Family has always been a big part of my life. I am always surrounded by them. They are the people who keep me sane in this fast-paced, crazy, life of mine. We are such a close-knit family that we have a tradition to come together every Sunday to have dinner.
When people look at me, they probably do not think that I come from Persian descent. I am blond-haired and fair skinned, whereas, my grandfather, has a darker complexion, heavy accent, and dark hair. My grandfather has a very unique upbringing. He grew up in Tehran, Iran with his brother, mother, and father. When asked if there were any ethnic challenges in Tehran, my grandfather gave me this bewildered look and stated that “[Tehran] didn’t have this problem because Iranians are not black, they are Caucasian, [the] Arian race, we didn’t have black people, black people were Arabs from Saudi Arabia” (04:42). My grandfather immigrated to the United States in the 1950s. He immigrated because of political reasons. My grandfather’s family was involved in the Iranian Revolution. My great grandfather, my grandfather’s father, was part of the military.
My grandfather, known as “Baba”, was directly affected by this move. He “missed part of [his] schooling” and he stressed that “a lot of kids did” (00:50). One of the reasons he moved to the United States was because the government would allow him to go to any school of his choosing (he was in college). He went to Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. As he made this move into American the one thing he did notice was that “[America] was full of it [ethnic related challenges] everyone is from somewhere of their own, and so it didn’t shock me, and it didn’t bother me, and nobody treated me differently when I was here [in the United States]” (05:15). Similarly, to the book Maus, my grandfather, “assembled with people from this country, [he] didn’t want to be the only Iranian in one group” (5:55). In fact, his college roommate was Persian-American. He was able to feel at home while staying with someone with a similar cultural background. He was able to participate in “all the school activities”, and because he was involved with the school activities, he learned more English. This incident corresponds to the book Maus, where Jewish people would speak their own language but also had to learn the surrounding language, polish or German, to help communicate with their German-Polish neighbors. My grandfather stated that “most boarding students that come here [United States], learn[ed] to speak English here, their vocabulary was around 200-250 words, but they could communicate with that” but he was able to extend his vocabulary more. He eagerly stated that “I was very well able to write essay for school” (06:12). My grandfather surrounded himself with native English speakers so he could better advance in understanding the English language and culture.
Knowing that American society does not like ‘outsiders’, I asked my grandfather if anyone treated him differently because of his accent. I, like anyone else, would’ve known the answer, but to my surprise, he was not treated differently. He would explain those who asked where he was from that “because of all the stereotypes of those from the middle east, they made me look bad!” he continued to tell me that “they saw too many movies that show all those [stereotypes].” And then he went on to explain “that that was not the case” (07:27). He would tell anyone who asked that he was no different than they were. My grandfather’s experience was not like others who have immigrated to the United States because he spent his time with other students that did not treat him as an outsider. They took him on holidays and would take him home to their families. “Churches welcomed me, people liked me… professors took me home for fourth of July and stuff like this happened. It was wonderful! I can’t remember them all now, but they were all nice people” (10:55).
Kian is my grandfather’s name and he lives up to the Persian meaning, king. He is very confident in everything he does. [He] “was far superior and was not afraid of being wrong or making mistake” (09:50). He always felt welcome, unlike the many Jewish people living in their own country. When asked if he had any incidences where he felt unwelcome in the United States he replied, “some students would come where I work and do something [cause trouble] they would want to start a fight with me, those things happened, but not from any government entity” (11:00).
My grandfather was able to live the “American Dream.” He did mention that he did have some setbacks from coming here from a foreign country to start a life for himself and so that he could start a family. From those setbacks, he was able to start “11 companies in this area” (11:53). He started Kendelwood Enterprise, that then led to “several other companies including transportation, nursing home, retirement homes, and construction” (12:10). He has companies nationally in Las Vegas, Omaha, Spring field, St. Louis, and Kansas City. From his businesses, he was then able to build relationships that helped him further live his American dream. He could successfully provide for his family. From his experience being from another country and how people from America treated him, I asked if he would change anything in American society, He replied, “any change is better than no change, that is true, have you heard, the saying: don’t fix it until its broken?” To this, I nodded, he replied, “It’s working for me, and I’m sure that other people might be similar to me is working for them. There is no need to change anything. I am proud to be another country and a different culture. I have no problem with that. This country is 250 years old, the country I came from was 6,000 years old, so there is a lot of culture there that I brought here with me” (25:49).
One story that my grandfather told me when he moved to this country was when he went through immigration and was denied being called his official given name. When he went to get his citizenship at the immigration office his passport said: “Mir Kian Shafé.” The immigration officer informed him that ‘Mir’ was not a valid first name. My grandfather was upset that he could not carry part of his family’s tradition with him into the States. “‘Mir’ is a title that all the sons in my grandfather’s family carry. He was shocked to be informed that ‘we [the United States] don’t like to use a title as a name’ so my grandfather was instructed to drop that name for any official documents, but he could not drop the title because his diploma and my driver’s licenses had ‘Mir K Shafé’. My grandfather didn’t “have a problem not to use that and go by the name Kian, which I am, but it’ll be a struggle to get my diploma and get all that changed.” He was then informed that he could use that title “as long as you know that title is meaningless in this country” (27:27). This shocked me. My grandfather was denied the use of his title as part of his name just like the Jews were denied their given names and instead, they were given tattoos of numbers to replace their identities and had to wear specific patches, like those shown in the film, Night and Fog.
Reflecting on my grandfather’s life and his journey in becoming an American I am able to conclude that being born as an American has given me many other privileges that my grandfather did not have when he was growing up. He does share a similarity to those events that took place in the Holocaust. One of the biggest similarities being the loss of his identity. Overall, his life has not been bombarded with cultural or issues of being from another country.
Becoming an American details persecutions endured by Kailyn Fane’s Iranian grandfather immigrating to America in the 1950s. Kailyn is an undergraduate student at UMKC pursuing a BS in Health Science. She uses several techniques including personal testimony and allusion to convey her message. Her piece is a non-fiction, historical-biographical narrative written as part of a two-part assignment in her class studying Nazi-Occupied-Europe and the Holocaust. The assignment was to first: interview a victim of persecution, and to second: write a creative narrative over the contents of the interview. Fane chimes in with her own personal testimony in the text to compare her own experience with her grandfather’s in America. For example, in paragraph one, she describes the differences between their complexions. She explains that she is “blond-haired and fair skinned” whereas her grandfather has “a darker complexion, heavy accent, and dark hair.” (Fane para. 1). She also alludes to several historical texts and films throughout her piece to provide different perspectives. One example of this would be in the second to last paragraph of the piece when she compares the taking away of her grandfather’s first name “Mir” during immigration procedures to the replacing of Jews’ names with numbers in Alain Resnais’ Night and Fog. Today, I believe there are people today that suffer the same persecutions of Fane’s grandfather. For example, Donald Trump’s administration so far has issued both a travel ban on Muslims and the building of a physical wall on the southern border to keep Mexican immigrants from entering the United States. In conclusion, Fane’s telling of her grandfather’s persecutions through personal testimony and allusion paint a picture shares a close resemblance to today’s America.
In this blog, Becoming an American by Kailyn Fane, we are told a story of her grandfather––her “Baba”, who grew up in Tehran, Iran. She began with her family, “We are such a close-knit family that we have a tradition to come together every Sunday to have dinner,” Fane stated. She then went on to describe herself and then her grandfather, “I am blond-haired and fair skinned, whereas, my grandfather, has a darker complexion, heavy accent, and dark hair,” I related to this because I come from a different ethnic background too even though I don’t look it. It was interesting to see how she tied in Art Spiegelman’s Maus to her grandfather’s story. “Similarly, to the book Maus, my grandfather, “assembled with people from this country, [he] didn’t want to be the only Iranian in one group” (5:55). She also mentioned that her grandfather used “school activities” to learn more English. She directed related this to an incident in Maus, “where Jewish people would speak their own language but also had to learn the surrounding language, polish or German, to help communicate with their German-Polish neighbors.” Her interview reminded me of my own when her grandfather responded to the question about if he had ever been treated differently because of his accent. He told Fane that he had not been treated any differently, “He would tell anyone who asked that he was no different than they were.” My interviewee had a similar response––that when he was questioned about his accent, he believed people were more curious about where he was from, not that he was different from them. I enjoyed the story of her grandfather being able to live the “American Dream,” the fact that he was able to start his own companies is a testament that the “American Dream” is attainable to all. The last story her grandfather told her of immigration not allowing him to carry the tradition of the family name, ‘Mir’, was disappointing. It was a part of his culture and his family, a reminder of where he came from but “…that title is meaningless in this country.” She was able to relate this to when the Jews were denied their given names and instead, they were given tattoos of numbers to replace their identities and had to wear specific patches. Overall, Fane’s story of her grandfather life and journey in America was really impactful and interesting to read.