As great as it is that I have learned what I have about my family, so much has been lost. When my father emailed me all of the documents he had been able to locate, they amounted to 18 images. That was all that was left of my family history. It appears that my Portuguese heritage was almost immediately abandoned in favor of a more homogenized dominant ‘American’ appearance. There was almost no information on the women in my family, but the men embraced whole heartedly the idea of the ‘American Dream’ and believed that anyone who worked hard enough and played the game by the rules would be rewarded with success. I believe part of playing by the rules was doing things like not speaking Portuguese or practicing Azorean customs. In my project I explored how and why acculturation happens to others and what the implications are for them. I am also sharing and rhetorically analyzing 3 additional stories that are out there and similar in some ways to my family’s story. I’ll highlight this process of adapting to and possibly assimilating to another culture – usually the more dominant one. The idea of the ‘American Dream’ is something that many people with many backgrounds have sought in this country, some at the cost of their heritage, where some immigrants and the children of the formerly enslaved have left behind their language and cultural practices. However, one can still embrace things like pride in their families and values such as a strong work ethic that, while they may be attached to cultural traditions, can transcend that loss.

Indigenous Research Methods focuses on storytelling, including oral traditions, and active participation from those being studied. This way of research shows that meaning comes from experiences and relationships instead of the dominant way of detached observation (Wilson 69). A huge part of this method is my relationality to the subject I am researching, which in Indigenous Research Methods is crucial. The researcher needs to be connected to what is being studied; they need to put themselves into the research, not be objective.

I also tried to honor those whose stories I shared by using the utmost respect, whether they were in my own family, or other stories that I brought in. They all deserve the same respect. At the heart of my research are stories, one of mine that includes information I learned about my ancestors, and then three others that are similar to mine. It is through first analyzing, and then telling those stories that I will honor them. I collected data through interviews and online research looking for additional stories.

Research Questions:

·       Why was our Portuguese heritage essentially pushed out in favor of a more acculturated way of life?

·       What other stories are out there about immigrants losing their heritage when they came to this country? Is it common among immigrants?

·       What, if any, are the consequences of assimilating and dropping one’s heritage in favor of a more homogenized ‘American’ heritage?

Data Collection Guidelines & Analysis:

I looked for works of fiction and nonfiction that focused on some type of acculturation in various communities. I chose one play called, “A Raisin in the Sun,” by Lorraine Hansberry. This isn’t entirely about acculturation, but it does have elements of it. I am also using a short story at the end of Amy Tan’s book, “The Joy Luck Club,” called A Pair of Tickets. In this story, the protagonist struggles with her mother’s past, as well as her identity as a Chinese American. For my third story, I used “Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling,” by Eliana Feinstein, which is an article about the Honorable Chanpone Sinlapasai, a Laotian American who immigrated to the United States in 1979.

The play I was first introduced to in another class. “The Joy Luck Club,” I first saw many years ago, but I decided to focus on a single chapter in the book it was based on. My third story, I located on a website called theimigrantstory.org, was filled with compelling stories, making it hard to choose just one. I settled on Sinlapasai and her family’s experiences of many hardships and acts of discrimination. I’m using the story to show what can happen when there isn’t much assimilation. I also chose it because it was about a true story and my other two are fiction. My parameters were that I was looking for a wide variety of stories that were all similar in terms of theme, but different in most of the details, such as country of origin. I didn’t want anything to be too similar or too different.

My great-great grandfather, known in the paperwork as Jerry, Jerome, and Gerry, was born in the Azores in 1865The Island was full of poverty and lacked opportunity, so my great-great grandfather left the islands in search of the ‘American Dream.’ He became a citizen in 1888 and soon began working as a track walker for the Southern Pacific Railroad. After working for about a year and a half, he requested a promotion which was promptly denied, citing lack of experience. However, he had brought with him to this country a strong work ethic and big ambitions, which he passed down the line to his children and theirs. His son, my great grandfather and also named Jerry, was at the same job for over fifty yearsand his son, my grandfather, again, also named Jerry, was the first in the family to go to college. He started a new era in my family where they didn’t just value hard work, but education as well. When I asked my Grandpa Jerry if he had ever experienced or participated in anything inherently Portuguese, he said, “No, I remember my grandma could only speak a few words of English so I could never talk to her, and we lived in an all-Italian neighborhood and all my friends were Italian. I find it unfortunate that our culture was completely erased in order to assimilate to the dominant one. I am saddened by our loss of language and customs.

The idea of losing one’s heritage is a cultural haunting for anyone who has either immigrated to another country or has been displaced through colonialism. However, in Charles Hirschman’s article, “The Contributions of Immigrants to American Culture,” he reminds us that immigrants are not simply people wrestling with their identities. While that can be the case, they also contribute to society with their own rich culture, which can oftentimes show up in the form of participating in the arts. Here we can see immigrants creating and celebrating their many talents. I believe it is important to paint the whole picture of what it means to be an immigrant. While it can mean struggling with where one fits in, many times it just means they have more options and opportunities to contribute to their communities. The arts are and filled with skilled immigrants and their descendants. (Hirschman 31).

Whether or not an immigrant is treated well by their new country, and whether or not their children are accepted can depend a lot on if the family has chosen to practice multiculturalism, or to assimilate. Typically, according to Ali Mashuri et al, if they continue to adhere to their native culture and traditions, then they could be punished by receiving less help and support from the community at large. Likewise, assimilation is usually met with rewards like greater acceptance from mainstream society. (Mashuri et al. 209). Mary Waters et al, contributes to the conversation that had already been started by other researchers regarding the process of acculturation for immigrants and how it can and does happen in “segments.” They also point out that the experience is different from one immigrant to another. Many struggle economically and can be easy targets of discrimination, especially if there’s a language barrier. However, others are successfully able to move up higher socially and economically. (Waters et al. 1169).

“A Raisin the Sun,” is a play written by Lorraine Hansberry. It is set in the 1950’s and is about a Black family that lives in the south side of Chicago. It wrestles with several themes, such as racism and discrimination, personal identity, and the difference between generations in the same family. In the play, the new head of the family, Mama (Lena Younger), receives a check for $10,000 dollars as insurance money for the death of her husband. With that money, Mama buys a new house for the family, promising it to the youngest Younger, little Travis, when he is a grown man. She gives the rest of the money to her son, Walter, and unfortunately, he is swindled out of the remaining $6,500. A pivotal part of the play comes towards the end when Walter claims that he is going to get on his knees to Karl Lindner, the white man who wanted them to sell their house so that no Black people lived in their neighborhood and beg for him to sell to them at a higher price. But when Lindner arrives, Mama makes sure that Travis is in the room so that instead of begging, Walter stands up for the family’s right to live in their house in that neighborhood and makes the family proud.

Quote:

“Walter: What I am telling you is that we called you over here to tell you that we are very proud and that this –(Signaling to Travis.) Travis, come here. (Travis crosses and Walter draws him before him facing the man [Lindner].)  This is my son, and he makes the sixth generation of our family in this country. And we have all thought about your offer ... And we have decided to move into our house because my father–my father–he earned it for us brick by brick ..." (147).

RHETORICAL ANALYSIS:

In this quote, Walter is telling the white man, Karl Lindner, that they in fact are going to be keeping their new home and moving into the all-white neighborhood, instead of selling it at a higher price, like Walter had initially led him to believe. It represented a tempting offer to a couple of them, and it was Walter’s initial intentions to accept Lindner’s offer, but it wasn’t worth his dignity. Because Travis stayed in the room while Walter spoke with Lindner, something overtook him, and he regained his pride and dignity, something that he struggled with throughout the play. This scene, and the entire play, shows how the way society treats Black men significantly affects their self-esteem. He had his son, Travis, stand right in front of him while he spoke of his family’s pride and how long they had established roots in the country. He also makes it clear by including the whole family that they are a united front, and all feel the same way.

Walter is able to regain his pride because he wants his son to see him the way he sees his father. Strong, unrelenting, a provider. The groveling he spoke of earlier he couldn’t think of doing because it would have disgraced himself in front of his son. He is also telling Lindner that they actually do belong, and they aren’t outsiders, whether he and their white neighbors like it or not, they won’t be bullied. This represents that the pride is generational. You see the importance of that generational connection when Walter tells Lindner that his father earned that house for them, with each brick representing one hardship after another, one year of work, after another. Connecting that with earlier in the play, when Mama tells Travis that the house will be his someday solidifies the fact that it stretches across generations. This story ties to mine in that my family is also very proud of their work ethic and have gone out of their way to prove themselves to the country that they belong. Of course, my family is white, so we have had the privilege of never having to face racism.

“A Pair of Tickets” is the final short story in the novel by Amy Tan titled The Joy Luck Club. The book, which was also made into a film, is comprised of 16 short stories that follow the older Chinese women in the Joy Luck Club, along with their daughters and show the challenges the women face in their multi-generational struggle to hang on to their heritage. In “A Pair of Tickets,” Jing-mei, is traveling from the United States to China for the first time. She is traveling with her elderly father, who was born in China, and they are visiting his extended family there that he hasn’t seen since he was 10-years old. They also visit Jing-mei’s older twin half-sisters that her mother had had to abandon in China when she was fleeing Japanese invaders. Both the reunion and the first meeting were scenes of great meaning, love, community, and family.

Quote:

“The minute our train… enters Shenzhen, China, I feel different. I can feel the skin on my forehead tingling, my blood rushing through a new course… I think, My mother was right. I am becoming Chinese. “Cannot be helped,” my mother said when I was fifteen and had vigorously denied that I had any Chinese whatsoever below my skin… now I also see what part of me is Chinese. It is so obvious. It is my family. It is in our blood.” (267 & 288).

RHETORICAL ANALYSIS:

This is actually a combination of two quotes, the first half taken from the beginning of the chapter, and the second half taken from the end. Seeing both parts, you are able to fully see the arc that Jing-mei experiences in her identity journey. She goes from just barely starting to ‘become Chinese,’ to understanding and embracing her familial bonds that bring her much closer to her heritage that she had been so quick to deny as a teenager. As soon as she and her father reach China, she feels different, her physical body actually goes through changes. She has a lot of feelings in this quote and the entire chapter about her mother; in her flashback she decides right away that her mother had been right about her being Chinese.

The key to her heritage really lies in the new relationships that she forms with her extended family, both on her father’s side, to her mother’s long lost twin baby girls. Where she first felt that cultural pull from crossing China’s border, it was so much more powerful when she met her family and was able to interact with them. There is mutual acceptance immediately, showing that their bond transcends time, geography, or even language as they all don’t speak the same one. I chose this story and quote because I have always fantasized about visiting Portugal and finding long lost relatives there. I imagine them being just as warm and accepting as Jing-mei’s family, welcoming me in with open arms and hearts.

This story can be found on theimigrantstory.org, along with many other amazing stories about immigrants and their resiliency. Here we see the story of Honorable Judge Chanpone Sinlapasai, where she begins her life in the war-torn country of Laos in the 1970’s. When she was four or five (her exact age is unknown as her Indigenous tribe did not keep track of those sorts of things) she and her family came to the United States, where Sinlapasai experienced both racism and nationalism as she was growing up, especially when she had to act as an interpreter for her parents. The chosen quote brings up that very fact.

Quote:

“As a young girl with broken English, Sinlapasai also served as her parents’ interpreter, witnessing firsthand how poorly her family was treated just because they did not understand English. She experienced indignities like having to camp out all night outside the immigration office because it was first come, first served. After sleeping on the sidewalk, Sinlapasai would wake to find that people with lawyers (and money) had been called to the front of the line.” (Feinstein, 2023).

RHETORICAL ANALYSIS:

There is a lot going on in this seemingly straightforward quote. We see that when the Honorable Chanpone Sinlapasai was just a young girl, and didn’t even herself know English very well, she was expected to grow up quickly and act as an interpreter for her parents. This is something that many immigrant children have experienced and know all too well. This fact might explain why families who speak different languages when they migrate sometimes lose their language rather quickly, like they did in my family. Perhaps they figure that the old language does not serve them anymore and they just want their family to speak English.

Without understanding the nuances of the language, Sinlapasai was expected to navigate difficult bureaucracies, such as the convoluted immigration system. This consequence of not assimilating quickly enough could be seen as a ‘punishment’ by some. The fact that Sinlapasai and her family had to camp out overnight in the streets, just to see someone about their immigration status, and then to be humiliated by having people with lawyers and more money than you get to cut in front of you and go ahead, is dehumanizing.

Borges, Jerry. Personal interviews. Various dates in October 2024.

Feinstein, Eliana. “Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling.” The Immigrant Story, 5 Nov. 2023, theimmigrantstory.org/breaking-the-bamboo-glass-ceiling/.

Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun. Vintage Books, 1994. “PDF file”

Hirschman, Charles. “The Contributions of Immigrants to American Culture.” Daedalus (Cambridge, Mass.), vol. 142, no. 3, 2013, pp. 26–47, https://doi.org/10.1162/DAED_a_00217.

Mashuri, Ali, et al. “The Impact of Multiculturalism on Immigrant Helping.” Asian Journal of Social Psychology, vol. 16, no. 3, 2013, pp. 207–12, https://doi.org/10.1111/ajsp.12009.

Powell, Malea, et al. Our Story Begins Here: Constellating Cultural Rhetorics, 25 Oct. 2014, https://doi.org/https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PpknqUkSv0Yhf59-Ivvj148TgoRlrRM4/view.

Tan, Amy. “A Pair of Tickets.” The Joy Luck Club, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, NY, 1989, pp. 267–288.

Waters, Mary C., et al. “Segmented Assimilation Revisited: Types of Acculturation and Socioeconomic Mobility in Young Adulthood.” Ethnic and Racial Studies, vol. 33, no. 7, 2010, pp. 1168–93, https://doi.org/10.1080/01419871003624076.

Wilson, Shawn. Research Is Ceremony: Indigenous Research Methods. Fernwood Pub, 2008.

This project started as a haunting but has transformed somewhat into a matter of hope and pride. One of the main take aways that I got from my time and efforts was that immigrant families are resilient; they are strong, soulful, and hardworking. They contribute to this country in many ways, including their participation in the arts. Although some, like my family, lose their heritage almost completely, many immigrants and their children are successfully able to become multicultural, blending both, or many heritages into their self-identity.