Transsylvania - Erdélyi Tájékoztató, 1998 (39. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)
1998 / 1. szám
* Transsylvania English Language Supplement Published by the American Transylvanian Federation Inc. 319 Bement Ave. Staten Island, NY 10310 Editor in chief: Tibor Cseh Editorial Correspondence: 8 Estes Court, Midland Park NJ 07432 e-mail: 73171.1111@compuserve.com MESSAGE of MARCH 15, 1848 and today’s generation (keynote address at Kossuth’s statue in New York) by Réka Pigniczky (Ms. Pigniczky was bom in the United States to Hungarian immigrants. After completion of her undergraduate studies in political science, she lived in Budapest from 1992 to 1996 where she worked in public relations for the parliamentary faction of a major political party. She also helped to establish the first Hungarian women’s foundation, and organized the first round table of women ’s groups. Recently he received her Master Degree of International Media and Communications from Columbia University and hopes to work as a videojoumalist and producer, focusing on Central and Eastern Europe). (It was exactly 20 years ago on this day that, just like this group of young children from the Hungarian school, my sister Eszti and I recited, before what seemed to me thousands of people, Sándor Petőfi’s „Kutyák és Farkasok Dala”, that is "The Song of the dogs and Wolves”. But, for some strange reason, neither of us had stage-fright: I believe it was because Károly Nagy, our dynamic Hungarian school teacher, had so precisely coached us on the rhythm and intonation, that it simply recited itself. In fact, after I belted out the last lines „De szabadok vagyunk/But we are free”, all the proud relatives leapt to their feet in standing ovation, tears in their eyes, and from that point on Mr. Nagy could hardly drag us off stage. And here we are still, almost a whole generation later, beneath Kossuth’s statue, still reciting Petőfi’s poems about the 1848 Revolution. Perhaps within our postmodern era these poems seem outdated, but as the strength of this crowd before me shows, the poem’s historical message has been left intact. Many generations later the spirit of the Twelve Demands, a free and democratic Hungary, as well the meaning of that age, liberty and equality to all peoples, still inspire us. And as Hungarians who have grown up not in Hungary but in the United States, we offer a particularly strong brand of allegiance to these values — first, an appreciation for this society which allowed us to retain and strengthen Hungarian heritage, and second, for giving us the chance to grow up as part of a free and democratic nation, something not possible in Hungary until a few years ago. Today, I have been asked to speak about just what it means to be ’’Hungarian-American”. But first, I would like to say, that neither the definition of my dual identity, nor the responsibilities which come with it, are easy tasks. These are my own personal experiences and should, therefore, not be taken as comprehensive or conclusive. That said, I hope, I can still shed some light on why we are here today and not in Budapest. My parents, who fled Hungary during the 1956 revolution, made a concerted effort to keep their Hungarian identity, to teach us Hungarian, to send us to Hungarian school on the weekends, involve us in the scout troop, — they even went so far as to encourage us to date only Hungarian-American boys. I’m sure this pattern of childrearing is familiar to other ethnic groups in the US as well — the Poles, Chinese, Cubans — and all other immigrants holding on to their ethnic identity and integrity in the great American ’’melting pot.” This is what I call ”the incubator effect”, when the identity of a minority group is kept alive within a protective subculture of a larger society, in this case the United States. I believe such countries are few and far where children can be reared under one society in such a way as to become perfectly functional in another at the same time. And this is what gives the US its strength, where the vast majority of the population is immigrants or have ancestors who were not-so-distant immigrants. As Americans, our diversity gives us our identity; it is this mixture of cultures, languages and histories that move this nation forward. My parents, thinking along these lines, raised us in such a way that if by some chance the Communists in Hungary were to go away, we would be able to ”re-emigrate” if we chose to. But they also prepared us to make a home here as well, by giving us skills that would give us certain advantages, such as language, history, and a sense of community. It was not easy for them, and I believe at times it was confusing for us, but in retrospect, I believe they did the right thing. Supplement of Transsylvania Vol. 39, No. I