Melting Pot vrs. Meaty Stew

I found this great essay by Richard Rodriguez called "Does America Still Exist (you can find it here) The essay was written in the 1980's when America was going through a "ethnic revolution". There was a new desire by immigrants to maintain a culture and language of their own. During the era of immigration from Europe, there was a desire to become "American" to leave all the tradition behind and assimilate to American Culture. Rodriguez was born to Mexican immigrants but was raised in California. He admits that at a certain point in life, where his home life was no longer the most prevalent, and socialization was more important, he longed to call himself an American, but dared not to for fear of abandoning his family tradition and culture. There is an unconscious debate that occurs within ones self, am I ______ or am I American? Rodriguez states that "children of immigrants are perched between two countries. As the generations increase the perch swings more and more to the American side. We are in an era of ethnic pride, which is why it is now politically correct to refer to America as a "stew" rather than a "melting pot" where new immigrants keep their traditional culture. This was not always the case, and probably won't be as the demographics of our country continue to change drastically. As the amount of immigrants/settled immigrants increases, there will be a changing face of America that we be integrated into the new American Culture.