Tag Archives: immigrant

Plastic Covered Furniture

Text:

“Whenever new furniture was bought, they would immediately be covered in plastic”

Context:

In my dad’s Italian family, when new furniture was purchased and moved into the house, it was immediately encased in plastic. My mother had similar experiences at her Jewish friends’ homes.

Analysis:

The ritual of covering new furniture in plastic is a common, repeated & patterned practice found among Mediterranean immigrants. Many Mediterranean immigrants were fleeing poverty & crime, coming to America with next to nothing. Because of that, new things were a rare commodity. My dad only had hand-me-down clothes, shoes, anything until he was in high school and got his first NEW pair of sneakers. So, whenever something new was bought with hard-earned money, immigrant families wanted to keep it as new and clean as possible. It was a symbol of pride, success, and hard-work paying off, and immigrants wanted to preserve it.

Frog Tail Saying

Folklore:
“Sana sana colita de rana.” – “Heal heal little frog tail.” – A saying used to help with healing if someone got hurt.

Context:
Informant is a Mexican American senior at USC. Her family originated from Chihuahua Mexico, and she grew up frequently hearing this saying from friends and family. She remembers hearing it from her grandma. The folklore is a part of a larger saying, but the informant commonly used the shortened version.

Analysis:
The folklore is something that shared between elders to youth, who commonly are energetic and prone to injury. It is shared throughout the generations and may even be shared from youth to youth, having learned it from their parents or elder figures.

“打一枪换个地方”: Fire One Shot, Change Locations

Context: My mother, IW, was born in a suburb of Beijing and grew up under the late years of Mao Zedong. Her schooling, from childhood through high school, was dominated by Mao-era “education,” which, following the Cultural Revolutions expulsion of intellectuals from population centers (they were seen as bourgeois), was largely just party propaganda. After Mao’s death in 1976, IW vividly remembers doing significant catching up just to match the academic level of the generation immediately before her, who had received actual schooling. IW’s “schooling” revolved around Mao’s Little Red Book, and the many slogans therein stook with her. She emigrated to the United States in 1995 for graduate school and has lived in California ever since. 

Text: “打一枪换个地方” (dǎ yī qiāng, huàn gè dì fāng) translates literally as “fire one shot, change locations.” Its origins trace back to Mao’s time as a general in the armed communist rebellion, where guerilla tactics led the rebellion to victory. In our household it has long since lost the military reading. IW uses it to mean, in her own words, give it your all and keep moving, do not get hung up on a task, do not chase impossible perfection, do what you can and then move on. IW almost always imbues some humor into the performance of the phrase, often accompanying it with a finger-gun gesture. 

Analysis: Propaganda directed at children produces an interesting folkloric residue. The audience is too young to engage with the ideology behind a slogan, so what survives the years is rarely the political claim and almost always the language itself, the rhythm of the phrase and the situations it was attached to. In fact, it was not until after my mother emigrated to the United States did the political situation that shaped her childhood become clear to her. In using the phrase after so many years, after so much in her life has changed, I sense a deal of irony and humor in the performance. I’ve asked before if IW has any ill will toward the party that caused her considerable strain growing up, she does not. It is her opinion that it was simply the reality of her upbringing, and she’s chosen to make the most of it. The meaning of this phrase is twofold for me personally, of course the wisdom about effort and pace, but also as the manifestation of making the most of a lousy situation it is deeply inspiring to me. 

Madonna Della Cava Feast

“Growing up in Boston we had a lot of festivals, and a few jump to my mind–there’s an Italian feast that everyone goes to in late August, like in middle of the streets in Boston, and you can get Italian food and listen to live music! It’s great. It’s called the Madonna Della Cava Feast, and my whole neighborhood (the North End) is totally transformed during the festival. I think the festival coincides with one in Pietraperzia, Italy, which is cool because an immigrant community halfway across the world has this intimate thing in common with its roots!”

Context:

This conversation was conducted in person at a dining hall, and I transcribed as faithfully as possible our conversation into written form.

Interpretation:

This also highlights how festivals can have a cultural element where even in another nation, similar aspects are celebrated. Boston has a significant Italian population, so this isn’t surprising, but it does illustrate how these immigrant/motherland communities might be closer than one may imagine, given that immigration to a new cultural context might induce changes in the way festivals are celebrated.

The Feast of the Seven Fishes

The Feast of the Seven Fishes is an Italian American Christmas Eve celebration. J’s family has been celebrating with this feast just for the past few years, and he says it allows them to connect with their culture and ethnic community. In accordance with online descriptions of the grand meal, the “essentially have a dinner party with 7 different fish cooked into the dishes.”

According to Eataly, the tradition was started by Italian immigrants in the U.S. in the early 1900s and while the exact origins/meanings are difficult to trace, “the ancient tradition of eating fish on Christmas Eve dates from the Roman Catholic custom of abstinence from meat and dairy products on the eve of certain holidays, including Christmas. The number seven is rooted back in ancient times and it can be connected to multiple Catholic symbols…” Therefore, like for J’s family, one can presume that both the meals and symbolism present were reminiscent of “home” for early participants in the Feast.

He believes it to be a celebration of abundance and the “being better off” that comes with immigrating to the U.S. as well as a ritualistic acknowledgement by Italian Americans of their cultural history and the sacrifices and hard work of their ancestors.