We live as citizens of a country that does not always claim us or even see us, and yet, we continue to build, to create, and to compel it toward its own promise.
This was an outstanding collection of essays written by public figures who are immigrants themselves or the children of immigrants. American Like Me gives them the space to discuss their unique upbringings as well as highlight how they’re no less American than someone who can trace their ancestry back to the Mayflower. The central theme of course is there is no right or wrong way to American. An outspoken friend of mine once posted “Unless you’re an indigenous person you came to America as a colonizer, refugee or slave” on Facebook in response to the growing swell of support for The Wall. It is a bit of a generalization but the fact of the matter is America is a melting pot of cultures and there is no universal way to be an American. We are better together and American Like Me is just that: a collection of essays buoyed by the togetherness of strong writers like Issa Rae, Roxanne Gay and Randall Park.
I feel like it would be easier to pick a least favorite essay- Lin Manuel Miranda clearly phoning it in- than a favorite essay from this diverse pool of writers. I think if I had to pick I would choose Uzo Aduba’s story of being raised by her force of a mother.
If they can learn to say Tchaikovsky and Michelangelo and Dostoevsky, then they can learn to say Uzoamaka.
But then I would hedge and say, but maybe Michelle Kwan or Wilmer Valderama’s stories about all their families sacrificed for them to live out their dreams. Or how Kumail Nanjiani moved to Iowa as a college student because he didn’t know it would be nothing like Los Angeles or New York. Or Issa Rae’s attempt at fasting for Ramadan to feel closer to her father’s culture. It is too hard to decide, so I won’t.
My husband is an immigrant and while he is heavily Americanized (whatever that means) our future children will, in a sense, be first generation Americans. Listening to these stories reminds me that it is important that these fabled tiny humans grow up with a sense of identity that is both American and Brazilian.