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The New Americans - About the Series
What does the "American dream" look like through the eyes of
today's immigrants and refugees? From Nigeria, India, the Dominican Republic,
Mexico and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, they come with different dreams:
to achieve athletic glory or high-tech riches, to escape poverty and persecution,
to provide for their families. This seven-hour, three-part series follows
these newcomers from each of their homelands through their first tumultuous
years in America.The New Americans aired on Detroit Public Television Monday-Wednesday,
3/29-3/31, 2004 at 9 p.m. ET.
Episodes:
EPISODE ONE
Trained as a chemical engineer back in Nigeria, Israel Nwidor was unable to get a job in the oil industry because of discrimination against the Ogonis. "I will be accepted in America," he says, confidently. "Today, blacks living in the northern part of America are free and not discriminated against." Barine Wiwa-Lawani is the sister of slain Ogoni activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa.
Her educated background and Wiwa name have garnered her and her children
one of the precious few sleeping quarters inside a simple cinderblock
building. Educated in England, she ran a thriving catering school and
two restaurants in Nigeria before they were bulldozed by the government
forcing her to flee.
Dominicans Ricardo Rodríguez and José García are
highly prized baseball prospects in the Los Angeles organization. We follow
them from the Dodger camp in Santa Domingo through spring training and
farm teams across the United States. In Episode one, we get a sense of
who these two are - Ricardo is a shy country boy with the discipline necessary
to make it; while José - steeped with natural talent, and charisma,
juggles his baseball career along with five girlfriends. Ricardo is one
of the few prospects in the camp that has been selected to play in the
Dodgers prestigious Phoenix Instructional League. We follow Ricardo to
the Phoenix Instructional League, where he trains with legendary great
Tommy LaSorda, who 'likes what he sees' in Ricardo.
Naima is a young Palestinian woman who falls in love and marries Hatem,
a first-generation Palestinian-American, after a three-week courtship.
With one brother dead and another imprisoned because of the Intifada,
Naima was determined to leave the West Bank because she believes she can't
fulfill her aspirations there.
EPISODE TWO
We follow Naima to the U.S., and see her initial ups and downs with the language, work, and in her new role as wife. The Ogonis continue to work hard in underpaid, underemployed positions and Barine returns home for her brothers ceremonial funeral. In the second hour of this episode we are introduced to Pedro Flores, a Mexican meatpacker living in Liberal, Kansas, as he returns home seasonally to see his large, gregarious family on their ranch outside of Guanajuato. We also continue to follow the Dominican players to summer league in Great Falls, Montana; and then follow their Montanan house parents to visit them in the Dominican Republic. EPISODE THREE
Inside a western-style "cyber cafe" in India, we meet Anjan Bacchu, a computer programmer hunched over a computer. Anjan has a lucrative job working for Motorola. Presently, he is planning to apply for a position that will take him to the U.S. But first, the practically-minded Anjan wants to find and marry a traditional Indian woman before he emigrates. In a modern twist on the Indian tradition of arranged marriages, Anjan has met Harshini Radhakrishnan, a young computer instructor from Mysore, through a computer marriage bureau. The Flores Family stays in Juarez for a week, calling cousins and friends
of cousins to secure the sponsorship needed to obtain visas for the entire
family. In the end, they are able to secure visas. They pack up the house
and arrive in Kansas. They are excited by the house, the supermarket and
all the opportunities they've been waiting for.
Ricardo Rodríguez is being seriously groomed for ascent to the
Major Leagues. If he makes it as quickly as the Dodgers hope, he will
be a 20-year-old rookie pitcher. José's future, on the other hand,
remains uncertain and he spends his second summer in Great Falls.
Shortly after Ken Saro-Wiwa's ceremonial funeral in Nigeria, NGOZI gives
birth to a baby boy in Chicago. ISRAEL names him KARM, after the strongest
tree in Africa.
BARINE continues to struggle with her twin daughters over boys and college
plans, but we will be there, when she watches them proudly graduate from
high school. Soon after, with the help of her older children, Barine buys
a home on Chicago's Southside.
Naima's husband, Hatem, becomes increasingly political, helping to organize
large-scale demonstrations in downtown Chicago. His belief that demonstrations
and speaking out can make a difference clashes with her feelings of hopelessness
about her homeland; and the comfort she takes in prayer and her religious
convictions is at odds with his secular political beliefs.
During and after the terrorist attacks of 9.11.01, we witness the impact
first hand on how the growing anti-Arab sentiment effects the members
of the Abudayyeh family, and the Arab-American Action Network, the non-profit
organization where Hatem works. By the end of the film, the center has
been torched, Hatem is working around the clock to do what he can, and
Naima is feeling unsure about how she feels about her new country.
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