Immigrants in the early 1900s, were extremely brave human beings. They had a vision in their mind: they wanted a better future (jobs), they wanted a chance to start over, to provide for their families, and to bring up their children in a world where they could be successful and could be free. Every single immigrant that took the risky step of boarding a ship to America had a reason for leaving their entire life, friends, and family behind, and these reasons vary according to the individual and the country that he/she came from. These immigrants did not know what life would be like in this new world, and how people in America would treat them. Their knowledge of America was murky, dim, and obscure. They also faced the possibility of death and tragedy on this long trip to America, but the glowing image of a prosperous life in the minds of these immigrants kept their spirits going and their hopes and dreams alive. And when these immigrants spotted the Statue of Liberty and Ellis island in the distance, immagine the thrill that must have flowed through their veins and the excitement and cheers that must have erupted on these ships among the immigrants knowing they had made it alive to America, the land of the free, and that their lives were going to change forever......
Upon exiting these ships, these immigrants faced more obstacles and barriers. Not speaking the American language, being surrounded by customs and traditions that were different from their own country, having to live in unsafe and crowded appartments and tenement houses, having to work long hours in factories in unhealthy and unsafe working conditions, being made fun of and being looked down upon by many American people and people of other races, and having to deal with pangs of home sickness.
Many immigrants also, upon arriving at Ellis Island, had their names mistakenly changed by American authorities because these they couldn't speak the American language, and the American authorities couldn't speak the immigrants' language. Many immigrants were sent back to their own countries because they were sick or were not considered intelligent enough to live in America, and therefore, many immigrant families were torn apart.
Immigrants faced emotional, social, mental and physical difficulties in America and for many immigrants, their image of America being a wonderful place to live, vanished. These immigrants endured all these challenges and hardships to make a better life, and yet today, many people have no idea who the immigrants were in their family lines, and have no desire to look back into their family history to learn about these people and their struggles to survive. These courageous immigrants started many of our family lines in America, and if it wasn't for these people taking a risk for a better life and future, we would not be here today.
Appreciating and understanding what immigrants had to go through and what the Statue of Liberty means to immigrants appears in the children's book, A Picnic in October, by Eve Bunting. This story is about a boy, Tony, whose Italian grandparents take his whole family on a picnic to Liberty Island every year in October to celebrate Lady Liberty's birthday. Tony does not understand why his grandparents take his family on a picnic to Liberty Island, and why the Statue of Liberty is so important to the grandparents. However, on this trip to Liberty Island, he begins to realize the Statue of Liberty's significance when he encounters a new immigrant family that also makes the same trip to celebrate Lady Liberty. This story portrays the importance of understanding family history, what people had to go through to get to America, and why the Statue of Liberty is so special to immigrants and to families in America in the past and in the 21st century.
Family history should not be deemed unimportant and should not be ignored. In order to understand our true selves and how we got to where we are today, we have to remember those in our family lines that brought us here to America, and those immigrants in our family lines that sacrificed their lives to make ours better. Knowing their struggles will help us to appreciate our lives more. And by researching our own family histories, the doors of the past will become opened and we will learn aspects of our families that we never knew existed. To be blind to family history is to be blind to your origin, where you come from, and who you are as a person.
Immigrants, family history, culture, Ellis Island, and the Statue of Liberty, are great topics to include in the elementary school classroom, and these topics will help children to not only learn more about themselves and others, but to appreciate the couragous and brave souls in our family lines and in our past that risked their lives across the ocean to live in the Land of the Free. These people should never be forgotten..........
No comments:
Post a Comment