Can one crossbreed an orange with an apple? Intermarriage and ethnicity in American multicultural metropolis

(In view of the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding)

Professor: Anna Brzozowska-Krajka

Department of Polish, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University

Lublin, Poland,

In American social structure ethnicity refers not to the dominant native host society (summarized as WASP, i.e.  White Anglo-Saxon Protestants) but to the “aliens” who inhabit mostly urban centres (those who achieve financial success move to suburbs). They include white ethnics, defined by Monsignor Geno Beroni as PIGS (Poles, Italians, Greeks, Slavs). Their ancestors immigrated to the New World for economic or political-economic reasons. From the point of view of the host society and its dominant culture they were “alien” and became outsiders. They were included into the host society but occupied partly marginal positions in it. However, according to Roger D. Abrahams and Susan Kalčik, such marginality might beas a source of power and energy.

This power of the «alien»’s tradition and desire to preserve the cultural heritage of the mother country (despite numerous factors favoring changes) is very well exemplified by the autobiographical monodrama by Nia Vardalos (a Greek-Canadian) “translated” into multicoded film message by Joel Zwick as My Big Fat Greek Wedding (produced in 2002). This movie constitutes an important voice in contemporary American discussions of ethnicity. It views ethnicity from inside, in terms of a social group’s micro-vision which entails reversing the principal relationship: it is members of the WASP class who become “aliens.” The ancient Greek ancestors who created basic concepts of Western civilization and culture rightly entitle the Greek-American community to be megalomaniac, which emphasizes the principal contrast in the film: between Greek (or, broadly, ethnic) and American culture. My Big Fat Greek Wedding provokes reflections and generalizations pertaining to other ethnicities as well.

In this movie ethnicity is presented as the life of a Greek-American family in the multicultural community of metropolitan Chicago. It reveals typical mechanisms of functioning of an ethnic group (the 1st and 2nd generation ethnic Americans). Thus, it depicts double boundaries: those kept from inside and those imposed from outside, resulting from interaction with others. The individuals enclosed within the internal boundaries (belonging to “us”) share a cultural knowledge comprising a system of traditional behaviors, values and symbols. Hence their varied and complex interactions which tolerate a high degree of ambiguity. However, their interactions through the external boundaries are much more limited due to lack of a common knowledge joining the interacting communities (the comic devices in this film strongly intensify such differences). The boundaries between social groups, between an ethnic individual or family and the mainstream community, limit circumstances in which they would be willing to interact with those who endanger their cultural integrity.

The life history of the three-generational Greek Portokalos family, assimilated to the new realities of American urban life, is a model instance of such limitations. It illustrates the unique anatomy of American society and its interethnic relations in which it is mostly the economic sphere of life which is to ensure safety, whereas education outside parish schools and marriages outside one’s ethnic group (departing from exogamy) are regarded as conducive to cultural changes. Hence the strong resistance of the Portokalos father to his daughter’s decisions concerning her further education and especially the choice of her life partner. According to him, the duty of each Greek girl is to marry a Greek man, give birth to Greek children and feed her family with Greek food till the end of her life – in both the literal, culinary, and the symbolic, spiritual sense (this code of behavior delimits the identity of this social group, both inside and outside). However, the research conducted by American folklorists (e.g. by Deborah Anders Silverman or Helen Stankiewicz Zand) proved that intermarriage does not have to entail loss of ethnic tradition. This is confirmed by the exemplary life story of Greek-American Toula Portokalos in My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Its peculiarly playful presentation of complex human matters highlights the effect of the clash of cultures presented: the opposition of the “white ethnics” v. the mainstream Americans, the “us” v. “them,” emphasizes the general message concerning the place and role of culture of the country of origin for successive generations of immigrants in terms of either imitation of tradition or a style of life based upon creative ethnicity.

The lives of the 1st and the 2nd generation immigrants are dominated by tradition. Hence in this movie behind the comic façade one may perceive exaggerated instances of ethnocentric behaviors which portray ethnic pride and unambiguous national identification. The Portokalos family house is modelled upon the ancient Greek Parthenon (Athena’s temple) and decorated with Corinthian columns and the Greek flag. Also the names of Greek businesses – the “Dancing Zorba” restaurant, the “Mount Olympus” travel agency, the “Aphrodite Palace” wedding hall – are strong signs of ethnic identity.

What does change mean then for an ethnic? Why is the Portokalos father so afraid of the behavior of his daughter leading to her marriage with a xeno (Greek xenos means “alien”). For an ethnic community such course of action means change, replacement of the conservative and stable ethnic tradition, passed from generation to generation, with another style of conduct.

This figure of change is the axis of composition of this film’s story and foretells the “big, fat Greek wedding.” It follows the tripartite pattern of rite de passage: its initial stage of equilibrium (harmonious family life) is followed by the middle stage of disturbances (the process of the heroine’s transformation, the contacts with her xeno partner) to be concluded with restoration of the state of equilibrium which, however, establishes the heroine’s new social status. What made it possible to achieve this final balance, to break isolationist tendencies, to effectuate the ritual of change (the symbolic crossbreeding of the orange with the apple)? The xenophobic attitudes were softened through significant mechanisms of cultural assimilation which ensured indispensable incorporation of the “alien” individual into this religious-ethnic community: his baptism in a Greek Orthodox church and his acquisition of elements of the long-term ethnic culture (language, music, dance, customs, habits, rites) constituting the ethnic way of life of the Portokalos clan – clearly distinct from American standards. These expansive contents constitute symbolic affirmation of life in various meanings, manifestations and scopes. We have to remember that the Portokalos family came to America “to let their children live”: hence the axiological nature of the opposition “alive” v. “dead” imposed upon the basic opposition “us” v. “them,” with the title lexemes “big” and “fat” as most powerful symbols of life. This amounts to triumph and cult of ethnic tradition and multi-generational family as the centre of ethnicity, the mainstay and reservoir of the heritage of the former homeland. However, according to a popular English proverb, “they’re as different as apples and oranges” or “you can’t mix apples and oranges.” Thus, the original double borderlines are restored, but is the cultural integrity restored as well?

The neighborhood of the new family (Toula and Ian) and the kernel family foretell continuation of the intergenerational tradition, of reproduction of the original model of behavior (the mother – the daughter). And this really takes place in the American television comedy serial My Big Fat Greek Life (directed by Peter Bonerz and Pamela Frydman) which is a sequel to My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Its story, too, is dominated by the axiology of triumph and cult of ethnic tradition and multigenerational family as the center of ethnicity, which guarantees its preservation under the condition of immigration.