Bones and blood: family ties and the experience of immigration in Anzia Yezierska's “Bread givers” and Fae Myenne Ng's “Bone”

Rel"ista de F. s11tdíos Norteamericanos, 11.'' 5 ( 19 97), pp. J 11 . J L 7 BONES AND BLOOD: FAMILY TIES AND THE EXPERIENCE OF IMMIGRATION IN ANZIA YEZIERSKA'S BREAD GIVERSAND FAE MYENNE NG' S BONE MAR!N A CA C TOPPO University of Sussex «That wasn 'ta custom,» said Bak Goong. « We made it up. We can make up cust oms because we are the founding ancestors ofthis place.» - Maxine Hong Kingston, China Men1 Literary cr itics and historians, Werner So llors ha s provocativcly argued, ha ve been too easily inclined to take ethnicity fo r granted and view it as a natural, known and self-e vid ent cat ego r y. In st ea d, he su gges ts that we should study et hnicity as an «Í nven tion»: ethnicity, he maintains, is n ot merely a matt er of cultu ra l su rv ival, « it is constantly recreated as people (and ethnic authors among them, of course), set up new distinctions, make new bo u nd aries, and f on n n ew groups.» At th e center of the debate on ethnic it y, Sollors places not the inheritance of an original culture that is either obliterated or recovered, but the experience of the en co unt er with America which is co mm on to all ethnic groups (with the exception ofthe American Indians) including the fi rst colonists. According to Sollors, this hi storical exper ien ce of the encount er with the target culture overweighs the diversity of th e source cultures. In other words-borrowi ng l. Maxine Hong Kingston, China Men (New York : Knopf, 1980), 118. 1 20 Carmen Gon:::ález Liipe;-Brion es lived in New York during this period, and thcy as <lid other immigrant gro ups, c:on t ributcd to thc cosmopol itan atmosphere of thc c:ity . Thc rela ti vcly smaller num ber of Spaniards who i mmigrated to the Unitcd S tates is not duc to a lack of immigration tradition from Spain to thc We stern Hemisphere. In fact, according to Ge1mán Rueda, the Spanish immigration to the Americas during t he late ni ne t ee nth ce ntury and the ear ly twen tieth ce ntur y is onc of the m os t imp onant migrarory mov emcn ts from Europc (a ftcr the British and thc Italians). Although th e mejority of Sp aniards went to La tín Ame r ica (cspccia !Jy Cuba, Pu erto Rico, Argentina and Venezuela dur ing that pcriod), sorne t wo hundrcd thousand chose to immigrate to the United Sta tes. Thc United States Sccrctary of Lab or 's Eleventh Annual Report of 1923 sh ows that 153,218 Spaniards immigrated to the Un ited States du ring the 190819 23 period.1 The reas ons hehind the de cision to cmigrate are severa!. On the onc hand. there are «pu sh in g» r easo ns, as poor economic expectations. and to avo id conscription and thus t he Spanis h-Moroccan War. and during the mid 1930s and early 40 s, to escape thc Spanish Civil War, and subsequcnt exile. Th crc werc also «pulling» reasons, such as the call of rclativ es, friends and neighbors, and the attra ct ion thc Unit ed Sta tes hada s a land of opportunity, and the ex pec: tations for im proving their liv es. The Spanish immigrants to the United Statcs fo llow the pattems of oth er Europcan groups. According to John Bodnar, if the attraction of the US had been a ma gnet only for po or people, the immigration procccss would have inv ol ved t hc poorcst people in a li countries mo re or less homogcnously. However, immigrants arrived from sorne regions, and not from other rcgions. Most of thcm did not come from thc lowest classes, bu t rathcr from t he low-middle cla ss strata of soc icty. Frank Th istlet hwaitc's th eory that said that the immigrants were n ota n indifferent mass bu t which rep res ented specific groups, both regional and occupational is true for thc Sp aniards in Ncw York .' According to Ru eda, most Spaniards w ho arrived in t hc Unit ed States ca rn e from rural arcas or small towns -although th is <loes not ncccssarily mean tha t most of th em worked in agriculture.5 As a wholc, most Spanis h immigra nls to thc U.S. carne from the northe rn rcgions of Spain: Gali cia, Asturias, Cantabria, the Busque Cou ntry and Navarre. Thcre were Vi llaplana. Destierro en Manhattan. Refugiados espaiioles en Norteamerica. Ecliapsa, México, 1945. There are a ls o monographs about spec itic groups s uc h as t he Asturians, Basque and Galic1ans in the United S tat es . 3. Ge rm án Rueda, La Emigración, pag. 20. According to th e U.S. Secretary of Lab or. Elel'ellth Annua/ Report, 1923, th ere were 153,218 Spaniar ds immigrating in to the Uni ted Statcs during th e 1908-23 period. 4. John Bodnar, Los Transplantados, Ediciones Tres Tiempos, Buenos Aires, Argentin a, 1985 pa g. 45 (Published origina ll y as The Transpla11ted. Al listory of Immigranrs i11 Urban America. Indiana U ni versity Press, Bloomington, 1985). 5. Rueda, La Emi}?ración, p. 62 -63. Win<lm ills in Brooklyn: A Story of tlze Spunislz lmmi grarus in New York 121 also immigrants from t he Canary Islands, Va l encia , Anda lusia, Catalonia and Old Casti ll e.6 Acco rdi11 g to a report by the Spanish amhassador to the United States. Juan Francisco de Cárdenas , during the years 19 33 a11d 1934, hased 011 the immigrams regi.uered al the con.rnlates, ha/f of them were of Galici a11 origin, other large group were Asturian, and the re st were Basque. A11dalucian, and Castillians . .. ... The Amhassadm .. s report to tlze Minisler referred to 1935, and in the 1933, 1934 aruf 1935 consular reports to the Amhassador ... there is more detailed il¡formation ahout currelll settlement areas dil'ided amo11g co11sular districts: N ew York: (percenwge ofpeople from) Galicia ( 50%), Asturias ( 17%). Castillaincluding Cantabria (9% ), Andalucía ( 8%), Rasque Country a11d Navarre (3 .5% ), Catalonia (2 .5%). Valencia (2%), Aragón ( 1, 5%), Canaries (0,5%), other regions (6"1<'). 1 The sratistics oft he U.S. Dcpartment ofthc Interior, Ce nsus Offi ce show that the ycar 1930 is lhc peak ofthe Spa nish presence in the U.S.K According to Rueda, the Spaniards in New York lived in four main areas: The sourheastern ar e a. in Manhatta11: the « Cherry Street I Roose v elt » 11eighhorhood (from Canal Street down). was the main Spanish se1tlement in New York. 11 was /ocated at !he end (?) of the Broof..:lyn Bridge, near the harhor and rhe South Ferry, in the southeastern part of M anhattan ( .. . ) Up lO the '30s wzd '40s most regional houses were /ocated in this area ( ... ) The Western area: the population of Spa11iards was less co11ce11 1ra1ed than in the previous are a, yet. there were Spaniards from Christopher Street up to W. 23rd. There were many sen •ices for the Spanish community: re/igious. bu siness and associations ( .. . ) 6. A case of a family from the Ya lencian r cg ion is that of Libby Gómez, from Akoy (Alicanre). Lihby's family immigrared to Cu ba and shorrly after to New York. According co Libby. chey arrivcd in spring, 1908, when she wa~ n ot yet four years old. In contras! to most Spaniards, th ey <lid not live in the Spanish neighborhood (Oral intervi ew by Cannen González, August, 1990). 7. Rueda. La Emigració11.p. 63-64. 8. Gcnná n Rueda y Ca rmen Go nzález. «Los ga ll egos entre los españoles de USA. sig lo s XIX y XX», en Jesús <le Juana, ed itor, Diputaci ón de Or ense, 1995 (in print). 9. Pru<lencio de Pered a. Windmills in Brooklyn. Longsman. Green & Company, Kings Press. I nc .. Kingsport. Tennessee. 1948, p. 28. 122 Carmen González Lópe zBrümes Brooklyn: the main Spanish club, La Nacional was located in that area during a pe riod of time. Perhapsfive or six thousand Spaniards fived around Willow Pla - ce, Columbia Place, Henry Street. ele.( .. . ) Astor ia (Queens ) was the j(iurth Spanish settlernent in New York. The story of a group of Spaniards who lived in New York working in the sale of cigars is described in the autobiographical novel Windmills in Brookly n, by Prudencio de Pereda. Written in 1948 and first published in 1952, the novel features the life of a family of Spa niards of Andalusian origin in the city of New York during the first de ca des of the 20th century. Through the eyes of a boy, we sec thc immigrants' lives in th e big city. Through Windmills in Brookl yn wc can identify the rn ain fcaturcs of the Spanish irnmigrant experience in Ncw York. There were more Spaniards in Brookly 11 place tlum in any other place l knew, and l did11'tfeel líke aforeigner there, !he way l did m my ncighhorhood or at school .º These words by the narrator show the feclings of the grandson of a Spanish imrnigrant family. He was born in the United States, but his first languagc and bis main cultural traits are Spanish. His life is based on the family, his grandparents being the most important characters in his autobiography about his childhood. This is bcst describcd in the introduction of the book: Like so much else in this hook, the title was cont rihuted hy my gra11dnwthe1: She always criti:ed Grandfatherfor his lack ofhusiness se11se and his otherworldiness ( . .. ) and once when shc was doing this to africn d, the wo111an ohjected ( . .. ) «Don José is ( .. . ) like a true Don Qw:iote.» Yes, Grandmother said ( .. . ) Unforw11ately for ali of 11s, thoug h, therc are 110 wi11dmills in Brooklyn. 10 The family ties are so strong for the author, that as his grandparents are no t integrated into the American lifc, he fe els a foreigner. Th is is one of the main fe atures of the nove l. Through its pages, we can s ee many examples ofthese feelings. Like so many Spaniards in New York, and in fact, likc so ma ny immigrant experiences, the narrator's family carne to th e United States as a re sult of a re lative 's call far the farnily to reuni te in New York, where thcy were supposed to start a new and bctter life. Typical of any immigrant gro up, the relatives' letters exaggerate thc opportunities in the new country. My grandmother's hrother had come to !he United Sta/es someyears be/or e( .. .) He wrote gl owin g letter s lo my grandmother, tclling her to make José, my grandfather, see reasO/l and come to Ameri ca . (My great uncle) felt vcry bad 10. Per eda, Windmills in Brooklyn, Introduction, p. 1 Windmills in Brooklyn: A Story of the Spanísh lmmigrallls in New York 1 23 when shc' d married a waiter. He 1-1 ·as her 011/y brother and they were ve1y e/ose. Crandfather was content (in Tangiers). He didn 't want to !eal'e. The /etters got more boastful, ancl the11 pleadút f?. Final/y my grand uncle sent e1wu!{h money to payfirst c!ass passage. He consented and he carne to the United States v.·ith lzis family -to a 1eneme11t district i11 Hoboke11, New Jers ey . They moved to Bmoklyn shortly after, when my aunt was born. b11t to a tenement district again, and they 1Zever /i1 •e d befler thwz that. 11 The fact that the family first settled in New Jersey is not unusual, as there was a Spanish colony in this state. According to Germán Rueda, the U.S. Census shows a continuous growth from the late l 9th century up to 1930, when the number of Spaniards residing in this state was some 50,000. Most of them lived in the city of Newark. 12 Don José is a typical low-middlc class European w ho immigrated to the United States. As stated above, mo st i mm igrants did not bel ong to t l1 e poorest strata of socicty -sorne economic means and sorne education made imrnigration a possible option, which was n ot so casy for those who had nothing in their countries of origin. Grandf ather had bee11 a waiter in Spain. He was very proud of that. Then, just be/ore he had come to the United States. he' d heen a waiter at the hest hotel in Tallgier. Morocco; anda prince, a duke. a11d a princess had heen among hís patrons ( ... ) Don José's p ri or immigration to Morocco also shows another migration current among Spaniards-those who went to North Africa, cither to Morueco (part of it being a Spanish protcctorate), orto Algeria. Most Spaniards who immigratcc.I to these areas carne from Andalusia or from thc Valencian region. Don José's reason for immigrating to the United States was to follow a rclative alrcady livin g in the New York area. My grandmother's brother had co me to che United States some years before and made an immediate success as a «teve rimw »( ... ) Grandfarher wasj11st no ta g ood salesman. Seeing !{ rand father pour the whiskey so 11eatly had made me think of what a wo11de1ful waiter lze ' d been and how he must feel about what he was doing now (being a teveriano). 11 1 l. Pereda, Windmills, p. 1 516. 12. Germán Rueda, La Emigración. pp. 92-93. With respect to t he Spanish immigracion in Ncwark, a ty pi ca l case is that of Nicanor Esteve. born in San Martiño (Orense), who cm igrat ed to Argentina, and from Buenos Aires to Newark. His parents in law we re liv in g in that city. He lived in Newark from 1938 until he retired. He then carne back to his hometown. According tu Esteve, thcre were many Spaniards in Newark (Oral imerview by Carmen González, July 3, 1992). 1 3. Pereda, Windmills, p. 16. 124 Carmen Conzález Lópe:-Briones Don José cfül not make it in the States. He was not a good sa lesman, as he was not a busincss -l ike pcrson. He is an cxample of the many immigrn nts who cou l<l not takc advantage of the opportunitics in thc new co untry. The narrator\ grandparents had problems paying the re nt. He was aware of it, and of thc shame this fact caused to his grandfathcr. He realizcd that his grandfather was always \'ery poor. However, Don José was influential in the Spanish communi ly . He cven became thc chairman ofthe Entc11a inmcnt Com mittce ofLa España, th e Spanish bcnevolent soci ety in Broolyn. 1 ~ Probably an important rcason for this la ck of sucesss was the fact that he never Icarncd English. Thus, while Don José speaks vcry little Eng li sh, his children havc a bcttcr command of the language, while his grandsons speak the langua ge fluently as th ey were educated in Ame rican schools. However, th ey speak Span ish at home. lt is quite a typical immigrant expericnce. The first immigrants arrive as adults and have more difficultics integrating - job. language. custo ms. homesickness and hopes of rc tu rning ho me sometime in the future. The second generation is mor e integrated - Prudencio's parents had marricd within the Spa n ish communit y, th ey both work, own their shop and thcir hous e. Yet, they still lived in close contact with the Spanish com munity. Young Prudencio expresscs this Ji nkage role with the following words: Goi11 g ro Gral/(/mother's liad some responsihility.for there were ahvays errands ro he done and f r1 f1en have to act as tra11sfator. My grandmother spoke only ahouf ten word .v of E11glish. l/I/(/ my grandfather just af ew more. '5 The boy is crossing an imaginary bridge, with one side bcing his Spanish roots, vcry dceply rooted in his mind, antl the other sidc his evcryday li fc in Ncw York, attendi ng school. having American fricnds ... with the «americanization» as his imme<l ia te future to which he does not object. Yet , his fascination for his grandfather, and then for his grandmother brin gs him back to his Spanish roots. Family life and support by rclativcs or older immigrants from the same country pro ved to be cr ucial forman y n ew immigrants. Thus, many loo ked for the ir countrymen as soon as thcy got off the boat in New York. 011 the afternoon of the day he' d landed in New York, after a steerage passa ge from Spain. AgapiflJ told me , he had gone over to B rookly11 to have a drink at the La Espa1ia headquarters. He liad heard of La Espaiia on the ship , he explained. and he tlwught that this was a good way to mee/ people. !mp ortant people. 16 14. Pereda, Windmil/s, p. 6; 101. 15. Pereda, Windmills i11 Brooklyn. p. 5 16. Pereda, Windmills, p. 24 Windmills in Brooklyn: A Stm)' <1 the Spanish lmmigrants in New York 125 The new immigrants were helped by the older immi grants, sometimes even given jo bs or information about possible employments. For some families, providi ng services for their countrymen became their business. This was the case of the Spanish boarding houses. This nctwork would reinforce t he ties amo ng first and second generation of Spanish immigrants in Ncw York. Agapito became an apprentice to Don M ari ano the next week. Before tlzat, however, Grandmother helped him gel into a good boarding house. Líke most immigrants, Agapito hadjirst taken a room in New York near the docks, but 1ww he went into one of the big, e/can Spanish boarding houses i11 Bmok!y11 Heights, i11 the heart of the Spanish colon)'. There were ji111r of these boarding lwuses ·when f was young and after we had moved out of the colmzy. we children used to !ove to go to visir them with my father or grandfather. The author has fond mcmories of these gathcrings. He pcrcciv ed the fr ie ndly atmosphere, the familiar customs, thc good times of th e adults playing cards. He also rcmembers the good traditional cuisine which he describes as follows: Tlze visits were on Sunday afternoom. and we always stayed jiJr the evening mea! of «paella» (in Spanish the original) ... I cou ld rememher the rare wonde1ful mea/.1· we had in tlzat dining room . .. . . . While the adults drank their « aperilif.~» (sic). and then Don Jacobo, h is wife and daughter wou/d hring in the steamüzg covered cassero/es of pwzgelll paella. It was 11.rnally made of chicken and rice, with the peppers and Spanish sausage, but sometimes there were shrimps added. It was cal/ed «paella a la valenciana» then. (In Spanish the original) « ... Paella» is the national dishfrom Spain, hut we had it only rarely at home. Moth er din't have the time to make it, ami Grandmother's couldn't afford to. So these times at the boarding house were very special. 17 My father and ali my uncles Izad lived ata boarding house in Brooklyn Heights until they were married and they liked to go back to eat «paella» orto play cards. Grandfather Izad never /ived at a boarding house, but he enjoyed going back to visit with his fr iend .1 '. 1 ~ 17. Pereda, Windmills, p. 28 18. Pereda, Windmills, p. 28 126 Carmen González Lópe;-Briones He felt at home among the Spanish community "l lik ed to he among Spaniards ami listen to them to talk», he said.'9 Among t he Spaniards in New Yo rk, Agapito López was a typical case. He reprcsented the Galician, thc mo st numerous gro up of Spaniards in New York. 20 According to Em il io González López, an exiled politician and intellectual, there were more than 20,000 Ga licians in New York by 1982, ami thcre were many more in the 1940s. 21 The early decades of the 20 th century saw the largest n umbe r of ga ll egos in New York and smTOund ing areas. The pu shing factors for emigration, the lack of opportunities in Spain at thc tum of the century are clearly stated in the following pa ragraph: Agap it o was from Galicia, on the northern coasr, as his marked ref?ional ac c ent plainly showed . . . ever since he could rememher he was determined to lea ve Spaill . . . Ag ap ito hated the hard work of t he Spanish farmer, h11t the lije he had see11 ill the c ities was j11st as harsh. What depressed Agapit o mo st ahout Sp a in was the lack of re ward in any pla c efor intelligence or sharpnes s. E ven in the Army or the Clwrclt , the yo ung men of t he /ower cl ass es nel'er got an ywhe re. The pulling factors of Galician emigration, and the traditional countries where they immigrated to are described as follows: In Agapito 's time -the l 890smany men that he· d he wd of. and sorne that he' d actual/y seen, had gone to C11ha, Me.tico or Ar~enti11a to make theirfortu11es.After te nor ftfteen years sume of them wo11/d retum to Spain as rich «Americanos.» Like a number of Galicians -although a sma ll cr nu mb cr of those wcnt to Latín American countries, Agapito decided to immigrate to the Nor th, as he «was determined to ?,O ro the United Sta tes, to Ne11, • York in parti cular, where there was more m<mey an d where it cou/d he made muchfaster. AJ?apiw had a/way s heard New York referred to as a wicked city ''· Agapito, as so many other Galician men, immigrated by hi mself when he was a young man, leaving hi s family in the small Galician town. He a1Tived in New Yo rk with very little money, and not much education. 22 19. Pereda, Windmills, p. 28. 20. Cannen Go nzál ez L.-B., 20rh Century Galician fmmigration (() the United States. The Oral Tradi1ion . Paper pr esent ed at the Workshop A Tra11 s atlc111ric Home: The Oral and Li terary Tradition of Migrarion to America. EA AS Conference, Sevi ll e, 1992. 2 1. Emilio Gonzál ez López's oral interview by Carmen Gon :t:á lez. February, 1989. See also El Ideal Gallego, March 16 , 1992. 22. Rueda y González, Los gallegos entre los espmioles de USA. p. 7. Windmills in Brooklyn: A S tor y of the Spaniih lmmigrants in New Yo rk 1 27 Almos! immediately he hef!,llll to send presents -useful things like clothesfor his hrothers and sisters and farm tools for his father. He also wrote faithjitly to his girl, and son hegan to send her small sums of money to he sa ve df or her trou ss eau and their home. He eventually returned home to marry his fiancée, and left her at his hometown, and went back to New York, making periodic trips to see his wife and children, in a pattcrn that many other Galici an men would follow during the first half of the 20th centur y. 21 As soon as he had sujficientf1111ds -it was only two years after he had come to New York -he went hack to Spain on a l'isit, married his girl and bought two acres of /andfrom his fa ther ... (where) Agapito planned to huild a house later -«the hest house in the province.» .. . He had to rush hack to New York .. he went backfor the birth of hisfirst son, a11d this pattern was repeated over seven years andfivc children.24 Agapito never lo st these cmznections with Spain. As his prosperity increased he intensified them, and th at was true for the rest of his lije. He moved closer to Spain and his people there as he grew more successful here. 25 He was one ofthe immigrants who was able to take advantage ofth c opportunities in the big American city. Althou gh he did not leave the occupation of selling cigars at abus iv e prices, his ingenui ty made him prosper. He sold liquor during Prohibition, dealt in fake Spanish s ha wls and mantillas -even during the Depr ession years, Agapito was relatively prosperous. In the common Galician tradition, he would build his house in his home town. Many Spaniards critized him for not making a better use ofhis savings, for not investing th em in the U .S. Th en during the bank crisis, Agapito had h is property in Spa in , and his mon ey was kept hidden somewhere in his house. Yet, he seemed to enjoy what the new cou nt ry had to offer: The immigrant's condition, t he mixed feelin gs, the sense of belonging to one pl ace, but of living in another w hi ch had much to offer, are expressed best in sorne passages of the novel «Agapito was a Spaniard and he lived in Spain. America was the place he worked in 26». 23. Ama li a Trigo, the wife of a Galician immigrant to t he Un ited States never went to the Unit ed Statcs. Her husband, who worked in an American boat, li ved in a pension in New York and made pcriodic vi sits to his wife and daughters in La Coruña. Amalia Tri go' s parents-in-law had similar experiences. Accord in g to Tr igo, «many women did not travel during those years.» (lnterview by Carmen González, July, 1991 ). 24. Pereda, Windmills, p. 47. 25. Pered a, Windmil/s p. 46. 26. Pereda, Windmills, p. 49