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they came from and what they were doing. They nation is that one people can be made from
5
said, ‘We’re the Khan family.’ I said, ‘Well, that many, yet in each new generation we find reasons
doesn’t mean anything to me.’ ” to limit who those “many” can be — to wall off
Who the Khans are and where they came access to America, literally or figuratively. That
from and what they’re doing here is a long story, impulse usually finds its roots in claims about
6
and a quintessentially American one. The history who we used to be, but nativist nostalgia is a
of immigrants is, to a huge extent, the history of fantasy. We have always been a pluralist nation,
this nation, though so is the pernicious practice with a past far richer and stranger than we choose
Redefining America
of determining that some among us do not to recall. Back when the streets of Sheridan
deserve full humanity, and full citizenship. Zarif were still dirt and Zarif Khan was still young, the
Khan was deemed insufficiently American on Muslim who made his living selling Mexican food
the basis of skin color; ninety years later, when in the Wild West would put up a tamale for stakes
the presence of Muslims among us had come to and race local cowboys barefoot down Main
seem like a crisis, his descendants were deemed Street. History does not record who won.
insufficiently American on the basis of faith. 2016
Over and over, we forget what being 6 The belief that foreigners pose a serious danger to a nation’s
American means. The radical premise of our society and culture.

Understanding and Interpreting

1. After providing an introduction to Hot Tamale Louie’s history in Sheridan, Wyoming, Kathryn
Schulz describes the much later establishment of a mosque in Gillette, Wyoming. What is the
significance of juxtaposing these two events in this way?
2. Why was Zarif Khan’s arrival in Wyoming such a marvelous feat for anyone, let alone for Khan?
3. According to Schulz, early Wyoming was “unusually egalitarian” (para. 12). What reason does
Schulz give for why the territory and eventually the state were perhaps willing to extend some basic
civil rights to people who were denied access to them elsewhere? What were some of these rights?
4. Part of the success of Hot Tamale Louie, as Khan became known, was not only because
of the long hours he worked but also because of his willingness to serve anyone (para. 19).
What was unusual about his service policy given the era? Whom was he willing to serve, and
whom did he refuse?
5. Khan underwent a fairly long process to earn American citizenship, only to have it taken away
from him in less than a year. Why was Khan denaturalized? How does Schulz connect this
event to larger trends of 1920s America?
6. After Zarif Khan’s death, how did his young widow, Bibi Fatima, fend for herself? In what
ways did she and other Khan family members contribute to the “afterlife of the Wyoming
Khans” (para. 41)?
7. What point does Schulz make by connecting Zarif Khan’s denaturalization with the anti-
Muslim sentiment his descendants now confront? How does this point connect to Schulz’s
assertion that “we forget what being American means” (para. 48)?

Analyzing Language, Style, and Structure

1. Vocabulary in Context. In paragraph 9, Schulz traces Khan’s path from Bombay to the
United States and eventually Sheridan, Wyoming. When she concludes the paragraph, she
describes Khan as the “beloved Mexican-food vender, Afghan immigrant, and patriarch
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