Nr. 4 (21) anul VI / octombrie-decembrie 2008 - ROMDIDAC

aspecte ale identit`]ii
ILEANA MARIN
I
Romanians as Potential Americans or
Looking at/for the Others’ Identity
To see ourselves as others see us!
(Robert Burns, To a Louse: On Seeing
one in a Lady’s Bonnet at Church)
n the second half of the nineteenth century, national identities were the
cultural, social, and ideological stimuli for national state formation all
over Europe. While on the old continent major ethnic groups functioned
as catalysts of affirmation of national rights and wars of independence,
the United States faced a record number of emigrants struggling to
adapt to their new environment. Among those groups of immigrants,
the Romanians represented a part with only one visually obvious sign
of their identity, their folk costumes. At the beginning of the twentieth
century, another aspect was attached to the Romanian identity by means
of the presence of Romanian artists in the cultural centers of the USA.
The most famous was Constantin Brâncu[i who became known to the
American art public as a participant in the well-publicized controversy in
modern art and also as a plaintiff against the US customs authorities.
The Romanian Folk Costume
There was a coincidence between the highest peak of Romanian
immigration to the United States and the interest of American magazines
in the Romanian monarchy, whose humanistic achievements brought
Romanian identity into focus at the end of the nineteenth century. In
spite of the fact that the Romanian immigrants came from Transylvania,
Banat, and Bucovina, provinces which were under the rule of the Austrian-
Hungarian Empire at that time, they brought with them their Romanian
heritage as a mark of their freedom. Since their main reasons for leaving
their native places were political, ethnic, and religious persecution,
they could finally introduce themselves as Romanians without any
consequences. The pictures taken at the Ellis Island Immigration Station
from 1898 to 1914 show them dressed up in their national costumes. 1
Interestingly enough, Romanians, who were used to wearing their highly
embroidered costumes on very important occasions, put them on for
disembarking on American soil. They surely considered this as one such
occasion. It is obvious that they put on their best clothes to honor the event
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