Our next-to-final event for I'm Your Neighbor, Portland was a reading, slide show and discussion of Maria Testa's book, Something About America. This isn’t supposed to happen in America. Inspired by actual events, this story starts ten years after the narrator’s family fled the fires of ethnic hatred in Kosova, Yugoslavia – long enough for the narrator to have transformed herself into a typical American schoolgirl. Her parents continue to feel like foreigners, and she grows impatient with what she perceives as their refusal to assimilate. Then an ugly incident in a nearby town changes everything, forcing each member of this refugee family to consider what being an American truly means.
After Maria's presentation, participants made welcome posters. Today, these were attached to the walkway entrance to Portland's Oceangate Terminal, where the city's naturalization ceremony took place.
Congratulations to Portland's newest citizens!
No comments:
Post a Comment