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C onn ect i ng C u ltu r es T hrough F am i ly and F ood

regret coming for even one minute.” Although Ahmed and Salwa had important jobs in their native land, between the two of them they earned the equivalent of about $60 each month. That was not nearly enough to raise their children, Hassan and Rana, and the new baby that was on the way back in 1995. That year, Ahmed read in an Egyptian newspaper that the United States was holding a lottery. Winners would get a green card, a document that allows people from other countries to move to America to live and work legally. To his surprise, he won, and he excitedly (but nervously) made plans to travel to New York, where a distant cousin owned a street cart and sold quick, inexpensive lunches. It was hardwork, and his cousin was always looking for reliable help. Ahmedwas worried about leaving his children and his pregnant wife, but he realized that this was the best chance he had to give his growing family a better life, so he set off. Following in Others’ Footsteps T hefirst significantwave of MiddleEastern immigrants beganarriving in America in the late 19th century. As Ahmed would do more than a hundred years later, many came for the chance to earn more money and increase their standard of living. Some, however, came to escape religious persecution in the Ottoman Empire . Their identification cards and passports had been issued by the Ottomans, and confused US immigration officialsusedtheterms“Turks,”“Armenians,”and“Syrians”interchangeably. Most of these immigrants were single young men who practiced Christianity and didn’t speak much English. Many dreamed of earning money in the United States and then returning home to find brides from