They're Coming to America

We were inspired by a great poet this week. He wrote a moving poem about immigration, maybe you know it. Here are our class notes so far about Neil Diamond's poem "America". It inspired our own poetry writing (and maybe a spontaneous dance party or two, once I told them it was also a song).

 

Researching as Historical Authors

We've been researching. It is always easier with a lens. We've been wondering if the adventures of history could become the inspiration for fictional stories. Can we write historical fiction about our heritage of immigration? We currently look at many things through that lens.

A father, who immigrated from Honk Kong, came to visit us this week. He shared his story. We took time afterwards to compile a list of things from his experience that we could give to a character in a story we may write in the future.

• He went to a party and didn't know what a taco was or how to eat it. Tacos seems exotic. He bites the middle and it falls apart. He watches everyone else to learn how to eat a taco. What exotic things will our characters encounter?

• Missing the fresh food from home and not liking the American stuff from the market (open a box, open a bag, put it in the microwave). What about America might make our character miss home?

• Liking how big and open America feels, the fresh air, the high standard of living and it does not feel  crowded. What might be different from home in a good way?

• He keep some holidays from his old culture and also starts celebrating some from the new. What might our characters keep from their old culture and what might they acquire from their new culture?

We read an article about Ellis Island and took notes about experiences those passing through Ellis Island faced. Which experience might we give to our characters? We learned what steerage meant and what conditions might be like for passengers traveling in steerage. We know that they used phrases like "The Island of Hope" and watched carefully for the Statue of Liberty. Our characters probably will, too.

Aliens Among Us

When we started to think about immigration, we realized that we knew people from other countries. In fact, we counted at least six who work right here on campus. We wrote to invite them to class. We've been listening to their stories for the past few weeks. They've talked about their motivations for coming to America, what they felt as they left home, confusing situations they found themselves in and what tokens they brought to remember home.

Meanwhile, we have also been considering under what circumstances we would be willing to leave our home forever. So far we have about 22 reasons that are compelling enough to the children. Interestingly enough, many of them are the situations our ancestors faced when deciding to immigrate.