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New Book Explores Asian Influence on the American Experience

DW: Tell us about the book and what prompted it.

DLD: Well, essentially this started here at Southeast Missouri State in 2012: I offered the first symposium on Asians in the Americas. It's not that other people hadn't studied this, but through funds I got through the Provost's Office, that I got from my Dean, that I got from International, from many sources on campus, we were able to have this symposium. And as the symposium progressed, we had different collections [and] different essays that were coming out that were very good. 

What we tried to talk about is this idea that first, you do have Americans that are of Asian descent -- they're Americans; and when I say America I mean from Alaska to Patagonia in this hemisphere -- and how do they [Americans of Asian descent] fit in the context of what it means to be "American" and what are some of the issues that they encounter. 

DW: Was there anything that surprised you as you read through some of these essays that made you go 'I never thought about it exactly that way before.' Anything jump out at you?

DLD: No, because most of these people I work with. But the one thing I think that is very interesting, particularly [is] when you look at the 'synchrotism', at this blending. For example, Chinese and Afro. So you get this ideal of the Babalawo, which is an African sort of entity-deity. But then you have the Chino-Babalawo so you get a Chinese Babalawo because there was so much blending of culture, particularly in Cuba between Chinese and people of Afro descent that you're getting this Chino-Babalawo.

DW: And you wrote this in collaboration with another professor at a university, tell us about that connection. 

DLD: Well, ZelidethMaría Rivas is a professor of Japanese studies at Marshall University and she and I met at the Ethnicity, Race, and Indigenous Peoples Conference of 2011, we've been friends ever since and we've collaborated. 

She was really the driving force behind this, I wrote the introduction but she's the bones behind it, the detail-oriented person [who] understands the editing and stuff like that. So we did that together and she's been a huge help and I think she got it all started with Rutgers, so I'm very much thankful for her help.

DW: If someone reads this book and reads these essays, what are you wanting them to take away from it?

DLD: I think what we want people to understand is that what it means to 'belong somewhere' is much more complicated than what we make it out to be. So for example, I'm from Doniphan and if I only saw people from Doniphan, I might think that's the entire United States. But when I leave Doniphan, I come to Cape Girardeau, I see African Americans -- okay that's another addition to the concept of what it means to be from the United States. If I go to St. Louis, I go to Cherokee Street, there's a huge Hispanic population there. If I leave Missouri, if I go into other parts, every time I go to another space, it expands my idea of what it means to be 'from' here. And I think that's what we want them to take away is that there is not a homogeneous America. And as I said from this hemisphere that there are so many populations and ethnicities and cultures that have blended into it, that we really should stop, step back, and take another look at what's around us. And I think we'll have a greater understanding of what our nations are. 

DW: Dr. Debbie Lee-Distefano is a professor of Spanish in the Department of Global Cultures and Languages at Southeast Missouri State University, Debbie thank you so much.

DLD: Thank you.

The book "Imagining Asia in the Americas" will be out in September and will be available through Rutgers University Press.

Dan is a 1994 graduate of Southeast Missouri State University. He majored in radio and minored in political science. He spent three of his four years at Southeast working as a student announcer at KRCU – the beginning of his radio career.