Matthew Torres DB1

Bahadur’s process of researching her great grandmother’s history was a bit unorthodox, given the fact that she is a journalist. You would think that a journalist has this extensive network of resources which makes information easily accessible. But that isn’t the case for her. It isn’t possible because her great grandmother is from a period in time where history about women wasn’t recorded. A period where women weren’t seen as anything without a man. In order to get the information she sought, Bahadur had to go to greater lengths. She had to turn to unofficial sources such as oral traditions and visual traces. These oral traditions include digging deeper into the meanings of folk songs, oral histories (storytelling), photographs, postcards, and analyzing traditional tattoos. Since the period of time didn’t allow the history of women to be recorded officially, it had to be passed down through generations, by families and village members. I believe that Bahadur’s way of finding out her great grandmother’s history worked quit well. If I were to construct an archive of my own family, I would go about it in a very similar way. I would speak to different family members about the info I’m seeking. I would use photographs, letters, videos. A source of information that I can find which somehow connects me to my past family members. I found Bahadur’s method to be very similar to the oral history I studied. I studied a man named William Leong. He is a Chinese American who is a descendant of railroad workers. His family’s roots in the United States can be traced back to 1865. His roots in this country confirm the idea I had about some Chinese Americans. I had the idea that some Chinese Americans immigrated to this country due to the construction of the transcontinental railroad. In William’s family’s case, that was true. What surprised me was how his family decided to stay in the California area and never venture out, other than returning to China. What I found similarities between the reading and the oral lesson is the fact that a woman’s history is not told in either culture. In the oral history, William talks about his family history, but it’s only about the men in the family. Even when he talks about his own mother, he is unsure of the year and place she is born. He can only make the assumption based off of his father’s history. I first listened to William’s story, then read Bahadur’s article. As I was reading, I instantly connected this missing history, due to the fact that she stresses how little information is available about women. I enjoyed how both of these works could be connected in such a way, given the fact that I personally selected the oral history piece and it wasn’t assigned.