After watching the Becoming American video I can find some correlation to my family and our ancestors. My heritage is deeply rooted in the Italian culture because I have family from all parts of Italy. One story in particular that I could connect with was when they were talking about making fun of the Italian's last name, and calling Italians, "eye-talian". My great great grandfather's last name is Butticovoli, and when he came over to America the people at Ellis Island shortened it to Butt. Personally, my last name Fischetti, is often mispronounced and I cannot tell you how many times I have to correct people and how upset I get when someone does mispronounces it.
The fact that between 1820-1924 so many different types of cultures immigrated to America is amazing. Especially when you think about how the immigrants were under the pretense that they could achieve the "American Dream" and turned out that so many of them ended up in tenements and working less then minimum wage and in poor working conditions is hard to conceive. But, during my core class at Molloy (which was called "The American Dream") I had the privilege of visiting the tenement museum in NYC and having a first hand look at that living in this country meant for the immigrants. We were shown documents of people who signed in and they had their stories on display with personal artifacts that were left behind. It is amazing to think that our ENTIRE country's essence was because of families such as those that came over from their homelands to find a better life, one of prosperity and a dream.
Good entry, Heather! Have patience with people who mispronounce your name. You never know when you may be mispronouncing other people's names. It is a very common occurrence.
ReplyDeleteThe core class you mention sounds interesting. Usually, the generation that arrives here suffers the most, and then life improves gradually for each subsequent generation.