Thursday, July 02, 2009
Theme: Immigration
Tenement museum,pre-parade practice,
and the Statue...
It turned out that "immigration" was one of the themes of our visit. One of the last places we visited but first on the immigration timeline--was The Museum of the City of New York where they had an amazing exhibit about the Mannahatta Project which has basically uncovered what the island was like before the first white man arrived. Imagine lush forests, streams, meadows, and a few Native villages. Now it's all concrete and steel.
Our actual first tourist stop was Ellis Island. At Battery Park we got our tickets and lined up for a half hour trek to the ferry. Perhaps the crowds mimic the lines our ancestors waded through. But WE had to go through security, have our bags x-rayed, etc. We passed the Statue of Liberty not getting off the boat but continuing to Ellis Island. Our only NY play was a live performance called Bela Lugosi at Ellis Island which was a good introduction. Then lots of exhibits about all of the stations that new immigrants passed through.
After passing through Ellis Island, many immigrants ended up on the Lower East Side--and so did we. We went to visit the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. Apparently one of the old tenements (apartment buildings) was left un-renovated so they are fixing up rooms to represent certain families. Our tour was "The Moores"--an Irish family who lived here in the 1860's. It seems that the descendants of most of these immigrants never moved far, settling perhaps in another area of the city.
Our final "immigration" happening was a parade. We were in town Saturday morning to meet some of my classmates and we stumbled onto lots of groups of people in national costume. It turned out to be Immigration Day and there was a parade at noon. Lots of Albanians and Vietnamese--not many Mexicans, and no Italians or Irish.
# posted by Carol Harma @ 8:47 AM 
