Letters to the Editor: On being second-generation and ‘Armenian enough’

To the editor: Lori Yeghiayan Friedman’s op-ed article truly resonated with me. Like her, both my parents were Armenian, and my grandma even came from the same place, Aintab, as her medzmama. (“Finding in Little Armenia the roots my parents tried to bury,” Opinion, Feb. 8)

For children of immigrants who are born in the United States, attending public schools, socializing and marrying non-immigrant Americans, while always having that cultural, religious and even moral tie to our ancestry can be confusing.

As we grow older, we’re more comfortable about how our heritage fits into our daily lives. We want to learn about it and visit our homelands.

The ties that bind us to “our people” are very tight; they are a permanent facet of our identities. But there should be no amot (shame) to our evolution into our present-day culture.

Gloria Sefton, Trabuco Canyon

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To the editor: Friedman sends a very healthy message, not just to us Armenian Americans, but to all ethnic Americans, especially children of immigrants — that we each realize and preserve our ethnicities in different ways and to different degrees, and that’s OK.

Shenorhagalutyoon (thanks), Ms. Friedman.

Susan Injejikian Henry, Glendale