Assimilation Between Latino Culture And Mass Media

In the film “Mi Familia,” we follow the story of the Mexican-American Sánchez family who settled in East Los Angeles, California after immigrating to the United States. Gregory Nava and Anna Thomas introduce the story of this family in several contexts that are developed along generations. These generations hold significant historical periods that form the identity of each individual member of the family. We start off by exploring the immigrant experience as the family patriarch heads north to Los Angeles, later we see how national events like the great depression directly impact Maria as she gets deported, although she was a US citizen. The events that follow further oppress this family and begins separate identity formations. These

Caminero-Santangelo, Marta. 2007. On Latinidad: U.S. Latino Literature and the Construction of Ethnicity. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida.

Norma Elia Cantu’s novel “Canícula: Imágenes de una Niñez Fronteriza” (“Canícula: Snapshots of a Girlhood en la Frontera”), which chronicles of the forthcoming of age of a chicana on the U.S.- Mexico border in the town of Laredo and Nuevo Laredo in the 1940s-60s. Norma Elia Cantú brings together narrative and the images from the family album to tell the story of her family. It blends authentic snapshots with recreated memoirs from 1880 to 1950 in the town between Monterrey, Mexico, and San Antonio, Texas. Narratives present ethnographic information concerning the nationally distributed mass media in the border region. Also they study controversial discourse that challenges the manner in which the border and its populations have been

Gloria Anzaldua, an American writer, passionately displays her mixed feelings of the Spanish and American differences of culture and language through the pages of How to Tame a Wild Tongue. She consistently proves her identity through the use of Spanish language in the text, albeit the text is primarily in English. However, Anazaldua is not a Mexican citizen, she still feels so deeply connected to its’ culture. Even so she can speak English and has struggled with the barriers that arise, she continues to claim that her culture and language make up who she and the other Chicanos are and it is highly valued to them.

Young Chicana women typical expectations are to follow the parents’ rules. In the films “Mosquita Y Mari” and “Real Women have curves”, the young Chicana women resist these gender cultural norms. The resistance of these gender norms is not a challenge to others but away to voice the opinion that I am my own person and not somebody else.

In Gloria Anzaldua’s Borderlands/La Frontera, she uses her own personal experiences growing up and living near the border that separates the United States and Mexico. Anzaldua makes us reexamine the purpose of a border and the negative effects that come with it. Since she lives close to the border, she cannot completely identity herself as an American nor would she be able to call herself Mexican. As a Chicana, she did not know where she belonged in society. The two cultures she lived under put her in this constant state of transition. The struggles she faces strongly resembles the ones that Piri Thomas faces in his novel Down These Mean Streets. Despite the fact that Thomas was actually of Puerto Rican and Cuban descent, many people failed to recognize him as such and saw him as an African-American.

A life in the city of Seguin, Texas was not as easy as Cleofilas, the protagonist of the story thought it would be. The author, Cisneros describes the life women went through as a Latino wife through Cleofilas. Luckily, Cisneros is a Mexican-American herself and had provided the opportunity to see what life is like from two window of the different cultures. Also, it allowed her to write the story from a woman’s point of view, painting a vision of the types of problems many women went through as a Latino housewife. This allows readers to analyze the characters and events using a feminist critical view. In the short story “Women Hollering Creek” Sandra Cineros portrays the theme of expectation versus reality not only through cleofilas’s thoughts but also through her marriage and television in order to display how the hardship of women in a patriarchal society can destroy a woman’s life.

The American Minority Authors opens the reader eyes of the struggles of acceptance within the society, and how their heritage and their American culture can coexist. Minority writers, Cisneros, Eastman, and McKay, through their stories, give us insight of their cultural heritage and the struggles they have with society embracing diversity. In Sandra Cisneros, story “Geraldo No Last Name”, speaks of a Latino immigrant who does not speaks English living in America. The narrator of the story even put a label on him calling him a ”brazer”(Cisneros,1989, para 4), is a slang word for a migrant worker(Garling, 2007).

For Perez, Chicana/o history is not resolvable and must continually be debated and comprehended as multiple and unstable. Perez, like other Chicana theorists, initiates an added dimension that recognizes that woman’s voices and their stories have become subordinated to a colonist racial mentality and to a male consciousness. Perez argues that the quintessential historical accounts. Women become appendages to men’s history, the interstitial ‘and’ tacked on as an afterthought’ (12). Nevertheless, Perez also suggests that even though some stories have not been told, does not define their existences, asserting, “Chicana, Mexican, India, Mestiza actions, words spoken and unspoken, survive and persist whether they are acknowledged or not” (7). The task of locating the voices of the Chicana are often discharged or lowered by the dominant groups.

We are robbed of our female being by the masculine plural. " This evidence shows how derogatory labels and subtle language erasure are both examples of linguistic gender discrimination in her culture. Anzaldua highlights the struggle of Chicana women facing direct verbal marginalization and systemic erasure within the linguistic framework. She advocates for recognizing and valuing female expression to redefine identity and achieve equality. Through this gendered analysis, Anzaldua's narrative evolves from suppression to linguistic resilience, demonstrating a journey from cultural constraints to self-expression.

Currently Sandra Cisneros resides in San Antonio in a purple house and she describes herself as “nobody’s mother” and “nobody’s wife.” Both Frida Kahlo’s and Cynthia Y. Hernandez’s works convey the idea of having one’s culture limit one’s freedom and individuality. Cisneros and Esperanza are both victims of this idea and realize that the only way to live one’s life freely is to defy the roles and limitations created by one’s culture.

Anzaldua identifies as a part of an emerging new mestiza consciousness and community, which strives to move beyond simple dualistic thinking and endeavors to “act and not react” This important contradiction lies at the heart of Anzaldua’s analysis. “From this racial, ideological, cultural, and biological cross-pollicization, an ‘alien’ consciousness is presently in the making — a new mestiza consciousness, una conciencia de mujer. It is a consciousness of the Borderlands.” (Anzaldua, 1987, 420). Anzaldua’s proposition of the new consciousness mediates social relations, revolutionary social change, and its wider relevance to feminist theory through discussions of the Borderlands and its implications for ‘identity.’

Gloria Anzaldúa writes of a Utopic frame of mind, the borderlands created in and lived in by the new mestiza. She describes the preexisting natures of the Anglos, Mexicanos, and Chicanos as seen around the southwest U.S. / Mexican border, indicative of the nations at large. She also probes the borders of language, sexuality, psychology and spirituality. Anzaldúa presents this information in various identifiable ways including the autobiography, historical/informative essay, and poetry. What is unique to Anzaldúa is her ability to weave a ‘perfect’ kind of compromised state of mind that melds together the preexisting cultures while simultaneously formulating a fusion of genres that stretches previously

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.

Sandra Cisneros’ short story, “Never Marry a Mexican”, indirectly underlines her perspective, her interpretation, judgement, and critical evaluation of her subject, the work and its title. This perspective is evident in her use of literary devices, diction, and language structure in her narrative. The purpose of the use of these elements in the way that she does is ultimately linked to understanding her viewpoint on the subject. The author’s perspective is embedded in the meaning of the story and its theme. Her interpretations are valid, and justified in detail throughout the story to add color and vibrancy to her characters. Her judgment is lightly touched upon but only clearly and directly given at the end of the story, to allow the