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| Pakistani
men adjust to life in Lodi
There is a house in the 700 block of South Central Avenue where Pakistani men gather regularly and spend their afternoons debating politics, munching on snacks and relaxing in each other’s company. Khan Bahadur, a Lodi man who immigrated from Pakistan in 1972, and four members of his extended family live in the house, but many others make it home. The residence is known to much of the Pakistani community as the “White House,” said Raja Khan, another Pakistani immigrant who lives in Lodi. “It’s a special location and people often discuss politics there,” he said. Bahadur, considered by some to be among the most respected Pakistanis in Lodi, is the host to whoever wants to stop in and chat or just hang out, Khan said. Bahadur said anyone is welcome. “Many of the men who come here are related, closely or distantly,” Bahadur said. “We’re all from the same small region in Pakistan.” The Pakistani men of Lodi have come in the footsteps of their countrymen, who first immigrated to the San Joaquin Valley in the 1920s. They come hoping to make homes and raise families here, and many work at blue-collar jobs to reach those goals. Most of the White House’s visitors work the fields around Lodi and many still dress in their traditional Pakistani clothing, Bahadur said. They eschew alcohol and drugs, though some indulge in the use of tobacco, and many visit the mosque daily, if not more often. In their leisure time, they play cricket and soccer, and socialize at hangouts like the White House. Most do not speak English, said Khan, who estimates that around 80 percent of Lodi’s Pakistanis are not fluent speakers. But at Bahadur’s White House these men from a distant, foreign land make themselves very much at home. “It’s normal for single men to hang out in groups like this in Pakistan,” said Khan, who himself is married and lives with his family. “Once married, the lifestyle changes.” Khan is married to a white woman and prays on Fridays, the traditional day of prayer for Muslims. Bahadur, 66, who speaks English with a thick accent, is among the older generation of Pakistani immigrants in Lodi. He attends mosque five times a day when he is not working at the cannery. During work days, he visits the mosque once a day, but makes up for his missed visits by praying for longer periods during the single visit, he said. Like many of his visitors, Bahadur works seasonally in Lodi for Pacific Coast Producers. His White House is one example of a place where Pakistani men go to socialize. But despite Bahadur’s stature within the Pakistani community, this slice of Pakistani culture in the heart of a Lodi neighborhood is still a mystery to many non-Pakistani Lodians, Khan said. And conversely, the majority of Pakistanis in Lodi have yet to fully integrate into American culture, he said. “The 80 percent who don’t know English rely on the 20 percent who do to help them with their paperwork and other official business in America,” Khan said. For those Pakistanis who have a broad command of English, the transition into American culture is much easier, he said. But for those who cannot speak English, assimilation into the American culture is not so easy. Although there are adult learning centers in Lodi, such as Lodi Adult Learning School on Cherokee Lane, it is far more difficult for grownups to pick up the language than for children. “The Pakistani community in Lodi is like an iceberg. There is more to it than meets the eye,” Khan said, referring to what he considers to be a collective shyness among Pakistani immigrants. Across town, in the 400 block of Sonora Avenue, lives a Pakistani man who has consciously tried to break down the barriers that Khan speaks of. Nasim Khan has made Lodi his home with his wife and three children for over 20 years. Like Bahadur, he goes to mosque daily for prayer. After attending high school in England, where he learned to speak English fluently, Nasim Khan’s transition into American culture was significantly smoother for him than for some of his peers, he said, because he already knew the language. Nasim Khan works as a machinist at Applied Aerospace in Stockton and has lived in the United States since 1979. He speaks English fluently and is an active member of the Lodi community. Like most of his Pakistani peers in Lodi, Nasim Khan came to America with the dream that he could find a better quality of life than was possible in Pakistan. He has accomplished his goal, as he believes most Pakistanis here do, but he also knows that there is much to improve on in Lodi’s Pakistani community. “Most Pakistani people don’t speak English. They are afraid to go out and interact because of that. But it does not mean they do not want to interact,” Nasim Khan said. He thinks many of the misconceptions about the Muslim culture come from a misinterpretation of this shyness, and he wants to do something about that. These misconceptions are what leads to the negative stereotypes that were particularly apparent in America after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Nasim Khan said. But he cites his own family’s transition into his Lodi neighborhood on Sonora Avenue as a good example of the type of proactive interaction between Pakistanis and other Lodians that is necessary in order to get ethnic communities together. “One woman who lives nearby us was a little suspicious of us when we first moved in because we looked different,” he said, “But we introduced ourselves and sent them fruit and had small talk. “Now that neighbor goes to church and tells people that the Muslim community is peaceful and family oriented. That’s because she knows us.” |
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Contents »Pakistanis leave their native land to find Lodi |
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