immigrants

by

For The Expats

“Oh, people have made a lot of my falling in love with Italy, and though I don’t deny it, I sometimes chafe at the idea—there’s an inkling of sexism to it, as if I’ve lost my head and left my real responsibilities behind to run off with the gardener. … When I was learning Italian, I wasn’t just trying to learn a new language—I was searching for something latent in myself, some greater personal and creative freedom, and I ended up finding it there, in a language in which I will always remain an outsider. It’s freed me from the trap of origins and prescribed identity, from the tyranny of authenticity and the myth of the so-called mother tongue. That, to me, is true liberation.”
jhumpa lahiri
–JHUMPA LAHIRI—Born this week in 1927

Lahiri authored many books, most noted are The Interpreter of Maladies, and The Namesake.

I’ve posted this here as I think our dear Jhumpa has captured perfectly the feelings of those who, in the end, move from visitor to citizen of another country. The expatriates of their home country. Or, as we say here in the U.S., the immigrants.

Funny isn’t it, how the change in a word used to describe something can so dramatically change the attitude towards the object. Or person.