Book 1 Post 1

I read "American Like Me" by America Ferrera. America's intro to the book is very compelling to me because it dives way deeper into who she is and her relationship to her name and its meaning. Her story about the real root of her name was interesting. From her intro, I skipped around chapters to read about individuals who I thought were most similar to me, starting with fellow Indian-Americans. There are quite a few out of the 31 total stories: Reshma Saujani, Padma Lakshmi, Liza Koshy, Kumail Nanjiani (he's a Pakistani-American but is definitely similar to Indian-American stories), Ravi V. Patel, and Kal Penn were all ones I noticed. I also focused on chapters were I knew the individual and had already followed a bit of their story like Jeremy Lin.

As the child of two immigrants to the US, I've always been aware that my story is not homogenous to the rest of America or even other children of immigrants. I wouldn't say the communities I grew up in negatively impacted me based on my race or culture but, I still think certain anecdotes in the book are very relatable and connect to me. One example of this would be America saying “eating tamales alongside apple pie at Christmas do not in any way seem at odds with my American identity” reminded me of how my family and friends would eat Indian Roasted Cauliflower alongside mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving. In my opinion, the combination of the dishes represents my American identity.