1992 - 2 - Siirtolaisuusinstituutti

Finnish-Amsrican ldontity
The personal qualities described in the experiences that our children would
the preceding paragraphs, I know, are identify as part of their "Finnishness".
not true of every Finn or every American Our son Eric, aged 9, spent a short vaca-
but they do form an ideal that guides tion with my husband's relatives. On a
one's behavior.
walk through the woods, he and an
I grew up and married a man whose older cousins found half of an old,
parents were immigrants from Finland. weathered top of a wooden grain barrel.
Our backgrounds were much the same. Carved deeply into the top was a "puu-
My grandmother didn't ask (as she often merkki" E.T. The date was 1841. After
did when she would hear of an impend- some lengthy and interesting family hising
marriag e) " Onko se toiskielinen? " The tory (and much coffee) we learned that
Finnish families where I grew up usu- there had been another Erkki Typpo
ally knew each other very well. There is over a century ago. The old banel had
more diversity now and communities lain deep in the woods for all those years
that were predominantly Finnish years until this little boy from America, with
ago have had to accomodate to this the same name, found it.
change. It does make a difference in Identification, or the act of creating an
one's "rootedness" or the exterrt to identity, involves two processes. The
which other people know you and your first, as our son learned, is finding the
family, etc. Family customs and rituals ways in which we are similar to family
can be remarkably resistant to change, or culture. We may look to history or folk
especially if they are valued and en- heroes or heroines. The complementary
couraged.
process is defining those beliefs, quali-
We made our first trip to Finland as ties or characteristics on which we are
exchange students in1957. Many things different. For Firurish-American child-
about Finland were already familiar to ren and adults, it is easy to see all the
us, since they had been part of our own ways in which we are similar to family
backgrounds. We contacted relatives we or culture. In truth. there is much simi-
had been told about and were welcomed larity between the American and Fin-
by them as FAMILY. We have been back nish "Ideal Adult". The differences may
many times now and lived in Turku lie in the ways and the extent our two
during a Fulbright year. We, in turn, cultures charLnel the expression of the
wanted our two children to identify with same qualities.
their Finnish "roots". This meant that The United States does not have a
they went io a public school, learned the
language, sang the songs and played the
games. I became very aware that, to
some extent, we were "orchestrating"
similar saying but the ending of Paavo's
'O[e
letter stays in mind: aina i[oinen,
niinfoin pbni p erfi onen ".
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