Family History Connections

A connection I see between the family stories is that many of my fellow classmates relatives, much like mine moved to California from another country or state to be closer to family, for hope, for opportunity etc. Two stories which so this exact theme and connect to my family's story are John Hamilton's and Andy Lau's stories.

In John Hamilton's story, his ancestors moved from Texas to California in order to assist a friend who was being accused of rape, "if Jim was to be found in my grandmothers grandparents house all three of them would be lynched because they where apart of hiding this man. For them to avoild that from happening they moved to the state of California." Even though John's ancestors did not come to California to be closer to family like my parents and I did, the decision to move to California shaped the rest lives and basically got them to where they are at right now.

In Andy's story his mother decided to come to the US because she wanted to pursue and get her education, "She wanted to continue to get an education but she did not know any other way other than attending college which she was not allowed to because she was not the smartest at her school. After days of thinking, she finally decided to immigrate to America. Her friends told her that in America anyone can go to school. With the help of some family members, she was put on the immigration list and in a couple of years; she was allowed to move to the United States." This shows the determanation that his mother had to come to the US to get an education. This connects to the theme of coming to the Us or California for a better life.

John's, Andy's, and my story coonect to the idea of coming to America or California for better future, a new life, or simply the pursuit of a dream/goal.

Cycles

Cycles take place all around us. They can take place at a microscopic level or at a larger scale. In The Joy  better lifeLuck Club by Amy Tan there are examples of numerous cycles that take place during the story. One cycle that I noticed was the fact that the mothers push their daughters. The mothers are constantly there to support and set the path for their children to succeed.

An example of how the push their daughters is in the story "The Red Candle" when Lindo Jong, one of the mothers, was forced by her own mother to marry man whom she did not love. When she was twelve her parents left the city and left her with her future husband's family. Before they left, Lindo's mother told her, "Obey your family. Do not disgrace us. Act happy when you arrive. Really you're very lucky" (Tan 54). This quote expresses the idea of how the mothers push their children in order to give them a better life. It also shows how the mother wants to keep the Chinese culture alive because it is a custom for Chinese women to marry Chinese men.

Later on in the book, in the story "Rules of the Game" Lindo Jong's daughter, Waverly Jong, learns the game of chess. Lindo sees how good Waverly is at chess and she decides to push her to become better because she claims that she is prodigy. Waverly soon became tired of this, chess was the only thing her mother stressed, "I went to school then directly home to learn new chess secrets, cleverly concealed advantages, more escape routes" (Tan 98). Lindo pushes and stresses a lot on chess because her daughter has a talent for it and she believes that she might have a future in it. This connects to the idea that the mothers push their daughters to become successful.

In conclusion, the cycle of mothers pushing their daughters is shown in The Joy Luck Club.

Family history

It was the year 1998, I was about three years old, and my family had already spent eight relatively good years in the United States. My family had immigrated to the United States from Colombia in 1990. They came here because my father’s mother and his brothers had immigrated to the Us earlier and my father wanted to be closer them. My grandmother paid for and had US documents prepared to send my mother, father, and three sisters (Rosa, Sandra, and Sulay) to San Francisco. Upon arrival my family settled in the building that my grandma had rented out for them in the Mission District. About 8 years passed without any big issue, but this time of peace and happiness came to an end when my grandmother died in 1998.

My grandmother died and had left behind the building where my family lived and there was dispute because the building was also under the name of my Uncle Victor and he wanted to sell it it in order to split the money among the family. At the same time, the family began to split up. My Uncle Rafael had moved to Miami and connections with them were crumbling. My Uncle eventually sold the building and me and my family only had three days to pack up and move out. My parents did not know how to catch BART or public transportation. We had no where to go, but luckily for us the real estate person, Katie, who was a part of the selling of the building was a family member of my Uncle Victor’s wife, Nancy. Katie had spoken to her mother about the house she up for rent in Berkeley and agreed to let us live there for a duration of three to six months. This was such a blessing for us because if were not for this we would have ended homeless. We did not have much money and my parents did not have enough credit to qualify for a house in San Francisco. It was as if a miracle occurred and we were blessed with a second chance.

The house in Berkeley was very nice. It was a two story home with three bedrooms, two bathrooms and attic, and it was close to BART. It may have been nice but it was far from ideal. All three of my sisters still attended school in San Francisco so they had to catch both BART and MUNI to get to school. The cost of transportation, food, and rent became extremely high and my father was forced to find a second job. He entered his job at three in the afternoon where he worked as front runner and server at a restaurant in San Francisco. When he finished at the restaurant he proceeded to the Trans American Building where he worked as a janitor from eleven in the night to six in the morning. He would get back home early, gruesomely tired and yet he still took two hours daily to go with my mom to search for houses. My sisters were also forced to get jobs in order to help out with the heavy payments. While this was occurring I was basically being eating up by termites. The house had a section that was infested with termites and I would constantly play in that area so I got bitten by the termites and I developed a bad rash. Of course since money was an issue there was not much to eat.We ended up living there for an entire year until when we had enough money to buy the house where we currently stay at here in Oakland.

Although we had finally found a house to settle in, there were some issues. First of all the house did not have a kitchen because it had been pulled out to be remodeled. We were so happy to finally to have been settled in but we needed food, so my mother invested in a steamed rice cooker so she could rice and boil water. My father often brought home food from the restaurant where he worked. For about a week or so we had to eat the food from my father's work or from the restaurants that were around the area. The kitchen was finally remodeled and we were able to eat normally. My sisters continued to take BART and MUNI to get to school in San Francisco. My father continued at different restaurants in San Francisco and mother stayed home. I proceeded to go to Hawthorne Elementary school and I went to Urban Promise Academy, and finally ASTI. Two of my sisters went San Francisco State University. One graduated with a Bachelor's Degree and the other went on to get a Master's Degree. The youngest of my sisters went to City College of San Francisco.

This story is very significant to my family history because this was a key event in my family’s history in the US. This story shows me and my family going through some very tough times, the death of a family member. We lost our home and were nearly homeless, my dad and sisters had to get multiple jobs. It was all pretty bad, but we managed to persevere and get our selves out of this situation. Instead of splitting apart, going into crisis, and giving up we came together as a family and became stronger. I think that this story should be preserved because it shows how that even in the worst of situations family is always going to be there and together we are very strong.

Personally I take this story as sign that there is no need to ever give up, there is always someone who is out there for you. Together we can accomplish many things, but separated and as individuals we are set up for failure.

This story also reveals the strength, courage, and toughness that my family had inside of them. I mean my dad got two jobs and my sisters each got a job while they continued to go to school in San Francisco. My mother may not have had a job, but she worked hard to keep the house in shape and made sure that things were not chaotic at home. I believe that this event made us the family that we are now. My sisters eyes were open to how bad life can be and they took this as motivation and reason to go to college and receive their degrees. My worked hard and he felt good because he felt that he gave for a happy and successful family to grow. Now that I am grown up and I have seen my sisters go through high school and college I feel motivated. In itself this story has actually in a way empowered me to succeed and go to college because I do not want to ever go through like this ever again, even if  I could not really remember about it. I now look towards a bright future, a better future for me and my family.

I always knew that we had lived in Berkeley before we came to Oakland, but I never knew why we moved and now I know. I now understand why there has been lingering issues within the family. I mean it all ties up now, the issues that we still face are not anything new they are just stemmed off from this situation. If it were not for Katie finding us a home and the motivation of my family we would probably be out on the streets or some crappy house or apartment.. I would probably not be at ASTI and i would not have the same ambitious and kind of nerdy mentality that I have now. I do not know if my sisters would have gone to college. My parents could have divorced or the could have gone insane. Who Knows? Well one thing is for sure this story, well event, changed the lives of my family members. We were given a second chance and we took complete advantage of it. We set ourselves up for success and I hope I follow in the footsteps of my sisters and succeed in life.

I am sure that I am going to tell my children this story because I believe it is important to pass on family history and stories are an excellent way of passing down history from generation to generation with a little bit of tweaking every now and then, the story will stay interesting. I want my kids to know where my motivation and determination came from and want to give them everything that my parents worked hard to give me. This story would be a reality check and hopefully would motivate and empower them just like it did to me.

Amy Tan and Amy Chuan

Prior to reading The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan we had read and analyzed a piece by Amy Chuan titled "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior". In this piece Amy Chuan speaks of the relationship she has with her daughters. In her piece she states that "Chinese Mothers" are much stricter and careful than mothers of any other ethnicity or race. She discusses how she does not allow her daughters to engage in fun activities such as being in a school play, attending a sleepover, or watch TV and play video/computer games. She also speaks on how it takes constant practice and battling to become good at something,

"To get good at anything you have to work, and children on their own never want to work, which is why it is crucial to override their preferences. This often requires fortitude on the part of the parents because the child will resist; things are always hardest at the beginning, which is where Western parents tend to give up." (Chuan).

This shows how Amy Chuan and many other "Chinese Mothers" push their children to the limits in an attempt to become good at something. All fun is eliminated and much time and focus is put onto practicing. Chuan states that without the parent constantly being behind the child, then the child would not want practice. Therefore the mother must be there to battle against the daughters resistance. This same type of mother-daughter relationship is also found in The Joy Luck Club.

In the section, The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates, there is a story named "The Rules of the Game". This story discusses the relationship between Lindo Jong and her daughter, Waverly. Waverly becomes fascinated with the game of chess and her mother notices this and decides to commit her time to push her to become well at it, I no longer played in the alley of Waverly Place.

"I never visited the playground where the pigeons and old men gathered. I went to school, then directly home to learn new chess secrets, celevrly concealed advantages, more escape routes" (Tan 98).

The relationship that Lindo has with her daughter is very similar to what Chuan has with her daughter. Both denied their daughters fun. They both worked hard to push their daughters to become successful at something. They both contain this similar "Chinese Mother" mentality. In short, both Amy Chuan and Lindo Jong reflect the hard work of a "Chinese Mother" to push their daughters to succeed.

The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates

At the beginning of the second section of the book "The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates" the daughter attempts to ride her bike, but her mother does not allow her to ride her bike because she claims that she cannot see her and she will fall off. The daughter asks the mother how does she know that and the mother responds by saying, "Its is in a book, The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates, all the bad things that can happen to you outside the protection of this house" (Tan 87). The daughter ignores the mother and decides to ride her bike anyway and she ended up falling off before reaching the corner. The purpose of this is to show how mothers are always there for you and usually tend to know the right things to say. This also demonstrates how consequences do come from ignoring or disobeying the word of your mother.

In the story "Rules of the Game" the daughter learns the game of chess and becomes extremely fascinated with it. She eventually became extremely good at chess and later on she won a chess championship. Although she enjoyed the game, she could stand her mother staring and breathing on her every time she would play or plan out her chess games. She became extremely irritated,

"But I found it difficult to concentrate at home. My mother had a habit of standing over me while I plotted out my games. I think she thought of herself as my protective ally. Her lips would be sealed tight, and after each move I made, a soft 'Hmmmmph' would escape from her nose" (Tan 98).

This quote demonstrates how the mother has become very overprotective and watchful of her daughter. Although she may be pushing and stressing out her daughter out a lot, she is doing it because she cares and loves her too much. This is her way of telling her daughter, look I am always going to be there whether you like it or not. The daughter should appreciate and embrace the fact that her mother cares so much about her.