America is not the melting pot.

They claim that recent immigrants are not assimilating the American culture and society and cite certain political, economical, technological and cultural factors IS AMERICA A MELTING POT? According to the American Heritage Dictionary, the term melting pot can be explained through a place where immigrants of different cultures or races form an integrated society. And that place could be The United States, Canada, Australia, or even Spain or Italy, some parts from UK or other countries in the world, where we deal with a multicultural society. That was formed due to the huge waves of immigrants who were in search for a better life, a paradise on Earth. They came with their customs and weird habits, with their fascinating new culture [music, clothes, food, celebrations and holidays, religion] and the locals were fascinated and mesmerized. They were curious immediately to see what the other has to offer to them and without their will they were touched by the new trends and changed, partially. The natives and the foreign people exchanged opinions, cultural elements, languages, they intermarried and what resulted was not one thing or another thing, but something in between. But this happened partially and locally, not everywhere and not totally. The exchange was not complete, though. In the present paper I would like to refer to the American society and how it was influenced by the other cultures belonging to the people who came there and also I would like to comment upon the influence of the Americans on the so - called foreign communities of people living there: the Mexican, the Muslim, the Chinese, the Italian and others. I would like to focus on the reasons why people preserve their identity even if they are far away from home and why they are not completely assimilated and why they dont melt in the crowd. Firstly, I would like to talk about how the immigrants preserved their customs and to what degree this has happened, referring to the cultural aspect. Thus, we have some places where the foreign elements have not been contaminated by the American way of living, to a great extent. For instance, in New York, we have China Town where the Asians preserve their culture with success and attract many tourists there, who are fascinated by their food especially (lobsters, crabs, prawns, clams, oysters, shark fin soup, noodles), by their spices, drinks, traditional medicines, by their shops of mysterious, mystical and strange antiques, or by their celebrations or rituals(Chinese New Year, also known as the Lunar New Year, festivities with red fierce dragons and lion dances accompanied by the rhythm of clashing of cymbals, clanging on a gong, clapping of hardwood clappers, by pounding of drums, and by loud Chinese firecrackers). Many Americans go there to eat or to shop for traditional things, to experience some colorful shows that entertain them a lot, but then, they return to their lives again, in the American society and forget about what has happened. It is all like a show or a necessity and not more than that. The unknown is always appealing and fascinating but frightening and unwanted in the same time just because it is the unknown. I believe that the Asian community is so strong here because it is united. While the other Chinese who work in predominantly American places have been assimilated and act just like the others, as not to be considered the other and thus be discriminated, isolated, pushed apart, or gossiped. This has happened to American people who work in huge corporations, factories, where they dress in black smart suits; eat with their colleagues at American restaurants, or watch American movies with their friends. More, they date American ladies too and maybe they even adopt protestant religions. Thus, they have forgotten their own traditions and live the American dream, which they searched for in the beginning, anyway. About these people we could say that they have integrated successfully in the American

society and they enjoy their new successful life. An individual is powerless when alone, lost in the multitude of faces, a shadow among the strong, in the crowd, s/he cannot stand alone against the main wind but when s/he meets another fellow of his/ her own nationality, then that person remembers his/ her own culture and then he goes back to the tradition that he has left or betrayed for a while. That is why I state that a person cannot renounce his / her native identity completely. We can be American for a while, when we go there but, when we come back home we adopt our own traditions again, so fast and so gladly just like if nothing had ever came between us and our country. This happens, because when we are born Romanian we remain like that forever. It is part of our hearts, of our body and without it we would not be complete. Even if the Chinese have not taken Halloween as a holiday either, or they do not really consume hot dogs as a regular meal, we cannot say that they are pure Chinese. Even if they still prefer eating with chopsticks and they still keep their Buddhist religion and do not accept God as a supreme power, they have changed a lot. Thus, they dress with normal clothes, international ones, if I can say so and have so many American habits. They watch American TV shows, they go to American schools and they are interested in American music or in politics, especially the young ones, who are always more influenced by foreign trends. They keep their Asian culture deep in their hearts; they could keep a little Buddha at home or eat at Chinese restaurants whenever they have the chance. But they pretend to be American just to be accepted in the society. Therefore, the people who came to America in massive waves did not renounce completely to their previous way of living because they needed a corner of the past hanging in their hearts, a cultural beat, as to make them feel safer and more self - confident. Otherwise, they would have been lost, without their traditions and swallowed by the Americans. Secondly, I would like to refer to the economical aspects of why the Chinese have not renounced their previous life style completely. Money has always determined people to choose one or another direction in life, in a radical way. And I believe that what made Chinese preserve their habits even if they are in a different country is money. By selling their habits to the curious American people they have been able to support themselves there. But then they fell in their own trap. Thus, despite of the fact that Chinatown is a significant cultural center of the Chinese people, an Asian heart which beats strong and with resonance, it is has become an artificial Asian place nowadays; artificial, because I have the impression that all of the phenomena happening there is for commercial purposes only. An interesting thing is that similar Chinatowns are built in different corners of the world too, constructed as Chinese-themed shopping malls. This example is to prove the commercial character of a Chinatown. The Chinese have not preserved their customs as to be faithful to their traditions but to make a living out of their peculiar life style, which is so attractive for Americans. The Chinese wanted to share their customs to the world but they ended in selling the customs, when they noticed that Chinese elements sell and they sell well [food, make up, natural products and even Chinese prostitutes are more popular than the American ones]. They could make good living by this. Thirdly, the Chinese and the Japanese especially did not adopt the American elements because they think that their own products are better, more qualitative. For example the Japanese robots have spread in the whole world and make a lot of money. The Asian sell their ideas to Americans, their inventions and they are very successful. Also they do not think that Thanksgiving or Halloween is better and more interesting than their own holidays. Or they prefer eating their own food rather than eat junk food or pasta. What is interesting is that an American would sometimes prefer Thai food to hamburgers while you would not see Chinese eating popcorn better than noodles.

Fourthly, another element that makes Chinese preserve their culture and way of life is the religion that they have, the importance of religion with everyting that this implies [a lifestyle actually] in their lives. They have stronger rules and traditions and religion does not allow them to make any compromises, of accepting foreign cultural elements. If they do this, they betray themselves. Faith is there in their hearts and it is very strong. While the American would take up other people religious habits easily just because they have a weak faith in God and thus they are easily influenced by one trend or another. As a matter of fact, I could say, based on personal observation and on research, that the Americans take more elements from the people living with them, the so called minorities than the immigrants take from them. Actually, what happens is that they are very open minded people, non conformist, flexible, relaxed, not very strong on their faith and they are ready to take whatever seems new and interesting. They are very moody people. They adopt things from all of the people living in their country. For instance, they adopted pasta and pizza from the Italians; Thai food from the Thailands people, berets from the French, immoral habits from the European, different religions from different people. While, the immigrants have their own traditions more rooted in their hearts, stronger in their minds and many times they are not willing to drop out their own traditions. Thus, the Jews would preserve their own wedding rituals, their faith, the Greek their dances, the Mexican their spicy food and so on. The question that raises here is who is influenced more and by whom? Consequently, if we have the Harlem, the Little Italy, the Indian reservations, the Chinatown, the Greek neighborhoods, the Jews strong faith, the Muslim rooted religion, can we really say that the immigrants, or the minorities living in USA are pursuing the American dream, in the American way? I oscillate here between thinking that the Americans want to believe that the small communities are an integrated part of the whole and the truth they like to mislead themselves upon their so called strong influence upon any people from the world. But as long as they tend to isolate and push apart what they do not know well or understand proper other religion, other color of the skin, other traditions, other language, they are not able then to say that they assimilate and accept the other as one of them. Thus, the melting pot is only a metaphor for a multitude of nations living there with them, but still keeping themselves different, because they want that themselves and because they are not let by the Americans either to change. Therefore, I would give another term for the melting pot to USA the spicy pot -a place where immigrants of different cultures or races form a multicultural society together with the locals, influencing one another up to a certain extent, a place full of color and variety.