VOA慢速英语--Faces of Immigrants Show Strength, Bravery

 

Faces of immigrants in paintings by artist Betsy Ashton look the viewer directly in the eye. The subjects of these life-sized paintings seem ready to tell their stories of leaving home to face the problems of living in a strange land.

Ashton says she created the oil paintings to answer what she calls a false political narrative¹ about immigrants in the United States.

Her artworks can be seen at an exhibit, called “Portraits of Immigrants,” at The Riverside Church in New York City. The show ends April 21.

About 16 kilometers south from the church is Ellis Island, where 12 million newcomers landed from 1892 to 1954. On a nearby island stands the Statue of Liberty. A sign on the statue reads, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled² masses yearning³ to breathe free.”

The subjects of the portraits are from Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe. They include teachers, business people, a health care worker, housekeeper⁴, actor, politician and coffee shop employee. Some are U.S. citizens. Others have proper documents, although one does not.

Fitting into a new culture

Ashton is a former news reporter. She wrote a short description of each immigrant and then put up the information next to each portrait. The stories tell of struggling to get used to a new culture and learning a new language for the promise of a better life.

One picture shows Ron Kim in his New York State Assembly office. He represents part of Queens, one of New York's five districts. Kim came to New York from South Korea when he was 6. He says it is showing the group of immigrants as a whole that makes the portraits more powerful.

Another immigrant honored in oil paint is Abdul Saboor, who taught U.S. troops the culture of his native Afghanistan before coming to the United States nearly five years ago.

Saboor is now a U.S. citizen and works for the upstate New York nonprofit group that helped resettle him. He sees Ashton’s art show as one way for Americans “to imagine themselves in my skin.”

Both Kim and Saboor said they are very mindful of the political debate over immigration since Donald Trump⁵ became president.

As a candidate in 2016, Trump talked about bad people coming from Mexico and said he wanted to build a wall on the U.S. southern border.

As president, Trump has continued to talk about illegal immigrants and has limited their pathways for legal immigration and travel. The Reuters news service says the Trump administration did not answer its request for comment on this story.

Inspiration

Ashton told Reuters that a story she heard at a religious service made her decide to start making her paintings. She started with “Eddie” Rigo, who operates a coffee shop she visits each morning. He fled crime-ridden Sao Paulo, Brazil, where his Italian family had been in the pizza business.

Then came Beata Szakowicz Kombel, a health care worker Ashton knows from doctor visits. She left Poland’s struggling economy in the early 1990s.

The art collection grew to 16 people. Ashton wants to find two more immigrants from troubled countries to complete the set.

The subjects include a woman called “Angel,” who came to the United States on a tourist visa 20 years ago. She does not have legal documents to stay in the country. Another painting shows Maria Solome, a Guatemalan housekeeper who came across the Rio Grande River, but recently got legal documents to stay. Another painting shows John Lam, who was poor when he arrived from Hong Kong. He now heads the Lam Group real estate investment company.

Ashton said the immigrants have many different ancestries⁶, races and religions, but they all are fighting to solve the problems that made them leave their homes.

I’m Jill Robbins.

Words in This Story

viewer – n. someone who watches or observes something

narrative – n. a story told in detail

yearning – adj. an urgent longing⁷ or desire to do something

proper – adj. correct; respectable; very good or excellent

district – n. part of a territory or area

tourist – n. someone who makes a trip for pleasure

1 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

2 huddled   

挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• We huddled together for warmth. 我们挤在一块取暖。
• We huddled together to keep warm. 我们挤在一起来保暖。

3 yearning   

a.渴望的；向往的；怀念的

参考例句：

• a yearning for a quiet life 对宁静生活的向往
• He felt a great yearning after his old job. 他对过去的工作有一种强烈的渴想。

4 housekeeper   

n.管理家务的主妇，女管家

参考例句：

• A spotless stove told us that his mother is a diligent housekeeper.炉子清洁无瑕就表明他母亲是个勤劳的主妇。
• She is an economical housekeeper and feeds her family cheaply.她节约持家，一家人吃得很省。

5 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

6 ancestries   

n.祖先，世系( ancestry的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• All patients and control ancestries were measured ABO blood type. 所有的患者和对照组个体均进行ABO血型检测。 来自互联网
• Our point here is that all ancestries have all experiences therein. 这里我们的重点是，其中所有祖先都经历了所有事件。 来自互联网

7 longing   

n.（for）渴望

参考例句：

• Hearing the tune again sent waves of longing through her.再次听到那首曲子使她胸中充满了渴望。
• His heart burned with longing for revenge.他心中燃烧着急欲复仇的怒火。