The Golden Door

The Golden Door

Juvenile non fiction
Our very own Statue of Liberty carries a verse by Emma Lazarus
callling for the "huddled masses yearning to be free," other nation's
poor and homeless, to enter the "golden door" she stood sentry over.
We seem, as a country, to be too quickly forgetting this national
mandate. We're also very proficient at denial when it comes to the
fact that the great majority of us (meaning all who aren't one hundred
percent native American) have at least one ancestor from away. I get
so tired of the us-them close the border quick (except for when it
nets us cheap labor) mentality. I checked out two terrific books that
looked at the lives of earlier arrivals on both coasts from the Orono
Public Library.
Did you know that the dormitory buildings of California's Angel
Island (the West Coast counterpart to New York's Ellis Island) were
almost demolished? Don't feel bad if you didn't. I just learned this
evening reading Russell Freedman's Angel Island: Gateway To Golden
Mountain. In 1970 Alexander Weiss became curious about a decrepit
building on the island. Entering it, he discovered a treasure: walls
covered with carved calligraphy. They were poems and other
inscriptions by Chinese, Korean, Russian, and other nationality would
be immigrants. Reporting his discovery he was told not to rock the
boat. The building was slated to be demolished. Fortunately he
persisted and prevailed. If the wrecking ball had done its thing, so
much would have been lost.
This story is only the first of the true adventures you will
encounter in the book. In this deceptively slender volume you will
learn about:
*the predudice and violence from native born Americans Chinese
immigrants encountered despite the great contributions they made to
agriculture and the building of the transcontinental railroad;
*the weeks and even months long detentions they endured, not knowing
if they would ever be admitted to Gam Saan (Gold Mountain);
*the illusion shattering arrival of picture brides from Japan, China,
and Korea who often learned that their intendeds looked a lot
different from the pictures they had been shown;
*the saving of Jewish refugees from Hitler's Germany arriving by way
of Shanghai...
My favorite part of the book was the poems translated into
English. They are quite eloquent. The period photographs greatly
enhance the text.
Zipping across America we'll look at where many folks ended up
after successfully getting through Ellis Island by way of Raymond
Bial's Tenement: Immigrant Life On The Lower East Side. It too is a
deceptively slim volume, rich with period photos. Bial dedicated the
book to his and his wife's ancestors who lived in such establishments
at the start of their quest for a better future. The book is
obviously a labor of love.
Tenement life was grim by today's standards. A flat (apartment)
usually consisted of two (often windowless) rooms: one for sleeping,
one for everything else. For many families that everything else would
include seven day a week piecework sewing or cigar making involving
parents and children struggling to survive.
Tenement life carried very real dangers. "In 1862, the
superintendent of buildings for the city described tenements as an
approach to housing in which 'the greatest amount of profit is sought
to be realized from the least amount of space, with little or no
regard for the health, comfort, or protection of the lives of the
tenants.'". Can we say recipe for disaster? The buildings were
firetraps. Crowding and very poor sanitation (Can you believe one
outhouse for every 20 people was an improvement?) led to the rapid
spread of dreaded diseases like smallpox and typhoid.
Amazingly, considering the obstacles they had to overcome
tenement parents were able to rise or enable their children to rise to
better neighborhoods and more secure vocations. Many of us, like Bial
himself, come from families owing a great debt of gratitude for the
hard work and sacrifice of first generation American ancestors.
Remember Alexander Weiss--the guy who saw treasure where others
saw wrecking ball fodder? He said, "'We needed to save the
immigration station to remind us of the tough times some immigrants
had in coming to this country...They were treated shabbily, but they
actually made this country a better place. That's why we need
memorials...so that we will learn from our past." We need to learn
from our past because today we have refugees escaping desperate and
heart breaking conditions. With our help or despite our hostility,
they will persevere and make important contributions. It is my hope
that we can be decent and treat then with the respect and kindness we
would desire if we walked in their shoes. Books like the two I just
reviewed can be a big help in gaining perspective.
On a personal note, my baby, my one and only son is seventeen today.
A great big shout out goes out to Adam, a wonderful son who has
brought joy into my life every year he has been on this earth.
Julia Emily Hathaway




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