My Family's Thanksgiving Tradition

Ever since I can remember, my paternal grandmother would always have a very nice, sit-down dinner at her house the night before Thanksgiving. All of our family would come from Vallejo and San Diego to celebrate the holidays with everyone. It is a very special tradition because we don't normally see each other through out the year, except for the holidays and other special occasions. Its nice because my grandparents from my mother's side always attend as well since both my grandparents and my family all live in Sunnyvale. I always loved having this special dinner because i get to have both sides of my family at a dinner table. To make this meal even more special, my paternal grandmother would alway make her famous seafood pasta- her own version of fruitti de mare and her Italian wedding soup. I wait all year long for this meal because we only have it once a year. Although she passed away 8 years ago, our family still keeps the tradition in remembrance of my grandmother.

Here is the recipe for her famous seafood pasta dish:

Ingredients:

clams

mussels

shrimp

crab

scallops

squid

mushrooms

white onion

linguine noodles

Tomato sauce:

• 1 (14 1/2 ounce) can crushed tomatoes 
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1/4 red capiscum, chopped
• 1/2 ground basil
• 1/2 ground thyme
• 1 pinch oregano
• salt and pepper
• 
  

 Directions:

1. Take all the ingredients for the sauce and place them into a pot and boil it for about 20-30 minutes. After the sauce is made, we leave it off to the side on a low temperature or simmer, waiting for the seafood.

2. Begin boiling the noodles as the linguine noodles take a little longer. Then strain the noodles when its done boiling.

3. We clean and cut all the seafood, then we cook it in a pan for a few minutes with some olive oil so that its almost cooked- but not fully cooked as it will cook more in the sauce.

4. After frying the seafood in a pan, place it into the sauce. Then do the same with mushrooms and a small white onion.

5. Once the sauce it put together and the pasta is done boiling, we put some of the sauce without the seafood and mix it with the noodles, then place it on the dinner table and serve ourselves pasta and place the seafood sauce on top (as mixing it all together would be messy with long noodles). 

I found this picture online but it looks very similar to my grandmothers dish!!

Alabama News Article

Demonstrators denounce Alabama illegal immigration law

November 15, 2011 |  2:53 pm

About 100 demonstrators gathered outside the Alabama state Capitol in Montgomery to call for passage of the DREAM Act and to protest the state’s new anti-illegal immigration law, widely regarded as the toughest state law crafted to combat illegal immigration.

Illegal immigration has been a volatile topic in Alabama since the legislation known as HB 56 was signed into law by Republican Gov. Robert J. Bentley in June. Anecdotal evidence suggestions that many illegal immigrants have fled the state. The demonstrators took a far different approach Tuesday.

“Undocumented, unafraid!” they chanted.

Eleven protesters sat down in the middle of a street in hopes of blocking traffic. The location for their sit-in protest: across from the Capitol and the first White House of the Confederacy. The effect on motorists was minimal. Police had already sealed off the street a block away and were rerouting traffic elsewhere.

Two more demonstrators staged a sit-in on the floor of the lobby at the Alabama State House.

In September a federal judge upheld some portions of the law, but temporarily stayed others pending further review in the courts. For example, the judge blocked a section that would have barred illegal immigrants from enrolling in public colleges and universities.

But the 115-page ruling by U.S. District Judge Sharon Blackburn also upheld a controversial section that requires police to check the residency status of suspected illegal immigrants during traffic stops.

On Tuesday, rows of police officers watched the protest. They had not taken action by midafternoon. The protesters said they expected to be arrested at some point.

“No courage, no change!” they shouted.
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This DREAM Act seems like a way of discrimination towards all of the illegal immigrant within Alabama. It seems as though these people who are undocumented are going to be "witch hunted" in the sense that police would have to be checking places of residency . I think this is taking the whole situation of immigration within this state out of control.  I feel that there are better ways to go about the situation than to make people feel like they are going to be hunted down to basically get rid of them.  There is also a lot of controversial issues that arise from both sides of immigration and putting this Act into Alabama's laws. Much of what we discussed in class about harsh realties, like drugs, gangs, jobs, economy and standard of living could very well be affecting the state of Alabama, which are brought by the immigrants. But there is also controversy with every act, policy or piece of legislation that tries to get passed as well. 

Coming to America: Chapter 16 & 17

Chapter 16 mentions a lot about the reforms that were tried to replace the immigration laws and acts of the past prior to 1980. Many of the people in political power still felt that there was a need for a limit or cap on immigration. Especially since most immigration is clustered in certain areas and cities, the text statutes that "immigration is not spread out"(Daniels, 404). Meaning that because immigration is secluded to these certain enclaves or popular immigrant areas it should be restricted since the immigrants aren't scattering themselves among the rest of the states.

But it can bee seen from the text that immigrants will continue to find ways, legally and illegally to get to the United States regardless of the laws and restrictions. The text states and I agree with the notion that immigration has always been on the social agenda. I believe immigration will always be an issue for the government to deal with, but i don't think that immigration is a bad thing. the only thing I would be concerned about is overcrowd or overpopulated areas.

The last chapter talks about immigration continuing to grow as the years progress. Each year the percentages of immigrants in the U.S. is continuing to grow because of push and pull factors. The text states that one of the most problematic issues is the amount of illegal immigrants.

It is almost impossible to control borders that are thousands of miles long and are continually crosses by people who are determined to get in. Although there is deportation, because the number of illegal immigrants is so high and almost untraceable as to where the people are located, deportation is useless until an illegal immigrant gets caught by the law. The system we have in our country isn't very effective since there is too many illegal immigrants to be able to find and deport, which is impossible. And the reason there are so many illegal immigrants is because of our faulty system.

I think there are more important issues to deal with than immigration. Many of the immigrants are accepting low paying jobs that few to no American would take. Some people say that immigrants are taking Americans jobs but in reality they are only doing the jobs that Americans would never do for the little pay.

Coming to America: Chapter 13,14, & 15

     I felt that chapter 13 was somewhat dull compared to other chapters that we read. The text talks about more of the immigration laws and restrictions applied to certain ethnicity's. What I found interesting was the U.S's stance on refugees. it was shocking to see that the number of former Nazi's allowed into America compared to the small number of 140,000 Jewish refugees into the country. I feel that this stance on refugees had to change and the American government and President finally saw the impact of not allowing these refugees.

      I also didn't realized the impact of the number of legal immigrants which was higher than the number limited in the quota system. Because family members were allowed to legally come to America, they were not counted in the government's quota system. This lead to the larger increase in population that the government intended.

     In the next chapter, the Japanese and Chinese immigration grew with their women population. Many Japanese women had come to America to marry non-Japanese soldiers. About 45,000 Japanese women came to America, 40,000 of those women married. 

     The Filipinos also immigrated being American Nationals, but were restricted form becoming citizens. I also didn't realize that the Filipino migration was mostly female at the beginning, which was the opposite of other immigrations. Later, Filipino immigrants got jobs within the medical industry as  nurses, or other medical positions. 

     While many of the immigrants from chapter 15 are form the Caribbean, Central America of Soviet Jews, they have all come to America and worked in agriculture or business. Many of these groups still traveled to common areas so that their culture could strive and have other people with their same religion, values, and background in the same community. Much of  this was seen in the previous chapters as migration areas became popular for certain ethnic groups and formed their own communities. This is partially why there are places like Japan town, China town, Little Saigon for the Vietnamese and more.

I see this  a lot in the area I live in. At first many of the stores and shopping centers became "Asian" markets, restaurants or stores which cater to Korean, Chinese, or Japanese. Now, down the street, there are many Indian restaurants, cash and carry's, markets, clothing stores and etc. to also cater to those different Indian groups. I feel this i a way for the immigrants in any time period to feel comfortable and create their own community within America, which some call their new home. 

Main Points of "Asian Americans and World War II"

Daniels Pages: 302-306


Main Points:

1) Japanese Americans- sent to concentration camps placed in cities that were in "the middle of nowhere"

• U.S fought against totalitarianism and racism in WWII
• On the home front, people were adapting to one of its most feared opponent- concentration camps- against the Japanese Americans
• Japanese were seen as enemy aliens instead of citizens
• Many Japanese faced anti-Japanese sentiment and discrimination
• 120,000 Japanese were sent to these camps-- two-thirds of them were native born citizens 
• In 1988, six years later, Congress-passed- and President Ronald W. Reagan signed a bill containing an apology to the Japanese American people for the injustice done to them and authorized the payment of twenty-thouand dollars  in "redress" to each of the 60,000 survivors who had been in a camp 

2) Chinese Americans- legal position changed as they were shunned off like other immigrant with their naturalization and immigration

• Since Japan and America had a "falling out" from WWII, America became a supporter of China
• This support didn't help the Chinese American in anyway
• In 1943, Congress and the President repelled any and all Chinese exclusion
• This also allowed for the naturalization of Chinese immigrants but limited to the 105 quota slots
• because of the limited Chinese immigrants and un-welcomed Japanese, there was a labor shortage which the government had to make an agreement with Mexico's government for a bracero program- manual labor.  

Coming to America: Chapters 11 & 12

It was shocking to realize how directly correlated each historic event had triggered some type of immigration to a new country or back to a homeland. The chapter specifically talks about the The Great Depression in the 1930's , war and Hitler coming to power which have created changes in the immigration patterns that were seen in earlier migration years. 

I was surprised when I found out that the number of of people leaving the United States exceeded the number entering during the 1930's (p. 294). Obviously this was a direct correlation due to the Depression in the United States which isn't hard to imagine but I didn't realize that it impacted people's lives so much that they moved elsewhere.

The text continues to mention World War II which I am very familiar with as I have relatives who were placed in concentration camps and forced out of the United States because they couldn't handle the anti-Japanese sentiment that occurred as a result of the war. What was shocking was that many of the Japanese Americans, like my relatives, were native-born  American citizens. The book states that more than two-third of the Japanese Americans were native born citizens and placed into internment camps.

I have always wondered why my relatives aren't politically involved within their home and community in the United States. Almost none of them vote or talk about politics and if they do some of it isn't too positive.  Much of their reason has to do with that fact that they don't agree with American politics but mainly the way the government dealt with the result of World War II.

I have always thought that there were many Natives within America prior to the "discovering of the New World".  It was surprising to see that the there were only 80,000 between the three states of California, Texas and New Mexico prior to becoming part of North America. It doesn't make sense that some Mexicans feel a sense of entitlement or feel like somethings been taken away when their population was somewhat small. But I do understand how and why they would feel like that way. 

Coming To America: Chapter 9 & 10

I really enjoyed these two chapters because it was so relevant to my families history. Being half Japanese I know my grandparents and their families have gone through some of the things described in the text. For one, my grandmother was a so called "picture bride". She gave a really nice, professional picture to the parents of my grandfather who then sent my grandfather a letter with the picture to America where he was living in San Mateo. The letter described my grandmother and stated there will be an arranged marriage if he complies. He eventually went to Japan to meet my grandmother and arranged a date for their wedding. In the meantime my grandfather came back to America to buy a home and prepare for my grandmothers arrival after their wedding. He went back to Japan for the wedding and paid for her ticket to come to America a week after once she packed her belongiings and said her goodbyes.

What I found shocking in the text about the Chinese was that most of their migration was during the gold rush and they came with a lot of other Chinese immigrants as well. I knew they worked in mines and began coming to America a long time ago but not a large number of them. I was also surprised at the treatment of the French Canadians. I thought because of their european, superior background they would be treated as equals but they were treated just as bad as the other immigrants.

African-American's: Enslavement, Racial Violence & Civil Rights

After reading through the posted articles and websites for this weeks reading, it was shocking to read about lynching or racial segregation during the 18th and 19th century, which isn't too long ago. While some of the passages were a slave narrative, and others were abolitionists like Angelina Grimke or a civil rights leader like Ida B Wells, all have some things at least one common characteristic: discrimination against African-American, mainly because of their "skin color" and rose from the birth of slavery between the 15th-16th Century.

While much of these first few readings was not really "new" information as most of it is learned through out general schooling. What was very interesting to me was the more recent occurrences of forms of lynching. Although lynching is a felony, it seems that in some towns or places where there is still racial tension and a form of segregation, hate crime occur.

While reading the article about Brandon McClelland in 2008, was shocking as it was one of the more recent incidents. By reading the article and developing my own opinion on the article I feel as though there was some type of racial tension even though the article states,"they were friends".

I was also shocked to hear that a defense attorney in Texas had previously let Mr. Finley "off" by believing his story.

The article states:

"In 2003, Lamar County D.A. Gary Young served as Mr. Finley’s court-appointed defense attorney when Mr. Finley pleaded guilty to manslaughter for shooting a friend to death.
The victim in the Finley manslaughter case was White and Mr. Finely told police he was sitting in a truck with his friend when two Black men tried to rob them. Mr. Finley said he fired at the robbers but accidentally shot his friend. An autopsy determined the victim suffered three gunshot wounds to the head, but the district attorney at the time accepted Mr. Finley’s story that the shooting was an accident. He was offered a plea bargain on a reduced manslaughter charge and eventually served a little over a year of a four-year prison sentence. The alleged robbers were never found."

This quote from the article sound like the story given, wasn't the complete truth. it seems as though the killer, Mr Finley,  got off "free" with barely a "slap on the wrist".

It seems as though the views of these people in these parts where its still racially divided have swayed decisions when it come to"hate crimes" and it doesn't seem like there is a fair neutral way for African Americas to get equal justice to the "whites" in those areas.

Coming to America: Chapters 7 & 8

While both chapters were very interesting to see the push, pull, means, and types of jobs many of these immigrant had. Another thing that i found interesting was the little communities each group made for themselves as a way to become comfortable to their new surrounding in America with familiar languages, traditions and even familiar people.

I was especially interested in the story about the Italian immigrants since I am half Japanese and half Italian. I am very close with my grandparents on my mothers side (Japanese) but was only able to know my grandmother on my fathers side (Italian) since my grandfather passed away when my father was only 20 years old. Since my father's mother passed away a little over 7 years ago, I was still very young and didn't know that they had an amazing immigration story as well. Although I will never know the entire immigration story from either of my grandparents there are a few detail of their story that I have heard from my great-grandmother since she lived until she was 95 years old.

My great-grandfather and great-grandmother were married and both came from Sicily. They moved to New Jersey then eventually moved to Pennsylvania because of the Italian community there and their friends had moved there a few years prior.  Once settled in in PA, my great-grandfather was a tailor and a shoemaker and had his own shop. My great-grandmother helped him run the family business which was in a building in which they lived on top of their shop. The eventually had son, which was my grandfather and raised him there since their business was a success.When my grandfather got old enough he helped in the shop before and after school. My great-grandmother Jenny also told me about a story when she was at the shop alone one day preparing food for dinner in the afternoon and my great-grandfather and grandfather were both out running an errand. Since their business was successful they were very wealthy and was the only shop with and "open" sign in their window. That day a police officer showed up to the shop and told my great-grandmother, "you know, those signs aren't allowed to be posted without paying a fee.. its gonna cost ya!". So my great-grandmother, with her spunky attitude tells the officer to, "Come around the back". As she met the officer she handed him a white envelope. I was eager to hear how much money she gave him but the response I got was, "I only gave him $5... its not like he was gonna tell anyone... I know that officer was tryin' to trick me so I sent him on his way and never heard back from him!"

Remembering this story makes me think of how many other officers around America might have been doing the same thing to "newer" immigrants to find ways to take advantage of them or try to scare them. This seems like it would have been a common practice for "old" immigrants or people in high job positions maybe of British decent.

Coming to America: Chapter 6

The text starts with a new distinction between immigrants which shifted from "old" to "new" to north western Europeans to south eastern Europeans. Many of these differences in the distinction of these two groups is religion, language and rural or urban lifestyles.

In the 19th century many of the push factors changed from previous immigration factors. Many people from Ireland during the time of the 1840s and 1850s were heavily influenced by the potato famine or "great hunger". But a main factor that was still present before and after this famine, was the Catholic religion of the people.

The divisions among the Germans became more severe during this time as well. The text states that many of these divisions were caused by geography, ideology and religion. The Scandinavians were a much smaller group than the Germans and Irish. All of these groups have their similarities and differences as to their own reasons why they came to America. The answer will vary from person- to- person. Many of the pull factors are impacted by the social and political actions during the time period of their immigration as well.

In the beginning of the text it mentions the National Origin Act of 1924, which is a apart of the Immigration Act of 1924 as well as the Asian Exclusion Act. All of these acts are to minimize the number of immigrants  into the United States since the population was increasing with number of different ethnicities. This reminded me of the Japanese Exclusion Act where the United States put Japanese-American's into internment camps. This stuck to me because it reminded me of my grandfather who was placed in a camp with his family. After hearing his story, I can only imagine that these other people felt the same discrimination as the Japanese did during this time.  Even today, if people are excluded from a group of friends, they feel like they don't belong or being secluded out, which is what most of these exclusion and immigration acts did.


Below is a picture of the National Origin Act of 1924, which is usually referred to as the Immigration Acts.

Chapter 4: Discussion Questions

1) Why did many of theses ethnic groups move in large groups?


2) Why was the advertised notion of America to be "a land without landlords where the land was for those who wanted it", such a major pull factor for some of these immigrants?


3) Why did Jews allow marriage between other faiths?

Coming to America: Chapter 4-5

 In the beginning of chapter 4, the text refers to the first census and how three-fourths of the population were white and from England and more than two-fifths were from Britain. As mentioned in class, the Natives were not included in the census which really messed up the actual  number of  people in the "New World".

Many other ethnicities were coming to America, like the German, aka Dutch, Scotch Irish, Scots, Irish, Welsh, French, Spanish, Swedes and Jews. Most of these groups were able to keep their language and established their own communities throughout the states.  The Germans were skilled miners, whom many of which were either Protestant, Catholic or Jewish. The Scotch Irish refer to the Presbyterians from the Scottish lowlands who settled in Northern Ireland.  The Scots are those who came directly from Scotland. The Irish were in American during many of the earlier years. Many of the Jews established synagogues in five states. Many of the other ethnicities also arrived in specific ports or areas when coming to America. I think these "community" settings helped these people adjust to their new life in America and being away from home.

in the fifth chapter, it describes the time near the end of the seventeenth century where the population of non-English decent dropped increasingly at this time while people of English decent were higher. The dominance of the English culture was heavier now than ever before. This was also the beginning of Indian segregation  with Indian reservations, many of the colonists called these reservations "Indian plantations", "Indian villages" or "praying towns".

Discrimination against other ethnicities were also against the Germans and well as the Blacks also. I think that from the slavery, many Europeans still felt superior than other groups including other "white" groups. At the beginning of this chapter it asks the question of "what is an American" and provides an answer by Michael-Guillaume-Jean de Crevecoeur. But i think this question doesn't have an answer that is specific based upon someone's ethnicity or color. I think an American is someone who lives in America or calls America one of their home because many people now have multiple places that they call home. There are many other things that make people apart of America and giving a definition may exclude a part of a person.

Coming to America: Chapters 1, 2, & 3

Before reading the first chapter, I didn't really know the exact different between migration and immigration. I knew there was a difference but reading this text really put it in terms for me. With migration simply meaning moving and immigration meaning moving across national frontier, helps me understand and think in terms of how these words are applied to a specific migrating group, when reading.

It wasn't really shocked by the text when it states that the Europeans thought of themselves as superior to any/all cultures they encountered. It seemed that way to me ever since I first learned about the Europeans contact with the Native Americans when I was younger. With the Europeans forcing their language onto the Natives and suppressing their own cultures and beliefs showed me a sense of superiority at a young age. Its just that most of the texts you read don't blatantly say it.

In the second chapter, it describes the majority of Europeans were British-- meaning their language and culture would be English. Since Europeans were superior and felt their cultures, languages, traditions and beliefs were the "chosen one', this became apart of "American" cultures.

There were large numbers of people migrating and immigrating to "America". Many of these groups of people didn't know how to survive in these types of living conditions, like the natives had learned. From that, many of these English immigrants in Maryland, Virginia and New England had more deaths than living people. Eventually, the Europeans figured out how to take advantage or "use" the Natives for what they wanted. This helped more people survive from hunger and diseases, slowly resulting in their population to increase instead of decrease.

One of the most surprising things i read was about the Indian massacre. Although I have heard about it before, I had never read it how the text stated the details in number. From the large number of Natives that lost their land or were killed, shows a that more than half of their population was gone.

When reading the section about indentured immigrants made me think of the reason why racism and segregation started. As the text describes, indentured servants were both African and European and slowly transformed into only African- because of color. This lead to color segregation and racism of thinking these people of African decent are "different" or "less superior" from their skin color. African were the most "American" in the sense that they lost almost all of their culture, tradition and beliefs when being forced into labor. They were also stripped of  their language and were not allowed to have the ability to read and write.

The third chapter continues with the African slave trade. There was almost no existence of letters, diaries or written evidence during this time period because of the lack of literacy. This division in literacy and color/race also helped create a division between social classes. Since  the "white, upper class" people (Europeans, usually) were literate and owned businesses and houses while the "black, lower class" people (Africans) were not literate and couldn't own anything, not even their own freedom.

This form of "cheap labor" increased for business profit. The conditions for these people were horrible and it became apart of western ways and European imperialism. many industries became slave-based, mostly farming like cane sugar. This also helped develop "American capitalism"

Prehistory: Pacific Seafarers & Maritime Cultures (p.8-13, 22-29)

The first portion of the text began with seafaring. I had a idea of what the term meant but not exactly. After reading more into the text, I realized that my definition was correct. I never realized that these people who wanted to migrate to other parts of the earth had to figure out a way- by boats. May of these voyages probably werent successful at first because of technical issues when developing their boat. To imagine that these migrators could think of something like a boat that is so complex and be able to successfully reach land at the end of their voyage, says a lot about their intellect and society.

I found it very surprising and interesting that the Polynesian migration was included. Throughout all of my previous history classes I have never heard about the Polynesians' history. i specifically liked reading how the seafaring was incorporated in how the polynesians were able to travel through the Pacific oceans as well as other groups who traveled long distances, crossing oceans.

I also found it very interesting how one of the "branches" of Austronesians left a trail of "distinctive decorated ceramics". This reminded me of the story of "Hansel and Gretel" who left a trail of bread crumbs because it seems as though this branch of  Austronesian people wanted there to be a way for themselves or others to gain a sense of direction.

In the second part of the reading, it described the Native American seafaring more specifically. Much of the evidence throughout all of the text, as a whole, includes supporting evidence of seafaring in the early years. I found the shape of their boats the most interesting. The Native Americans seemed to have built a canoe-like row boat. With their weaving skills, it seems that they would have made a more stable version of a boat.


                                             Reed Boat:

                              



                                             Bull Boat:

The American Indian & The Problem of History- Ch.3

It was not surprising to me that the European settlers to America termed themselves "civilized Christians" and the Indians as "savages" or heathen natives. It seems that the Europeans didn't realize who was actually on the land first.

Although the Europeans may have "claimed" parts of the land "before" some of these Indian tribes, many of the tribes were migratory throughout the land due to their cultivation of the land. As much of this is already known, the Indians knew how to survive on the land that they lived on. On the other hand, the Europeans were new to the area and didn't know as much about crops and cultivating the land.

I can only imagine that there would have been some type of miscommunication between the Indians and Europeans as they different languages when "discussing" things like land or even religion. Since the Indians were at home, they tried to continue to live their lives as they did normally, while the Europeans were looking for freedom from their country.

You can imagine that the Europeans tried to influence the Indians into their religion and maybe even their own cultural traditions. It seems that throughout  history, Indians were able to fight for their culture and traditions to preserve them as much as they could without the influence from their surroundings.

Although the text may refer to this preservation of culture and tradition "individualism", in the end it helped the Indian community stay whole and true to their own identities without loosing them over a period of time.

While the text as a whole includes a lot of important information, i felt that the story of the underlying preservation of the Indian's culture and traditions seemed to be the more important and rewarding information in the text because without those two elements, Indians might not have the same identity as is their past.

The Americas: A Hemispheric History- Chapters 1 & 2

It was surprising how the "New World" slowly became the Americas. With Columbus having much to do with the discovery of the new world, many new colonists were calling themselves "Americans" before the actual name came into play. The texts goes on to explain how the term "North America" is in reference to cultural unity that has build over the years.

This brings me back to our class discussion of ethnicity. Many people in the New World were from various different places. Many of these people were "escaping" from something whether its was religious freedom, leaving a monarchy, or just simply being able to do what is comfortable for themselves. Most of these people wanted better lifestyles than the one they were living. This example bring in the ethnicity factor in todays America. Many people still come to America for those similar reasons stated above and many want opportunities that might not be available to them in their own country.

While the next chapter refers to the adjustments the people had to make once coming to America, it seemed as though other people were learning from each other. Many of the Europeans didn't know how to grow crops like the Native Americans and even cultural influences were shared. Many of these people "went their separate ways" once they found that America was a vast piece of land, they didn't have to be so close to all the other civilizations. As some people may have "separated" from other settlers/colonists, many people stuck together with people who had commonalities. This, in a way, helped preserve their own cultures and traditions by having some type of freedom to create their newly adjusted lives without losing their ethnic backgrounds.

Trial Post

:)