Reading Lahiri, Trethewey And Díaz Through Gustavo Pérez Firmat’s Hyphenated Lens
- ASU Author/Contributor (non-ASU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Nikki Marsh (Creator)
- Institution
- Appalachian State University (ASU )
- Web Site: https://library.appstate.edu/
- Advisor
- Bruce Dick
Abstract: In Life on the Hyphen: The Cuban-American Way (1994) Gustavo Pérez Firmat discusses what it means to be Cuban American in the latter half of the twentieth century and the culminating struggles Cuban immigrants encounter living a hyphenated existence in the United States. Pérez Firmat emphasizes that “it is one thing to be Cuban in America, and quite another to be Cuban American” (3). If one is Cuban in America, their experience is drastically different because they continue to practice native traditions and live their lives as if they were still living in Cuba. On the other hand, if one is Cuban American, they naturally experience the life of both cultures—Cuban and American—and often feel conflicted, not belonging solely to one group or the other. Pérez Firmat identifies three stages that Cuban immigrants experience as they attempt to adapt to a new home in America. The first stage he calls “‘substitutive,’ which consists of an effort to create substitutes or copies of the home culture” (7). These efforts soon begin to fade, however, and “destitution” takes over. He defines destitution as “not having a place to stand on” (10). Pérez Firmat expands upon this term: “This is what second-stage exiles feel: that the ground has been taken out from under them, that they no longer know their place, that they have in fact lost their place” (10). From this second stage evolves hurt, pain, and a sense of loss. Pérez Firmat’s third stage, “institution,” establishes “a new relation between person and place. To institute is to stand one’s ground, to dig in and endure” (11). Pérez Firmat then explains a substantial part of his theory—the “1.5” or “one-and-a-half'” generation. These individuals spent their childhood or adolescence abroad, in another country, but ultimately grew up as adults in America. “Life on the hyphen can be anyone’s prerogative,” Pérez Firmat writes early in his book, “but it is the one-and-a-halfer’s destiny” (4). This generation epitomizes what it means to live a hyphenated life, or to experience a double cultural identity. They have lived their early years with one set of traditions and grown older in an oftentimes drastically different one. Pérez Firmat is aware of the difficulties the one-and-a-half generation faces, not only within their own families but also with their parents: One-and-a-halfers are translation artists. Tradition bound but translation bent, they are sufficiently immersed in each culture to give both ends of the hyphen their due...it does not seem unusual that hyphenated cultures should emerge from a sensibility that is not universally shared within an immigrant group. Only those immigrants who arrived here between infancy and adulthood share both the atavism of their parents and the Americanness of their children. (5) Life on the hyphen, in other words, is attributed mainly to those individuals who struggle in the balance of two cultures.
Reading Lahiri, Trethewey And Díaz Through Gustavo Pérez Firmat’s Hyphenated Lens
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Created on 7/2/2021
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Honors Project
- Marsh, N. (2021). Reading Lahiri, Trethewey And Díaz Through Gustavo Pérez Firmat’s Hyphenated Lens. Unpublished Honors Thesis. Appalachian State University, Boone, NC.
- Language: English
- Date: 2021
- Keywords
- Life on the Hyphen, Lahiri, Trethewey, Diaz, Perez Firmat, hyphen