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Iowa Traditions in Transition:
Negotiating Identity,
Performing Folklore
Rachelle Saltzman
Iowa Folklorist
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
Pioneer Room, Memorial Union
1-3pm
Identity, particularly ethnic identity, is not static but a process that is
negotiated in performance, in the ways that people live their lives and
interact with others. A groups folklore, the constellation of
traditions beliefs, observances, verbal and visual art, foodways, music,
dance, and displays that are both rooted in and create a groups identity,
inevitably change and adapt over time and space. Whether situated in the
home country or a new one, how a group maintains its folklore always
involves negotiation between old and new, tradition and innovation, strict
adherence to a groups past and unique contributions of creative individuals.
When refugees and immigrants come to a new place, they learn to use
different aspects of their cultural traditions to maintain their integrity
as individuals belonging to a group, to identify others from their group,
and to enable outsiders to identify them as belong to a particular group.
Iowa today bears witness to the population and consequent cultural shifts
that happen periodically in the United States. In 1870, the Iowa Board of
Immigration published Iowa: A Home for Immigrants, a booklet that issued an
invitation to folks in the Eastern United States and throughout Europe to
settle in Iowa, which they did, and Scandinavians and Dutch arrived, joining
the Meskwaki as well as German, French, and other early non-native settlers.
The twentieth century with its global wars brought further waves of
immigrants to Iowa Mexicans and Italians came to work the railroads;
Italians, Croats, and African Americans went into the coal mines. Jews,
Greeks, and Lebanese opened small shops. After American involvement in the
war in Southeast Asia ended in 1975, newcomers from Vietnam, Laos, and
Cambodia arrived, thanks to Governor Robert Rays compassionate and
far-sighted refugee resettlement initiative. The 1980s and 90s brought
Russian Jews, Bosnians, Nuer from the Sudan, Somali, and Iraqis. Within the
past ten years, Latinos have become the largest minority group in the state,
with African Americans a close second. In the twenty-first century, Iowa has
continued to welcome immigrants some political refugees from war-torn lands
and others unofficial economic refugees looking, as did most of our
ancestors, for safe and better lives for themselves and their children.
In Iowa small towns and urban areas, the Iowa Arts Councils Folklife Program
has documented traditional artists from the Sudan, Iraq, Mexico, Russia,
Somalia, Sierra Leone, Colombia, Guatemala, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and
Bosniajust to name a few. Such research reveals the many ways that newcomers
try to hold on to certain parts of their heritage and are forced to leave
other parts behind. Precious customs and keepsakes become both painful and
treasured memories as newcomers must adapt to new environments, combine
their traditions with new ones, and somehow make the transition to becoming
Americans.
Clearly, not all instances of cultures coming together are positive ones.
Issues of illegal immigrants, English language learning, funding enough
teachers and social workers, or different traditions of disciplining
children and sometimes spouses are all potential areas of conflict.
Different religious beliefs, food prohibitions, notions about time, the
importance of family and community versus the pressures of the workplace,
and attitudes about modern medical procedures versus traditional remedies
are all issues that have been faced before. In addition to day-to-day help,
newcomers also encounter prejudice, hate, and, to their ways of thinking,
irrational laws and rules that just make no sense. Storm Lake, Marshalltown,
and Postville as well as Dubuque, Des Moines, Perry, West Liberty, and
Waterloo, among many Iowa towns and cities, have been targeted for their
difficulties and rarely for their successes. Fear of the unknown is common to
old and new residents. If we use these differences or conflicts as
opportunities to learn, however, we often find that these new or different
ways of doing things enriches rather than diminishes our lives.
Rachelle H. Saltzman, Ph.D. has been the Folklife Coordinator for the Iowa
Arts Council/Department of Cultural Affairs since 1995. Saltzman works with
a variety of communities and individuals to provide assistance with
multicultural and diversity issues, project development, event planning and
implementation, presentation of traditional arts and artists, grant writing,
and curriculum content. Her most recent work is Iowa Folklife 2, an online
multicultural folklife curriculum and a companion to Iowa Folklife: Our
People, Communities, and Traditions, also online (both at
www.iowaartscouncil.org). In collaboration with Iowa Public Radio, Saltzman
produces Iowa Roots, a radio series and website that explore cultures and
traditions. With funding from the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture
at Iowa State University, she researched and developed a website on
place-based food in Iowa (both websites at www.iowaartscouncil.org).
Saltzmans current book project is the forthcoming A Lark for the Sake of
Their Country (Manchester University Press), which examines the role of
upper and middle class strike breakers in defining Englishness during the
1926 General Strike. She is the author of numerous public folklore
publications as well as peer-reviewed articles in the Journal of American
Folklore, Anthropological Quarterly, Journal of Folklore Research, New York
Folklore, Southern Folklore, Southern Exposure, and edited collections.
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 Riki Saltzman
State Folklorist
Iowa Arts Council
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