 |
TWITTER / PADMA LAKSMI
Indian American human rights activist Padma Lakshmi opened the New American Festival. |
Saturday was the first day of the New American Festival being held in New York City. International model, host of Top Chef, and human rights activist Padma Lakshmi gave the opening keynote speech about her own story as an immigrant and the value immigrants have brought to the United States.
By Padma Lakshmi
Good morning. I’m honored to join you today at the inaugural New American Festival.
I was born into a middle-class Indian family in 1970. Soon after, my mother made the tough decision to leave her arranged marriage. At the time, in conservative South India, it was unacceptable to be a divorcée, so with the support of her family, she came here. She knew that in America she’d be able to makea better life for us, as an independent single mother. And she did it: working as a full-time nurse at Sloane-Kettering Hospital, and eventually taking night classes to earn a graduate degree. Two years later, I joined her here in New York City on Halloween night, greeted with colorful costumes, bright lights and loud taxi horns. That first crossing, of oceans and continents would foreshadow my lifelong balancing act between my two cultures.
I quickly learned to code-switch, between the tamarind tree-lined streets of Chennai, and my childhood home, on York Avenue in Manhattan. I spent my summers back in India, eating spiced boiled peanuts on the beach with all my cousins, watching the sari-clad women wade into the surf at sunset. Back home in New York I was a latch-key kid, zooming down the avenues in my blue and yellow roller skates.
I was born into a middle-class Indian family in 1970. Soon after, my mother made the tough decision to leave her arranged marriage. At the time, in conservative South India, it was unacceptable to be a divorcée, so with the support of her family, she came here. She knew that in America she’d be able to makea better life for us, as an independent single mother. And she did it: working as a full-time nurse at Sloane-Kettering Hospital, and eventually taking night classes to earn a graduate degree. Two years later, I joined her here in New York City on Halloween night, greeted with colorful costumes, bright lights and loud taxi horns. That first crossing, of oceans and continents would foreshadow my lifelong balancing act between my two cultures.
I quickly learned to code-switch, between the tamarind tree-lined streets of Chennai, and my childhood home, on York Avenue in Manhattan. I spent my summers back in India, eating spiced boiled peanuts on the beach with all my cousins, watching the sari-clad women wade into the surf at sunset. Back home in New York I was a latch-key kid, zooming down the avenues in my blue and yellow roller skates.
My school lunch was always some leftover pungent rice and curry combo, stuffed into an old yogurt container. This was a far cry from the neat and odorless P&J sandwiches my classmates brought to school. Any immigrant kid knows what this awkward rite of passage feels like. I often felt like an outsider in both places.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Following its debut in New York, NAE will bring the New American Festival to cities across the U.S., including Anchorage, Atlanta, Boston, Kansas City, Nashville, Houston, and Oakland, among others.
As time wore on, I found myself flitting between cultures, much like a chameleon in the wild. But now, I realize that my bi-cultural upbringing gave me the enormous advantage of being able to fit into many more situations than others. Luckily throughout my life, I’ve been able to preserve my Indian culture, while enjoying the street smarts acquired only by an upbringing in NYC. This can mean anything -- from teaching my daughter how to make a proper dosa to enjoying a dirty-water hot dog in Central Park. This can mean singing in Sanskrit on the F train.
As immigrants, we come together and blend the best of our backgrounds to form something uniquely American, and that makes us that much more powerful. This is what actually "makes America great." E pluribus unum, out of many-one.
As immigrants, we come together and blend the best of our backgrounds to form something uniquely American, and that makes us that much more powerful. This is what actually "makes America great." E pluribus unum, out of many-one.
It was immigration reform that made my mother’s pilgrimage to the U.S. possible. The 1965 Immigration Act, abolished the discriminatory national origins quotas, leftover from the 1920s. It prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, sex, nationality, place of birth, or place of residence. The law established a new system preference, based on professional status and family reunifiction. I wouldn’t be here today without that policy.
People don’t often realize just how much immigrants have contributed to this country. The New American Economy (NAE), found that 45% of America’s Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children. The revenue these companies generate is greater than the GDP of many developed countries—including Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
This is no small feat.
Whether you’re a Chinese doctor in Oakland or a Guatemalan teacher in Michigan, we each bring our cultural values, work ethic and determination, contributing greatly to the national economy. But economically benefiting this country should not be the only yardstick by which we measure our immigration policy -- our humanity should. Trump’s xenophobic rhetoric is meant to divide us, but he himself is a second-generation immigrant. If our country’s gatekeepers are also the descendants of immigrants from another land, what right do we have to shut the door behind us? After the Native Americans, if this country can belong to any of us, it must belong to ALL of us.
This weekend, the New American Festival features brilliant artists and creatives who are moving our culture forward. They are all immigrants or the children of immigrants. We have:
Today is a celebration of American culture and how immigrants are defining and shaping it. As a US citizen, I am able to be: fully Indian and fully American at the same time, because this country was built by people just like me. As I’ve seen more and more of this world, what strikes me is that no matter how different the places I visit may appear at first glance, people all want the same things. We want personal freedom. We want a nice home that feels secure for our family, free from violence and instability. We want economic independence, the opportunity to succeed with hard work. We want to have enough money to send our kids to school -- and take care of our elders in their twilight years. We may pray to different gods, or not to any god at all, we may speak different languages, but I’m convinced there’s more that connects us than divides us.
As a mother, I want my daughter to grow up in a country of compassion, not fear. I hope this festival inspires you and gives you the language and proof to fight for the rights of immigrants. Americans should be invested in protecting immigration, because it’s the very foundation of this country. There is no America, as we know it today, without that immigration. Our country simply wouldn’t exist. We have to remember the origins of this country and be real about who we are and how we came to be. Or all that greatness, we keep talking about, will perish.
If you already do this work, I thank you. And I hope this weekend gives you the motivation to keep fighting.
So please, take a moment to celebrate and gather inspiration. We have all traveled many roads to get here, and this is an opportunity to come together and move in the same direction.
Thank you.
People don’t often realize just how much immigrants have contributed to this country. The New American Economy (NAE), found that 45% of America’s Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children. The revenue these companies generate is greater than the GDP of many developed countries—including Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
This is no small feat.
Whether you’re a Chinese doctor in Oakland or a Guatemalan teacher in Michigan, we each bring our cultural values, work ethic and determination, contributing greatly to the national economy. But economically benefiting this country should not be the only yardstick by which we measure our immigration policy -- our humanity should. Trump’s xenophobic rhetoric is meant to divide us, but he himself is a second-generation immigrant. If our country’s gatekeepers are also the descendants of immigrants from another land, what right do we have to shut the door behind us? After the Native Americans, if this country can belong to any of us, it must belong to ALL of us.
This weekend, the New American Festival features brilliant artists and creatives who are moving our culture forward. They are all immigrants or the children of immigrants. We have:
- The legendary Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer, who taught me a lot about sex as a teenager, listening to the radio.
- Ballet Hispánico, America’s leading Latin dance organization
- Chef, restaurateur and author Marcus Samuelsson
- And award-winning host, comedian, writer, and producer Hasan Minhaj
Today is a celebration of American culture and how immigrants are defining and shaping it. As a US citizen, I am able to be: fully Indian and fully American at the same time, because this country was built by people just like me. As I’ve seen more and more of this world, what strikes me is that no matter how different the places I visit may appear at first glance, people all want the same things. We want personal freedom. We want a nice home that feels secure for our family, free from violence and instability. We want economic independence, the opportunity to succeed with hard work. We want to have enough money to send our kids to school -- and take care of our elders in their twilight years. We may pray to different gods, or not to any god at all, we may speak different languages, but I’m convinced there’s more that connects us than divides us.
As a mother, I want my daughter to grow up in a country of compassion, not fear. I hope this festival inspires you and gives you the language and proof to fight for the rights of immigrants. Americans should be invested in protecting immigration, because it’s the very foundation of this country. There is no America, as we know it today, without that immigration. Our country simply wouldn’t exist. We have to remember the origins of this country and be real about who we are and how we came to be. Or all that greatness, we keep talking about, will perish.
If you already do this work, I thank you. And I hope this weekend gives you the motivation to keep fighting.
So please, take a moment to celebrate and gather inspiration. We have all traveled many roads to get here, and this is an opportunity to come together and move in the same direction.
Thank you.
_______________________________________________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment