Our Stories
An Introduction to South Asian America
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Our Stories Companion Website
Ch. 1 Ch. 2 Ch. 3 Ch. 4 Ch. 5 Ch. 6 Ch. 7 Ch. 8 Ch. 9 Ch. 10
Chapter 10: Family

Explore this chapter:
• Punjabi Mexican Families
• Double Identity Trouble
• Love across Caste Lines
• Race, Gender, and Transnational Parenting
• Growing Up Desi
• Finding Love, Forming Family
• “His Cycle as Pradip Was Done”: Losing a Father in Philadelphia
• “A Series of Migrations”: Losing a Father in Texas

Punjabi Mexican Families
By Karen Isaksen Leonard
Page In the book For further exploration
365 See the image in SAADA's archival collections.
366 See the image in SAADA's archival collections.
366 "An Oral History Interview with Amelia Singh Netervala" Inset Discover the rest of Amelia Singh Netervala's oral history interview in SAADA's archival collections.
367 See the image in SAADA's archival collections.
368 "Joti Singh's Half and Halves" Inset Read more about Joti Singh's art in "A Family of Fighters" published in TIDES.
368 Further Reading Read more about Punjabi Mexican families in:
Karen Leonard, "Punjabi Farmers and California's Alien Land Law," Agricultural History.
368 Further Reading Read the rest of Karen Leonard's book:
Making Ethnic Choices: California's Punjabi Mexican Americans.
368 Further Reading Read more about Punjabi Mexican families in:
Karen Leonard, The South Asian Americans.
Double Identity Trouble
By Shiwani Srivastava
Page In the book For further exploration
370 Read more from Jessica Namakkal's "Peanut Butter Dosas" in TIDES.
370 "Tongue Tied: Kutchi Across Borders" Inset Read more from Omme-Salma Rahemtullah's "Tongue Tied" in TIDES.
Love Across Caste Lines
By Kavita Pillay
Page In the book For further exploration
375 Discover more of Kavita Pillay's work, including her "Caste in America" series produced with funding from the Pulitzer Center and in partnership with WGBH Boston.
Race, Gender, and Transnational Parenting
By Nalini and Ganesh Iyer
Page In the book For further exploration
379 "Roots and Reflections: South Asians in the Pacific Northwest" Inset Read more from Amy Bhatt's and Nalini Iyer's Roots and Reflections: South Asians in the Pacific Northwest.
381 "Echoes of the Dotbusters" Inset Read more from Raj Haldar's "Indian Americans Won't Be Safe as Long as the White House Is Inciting Fear" for the Washington Post.
381 See this image and others in the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center's "Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation" exhibit.
382 Further Reading Read more about South Asian American immigrant families in:
S. Mitra Kalita, Suburban Sahibs: Three Immigrant Families and Their Passage from India to America.
383 See the image in SAADA's Road Trips Project.
384 "Vijaya Subramaniam's First Days" Inset See more in SAADA's First Days Project.
384 "Maganbhai Patel's First Days" Inset See more in SAADA's First Days Project.
Growing Up Desi
By Mallika Iyer
Page In the book For further exploration
386 "Ali Khataw's First Days" Inset See more in SAADA's First Days Project.
387 See the image in SAADA's archival collections.
388 See the image in SAADA's Road Trips Project.
389 Further Reading Read more about second-generation South Asian Americans in:
Bandana Purkayastha, Negotiating Ethnicity: Second-Generation South Asian Americans Traverse a Transnational World.
389 Further Reading Read more about young South Asian Americans Muslim immigrants in:
Sunaina Marr Maira, Missing: Youth, Citizenship, and Empire after 9/11.
Finding Love, Forming Family
By Vega Subramaniam and Mala Nagarajan
Page In the book For further exploration
391 "Good Girls Marry Doctors" Inset Read the rest of Preeti Aroon's "Good Girls Marry Doctors: Brave Voices on Daughterhood in South Asian American Families" in the Aerogram.
391 "Good Girls Marry Doctors" Inset Read the anthology: Good Girls Marry Doctors: South Asian American Daughters on Obedience and Rebellion, edited by Piyali Bhattacharya
392 "Stranger Intimacy" Inset Read more from Kritika Agarwal's "Forbidden Desires and the Racialization of Citizenship" in TIDES.
392 "Stranger Intimacy" Inset Read the bookStranger Intimacy: Contesting Race, Sexuality, and the Law in the North American West, by Nayan Shah
394 "Queer Brown Feelings" Discover more from Mustafa Saifuddin's "Queer Brown Feelings" and their oral history interview with Aveena.
395 Further Reading Read more about queer South Asian diasporas in:
Gayatri Gopinath, Impossible Desires: Queer Diasporas and South Asian Public Cultures.
395 Further Reading Read more about South Asian American politics and activism in:
Monisha Das Gupta, Unruly Immigrants: Rights, Activism, and Transnational South Asian Politics in the United States.
395 Further Reading Read more about queer Asian American experiences in:
Russell Leong, Asian American Sexualities: Dimensions of the Gay and Lesbian Experience.
395 Further Discovery Discover more about Trikone at trikone.org.
"His Cycle as Pradip Was Done": Losing a Father in Philadelphia
By Amber Abbas
Page In the book For further exploration
397 See the image and read more about Anandibai Joshee in SAADA's archival collections.
399 See the image in SAADA's First Days Project.
"A Series of Migrations": Losing a Father in Texas
By Amy Bhatt
Page In the book For further exploration
402 See the image in SAADA's First Days Project.