Sitting on a fence

Every year, millions of Americans come to visit Europe. And the name “Europe” is first of all associated with culture. In France only, about one hundred cathedrals dating back to the Middle Ages, thousands of churches that were built in the XIIIth, XIVth centuries and on. Add to this the thousands of châteaux and even more museums. And if we dig deeper in the past, there are also the prehistoric period with the many caves adorned with the carvings made by the first “Europeans” 15 to 20.000 years ago.

Now, France alone isn’t all Europe. As if that wasn’t enough, our American visitor may also travel to Spain, Germany, Great Britain and finally all countries of Europe. And paramount among these countries is Italy where the amount of architectural and pictorial masterpieces is simply suffocating.

How not to feel intimidated with this dizzying artistic wealth?

Our American friends may then be tempted to make a comparison with their country and consider this experience as a humbling culture shock. Don’t we know the prejudice about Americans having no history or culture? What a crock of shit, I tell you!

And yet, whether they like it or not, these European treasures don’t “belong” to modern Europeans, they also are part of the Americans’ cultural patrimony, if not of America’s.

Let me explain: Save for the Africans and the Latinos, the huge majority of American immigrants were Europeans. That is, by the time these cathedrals and churches and monuments were built, when these paintings which fill the innumerable European museums were made, their ancestors were Europeans and many of them took part to the artistic process which now makes the unsurpassable richness of Europe.

Europeans are very proud of the English cathedrals for example, of the Dutch paintings or of the Spanish castles, to name a few…... But Americans can be as proud of these masterpieces since their ancestors contributed to their making. Modern Europeans aren’t particularly responsible for the artistic history of their continent. At least for all that is prior to the XXth century. The only difference is that Europeans still live among the incomparable artistic wonders the American immigrant’s ancestors left behind.

Now a question arises: How is it possible for our American visitors to assert their American uniqueness while sharing a common heritage? Is it possible to distinguish what Americans can claim as being part of their heritage while admitting it’s not part of their country’s legacy? Are these questions another evidence of anti-Americanism when asked by a European or does an American run the risk of being un-American in so doing?

Note: the picture is « Las Meninàs” by D. Velazquez in Madrid