THE PERSPECTIVE OF A FIRST GENERATION IRANIANAMERICAN

Sanjith Prabhu:

As Culture Talk is recognizing the accomplishments and culture of Middle Eastern people, I wanted to learn about how Middle Eastern roots impact the daily life of someone in our generation. To do this, I interviewed a high school junior who has experienced life as a Persian person in America.

Sanjith: [1. What is your name and what ethnicity are you? ]

Lily: My name is Lily Ekhtera and I am Persian. My last name means “to invent” in our language, Farsi (also called Persian). The name Ekhtera was given from the royal Iranian family to one of my father’s ancestors.

Lily: My mom also descends from the royal Jordanian family.

Sanjith: [2. What are your favorite parts of your culture?]

Lily: My favorite part of my culture is the fact that we value being civil and kind. Whenever we go out, people always insist by saying, “I’ll pay for the check”, “No, I’ll pay for the check”, and so on so forth. It always takes them an hour to say goodbye to each other and they don’t stop talking about extended family and life as a whole.

Sanjith: Everyone is really connected on an emotional and a family-like level.

Lily: Yeah, have you ever heard of the phrase an Irish goodbye?

Sanjith: No I have not.

Lily: It’s basically like the same thing as what happens in my culture, like a long, seemingly never ending goodbye.

Sanjith: [3. What would you say, other than your culture, what’s your favorite part of being Middle Eastern? ]

Lily: I love how prideful we are, especially for us Persian people, it’s a Persian pride you know, we go around and connect by eating fruit together, persimmons especially. I also just love how we can bond so quickly over anything. People bond over their children, their silverware from Iran, and their spices. For example, I have a special kind of saffron and other kinds.

Sanjith: That’s great how you can bond over everything, your connections are really meaningful.

. Lily: Yeah they are, it’s really special to me.

Sanjith: [4. Can you speak Farsi? ]

Lily: Yeah fluently, I can read and write. I learned in Chicago Persian School and in fact, I was a a teaching assistant there.

Sanjith: Great! I honestly feel like not enough people are taking the time and effort to learn their language these days, I’m happy that you do.

Lily: I feel like it’s necessary to connect with family and connect with your culture. You’ll probably relate to this Sanjith, but you know how everyone would struggle to pronounce your name?

Sanjith: Yes!

Lily: For my last name Ekhtera, the "H" throws everyone off you know, and I would say, “well I’m Persian”. My cousins actually took the "H" out of their last name to make it easy, but it’s a hard "H" in Persian so it’s “Ekhtera” (emphasis on hat "H"). People struggle with pronouncing and spelling it which is rough.

Sanjith: [5. What are some activities you do as a family or as an individual to connect with your culture? ]

Lily: There’s actually a holiday coming up that my family and friends celebrate where we jump over fire and chant in Persian.

Charshanbeh Suri celebration (Source: Visit Our Iran)

Sanjith: Wow that sounds exciting, what’s it called?

Lily: It’s called Charshanbeh Suri, I can’t spell it (laughs). And the reason we jump over fire and chant poetry is we’re warding away bad spirits and negative energy. We celebrate it on the last Wednesday of the ancient Persian Solar calendar in the holiday Nowruz.

Sanjith: Is Charshanbeh Suri your favorite holiday?

Lily: Well, Charshanbeh Suri is a festivity for Nowruz, which is the new year. It was March 13th last year, I believe. The greatest thing about Nowruz, in my opinion, is setting up a Haftsin, which is a table assorted with symbolic objects that start with “S” in Farsi. But I think my favorite is the holiday called Shab-e Yalda, where we stay up all night. Traditionally, Persian people would have their feet by a heater or under a rug and talk about ancient poetry and eat fruit as a group. In my experience, I go to the Chicago Persian School and we would have a banquet party with a DJ and catering and we would stay up all night.

We haven’t done it in the past few years, but I have a lot of great memories doing that for both the Spring New Year (Nowruz) and the Winter Solstice (Shab-e Yalda). Shab-e Yalda is celebrated to cherish our loved ones, as the longest year of the night gives light to another year. It represents the triumph of good over evil.

Sanjith: That sounds very special!

Lily: Yeah, I’m glad I get to be a part of the culture that celebrates these great holidays. Another holiday that’s coming up is Sizdah Be-dar, which is also known as Nature’s Day. It’s on April 2nd this year and it celebrates the end of Nowruz and is used to cleanse and relax for the New Year.

Sanjith: Have you visited Iran?

Lily: Yeah, multiple times actually. One memorable part is when I went to the masjid (mosque in Farsi) in Mashhad, the most religious city in Iran. I covered myself in a black tunic from head to toe. I would go in with my aunt and my mom and see the mosque. It’s so beautiful! The light is glimmering on the turquoise walls. There’s holy water in the beautiful fountain.

Sanjith: That was very descriptive, it seems magnificent!

Lily: Yeah it really is. I’ll see if I have a picture of it.

Sanjith: That had to be your favorite part of visiting there, right?

Lily: There’s so much Sanjith, I can’t even fit it in here! There’s trucks going around selling fruit, it’s fantastic!

Sanjith: In India, there are carts that come every morning selling fresh green coconut, so I can relate with that.

Sanjith: [6. Do you have a lot of family in Iran?]

Lily: My dad’s side’s direct family all live here in America, and for my mom’s side, it’s even more interesting. I have aunts and uncles in Germany, and one of my cousins actually lives in Turkey with her Turkish husband. I was actually the maid of honor and I was in 6th grade.

After this part of the interview, Lily showed me many beautiful personal and family photos, including photos of her cousin’s wedding in Istanbul. I was able to, as a spectator of her culture, understand how loving and familyoriented that Persian people are. She also said that one characteristic that she wishes everyone can take from her culture is the loving and peaceful energy Persian people have. I then asked her about a particular instance where she was stereotyped because of her ethnicity. In response, she talked about times where she was racially discriminated against. However, she wanted to share and conclude with this powerful statement:

“Try to walk a mile in our shoes, the children of immigrant families. Try to understand the hardships our parents faced to get us to this point. From the love they give us with chopped fruit on a plate (for apologies) to comforting us with tea when we are sick, immigrant families have the strongestbonds.”