A very clever title to a professor’s look at the immigrant experience. The author, Gustavo Pérez-Firmat, is a Cuban-American, born in Cuba but immigrating to the United States early on in life.
The book explores the way Cuban-Americans assimilate into American culture by studying some very well-known Cuban-Americans including Desi Arnaz, Oscar Hijuelos, Perez Prado and Gloria Estefan (some of the people we’ve been highlighting each day on our Twitter Tribute to Hispanic-Americans of Influence).
There are thousands of reactions immigrants have to assimilation: some embrace their new culture fully, some hold onto the old culture refusing to acknowledge their new home and some become a unique mix of both cultures. No matter where a person immigrates to or from, there is a sense of confusion and rebirth.
Life On The Hyphen highlights the effect this process has on the arts:
- The I Love Lucy Show would never have been the success it was if it were just a typical American couple.
- The conga and mambo both suffered identity crises when introduced to American culture.
- Poets and writers develop new techniques to express themselves in a new language.
The effects permeate our souls, our points of view and future generations. The book is an interesting study on what exactly is Cuban-American culture. After reading this book, I have come to the conclusion that the Cuban-American culture is an ever-changing blend of people, music, food, words and experiences. It is still being defined today and changes from person to person.
Thankfully someone invented Spanglish so we can all talk to each other!
