Coming To America Chapter 8 Eastern Europeans: Poles, Jews, and Hungarians

My family lived in the New York metropolitan area when I was in fourth through eighth grade. It was wonderful to experience living on the East coast after being in California. It was such a different place, especially New York City, where we spent lots of time. My mother’s parents had lived there all their lives and the ethnic history there was a rich one. One of the things I remember was how much more ethnicity seemed to be celebrated there, with many strong family ethnic traditions celebrated among my friends. Irish, Polish, and Jewish heritage seemed more obvious there than here.

            I had friends who went to Catholic mass in Catholic churches where Mass was celebrated in Polish and the holiday traditions were very important. There were still neighborhoods where you could hear Polish spoken and find Polish stores such as butchers and bakeries. Their sense of nationalism was still very strong and it was encourage a lot in schools – what I mean by that is that it was really discussed often – class days where we would celebrate different ethnic traditions, classmates parents and grandparents would come and do presentations, cooking and craft demonstrations. I was living there when many of my friends had their Bar Mitzvah and Bas Mitzvahs – my best friend (and still best friend)is Jewish and I was so impressed with her preparation for this time. I went with her and her family to temple and class because I was so interested and I was always impressed by how open they were to me in explaining their traditions and beliefs. The holidays, the foods, life events were all so much richer in their celebrations because their ethnicities were such a part of who they were, yet they were all American in every way. I feel lucky to have experienced such diversity and pride in heritage.

            The Triangle Shirt factory tragedy was important, too – in fact my mother’s grandparents were working in New York when that happened and it was a life-changing event in workers rights in the workplace. My mother remembers conversations about it that she had with her grandparents growing up and what good had come from such a terrible tragedy. It has always seemed that the struggling ethnic groups are the ones who suffer the most in these cases on inequality or lack of social justice. It is interesting to note that today, the working class poor are not just the new immigrants – it reaches across all Americans. And they are fighting for fairness and equality in health care, education, the minimum wage. Lack of economic opportunity is still a great push force – but today it is becoming one in our own country.

            I think the one of the most important things I am learning from the text and class discussions is that there is just a fundamental strength in this country that comes from the sacrifices and strong work ethic that built this country. I really believe it is the foundation for a spirit that cannot be silenced or diminished. It does not mean that there is not work that needs to be done or that circumstances are quite difficult. But I am never without the thought that the people of America are capable of making this country a better place for its own citizens and for those who still want to come here to follow their dreams.