I thought I was 'new' to LA. My grandad came there in the 1920s - from the east side of Canada. My dad was 'born' in LA. As it turns out, our family came from France earlier then the Mayflower - To Canada, not the US.
I think we Americans are interested in our origin stories because they matter, and they're all unique. When my son was researching his father's very complex family history in eastern Europe, he took a break to look at the Wesslings in Germany. He zoomed straight back in time. They didn't move, their status didn't change. That's a classic origin story for Germany. Yet my dad's family in the US went from traveling salesman in the Depression (my grandfather) to my dad, a PhD scientist, in one generation. We're dynamic because we can be, because immigration forces dynamism into our systems.
I thought I was 'new' to LA. My grandad came there in the 1920s - from the east side of Canada. My dad was 'born' in LA. As it turns out, our family came from France earlier then the Mayflower - To Canada, not the US.
I think we Americans are interested in our origin stories because they matter, and they're all unique. When my son was researching his father's very complex family history in eastern Europe, he took a break to look at the Wesslings in Germany. He zoomed straight back in time. They didn't move, their status didn't change. That's a classic origin story for Germany. Yet my dad's family in the US went from traveling salesman in the Depression (my grandfather) to my dad, a PhD scientist, in one generation. We're dynamic because we can be, because immigration forces dynamism into our systems.