"My Home"

In the two videos of Untold Stories Immokalee represents many communities. The Seminole Indians and other tribes lived here for many years. But recently Immokalee has been home to immigrants working to make ends meet. Immokalee is a very small town that has been mainly used for farmland. The Seminole Indians were attracted to Immokalee because of the animals and plants there. Being 40 feet above sea leaving it is a great place for cattle to graze. The lifestyle lived by the tribes was more representative of the Old American Dream. There was many farmland and children were asked to work on the farmlands. The women stood home and had many children and the men went to work out on the farm. Education wasn’t big in Immokalee until recently Guadalupe Center opened.
Immokalee has been forced by Mother Nature and the government to go from an agricultural to an industrial based economy. Beginning with the first obstacle was when the government wanted to drain the everglades. Since Immokalee’s means of transportation was through canoes this was a big threat to them. Then World War II changed Immokalee economically and culturally. Things like oil were discovered and an airport took the place of a bomber training base. A new industry was born. The freeze of 1989 hit Immokalee hard the agriculture community went from 48 small farmers to only 3 and 7 medium farmers to only 3. The many complications that Immokalee faced over the years has only made them a more accomplished town.
For many years Immokalee has been In the Old American dream but just recently in 2008 they are beginning to realize that the answer to poverty is trough education for the youth. Ave Maria, the newest catholic university in the country, opened just south of Immokalee. There are plans to build more that 8,000 residential units in the town. The Seminole expansion and the birth of this new town is proof of ongoing evolution and what is to come. The New American Dream seems to be arising in Immokalee. In 10 years Immokalee can continue to grow and flourish and not only be an agricultural community but also an industrial one; with many companies, schools, factories, and different communities.

A Quilt Made of Many Nations

In “A Quilt of a Country: Out of Many, One?” Anna Quindlen explained that America is built of many pieces and that it is held together by a “notion.” She explains this notion as “all men are created equal” however as a nation we tend to categorize people based on their nationality, culture and financial status. In the title, Anna expresses that the country is made of many pieces, such as a quilt, and that out of many different pieces of that quilt we choose one to be the best and, at the other extreme, one to be the worst or hidden . She explains that at different time periods the cultures or nationalities are looked upon differently. At one time it was the Irish and the Italians and during another period it is the Mexicans and Cambodians. Another main-point that Anna expresses is that there is a time where America as a nation unites and we all become as a whole and this all happens when there is war or drastic disasters or a perfect example the tragedy of 9/11.
Quindlen does a perfect example at using a quilt as a metaphor, more or less, to describe our nation. We look at all the different pieces and look at the prettiest and the brightest however when the quilt is need all together the most is when all the pieces unite to make one big quilt. This is when all the colors and shapes mesh together and serve as a whole. I totally agree with Anna when she states that “tolerance” is a “vanilla-pudding word.” We use tolerance to state that we are allowing different cultures to express themselves but we forget that America is the land of the free. Finally I find it amusing how Anna brings in a perfect example of a disaster, such as a terrorist attack, and shows how all the pictures of the people who died where placed together; like a quilt. No one was better than anyone they were all one spirit and we were all one nation working together.