As a Writing Fellow at Queens, I have been very interested to learn about the many students who came here as immigrants. I, too, came as an immigrant to New York City in 1952. Although my parents had made the move to America, they were reluctant to let me explore the many cultures America had to offer because they did not understand these cultures yet. It’s interesting that several decades later, and coming from different cultures, students at Queens have expressed similar thoughts about fitting in and dealing with their parents.

When I was growing up in New York City in the 1950’s, the ideology of the melting pot was embodied in the curriculum of assimilation in our school system. Neighborhoods, however, were delimited around ethnic and racial differences. Difference was embodied by the material reality of housing and other socio-cultural patterns. Children tend to form social bonds easily, and I remember wanting very much to fit in with the other children. This desire was often difficult to accomplish. On the streets the children all played together, but when we got together with our families, our friends were all of the same immigrant background and country that our parents came from.

Talking to students from many different immigrant groups today at Queens College, it’s interesting that several decades later and coming from different cultures students feel similarly about fitting in and dealing with their parents. I guess this problem is something all immigrant children struggle with as they and their parents adjust to a new country, and as they debate how to maintain the culture from their place of origin while embracing the new mainstream U.S. culture.