If I could recall one phrase in Hawaii that teachers would emphasize on any given day in history class, it would be the term "melting pot". According to sociologist Ashley Crossman, this phrase is frequently used to described "a heterogeneous society becoming more homogenous with the different elements “melting together” into a harmonious whole with a common culture." Roughly translated it describes the assimilation of immigrants to the United States and quite frankly, it can be a way to describe the kinds of families you'd see in Hawaii.
So don't blame my teachers for over-using this metaphor during lectures. I get it. Where I live, families are diverse and multi-cultured. It's where countless of immigrants chase after the American dream and it's not likely that families are struggling to survive in the U.S. alone. They have cousins, aunts and uncles that are realistically blocks away from their home that will support one another if anything were to happen.
As you might very well know, families are tight knit and traditions are as strong as generations before in Hawaii. Children are being raised in this type of atmosphere and habits are formed that were handed down by their foreign parents. But for children that were raised by immigrants but live in American society, are they ready to pass down the traditions that their parents once carried?
Being raised by parents that were raised in the Philippines but worked with blood sweat and tears to raise me in a country where I could excel and accomplish my dreams, I find that I have an identity crisis in America. Whether I should live in an American tradition or follow what my parents have taught me. Nowadays, America is less of a "melting pot" and more of a "tossed salad." When immigrants first arrived in America, they were eager to leave behind the heartache and troubles of famine and oppression from their homeland and seek a new start in the melting pot as "Americans." Now, it seems like many first generation Americans such as I struggle with wanting to maintain our cultural identity while still wondering if we should move on from tradition and look towards the future.
I find it quite interesting that there are many differences between what goes on in an American traditional household and one that is non-traditional. Even if I have always been used to a non-traditional setting in Hawaii, the culture in the mainland is a different ball game and the question is how should I raise my kids. Hawaii is rich in culture and traditions and in that sense we are separated from the mainland, isolated almost. However, we are still part of the U.S. and first generation identity goes down to every detail. What type of food they should eat, the type of manners that they will have and even to the clothes that they will wear are all things that express who an individual is. But if we have multiple identities, should one be put over the other or is there a way to maintain the cultural richness of our heritage while still staying true to our American home?
So, to my fellow first generation Americans out there, in the near future, we will be parents. We will have a choice whether we choose to follow what cultural traditions our parents have taught us or we will pave our own way by following what we have learned and absorbed from the American society we were born and raised in. The choice is ours. So now is the time to ask ourselves, "What is our identity?"
