No easy answers

By MARK NEWMAN Courier staff writer

April 04, 2008 10:57 pm

— OTTUMWA — Author Stephen Bloom calls Postville, Iowa “a laboratory” where Iowans — and Americans — can learn what happens when a new ethnic group moves to town.
But there are no easy answers, and in some cases, Bloom has not even found a tough answer.
In Postville, population 1,400, a strictly religious Jewish butcher from Brooklyn, N.Y., purchased a vacant slaughterhouse. Using kosher techniques, he and his partners quickly found success, and in a way, so did Postville.
“It jump-started the town,” Bloom told the Courier after his presentation at the Fourth annual Diversity Conference held Friday at Indian Hills. “People were dying off or leaving Iowa; the slaughterhouse had been vacant for over a decade. The town is flourishing. And it’s one of [few] Iowa towns that has increased it’s population: [It’s] doubled from 1,400 to 2,800.”
The success came at a price. When he came to town to write his book, it felt like he had walked into a civil war, he said.
The assertive, loud and strangely dressed Hasidic Jews weren’t interested in making friends. They wanted to worship, work and keep to themselves.
“For 150 years, rural Iowa was as white as the milk produced by [all those] Holstein cows,” Bloom said. “In some towns, a farmer from another county is considered an outsider.”
Hasidic Jews, the ultra-religious transplants from Brooklyn, picked up their culture and moved it whole to Postville. They had no desire to become stereotypical Iowans.
“They don’t want to know what seven-layer salad is,” said Bloom.
And that can cause trouble. When summer rolls around, Iowans start up their lawn mowers. The Hasidic Jews weren’t interested in mowing their lawns. That doesn’t go over well in a town that gives out a “Lawn of the Week” award, Bloom said.
And when the Hasidim saw there was not enough parking on the street, they parked on their lawn.
“People were infuriated,” said Bloom.
But we need to import new people because Iowa’s biggest export, he said, is not corn, beans or hogs; it’s young adults.
He said Iowa loses more college-educated young people than any state except North Dakota.
And with one of the eldest populations in the United States, people in small towns are dying off.
“If any state needed an influx of immigrants, it’s Iowa,” he said.
People who get to know each other do eventually see past general appearance. Bloom recalled a co-worker he at first called “the bald guy.” After they had worked together and been to lunch, the bald guy became “Murray.” And after a few years, he became the guy who complained all the time and the guy who was good on deadline.
“He took on human characteristics,” Bloom said.
And in communities where people of different backgrounds get to know each other, that can happen. Years ago, Bloom said, the dream of many immigrants seemed to be assimilation, to become just like their neighbors, even if it meant changing their name to something more American sounding.
Attendee Oscar Argueta has lived in Iowa for eight years.
“I’m from Guatemala. How long will it take for me to be [accepted as] an Iowan? I say 40 years,” he said.
“Who is really an Iowan? Who’s really a Postville person?” asked Bloom. “I ended my book with, ‘I’ll never be an Iowan, but Iowa is my home.’ For people who don’t get that, I think it’s their problem.”
Later, Argueta said he considers himself an Iowan; he realized that in a moment of self-reflection about four years ago.
“I surprised myself,” he told the Courier. “I said to myself, ‘I’m an Iowan. I don’t miss home any more.’ I am so involved that I want to stay here.”
When he thinks of going home these days, he said he thinks of his home in Iowa. Many Hispanic Iowans have said their goal is to become an American citizen and to remember where they come from while they also embrace their new culture.
But in Postville, the religious group did not want to assimilate, Bloom said. They didn’t want to “get to know each other.”
But if they want to be Iowans, wouldn’t they have to adopt some of the typical Iowa traditions? Not necessarily, said Bloom.
Part of the reason they moved to a rural community was because they wouldn’t be forced to do things differently; they could remain themselves. It caused a sort of “civil war” in Postville.
So how, asked one audience member, did the two diverse cultures in Postville eventually learn to get along?
“They didn’t,” said Bloom, adding there are still tensions between the townspeople and the Hasidim. “We need to learn there are people who won’t become Iowans. People can be who they are, and that’s OK too.”
There are those in Iowa, and in Postville, who don’t like that idea. Some have left their town. Iowans need to get used to the changes that are continuing, Bloom said.
“New immigrants seek to retain their cultural identity. The nation has moved away from the melting pot culture, where everyone becomes the same, to a salad bowl mentality: nations within a nation,” he said.
That means in Miami’s Little Cuba, there are people who speak only Spanish and have no desire to learn English.
“There is no particular reason for some people who live in Miami or L.A. to learn one word of English,” he said.
And to those who say because this is America, he asks, “What’s the point? Who are you trying to kid by having a driver’s license test only in English. Are you punishing people? That will change. Give it time. Even in Beijing (China) my subway stop was written in both Mandarin (Chinese) and English.”
Mark Newman can be reached at 683-5358 or by e-mail at mgnewman@mchsi.com.