Commemorating and remembering September 11 is a challenge for historians all over the world. To create a website to capture and seize the day is no small obstacle. Usually we wouldn’t want to remember a day that killed many Americans. But FOr what some people had to go through and overcome i believe september 11 brought America closer and because of that we need to commemorate and make a website to remind us, and teach for future generations to come . “if you don’t know where you’ve been you don’t know where you are going. Elie Weisel said this about remembering the holocaust, and i think it also applies for September 11. This changed America for the better and its needed to remember.
Remembering What Happened
Final exam study guide
The final exam study guide can be found here. I will be taking questions in class Wednesday of this week (5/18), but feel free to ask me questions outside of class ahead of then.
Your only assignment for 5/18 is to review the study guide and be ready with any questions at our last class on Wednesday.
Remembering the day.
When 50 academic and public historians, archivists, librarians, and directors and staff members of museums and historical societies in NY and NJ gathered together to try and figure out what would be the best way to historically collect and represent the significance of September 11. Usually in the past historians would not think to create a website in which everybody could visit and learn about what happened, and what people had to go through during the terrible attacks. But I really respect the decision to create this digital archive because for generations to come, it would be much easier to access this kind of information with such personal stories. Allowing people to post their own experiences and thoughts about what happened really gave the site a purpose. I believe that the historians that came together to create this have captured in essence what a historian in 50 years would look back and see how this day effected everybody.
Other reasons why I thought the website was strong was because they gave us primary sources, videos, pictures, everything that would help a future historian figure out how the American people felt during that day. Some of the weaknesses of the site however were that almost everything on the website was a link that led you to another site, it would have been nice just to be able to press a section and scroll down. Another weakness i thought was how to website looked overall, if i was the graphic designer i would have made this website more patriot or even just more graphic in general. I think this website was great and really captured what people felt on 9/11
Queens-The Melting Pot Borough
In 1992, my dad,aunt and three of my uncles and their families moved to the United States from Nigeria to pursue their separate careers and escape . They all settled in Rosedale, Queens in different apartments. They moved here in order to find better paying jobs as there was a high inflation rate at that time. A dollar was equal to 10Naira (Nigeria currency) as opposed to 1972 where a dollar was 0.658Naira. My brother and I were born in Nigeria and did not move here till 2008, 2010 respectively. Although we visited New York lots of times before 2008, it was just for the summer vacation or winter break.
Queens is the most diverse borough in New York . Rosedale is comprised of a high percentage of Caribbeans.
Sweet Sweet T&T “Oh How I love up meh country”
Saying goodbye to a land called home can not be easy. The desperation for seeking a better life and broadening your opportunities. Many people left countries for religious persecutions, famines, jobs opportunities, and alike my family had the same intentions in mind. They knew that the pitch filled streets of Trinidad and Tobago was where they took their first walks, had their first fights, graduated from their secondary schools, but they understood that their was something more to the world and America was the link they were missing.
Binder says that “Brooklyn drew nearly half of the Caribbean black to homes in Bedford Stuyvesant, Flatbush, and Crown Height…West Indian music and accents became common, and travel agencies and stores displayed flags and other symbols of Caribbean nations.” I never understand how my East Flatbush community became cultivated by Caribbean affluence until now. I understand now that Congress liberalized the immigration laws to the West Indies in the 1950s allowing more West Indian immigrants to make their way to New York or even Brooklyn. Its no coincidence why the West Indian Day Parade is in Brooklyn and surprisingly enough you take a West Indian anywhere they will never leave their homes, instead they bring it with them which is why Brooklyn has transformed the way it did. I can always be reminded about my parents culture, I can just walk outside my house and hear music or smell the delicious foods. The East Flatbush community in Brooklyn has continued to embrace their distinct diversity and I for one honor it.
Dreams come true!
I think my history of immigration to the United States was more positive and carefree. It was devoid of any religious prosecution or political reasons. Originally i am from Belarus. It is as small country near Ukraine, Poland and Russia. There is nothing notable there, except that people work there very hard, get little money for that, they suffered a lot during World War 2, live under pressure of dictator (whose almost no one country could recognize and accept as a president) and it is very kind nation.When i was really young child, about 12 years old, i dreamed to live
in America and to get better life. As Binder says: “the new immigrants are seeking economic opportunity and political freedom” ( everything that my nation doesn’t have) .On the second year at the University i decided to travel in the US by program for students – Work and Travel. But i was declined in visa. In that day i was very upset and almost lost faith to come in the most powerful country. Half a year later my friend gave me a link to apply for green card – www.dvlottery.state.gov . I applied and forgot about it until the day when my father coming back from the job brought a huge envelope from Kentucky. In that moment i even couldn’t t understand what was happened. I just jumped up to the ceiling. I was so happy! so happy! Everybody said after that to me that “dream comes true.” Now i am only just “freshly baked” immigrant, live in NY in Bensonhurst-an Italian neighborhood, i visit my family and friends at least one time a year, i work and study, and i am happy that i am here and i believe that everything is ahead of me!
For What its worth vs. Where is the Love?
When I read this assignment, my mind instantly jumped to two specific songs. For the protest song pertaining to issues during the 1960’s, I chose the song “For what its worth” by Buffalo Springfield which is a song my father constantly related to his involvment in the antiwar efforts of the 1960’s. This song illuminates the ignorance of the pro war forces and has a more cryptic yet intense message of the crazy antics between opposing parties during the vietnam war and depicts a country so torn that nothing is being accomplished. For the modern day song, I chose the song “Where is the love” by The Black Eyed Peas which has a more general focus on social issues and unnessary violence in and involving the U.S.
Because “where is the love” came out in a more modern time, a lot of the imagery used seems to be more violent and graphic covering several different demographics and issues that involved almost every type of american. However, I feel that Buffalo Springfield created a very powerful anthem for anti war efforts and although it came across as a more subtle song, I find it to still hold truth to almost any war that the U.S. has been involved in since the song’s release in 1967.
My family: An Immigration Story
When people ask me what my nationality is, I always struggle to find a quick appropriate response. Initially I respond by saying I was born in California, but my mother is from Mexico City and my father is from Boston, Massachusetts. The fact of the matter is that is the only the begging. Although my mother is from Mexico and people automatically consider me a Mexican American, I have a hard time affliating as one. My maternal grandparents are immigrants from Lithunaia, Germany, and Poland and my paternal grandparents are from Russia which is why to answer the question simply I say im a mixbreed.
To address my immigration relation from the 1960’s to present day, in the 1980’s both my mother and brother emigrated from Mexico to the U.S. starting off in New York, relocating to Canada and eventually ending up in San Diego, California where my parents first met leaving them both in the bracket of the 800,000 new immigrants in NYC during the 80’s. My mother has also been involved in government policy pertaining to Mexican Immigration for several decades now fighting as a new American citizen for the rights of illegal aliens in the U.S. and immigration laws against those from Mexico. The immigration struggle in the U.S. is one that I am directly affected by and without my families immigration history, who knows where I’d be today and what language I’d be speaking.
Visiting History with Histories
The Museum of Modern Arts is itself a very historic museum that contains modernistic art – whether paintings, sculptures, drawings, letters, or photographs. MoMA was first created by John D. Rockefeller Jr.’s wife, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller in 1928. As any museum, they started off small with only a few collections such as paintings by Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne, and Seurat, but eventually grew to obtain many more collections. MoMA even contains international art. There were some photographs that reminded me of what we learned in our class.
Henry Ford popped into my head as soon as I saw Henry Callahan’s photograph of a blur of many parked cars, and it is not just because both names begin with Henry. This picture reminded of the assembly line that Henry Ford did to make cars more affordable. All of his low paid employees specialized in one task and this caused there to be a rapid increase in the supply of cars, which lead to low price for cars and a rapid increase in the demand for cars. The way Callahan blurred the cars makes it seem like he is stating there are way too many cars that look alike causing there to be a blur to distinguish the differences between the cars.
One photograph took me right to the heart of the Roaring Twenties. There was a woman and a man driving what looks like a bumper driver (maybe from Coney Island). The woman and the man are driving together while the woman is laughing her head off and the man is soaking in the moment. The couple look like they are having the best time of their life and nothing can stop them from enjoying what life is bringing to them. Of course however, they will not be laughing too long because the Great Depression is on its way and is about to bring them a whole new experience of pain and anguish as well as starvation.
What I loved most was the African American exhibition that I went to. There was a slideshow of paintings done by Jacob Lawrence on why the African Americans traveled to cities such as New York. They were in search of better opportunities. The slideshow started off by showing the segregation in the South, as well as the violence they went through. Women worked hard in the household ironing clothes while men worked hard in the farm. Innocent blacks were arrested for crimes they did not commit but were framed of. Another painting showed their escape and what they were faced with. They went in groups with each of them looking out for one another like an extended family. Theft and abuse were some of the challenges they faced during their travel. However, once they reached cities like New York, their lives changed. Lawrence drew a painting of three young children holding up numbers as if they finally caught the stars they were reaching for. This demonstrated that blacks received education in New York where there was less discrimination than the rural South. There were more opportunities opened for them in the urban area. Men received the opportunity to work in factories, but nonetheless work for themselves. They received a sense of freedom and belonging in cities such as New York.
- The Blur of Similarities
- Enjoying the present
- Crossing the states to achieve success
The Museum of Modern Arts was an amusing way to learn history and connect it to what we learned in class. There were some paintings that I have seen that I learned about in different classes because MoMA has a wide variety of forms of art. I have seen the works of Picasso, Rathko, Pollack, and Sezanne to name a few that are not related to this class but work viewing while I was at the exhibition. However, the paintings and photographs that I viewed made me see our nation in “motion.”
bye bye ecuador
My great grandmother, grandma, and sisters immigrated to New York from Quito Ecuador around the time period of the 1960’s. My grandma was around 20 years old. Binder (p4) states that “Women predominated in this immigration stream, as they did in most others coming to this city in this period.” On my fathers side of the family a large group of women came to New York to better their lives. There was alot of crime in Ecuador as well as poverty.
My grandma came to better her life. She told me once she came here she found a job in a factory. which she kept for about ten years. The wages were low and long hours were required. Like we discussed in class, immigrants were stuck with low paying jobs, but to them it was a decent pay that they were happy and greatful for.
Binder(p5) also talks about how drug dealers and groups were forming in Washington Heights bringing corruption to the neighborhood. Innocent bystanders were killed in the process. My grandma would visit Ecuador occasionally and things eventually got a little better. However she has told me that recently people began robbing and kidnapping/killing out of towners or even locals. My grandma told me five family members who were robbed, recently. So its interesting to see how everything is like a circle effect and eventually returns to its original state after improvement has occured.