A Scene From The Film ' Selena '

To help me understand and analyze a different culture, I watched the film Selena. The film tells the life story of the famous singer Selena Quintanilla-Pérez. Not only does it just tell personal stories from her life, it also gives insight to the Mexican-American culture. Her whole life she lived in the United States, specifically in Texas, but was Hispanic and because of that both her and her family faced more struggles than white singers on the climb to her success. Even though the film is a story about a specific person, it brought understanding into the culture in which she lived. Keeping in mind that these ideas that I drew about the Mexican-American culture is very broad and do not apply to every single person in the culture, there

During the poetry reading, a woman motioned Cofer to a table and thought “that [Cofer] was a waitress” (Cofer 108). Cofer was carrying a notebook, yet the woman assumed Cofer was a waitress because she is a Latina. This demonstrated that people assumed that Latinas have the role of a housemaid, similar to the stereotype of Mammy from Gone with the Wind. If Cofer was a different race, she would not experience these incidents. The media’s poor portrayal of Latinas negatively affect how they are viewed in the real-world, especially when they hold such

Stereotypes have a way of getting inside your head, and sometimes you end up in a tough situation without even knowing it. In the novella, House on Mango Street, author Sandra Cisneros describes the lives of several women of who live on Mango Street. In the community, stereotypes are given to women, which most of them succumb to. The girls tend to get married young to someone they do not love and end up trapped. Very few women actually made the smart decisions and made a successful life for themselves without a man. Despite the power of negative stereotypes given to women in Esperanza’s community, individuals who are strong and determined enough can overcome the unfavorable outcomes.

Many young second generation daughters of Mexican heritage has grown up with a distinctive gender norm. In the midst of the second world war, the expression of freedom and equality spread throughout the country. This initiates for women to become more tuned to the social affairs the men had left behind. Thus, immigration brought a lot of Mexican families into Los Angeles. Double exposure to familial expectations and the American way of life brought in a sense of desperation of trying to balance both. The second generation daughters who have been exposed to the loudly spoken

Linda illustrates how the way we view Hispanics is what holds them back from fully growing in our society. This is mainly done through discrimination that withholds them from attaining jobs or opportunities that halts their overall progression up the ladder. The U.S. census and many other federal agencies confirms that the Hispanic race, much like any other race, works had to make a decent living and support their families. This depicts Hispanics as a race that shares a common norm of all others, yet is still treated as if they are the bottom rung of society. This is actually not the case when

The experience of existing as a woman is a universal one, only experienced differently as discrete colors that separate one woman from the next. With these different colors, characterizations, of what it means to be a woman, it is however, easy, to find a plethora of shades between works that enlighten another meaning. In Gina Prince-Bythewood’s 2014 film, Beyond the Lights we get a glimpse into a singer’s life at the top, and in Josefina Lopez’s Real Women have Curves we get a glimpse into a group of hard working Hispanic women who work at the heart of Estela’s success, her factory, the Garcia Sewing Factory. Although life as a superstar is promised with complete riches and happiness, Noni shows the inaccuracy of that notion. On the other hand, life as newly legal residents in America living paycheck by paycheck is promised towards adversity and unhappiness, yet Estela and her family and friends prove that notion is not as accurate as the aforementioned notion. Through Noni’s mother, Kaz, and Kid Culprit, Noni becomes a presence in the music business, and through Estela’s mother, sister, and friends, Estela ultimately comes to own her own boutique. These two works are analogous in their exploration of the expectations from Noni and Estela’s mothers, and the influence of those who surround Noni and Estela have over their lives, but are different in the types of love that affect their drive in life. These similarities and differences are evident through the contrasting nature

Selena was born into the musical family. Selena was a Mexican popstar actually a popstar all around the world. She has one brother and one sister. Her brothers name was Abraham and her sister was Suzette. Her dad played in a band called Los Dinos. He quit his music career to start Selenas. She will be forever remembered. Selena grew up in Mexico, died violently, and is remembered by thousands today.

Many Hispanic women now desire higher education and professional standing rather than their culturally defined homemaker and housewife roles. In the film The Changing Role of Hispanic Women, Hispanic women describe themselves as “more towards looking for a future” while holding a strong sense of family, yet letting education take priority in their lives so they can be able to pass something onto their children since these women in fact are “aggressive, and they go out for what they want” ("The Changing Role of Hispanic Women"). These self-depicted traits alone show the newly found desires of Latinas which bring with them a shift in the societal roles of these same

In this chapter, bell hooks describes her experience with class privilege in college. Her race and socioeconomic status made her stick out from her classmates, which made her a target for their stares and torments. Her financial situation also made it hard for her to get into a college that she felt comfortable at. Hooks’ struggles ultimately made college hard for her, and left her feeling bitter and troubled about her achievements.

She has little interactions with her father, other men, and even boys; she even shares that she fears them (Cisneros 49). This further validates the gender hierarchy in place in Chicano culture. These interactions between parent (or anyone contributing to their socialization) and child that aid in gender identification can cause boys to later negatively repress any feelings of femininity in order to be perceived masculine like their fathers (Chodorow 87). This, then in turn can serve as the explanation of the common subordination of women, specifically in Mexican-American culture. On Mango Street, even as children, Esperanza’s younger brothers, don’t speak with her and

Throughout the essay, Lugo-Lugo uses personal experiences and builds bridges with her audience to further establish emotional appeals. Carmen Lugo-Lugo is a woman of color, specifically a Latina. Latinos have become so stereotyped, that people’s portrayals and descriptions of them have become so ingrained in their minds that

Women cannot have rights, women are objects. In the midst of the Trujillo Era, women in the States were fighting to be more than a man’s play thing. More than a man’s sex doll. In the recently published novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, author Junot Diaz over objectifies women in an era where women are fighting for equal rights just across the ocean. The novel is later set in a more modern time period where stereotypes can be broken. The relationship between mother and daughter serves as an example for the differing mindset two generations can have on a specific topic but also how similar they can be. Diaz’s novel breaks the mold for many of the typical stereotypes; the guapo Dominican male, the sexual women, the nerd. Through techniques like tone and diction, Diaz

Whilst Mexican Americans were looked down upon as a whole minority, it could be said that female Mexican Americans were in an even worse position than their male counterparts, with little or no input permitted whatsoever. Female actresses in the film are demoted to supporting actresses or dancers in comparison to the heavily male orientated cast who have leading roles. According to Fregoso (1993: 659) ‘Chicanos and Chicanas became visible in public discourse as ‘social problems.’ Moreover, Chicanos became foreigners in their own country which led to the increase of so called ‘gang culture.’ In attempt to counter act the media and public perception of Chicano culture Fregoso (1993: 660) explains ‘Valdez deconstructs racist images of Chicano youth as ‘gangs’ or social problems, depicting the male members as victims of racist institutions… the male subjects are reversals of dominant depictions of Chicano masculinity.’

What does it mean to be labeled “socially-deviant” and have negative connotations associated with your race, gender, and your sexuality during your most crucial developmental years? I believe that our history in this country as women of color, rather we are aware of it or not, greatly informs our present and our future. Drawing from sociology and history scholars like Thomas Sugrue, Antero Pietila, John Rury and Richard Rodriguez, I want to explore how U.S. societal structures have shaped the school experiences of African-American and Latina girls living in urban city centers. Also pulling from sociologists that pioneered concepts of Black feminism (Patricia Hill Collins, bell hooks, and Audre Lorde), Latinx feminism (Julia Alvarez and Alida Nugent) and through qualitative field research, I also plan on uncovering how Black and Latina female students have shaped their own identities and cultural notions of femininity. Through further exploration of the respectability politics of sexuality and racial constructs of femininity, I hope to uncover implicit and explicit biases educators/school administrators have about Black and Latina girls and how that impacts their relationship to school and/or educational attainment. Like the works of Lisa Delpit and Signithia Fordham, I want to capture how the biases educators,

Black women deal with challenges every day whether it’s because of their race, gender, class, education, religious or sexual ties. When it comes to Black women we tend to view their issues as either race or gender related to the exclusion of other aspects of their identity and their intersectionality (Bryant-Davis 114). The show Insecure, an HBO comedy series created by Issa Rae, focuses on the sisterly bond between two young professional black women living in Los Angeles. The show demonstrates the challenges that black women face on a regular basis, whether it’s finding love, navigating a white dominated workplace, battling stereotypes or finding their identity. Although Insecure deals with many important sociological issues, my focus in this paper is the representation of Black women in the workplace, specifically in a white dominated environment and the microaggressions they encounter in their attempt to succeed in their careers.