Immigrants: We get the job done. — Alexander Hamilton
Last year, when I was lucky enough to see the Broadway hit Hamilton, this line delivered by the show’s star character ignited raucous applause by the audience.
At this point in the play, the American rebels are about to defeat the mighty British military at the Battle of Yorktown, led by two foreign-born soldiers: Alexander Hamilton and the Marquis de Lafayette.
In the theater where I sat, a sense of recognition swept across the room — acknowledgement for the hard work so many millions of immigrants have performed over the decades, to move our country forward. And while, like other audience members, I felt that this sentiment spoke to our nation’s current political and cultural climate, for me there was another layer of meaning, as well.
In fact, this sentiment reminded me of my own impoverished immigrant father’s journey as an entrepreneur, and his contributions to this nation.
The sentiment further reminded me how, as a kid growing up in the United States, whenever I didn’t finish all my food, my father would swoop in and eat every last bite. He didn’t eat just my leftovers, either, but everyone’s at the table. That’s because he himself grew up in pre-tourism Thailand, when food and money were hard to come by; so he learned not to take either for granted.
He was the first in his family to attend college, relying on a Thai government scholarship awarded to the top student in the class. After graduating, he moved to the United States under a student visa.
Arriving without family or connections, he applied to be a waiter at the local diner and was turned down because of his poor language skills. Even after studying English for years, he was turned away again, from an entry-level restaurant job, because of his limited ability, and his limited visa prevented him from holding other, living-wage jobs.
Out of desperation, he shipped himself some woven reed baskets from Thailand, convinced a Manhattan Bloomingdale’s manager to become his first customer and opened a small wholesale trading company. His business, which imported baskets and, later, silk flowers, grew steadily. But, then, amid this progress, a neglected cigarette started a fire that destroyed the office and inventory.
Undeterred, my father reopened his business. But the silk flower industry fizzled in the early 1990s, and his company fizzled with it. So, he tried again, starting a candle company that exists to this day, after going 25 years strong. In the 40 years since he arrived in the United States, his companies have employed hundreds have and left an indelible mark on the U.S. gift industry.
I made at least a small mark…