Old European Homelands in the American Middle West

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between ethnicity, homeland, and the promotion of place among descendants of Old European immigrants in the Middle West. Using the census of 1890 and the location of contemporary ethnic heritage festivals, we identify a homeland for these diverse groups. The preponderance of these public events attests to the strengthening ties to an ethnic heritage and place for hundreds of communities across America's heartland To investigate more closely the paradox associated with the rising interest in ethnicity from groups once considered to be fully assimilated, this article focuses on two sample communities: Cambridge (45 miles north of Minneapolis, Minnesota) and New Glarus (26 miles south of Madison, Wisconsin). We identify and explore five public expressions of ethnic culture which serve as windows into the cultural codes of these places. Ethnic heritage celebrations, landscape, museums, voluntary associations, and homeland visits reinforce a sense of place and homeland but the extent of expression is dependent on the existence of community leaders and a receptive cultural milieu. The study supports the view that for some groups ethnic identification has become an increasingly symbolic factor in American life and that the symbols employed result from selective refashioning and reinventing.