You can be from anywhere and be an American
Chapter 1 - from Little Book of Big Reasons to Love America
I’m ready to share my new book, chapter by chapter - untouched by an editor. If you’re reading this - I do have an ask:
Give me feedback—in comments, emails, texts, and on social media—I don’t care. Tell me what spoke to you and what you’d like to be emphasized more. I make no promises, as the concept, size, and time constraints are very real. But I do thank you in advance.
Spread the word - share it freely and widely. I’d like as many as possible to know about this book so we can all promote it widely when it’s published.
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Why I’m writing the book: 1. I love America and have found over the years that immigrants have a perspective that natives often don’t. 2. There’s a lot of trash-talking of America and not enough appreciation being circulated in the media. 3. I’ve learned that it's usually a good idea when my wife Deb thinks I should do something.
The flow of the book: 1. You can read the whole thing in about an hour. 2. It’s 10 chapters for 10 topics. 3. The illustrations that represent some of the ideas in the book are 100% generated by AI. 4. I include tons of quotes of others about the topic of each chapter.
A shout out to Michelle Prince and Performance Publishing for helping me publish this book. If you want to write a book, contact them and mention my name to get a discount.
All right. Ready? Here we go.
Introduction
"America is a nation with many flaws, but hopes so vast that only the cowardly would refuse to acknowledge them." - James Michener
Sometimes, you need an outsider’s perspective.
I have a perspective on America, dysfunctional and messy as it is.
My first childhood memory was at age five, standing outside of a concentration camp in Santiago, Chile. I remember being scared and seeing my Russian mom talking to the guards through the fence, convincing them to pass a small paper bag of food to one of the prisoners.
Inside that camp was my Chilean father. One of the tens of thousands arrested all over the country after Augusto Pinochet's military coup overthrew President Salvador Allende. The military repurposed soccer stadiums into concentration camps. Thousands were tortured and killed. Sting wrote a song about the widows of the "desaparecidos" called "They Dance Alone."
We were lucky, and my dad was released. Our family ended up in a United Nations refugee facility in Santiago, Chile. With zero certainty about the future, all we had was hope. We were forced into exile, forbidden to return to the country where we had built a life.
I spent my childhood in Chile, Germany, Russia and Mozambique. I returned to Russia at age fourteen, studied economics, and became a pop star, producer, evangelist, and entrepreneur.
I immigrated to the US at age 35 with my American wife, Deb, and three daughters. This is my love letter to a country that shaped me into who I am years before I moved here.
If you have been searching for more reasons to love America in a climate of negativity and the fog of an uncertain future, this book is for you.
Chapter 1 - You can be from anywhere and be an American
We are hard-wired to belong
This creates separation for those perceived not to belong.
In my travels to over 40 countries, I've learned this: insiders and outsiders are everywhere.
People choose tribes of affiliation, social status, interest, culture, religion, and politics. This is what humans do. We form tribes of tribes of tribes. It makes us insiders in some circles and outsiders in others.
Like no other country I've been in, America is a place of awareness that everyone came from somewhere else—a place where outsiders find common ground.
It always starts with sparks flying on the borders of tribes until a blend emerges - a new thing that clashes with other new things. And so it goes.
Of course, this is true everywhere, but nowhere is this more true as a country's defining characteristic.
Because of this, you can be from anywhere and be accepted as an American.
You can be French-American, Brazilian-American or Turkish-American
You can both belong and maintain your original identity.
In most other places, you can be a citizen and still be perceived as an outsider.
An Argentine living in France, a Ukrainian living in Portugal, and a Chilean living in Mozambique.
I know because I’ve been an outsider everywhere I’ve lived.
In Eastern Europe - I clearly look Latin. In Africa - I’m called white. In Latin America - I don’t sound local.
In America - I’m accepted as American because this nation was created around outsiders as an origin story.
"The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent and respectable Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations and Religions; whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our rights and privileges..." - George Washington
America is Third Culture
I'm a Third Culture Kid, or TCK for short - look it up. It's a thing.
It means your origin and host cultures blend in to make a "third culture."
TCK's are objectively strange.
Whenever someone asks you where you're from, you think, 'Do you want the one-minute answer or the 20-minute one?
You have a different kind of jet lag – cultural confusion.
You are not a citizen of the world; you are a citizen of everywhere and nowhere simultaneously.
A creative and entrepreneurial spirit is the superpower of TCKs. For us, if nothing is certain, then anything is possible.
The disadvantage is not feeling at home in single-culture places.
Unless we live in a Third Culture Country. A country where everyone is from somewhere else and anything is possible.
Allow me to illustrate the roots of my cultural confusion.
I learned four languages by age nine, Spanish and Russian from birth.
Portuguese by immersion in Mozambique. English in my International School.
Our family meals would look something like this:
Mom would say something in Russian. Dad could respond in either Russian or Spanish.
My sister and I could chime in Portuguese or say something to each other in English.
Mom and Dad could say something to each other in French if they didn’t want us to understand.
Sometimes, we combined languages to better describe what we wanted to communicate.
It may have sounded strange from the outside, but that was our normal.
The American dinner table is eclectic and often disharmonious.
I think something magical happens when we give ourselves permission for the eclectic to become normal.
A unique culture emerged as a mosaic of people who came to America to either escape or aspire to something. People who made dangerous voyages into the unknown. They saw the world not as it was but as it could be and had the courage to build that vision. They were forced to not just think outside the box but redefine the box altogether and create their own rules.
My wife Deb’s great-grandfather- Ugo Perfetti, came to America in 1910 at age 18 with his two older brothers on board The Provence. The records at Ellis Island show his hometown to be a village deep in the mountains of Tuscany called Fanano. We visited that village a few years ago and spent several delightful few hours with extended family, connecting threads of memories, names, and stories into a new tapestry.
Had Ugo not made that trip into the unknown, this tapestry would look very different today.
"We came to America, either ourselves or in the persons of our ancestors, to better the ideals of men, to make them see finer things than they had seen before, to get rid of the things that divide and to make sure of the things that unite." - Woodrow Wilson
Clash - Combine - Create a Remix
E Pluribus Unum - Out of Many, One
This motto appears on our passports, our money, and the seals of all three branches of our government - a foundational idea that permeates the texture of American culture.
Diverse people and traditions constantly clash in the beginning, seemingly incompatible.
Given a chance to co-exist, they combine in surprising ways to create a remix - a new thing.
On the surface - life in America is a constant clash.
Under the surface - we create new things better than anyone else.
It’s no surprise that Jazz and Hip-Hop are quintessential American art forms.
"Jazz has always been a melting pot of influences and I plan to incorporate them all.”
- Esperanza Spalding
Never stop remixing
The creativity and innovation of American culture have enriched the world with new technology, art, and entrepreneurship.
This culture came to be through a unique set of circumstances. It can also dwindle and die in a generation or two if the remixing of ideas becomes taboo.
Censorship suppresses freedom of expression.
Cancel culture suppresses diversity of thought.
Identity politics suppress arriving at something new through debate.
I feel at home as an immigrant because my voice is accepted as part of the remix.
If America stops remixing - we all lose.
“Everywhere immigrants have enriched and strengthened the fabric of American life." - John F. Kennedy
“As an immigrant entrepreneur, I've learned that adversity fuels innovation. It's what pushes us to think differently, dream bigger, and achieve the impossible." - Brian Chesky, Co-founder and CEO of Airbnb
"Immigrants are the lifeblood of creativity and innovation. They bring new perspectives, fresh ideas, and boundless energy to every endeavor they undertake." - Arianna Huffington, Founder of The Huffington Post
"As an immigrant artist, I draw inspiration from my diverse background and experiences. It's what makes my work unique and resonates with audiences around the world." - Lin-Manuel Miranda, Actor and Playwright
“As an immigrant, I have experienced firsthand the incredible opportunities that America offers to those who are willing to work hard and dream big." - Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Inc.
"As an immigrant, I've always felt a deep connection to America and its ideals of freedom and opportunity." - Salma Hayek, Actress and Producer
“Coming to America was the greatest gift I ever received. It gave me the opportunity to pursue my dreams and build a life I could only have imagined." - Arnold Schwarzenegger, Actor and Former Governor of California
“Leaving behind everything I knew was the hardest decision I ever made, but it was also the bravest. It took courage to step into the unknown and chase my dreams." - Jackie Chan, Actor and Martial Artist
“As an immigrant artist, I've learned that home is not a place; it's a feeling. It's the warmth of community, the embrace of loved ones, and the knowledge that you are exactly where you're meant to be." - Priyanka Chopra, Actress and Producer
I appreciated what you wrote in your Little Book. I spent 2 years of college in a neighboring country and worked 1 year in Europe in the 1970s. My family (along with our young children) lived in SE Asia for 3 years, working in an international community (missionary kids school with many TCKs), and living as the only white-faces in our housing subdivision. We found many things that we did LIKE about the SE Asian culture and were able to incorporate them into our own family immediate family. We arrived in that country just a few weeks after martial law ended, and saw a formerly stunted country attempt to spread out its wings. I asked questions and looked into how life had just been like under martial law -- not good!!! Whenever I returned to US soil, I was so grateful for my country and all that it had to offer. Our children have also lived in other foreign country cultures through their military experiences, one of whom felt "at ease" because of that child's early years in SE Asia. The family ancestors of me and my spouse emigrated from various countries in Europe. Many new inventions/ideas are the result of combining "incompatible" ideas/objects -- the proverbial "thinking outside of the box." Why are so many people today, including born again believers, afraid of incorporating people from other cultures into their current day lives? Afraid of new ideas? Afraid of change? Maybe the values of the other cultures are better than our own American ideas. Are born again believers so set in their ways that they can only see the bush/tree in front of them -- and not the forest? God originally made the Jews His chosen people, but Christ's death on the cross changed that -- making the Jews and Gentiles "one and the same" in His eyes. Do born again American believers "have the market" on the interpretation of God's Word through the grid of our American culture? Thank God for His love and redeeming grace for us, or there would be so few people sitting at God's table today.