Analysis Of The Book ' The Tattooed Soldier ' Essay

Despite most Americans associating the word “immigrant” with Mexicans, there is a whole wide spectrum to the word “immigrant”. Not only did Mexicans and other Latino groups come to the U.S. to find jobs, but Central Americans also came to the U.S. to escape the chaos that was occurring in their home countries. The Tattooed Soldier by Hector Tobar, illustrates these aspects of power, difference and inequality by describing the story of Antonio Bernal traveling to the U.S. to escape his death by a Guatemalan death squad only to find himself in the same city as the killer of his wife and son. Throughout the novel we see how the discrimination against race, class, gender, and sexuality make it difficult for those who migrate to the U.S. in

Cristina Henriquez’, The Book of Unknown Americans, folows the story of a family of immigants adjusting to their new life in the United States of America. The Rivera family finds themselves living within a comunity of other immigrants from all over South America also hoping to find a better life in a new country. This book explores the hardships and injustices each character faces while in their home country as well as withina foreign one, the United States. Themes of community, identity, globalization, and migration are prevalent throughout the book, but one that stood out most was belonging. In each chacters viewpoint, Henriquez explores their feelings of the yearning they have to belong in a community so different than the one that they are used to.

Jose Antonio Vargas, a Pulitzer Prize winning author, shares his life-long journey as an undocumented immigrant in his text, “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant.” As the title suggests, Vargas attempts to convey to his audience, who likely never has and never will experience anything similar to what he has, what it is like to live as an immigrant in the United States of America. Skillfully, Vargas details the perfect number of personal stories to reach the emotional side of his audience, which is anyone who is not an immigrant. Through the use of his personal accounts Vargas is able to effectively communicate that immigrants are humans too while simultaneously proving his credibility, as he has experience and a vast amount of knowledge

The term immigrant is defined as “a person who comes to a country to take up permanent residence” (“Immigrant”). In her autobiography, Barefoot Heart, Elva Trevino Hart speaks of her immigrant ways and how she fought to become the Mexican-American writer she is today. She speaks about the working of land, the migrant camps, plus the existence she had to deal with in both the Mexican and American worlds. Hart tells the story of her family and the trials they went through along with her physical detachment and sense of alienation at home and in the American (Anglo) society. The loneliness and deprivation was the desire that drove Hart to defy the odds and acquire the unattainable sense of belonging into American

Downtown Los Angeles is one of the busiest commercial centers in the United States. However, the city holds two groups of people in different economic level-the homeless and the working class. Hector Tobar frequently includes the landscape of the setting in downtown Los Angeles in The Tattooed Soldier. The novel is about two immigrants from Guatemala who have moved to Los Angeles. The protagonist, Antonio, takes a revenge on the antagonist, Longoria because he murdered Antonio's wife and son when he was a Guatemalan soldier. Tobar applies a number of metaphors to connect the buildings and freeways in downtown to Antonio's position in the city. Buildings, freeways, and shadows are metaphors for Antonio's economic and social status.

“Legal Alien” by Pat Mora is a poem that describes the life of a Mexican American girl, she was born in America but her parents are Mexican. In the poem Mora mentioned that she is “Bi-lingual, Bi-cultural, able to slip from How is life to Me estan volviendo loca” (Mora 370). She is caught between two cultures. She feels that she does not belong to any society, people from America see her in different ways “viewed by Anglos as perhaps exotic, perhaps inferior, definitely different” (Mora 370), but also Mexicans have a different opinion “ viewed by Mexicans as alien, (their eyes says “you may speak Spanish but you are not like me”)” (Mora 370). In this poem exists the cultural border, she does not fit either in America or Mexico “An American to Mexicans a Mexican to America” (Mora 370). She is confused about her culture, and has a cultural border problem.

The journey of many immigrants is characterized by trauma prior to, during, and following migration. They may be escaping hunger, war, poverty, or torture in their native country. The decision to migrate to host country is not an easy one for most immigrants. People leave behind family members, and often risk their lives to cross borders in order to live a life of freedom and opportunity. Immigrants must endure intolerance and suspicion, while navigating the complexities of assimilating to a language and a culture foreign to their own. If the person enters the country without proper documents, they live in constant fear of being detained and deported. Undocumented immigrants may have to accept jobs far below their skill level, and endure blatant discrimination. If Mario is an immigrant, his volatile behavior may be a result of acculturative stress or immigration trauma

The book I read to better understand and gain sympathy for returning citizens is Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion (ISBN 978-1439153154) by Father Gregory Boyle, S.J. $14 can afford this 240-page autobiography about a Jesuit priest serving one of the most troubled neighborhoods in the most unique way.

Resilience is the power or the ability to return to the original form. “Resilience is born by grounding yourself in your own loveliness, hitting notes you thought were way out of your range” (94). Father Gregory Boyle says this because he knows that resilience is needed in order to change. Resilience is important because we can become better people by doing things, we thought we couldn’t do. In the book, Tattoos on the Heart, The Power of Boundless Compassion, Boyle claims resilience is essential in our lives because it is the key to do better.

Immigrants have the continuous struggle of trying to adapt to a country's language and customs. Tan portrays this struggle throughout the wordless novel; the businessman tries to communicate with other people using symbols and drawings in a sketch pad. Another scene that displays the language barrier struggle immigrants go through was when he first arrived. He was being asked questions in a language he didn’t know and was randomly examined by a doctor; this scene reminds viewers of immigrants landing in Ellis Island for the first time and being examined for potential illnesses. When immigrants move to a different country they need to be careful about what they write or say, anything can be taken out of context based on a country’s history. Post September 11, 2001, after the Trade Center incident that Americans would never forget there was a target placed on any civilian who showed Muslim culture customs, such as clothing or headwear. Events and headlines in the news contradict the ideology portrayed in Tan’s wordless novel; however the story starts to take a sudden

First of all, the setting of this novel contributes to the Rivera family’s overall perception of what it means to be an American. To start this off, the author chooses a small American city where groups of Latino immigrants with their own language and traditions, lived together in the same apartment building. All these immigrants experienced similar problems since they moved from their countries. For example, in the novel after every other chapter the author

During the Mexican-American War the border moved, but the people didn’t. History has shown us that no matter how thick the border might be Latino Americans have a strong connection to their culture and roots; instead of assimilating, Mexicans live between two worlds. The film, Ballad of Gregorio Cortez gave us a perspective of two cultures; “Two cultures- the Anglo and the Mexican- lived side by side in state of tension and fear” . Cortez is running for his life as he heads north, while the Anglo believe that because of his Mexican ethnicity, he would travel south to Mexico. Throughout the film there were cultural tensions and misunderstandings; language plays an important part of someone’s identity, and for many Latino Americans Spanish is their first language. The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez also shows us that language plays an important role, and can cause confusion between two different groups. For example, Anglos refer to a male

When one visualizes Latino culture, the prevalent images are often bright colors, dancing, and celebrations. This imagery paints a false portrait of the life of many Latino’s, especially those that are forced to leave their home countries. Latinos often face intense poverty and oppression, whether in a Latin country, or a foreign country, such is true in Pam Ryan’s novel Esperanza Rising. Ryan chronicles the issues that many Latino immigrants face. The first is the pressure from the home country. Many of the countries face turmoil, and many are forced to leave their homes and culture. Once in a foreign place, people often struggle with standing by their own culture or assimilating to the new culture. Latino authors frequently use young adult literature as a platform to discuss the issues they face, as young adults are coming of age they struggle with their identities, personifying the struggle of old culture against the new culture.

Every immigrant has a personal story, pains and joys, fears and victories, and Junot Díaz portrays much of his own story of immigrant life in “Drown”, a collection of 10 short stories. In each of his stories Diaz uses a first-person narrator who is observing others to speak on issues in the Hispanic community. Each story is related, but is a separate picture, each with its own title. The novel does not follow a traditional story arc but rather each story captures a moment in time. Diaz tells of the barrios of the Dominican Republic and the struggling urban communities of New Jersey.

Dinaw Mengestu, Richard Rodriguez and Manuel Munoz are three authors that have been through and gone through a lot of pain to finaly get accepted in their societies. They are all either immigrants or children of immigrants that had trouble fitting in America’s society at the time. They struggled with language and their identities, beucase they were not original from the states and it was difficult for others to accept them for who they are. They all treated their problems differently an some tried to forget their old identeties and live as regulalr Americans others accepted themselves for being who they are, but they all found a way to deal with their issues.