Santiago, I note in a previous post you said your ancestors were German and English. So were some of mine. Just thought I'd point out the first wave of German emigrants to America who came here between the 1690's and the 1750's (and whose descendents now number in the tens of millions - including me and probably you) did not assimilate and replace English for German very rapidly. The process took a couple or three generations. Some, including Ben Franklin, considered the "Palatine boors" as he called them unassimilable and a threat to the unity of the country.
The same fears about later waves of immigrants - Irish, Italian, east European - all proved unnecessary. The ability of this country to absorb immigrants is amazing and has been underappreciated for 200+ years. Granted it doesn't always happen immediately, but it pretty much always happens. This reminds me of some Mexican-American relatives by marriage I have. The oldest generation speaks Spanish mostly and English with a heavy accent. The next generation speaks both Spanish and English fluently. The next generation speaks only English despite taking Spanish in high school. The only groups to be able to preserve separateness for an extended period are:
1) the blacks because of laws against intermarriage in force up until a few decades ago. BTW, although few would imagine it now, I'm quite sure American blacks will be absorbed within a few generations and will eventually disappear as an identifiable group in American society.
2) those groups with a rigid religion which keeps the members apart socially and forbids intermarriage (Amish, Mennonite, Hasidic Jews, etc.). Even these groups only preserve a core. With each generation, a percentage breaks away and becomes mainstream. Rigid religions are hard to maintain over a long period without persecution from outside.
You mentioned Muslims, Hindus, and Jews. I don't know about Muslims and Hindus who haven't been in America as long, but Jews today have an intermarriage rate of about 50%. The Japanese-Americans and Chinese-Americans whose grandparents came here in the early 1900's also have a 50% intermarriage rate. If we were to come back in a couple hundred years, I think we would find a nation whose skin color is about like Hawaii's or Brazil's but which is as American as you or me.
Bruce |
