Blog #3

Everybody comes from different walks of life such as their ethnicity or religion.  Regarding whatever ethnicity you are you should never be discrimated based on your ancestors.  As everybody know the United States of America is called the melting pot for a reason.  The reason for this is because at one point or another, everybody’s ancestors immigrated to the United States of America.  Everybody’s ancestors are from all different countries, which makes the United States of America such a great place to live.  One thing that was apparent in the older years was when there were immigrants from another country, they all seem to congregate in the same place, such as in the reading when it says that New York had the most Italians, and Polish people than anywhere else. “In the 1920s, New York had more Italians than any city in the world except Rome, and Chicago, more Poles than any city except Warsaw” (146).

It think it is awesome that every area wherever, immigrants ending up settling, it had their own touch of their home country,  especially with food because I am a big fan of food. “Often dubbed Chinatown, Poletown, Little Italy, or Ukrainian Village, these ethnic neighbourhoods were filled with sights, signs, sounds, and smells that were distinctly Old World” (146).  Another thing is that even though these places were in the United States of America, and kids were learning the American language in school, they would still speak to their families with their native language.  I find this so interesting because even though kids were learning an entire different language, they would still use the same language that they learned prior to learning English because that is what their families spoke.  Most parents and older folk back then did not speak the English back in the day.

I think it is really interesting how just by looking at someone you can depict what their ethnic background.  It shows that through all the years that are ancestors have been around, still some of their original characteristics can still be seen in people that are alive, and being born to this day.  Such as facial features.  I also like how people still tend to practice their ancestral ties that were used back in the day, to this day.  For example, I am Italian, and every Sunday my entire family would go to my grandparents house for Sunday Dinner.  Well, Sunday dinner did not really happen during “dinner time” it happened at 3pm.  Every week, we would eat the exact same thing on Sundays at my grandparents house.  We would have pasta or “macaroni” as my grandmother used to call it, with homemade meatballs, sausage, salad, and bread.  After dinner, we would have ice cream and apples which my grandfather, and uncle would cut for my brothers, and I.  Unfortunately in my grandmothers old age she stopped cooking, and that was the end of Sunday dinners for us.  My point is that my grandparents used to have Sunday dinners with their family when they were younger, and that is a tradition that they passed on as they got older, and filled the shoes of their ancestors.  I tend to fill the same shoes when I get older.