The Movie in their Minds: The Asian Diaspora in America

A Comparative Analysis of
Learning to Love America by Shirley Geok-Lin Lim
and
The Opposite of Nostalgia by Eric Gamalinda
by
Jonathan Ayson
 LEARNING TO LOVE AMERICA
By Shirley Geok-Lin Lim

because it has no pure products because I walk barefoot in my house

because the Pacific Ocean sweeps along the
coastline
because the water of the ocean is cold
and because land is better than ocean
because I say we rather than they
because I live in California
I have eaten fresh artichokes
and jacaranda bloom in April and May
because I have nursed my son at my breast
because he is a strong American boy
because I have seen his eyes redden when he
is asked who he is
because he answers I don’t know
because to have a son is to have a country
because my son will bury me here
because countries are in our blood and we
bleed them

because it is late and too late to change my

because my senses have caught up with my
mind
body
because it is time.
my breath with the air it swallows
my hunger with my mouth
 THE OPPOSITE OF NOSTALGIA
By Eric Gamalinda

You are running away from everyone everything is water. Names of the dead,
who loves you, or saints, or history.
from your family, There is a realm in which
from old lovers, from friends. —no, forget it,

They run after you with accumulations it’s still too early to make anyone understand.
of a former life, copper earrings, A man drives a stake
plates of noodles, banners through his own heart
of many lost revolutions. and afterwards the opposite of nostalgia

You love to say the trees are naked now begins to make sense: he stops raking the
leaves
because it never happens
and the leaves take over
in your country. This is a mystery
and again he has learned
from which you will never
to let go.

recover. And yes, the trees are naked now,

everything that still breathes in them
lies silent and stark
and waiting. You love October most

of all, how there is no word

for so much splendor.
This, too, is a source
of consolation. Between you and memory
Post-Colonial Theory

Post-colonialism as a literary theory began in the late 19th century and thrived throughout

the 20th century. It gives a kind of psychological relief to the people (the colonized) for whom it

was born. As a form of criticism, it helps us see the relationships among all the domains of our

experience - the psychological, social, political, intellectual, ideological, and aesthetic - in ways

that show us just how indivisible these categories are in our experience of ourselves and our world.

Post-colonial critics also look at diasporic texts outside the usual Western genres, especially

writings by aboriginal authors, marginalized ethnicities, immigrants, and refugees.

Post-colonial literatures arrived in their present shape out of the experience of colonization

and established themselves by bringing into light the tension with the imperial power and by

calling attention to their differences from the postulations of the imperial center. Language became

an arena of struggle for postcolonial literatures since one of the main features of imperial

oppression is dominance over language.

There is a need to break free from the implicit body of assumptions to which English, the

language of the colonizing power, was attached: its aesthetic and social values, the formal and

traditionally limited restrictions of genre, and the tyrannical political and cultural assertion of

metropolitan supremacy – of center over margin.

Additionally, post-colonial theory offers us a framework for examining the similarities

among all critical theories that deal with human oppression, such as Marxism, and feminism.
The Dream They Long to Find…

Migration is a process of relocating from one place of residence, a region, or country to

settle in another. The duration of this process varies from person to person but this analysis focuses

on those who decided to permanently settle in another country – in this case, America. The United

States of America has always been viewed as a land of opportunity by people from lesser

developed countries mainly because of its leading role in the international stage. Considered a

melting-pot of people from various different countries all throughout its history, immigration has

imparted a richness to its diversity of cultures.

One of the biggest groups of immigrants in America are the Asian Americans. They are a

group of people which have origins in East Asia, South Asia, or Southeast Asia and identify their

race as either Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and of other Asian

nationalities. As of 2018, Asian Americans are 5.4% of the United States and that figure increases

to 6.5% when counting the multiracial Asian Americans. Asian immigration rapidly increased in

the 1940s-60s after immigrations laws were reformed and has been the fastest growing racial or

ethnic minority in the United States at the turn of this century.

These Asian Americans decided to uproot themselves due to economic, educational, social,

and political reasons. Though immigration brings with it a lot of benefits for both the immigrant

and the adoptive country, those who decide to relocate undergo various strains that can affect their

mental well-being which includes the loss of cultural norms, religious customs, and social support

systems as well as having to adapt to a new culture, changes in identity, and concept of one’s self.
The Movie in their Minds…

Before discussing the impact on their mental health, let’s first take a look at how Asian

Americans, like most immigrants, see America with their own eyes:

it has no pure products

From Learning to Love America

The first line of the poem acknowledges diversity as one of the defining characteristics of

the country. The speaker also tells of how she is different just like the many other immigrants.

Corollary, the speaker is aware that America has its flaws or imperfections, a fact that makes it

easy to relate to and less intimidating.

because the Pacific Ocean sweeps along the coastline

because the water of the ocean is cold
and because land is better than ocean

From Learning to Love America

The speaker may be conveying her appreciation for the American landmass which helps to

keep the water “along the coastline”, relating it to the sense of security by provided by her adopted

country. This sense of security may be for personal economic reasons or for the fact that America

functions as a sort of “police” which keeps global threats at bay.

because I live in California

I have eaten fresh artichokes
and jacaranda bloom in April and May

From Learning to Love America

Additionally, speaking of “fresh artichokes” and “jacaranda bloom(ing)” both demonstrate

she finds it possesses nourishing, pleasant qualities.

 While the speaker in Learning to Love America is describing her current surroundings, the

persona in The Opposite of Nostalgia is making a comparison to his former country:

And yes, the trees are naked now,

everything that still breathes in them
lies silent and stark
and waiting. You love October most

of all, how there is no word

for so much splendor.
This, too, is a source
of consolation.

From The Opposite of Nostalgia

Autumn seems to be a strange concept for the speaker who probably comes from a place

where trees never drop their leaves in October. Though it confuses the senses of someone who

experiences the season for the first time, it still brings excitement and also provides him a source

of consolation that he is finally somewhere so beautiful and so different from what he was once

accustomed to.

Whatever their reasons for relocating, immigrants bring with them images of what their

new country would be like, may it be positive or negative. These images play in their heads like a

movie where they are in the starring role.

“Tug of War”

Culture can be defined as the beliefs and values system that bring people together and is

something that is learned and passed on through generations. Racial, cultural, and ethnic identities

form part of one’s identity and that it will change at a personal as well as social level in the process

of migration and acculturation. Leisure activities along with language and religion allow an

individual to feel part of their former culture while living in a place with a different culture and

may or may not change during the acculturation stage. Social and cultural qualities and attitudes

are usually more resistant to change and the last to adapt during this period.

It is safe to say that immigrants have the option to live in the best of both worlds. They can

choose to keep some of their former culture while experiencing the new. On the contrary, they

may experience a sense of ambivalence that can result to a sort of cultural ‘tug of war’ which then

leads to self-esteem and mental health issues as we can see in the following lines:

because I walk barefoot in my house

From Learning to Love America

Walking barefoot inside the house is definitely an Asian tradition and this line clearly

shows that the speaker is still unable to renounce her Asian roots. She is clearly struggling between

her dual identities. It may also represent how she has genuinely set foot on American soil with a

willingness to show more of her true self rather than keeping a façade just to blend in with her new

environment.
 Ambivalence can also be brought upon those who immigrated as shown in this stanza:

They run after you with accumulations

of a former life, copper earrings,
plates of noodles, banners
of many lost revolutions.

From The Opposite of Nostalgia

These lines talk about people trying to chase down the speaker in The Opposite of

Nostalgia. These people bring up details of the immigrants’ former culture to try and make them

stay. Images of the things that resonate and remind them of the past weigh them down during the

process of acculturation in their new country. The concept of a ‘lost revolution’ also demands our

attention, perhaps because the speaker is not able to make dramatic changes in his life and so

decides to fully escape and vanish.

Ambivalence is not the only thing that immigrants deal with. They also encounter societal

alienation, identity crisis, as well as deep personal and inter-personal conflicts brought about by

their migration.
We or Them?

Looking into the inherent feature of the society an individual has moved from and to as

well as the social characteristics of the person who relocated is essential in finding out how well

that person will adapt during the migration process. Individuals who have relocated from mostly

sociocentric or collectivistic societies (as in most Asian countries) will doubtlessly have issues

adapting to a predominantly egocentric society such as the United States. This can result to them

having feelings of isolation and alienation and are likely to remain on the fringes of the new society

since they are not able to attain linguistic and social fluency. We can see this in the following lines:

You love to say the trees are naked now

because it never happens
in your country. This is a mystery
from which you will never

recover. And yes, the trees are naked now,

everything that still breathes in them
lies silent and stark
and waiting.

From The Opposite of Nostalgia

A sense of innocence and vulnerability is suggested by the repetition of the word ‘naked’.

The speaker finds himself in a strange place with no idea of how things work and no knowledge

of the prevailing customs in the new country. He is confused and alienated by the ‘silent and stark’

landscape that has no traces of where he came from.

The ambivalence of first-generation immigrants also has an impact on their children who

are born into the new society as evident in the following lines:

because I have nursed my son at my breast

because he is a strong American boy
 because I have seen his eyes redden when he is asked who he is
because he answers I don’t know

From Learning to Love America

The speaker is clearly at her most formative stages in America and would likely develop a

strong psychosocial bond to her son and her adoptive country. But even if her son is seen as ‘a

strong American boy’, he is still struggling with a profound identity crisis as evident when ‘his

eyes redden’ when ‘asked who he is’ and when ‘he answers I don’t know’ whenever he is asked

about his identity.

Not all first-generation and second-generation Asian Americans struggle with these issues.

A review of several studies has found that immigrants who live in areas with a zero to low-density

population of people from their own ethnic group are more likely to feel social isolation mainly

due to a perceived lack of support from a family system, a confidante, and an established social

circle. Nevertheless, mitigation of the impacts of migration can be achieved on a personal and

societal level.
A Cultural Bereavement

Migration is a complex process that involves various personal reasons, adjustments, and

experiences that affect the psychological well-being of immigrants. This process combined with a

lack of social support, unmet expectations, economic difficulties, racial discrimination and

harassment can lead to a low regard to one’s self, the inability to adapt, and deteriorating physical

and mental conditions. A better understanding of the interplay of these possible vulnerabilities is

necessary to lessen the impact of immigration. But in spite of all these issues, congruity with the

dominant culture or total acculturation and assimilation is achievable.

Let’s look at the following lines:

because I say we rather than they

because I live in California

I have eaten fresh artichokes
and jacaranda bloom in April and May

because my senses have caught up with my body

my breath with the air it swallows
my hunger with my mouth
From Learning to Love America

The speaker has managed to integrate herself by saying ‘we rather than they’. She considers

herself part of the American way of life and finds that it possesses nourishing, pleasant qualities

when she talked of ‘fresh artichokes’ and ‘jacaranda blooming’. She begins to allow her senses to

indulge in and savor her new surroundings instead being relegated to its periphery.

because to have a son is to have a country

because my son will bury me here

because countries are in our blood and we bleed them

because it is late and too late to change my mind

 because it is time.

From Learning to Love America

We can observe that the speaker gave birth in the United States when she said ‘because to

have a son is to have a country’. Section 1 of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. constitution states

that in most situations, any child that is born in the United States or one of its territories will

automatically get American citizenship. This is called "birthright citizenship". Because her son is

an American citizen, he can petition his mother to become a “green card holder” which is a step to

becoming an American citizen. The speaker has decided to become a permanent resident and

possibly to be a U.S. citizen (‘because my son will bury me here’). “Too late to change my mind”

suggests remorse on her part, although the means to change her mind is taken away from her

because she cannot possibly return to her origins. At the end, the declarative nature of “because it

is time” solidifies her resolve after considering all her experiences and struggles in America.

There is a certain pain associated with the feeling of having to leave behind everything you

once knew in search for something that may not even exist. This is seen in the following lines:

it’s still too early to make anyone understand.

A man drives a stake
through his own heart
and afterwards the opposite of nostalgia

begins to make sense: he stops raking the leaves

and the leaves take over
and again he has learned
to let go.
From The Opposite of Nostalgia

“A man drives a stake through his own heart’ physically represents the emotional pain of

having to sever connections to his previous life. We can also say that he has decided to kill his old

self in order to allow the new to take its place. He has already gotten used to his new circumstance
which doesn’t seem strange and foreign anymore (‘begins to make sense’). He is able to live

normally in America with menial tasks (‘raking the leaves’) becoming an everyday reality for him.

The man pauses a bit as he feels a bit of nostalgia for the past (‘he stops…’) but quickly turns away

from it and finally decides ‘to let go’ and allows himself to be part of his new way of life (‘the

leaves take over’).

In conclusion, we can see that both of these personas have gone through the stages of great

expectations and excitement, double consciousness, and deep personal as well as interpersonal

conflicts before establishing their new identities and finally seeing themselves as part of the fabric

of the American society. They will eventually take an active part in what really makes America a

great country: its diversity.

“We are a country where people of all backgrounds, all nations of origin, all languages, all

religions, all races, can make a home. America was built by immigrants…”

Hillary Rodham Clinton

The American Dream

The whole world recently watched as Kamala Devi Harris was sworn in as the United

States’ first female vice president, the highest-ranking female elected official in U.S. history, and

the first vice president of African American and Asian American descent. Born to immigrant

parents, it comes as no surprise that she advocates a path to citizenship for undocumented

immigrants known as the DREAM Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors

Act) which is a legislative proposal to grant conditional residency, with the right to seek

employment, to unauthorized immigrants who entered the United States as minors. After satisfying

further qualifications, they would be able to attain permanent residency.

Education is of prime concern for The DREAM Act which, depending on eligibility

standards, where more than a million young people in the United States could benefit and be given

an opportunity to reach educational and economic potential. In light of this, a movement called the

DREAMers emerged during the time that the legislation was being lobbied in Congress. They have

also influenced other policies such as DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. This

movement has also emboldened many undocumented immigrants to come out.

Among the undocumented taking a stand is Filipino-American Jose Antonio Vargas, a

Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist. He stirred controversy after coming out in a June 2011 article in

the New York Times magazine where he described how he had been sent to live with his maternal

grandparents in the United States at the age of 12, growing up in Mountain View, California,

finding out that his green card is fake, and learning to live a double life. And it’s not just him.

Numerous Filipinos went there as tourists and then stayed on even after their visas expired get a

Social Security number, find a job, and look for an American citizen to marry which would make
them eligible to stay on. They were called TNT (“tago ng tago” which means hiding and hiding).

Hiding they may not need to do anymore once the new administration puts their immigration

policies into place.

Undocumented immigrants must have heaved a sigh of relief when the Biden-Harris ticket

won the 2020 U.S. Presidential Elections. Among the changes Biden has promised to make during

the first 100 days of his administration is reinstating DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood

Arrivals) which will provide protection from deportation for an estimated 650,000 people who

entered the U.S. illegally as children. An estimated 56,000 people who have become eligible since

former president Donald Trump ended DACA would be able to file for applications once the

program is restarted. Biden has also promised to ensure that DREAMers are qualified for federal

student aid, making higher education more accessible to those with limited or no financial options.

These, coupled with a comprehensive immigration reform, can create pathway to citizenship for

the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. And just like Kamala Harris, they

would be able to see fruition of their American dream.

“You know, 11 million people live in the shadows. I believe they’re already American citizens…
… These people are just waiting for a chance to contribute fully.”
Joseph R. Biden
References

Aguilera, J. (2020). Biden Has Promised to Undo Trump's Immigration Policies. How Much Is
He Really Likely to Reform. https://time.com/5909571/joe-biden-immigration-policy/

Becker M. and Bhugra D. (2005). Migration, cultural bereavement and cultural identity.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1414713/

Gbenoba et al (2014). Literary Theory and Criticism. National Open University of Nigeria

Tan, M. (2012). TNT Dreams. https://opinion.inquirer.net/21827/tnt-dreams

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Americans

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DREAM_Act

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamala_Harris

https://www.poetryfoundation.org