immigraniada

remember always, that all of us, and you and i especially, are descended from immigrants.

-Franklin D. Roosevelt





lately i've been posing a tricky question to my friends and co-workers among the ESL community. i'm wondering (to them, to me) are you an immigrant? and if not, would you define the word 'immigrant'? some people curl their lip and think for a minute then have that realization that perhaps they are immigrants to turkey. we live here, we work here, some of us have fallen in love here and by all means we concern ourself with local affairs even to the degree sometimes (like myself) where we know more about current political situations in turkey than we do with our birth nation. it makes me think to the immigration boom to the USA in the early part of the twentieth century when people swarmed by the ship-load to start a new life and become a new nationality. i used to be furious with my mother and father in concerns with the way they've chosen to pronounce our family name. its been americanized and furthermore mid-westernized to sound like Ar-Dag-Na and it used to make me so angry that they would not pronounce Ardagna with the obvious italian ponunciation that rhymes something like 'lasagna'. 'GN' when followed by a vowel is clearly a 'nya' sound something like the 'Ñ' in spanish. however (and amongst many many other things of disagreement) i have chosen to accept my family's decision after my father told me of his father who took pride in the americanization of his name. in fact, he and his wife went from something like Giuseppi and Gievanna Ardagna to the very american Joseph and Jenny Ar-Dag-Na, and they were proud of it. they were more proud of the United State of America than i've ever been and considering they are two of my favorite humans to walk this earth i'd have to respect the family decision as long as they respect my decision to call myself how i feel appropriate. and i can relate; i once went by the name 'kilisi' in samoa and 'cristobal' in nicaragua :) and i was quite proud of it.

so about immigrants, or whatever we are, i think this question poses a great interest to people like my friends and i. we leave one country in search of work and prosperity in another. we've built quite a name for ourselves in these countries and in shocking realization of the unique situation we are in i think we should learn to be a bit more respectful. its a shame that some people dont make any effort to learn the language here, or wherever they travel to. its also a shame that we go out and get so drunk at night and piss off our neighbors. but just like in any other diaspora we cling to what is famliliar and we start our own culture from within another. we dress differently. we paint ourselves differently and socially we are from a different planet. ever date a turkish girl? ever compare an apple to an orange?

last night the table gets turned back towards myself, who had until then been neutral on the issue. what about you mook? do you consider yourself to be an immigrant? nah man.. i'm more like a nomad.. a very slow moving nomad..