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Joined: Oct 2007
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That is how it was in my home town of Ford City, Pennsylvania through the 1970s, population 5000. There was a Slovak parish and grade school. One block away was the Ukrainian Catholic parish. Two blocks from that was the Polish parish, one block from that was the German parish and school and outside of town was the Italian parish. Now the three RC parishes in town have merged. The Ukrainian and Italian churches still exist. There also were the Ukrainian Club, The Sokol Slovak club and the Italian social club.
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Joined: Aug 2008
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No, it really is the case today, moreso than say, half a century ago, when one could go into any major American city and find the Polish neighborhood, the Irish neighborhood, the Italian neighborhood, the Ukrainian neighborhood, and so forth. And in each neighborhood, there was an ethnic church--even the Roman Catholic churches were flavored, so that, e.g., the Irish church was very different from the Italian church was very different from the Polish church was very different from the French church. Even in the small town of Pennsylvania, there would be at least two Roman Catholic parishes, plus a Ukrainian parish, a Ruthenian parish, and maybe also a Slovak parish and Hungarian parish, too--and people from one would not attend the others, except maybe for weddings and funerals.
Today, most cities are homogenized, with the exception of black and Hispanic neighborhoods. The suburbs most assuredly are homogenized, as are most small towns. When people speak of "multicultural America", what they really mean is the not-yet-assimilated Hispanic minority and the emergent permanent black underclass (because middle class blacks are totally assimilated and indistinguishable from their middle class white, Asian and Hispanic neighbors).
Yes, there are ethnic and racial activists who are trying to balkanize the United States, but in general they are failing except in a handful of cities where they have managed to attain political power (ruining their cities in the process). But elsewhere, the desire for economic success and the overwhelming lure of American culture (is there a distinct Canadian culture, and do people around the world emulate it?) is more than sufficient to cause people to assimilate. Stuart- We are talking about somewhat differnt things here. Perhaps, I should have clarified better. The neighborhoods I grew up in was also an assortment of Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, and those from the Balkan coutries. I agree that that particular neighborhood no longer has a distintive ethnic flavor and even the accents are mostly gone. At that time most of the people my age were 1st or 2nd generation American. My statement did not apply to old eastern european communities of my childhood. I was referring more to the large influx of Hispanic immigrants today where they very often times have separate masses and some even use the Spanish language in school as their primary language rather than English. I find this to be very true of many of the areas I have seen.
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Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 7,309 Likes: 3
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Everything people are saying about Hispanics today was said (in order):
1. About the Scots-Irish
2. About the Germans
3. About the Irish
4. About the Italians
5. About the Eastern Europeans (and especially the Jews)
6. About the Chinese and Japanese
All successfully assimilated, and provided we make some minor adjustments to our immigration and social welfare programs, so will the Hispanics (most of whom do not speak Spanish by the second or third generation).
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Joined: Jan 2011
Posts: 610
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(is there a distinct Canadian culture, and do people around the world emulate it?) There is. But it is being killed off by self loathing year zero-ist liberals and, like wot the BBC did to England, American television. And no, foreigners don't emulate us. We never minded, supposing rather that they just liked doing whatever they were doing as much as we liked what we were.
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Joined: May 2010
Posts: 396
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It is poverty, lack of opportunity and language that keep most immigrant Hispanic neighborhoods together. I live in a city that is nearly 60% Hispanic. A recent survey indicated it is the most wealth segregated city in the country. The wealthy side of the city is fully integrated and except for the recent immigrants the Hispanics are fully assimilated into U.S. culture. On the poorer side of the city there are virtually no whites the schools are 99% Hispanic and there is a distinctly different culture. Interestingly enough, because the city has had a very large Hispanic population for generations the culture here is not Mexican, it is uniquely Mexican-American. I would suggest anyone really interested in this get a copy of Fr. Virgil Elizondo's book The Future is the Mestizo.
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Joined: Aug 2012
Posts: 844
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Well, in our "beautiful" suburb of Cleveland in Parma, we actually have a two major ethnic neighborhoods, Polish Village and Ukrainian Village. Although there is an area which has different ethnic Orthodox Churches as well to the southeastern end of our town. Besides the "tour of Eastern Europe" without leaving home, as it were, there's a pretty big Indian population here. Cleveland is primarily black or Hispanic now, for the exception of maybe the outskirt neighborhoods, but the Tremont neighborhood has many different churches of different flavors in terms of Eastern Catholic and Orthodox denominations. So you are right about homogenous populations, but at the same time, there is that ethnic flair still about in the air.
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