Dual cultures. I have gone back and forth with an appropriate name for this blog. For one, I have seen some differing definitions on who is considered first generation American. On the other hand, I didn’t want to leave others out that may not fit that first generation model. We have immigrants that came over as young as 5 years old and refugees that were teenagers, but have assimilated into the dominant American culture.
Lahiri’s quote above (taken from a 2006 Newsweek article) has been sitting with me for many years, “loyal to the old world” and “fluent in the new.” I felt such a connection as I read through her article. So, I started asking friends and friends of friends with dual cultural identities questions about their upbringing, such as relationships with family and friends, language, food, etc. Where although their parent’s cultures were vastly different from my own parents, the experiences and emotions we had was shared.
What I want this blog to be is an intelligent and open dialogue in sharing our lives. Whether it’s the frustrations of our parents not understanding our views or sharing ways we bring culture into our own, newly formed families. Our world has a habit of making quick judgments of cultural practices that are different than our own, so this is our chance to create a community where we try to examine our similarities, and even differences, without judgment.
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