Preserving heritage is a necessity in order to maintain cultural identity, as Berry says. In her essay, “What is Cultural Heritage?” on Khan Academy, Elena Franchi answers the question of what exactly cultural heritage is, as well as its importance and connection to identity. Cultural heritage represents a belonging to our community, our bonds to the past, present and future, and our identity (Franchi). In my opinion, the successful preservation of culture by immigrants is what makes the United States a land that inhabits several distinct cultural or ethnic groups. The United States can currently be considered the “melting pot” of the world where countless cultures combine into our society. Those countless cultures arrive here and provide the United States with new takes on food, music, dance, and other distinct components of culture. It has become evident that some of the children of immigrants, who can be considered first generation children, struggle to maintain their inner cultural identity as they grow up and assimilate into the classic American society. However, there are also the first generation children who are able to succeed in cultural preservation. There exists an inner battle in every child of immigrant
parentage between becoming Americanized and maintaining their inner ethnicity. Multiculturalism and biculturalism are related terms, but they don’t have the same meaning. Since multiculturalism refers to the presence of several cultural or ethnic groups within a society, multiculturalism could also refer to the presence of biculturalism. The argument that I will be making is specifically about biculturalism, but can also apply to the idea of multiculturalism. Biculturalism is the ability to possess dual cultural identity, one originating from the ethnic or native land, and one from the land of residence. The idea of biculturalism is one that can be surrounded by the concepts of food, language, music, clothing, dance, or other aspects of culture. Biculturalism is a difficult trait to maintain for those surrounded by a society based on Americanization. Food, language, and biculturalism are important in helping America maintain a unique, multicultural identity, rather than a dull uniform identity. I claim that food and language play key roles for immigrant children in maintaining biculturalism, and that biculturalism is an important aspect of America’s national identity.
Americanization is the adversary in the effort to maintain dual cultural identity in the United States. The term “Americanization” can be interpreted multiple ways, however the dictionary definition, according to Merriam-Webster, it is the “process of acquiring or conforming to American characteristics and traits.” In my opinion, Americanization is the process by which immigrants, or children of immigrant parentage lose their ethnic cultural identity. Becoming fully “Americanized” in the United States means that one has assimilated into the American society and adapted to American culture, while forgetting about their ethnic culture. From my perspective, this can be seen in society today where countless Americans sign up to take genetic testing offered by companies such as Ancestry DNA and 23 and Me. More
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often than not, those that take the test are shocked when the results reveal that they come from various ethnic backgrounds. That shock that some have comes as a result of years of Americanization in the United States and causing people to forget about their cultural upbringing. Americanization is the main obstacle in maintaining biculturalism.
While some may argue that Americanization is the goal in the United States and that concepts such as multiculturalism and biculturalism are destroying what it means to be an American, I see Americanization as a threat to cultural identity. Supporters of Americanization, whom are also opponents of multiculturalism, favor the idea of mixing together to form one “American” culture. In his blog post, “Thoughts on the ‘Melting Pot’ Metaphor,” Daniel Miessler claims that the “melting” part of the “melting pot” theory relies on two things: heat and mixing. Miessler describes the “heat” as being, in cultural context, “the social pressure on immigrants to downplay their previous culture and adopt the American way of life” (Miessler). Miessler goes on to say that “without [the heat] you have a single location with a collection of different people with different cultures. Cultures which exert such extreme and opposing pressures on the whole that they can destroy it in a very short period” (Miessler). What Miessler is assuming in his case is that it is impossible for people with different cultural backgrounds to coexist in America, which is why it is important that every migrant leave behind their ethnic past for a new American beginning. I disagree with Miessler’s claims as I think that it isn’t necessary to rid ourselves of our ancestral heritage in order to live in the United States. Some opponents of multiculturalism even go as far as to say that multiculturalism and diversity are threats to America’s national identity. Mike Gonzalez, in his article “Multiculturalism and the Fight For America’s National Identity,” argues that one of the main threats [to America’s national identity]
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is the current promotion of subnational group identities or identity politics in general—multiculturalism, diversity, and so forth” (Gonzalez). Respectfully, I disagree with Gonzalez and would say that the promotion of multiculturalism, through biculturalism, is necessary for America to maintain its historic identity, as a land of immigrants and differing cultures.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to say that immigrants shouldn’t put forth effort to develop American traits and ideals. What I am trying to say, however, is that Americanization shouldn’t cause someone to lose their ethnic identity. The reason for that being that the United States is what it is today because of differing ethnic identities. The goal for America shouldn’t be to create a uniform identity where everyone is the same, because that is not what makes America great. What makes America great is the ability for the country to willingly accept those that are different and learn from them, and grow together as one nation with a unique multicultural identity. What that means is that coexistence of cultures, in my opinion, is possible in a society like the United States. Coexistence of culture doesn’t mean we put American culture off to the side and ignore it, it means that immigrants can learn American culture and traditions, while still maintaining their own culture from the “old” world. That ability to have a coexistence of American culture, and the “old,” ethnic culture, is referred to as biculturalism.
Biculturalism, in a way, is the inverse of Americanization. Biculturalism has been defined in a number of ways, mostly referring to countries or nations as a whole. In the article, Biculturalism and Context: What Is Biculturalism, and When Is It Adaptive?, Seth J. Schwartz and Jennifer B. Unger explore the meaning of biculturalism. They state that, “ most generally, biculturalism represents comfort and proficiency with both one's heritage culture and the culture
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of the country or region in which one has settled” (Schwartz & Unger). They referenced a survey that concluded that “the most fully bicultural individuals – those who integrated their Hispanic and American cultural streams – reported the highest levels of familial ethnic socialization” (Schwartz & Unger). Schwartz and Unger define “familial ethnic socialization” as the ability of the parents to educated and expose their children to the language and traditions from the family’s heritage culture. The traditions that they bring up can refer to aspects of culture such as food and language. Schwartz and Unger go on to say that “even if one is able to ‘act American’ at work or school, there may be other contexts – such as the family or the peer group – in which the person will display more heritage culture behaviors, values, and identifications” (Schwartz & Unger). This statement alone defines the meaning of biculturalism: the ability to have a sense of dual identity. Schwartz and Unger are able to conclude that biculturalism is possible and there are those that exist that are able to maintain their sense of it. With their explanation, it is clear to see that biculturalism is the polar opposite of Americanization.
The ability to possess a sense and appreciation of biculturalism in many immigrant children can be a difficult one to maintain and is often lost. An immigrant’s sense of biculturalism refers to the awareness of their own cultural upbringing. An immigrant’s appreciation for it is determined by their effort to maintain that cultural upbringing. In Growing Up American: The Challenge Confronting Immigrant Children and Children of Immigrants, written by Min Zhou, a professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of California-Los Angeles, Zhou discusses the topics of cultural adaptation amongst first generation immigrants by pulling together existing studies that bear directly or indirectly on children's immigrant experiences. Immigrant children and children of immigrant parentage account for a
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large portion of America’s child population. According to statistics from the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) and the U.S. Census Bureau's 2016 American Community Survey (ACS), “approximately 18 million children under age 18 lived with at least one immigrant parent. They accounted for 26 percent of the 70 million children under age 18 in the United States.” Often times when referring to, or studying the adaptation of immigrants into American society, the children are ignored. In the essay, Zhou discusses how the children of immigrant parentage lack their sense of biculturalism. Zhou states how, “differing from their immigrant parents, immigrant children and children of immigrants lack meaningful connections to their ‘old’ world. They are thus unlikely to consider a foreign country as a place to return to or as a point of reference” (Zhou 64). The ‘old’ world that Zhou references is the ethnic land, or land of ancestry that the immigrant’s culture originated from. Zhou’s claims about immigrant children tie in with my claim about the sense and appreciation of biculturalism. Zhou claims that the younger generation lacks “meaningful connection” to their cultural upbringing, and that goes hand in hand with the idea of maintaining an appreciation of that cultural upbringing. Lacking connection and losing sense of one’s identity comes as a result of losing appreciation to one’s heritage. As a result, the children’s sense of biculturalism diminishes and they lose their connection to the ethnic roots, as Zhou claims.
Food can also play a role in the difficulty to maintain the equilibrium in biculturalism, and the process of Americanization. The equilibrium in biculturalism is the balance between ethnic identity, where one is culturally from, and native identity, where one is born or lives. For example, in “If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I?” Geeta Kothari illustrates the competing cultural experiences of being Indian and American that complicate her sense of
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identity. For Kothari, identity shapes, and is shaped by the foods that are eaten and the ways in which they are eaten. Towards the end of her reflection, Kothari states how she believes her “antipathy toward dal signals something deeper, that somehow I am not Indian…I am not American either” (Kothari 5). While some may say that a person must identify with at least one culture and that it is impossible to be “cultureless,” Kothari states otherwise, describing how she is trapped in a culture void, saying: “I worry about a lifetime purgatory in Indian restaurants where I will complain that all the food looks and tastes the same because they’ve used the same masala” (Kothari 5). Kothari’s struggle with her identities shows that she is unable to maintain her multiculturalism. The difficulty that Kothari has supports the claim made previously and shows that food can play a role in the difficult maintenance of cultural equilibrium amongst first generation children.
While the idea that the younger generation have assimilated into American culture and have lost their ethnic connections may be true for a certain number of immigrant children, there also exists a portion of today’s immigrant youth that possess the ability to maintain an equilibrium in their biculturalism. Although it is true that there are children of immigrant parentage that struggle with comprehending all the components, native and ethnic, of their ancestral heritage with equal appreciation, there are those immigrants that possess the ability to maintain their biculturalism through aspects such as food and language. For example, in the “Detroit” episode of No Passport Required , Marcus Samuelsson, a chef and restaurateur born in Ethiopia and adopted by Swedish parents who raised him in Sweden, discusses the the idea of dual identity and how navigating dual identity is something that everyone does at some point in their life, more specifically, immigrants. Along his exploration, Samuelsson visits, and is invited
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to eat dinner, with a Syrian family. Samuelsson points out how the essence of the Alahmad household is based off of hospitality. Yasser Alahmad, the father of the family, describes how the food that they eat in their household helps the family remember their home country. Alahmad tells Samuelsson, “what did we bring from our old country? Memories. When we eat this, honestly we remember our country” (Detroit 15:10). From the dialogue between Samuelsson and Alahmad, it is clear to see that food assists the Alahmad family in maintaining their ethnic culture, and in turn, their biculturalism. Samuelsson then visits Noura Ballout, a business owner in Detroit, and discusses the concepts of dual identity with her as well. Samuelsson brings up the roles each generation plays in the process of adaptation into American society and says that the first generation is tasked with getting a job and sending their kids to school, while the next generation is the one that is left with the struggle of identity (22:30). Samuelsson also claims that “food is one of the best ways of expressing and understanding one’s belonging in a society” (22:45). His claim directly supports the claim made previously that there are immigrants that are able to maintain their biculturalism through aspects such as food and language.
Not only do food and language help immigrants maintain connections to their roots, but the aspects, such as food, also contribute to the creation of new cultures through the blending of different heritages. I think that the development of new cultures is a good compromise to Americanization. The idea of combining aspects of one culture with another is better than completely diminishing one of the two. In The Italian Immigrants’ Assimilation into American Culture and the Subsequent Impact on Food, Language and Last Names , Joseph Pechie claims that the assimilation process of Italian immigrants into American society had a direct impact on the food, language, and last names of those immigrants. Pechie utilizes the idea “melting pot” as
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a way to explain the assimilation process, specifically for Italian immigrants. In his research, Pechie states,“the process of blending into American culture caused many first, second, and third generation Italian- Americans to lose their cultural ties to their ethnicity, but ultimately created an America in which a new culture was created, and that is the Italian-American culture,” and that “although aspects of all cultures’ traditions change over time, the core of the Italian-American tradition has stayed intact for nearly 100 years” (Pechie 22). Pechie states how some Italian immigrants sacrifice their ethnic culture to assimilate into American society, but I would argue that the Italian immigrants didn’t necessarily lose their identity, but rather it adapted and mixed with American culture. The Italian immigrants didn’t trade one for the other, but instead created a new Italian culture that contained aspects of both American and Italian tradition. This compromise is also what the core of biculturalism is based on: the idea of cultures blending, but neither diminishing.
Along with food, language is the second key factor that helps immigrants maintain their biculturalism in the United States. When referring to language, I mean all the aspects, such as reading, writing, and of course, speaking. In Antonia Darder’s book, Culture and Difference: Critical Perspectives on the Bicultural Experience in the United States , she references a 1990 quote by Carlos Ovando which states, “language is very much more than words, grammar and sounds. It is, as folklorist Cratis Williams writes, ‘culture expressing itself in sound’” (Darder 190). The claim that language is “culture expressing itself in sound,” is similar to a claim made previously by Marcus Samuelsson that “food is one of the best ways of expressing and understanding one’s belonging in a society.” With that being said, it can be concluded that both food and language help people express their cultural identity. In an essay from the 1986 novel
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Decolonising the Mind: the Politics of Language in African Literature, N gugi wa Thiong’o, a Kenyan novelist and post-colonial theorist, discusses the connection between language, communication, and culture. Thiong’o describes how language has duality, in that language is a medium of communication and a bearer of culture (Thiong’o 387). Language, he claims, creates mental images of the world and nature. (389) Thiong’o goes more into depth, claiming that culture is the creation and reflection of the communication between humans as they attempt to create prosperity and maintain it. Thiong’o and Ovando’s claims go hand in hand, as both emphasize the idea that language is a significant part of cultural identity. I agree with both authors, and I would add that, not only is it significant for cultural identity, but it is also significant for bicultural identity. The ability to speak the native language of the land of residence as well as the language from ethnic background is a remarkable aspect of biculturalism.
Cultural concepts, such as food and language, generally apply to any first generation child growing up in America, but, specifically for myself, my ethnic cuisine and language played a role in my bicultural identity during my childhood in the United States. I am a first generation American citizen, my father born in Belgrade, Serbia, my mother in Zajas, Macedonia, and me, myself, in Hinsdale, Illinois. Ironically, mislead by the birthplaces of my parents and myself, I am ethnically Albanian. As the son of two immigrants, one would think that it would be difficult for me to learn about American culture and grow up in a society so different from that of my roots. However, I became comfortable with my ability to assimilate into the community of my peers while still maintaining my sense of biculturalism. With assistance, I was able to successfully comprehend and adjust to the American society, while also keeping true to my roots
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and maintaining my inner cultural identity. The reason I share my personal story is because, as I claimed previously, food and language played a role in my ability to preserve my Albanian culture as a grew up in the United States.
Upon my introduction into the American educational system, I lacked the ability to speak the English language. My first language from the day I was born until I began kindergarten was Albanian, so I was already at a slight disadvantage from my other peers. I was spoken to in Albanian, always, which helped me maintain the language in my memory up to the present day. It wasn’t until kindergarten, where it was noticeable that I was struggling comprehending English, that I began taking English-language learner (ELL) lessons. For me, language has been the most significant factor in maintaining my ethnic cultural identity. Language, in a way, helps me keep a connection to my home away from home overseas. When I speak my ethnic language, it makes me feel unique, like I possess some sort of power to communicate in a tongue that is unknown to most people in the United States. When I travel overseas, I am able to utilize my ethnic language to communicate with my family and friends from my motherland. That ability for me to speak my ethnic language helps me maintain by sense of biculturalism because it is a piece of my heritage that I will always have with me wherever I go.
Often times, the food we eat, and grow up eating, is taken for granted in the role that it plays in helping me maintain my sense of culture. Growing up, I was accustomed to eating a multitude of ethnic Albanian foods, in addition to “American” cuisine. My grandmother would always cook ethnically Albanian meals, such as burek. Having someone in the household, such as my grandmother, who is only accustomed to a foreign lifestyle helped me get a better feel for my heritage by experiencing it on a daily basis. The fact that most of our home-cooked meals
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were of Albanian cuisine forced me, in positive way, to remember where my roots are. Eating like an Albanian, while living in America, allows me to keep memories of my homeland abroad, while still being able to acknowledge that I am in America and am a United States citizen. Food, along with with language, was one of the most essential aspects of my cultural upbringing that allowed me, and still allows me today, to maintain by bicultural identity.
Essentially, the large body of immigrant children can be divided into two groups: those that have lost their ethnic connections in exchange for assimilation and those who have been able to maintain their inner cultural identity and biculturalism. In my opinion, the latter has greater significance in the United States. The ability to maintain a bicultural identity in a country that attempts to create a uniform identity, is one that is taken for granted. Those people that are going through the bicultural experience in the United States are the ones that are helping the country keep its true, unique identity: being the collection of different people, from different places around the world, living as one, but not in a melting pot. Those that are able to recognize both components of their upbringing do so through the consumption of ethnic foods as well as speaking the ethnic language. The failure by some to keep in mind the roots that they come from is also determined by food and language. There are many questions and debates that still surround this issue of Americanization vs biculturalism, but there is no doubt that food and language play key roles in that inner battle of identity, and in the result of the effort to preserve cultural heritage amongst first generation children as they grow up and assimilate into American society. Food, language, and biculturalism matter and have an important role in the United States. Without those three things, the United States is susceptible to the creation of a dull uniform identity that lacks uniqueness and cultural depth. The United States should not be
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referred to as the “melting pot” of the world, but rather, as Jane Elliot, a former American school teacher and anti-racism activist, once said, “a salad bowl. In a salad bowl, you put in the different things. You want the vegetables–the lettuce, the cucumbers, the onions, the green peppers–to maintain their identity. You appreciate differences.” I want to see the United States as the “salad bowl” of the world, where various “vegetables” are thrown together, but none ever lose their taste. Food and language are the two most important “dressings” of that salad bowl. Immigrants should get to keep their ethnic identity and way of life, while adapting to merely just the general characteristics of the American culture. I say it’s time to freeze the melting pot and time to start tossing the salad.