--- Velho <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Dear Mario, > > Its been very interesting to read your views on this > thread. I was a bit surpised there were so many > Goan-North Americans with contrary views. > > In your opinion, are 2nd generation Goan-North > Americans less/more aware of their culture and > language as compared to say 2nd or 3rd generation > Italian-Americans or Irish Americans or Polish- > Americans(in the USA). I wonder if this differs for > the same communities in Canada. > Mario observes: > Sunith, The difference between Ben Antao and me and the other Goan-North Americans who opined on this subject on Goanet is the emotional and sentimental baggage they carry with them. I have no such baggage. > Pining for "home", often "guilty" that they have left friends and family - often old - and their homeland behind, not sure whether to go back, not sure where they "belong", and desperate to hang on to their ancestral culture. > Living with this dichotomy almost always puts severe psychological pressure on themselves and their children. The reluctance to assimilate then leads to complaints of not being accepted. > I know my heritage and I know my current affiliation. I am just as publicly proud of my roots in Goa and India as I am of my transplanted roots in the new world. Because we have immigrated irrevocably, we saw no reason to bring up our children as "Indians" or "Goans" because they are neither. On the other hand they know their ancestry and their traditions and are conscious that they come from a civilization and heritage that goes far deeper than any of their Caucasian friends. > It helps that the three million or so Indian-Americans now dominate this most competitive of all country's upper economic and intellectual echelon. Unlike when I came here 35 years ago, today when I meet a Caucasian for the first time, within 5 minutes he or she are trying to impress me with the other Indians they know - which invariably turn out to be either a professor, physician, scientist, IT expert, businessman, their classmate who was head of the class, their child's classmate who is head of the class, etc. etc. etc. The impression is that ALL Indians are high achievers. > My married kid's Caucasian in-laws, who are all professionals themselves, think Indians are God's gift to America, and I do nothing to discourage their impression:-)) Why should I tell them that America set the bar so high for us that it took initiative and risk taking in addition to education and intelligence to come here and make it in this highly competitive environment where we had to open our own doors. My standard retort is that for every high achieving Indian they see here there are 10,000 back home who chose to stay home. > I also tell them they should be eternally thankful that India and Russia and China chose socialism and communism for several decades which depressed their economies and held their people back and allowed America to have the economic field to themselves. Now the trick is to maintain the head start as we are now seriously and increasingly competing with everyone as more countries realize the folly of socialism. > Today, in the mid-west US where I live, I am perceived positively simply because I am Indian. This is probably not the case nationwide, especially where the Indian community has "separated" themselves into insular communities and only socialize among themselves, speak an Indian language while in the company of non-Indians, and generally do not give other Americans an opportunity to know them personally. They still get the respect as high-achievers, but not the positive personal and cross-cultural interaction. > First generation immigrants have no need to hide their heritage in these two countries of America and Canada which are almost entirely populated by immigrants. Even those whose families came here on the Mayflower understand that, or can be very easily reminded. > While anyone who follows Goanet would know my unabashed pro-American feelings and love and deep admiration for this country and what it stands for - which is then automatically appreciated and reciprocated severalfold by those who came here before me - I also have a few verbal bombs for those rare Caucasians who need to be reminded of the facts of life. > I once told a German-American who made the mistake of sarcastically asking me why I had not returned to India which "really needed" me, that it was probably for the same reasons he had not returned to Germany after WW-II when they "really needed" him. > I once almost gave a Mayflower descendant a heart attack, when she was denigrating Mexican immigrants as being "wetbacks" and "illegal" by suggesting politely that her original ancestors were similarly illegal and could also be accurately described as the original "wetbacks". > I once told a redneck friend who questioned my American credentials when he was unable to refute my debating points that I had better credentials than him because he was an American "by virtue of a biological crapshoot" whereas I was an American by choice and had "jumped through hoops" to be one. > The thing that has always fascinated me about Americans is that all these sharp arrows, when launched assertively and politely and in proper context, were taken very positively once what I had said sank in. The German-American guy pondered for a few seconds and responded, "I never thought of it that way!" Point made. Case closed. The redneck apologized. The Mayflower descendant is still in the hospital pondering her ancestral illegal status:-)) > Sunith writes: > > The way you described your children and their > connection to Goa is exactly the way > other "assimilated" immigrant communities > have evolved the world over. Some netters have > termed it as "trying to look and act caucasian" > which seems a bit unfair. > Mario responds: > I wouldn't call it "unfair". Absurd is more like it. In the US, Caucasians are a declining 67% of the population. Indians and Filipinos are the top two ethnic communities when ranked by family income. So, who needs to look like whom?:-)) > Sunith writes: > > I have spoken to only a few Indian-Americans my age > about this. Their views more or less matched yours > (regarding their Indian-ness). > Mario responds: > My advice to them is to be proud of their ancient heritage, be proud of their educational heritage, be proud of their rare heritage of secular democracy, because it is the foundation of what they are today - highly respected achievers in the most competitive society on earth, within one generation. > With the evidence since India's fairly recent "liberalization", just imagine what India would have been like today if the Nehrus had turned right instead of left when they had the opportunity in 1947. >
_______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
