Ashley-Mei Bo Lucy Ceceilia Evangelina Giovanna Brucellîa Adellina (Adella) Iosephina Salvatori Torrenti V. – this is the full name of Ashley Torrenti, a 19-year-old girl with Italian facial bone structures and a pair of Asian eyes. However, these beautiful traits were once her biggest concerns. She struggled, and she questioned, “what am I?”
Ashley and her mother Mei Yuk. Working as a strong business woman, Mei Yuk sets a role model for Ashley.
Ashley came from a very broad ethnic background. Her mother has Russian and Chinese descents, while her father has Greek and Italian descents. Ashley’s mother Mei Yuk moved around with her parents and nine siblings when she was only a child. Mei Yuk was born in a very Northern part of China, where Mongolia and Russia meets. With her family, Mei Yuk moved to Fuzhou and Hong Kong. Eventually, when Mei Yuk was fifteen years old, she moved to New York, United States, a place that they viewed as a land of opportunities. Since a very young age, Mei Yuk had known the importance of education. She never got a formal college degree; however, she worked at two restaurants, one of which was run by her family. While working at the restaurants, Mei Yuk always asked managers and business owners questions about taxes, budgets, and management. As time went by, Mei Yuk learned by just talking to people surrounding her. In her early thirties, although without a college degree, she was hired as a teller by Citi Bank. Now, as the vice president of her local branch, Mei Yuk always tells Ashley that “everything you do makes you better, and gets you to a better place in life”.
After her parents divorced, Ashley flew down to Florida to meet her father almost every month. She also mentioned that her parents would meet together for her birthdays.
On the other hand, Ashley’s father Ioseph Torrenti has a very different philosophy of life when it comes to exploration life. Ioseph Torrenti is a native born American. Tired of family’s battle for inheritance, Ioseph’s parents decided to immigrate to the United States from Italy in the 1930s to “purposely start a new life”. Ashley’s parents met each other in their early forties and had Ashley in their early fifties. It was a very romantic love story between Mei Yuk and Ioseph when they first got married. However, after they started to live together as a family, they found that it was almost impossible to find similarities among their life values. Mei Yuk is very strict with the daily routine. She must have plans before doing anything, and she practices anti-alcoholism. But for Ioseph, due to his family background, alcohol, especially wine, is a major part of enjoying life. Compared to Mei Yuk, Ioseph is a very impromptu person. As a result, Mei Yuk and Ioseph got divorced when Ashley was still a baby. Mei Yuk stayed in New York, and Ioseph went to Florida.
“Having divorced parents is hard, but having mixed cultural divorced parents in different parts of the country is even harder.”
Although Mei Yuk and Ioseph tried to cover their voices when they were fighting, Ashley knew that her parents were arguing again. Seeing or hearing the differences between her parents, Ashley started to notice the differences between herself and other teenagers. Since very young, Ashley has known that she looks different than everyone else. When compared to her Asian friends, her hair is curly, and her face is more westernized; when compared to her Caucasian friends, her skin is much darker, and her eyes are very different. As a result, during adolescence age, Ashley became very sensitive about how other people perceived her ethnically. Ashley had been in Catholic schools throughout her childhood. “Culturally isolated” were the words Ashley used to describe her feelings in Catholic schools. Below is a sound record in which Ashley describes one of the scenarios she felt she did not fit in.
Ashley with Curly Hair in A Chinese Dress (Qi-Pao)
Ashley: last row, the third student from the right
It seemed to Ashley that she did not belong to any group of students at her primary school, middle school, and high school. She had always considered herself as mix-raced. However, one day at the middle school, when a friend was introducing Ashley to another person, the friend said, “I have this Chinese friend.” Almost immediately, Ashley raised her doubt – why called me just Chinese? Am I not also Italian and Greek? Did I exist differently from what I thought I was? These questions were like constrictor knots; the more she tried to get out of the knots, the tighter they got. When Ashley looked into the mirror, she asked: “what are you?” The worst experience occurred when Ashley was at the last year of high school. A teacher mistook Ashley for a white girl. After Ashley clarified that “Ashley” was actually her name, the teacher asked her whether ‘Ashley’ was her real name or her nickname. She was very embarrassed, and she felt a little insulted. “Ashley is my real name”, said she.
What Ashley went through was the identity crisis, also a collision between family values and social values. What Mei Yuk told Ashley was to be herself; what Ioseph told Ashley was to enjoy herself. However, the experience at school told Ashley to fit in, to be someone else, to let others define her based on their opinions on her. While other people judged Ashley by her name, few of them knew that Ashley has twelve different names: Ashley-Mei Bo Lucy Ceceilia Evangelina Giovanna Brucellîa Adellina (Adella) Iosephina Salvatori Torrenti V. Each name was given to Ashley by an ancestor who is two generation older than her. These names are full of blessings: Mei Bo means treasure; Lucy means light; Evangelina means good news; Brucelia means a person who stands as a strong wall but is open to people who are passing through. . .
Although it was very difficult for Mei Yuk and Ioseph Torrenti to find a common ground, both of them hold American dreams in their hearts; although the way Ashley perceived herself and the way society perceived her are different, Ashley is still Ashley, a girl who is unique. “What am I?” – after constantly seeking the definition of herself, Ashley finally found the answer – “I am the definition of myself.”
Ashley Smiles with Her Father Ioseph and Mother Mei
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