“… All immigrants are artists because they create a life, a future, from nothing but a dream. The immigrant’s life is art in its purest form.” — Patricia Engel, ‘It’s Not Love, It’s Paris’
It’s funny, you know, that within most immigrant families, when a child voices their desire to pursue a career in any creative capacity, it’s met with displeasure and resistance.
“I didn’t make all these sacrifices just for you to get into an unstable industry.”
“Get a real job. Being creative is not going to get you anywhere.”
“I just want what’s best for you. Find a stable job in a stable industry. Why not be a nurse or doctor or an engineer?”
Such are common sentiments immigrant parents have when their child looks to pursue any creative profession. However, after reading Patricia Engel’s It’s Not Love, It’s Paris, and in particular, the quoted passage above, a new reasoning was revealed to me that helped give more context to the resistance that even my mother showed when immigrant parents are met with the art school aspirations of their children. This reasoning was that my parents’ creativity in how they custom-tailored their lifestyle to adjust and flourish in a foreign land was what they felt was enough artistic endeavor to save me from the struggles they went through in making something out of nothing here in the America.
Moreover, this unique pattern of brilliance and artistry was what helped shape my own aspirations to pursue a career in the creative industry. My folks unknowingly set a fine example in using their new life in America as a blank canvas for their planned master work to succeed in this country and provide a better future for my brother and I. And I’m quite certain that this was the similar case for the countless creatives in the industry whose passions were borne from their parents’ brush strokes of perseverance and gumption.
“All immigrants are artists.”
So now, more than ever, we as a broad and diverse creative community, need to reject boldly a president, an ideology, and a disturbing collective that chooses to desecrate the values and spirit that this country was built on. That this land was a haven for America’s founders — the original immigrants — from persecution, should be clear as to why we should still to be a refuge for those facing similar circumstances. That the very foundations of our nation have been laid brick by brick through immigrants’ hands is even more telling as to how we should continue to fly the banner of inclusiveness.
As artists either molded from the ingenuity of immigrant parents or by the direct immigrant experience itself, let us resist, let us stand firm, let us operate in even greater solidarity as a unit of creators that honor the immigrant ordeal through the common thread of our passions, contributions, and masterpieces.
