My "salad bowl" neighborhood

I am pleased that we now live in a part of the US that is multi-… : multi-racial, multi-national, multi-colored, multi-cultural, etc. Our house is on a small circle of 15 homes. Our neighbors are of Polish, African-American, and Mexican origin as well as traditional white. In the neighborhood across the street are a couple of Pakistani families. There are probably many other nationality origins that I haven’t yet met.

It has been fun to meet up with these “salad bowl” Americans as we have moved around over the past two years: the dealer we bought our car from was Iranian, the workers in our aunt’s nursing home were Haitian, the mattress salesman was Pakistani, the donut shop was run by a Chinese family, the restaurant hostess in the hotel was Thai, our movers were Bosnian, and so it goes. Unfortunately, these people, although Americans and very numerous, are invisible in the “public face” of America. Few of their representatives are television news reporters or seen in tv ads or shows, and almost none of them are among the politicians who publicly “speak for Americans”. How inappropriate.

In the weekly packet of ads that arrive in the mailbox is one for a Hispanic supermarket a couple of miles away. This week they had some special prices on things I usually buy, so I stopped by there yesterday. It was one of those delicious cross-cultural experiences that reminded me of so many similar excursions in other countries --- a few intrigued glances (what is she doing here?), some special attention “to make sure I could find what I was looking for”, my disorientation at shelves filled with so many unfamiliar products, and some wonderful surprises. Who would have thought I’d find the best freshly-baked French bread outside of France in a Hispanic supermarket in the Western suburbs of Chicago!?! There is now a new store on my shopping circuit.

My shopping trip is a kind of parable for cross-cultural contact. I had to take the initiative. It involved a certain degree of initial discomfort that I must be prepared to accept. But, it ends up being great fun and most rewarding, in both the short and long terms.