My Family Tree: Mckeon

I have privileges unfathomable to family back in Mexico, and my mother warned me against taking these privilege for granted. Being born in America did not make me American, she told me, being First Generation American would present seemingly unbearable challenges. She offered advice that I followed to the letter until our first name was not the only thing we shared, until the voice inside my head was replaced with my mother’s.

As a first-generation American I’ve had to face certain challenges that people from non-immigrant families wouldn’t have to face. The most obvious challenge is subtle racism. I’ve had people, speaking directly to me, imitate the way other Indian people speak, make racist jokes (some people think racist jokes are validated if they’re speaking to someone from the race in question), justifying themselves by telling me things like “but you’re not like that.” I come from people who are “like that.” I may be an American but that doesn’t mean anyone can make comments about my family and where they come from. Another such challenge is that my parents often can’t help me navigate American life. But their experiences, the difficulties I’ve seen them face in their lives, and the values they’ve picked up and passed down to me have shaped how I approach life’s problems. Seeing their struggles to create a good life for our family in the US has taught me the importance of education, hard work, risk-taking, and optimism.

Over the past thousand years or so, many immigrants have had countless complications and obstacles while finding their home here in the United States. Migrants tended to have a stigma or stereotype associated with their race, class, or culture. In no way did the United States make it “easy” or “free” whenever the mass of people came to the country. The experiences between the immigration groups of the Chinese, Irish, and Germans over the years show that they have overcome prejudice through their work.

Throughout the history of America, there has always been a influx of Jews from Europe. Even though Emma Lazarus wrote her poem after the massive immigration of German Jews to America, her poem can be used to describe the Jewish Immigrants. Many German Jews arrived in New York " tired ... poor... [and] yearning to breathe free." While New York City was still a hub for German Jewish immigrants, some had also moved to Atlanta and more Western states. Several of the German Jewish families who immigrated to America will forever have their names etched into her history, through their central role as entrepreneurs in America's expanding clothing industry. They began from humble careers and worked their way up the proverbial food chain. Once

The details on how my family arrived in America have been passed down by various members of my family. The accuracy and detail of these memories have diminished with every retelling. Some of my family arrived in America so long ago that all that remains of their experiences are rumors and stretched truths. As a story gets retold over and over it loses much of its accuracy. While much of my family history relies on this kind of storytelling, there are some in my family who were alive and experienced the challenges faced by immigrants. Though born in the United States, my maternal grandfather, Sebastian Passantino, was very familiar with the hardships of being an immigrant.

There was a variety of reasons that immigrants were choosing to leave their European homes. Common reasons like overcrowding, wars, and politics still influenced people. Yet family and friends that had already gone to America were advertisements for the increase of money and work one could find. In addition to word of mouth, the ticket agents for the steamships provided potential immigrants with pamphlets for railroad companies and state immigration bureaus that showed higher wages and job opportunities. (Wyman, 32)

Emigration documents dated September 20, 1871 indicate that Nels and Anna left Sweden destined for “Amerika” with their four youngest children.26 Although a mere fifteen years of age, Charles Oscar, who went by the name of Charley throughout his life, didn’t emigrate with his parents.27 Furthermore, Jack’s status, approximately thirteen at the time and conspicuously absent from the list of children traveling with Nels and Anna, remains unexplained. Nevertheless, for the family members that did emigrate, their surname changed from Svenssen to the anglicized version, Swenson, which undoubtedly occurred when they entered the United States.28 From the Eastern Seaboard the Swenson family presumably traveled by rail to Rush City, Minnesota

The late eighteenth century was a turbulent time throughout America. An influx of immigrants packed into massive cities such as New York and Chicago. As opposed to previously northern European immigration, a wave of “new” immigration in the 1890’s brought immigrants from southern and eastern Europe, who vastly differed

Many immigrants who arrived in the United States of America often times felt like “Strangers to These Shores.” The Chinese immigrants were no different, and were not spared from prejudice, racism or discrimination. In fact, many Chinese migrants came as sojourners in the early nineteenth century for various push and pull factors and posed a real threat to Irish union workers; life was not easy for the Chinese during this period in time.

Life, people say, is made up of many sacrifices. For many second generation Americans, this sacrifice comes in the form of cultural and identity abandonment. Rather than integrating themselves into the American culture, many second generation immigrants feel the need to assimilate and adopt another culture entirely. Immigrants with non-European or typical “American” names often create an English name that is easier to pronounce. When it comes to job applications, second generation immigrants also downplay their roles or membership in culture clubs. This assimilation is often linked to higher socioeconomic levels, as studies from two Harvard professors have shown that people with whiter, American names are more likely to get job interviews or

The year is 1892 and America stands on the precipice of change. Well over 12 million starving, restless immigrants place themselves before the Americans. All of which took that leap of faith into the cold unknown. Their fates are sealed and in the hands of strangers whom owe them nothing. Opportunity awaited past those iron gates and for many there was no

February 23, 1843, 10 years before the events of An Immigrant American, Volume 1 of the Kopp Chronicles.

In many ways, the experiences of immigrants in 19th century America were similar. They were outsiders to the dominant American culture, and left their country in search of freedom and liberty. However, through careful study of Greek, German and Chinese individual’s oral histories, we can see that immigrants’ experiences varied based on their homeland. The discrepancies in their experiences become most apparent when examining the differences in the immigrant’s treatment upon arrival to America, occupations and education, as well as the assimilation process once in America. In this essay, I will refer to the oral autobiographies of Maria Detsios Spano from Greece, Stefan Weissing and Theresia Brinkhaus Weissing from Germany, and Edward Hong from China.

Henry Compeau, my great-great grandfather was born in the late 1800’s in Ontario, Canada, into a very wealthy family. His father was a very successful ship maker and the family flourished until a Canadian depression left the family with no money. Henry saw that there was no more opportunity for himself in Canada so he joined a logging company and emigrated to the United States to the state of Wisconsin in the late 1920’s in the town of New Richmond.

“Nearly all Americans have ancestors who braved the oceans – liberty-loving risk takers in search of an ideal – the largest voluntary migrations in recorded history… Immigration is not just a link to America’s past; it’s also a bridge to America’s future.” This quote from George W. Bush summarizes the impact of immigration on our nation. Migrants transformed America for the better, and are proved by Richard Rodriguez’s “Blaxicans” and William Bradford’s “Of Plymouth Plantation”. Without immigration, America would not have the same cultural influences, technological advances, and diverse food.