Cultural Identities in Holyoke
“Connection… and Isolation”: Cultural Identities in Holyoke
Holyoke’s history holds an even more powerful story than the development of a mill town. It is a story of cultural identities that began with the first wave of immigrants to our fair city. The impact of immigrants and migrants on the city of Holyoke and our continuing identities remains particularly strong today. Many Americans who come from immigrant ancestors no longer identify with a particular ethnic group. Others strongly identify with their ethnic heritage. This exhibit examines the identity of Holyoke’s past, present and future as well as reflect on what cultural identities remain in today’s Holyoke.
Immigrants who traveled thousands of miles over the Atlantic Ocean were taking a huge risk in surviving the voyage and being able to find employment to improve their quality of life. Some immigrants clung to their heritage while others began to adopt the traditions and beliefs of their new city – Holyoke. Many Americans who have come from immigrant ancestors no longer identify with a particular ethnic group. Others strongly identify with their ethnic heritage. Rather than defining themselves by their ethnicity, an increasing number of Americans identify themselves by their occupation, generation, cultural lifestyle or social mobility.
Florencio Morales says the “… community must understand Puerto Ricans as Puerto Ricans… Yes we are Americans, but we don’t look like Americans. Americans must look for what the Puerto Rican has to offer." Residents of the area express sentiments of their neighbors: "They are strangers, facing pretty much the same things other immigrants confront: isolation from the rest of the community because of their language, their strange ways, their poverty and their tendency to stay together.”
“The constant mixing of cultures in America has created a very diverse, yet highly integrated society that is nearly impossible to truly classify. A classification of a person’s race, be it Irish, French and Polish, would simply make them White. A person that is Spanish, Black and Taino (Puerto Rican) would be Latino. There is nothing wrong with these generalizations, but does a Latino farmer produce Latino crops, or a White painter create a White painting? A person of non-Latino origin can very well make Latino art. No person is bound or limited to their culture. That is one of the great things about our melting-pot society.” Caleb Colon, born in Bayamon, Puerto Rico.
“The Irishman, whether Irish born or Irish by heritage, has long believed that it was the good Saint Patrick who was principally responsible for his individual gift of faith. With this in mind, the Irish and the descendants of the Irish, honor and perpetuate the memory and the spirit of this great and saintly man. Sustained by the profound, yet simple, teachings of Saint Patrick, the Irishman has been able to surmount oppression and depression, has learned to respect his fellow man and his beliefs, share in his hope for the future, and always has he demonstrated his generous loyalty to his adopted country. In this tense and turbulent world of today, with hate, prejudice and fear eating away at the heart and soul of mankind, it is indeed fitting and just that we unite in order to honor God, pay tribute to the memory of Saint Patrick, and salute our truly great and wonderful United States of America.” Timothy Sullivan, President of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee, 1968.
Jesse Maceo Vega-Frey, born in Holyoke, MA: “Having one Latino parent and one white parent would be a tricky endeavor anywhere but in Holyoke, where the lines between those worlds is so divided, the balancing of those two realities has always been a complicated line to walk. Add to that a non-religious and politically radical upbringing, an Ecuadorian – not Puerto Rican- dad and a non-Irish mom from Ohio, well, I didn’t fit squarely into any of the boxes laid out before me. This identity I’ve grown up with has resulted in feeling a deep connection to Holyoke and all its communities as well as a deep isolation from them at the same time. In truth, I feel like I can hold and embody all the dynamics at play in this city in my own life, in my own body, and in my own mind and flow – or stumble – between them with some degree of integrity and grace. I think this dance between connection and isolation, between belonging and alienation, has everything to do with my artwork. This city and my relationship to it continues to be a fundamental driving force of my creative endeavors."