Monday, March 16, 2009

Family Stories as Secret Text for Immigrants

This professor requires her students to interview a close relative to get details of their family history. They often discover many sacrifices and struggles and bravery. - - Donna Poisl

By KIRK SEMPLE

Angela Wu Cen, 19, knew many details about her parents’ 13-year migration from China to Panama to New York. But she had never known much about a more intimate aspect of her parents’ lives: their courtship.

So when Ms. Wu, who was born in Panama and was 12 when the family came to the United States, sat down to interview her mother for an honors seminar at Hunter College last month, she was surprised to learn that her parents’ marriage had not been the fruit of a long romance, as she had assumed, but had come about in a matter of weeks.

The two had been introduced by a mutual acquaintance of their families’. They lived in separate towns, saw each other a few times and then decided to marry, Ms. Wu said.

“So they really didn’t know each other,” she added, sounding amused. “How can they get married?”
Be sure to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.

No comments: