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Diaspora Quotes

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Diaspora Quotes

“Nick nodded. "My mother said that always surprised her-all the houses made out of wood here, especially in the suburbs. She said growing up in the Soviet Union, it was all concrete and cinder blocks where she lived. Wooden houses were for old Russian fairy tales." Sawyer reflected, mulling. "Have you ever wanted to go there?" "Sure. But growing up, I was always told that's was impossible," he said. "At least for me and my mom, given her political history. But it's strange; there were times when I was super aware that she could never bring me back to where she was from, but other times I felt so completely that I have been there in my mind, I forget that I haven't, even now." "Do you speak Russian?" "Of course. My mom's English is perfectly fine, but we always wind up speaking in Russian together." "Do you ever...dream in Russian?" "I do.”

DiasporaBilingualismImmigrant Parents
Book:Summer Fridays
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“Here’s to the security guards who maybe had a degree in another land. Here’s to the manicurist who had to leave her family to come here, painting the nails, scrubbing the feet of strangers. Here’s to the janitors who don’t understand English yet work hard despite it all. Here’s to the fast food workers who work hard to see their family smile. Here’s to the laundry man at the Marriott who told me with the sparkle in his eyes how he was an engineer in Peru. Here’s to the bus driver, the Turkish Sufi who almost danced when I quoted Rumi. Here’s to the harvesters who live in fear of being deported for coming here to open the road for their future generation. Here’s to the taxi drivers from Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt and India who gossip amongst themselves. Here is to them waking up at 4am, calling home to hear the voices of their loved ones. Here is to their children, to the children who despite it all become artists, writers, teachers, doctors, lawyers, activists and rebels. Here’s to international money transfer. For never forgetting home. Here’s to their children who carry the heartbeats of their motherland and even in sleep, speak with pride about their fathers. Keep on.”

ImmigrationDiasporaFirst Generation
Book:Questions for Ada
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“Your dignity will never know cages and days without showering. Will never know the shame of running from a place because you weren't born disposable. If you feel threatened about living in a country full of sleek, dark, and beautiful creatures arriving on boats smiling and glowing though nobody has welcomed them, stop watching the news. Stay safe, with truths that bloom from kindness.”

DiasporaEmpathy For OthersEmpathy DiversityDiaspora QuotesImmigrants Refugees
Book:The Moral Judgement of Butterflies
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“How about lamb? I hadn't done anything with lamb yet, which was surprising, because it was one of my favorite meats. Lamb it is, then. Being in a restaurant kitchen and having to get dish after dish out, I probably didn't want to spend a lot of time pan-searing lamb to order. Too easy to get stuck in the weeds. So what if I braised it? In red wine, the way Grandma Ruth used to, and with spices like cinnamon and coriander and ginger, the way... well, not the way my grandma used to, but the way Sephardic Jews---whose ancestors had lived in Spain and North Africa during the Diaspora---did? Sephardic Jews also liked to pair meat with fruits. Dried fruits like apricots and prunes would be meltingly delicious cooked in the wine with the lamb; my mouth was watering just thinking about it. It would need some spiced couscous to soak up all those delicious juices, and maybe something salty. I had sweet, sour, umami, and bitter, so maybe something salty. Something pickled? Pickled cherries could make the whole dish pop.”

Food For ThoughtSpicesDiasporaEntreesLambJewish FoodDried FruitsSephardic
Book:Sadie on a Plate
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“The road to Sepharad does not end at the border of Spain or Portugal. It ends when the descendant feels, for the first time, that they are no longer in exile. It ends when the shadows of the past are finally met with the light of the present. Beyond the passport lies a future where the Sephardim are no longer a people defined by their expulsion, but a people defined by their return. We have pulled the ancestors from oblivion. Now, it is our turn to walk the path they could only dream of".”

IdentitySpainNon FictionPortugalDiasporaGenealogySpanish HistoryJewish HeritageRight Of ReturnSephardim
Book:The Road to Sepharad: My Years Inside the Sephardic Citizenship Gold Rush: How Spain and Portugal opened, and then closed, the Door to the Past
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“I have a complicated relationship with airports. A space that once held promise, the gateway to summer vacations and adventure, now makes my heart race a little faster, beat a little harder. A seemingly random red strip of tape on the ground, a dated stamp and ink pad, a place of birth forever etched on a passport, and a somber uniformed officer determine our future, our lives.... I wonder what new family is anxiously pacing back there, sleep-deprived and confused, hoping for that stamp to hit the ink, hoping to step into a new life.”

ImmigrationIranAirportsMigrationPersianDiasporaDiaspora Minority
Book:Bottom of the Pot: Persian Recipes and Stories
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“The danger lies in forgetting what we had. The flow between generations becomes a trickle, grandchildren tape-recording grandparents' memories on special occasions perhaps-no casual storytelling jogged by daily life, there being no shared daily life what with migrations, exiles, diasporas, rendings, the search for work. Or there is a shared daily life riddled with holes of silence.”

LyingMemoriesForgetSilenceGenerationsSpecialDangerFlowHolesStorytellingOccasionsDaily LifeTapeGrandparentGrandchildrenExileCasualMigrationDiasporaSpecial Occasion
Book:What Is Found There: Notebooks on Poetry and Politics (Expanded Edition)
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“If you look at the India-US relationship for example, the role that the Indian diaspora has played in the relationship is extremely crucial. Yes, we share democratic values but there is also the great role that the Indian diaspora has played in strengthening the bond of friendship between India and the US, and of course in underscoring the democratic values between the two countries.”

IfsLooksTwoCountryValuesCoursesRolesShareExampleIndiaDemocraticIndianCrucialStrengtheningDiasporaTwo CountriesBonds Of FriendshipDemocratic Values
Author:Narendra Modi
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“Israel's economic and cultural progress is due to three things: the pioneering spirit that inspires the best of our immigrant and Israeli youth, who respond to the challenge of our desolute areas and the ingathering of the exiles; the feeling of Diaspora Jewry that they are partners in the enterprise of Israel's resurgence in the ancient homeland of the Jewish people; and the power of science, and technology which Israel unceasingly, and not without success, tries to enhance.”

PeopleTryingFeelingsSpiritThreeChallengesTechnologyProgressEconomicYouthInspireAreasAncientIsraelDuesPartnersEnterpriseImmigrantsExileThree ThingsIsraeliHomelandScience And TechnologyDiasporaPioneeringResurgencePioneering Spirit
Author:David Ben-Gurion
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“Krys Lee has written a book of unforgettable stories, each one building on the other to create a complex, moving portrait of contemporary Korea and its diaspora. She guides us surely through the fallout of war, immigration, and financial crisis, always alert to the possibility of tenderness, transcendence, and even humor along the way. Lee is a writer who really understands loneliness, but her voice is so appealing, and her perceptions so wise, that we feel all the less lonely for knowing her characters and experiencing their lives.”

WayFeelsBookWarCharacterStoriesMovingVoiceKnowingWiseWrittenLonelinessPossibilityBuildingPerceptionLonelyCrisisComplexesFinancialGuidesImmigrationContemporaryTendernessPortraitsTranscendenceKoreaFinancial CrisisUnforgettableDiasporaFallouts
Author:Sarah Shun-lien Bynum
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“The museum in D.C. is really a narrative museum - the nature of a people and how you represent that story. Whereas the Studio Museum is really a contemporary art museum that happens to be about the diaspora and a particular body of contemporary artists ignored by the mainstream. The Studio Museum has championed that and brought into the mainstream. So the museums are like brothers, but different.”

PeopleArtDifferentStoriesBodyHappensArtistParticularBrotherStudiosContemporaryNarrativeMuseumsMainstreamIgnoredContemporary ArtDiaspora
Author:David Adjaye
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“Hence, when some members of the Iranian diaspora, especially women at the moment, use different tropes including the trope of the veil and the issue of gender to construct an image of oppression or to describe the 'silenced' Iranian woman, western intellectuals, policymakers, and publishing houses are all quick to introduce them as presenters of the authentic Iranian experience.”

DifferentMomentsUseHouseIssuesMembersWesternIncludingGenderOppressionIntroducingPublishingConstructsVeilsIranianDiasporaTropesPresenterPublishing House
Author:Mohammad Marandi
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“All three of my books, "Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora," "East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres," and "Birds of Paradise Lost," are immigrant narratives - their dreams, their traumas, their struggles - and I write them with the confidence that these stories, written from the heart, will belong, in time, to America.”

WritingHeartTwoBookStoriesDreamAmericaThreeLostStruggleWrittenBirdReflectionWestTraumaEastNarrativeParadiseImmigrantsPerfumeHemisphereVietnameseDiaspora
Author:Andrew Lam
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“There is less pressure on abandoning native communities: what for? There is nothing to be gained by it. On one hand, there are plenty tempting opportunities of experimenting with identities - being one kind of person today and a different the next day. On the other hand, there is little pressure to include the ethnic identity or religious identity into this mechanism, because now everybody is in a kind of Diaspora today.”

KindLittlesPersonsDifferentHandsTodayNextOpportunityCommunityReligiousIdentityPressurePlentyNativeMechanismNext DayTemptingDiasporaEthnic IdentityReligious Identity
Author:Zygmunt Bauman
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“I understand now my father really thought he was doing me good. Education means a lot to Palestinians. We’ve become some of the most educated people in the world through our diaspora. We’ve had to be. When you ain’t got land, your degree may be your only solid ground. May father felt (feels) that being a doctor would give me security. How can I explain that I’m not safe from anything if I don’t write?”

PeopleIfsWorldGivingFeelsWritingMayMeanFatherFeltLandSecuritySafeDegreesDoctorsGive MeEducatedPalestinianGood EducationDiasporaDoing Me
Author:Suheir Hammad
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“Whereas our common past, out of Africa, saw a global diaspora of humankind, our common future depends on a global coming together and consensus, resulting in a more equitable distribution of the Earth's largesse. When Africa, which gave us the wealth of life, has that debt returned, the world will have come of age.”

WorldAgeEarthTogetherPastWealthCommonEnvironmentSawsDependsDebtHumankindDistributionConsensusComing TogetherDiasporaEquitableLargesse
Author:Bob Brown
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“Through centuries of struggle, Jews across the world have been witnesses not only against the crimes of men, but for faith in God and God alone. Theirs is a story of defiance and oppression, and patience in tribulation reaching back to the exodus and their exile. That story continued in the founding of the state of Israel. That story continues in the defense of the state of Israel.”

MenWorldHas BeensStatesStoriesStruggleCenturyCrimeJewIsraelDefenseOppressionWitnessPresidentialReachingFaith In GodFoundingExileDefianceTribulationDiasporaExodusReaching Back
Author:George W. Bush
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“I consider that all Jews in the Diaspora, and thus it is true in France, should everywhere they can lend their support to Israel. This is why it is also important that Jews take political responsabilities. .... In sum, in my functions and in my everyday life, through the whole of my actions, I try to make so that my modest stone is brought to the construction of the land of Israel.”

ShouldTryingImportantWholeActionPoliticalSupportLandStonesFunctionEverydayJewIsraelFranceConstructionModestEveryday LifeDiasporaResponsability
Author:Dominique Strauss-Kahn
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“Lawrence Hill, a cultural and spiritual descendant of West African griots, has used his vast storytelling talents to create an epic story that spans three continents. The Book of Negroes recites the pain, misery and liberation of one African woman, Aminata Diallo, who was stolen from her homeland and sold into American slavery. Through Aminata, Hill narrates the terrifying story of slavery and puts at the centre a female experience of the African Diaspora. I wept upon reading this story. The Book of Negroes is courageous, breathtaking, simply brilliant.”

BookStoriesPainSpiritualUsedThreeReadingTalentFemaleSlaveryMiseryWestBrilliantStorytellingHillsLiberationCourageousContinentsEpicCentreStolenHomelandDescendantsBreathtakingDiasporaAmerican SlaveryAfrican WomenEpic Stories
Author:Afua Cooper
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