| Issue Date: May 15, 2005
America the diverse
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Annual Travel Report
Road Trip: Contest closed GPS Locator Software and the 'Roadsides" book
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America the diverse: Our country offers an amazing range of faces, plus an array of wonderful places to see them. Join us for a look at 11 diverse spots, each equally American.
This year's spring travel report began with a question: What does America see when it looks in the mirror? The answer, confirmed by a glance around our offices, was a variety of things. It all depends whose mirror it is and who's looking. Thanks to our heritage as a sanctuary for seekers, strivers, refugees,
realists and dreamers from the world over, America presents an amazing range of faces -- and an array of fascinating places to see and celebrate them. We couldn't include each thriving ethnic enclave (a thorough survey would practically require stopping wherever two or more Americans gathered), so we did our research, talked to friends, polled experts and winnowed a master list down to 11 communities whose pride reflects the glory of America.
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Hmong community of St. Paul
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Hmong began arriving in Minnesota just 30 years ago, after the Vietnam War ended.
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According to the 2000 census, some 1.1 million Hmong immigrants from Southeast Asia reside in the United States. More than any other city, they make their homes in St. Paul, where the official count is 25,000. (Local officials place the combined Minneapolis-St. Paul figure at more than 60,000.) Hmong began arriving in Minnesota just 30 years ago, after the Vietnam War ended. In the heart of St. Paul's University Avenue district, where an estimated 250 Hmong-owned businesses -- markets, clinics, day-care centers, financial firms, restaurants -- have helped revitalize an urban neighborhood, the Hmong Cultural and Resource Center presents exhibitions about Hmong history, culture and life in the United States.
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Ohio's Amish Country
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Get a sense of the religion at the Amish and Mennonite Heritage Center.
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In eastern Ohio, rolling hills yield postcard views of patchwork farms, and cars share narrow roads with horse-drawn buggies. Home to nearly 40,000 Amish, the Holmes County area is the nation's largest Amish enclave. Get a sense of the religion at the Amish and Mennonite Heritage Center. At Schrock's Amish Farm, take a buggy ride and tour a working farm. The Alpine Hills Museum in Sugarcreek features exhibits on the pioneer era. Lehman's in nearby Kidron specializes in hand tools, oil lamps and other necessities of Amish life. B&Bs, country restaurants and craft galleries dot the region, peaceful any time of year.
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Chicago's Polish neighborhoods
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Their hometown is second in Polish population only to Warsaw.
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For a million-plus Polish Americans, "Second City" has special resonance: Their hometown is second in Polish population only to Warsaw. Official records indicate that one Antoni Schermann (Smagorzewski) became Chicago's first Pole in 1851. By the 1920s, the city was the worldwide capital of Polish immigration. The legacy lives on in Avondale, northwest of the Loop, where Polish-speaking doctors and lawyers are almost as prevalent today as restaurants serving up pierogis, galumpkis and sausages. In truth, no single neighborhood is big enough to contain the Poles of Chicago. Their influence is visible in such institutions as the Holy Trinity Polish Mission and the Taste of Polonia festival, which draws 30,000 revelers each Labor Day.
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Little Havana in Miami
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The longest conga line on Earth (119,000 strong in the record year of 1998) fill 15 blocks of the neighborhood's main artery.
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Each year on the last Friday of March, more than a million people descend on Little Havana for the Calle Ocho festival, the country's biggest Hispanic street party. Food vendors, costume parades, merengue bands and the longest conga line on Earth (119,000 strong in the record year of 1998) fill 15 blocks of Southwest Eighth Street (or Calle Ocho), the neighborhood's main artery. Cuban emigres began colonizing the area after Castro's revolution in 1959; subsequent waves of mass migration, including the "freedom flights" of 1965 and the Mariel Boatlift of 1980, brought hundreds of thousands more Cubans to Miami, firmly establishing Little Havana as a political cauldron, culinary mecca and economic engine. Highlights for visitors include the Paseo de las Estrellas, a Latin American Walk of Fame; Cuban Memorial Boulevard, a greenway filled with monuments to Cuban patriots; and Maximo Gomez Park, known as Domino Park, where old-timers gather daily to swap gossip and games.
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Dearborn, Mich.: Arab-American capital
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When it opened this month, Dearborn's Arab American National Museum became the first major cultural institution dedicated to the Arab-American experience.
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When it opened this month, Dearborn's Arab American National Museum became the first major cultural institution dedicated to the Arab-American experience. Standing directly across from Dearborn City Hall in the heart of America's largest Middle Eastern community, the 38,000-square-foot museum reflects the rising political and cultural influence of Michigan's nearly half-million Arabs. Recognition has been a long time coming. Middle Eastern immigration to the Detroit area began in the late 19th century. A generation later, the auto industry drew thousands more. Political strife in the Middle East after World War II spurred a second wave that continues today and encompasses Lebanese, Iraqis, Syrians, Palestinians, Egyptians, Jordanians and more. Language barriers, religion, ethnic stereotyping, and crises in the Middle East often have conspired to isolate Arabs in America, never more so than after Sept. 11, 2001. The new museum promises to foster understanding of a complex and diverse community.
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Cajun Country of Louisiana
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Gumbo is more than good food. It's a metaphor for a uniquely zesty culture.
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In tidy New Iberia, said by writer James Lee Burke to possess America's most beautiful Main Street, gumbo is more than good food. It's a metaphor for a uniquely zesty culture. French-speaking Acadians drifted to southwestern Louisiana in the late 18th century, after the English drove them from Canada. On fertile land bounded by winding bayous, the wanderers put down roots, becoming planters, ranchers and defenders of a way of life that values family, the outdoors, good music and great food. The culture thrives in New Iberia and the surrounding 22 counties of Cajun Country, where travelers can marvel at historic sites like Shadows-on-the-Teche, an 1834 manor built by a sugar planter; zap taste buds at a factory tour of McIlhenny Co., makers of Tabasco; meander through the moss-draped Jean Lafitte Scenic Byway; and dance a Cajun two-step to work up an appetite at New Iberia's annual Gumbo Cookoff.
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Barrio Historico in Tucson
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Explore on foot, making sure to light a candle at the outdoor shrine to El Tiradito, a herder who was killed in a lover's dispute in 1870.
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Long before the 1853 Gadsden Purchase placed southern Arizona under U.S. jurisdiction, the city of Tucson was a Spanish colonial outpost. When Mexico achieved independence in 1821, Tucson became part of the new country. Those transnational links survive in downtown's Barrio Historico, whose 150 adobe row houses make up our country's largest collection of traditional Sonoran architecture. The 20-block neighborhood is entered on the national Historic Register. Explore on foot, making sure to light a candle at the outdoor shrine to El Tiradito, a herder who was killed in a lover's dispute in 1870. According to legend, pilgrims whose candles stay lit through the night will see their wishes come true. Nearby, El Minuto Cafe, est. 1936, dishes out Sonoran cuisine as authentic as the neighborhood. It's a perfect place to celebrate the contributions of Mexican immigrants to American culture.
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Harlem in New York City
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Guided tours reveal the fascinating layers to inquisitive visitors.
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By turns chic and shabby, Harlem is many things to many people. To historians, it's the legendary cultural capital of Black America, populated by Southern transplants in the early 20th century and put on the world map by W.E.B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston and other bright lights of the Harlem Renaissance. To jazz aficionados, it's the Savoy Ballroom, blowing sessions at Minton's Playhouse, the Cotton Club, Ellington's "A" Train, and the Deco-delicious Lenox Lounge, whose famous Zebra Room once belonged to Billie Holiday. To culinary tourists, it's down-home soul kitchens and upscale Creole-fusion restaurants. To real estate developers, it's a hot business opportunity in upper Manhattan, ripe for trendy clubs, pricey new condos, office space and superstores. To its many residents, it's home: a richly woven community that has weathered good times and bad, has deep Southern roots, big Northern savvy, a storied past and a bright future that will be influenced in untold ways by a current boom in immigration from Africa and Latin America. Guided tours reveal the fascinating layers to inquisitive visitors.
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Cherokee Nation in Tahlequah, Okla.
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How the Cherokee people arrived in eastern Oklahoma from southern Appalachia is not a pretty story.
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How the Cherokee people arrived in eastern Oklahoma from southern Appalachia is not a pretty story. What they did once they got there is a triumph of the human spirit. Upon arriving in Tahlequah in 1838 at the end of the 800-mile Trail of Tears, the people built a public school system, published bilingual newspapers and enacted representative government -- 70 years before Oklahoma gained statehood. Today, Tahlequah is the political, cultural and commercial capital of both the Cherokee Nation, the country's second-largest tribe, and the United Keetoowah Band. At the Cherokee Heritage Center in nearby Park Hill, visitors can learn history, research genealogy, take nature tours, watch performances and explore re-created villages. Its very existence is a tribute to the perseverance of the Cherokee and, by extension, all Native Americans.
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Little Tokyo in Los Angeles
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At the Japanese American National Museum, housed in a soaring pavilion designed by modern architect Gyo Obata, visitors can learn about the Japanese experience in America.
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Before World War II, some 30,000 Japanese lived, worked and went to school in the downtown neighborhood known as Little Tokyo. The residential population never recovered from the internment of Japanese Americans during the war, but the four-block area remains the undisputed cultural hub of L.A.'s vast Japanese population -- one of the largest outside of Japan. Attractions include restaurants; shops specializing in Japanese-language books, magazines, manga and anime; traditional gardens; and Buddhist temples. At the Japanese American National Museum, housed in a soaring pavilion designed by modern architect Gyo Obata, visitors can learn about the Japanese experience in America. The Japanese American Cultural & Community Center presents Kabuki drama and other performing arts. Visit during the Nisei Week festival, held every August, when Little Tokyo comes alive with parades, traditional dancing, athletic events, Taiko drumming and lots of sushi and noodles.
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Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, N.Y.
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The new residents came from the former Soviet Union by the tens of thousands.
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Few neighborhoods have weathered as much change as Brighton Beach. The heart of the nation's Russian Jewish community was born as a seaside resort in the Victorian age. By the 1920s, it had fallen out of fashion, creating a void that was filled by Eastern Europeans fleeing the aftermath of World War I. For the next 50 years, the sounds of Yiddish floated freely over a broad boardwalk. As the children and grandchildren of immigrants moved out to the suburbs, the neighborhood's ebb was turned back by a second wave of immigration starting in the late '70s. The new residents came from the former Soviet Union by the tens of thousands. Import shops now line the commercial strip under Cyrillic lettering, vodka flows at glitzy nightclubs, and families fill restaurants for bar mitzvahs. Through all the changes, two things have remained constant: Brighton Beach's glorious boardwalk, and its promise of a better life.
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Trip-friendly cars
By Everett Potter
If your family tends to take driving vacations, there's a bewildering fleet of compact wagons, decked-out SUVs and spacious minivans competing for your attention. Here are a few things to consider before visiting a car dealer.
Don't buy too much car. It's important to have a vehicle big enough for your family and gear, but remember that you'll be driving the same car after your vacation is over. If a sedan meets your family's needs 50 weeks of the year, it will probably work just as well during your annual summer vacation.
Think fuel efficiency. Hybrid vehicles, which combine a gasoline engine with a battery-powered electric motor, generally get better gas mileage than a conventional vehicle -- plus, they curb pollution. Although the number of hybrid models available is limited, hybrid SUVs and sedans are starting to roll onto the market. Hybrids do tend to cost more than their gas-only siblings, but their fuel savings help offset the higher sticker price. Better yet, through this year, buyers of hybrid vehicles qualify for a one-time "Clean Fuels" tax deduction of up to $2,000.
Stick with a basic engine to improve your vehicle's fuel efficiency and emissions. But if you plan multiple trips towing a trailer or a boat, then a larger engine will do a more fuel-efficient job than a smaller one.
Do you need four-wheel drive? All-wheel drive or four-wheel drive is great if you live in an area with severe winter weather. But in milder, sunnier climes, they're not a necessity.
Don't neglect safety. Look for a vehicle with side curtain airbags for all seat rows to protect occupants' heads in the event of a side-impact collision. Traction control, which redistributes power when one of your tires begins to spin and lose traction, is also important. And stability control increases traction during potential side-skidding situations.
Check your tires. One helpful safety feature is a low tire pressure warning system. If you're traveling to remote places, look for vehicles with run-flat tires, which have stiffer sidewalls that support the vehicle's weight. Another option is the self-sealing tire, which has an extra lining coated with a puncture sealant that can permanently seal small holes.
Maximize space and storage. Seek out station wagons, SUVs and minivans that offer 60/40 split-seat designs and fold-flat seats to make it easier to configure your vehicle. And opt for roof racks, which let you transport everything from bicycles to roof storage boxes.
Skip the DVD option. It's true that drop-down video monitors can keep your kids peaceful on a long ride, but it's an expensive extra. Consider a portable DVD player instead. They're cheaper, and your kids won't expect to watch The Incredibles every time you pull out of the driveway.
Cover photograph by Richard Cummins
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