CULTURAL HORIZONS OF WISCONSIN
Program #2
Family Kaleidoscope
Closed Captioning Script
December 19, 2001

AUDIO

I am a dreamer.
I am one person no one else can be.
I am from another country.
I am of the Wolf clan.
I am German.
I am learning my past.
I am the future.
I am me.
I am kind to others.
I am part of my community.
I am a soccer player.
I am bilingual.
I am talented.
I am this and more.

Those are my parents.  That’s my little brother.  My grandma is a very important family member too.

My youngest brother is Doua, he is six years old. We like to play cards together, he usually wins.

My mom and my dad have different religions.  We always worship together.  They taught me to respect other people.

In my house there’s me, my mom and our two greyhounds Charlie and Angel.

My mom and my grandma both take care of both me and my brother Joey.

Sometimes my family speaks Spanish together.

We all have our own interests but every summer we love to go to the lake together.

My mom and my dad taught me to be myself.

Cezonne:  That’s my family and I wouldn’t trade them for the world!
Baron:  Thanks Cezonne.  I know some of you are still working on your family portraits.  But these are great!

Alyssa:  I didn’t know we were allowed to include pets.

Cezonne:  Well, I think we should include whoever feels like family.

Alyssa:  Yeah, and all families are different!

Baron:  That’s right!  But one thing is the same for all of us.  One of the first and most important places we learn about ourselves is with our families.  Lets check this out.

Hi, I’m Emma

And I’m Bo and this is our family!

Hi!

My family does a lot of stuff together.  We read together and my sister and me help each other do our homework.

My brother and I play the piano together.  My dad picks a song for us and helps us play it.

It’s important for a family to have time to share activities because it’s what life is about.    I want to hang out with them and have fun together and learn from each other.

What I’ve learned from my parents is – we have a family motto.  It is, cooperation and communication makes us a happy nation.  I think its right.

I like my sister a lot but sometimes we have differences but we always talk through them.  You need to express what you feel about things and you need to cooperate with each other to be a good family.

As a family we help out by one doing all the chores.

I’m in charge of taking care of Bradley.  I keep his water full and give him food.

We’re very busy so everybody kind of helps out and that makes it possible for all to have fun together.

Sometimes we go over and help at the cheese factory.

Say cheese!

I think that helping out at the cheese factory is fun.  I just like doing the things that I do.
The cheese factory is a important part of my family because it’s been in my family for years.

Our house is located just across the street from our cheese factory.  What that means to the kids is that all they have to do is go across the street and see what their father does everyday, what he produces everyday.  It’s nice for them to be part of that.  And now, they’re beginning to even work there with him.

Family is important because a family like figures out who you are and you can learn things from your family.

Having a family unit, a family can come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, but people who care about you.  People who listen to you.  People who think about your needs and allow you to do the same for them.  It’s how you learn to be in the world.

Nick:  Hey, that family is a lot like mine.  I have chores to do at home, but we have fun too!

Stephanie:  I sometimes don’t get along with my sister, just like those kids.

Nick:  Yeah, but I like their family motto about cooperation and communication!

Baron:  That’s a good point Nick.  We’re going to be thinking more about family culture today.  Family culture includes things like who does what job, and what everyone does for fun together.  Family members have their own ways of working through problems, and communicating with each other to make things happen.  And although most families have things in common, everyone’s family is unique.

I’d like you to start to think about activities you share with your family, and start creating family scrapbooks. What photos or keepsakes would you include?

Marimar:  This is me and my friends in our neighborhood.  My parents chose to live in a community with many races, cultures, and traditions.  I like how that helps me meet and feel comfortable around all sorts of people.  We think that’s important. 

Katharine:  I think sometimes family culture comes from what you feel inside.  

My family makes me who I am today.  They help me become a better person.  We give each other love, support, happiness, friendship.

We’re a family and everyone cares for the others.

What’s your plans this weekend?

Prom!

Prom, that’s right.

We talk about school, we talk about track, we talk about everything.  My grandfather lives with my family.  He’s always telling great stories from his past.  Always making all of us laugh.  I have a great dog Hershel.  I went to the pound and helped pick him out.  He always sleeps with me at night.

I think how we raised Rachel has a lot to do with how we were raised.

I think it was important for my family to raise me Jewish because it’s been a tradition.

Prayer in Hebrew

To see Rachel standing on the bimah and reading her haftarah was just the proudest moment of my life.

In our synagogue it is a tradition to pass the Torah from generation to generation.  So, at my Bat Mitzvah we passed it from my grandmother to my mother and to me.

We read the Torah  in all Hebrew, it’s right to left.  We use a yad.  It’s an instrument that we use to basically follow along.  Your hand should never touch the Torah.

The tallit or the fringes that Jews wear is basically a commandment from God.  Where God said, “you will wear fringes”, and it’s a reminder for Jews to follow God’s mitzvot, his commandments.

When I was 13 and Bat Mitzvah my aunt presented me with this tallit.  It’s handmade and very contemporary.  There are the tvitzit and it represents the 613 commandments of the first 5 books of the bible.

The special time I get to spend with my family is during Shabbat.  We always eat dinner, do prayers together.  Shabbat is the Sabbath. 

The service basically is thanking God for what he has given us.  The candles for lighting our path.  Our wine for our fruit.  The challah for our bread.

Judaism is a way of life, it’s a culture, it’s a belief, it’s faith.  It’s everything to us.

Skylar:  I really enjoyed learning more about Jewish culture!

Lou:  It’s cool to see that family culture isn’t just about activities.

Fei Yin:  Yeah!  It has to do with things you can’t always see, like beliefs, values, and religious faith.

Skylar:  Even family rules, like what time you have to go to bed.

Baron:  You’re right!  But remember, family culture is always growing and changing.  One of the best ways to learn more about your family culture is to interview family members.  And the first step in preparing for an interview is deciding what you want to learn.  What would you like to know about your family?  Hey, let’s invite some of your family members to join us.

Where’s your grandma’s cottage?
Right there.  What about my other Grandma?
Your Abulita was born on the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico.

Hey grandma, what was school like for you?
Well, when we were kids we went to a one-room schoolhouse.  We had to walk there one mile each way.

He worked in the Air Force – working with radar helping planes land in and out.  In Europe he met grandma, my mom in Germany.

Hey mom wasn’t that Guillo’s birthday in Puerto Rico.
Yes, this was in Titi Marisol’s house.
Do you remember how old he was in that birthday?  I can’t remember.

Grandma, what kind of spices are these?
Oh, they are beetle nuts, anise candy, clove and cordamom.

Baron:  What did you learn from your interviews?

Beng:  We talked about my family coming to the United States.

Candace:  I liked hearing stories from my grandfather.

Baron:  In many cultures, people give older adults special honor and respect.

Joseph:  Yeah, because of their knowledge and experience.

Candace:  That’s true for Native Americans.

I always remember the elders, always singing all the time, and we were always dancing.  When I was 9 years old, that’s when I was put on the drum.  My father taught me.

I can remember being at my grandpa and grandfather’s house. And my uncle’s back then they were probably my age back then.  They use to sing and dance around the house.  My mother and aunts would dance around the basement just like we are doing now.  Pretty much the same thing.  Waubeno started showing us how and you could never go right up to it and sit down.  You had to earn your way up to the drum and sit there and sing.  You were supposed to dance before you were allowed and I did.  I danced when I was younger.  Same thing with Michael here.  I, that’s what I taught him when he got old enough and he wanted to sing and I said, “well ok”, you have to earn your way to the drum like we all had to.

The drum itself represents the heartbeat of the people.  The common prophecy is that if the heartbeat stops then we will no longer be here.  This is why we encourage all of our children to continue using the drum.  The values, the traditions, the culture and of course our religion that was passed on by our parents.

We don’t learn from one person, we learn from everybody, the whole family.  That’s why it’s such a big deal for us to get together and spend time together.  A lot of our family has moved to different parts of Wisconsin.  Where as when we were smaller we were fairly close in this area and we could get together within a couple hours.  Where as now it would take a half a day or to a day to get everybody in one spot.  But we’ve always been a tight knit family.

Both my boys they love it that we all come together and we’re so tight, all of us even the distant cousins, the aunts, the uncles.  He is very close with all them as we all are.  I treat my uncles like they’re my dad and my aunts like their my mother.  He gives them the same respect as well.

We are family.  We have to be together.  We have to show our children.  If we don’t continue the family values our children are not going to grow up as we did and we want to pass that on.

I talk to my children, my grandchildren.  I tell them the cycle of life..  Some of the younger are hard to understand a cycle has to be completed.  The elders go and others have to take over.  Eventually we’re all going to go and they’ll have to take over.  Their children.  They’ll look at their children and talk to them. 

 I can rest assured that my children, my youngest children are going to carry on, no matter what.  I may not be around here 100 years from now but my family will and they will still carry on this way and that’s something I know is going to happen and I feel good.

Andy:  Wow, I liked how Waubeno described his family.

Jasmine:  Yeah and it was neat to see how they pass traditions along.
Fei Yin:  We’ve seen all kinds of families today!

Victor:  In some ways, the families we saw have a lot in common. 

Julia:  Yeah!  They did everyday stuff together.

Fei Yin:  They had special traditions too, and they shared some important beliefs.  Still, every family really is unique!

Baron:  You’ve got it!  Remember, our family members are the first people to teach us about our own culture.  Conflict and cooperation are a natural part of everyone’s family life.  And our family culture is always growing and changing.

Allysa:  I really enjoyed learning more about my family culture!

Julia:  My grandmother was born in India, and she taught me and Indian song that you can clap to.  Want to learn?

All:  Yeah!

Song in Hindi