Cultural Inheritance vs Assimilation
Language. Food. Religion. Tradition. All these things and more combine to create what we think of as cultural heritage. Both of my parents come from India, but I was born in the US. I lived in Canada for most of the formative years of my life before returning to the US for high school and college. When someone asks me where I’m from, my immediate answer is Canada. I sometimes follow that with a, well… Michigan, now, I guess, but instinct tells me to say Canada. That’s always going to be true. What I’m never going to say, not without being asked and intentionally thinking about it, is that I’m Indian.