Blog Post 4: topic 4

            Both Kingston and Cisneros wrote about experiences of immigrants in America. With similar styles of writing, they tell stories of what it is like to be foreign in America and how that influences your upbringing and how one might view America. In class, we discussed how Kingston and Cisneros’ work could be seen as perpetuating existing stereotypes within the immigrant community and the Asian and Hispanic communities in particular. As a first generation American, a child of immigrants, I disagree. I think that their pieces, especially Kingston’s are genuine and actually allow immigrants or children of immigrants to relate with someone who has had the same or similar experience.

            I can relate the most with the selection we read of Kingston’s “The Woman Warrior”. It is about her as a young girl in school and the pressure she felt to either fit in or break the stereotype of young, Chinese American girls. I am not Chinese American, I am Ethiopian American and so I didn’t necessarily feel the pressures of any stereotype (because Ethiopian Americans don’t really have one), but I was very quite. Just like Kingston “knew the silence had to do with being a Chinese girl” (64), I think some of it did have to do with the fact that my parents were foreign and that I myself had a different cultural background. For example, my parents always told me to listen to the teacher and not to talk because where they went to school in Ethiopia that was the way. Students had little to no say and were not by any means encouraged to express ideas of beliefs that differed from the teacher. With these lessons in mind, I was terrified of opposing the teacher. There were even a few instances when the teacher would ask me what I thought about a book we read of a movie we watched and I remained silent.

            In addition, the idea of having to translate American culture to foreign parents and vise versa was a task that Kingston portrayed and one that I can very much so connect with. When Kingston’s mom believed they have been cursed, she sends Kingston out to retrieve a gift to undo the curse. Kingston says to her, “They don’t understand stuff like that. I won’t be able to say it right” (66). This is so relatable because there is an obvious cultural and language barrier between foreign people and Americans. For example, there are things that are okay to say in Ethiopia in my parent’s native language that is not considered acceptable here in America. In Ethiopia they say things like “wow, you’re getting fat”. I have heard it plenty of times between family members and in our culture that is not at all an insult. If anything, it is a complement meaning you seem to be eating well and therefor living well (with enough money, I mean). That same sentence, directly translated to English and put in an American cultural context is extremely insulting. Because of this, I have to tell them that stuff like that is not okay to say to American people. The culture is different and they interpret things differently so we have to adjust.

            Times may have changed but immigrant experiences, I think, relatively stay the same I think. Sure, as more and more people from foreign land enter America, Americans themselves get used to them, but there will always be a cultural barrier. Americans might grow to be more accepting, but that doesn’t mean they can completely understand. It is more so the responsibility of the immigrants to adapt to the new culture surrounding them since they are the ones who have entered a new country. If I wrote a similar piece to Kingston and Cisneros’, I would write about the different “kinds” of immigrants. From my experience, I know some immigrants who are fully motivated and excited to adapt to the American culture and on the other hand I know some who would rather be in their homeland if it weren’t for the opportunities that America provides. I would write about their different perspective and the effect it might have on the children that they raise here.