>> from the 2011 tucson festival of books at the university of arizona, a panel discussion on immigration memoirs. the panelists include former arizona governor raul castro. and another author of a long way gong and paulsona foss also of inheriting the holocaust. this is about an hour. >> it's my great honor to introduce you to these four authors who enrich our knowing. raul castro's book adversity is my angel was cowritten with jack

august, jr. castro was born in mexico in 1916, the son of a copper minor and a midwife. he worked himself through school by plucking chickens, panning gold and waiting tables. in 1974, he made history when he was elected arizona's very first and to date mexican-american governor. he'll also answer to judge an ambassador. paula foss is a margaret burn professor of history at the university of california at berkeley. and distinguished scholar in residence at rutger university. she specializes in the history of children and childhood. in her seventh book inheriting the holocaust and she recounts her family's history to help us

understand european jewish life in the 19th and 20th centuries. in a long way gone, ismael baa tells the story of his life as a boy soldier during the civil war in sierra leone during the mid-1980s. we read about his rehabilitation and his move to the u.s. at the age of 15. mr. beah has served as a really powerful spokesperson for child soldiers almost from the moment of his rehabilitation. mr. beah works with unicef on global youth and poverty issues. chiquis barron was born in nogales mexico and emigrated to nogales, arizona. she's worked in mental health at the u of a and her novel focuses on the unique geographical,

political and cultural dynamics of growing up in the crux of two influential countries. her blog stands at the top of the top 100 latina blogs. now, we'll hear from governor castro. >> good morning, ladies and gentlemen. i'm honored to be with you this morning. i'm lucky to make it. i live in nogales, arizona, and my home is 75 years from the mexican border. and i was a little timid about coming because i was afraid they might turn me upside down and ask me for papers, whether i was american or not. [laughter] >> i say that because i'm concerned that we're in turmoil at this very moment. i used to have a horse farm on

river road in tucson. and one day began claiming that picket fence is getting dirty. i want to you paint it. i was judge of superior court in tucson at that time. so i get up on saturday and get on my levis, my boots, my straw hat and i went to paint the fence, within 20 minutes a border police came, senor, do you have a card and i said i do not have a card. [laughter] >> so they asked me who do you work for and i pointed towards the house, for the lady. [laughter] >> those of you recognize that to be very factual. [laughter] >> so then -- they jumped off the carburetor and pulled me in their paddy wagon. i said wait a minute, see a sign on the yard? it says castro pony farm and i happened to be castro and he

said are you judge castro, yes, i am. that was the end of the story, off they go. [laughter] >> even though i said no profiling. so whenever i travel, i go with intimidation coming out and coming to yuma, they'd stop me, look at me but i recognize i don't look irish and norwegian. [laughter] >> but they're ready to throw me upside down so i'm concerned with the way arizona is changing on the immigrations specter. i hope you citizens will do something to try to improve it. thank you very much. [applause] >> it's a pleasure to be here with you today. can you hear me? >> yes. >> and an honor to be sitting with governor castro and ismael beah and chi chi barron. i'm an american.

for over 35 i've been teaching, writing about u.s. history, especially social and cultural history. recently, i've been helping to develop the field of children's history on a more global scale. this is the history for which i am professionally known and recognized. but my most recent book is as much a book about poland and a book about the united states and while it's very much about my childhood in the united states, it is also about the destruction of children and childhood. inheriting the holocaust is about how i became a very particular kind of american historian. when i was a little girl, not yet three years old, my mother began to tell me about her past. that is the origin of and basis for inheriting the holocaust, a family memoir that i wrote many years after she died because i needed to keep her story alive. why would an american historian write a memoir like this? for me, writing this memoir

became an act of what i call recovery. finding myself by reconnecting with a different past, a personal past, that i turned into history. i often tell people that i was not really ready to write it until i had sufficiently mastered my craft. that it was -- it was, i discovered, the most difficult form of history writing. to me as a child and during the period of my youth, the past was deeply part of everyday life among the people i cared most about and who cared for me. my parents were survivors of the shoa. each a victim of the greatest crime of the 20th century and a signal historical event. they were individual remnants of a complex jewish community and multidimensional culture that had disappeared into a dark past suddenly and irretrievably. they brought with them into my childhood and into my growing up memories of both, the rich and

varied culture it is of polish jerry and its language and the beastliness which had destroyed me. my mother especially had been eager for me to know about her earlier life. and since she was a vivid storyteller, she shared with me a poem that became despite my intentions and without my much even realizing it, a real part of my life as a child though i had never visited there. these stories became the source of what i call my secondhand memories and the basis for my historical reconstruction of her family in poland. i was an immigrant child torn between a lost world never personally experienced and a new world where i was still an outsider but to which i very much wanted to belong. in the effort to understand the culture to which i aspired, i chose to study it history. i did not study the world from which my parent came.

in this, i was not so unlike many other second generation immigrants eager to learn in the words of a recent book on immigrant youth, a new land. i brought to these studies an outsider's desire to penetrate the culture which i sought to conquer. i also brought to this task the ability to perceive what others took for granted, the fine tracery of culture and society and in this way i think i have been able to make a contribution to american history. it was only after spending a lifetime in this chosen history and long after my parents were dead and once my own children were almost grown that i began to experience an absence, the absence of my parents in my children's lives, the absence of the languages of my childhood, the absence of a history that had become further and further from the experience of even the survivors and their children. it was then in response to a

sense of deep obligation to make sure that this history remained alive that i set out to put down my experiences as a child and as a young adult. the memoir is my attempt to reconstruct my parents experiences and to imagine the world of the people who had died in the holocaust. this is a tribute to my mother's strong desire to pass on a past that she wanted remembered and in her strength in telling me about it. the book relies very heavily on her memories although it has been augmented to the skids and knowledge that i have developed as a professional historian. i wrote it in order to make my past known, to others who like me were the chirp of holocaust survivors and more generally to all those children who have been immigrants caught between a desire for future and a deep sense of obligation of their family's past no matter how

difficult. the past my mother had entrusted to my car included nightmares that became the stuff of daily life. her memories were full of the huge losses she had endured as the people she cared about, parents, brothers, uncles and aunts, cousins, a treasured niece and a 3-year-old son, a whole once intact world were buried and incinerated in the pits of poland during those terrible five years when the nazis put out the lights in europe and extinctished jewish life there. my father also had many memories of a once whole life and its destruction but he told me far less. a bit about his former life, a bit about the disaster. nothing really substantial about his family. my knowledge about these i had to gather together in various ways during the course of my life. he had not forgotten but it was too painful to remember. i only learned about the four children whom he left in the

unspeakable dust of auschwitz when i was 7. and even then i did not quite understand. i was told that they had almost survived. some details i realize are beyond recovery. trauma has a faced them. i could not even remember secondhand what i had never hand or been told though it too was an inheritance i could not ignore. the past flooded my father's life and became an indelible part of my childhood, what i call in the book a haunting. it is a pass with which i continue to wrestle in this book and to do so day since many of the details are sketchy or contradictory. remembering i came to realize is not entirely a matter of will or desire. and while i had not become a historian of their past, recovering this terrible part of their lives was also to remember my own childhood, a childhood

deeply shadowed by the never forgotten sorrows of past lives. when i was in fourth grade, i was asked to write an essay about man's indomitable spirit. i wrote about my parents as survivors of the camp, who lived with their many losses and the destruction they had witnessed. my teacher read my essay out loud but only to humiliate me. i had misunderstood the assignment. my parents, she proclaimed, had been only victims. their lives crushed. i never wrote about them again in school. today, as america culture embraces the last few living members of the survivors generation, and gives them a chance to speak and to be heard, i'm eager that the lives have my parents become part of that remembering and so i am remembering and speaking for them. no longer fearful to be heard. all my life my parents past was

sacred. their heroism by it. i fear that profit would falsely give the impression that this was somehow my own history and my sorrow. not history but memoir i finally realized would allow me to fulfill my application to this past which was very much mine but not mine as a survivor. i could write about myself and my family and that experience itself would have legitimately be a form of recovery. i would not pretend to know what i did not either as a historian or a survivor. 12 years ago after writing a book about lost children, a book about kidnapping, i came to see how much of my life was defined by such lost children. and i began to struggle with finding how to give these children a history. and how to express the drive to recover their lives in my own

past. that struggle with take me first to poland to which my parents would never have dreamed of returning. and then into the depth of my own memory. only a memoir in which i used what i had learned as a historian would allow me to penetrate a past that held the graves of my sisters, brothers, grandparents and the culture that my parents had tried to rescue and bring with them into a new world. i searched for the graves of my grandparents in poland but did not find them. their graves and monuments i now realize are in my book. i would do the best that i could given my memory and record the lives of this one family which had experienced the holocaust because such reconstructions are necessary to make clear that the holocaust happened not to oceans of nameless people but to real people, ordinary people like my family who are almost never remembered or written about.

as a social historian i had finally found both the source and object of a long quest. finally, i wrote this book because the history of those like myself, children of survivors who became very successful americans is often overlooked as part of immigrant america. we came in the 1950s at a time when there were very few immigrants and our story with its mixture of normal immigrant travails and the special pains of households deeply penetrated by dark memories is rarely included in the history of immigration. each story show of survival is unique but together the generation i represent, the second generation, also has many things that connect them. i thought it important to give not only a history to my family but also a historical introduction to this particular immigrant generation. children who were singed by the flames but never truly threatened. children who knew that their own

lives were the product of a miracle of historical survival that but that they too might have disappeared and never been born. they were a recovered generation. there's too is an american story. thank you. [applause] >> good morning. i am also deeply honored to be on this distinguished panel with governor castro, paula chiquis. when i was asked to be on this panel i was thinking of my own life particularly coming to live in the united states. i've lived in this country for over 10 years, but every time i go somewhere and somebody ask me, where are you from, new york, they say no, really are you from? and i realize no matter what i do, perhaps my acceptance will

never be completely granted as an american or as somebody who lives in this culture so i began to introduce myself as a sierra leonian which is where i'm from and when people ask me these days i tell them i'm a sierra leone with some american tendencies. so i began to introduce myself in this way and with this introduction, i think it gives people some sort of comfort to begin to have a discussion with me about other things. now, i didn't grow up here. i wasn't born here but i moved here in 1998 through some very difficult circumstances that happened in my own country. we had a civil war for 11 years and i was a young boy when the war started. but before the war actually i had an encounter with the united states because as you all know,

the peace corps used to be very strong. as a young boy growing up one of the first americans that i encountered was a peace corps volunteer who lived in my village and taught english. and so our idea of what the united states or america was and based on how this fellow behaved, no matter what he did, this is how americans are. for example, this fellow would wear a sneaker that he never washed. that was dirty all the time. so we thought this is how americans wear our shoes. so whenever somebody wore a sneaker that was quite dirty, oh, you're wearing the sneaker peace corps style or american style. [laughter] >> my father also worked for the american mining company that was in the south of sierra leone, a very remote area where i grew up and this is where i was introduced to american popular culture. one of them was american hip hop music that was on television. we didn't have electricity but we went to the company's

headquarters and we would listen -- we would watch the television and i saw some of these things and i was introduced to this culture when we grow up. when the war came into my life it disrupted the simple and remarkable life that i had and at the age of 12, i started running from the war. between 12 and 13, i lost everything that was dear to me. so my immediate family was killed. i was second boy in a family of three so my older brother were killed and my younger brother were killed and my mother and father were killed in the war. this happened to hundreds of thousands of other children in sierra leone. i was eventually dragged in the war to fight as a child when i was 13 years old and i fought for over 2, 2.5 years as a soldier. that's giving you a brief background. i was removed from this war by united nations, by, you kno uni was selected to come to new york

and this is the first time i left my country and to speak at the united nations was going on in sierra leone. it was the first time i left my country. it was the first time i was on a plane. it was the first time i had a passport and i came to new york. now, i know some of you coming from tucson going to new york is already a bit overwhelming. you can imagine what my own case was. and not only that, which something you can relate to i came to new york in winter of 1996. [laughter] >> i had no idea. i knew the word "snow." and winter through shakespeare that i had read as a young boy growing up but i had no physical relationship with any of these things at all and we came and the person who brought us our chaperon had no idea where we were going either so we had no winter jacket, no hats, no gloves. we were only wearing very, you know, flimsy clothes as we wore back home because it's always warm as it is here. so we landed at jfk.

it was around 4:00 pm and it was already dark and i thought 4:00 pm is not a dark time of the day so this is already becoming to be quite strange for me. we saw snow for the first time. i wasn't particularly thrilled about it. the only reference point i had was christmas so i thought maybe it's christmas at the time. and anyway, eventually at this conference it is where i began -- i met my mother, the woman who later adopted me, and brought me back from sierra leone to come and live with her. it's actually a jewish-american woman who adopted me. and i arrive in the united states and started living there but on my way to the united states it's what i want to mention briefly about immigration and things like that. and when i began perhaps the first time in my life that i began to question whether my own humanity was worthy as others people who had lived in eastern europe. i had never questioned this in

my life and this came about how the process of emigrating to the point it dehumanized the person who was stuck in the immigration. when i went to the american embassy to get a visa, i was asked to produce two things. one of them was a bank statement that showed that i had income. and second, was a documentation that showed that i had ownership of property in sierra leone. now the war had begun going on in my country at this point, eight, nine years. and i tried to explain to this fellow who interviewed me from behind this mirror and a microphone coming and i can hear his voice, i tried to explain to him, i'm coming to a place that had a civil war and i was coming from a very remote part of the world where i don't have any of these things. i grew up in a small community where everyone knew this was your grandfather's land. you didn't need papers to explain that.

and i tried to explain this gentleman and he could not understand what he was saying. his idea that if i didn't provide these things he could not trust me. that i intended to return to my own country at all and he did not even want to understand the fact that if he didn't give me visa, if i returned i could be killed. he was not interested in hearing any of these things stau. and i tried to joke to him to explain, let's say, for instance, that i had a bank account, which i don't have, let's say, for instance, i had this documentation when you hear gunshots and your town is attacking, you're not thinking i must really take my bank statement and, you know, my ownership of property so that i can if i have it to this guy at the american embassy. you're not thinking any of these things at all. you're thinking, can i survive the next minute? would i live to see the next minute? so when i was having this discussion is really when the idea to write about where i was coming from was born at this point. because out of frustration, that

i wanted to give context to my own life, to my humanity to explain to people what my life had been before the war, but also that sometimes the standards that we put in place to give -- to trust people, to make people trust in their own humanity may not be the same standard people have here but that doesn't mean you're not human beings either. so this is some of the stuff that i began to cover. when i arrived in the united states there was another problem, which is education. i arrived and again, i was asked where my mother took me around to apply for schools. i was asking where was the report card and i don't have a report card most schools did not accept me because i did not have a report card and i tried to explain i was in the war again. i didn't know i could live to see the next day, i wasn't thinking war, report card. i end up in new york at some point in my life, you know? so there are a lot of exclusions when you -- you know, you sort of an immigrant coming and i think as a young boy growing up,

i've been quite fascinated with a country like the united states through the peace corps, through the american mining company, i read the history of this nation as a place that was -- a place full of diversity of people who had come from different parts of the world because of similar persecutions that are modern now, that some of us are running from but yet when you arrive at jfk or whatever, you're put on this -- under this questioning where you ask you're almost a criminal. you're criminalized even before you begin to speak to immigration. to the point that you don't want to tell them anything about yourself any longer. so as i mentioned, i've lived there for a number of years and i'll wrap it up. and so every time i travel, i run an experiment, you know, i'm still concerned can i pay my taxes and around tax time i'm upset when i get questioned in a very -- you know inhumane way.

when i'm traveling if i use my new york driver's license, i'm okay. but when i put out my sierra leone passport, all of a sudden it's a big problem. the same people where i am there's no human super action at all. and even if you're trying to gather information from people for security reasons, if you're leaning toward them you can actually get more than if you're absolutely humane to them. when i run this experiment it's always quite frustrating to see what the reaction is. and every time i enter -- i just came back from geneva. i was doing some work for unicef and every time i come back i'm asked questions but i cannot laugh even though i find the questions incredibly funny. and one of them was that i just arrived and the guy asked me, so where were you? geneva and he said how long? i said two, three days. why were you in geneva for a short time. only because i had a few days to

do my work. why? that's just how it was. [laughter] >> why are you traveling with a small bag because i was gone for two, three days. look through my passport. why you travel to so many places because of my work, you know, and all these questions, i've lived there for over at the point years. really, where have you lived and what have you done and the question goes on and on even to the point i was asked what i make annually and i said why is that relevant to me, you know? but all these questions are asked to you, why am i being criminalized? before even people get a chance to know me? and lastly what i would say is this, i think what makes this nation a great nation is because of the diversity that it has. it's because of the incredible opportunities that are here that people come to seek. anyone who's really emigrating from a place, trying to seek some sort of economic development or anything is not trying to disturb the peace of this country. if anything, we admire being

here so much because i am possible here in the united states. so we come for some of these opportunities. nobody is coming to disrupt this nation. and when we come, we write or we become part of the discussion, we add an element to this nation that makes it beautiful, stronger and different from any other nation that you can think of in the world. and so if you try to prevent those kinds of people from becoming part of this nation, we're going to lose actually the remarkable spirit of this country that it's had since the beginning. and that's all i have. and thank you. [applause] >> okay. first of all, i did want to take a previous moment to thank you, marge, cory and pat and everyone

involved with the tucson festival of books for allowing me this wonderful opportunity to participate and share a bit of my writing life and my experiences -- not only as an immigrant but as someone who firmly believes in the power of the written word as the source of activism and a means to find purpose and meaning in life. it is also a real honor to be in the company of such inspiring copanelists. i've had the opportunity to familiarize myself with your work and certainly look forward to engaging in it in much more detail but again, it's really a pleasure to be here with all of you. .. here with all of you. what i would start off with was a brief description of how i came to writing. i have worked and continue to work at the university of arizona in mental and behavioral

health research. it had a huge impact and greatly fueled my riding especially in terms of understanding to mental and emotional struggles that all of us as people experience at some point in our lives regardless of different disguises or appearances for each of us. my late teens and early 20s, when my search for self identity and such universal things as friendship, love and spirituality and beauty and self purpose was at its thickest, i found myself wanting to stay connected to my culture and heritage yet at the same time to reach out and experience the novelty of american life and

social trends i realized, very little twitter reworks that spoke to me and the issues that high as a young woman was facing in real time. as i struggle to make sense of this world, racism and sexism and poverty and religion and ignorance and corruption were very real. it was like a breath of fresh air when i came across a piece by an author who is considered one of the founders of contemporary literature. that said it is important for each generation to read the growing up stories of the previous generations. that is a touchstone to chart a course for the future. i read that and the need to

begin writing, first turtle in trees, structuring personal essays was almost instantaneous. it was about depicting mexican-american coming of age experience of a new generation. a generation that on top of pre-existing cultural differences struggled with generational differences so it was learning to bridge the gap not only between these powerful ethnic influences that were tugging at me in different directions but also between older and more traditional belief systems that brought a broad minded views in terms of female roles and such things as marriage and sex. it truly became about these

struggles and experiences and push forward young emerge and latino voice not only for myself but those behind me and a few ahead of me who have found their way and are still longing to feel part of something. i have been asked multiple times usually by some literary agent, why i feel my riding is important or needs to find its way into readers' hands. especially when i am not a particularly notable or prominent figure, at least in the traditionally marketable cents and over the years i come to realize i cannot afford not to write or share my experiences, obviously the dramatic demographic transformation that has taken place in the united states after

years of latino immigration has changed the shape of what america looks like and it would be a real tragedy if the literary world fails to echo all of those american voices that are still waiting to be heard. once again going back to my work and the university, and those in turtle mental and emotional struggles that i mentioned, i have been doing that work professionally for 12 years now. personally always been an avid observer of human interactions so in essence i have been doing it the greater part of my life. when i say that i know what it looks like when someone feels

disconnected, when they have no sense of belonging and can't find their place in the world is a very vivid image that comes to mind. unfortunately the heart wrenching consequences that can come of that feeling of disconnected this is also something that i have seen far too many times. my riding, both nonfiction and fiction both of which are based firmly on mike very real experiences as anwriting, both fiction both of which are based firmly on mike very real experiences as an immigrant it is my attempt to help people struggling to stay afloat. thank you for this opportunity to be here and i look forward to engaging in a bigger conversation with all of you. [applause]

>> thank you for a wonderful opening statement and for that wonderful segue because now the conversation is open up to all of you. there are two microphones on either side of land each aisle and i will invite those of you who have questions and can add to our conversation to come on up to the microphone and ask your question. >> the first one is always the hardest. >> thank you for your moving stories and funny moments. given the current climate in arizona, some of you touched on this briefly but i wonder if you could take a few minutes or seconds or whatever you wish to

elaborate on how can you help us and this nation break down the barriers that want to lean towards exclusion in the midst of our fears about change that immigration provokes? what would you say to them about why immigrants come, who are you and what do you bring instead of water you coming to take? >> this panel is a good illustration of what we bring. we bring an enormous variety of talent, perception, passion, and work that we do for the nation with the nation. i think all of us have suggested how much we owe to this country in terms of when it provided us but we bring with us a great

deal of what is now. it is diversity, potential, we are a good statement as a whole, diversity on this panel. >> i will also add that one of ways this can be broken is through allowing people through writing in areas ways to hear about the lives of people who joined this country because sometimes people are so removed from the reality of other people's lives that they think an immigrant just comes to this country and fixes everything. it is difficult to be an immigrant. it is not easy. it is a lot of hard work. just as rich americans are working hard, immigrants are coming to join. this perception that people are just coming and taking freely, they are not. they're coming and working hard and bringing something of a value and also gaining something

as well. i imagine myself for example. sedna and of us were in this country at all. the average classroom setting at the university, will frankly be quite boring. in my opinion. i am serious. it sadly would be. it would not be a fun and educational and intriguing when we come from different backgrounds. i go back to what i mentioned earlier. what generation of american you are, your great grandparents came from some other place but we quickly forget that when we have a discussion about who is coming from where. >> very similar to what ishmael beah is saying, it is a give-and-take. for me personally, something to this day i still struggle with.

i grew up in mexico, moved to arizona when i was 5 years old and since then my life has been in terms of schooling, later coming to the university, has been very focused around american culture. my work has been here. it has always been work involved in community service and research within the community, certainly take pride in helping the hispanic community here as well, my work is cherry open to people of all ethnic backgrounds. that has created a bit of an internal struggle for me just because so much of who i am, not only in terms of my grandparents

but how i have come to school to study and financial aspects of that, has come from mexico. i don't feel i equally give back to my own country as much because i give so much education and preparation in the united states. it really is not only take but a lot of giving and making people aware of how we come into this country and give quite a bit of ourselves. that is something that is worth reminding people and making them aware of all that we contribute as well. >> governor castro? >> i would like to make a comment or two. i had the opportunity as a diplomat, american ambassador, to travel all over the world and whenever you see an american

conscript, the line is a mile long. people wanting to come to this country because it is the greatest country in the world. in mexico, facing adversity. on the other hand, companies the american public responds to civility and we're losing it right now. we respond to severity. i can assure you today and a guarantee you that the united states of america is the land of opportunity. asked me. i had every opportunity in the world. i got knocked down once or twice but as a former boxer you come back and the american public has responded. the united states of america is a country of opportunity. [applause]

>> don't be shy. >> definitely the united states is a land of opportunity. has been and probably will be for some time. the thing that i observed, my grandfather was an immigrant himself. a i am as well. the thing i observe is when i came here, when my grandfather came here we lost our barry in tibet tie to our country. we started thinking united states is our country. very rich culture of this

diversified land, diversified population, this is our country. i am wondering what effect is this going to have when we see the united states states begin to for example speak spanish and english becomes a second language. how do we maintained our culture, how do we maintain the diversity and keep the land of the land of opportunity? >> i will go ahead. i think that as with most things i have experienced in life i

think there is room and opportunity for everything. i don't think that one faint needs to be replaced completely by another. i think that in a civil -- in a country of educated people and of such advanced thinking it is definitely possible to continue being a country of immigrants where the rich languages of spanish and english can be spoken without the need of one to completely take over the other. it really does seem to me there's plenty of room when things are handled in a civil manner that there's room for diversity without the need to shadow or obliterate anything in particular. [applause] >> i sayre really agree with you.

i also think tolerance is the word that comes to mind. we have to come to an understanding that if somebody comes to the united states and still practices their culture in whatever way that doesn't disrupt other people's life doesn't mean it is getting rid of what it means to be an american. doesn't. i think we can have both at the same time. if anything when you see someone practice their culture and give that speech to do it it makes you -- strength in your own belief in your own culture more when you actually allow that or see that or participate in it but ultimately this fear that we did don't allow people to come and bring their culture as well they get rid of hours. it is not that simple and that is not the goal of anybody coming here. in terms of language thing, if it is funny at all, for number of years one of the things

people slightly negative that people have about this great nation is they think it is only a nation with a single language. here's an opportunity to change that perception. seriously. it is not a country of one language. it can be a country of multiple languages, spanish being one of them right now. that is a fantastic thing. as somebody who is a writer, what makes me an interesting writer is i speak several different languages. when i am writing i am always trying to redefine the english-language. we can empower children to think more deeply about english. [applause] >> i think ishmael beah is correct and historically speaking we have always had english as the language. it has never been threatened. is not threatened and now. on the other hand the

contribution of multiple languages has been here for centuries. language is a deep and abiding part of our identity and we have to and do want to maintain the complexity of our -- language is part of what makes us a hole. we don't want to extinguish it. we want to make sure it is available and tolerated and encouraged -- not just tolerated. i also tell my students our problem is not multilingual is an. [applause] >> i wanted to add one more thing. came to me as i heard you speak. a lot of my writing -- a lot of my writing comes to me, i am often asked to you think and dream in spanish or english? i can't figure it out.

i do both i think at different times depending on who i have been talking to. or whatever it might be. i believe because a lot of the averages are heard since i was a child growing up, things like that -- or at the far of what they represent would not come to me in english or in my existence in english america or american culture yet they are very important and have strong meaning. my writing is that much more flavorful because of that ability to blended those two influences of each language. if anything it is richer, that

much more rich as a result of the ability to have several languages inspire and contribute. >> governor castro, do you want to comment on that? >> i have no fear that the english language will be disappearing. to the contrary. i think the more language class we speak or listen to i welcome. i happen to be one of those that believe that the people coming english speakers -- i absolutely have no fear that the english language will ever be substituted with another language. to the contrary. the english language is now increasing. wherever i travel -- english is here with us. we should welcome in this

country other languages. get in the elevator and someone speaks french or german or portuguese let's not be critical. let's accept them because they are not placing the language in jeopardy. i have no fear of that at all. [applause] >> are am also an immigrant of this country many years ago. but the whole discussion we have had so far leads me to ask you a question concerning the notion that -- we have heard it from some of the speakers -- that this country sees itself as the greatest country in the world. this country sees itself as superior to other countries.

when you have a sense of such superiority does it not lead to a sense of arrogance in regard to the culture and the way of life of other countries? does it not lead to the notion that since we are so superior and according to someone got is on our side that we have to impose our values on other countries, be it iraq or afghanistan or other countries? thank you. [applause] >> i will take the question. that is a very important question. the fact that there is indeed a sense of superiority and arrogance about the fact that this country is what it is. this is a great country in the sense of opportunity and all

were things people have but i don't think we should think turtle fretted is a superior country to others in the sense of culture or language and identity and all these things. because here's what i am saying this. i immigrated here and often times i do a lot of work in non-government organizations and various issues. people have an idea that our idea of happiness in the divided states is what everyone else was in the world. that is not true. have things in common we can work with to the. we will translate and speak culturally, they are the same fundamentally. so i think that is the thing but more increasingly particularly

my generation because of the internet and everything people are increasingly seen that what you are speaking about is not entirely true. this country is great in a lot of ways but not superior to every other place at all. we have in terms of technology and other things a lot of things. i was joking with somebody the other day. my grandmother in my village could stand out in the morning, put her hand out and tell you exactly what will happen during the day. it will rain when the shadow reaches this side of your body, what is going to happen. she doesn't need to look at the weather channel to do that. there is knowledge that is intrinsic in other parts of the world because we have moved so rapidly and forgotten about some of those things. we should celebrate but never feel that one is superior to the other. we should open to always learning and accepting things. that is my point. [applause]

>> one more question? >> i work with a group of african refugees here in town and i want to mention that catalina high-school has a wonderful writing program for the refugees students that encourages them to write -- [talking over each other] >> i have seen the change in the students that i work with through that program. my question is the family's i worked with have been here three years now and the students are doing wonderfully. moms and dads are struggling. they only want to speak their language in the home which the kids respect. is great that they are keeping their cultural live in their home with their customers but moms and dads are having difficulty learning english and therefore struggling with getting jobs and supporting the family. there's a real disconnect. as volunteers, i bring them to

visit my home and experience thanksgiving and christmas and birthdays and things like that to give them an idea of american culture and what we do and they shave their customs and i am sensing they are not totally getting how they can succeed with work and financially hand there is some difficulty. what suggestions do you have for us in our relationship building and how we can help them more to get that vision of how to be successful in america? >> about two minutes to answer that. >> i know what that feels like. the generational differences, different generations -- what you are doing is exactly what needs to be done. that would often times happen. we want to see immediate results

and unfortunately it takes some time for people to adjust and come to terms with differences in people's ways of living and customs and language so i think it is continuing to do the same and allowing that transformation to slowly take place. >> the children themselves will eventually teach the parents. it definitely does take time. children have historically served as intermediaries and interpreters as i did. i am confident that as chiquis barron did, this is a country which is much more easy to conquer as a child than it is as an adult and that has been a long-term experience. it does take patience both on our part, those who already speak english and know the culture and on the part of those

who need to learn it to a certain degree. they will never entirely be what their children are going to be. there is a difference between the first and second generation. there always has been. that is something we need to understand. [applause] >> we could probably talk for another hour but i hope you enjoyed our conversation. the authors will be autographing books immediately following this. governor castro will be right outside in the diner area right outside this store and paula fass and ishmael beah and chiquis barron will of join me in the signing area. books are available again there. last but not least, if you are