Out of Many, One: Portraits of America’s Immigrants by George W. Bush; Crown Publishers 2021; ISBN 9780593-136966; 208 pages including appendices; $38.
By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO –If this book’s title, Out of the Many, One sounds familiar, it is the English translation of the Latin expression E pluribus unum, the unofficial motto of the United States, which can be found on the back of the $1 bill above the wings of the eagle. Former President George W. Bush decided to include 43 portraits within this book, a number that was not happenstance. He was the 43rd President of the United States.
The immigrants whose portraits he chose to paint included people who worked n government, at his family home, and at the George W. Bush Presidential Library. They were also friends of friends, and represent a wide variety of origin countries and current occupations. As a relatively recent portrait artist, Bush works from photographs, many of them taken by former White House photographer Grant Miller.
The essays accompanying each photograph are unfailingly upbeat, typically telling how the immigrants endured difficult circumstances in their home countries, prompting a move to the United States, where they found freedom and economic opportunity.
Many religious and ethnic groups are represented, including our fellow Jews. Two of them served as U.S. Secretaries of State, Henry Kissinger and Madeleine Albright, born in Germany and Czechoslovakia respectively. Another was a former Israeli, Yuval Levin, who served as a domestic advisor in Bush’s administration, and a fourth was former Russian Lev Sviridov, developer of “large-scale batteries for backup power and renewable energy delivery.”
The book begins with a poem written by another Jew, Emma Lazarus, which can be found at the base of the Statue of Liberty. Its best-known lines are: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
A plurality of the immigrants credited different Christian denominations for helping them to get to America, or for reaching out to them, once they were here.
Bush also included stories about immigrants from such Muslim countries as Bosnia, Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey, Tajikstan, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan; and told stories as well about immigrants from South America, Central America, Africa, eastern Asia, and Europe. Some of the immigrants enjoyed great business successes, and made it a point to share their wealth and to extend opportunities to persons less fortunate than they. Others were figures who made it big in the world of sports such as basketball player Dirk Nowitzki and baseball player Albert Pujols, golfer Annika Sorenstam, and body builder (and later California governor) Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Not all the immigrants painted and portrayed by the former President arrived in this country with documentation, but those that didn’t were able to regularize their immigration status and eventually become full contributing citizens.
Of local interest is the story of Kim Mitchell, an immigrant from Vietnam, who after a career in the U.S. military ran the Veterans Village of San Diego and later became “senior vice president for military, veterans, and government affairs at National University in 2020.”
If there is one strong message that comes through, it is that immigrants who go through the trauma of leaving their homes and settling in an unfamiliar country are grateful for the chances they receive in the U.S. to follow their dreams, and develop unsurpassed loyalty to their adopted nation. Bush calls for a retooling of America’s immigration laws to strengthen this country by bringing more remarkable people within our borders.
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Donald H. Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com