Personal Narrative: Two Lines Of Heritage

Food can partially shape a person's cultural identity. Geeta Kothari explores the cultural nuances between American and Indian food in the essay, “If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I?” She expresses this through the symbolism of food, growing up and living between two different cultures. Kothari begins her story as a nine-year-old child curiously wanting to eat the same foods as American children: tuna salad sandwiches and hot dogs. She does not have the guidance from her mother regarding American food and culture. Kothari’s mom curbs the curiosity by reluctantly letting her daughter indulge in a can of tuna fish. Kothari describes the open can of tuna fish as “pink and shiny, like an internal organ” and she wondered if it was botulism (947). The way

Being able to do this, brought me the feeling of joy of unity with my friends. It has become a tradition for my friends and I to bring authentic foods of our culture to share with the table. It is a joy to see their reactions of the pleasure to taste the new substances. I’ve had the opportunity to engage myself in intercultural pursuits as the Vice-President of SHS in order to influence underclassmen to continuing growing to be proud with where they came from; and for the seniors to carry on their culture to college, with the acknowledgment of being

A person has always been able to choose to what extent their cultural experiences affect their perspective. Amy Tan’s, “Two Kinds,” Bharati Mukherjee’s, “Two Ways to Belong in America,” and Robert Lake’s, “An Indian Father’s Plea,” all show how the main characters have chosen to let their experiences have an effect on their cultural identity. A person’s cultural experiences shape perception based on their own identifications and they may chose to assimilate to different cultures.

The American desire to culturally assimilate Native American people into establishing American customs went down in history during the 1700s. Famous author Zitkala-Sa, tells her brave experience of Americanization as a child through a series of stories in “Impressions of an Indian Childhood.” Zitkala-Sa, described her journey into an American missionary where they cleansed her of her identity. In “Impressions of an Indian Childhood,” Zitkala-Sa uses imagery in order to convey the cruel nature of early American cultural transformation among Indian individuals.

In The Culinary Seasons of my Childhood, Jessica B. Harris- the author- attempts to help readers understand the relationship between food and identity. Harris gave a detailed, but relevant, description of how how food portrayed different cultures in her life and how it taught her many lessons about her family history and who she is; she also described how food brings people together as one and creates a connection that nothing else can. The author helps readers initially understand her ideas by showing examples of how food, even in the same culture, can reflect different social classes.“ Even though chitterlings might be on the menu, they could equally likely be accompanied by a mason jar of corn liquor or a crystal goblet of champagne”( Harris

My grandmother Lynne Murphy is who I chose to interview for my heritage project. This summer at a family birthday party I was speaking short phrases in Spanish while joking around with my dad. My grandmother, sitting beside us, joined in the conversation and starting speaking fluent Spanish. I had no idea she could speak Spanish, so I asked her, “How can you speak Spanish?” Before answering my question she laughed. She went on to tell me that she lived in South America for many years as a teenager. I didn’t have the chance to learn anymore about her childhood until this project was assigned. When I learned we were to focus on a family member’s experience growing up, I immediately thought about my grandmother and the interesting life she seemed

Every single individual on this planet has their own distinctive identity and culture. Our culture helps us identify who we are and where we come from. In today’s world, it appears that cultural diffusion has become a normal part of everyone’s life as cultural trends, beliefs and customs spread quickly from one culture to another. In his poem, “Coca-Cola and Coco Frio,” Martin Espada provides his readers with a great example of cultural diffusion that a boy encounters when he visits his native country, Puerto Rico. The “fat boy” mentioned in the poem is none other than Martin Espada himself (3). By sharing his childhood experience in Puerto Rico, Espada tries to prove that acceptance of other cultures can have a negative impact as people incline to neglect their own cultural values and begin to bear a resemblance to other countries.

In “ How I Discovered my American Identity”, when Campbell joined a diverse graduate program at Duke University and started to share activities with foreign students’ friends, he found out that some disliked their government or frustrated about the educational system of their country but they share common – the national and cultural pride, a genuine love for their culture . Campbell too, from his small daily activities such as cooking hamburger, sharing stories about March madness Basketball, we was enjoying his culture. He quickly discovered his true American identity-his personality, how loud, flashy and friendly he was. For me my cultural identity as a Filipino American is a lavish style of simple gatherings- we prepare a lot of food.

In “Stop thinking and just eat: when ‘food adventuring’ trivializes cultures” (2015), Ashlie Stevens, a food and culture journalist discussed the beginning of ethnic food and its growth as viral food trends, causing it to be culturally appropriated by people today. In “Why everyone should stop calling immigrant food ‘ethnic’” (2015), Lavanya Ramanathan shared typical stereotypes of ethnic food perceived by America which have induced food culture appropriation. The lifestyle feature reporter further added insights on the birth and future of immigrant cuisines in America. Both articles took evidently strong interest in shining light on cultural appropriation of authentic food. However, the articles differed in their emphasis.

I feel comfortable talking about my favorite ethnic foods such as fish ‘n chips just about anywhere. Although the diverse ethnic diets of the American people do not always reflect my own, I, as well as others must be accepting of different ethnic diets. The acceptance and acknowledgement of different and diverse diets shaped by ethnic culture enables me to be comfortable talking about and eating my own distinctive foods, regardless of where I

We make assumptions of people based on where they live, what they eat, where they grew up and what occupation they have. Instead of forcing integration on people, personal interaction with cultural diversity could be more effective, which is illustrated by author Jessica Harris. In The Culinary Season of My Childhood, Harris describes her experiences in learning cultural diversity through food. She states, “…and these seasons of my personal and yet very New York childhood gave me the foods of the world on my plate,” (119) Her article discusses the different cuisines that played important parts in her childhood as well as developing her understanding of diversity.

My dad says “what’s on the table is what you eat or you don’t eat at all” if we didn’t want what was on the table then we would either have to make our own food or don’t eat at all. My dad thought that if we tried something new we might like it, if we didn’t like it and we tried it my mom or dad would make us something else as long as we tried something new, but if we didn’t try it they would tell us we would have to make our own food or we don’t get to eat at all my grandma and grandpa also say it too.

By the time I turned thirteen, my mom wanted to move to America so that I could receive a better education, more open doors, and a better profession. Many people don’t understand that moving to a new place is difficult and very frustrating especially if you are not excited about moving to a new place .When you go to a new place, you frequently enter a culture that is not the same as the one you exited. Once in a while, your way of life and the new culture are comparative. Different times, they can be altogether different, and even conflicting. My first year in America was one of the toughest events in my entire life because I don’t have any knowledge of American “CULTURE’. The very big thing that I found uncommon is the way we eat and the things

XV). My husband and I are Canadian, as are our children, and yet I think of us as hybrids in the sense that Montanari describes. Our identities and the culture that exists in our Italian-Irish-Swedish-German-Canadian home are a culmination of a rich history, rife with trials and tribulations, joys and successes, trans-Atlantic migration and settlement: an evolution of identities and cultures creating the hybridization that my family is today. I could go as far as to say that depending on what we are cooking on a given day reveals our cultural identity or alliance of the moment. I’m not suggesting that one can assume an identity or ethnicity based upon a meal plan – I don’t feel “Indian” when I make butter chicken. Rather, it is the Italian-specific meals that come to mind on particular occasions such as panettone at Christmas, or minestrone in the fall and winter so my kids don’t get sick, or when there’s not much in the fridge and I need to improvise; these are the times and meals that reveal my Italian cultural identity in relation to food. My mother was famous among our family and friends for her spaghetti sauce. I can’t eat spaghetti without thinking of how it is just

My family heritage starts back when the greek gods had just been made. Prometheus was creating humans and their attributes now he didn’t get it first try. He made like 5 then he made my great ancestor on his 6th try, his 7th was the best one he used, now everything was right with my ancestors but one thing. He pushed my ancestor to the side and didn’t use them. Later the Celtic gods found them and used them in there big group. Now since they had sat there so long they changed to live longer but faced bad late blooming and late life cycle attributes. So they put in my ancestor on earth and he was named Piner Jamieson, why Jamieson you might ask, well Pine is a tree and Celts loved their plants and nature. But Jamieson is a Scottish word for overtaking government, but as