of the thing."

Returns With 'The Lowland'

Lahiri returned in 2013 with The Lowland, which became a National Book Award finalist and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Partially inspired by a true story Lahiri had heard growing up, the work initially looks at two brothers, one involved in India's Naxalite movement of the 1960s and the other choosing a researcher's life in the States. The death of one sibling causes reverberations through the ensuing years.

In 2001, Lahiri wed Alberto Vourvoulias-Bush, a journalist of Guatemalan descent, with the couple going on to reside in Italy with their children. Immersing herself in Italian, Lahiri has spoken of observing changes in her own writing style, feeling a sense of freedom in relating to a different language.

Fact Check

We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us!

Citation Information

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"For surely it is a magical thing for a handful of words, artfully arranged, to stop time. To conjure a place, a person, a situation, in all its specificity and dimensions. To affect us and alter us, as profoundly as real people and things do."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies established this young writer as one the most brilliant of her generation. Her stories are one of...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Eight stories-longer and more emotionally complex than any Lahiri has yet written-that take us from Cambridge and Seattle to India and Th...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
If you're a permanent resident considering becoming a naturalized American citizen, take the first step toward giving those dreams a chance to grow. Not only will you enjoy all the rights and freedoms afforded all U.S citizens both here and abroad, you'll be building toward a stronger tomorrow for yourself and for generations to come.

The United States has a long and storied history of welcoming immigrants from all parts of the world, and puts tremendous value on the contributions of legal immigrants who continue to enrich this country and preserve its legacy as a land of freedom and opportunity.

Making the transition from permanent resident to full-fledged U.S. citizen is one of the most important decisions you'll ever make. In addition to showing your commitment to the United States and your loyalty to its Constitution, you will be rewarded with the full rights and privileges afforded all U.S. citizens both here and abroad - including voting rights, more job opportunities and the promise of a stronger future for generations to come. It's not about changing who you are, but about adding a new American chapter to your journey.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
If you're a permanent resident considering becoming a naturalized American citizen, take the first step toward giving those dreams a chance to grow. Not only will you enjoy all the rights and freedoms afforded all U.S citizens both here and abroad, you'll be building toward a stronger tomorrow for yourself and for generations to come.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Video: Obama on Change to U.S.-Cuba Relations

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The president outlined the steps the United States would take to "end an outdated approach" and begin to normalize relations with Cuba.