"Digging to America"

The stereotypical description of America is the "dreamland", the "land of choice", the "land of freedom". Also, the "melting pot". You are born and became American citizen by choice. Your American identity is becoming part of your other identities, without a serious clash, because the chance offered is to be yourself. (This is a stereotypical statement too)

The best way to explore America is through the variety of different personal stories. Collected and told from a generation to another, kept in oral history archives or turned into literature or movies. Ruthanne Lum McCunn's Thousand Pieces of Gold is starting from a real story of a Chinese young woman, bought from China for the prostitution ring and arriving in America in the times of gold's fever. Another experiences of Chinese immigration are shared by the amazing Amy Tan in his The Kitchen God's Wife, based on her personal life experiences of many generations under the same American roof, trying to introduce local habits and customs into the daily US context.

A literary perspective, this time about the Iranian and Korean adopted children is offered by Ann Tyler's Digging to America.

Beyond the usual stereotypes about America, they are millions of very personal stories. More or less related, with easier or difficult or impossible adaptation. And this multiplicity of histories is always enriched and always changing.