The New Colossus / We are all immigrants

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame,
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
by Emma Lazarus

Immigration is the topic today, Wednesday 2nd July. Frank Couvares started telling us about his and his wife’s parents and grandparents’ origin. He is a “mango“, his grandparents came from Italy (from one side) and Greece and Germany (from the other). This is a very common story in America, there are only very few that come from the first colonists without any mixture. In fact that is almost impossible.
Last evening we were watching the film “El Norte“. Most of it was in Spanish what makes a more moving experience for me. I ended up crying.
Here are some statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau: Region of Birth of the Foreign-Born Population: 1850 to 1930 and 1960 to 1990. In the first of those periods, the biggest cities in America are 60% – 80% immigrants.
There was no regulation on immigration until 1917 in the immigration Act. List of United States immigration legislation.
The most significant number of immigrants in 1990 is 44.3 % people from Latin American, and at present “Latinos” are the largest plurality.

The democratic party is also split in relation to immigration, but the split is less than in the republican party.
The Green card allows you to work in the States, but even if you don’t have it you can be paying taxes, this is really complicated to understand, but that is.

The second lecture of the day was Latino identity by Rick Lopez . Latinos are becoming active and are creating an identity that before didn’t exist like that.
The face of the Latinos in the present days: they are not an invisible minority now, they are more unified and united as Latinos, the question they are facing nowadays is in terms of civil rights.
Some links to explore later on:
Texas rangers and n 1924 the petrol border was created.
LULA League of united Latino American citizens
The bracero program.
1960s, The Chicano movement started. It has 4 branches and represents the struggle for the right to have rights, they claim their part in the community. Chicano Movement in Washington State, History Project
Puerto Ricans are the second group of Latinos in the States, they are American, but they are also Latinos because of the language. (1917 Jones act-citizenship). Cuban-American are the 3rd group of Hispanic (this term was invented in the 1960s and the term Latino was created with a market target).

Latinos are going to be very influential in this election, as a guess Frank says that 70% Mexican American will go for democrat as well as 90% of Puerto Ricans. Cuban used to be 90% republicans, but this tendency seems to be changing and he guesses they could vote 50/50.
In the afternoon we went to visit the CNA, Center for the New Americans. We had a long talk with the director James Ayres. We were asking questions for more than an hour or more. Can you believe that? This is the way we are . He has invited us to join him and his family in Chesterfield for the 4th of July Parade.
As a conclusion, everybody in America, except the Native American Indians, could be considered an immigrant though not everybody remembers that now.

Only one cheese (american cheese), but many religions

I use this slideshare about humour in religions because el tema del día es “American Religious Pluralism and Tolerance”, en este grupo hay gente de varias religiones, que yo sepa al menos católicos, musulmanes, protestantes y anglicanos, muchos de ellos fueron el domingo a misa o a la celebración correspondiente de su iglesia. Es muy interesante ver cómo reflejamos cada uno lo que creemos y lo que ocurre en nuestros distintos países. Por otra parte lo que más me gusta es ver que a veces alguien se sorprende mucho de alguna cosa que hacen los demás (or even gets shocked) pero a la vez todos vamos abriendo la mente a nuevas formas de ver la realidad. Por ejemplo yo ya sabía que en India o Pakistán los matrimonios son en la mayoría de los casos concertados entre los padres, pero sorprende conocer a alguien que está comprometida de esa forma y que está esperando a casarse para conocer y poder ver a su futuro esposo. Este por ejemplo es el caso de mi compañera de habitación cuando salgamos de viaje. No puedo opinar mucho sobre esto, por lo visto los matrimonios que se hacen de esta forma en la India tienen menos índice de divorcios (según me comentaba Rajendran), y ya sabemos que al final uno tiene que aprender a amar con el paso del tiempo, aunque claro está me sería muy difícil estar en su situación por no decir imposible.

Me he salido del tema de las religiones y me he metido en el de la cultura, lo cierto es que el día me ha gustado mucho. No voy a extenderme solo a poner las ideas principales y los links. Otherwise I won’t have time to do my homework, go to the gym, etc. (+ we are going to a movie session tonight to watch “El Norte” a film about immigration.

The irony of religious separation from the state is religious intensity because no one is afraid of other religions becoming the official religion of the state.
But this is different to separation of religious and politics. Politicians have their own religious believes and these are clearly exposed and reflected in their opinions.

Anne Broadbridge from University of Massachusetts gave us a talk about Islam in America or, as she said, about “How to teach students about others and how to do it when they know something about the topic but you know it is wrong ” or it is not without prejudices. It was a very clear lecture.
In the afternoon we had a panel discussion, again lot of information. There were 4 people:
Jules Chametsky, a Jewish Rabbi.
An article about Jewish humor by him.. He recommended to have a look at the religious report by the Pew forum.
Another panelist was a Reverend from the Episcopal Church (they belong to the Anglican Church). He says that once he spent sometime in France and what surprised him was that there was many kind of cheese but only one predominant religion, just opposite to what happens in the United States. And on the Muslim side Anne Broadbridge and Nevine, a Muslim woman from Egypt who has lived for 10 years in America. Jules talked about the orthodox Jews and the non orthodox ones that even accepted homosexual Rabbis. The Episcopal Church also accepts that now. This was one of the points that raised some controversy in the room. The reverend also talked about the market side of religions in this country, as they depend on the money from the practitioners they need to sell themselves well.