Re: brushing shoulders with Holden Caulfield?

There are advantages/disadvantages to the "new society" vs. the
"established society." "Everyone knowing their place" can be pretty
restrictive, but at the same time there's a kind of certainty and
security that comes along with that too, as well as a clear self
definition. "No one having a place" allows for a much more open
horizon, but also fails to provide any sense of self other than what
individual create for themselves. I'm 100% Puerto Rican (whatever that
means), but that never meant a whole lot to me. I always saw myself as
creating my identity from the books I read. My kids, now, growing up
without a specific ethnic identity, want to recover theirs. So they're
learning Spanish and wear the goucho shirts, etc. :). It's pretty funny.

The families I grew up around didn't fail to maintain their distinct
ethnic identity, whether they were Scots, Irish, Mexican, Puerto Rican,
Korean, Chinese, or African American (all these families lived on the
same street I did). My close Irish friend visited God's country every
summer and his family always managed to sneak back a few good pints of
the real stuff from over there, for example.

My main observation in the essay I posted is that the multicultural
ideal hardly solves any problems -- in fact, it just creates different
ones. I think the root problems need to be addressed some other way.

Jim

cum Daniel Civ 21 CES/CEOE wrote:

>I see, the land that my Mom lives on right now has belonged to the family
>for over 400 years. All the stories that I know about my ancestors (oral
>and written) occurred on the same soil, along the same river, and in the
>same mountains that I grew up on. I read a book about my ancestor Manuel
>Chavez called "The Little Lion of the Southwest", he was a Colonel that lead
>the Second regiment of Volunteer New Mexicans in the Union Army during the
>Civil war, Kit Carson led the First. It was funny because I was taught to
>have a lot of respect for Kit Carson growing up, and when I was in College
>we did a road trip to Taos to have a Drink on his grave in his honor and
>When I read the book I learned that he was a respected friend of my
>ancestor. Also, after reading, I could see Manuel's ways in some of my
>relatives. It is these little things that makes the tierra and hence life
>so intimate and fascinating, life is a drug too bad your childhood friends
>were never taught this. Now I am not surprised by John's mistrust.
>Daniel
>
>I think the age of the community has a lot to do with this...
>Jim
>
>
>

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Received on Wed Oct 29 12:21:10 2003