Immigrants to this wonderful country retain a good deal from their countries of origin: old languages, habits and residues of old cultures persist. In some way, this is what makes America — a nation of many peoples with distinguishing characteristics, all living side by side — such a vibrant place. We visit a Brazilian, or Tibetan restaurant one month, and eat Thai or French cuisine on another.

But beneath the waft of exotic culinary smells, roil unseen and unheard tumults of differences of creed or old national divisions. Those keenly aware of nuance of subtle distinction can sift through what is transpiring. The old Indian caste system is a good example.

For thousands of years India’s untouchables have lived a horrific existence. Sadly in America, Indian Dalits have reported being discriminated against by other higher caste Indians in Silicon Valley and elsewhere. California’s legislature passed an anti-caste discrimination law, which Governor Newsom vetoed. Despite that, California State University, our Colorado College and many others have banned caste based discrimination. The recent murder of the Canadian Sikh leader — Hardeep Singh Najjar — by Indian operatives, reflects Sikhs’ desire to establish Khalistan, a Punjabi Sikh homeland.

In Denver an Ethiopian suspected of torturing others was arrested after three former Ethiopian political prisoners identified Kefelegn Alemn Worku as brutally mistreating them in the 1970s Ethiopia. Recent violence and atrocities committed back home has cleaved the local Ethiopian community into opposing camps. Ethiopia’s violent convulsions reflect conflicts along old ethnic groupings: Oromo, Amhara, Somali. From 1991 a Tigrayan led coalition (EPRDF) ruled Ethiopia after toppling the Marxist dictator. The Tigrayans form only 6% of Ethiopia, fought to hold onto power.

The Bosnian tragedy saw American Serbs, Croats and Muslims migrate to their ethnic corners. The same is true about Rwanda’s Hutus and Tutsis; Turks and Armenians.

During one of many Kenyan disputed election cycles I too dropped into a tribal trap when I opined that a visiting election contestant should have invited all Kenyan Americans to his meeting. As an opinion writer mine was a rather benign statement. Many complained to the Editor that I had a tribal motive. More were the vituperative tribal epithets thrown my way.

For the majority of us, living here serves to smooth the sharp edges of our former differences. I write this as a proud American; a true believer in the democratic order, and one who wants to see America continue to lead the world into light and understanding. Democracy is the only system in which humanity can live in relative peace.

I’m happy to say my fellow immigrants’ children believe in a less discriminatory, more understanding world as they view each other with equanimity. I hear of marriage stories between Hindus and South Asian Muslims in America and children from opposing African tribes living together in harmony.

Most children of recent immigrants to America tend to be educated and to hold onto progressive ideas about political wrong and right and about what it means to be a good American. They tend to revere and respect the Constitution, avoiding the caustic, destructive fringes of America; places where Lenin’s Bolshevik philosophy — burn it down so you can rebuild it — seems to flower.

Like their parents who came here from places of great want and deprivation, they believe in the possibility of America. In that belief they tend to help one another, regarding themselves as new Americans.

As a young surgical resident in the 1970s and 80s, I witnessed a war waged between immigrants — Indian and Filipino Residents. Today though, their children look at each other as members of one nation; together pulling their oars of democracy in the same direction.

You see they look at America with new, fresh eyes; an America that’s hopeful, and powerful as the Founding Fathers envisaged. Unlike some older Americans who have stopped believing and too jaded to see, the new Americans see their full potential in it. They work hard, glad their place in the workplace is better than their parents’ had been.

There’s something nurturing in the American soil, that allows disparate seeds planted in it to blossom. Some of them: a good education, lack of foreign accents; freedom — unshackled from political dictators or tribal oppression — ascertain their success. It’s an American phenomenon, that’s repeated again and again; it rewards the new immigrants, even as it makes America a formidable force among the world’s nations.

Pius Kamau, M.D., a retired general surgeon, is president of the Aurora-based Africa America Higher Education Partnerships (AAHEP); co-founder of the Africa Enterprise Group and an activist for minority students’ STEM education. He is a National Public Radio commentator, Huffington Post blogger, and past columnist for Denver dailies.