While reading Bahadur’s process into researching her ancestry, it reminded me of how easy written information can be manipulated. While searching the archives she found that many of them were biased and written by men and their perspective. This could also have been because many women were illiterate which left out many women’s thoughts, feelings and perspectives. She overcomes these obstacles by turning to sources such as oral tradition, photographs, visiting her great grandmother village and even using herself as a source based on personal experience. If I were to research my family history, I would first find connections within my families as first-person accounts as well as travel to Puerto Rico to interview my family there as well. Next I would turn to archives that can help me better understand the time period to connect with the first person account of my family. After I would do a history search for traditions and societal views during each time period as a final connection to piece all my information together.
The interview I watched was Sandy Lee. On her mother’s side her great grandfather who worked on the railroad when he came to the West side and was adopted in 1869 by an Indian tribe chief at 16, who lost his son, for two years. She also talks about her father’s side who also had connections with the railroads but was mainly a merchant who got detained from a moth and a half due to frequent visits to China.She also details how her family opened a farm that turned into a grocery store and how through this project of ancestry she became closer to her relatives. This confirmed my belief that Asian Americans always worked hard to get to where they wanted to be despite whatever was thrown their way. It also kind of surprised me that many of Sandy Lee’s family came from doing railroads and farms to high end jobs such as nursing(which is what she studied). I found it amazing because it shows why they worked so hard so that they can follow the passions but also support them. I also found it interesting how closely knitted her family was to Indians. I would love to find out more about the way the great grandfather was treated when he was adopted into the Indian tribe. Also in general I would like to hear more about the mindset of those who struggled when coming here and the motivation they gave themselves to make it through.
I agree that it seems like the culture of a lot of these Asian American immigrants was to work very hard to make a better life for themselves. It’s definitely great that they were able to persevere through all the hardships they must have faced and built something for themselves and their families. I think these immigrants were crucial to the development of the United States.
Hey Anaise,
I also would love to hear more about the experience they face when coming to the United States and what their motivation. I think it is interesting when hearing about their experience. I love hearing them from my family when they talking about their struggled when they first got here.
You raise great points here about the ways that history can be told to uphold myths or false narratives. Here I wonder about what we need to ensure that the history we are telling is truthful– what does that entail? Who is involved and what methods are being used? We will discuss this more over the semester!