Blaxicans And Other Reinvented Americans Summary

Richard Rodriguez article, “The Chinese in All of Us (1944)”, argues that many different cultures have contributed to making up the American culture. Rodriguez backs up this claim by sharing

In this article Mexicans: Pioneers of a Different Type Gonzalez gives us an outlook different from what we generally read when taught about American History. His effort is to explain how each of the different Latino groups came. What was happening in their home towns that caused them to leave. If people want to accept it, eventually they will have to. That this country is bound to go through an enormous Latino population explosion. Gonzalez writes “Mexican Americans meanwhile, face a frustrating identity problem like that of Puerto Ricans” (pg97). Being a Mexican American myself I could agree that it is at times frustrating identifying. We are either too American to be Mexican. Or too Mexican, to be American. In 1749 because of what was called the promise

Hispanics have been immigrating to America since the beginning of the Spanish Colonial era. Up until the 1920’s Mexican Americans have boomed in rural places in america. The 1920’s was meeting the beginning of a renaissance, a better promised life for both native americans as well as immigrants. Businesses were booming, wages were higher, and the industry was creating a bright future for America. However, Mexican Americans continued to face hardships as well as few successes leading up to the 1920’s. Whether these were Native born Americans with a Hispanic background or newly immigrated Mexicans, Mexican Americans faced the hardship of poverty, discrimination, segregation, and struggles during the 1920’s.

Richard Rodriguez in the article “Blaxicans’ and Other Reinvented Americans” is suggesting that instead of America having a Canadian model of multiculturalism they should adapt to the Mexican or mestizaje model. He then gives examples throughout the article of different cultures assimilating with one another, and how whether or not we like it, it is going to happen. He being a Hispanic man, assimilates to the Chinese culture because he grew up in a Chinese neighborhood and it had an effect on him in a way to where he felt that he himself was Chinese not by race but by culture. A survey was then conducted in 1997 that based the race relation in America and was only concerned with the white and black Americans. It is no longer about the race you are, it is about the color of your skin. He gives examples on the different types of multiculturalism among other cultures.

After I readied Chapter one of Takaki’s book ‘A different Mirror’, he let me have a lot of different reviews about American history. In this book, the author Ronald Takaki focus study race and ethnicity inclusively and comparatively, and he writes " we will focus on several of them that illustrate and illuminate the landscape of our society's diversity." I am from China and I am an Asian American just like Takaki. People always thoughts American’s people is white or black. I remember when I was in The US Army, A group people talked about who they are and where are they from. One white man said I am an American, he looked at me said you are Chinese and he looked at other person said you are Mexican. Why he think he is an American, and another rice is not an American. Most of the American textbook does not have a lot of information about multicultural, but

I find it interesting that while Rodriguez and Anzaldua came from comparable backgrounds they feel very differently about similar issues. Rodriguez believes that education should not be bilingual for children who come from Spanish speaking homes. Anzaldua on the other hand thinks that people should not be squashing the culture of these people, and should do what they can to help them preserve it. I think that in that sense one could compare Anzaldua and Rodriguez to the idea of American culture, as each are one extreme of how we view it. On the one hand we have Anzaldua, the idea that America is a melting pot, combining all of the different cultures of the different people living here to come up

Segmented assimilation combines multiple elements and because of this is able to provide a different perspective. Zhou discusses how this theory recognized the fusion of immigrants in America but acknowledges that the complete assimilation of becoming American is not always beneficial (999). Giving the diverseness of America to retain what culture and values one was raised on can benefit the migrant in various ways. Especially giving the many cultural organizations established to assist immigrants. I enjoyed the article and agreed with a majority of it. Zhou understands the benefits and consequences of maintaining and losing any cultural values you migrated with. Her perspective on Gordon’s theories were clarifying in some sense. However, I believe the assimilation process for second generation is a difficult thing to narrow down. Zhou’s theory that where an immigrant is placed in system describes success and assimilation. This perspective is new and frighteningly eye opening. Where you are “placed’ in system would have dramatic effects on one’s assimilation and ability to

The latest survey by the US census portrayed the big change that is happening after the influx of Latinos in the country. There is a Latino identity that’s neither white nor black she mentioned, and it is a positive identity. It appeared that 48% of latinos claimed to be white. Classifying themselves as whites connotes that they have already assimilated to the American Culture The survey wrapped up that there is a considerable demographic shift identifying Latinos to be increasingly aligned with the color that that defines America. On the other hand, 42% of Latinos marked other race, and 2% claimed to be black. Even in the census, to be white signifies the dominance and the notion that it is better than non-white. People who look similarly share the qualities that are perceived to be alike. They usually enjoy similar success and suffer similar sorrows. This method of collection racial data augmented debates however it revealed many things. It is undeniable that the cultural and social construction of Latino in the US is growing exponentially and the race and ethnicity that used to define and unite them has now become the margin that split them

Kottak, Conrad Phillip and Kayhryn Kozaitis 2012 On Being Different, Diversity and Multiculturalism in the North American Mainstream, 4th edition, McGraw Hill Press, New York: Chapter 8. (textbook)

The United States wanted to expand its territory toward the West and the Southwest during the Market Revolution in search for raw materials. After gaining its independence from Spain in 1821, Mexico was left “destitute, reducing its ability to supply the establecimientos as before.” Aside from that, Native groups such as the Apache and the Comanche returned to raid its supply. They continued to raid Mexico, especially Texas. Eventually, the Native groups reached the outskirts of Mexico City. To create a buffer zone between Mexico and the Natives, the Mexican government opened its border in Texas and welcomed new settlers. Most of these settlers were Anglo-American. By the end of the 1820s, “Anglo-American outnumbered Mexicans in Texas 12,000 to 5,000.” The Anglo-American brought with them cash crops that helped flourished the economy of Texas.

The writer portrays a people too conscious to lose their culture. Hence, they establish ethnic organizations, business, cultural institutions that would meet their varied “social, cultural, economic and political needs” (Miguel 6). Supreme in these establishments’ values was to selfishly guard “Mixicanist identity” (Miguel 6) by encouraging dual identity that was “neither American nor Mexican but a synthesis of both” (Miguel 10). The title, Brown, Not White is perhaps a reflection of this consciousness. In a country that has spanned decades clinging to nothing else but color binarity of white versus black, Mexican Americans find it hard to identify with either of the two. The Mexican Americans feel aggrieved by the mistreatments they continually receive from the whites, identifying with the African Americans whom they considered inferior in the American pecking order is unfathomable. The emphasis on the title, Brown, Not White is, therefore, a reflection of the Mexican American’s struggle with the problem of identity in the face of the looming assimilation from the most dominant

modules gives many examples how strong cultural pasts lead to identity problems in a new society. Also, the module shows us that many Mexicans were not happy with the stereotype formed about their identity. In Between the Lines, we see how Mexicans in America suffer through harsh discrimination, while trying to stay close to their relatives and culture. The letters talk about how Whites did not have concerns with family values or cultural beliefs. Whites based many of their values off succeeding in the economy. Whites in general had no regard for Mexicans as people.

In this Chapter I feel that Anzaldua is trying to get the reader to understand the differences and atruggles amongst cultures. The clash of cultures results in mental and emotional confusion. Living inbetween more than one culture, you often get opposing messages from these cultures. Sometimes when living within the Chicana culture common white beleifs conflict with the beleifs of the Mexican culture. They both hold beleifs of the indifinous peopel and their culture. It creates a problem that the dominant cultures views and beleifs are defiant to the others. This is very wrong because it creats the problem of one being superior to the other. This especially relates to the Mexican culture and white culture. This creates the assimilation problem when one culture is not accepted or considered below another.

Lawrence W. Levine approaches the issue of ethnic relations in a slightly different light in his book, “The Opening of the American Mind”. He focuses on the two central components of the entire matter: One-way Assimilation (the melting pot ideology) and Cultural Pluralism, given that the two other models (Ethnic

The United States is called a melting pot because in this one country, cultures and people from all over the world have converged to unify under one flag. Author Samuel Huntington writes in his article "The Hispanic Challenge," that unlike other populations who have changed their identity when immigrating to the United States, many of the Mexican and other Latinos who have come to the country are not assimilating or modifying in order to fit in with the majority culture. Further, he believes that the refusal to do so is more than just a population which is determined to maintain a unique identity, but rather a danger to the foundation of community on which the nation is based.