CULTURAL HORIZONS OF WISCONSIN
Program 4 
Growing New Roots
Closed Captioning Script
January 3, 2002

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.

Baron:  Andy, thanks for bringing in the piZata!  It was a fun way to share part of your Mexican heritage.

Skylar:  I love learning about Mexican culture!

Stephanie:  Yeah, piZatas and tacos and fiestas!

Andres:  Well, my family doesn’t have that every day.

Skylar:  Andy, since you live in Wisconsin now, are you losing your Mexican heritage?

Baron:  That’s an interesting question.  We know that everyone’s cultural identity is always growing and changing.  But let’s look today at some of our most recent arrivals.  Think about how their cultural heritage has changed since coming to Wisconsin, and how is has stayed the same.

Baron:  Can anyone name a cultural group that’s new to our state?

Joseph:  I read in the paper that some Tibetan people have moved to Madison recently. 

Baron:  You’re right!  Tibetan people came from this region in Asia—near China and India.  In 1959, the Chinese government invaded their land, and many Tibetan people fled into India.  Thirty years later, a few Tibetan people were permitted to move to the United States—and some came to Wisconsin.  

Prayer in Tibetan

The ceremony you saw right now is actually the Tibetan New Year ceremony.  This is very important for everybody… They come with the determination that I will spend my whole year with the spiritual life.  

His Holiness the Dalai Lama is the head and the spiritual leader of the Tibetan peoples. We imagine that he himself is personally sitting there. And then you know we offer the scarf. White scarf would represent the purity of one’s mind
So we offer that to the alter, and to the picture of his Holiness the Dalai Lama, and then receive blessing from there.

Chants in Tibetan

And then those hanging prayer flags that also has all kind of good, good meanings and prayers written on them and hanging in the trees so that the wind blows and takes all the good messages throughout the world…  So that’s the Tibetan traditional way of flowing the good messages throughout the universe.

Baron: What are you doing?

Giavanna:  We’re making flags with good wishes written on them.  Sort of like the Tibetans did.

Baron:  Hey, great!

Joseph:  It was amazing to see their celebration.  It really looks different from way my family celebrates our new year! 

Baron:  So do you think the Tibetan people have found it easy to keep their culture alive here in Wisconsin?

Nick:  Well, I don’t think it’s that easy.  
Just in recent years, we have many Tibetan peoples coming to Wisconsin and especially Madison.   You see, Tibetan people, they fled Tibet after the Chinese invasion in 1959 and then they, ah, settled in India. But still the conditions within itself in India, it’s very poor. So that’s the main reason that there are people wanting to come to the states or other western countries so that they can have better living conditions.

On June 13, 1992 I came to this country and we decided I should go for the sake of our children. Many of us, including myself, we have very difficult time keep up the pace with American society.

I come to the culture class because I think it’s important for me. I have been here like four, almost four years and I think it’s important so we don’t lose our culture and language.

In school they have to definitely speak English, but then they have to maintain their own language and culture too. 

For them I teach alphabets, Tibetan alphabets. 

Now we have this whole batch of new generation.  We are the first, probably the first Tibetan-Americans. We need to preserve this culture.  They must learn it and be able to pass it on to the next generation of Tibetans.

Tony: It looks like the Tibetan people have some real challenges.

Alyssa:  Yeah, like keeping their language and traditional music alive here in America.

Baron:  The Tibetans are exiles.  That means they can’t go back to Tibet right now.  They hope to return some day, but even if they don’t, they want their children to understand Tibetan customs.

Lou:  I guess there’s more to culture than celebrating holidays, or eating special food.

Baron:  When we think of ethnic groups, we often think only of  things we see on the surface—things like food, or special costumes.

Alyssa:  Or holiday traditions, like the piZata.

Baron:  Right!  But culture has to do with things we can’t see, too.  Things like family values, or beliefs, or religious faith.  Those things are part of our deep culture.  I’d like you to get out your journals and list several examples of surface culture, and several examples of deep culture.

Baron:  I asked you to choose what you would bring to America if you were moving here from another country, and could only bring what you could carry yourself.  How did you do?

Julia:  Well, I mostly brought clothes, but I also brought silver ankle bracelets with bells on them.

Skylar: I didn’t like to think about what I’d have to leave behind.

Stephanie:  Yeah, but it helped me imagine what it’s been like for people moving to Wisconsin.

Baron:  Lots of new arrivals can only bring a few belongings.  But remember, they also bring their deep cultural identities too.  Things like attitudes and beliefs.

Baron VO:  Let’s look at another group of people—a much larger group.  The Hmong are refugees.  They were forced to flee their homes because of war. Some Hmong people have lived in Wisconsin since the 1970s.  Others have just arrived.  

Candice:  So Beng, how has your life changed since your family moved to Wisconsin?

Beng:  Well, for one thing, we never lived in a big city before.

Candice:  But have some things stayed the same?

Baron:  Well, I have an example.  In traditional Hmong culture, men provide meat and fish, while women cook and raise garden crops.  Assigning different chores to girls and to boys is a good example of deep culture.  It all has to do with the family’s attitudes and beliefs.

Fei Yin:  It’s a lot harder to learn about deep culture than about things you can see, like clothes and food.

Baron:  One of the best ways to learn about deep culture is to interview people.  Why don’t you develop some good interview questions and you can team up, and practice with each other.

Alyssa:  All right.  Are traditions important in your family?

Joseph:  Yeah, I guess so.

Alyssa: Well…um…

Baron:  How’s it going?

Alyssa:  I don’t think I’m asking the right questions.

Baron:  Well, it’s hard to come up with good interview questions.  Try to think of some that don’t have yes or no for an answer.

Joseph:  How about, What are some things your family does when you’re all at home together?

Baron:  Great!  Now think of some more.  What would you want to ask someone who has just arrived in 
Wisconsin?

Andres:  My family has lived in the United States for ten years.  But some Mexican people travel back and forth every year.

Baron:  You must be talking about migrant workers.  Hundreds of Latino families come to Wisconsin each spring to work in farm fields and canneries and in the fall they move on again.  What questions would you ask migrant workers?

My name is Manuel and I live party of my time in Texas, and part of my time in Wisconsin.

There are people here in the migrant camps of Wisconsin that are mostly Mexican-American. 

I work out in the fields with my mom and I start early at six o clock and I finish ‘till five thirty.

I work in the fields, I clean carrots, onions, mint. The hardest thing about moving back and forth is that I, wherever I go, I leave some friends behind. 

It takes about two days to travel and I sleep most of the time.

Hey Freddy.

How’s your trip? 

The last time I seen Freddy was in Wisconsin, and now we came here to Texas, and they were having a party. 

Both families get together in Wisconsin and Texas, it’s like one big happy family.

I like Texas and I like Wisconsin too, but the place that I like the most is Texas because I meet more people and can see my family, friends.

There is a lot of great things about Texas. One of them is it’s beautiful, always nice to go outside. 

Another thing we like to do as a family is go to church. Down in Texas we go every two weeks because it’s farther away from where we live. Here in Wisconsin, we go every Sunday because it’s much closer.

As a family, we like to eat together and talk about our day. My mom is a great cook. That’s something we do together is eat Mom’s food.
 
That side is Mexico and I live on this side, which is Texas. This is the Rio Grande and it separates Mexico from Texas. 
My dad and my mom are from Mexico, and we go as a family to visit my relatives.

Living in Texas, I can go to Mexico, and learn more about my culture.

It’s nice to speak English and Spanish cause I can visit two countries.

Today my dad taught me how to plant a grapefruit tree. And he taught me how to take care of it, water it every afternoon. 

Dad, did your mom and dad do the same thing?

Spanish (subtitled)

My dad says it’s getting drier here in Texas to grow any vegetables. That’s why we go to Wisconsin to get work. 
I’m looking forward to going back to Wisconsin. I think school is better over there. 

What I don’t like about coming back and forth is they’re teaching different things, so we gotta work harder just to catch up.

I think I’m really lucky cause I have two places to call home.

Fei Yin:  I wonder what it’s like to move so often?

Baron:  That’s a really good question Fei Yin!  And to help us try and find out I’ve invited Mr. Alfonso Zepeda-Capistran to join us for an interview.  When he was a boy he worked in the fields, and now he has a job helping migrant kids continue their education.  Hello Mr. Zepeda-Capistran!  

Alphonso:  Hola!  Gracias por la invitacion.  Hello!  Thank you for inviting me.

Cezonne:  Mr. Zepeda-Casitran, how do migrant families stay in touch?

Alphonso:  In most cases migrant families travel together, parents, children, grandparents, all the relatives.  In other cases there are single adult workers that come without their families.  If they need to communicate with them they will most likely use the telephone.

Fei Yin:  What do the kids do to keep up with their education? 

Alphonso:  Kids generally come from other schools. When they arrive in Wisconsin, they will enroll in a local school. That’s expected. 

Baron:  Thank you for joining us today Mr. Zepeda-Capistran.

Alphonso:  Again, thank you for inviting me.  Muchos gracias!
Andres:  I think it would be really hard to move back and forth every year.

Baron:  The migrant workers do that because they have a strong work ethic.  That means they’ll work very hard to support their families.  There aren’t many jobs where they live, near the Texas-Mexico border.  So they’re willing to travel to find the work, and take the tough jobs no one else wants.  The Mexicans’ work ethic is a good example of deep culture.  Can you name some other kinds of deep culture we saw among the migrant workers?

Cezonne:  Strong family ties.

Fei Yin:  How about religious faith?

Baron:  Good examples!

Fei Yin:  There’s a lot more to Mexican culture than I thought.

Andres:  Yeah, my family runs an Italian restaurant!  But we also value our Mexican heritage.

Baron:  So, throughout history, people have come to Wisconsin for many reasons.  

Stephanie:  Yeah!  People like immigrants, refugees, exiles, and migrants.

Baron:  Each of the groups we saw faced similar struggles.  Some parts of their cultural heritage stayed the same, and some parts changed.

Nick:  And except for some Native American groups, all of our families moved here at some point!

Baron:  You’re right.  We looked today at some of our more recent arrivals, but people have struggled with the same choices throughout history.

Lou:  I wonder who Wisconsin’s next new arrivals will be?

Baron:  Good question Lou. Who do you think they’ll be?

Lou:  Canada? 

Baron: Canada? 

Kid: Mexico?

Kid: India?