Tuesday, November 1, 2011

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.

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