Advakian Cultural Identity

Cultural identity involves the formation of an individual’s solid qualities that influence on how different the individual reflects on the cultural phenomena and people surrounding him. In addition, cultural identity is the feeling of an individual’s belonging to a group. Indeed, this identity can be inherited or built by the influence of surroundings. Indeed, the question of the cultural identity of the immigrants has been studied by many scholars. Many argued that their identity is fixed and connected to the homeland; however, others illustrate that cultural identity is shared and collective. In fact, one of the scholars who believes that identity is never complete but constructed is Stuart Hall, a Jamaican-born sociologist and cultural theorist.

Regarding the question of her faith, Advakian was not a religious person and the church hadn’t “inspired” her. Advakian’s identity building process was not easy. Arline was trying to shape her identity with a goal of being American through religion. Simply, if her problem was religious, by 1953 [1] there were diffident kind of Armenian churches to attend like the Armenian Protestant Church. At the same time, she was going to church just for the sake of becoming an American. She states “As I understood it, real America went to church every Sunday or at the very least, every Christmas and Easter.” She didn’t go to Armenian church because she belongs to an Armenian heritage; however, she went there because she wanted to be more American. This become obvious later when Advakian realized that “the whole [ church] experience made [her] feel more Armenian and less American”. She did find her desired identity in the Holy Cross Armenian Apostolic Church. Hence, she started to search for different churches to construct her American identity. She stood against her family believes and preferred going to the Presbyterian church. Although she had never been there before, the Presbyterian church represented one of the typical American Churches, simply because “Americans went there.” Advakian saw the true image of America in the Presbyterian church. Later on, she continued shopping for a religion in order to ensure her American being. According to her, Catholics are recognized as Americans. Therefore, adopting Catholicism was a road to the