We Are All Immigrants

Unless you are Native American, your family immigrated from somewhere else to come to the U.S.  This very fact makes it  difficult for me to understand why so many folks here in this country fear the immigrant. Have we forgotten our own family's story?

See Nancy and Violeta we saved you a spot in the back row...

This month's read for the Happy Bookers, my book group, was Cristina Henriquez's The Book of Unknown Americans, the story within all of us (the majority of U.S. citizens) of coming to this country with dreams of hope. 

The book's vehicle is an apartment complex in a relatively small city in Delaware where these apartment resident families hail from many different Central/South American countries, not the expected setting of a large cosmopolitan city like Chicago or New York City. 

The reader hears the voices of many of these residents of how, when and why they ended up here - their heartache of being homesick, the difficulties each encounter adjusting to a new culture and trying to maintain one's identity, the universality we all share. 

Besides discussing the book, we made it even more personal by sharing an immigrant story of our own family. 

Former chemist, now restauranteur

In fact since we were meeting in the new space of the former Hmong Egg Roll Restauraunt (now Golden Egg Roll), the owner was gracious enough to share his story as a Laotian immigrating in the 70's to the small town of Beaver Dam (outside of Madison) at age 13 without a word of English. There was no ESL (English as a Second Language) program but a tutor hired to come in 2 hours a day to work with the 2 brothers. The rest of his school day was in the regular classroom where he was placed in a lower grade. (5th grade) At the end of each year, he knew more and more of the English language. Five years later his father came to La Crosse with the family due to a job. 

Our group gave the Book of the Unknown Americans a two thumbs up as it touched something familiar.  We have a story within all of us and by sharing it, we all become a bit closer.