Carmen Anton Research Paper

“Becoming American” is short film that informs the viewer about the process of immigrants getting jobs in America. Immigrants both gain and lose many aspects of what make them who they are when coming to America. This film teaches many things that people don’t probably know about Hispanic immigrants and allows others to understand what immigrants stand for.

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

Throughout life, every individual must face obstacles; some more difficult than others. In the story “The Trip” by Laila Lalami, poem “Exile” by Julia Alvarez, and article “Outlaw: My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant” by Jose Antonio Vargas, there is a main character who has to face many challenges because of the fact that they’re immigrants. In all three texts, it is evident that being an immigrant has many affects on their lives. However, this label and the obstacles that come with it didn’t stop each character from pushing forward.

Through interviewing my roommate Linda Wang, I have gotten the opportunity of hearing a first-hand account of what it is like being a young immigrant living in the United States. At the age of eight, Linda, along with her father, mother, and aunt, emigrated to America. Linda’s family currently resides in Bayside, Queens and she is a student-athlete on the St. John’s women’s golf team. Linda was kind enough to share her immigration story with me so that I may use it as a manifestation of what life as an immigrant, and the immigration process itself, entails.

I had the opportunity to interview Mrs. Maria G. Rivera. She Is a hardworking mother who came to the united states at the age of 13 since then she hasn't left. She has no desire of going back to Mexico and considers America home. I had the chance to dig deep into her early life history, which I will talk about in the next paragraph. I learned how much she values her children and how much she cares for them, which Is the reason why she decided to make a move and come to the United States because she was thinking of her future kids and didn't want them to experience the harsh life she lived when being a young girl.

On March17 , 1985 Richard had bought a .22-caliber revolver from a guy off the street (Carlo). He also had stolen a car from a gas station then hopped on theLos Angeles freeway looking for his next vicim. While on the freeway he seen Maria Hernandez driving her gold Camaro home after having dinner at her boyfriend’s in Monterey Park (Carlo). Hernandez was a petite , attractive brunette with large round eyes and clear olive skin (Carlo). When she exited the freeway she made her way to a residential community of 46,000 in the suburbs of Rosemead. Ramirez followed her for three blocks until she slowed down to make a right into a new condominium community on Village Lane. Maria exited her car holding her keys and brown leather pocketbook. When she went to pushed the button to close the garage door , Ramirez snuck in and dropped his AC/DC hat.

Interestingly enough I never learned about the history of Puerto Rico while in school. The curriculum during my grade school years never included Puerto Rican history. It is interesting that there is a whole month dedicated to Hispanic heritage and not once did we touch upon the history of Puerto Rico. When reading the book by Ray Suarez I found that there were many instances where oppression, racism, and discrimination were portrayed. Ray Suarez speaks about Isabel Gonzalez a young pregnant Puerto Rican woman who wanted to move to the United States with her fiancé who was an American citizen. However, while on her way to New York a new regulation was passed that changed her immigration

The author Sonia Nazario goes on this journey to get the feel of what immigrants do in the real world. She wrote this story that way us readers understand the struggles immigrants go through daily. United States citizens do not realize there is a growing number of immigrants daily. Enrique’s mother Lourdes left him at such a young age with a lot of responsibilities, that children should not have to worry about. Lourdes wanted nothing but the best for her children, therefore she traveled all the way to the United States, that way she could make a lot of money to support her children. As a mother she did not want her kids to have the life she did. Throughout Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario, the author includes emotional and logical appeals, accurately supported by statistics and personal accounts that give perspectives on the same issue of immigration and Enrique living without his

When reading through the different perspectives in Cristina Henriquez’s The Book of Unknown Americans, each perspective provides a different sense of emotion as each individual travels to the United States in search of the American dream. In Alma, Arturo, and Maribel’s case, the family travels in search of more adequate health care and better school systems to suit Maribel’s needs after her accident. By taking in their perspectives, it is nearly impossible not to root for their characters. Although immigration is such a pressing and more challenging topic to debate in the United States, the book raises the question of, “Wouldn’t you do the same for your family?” There are a numerous amount of influences in making this decision that tell what we should and should not believe when addressing this issue including family, friends, the media, politics, etc. With these influences, it is difficult to make an unbiased decision.

Jose's story was truly inspiring to me, he came to this country not realizing he wasnt exactly called an American. He found out at the DMV and then ran back to his grandparents asking them what the DMV meant, after that he begin to stand up for himself. He faced some problems growing up not exactly being called an "American" like possibly not being able to attend a field trip out of the country. But Jose's teacher did something amazing, she turned the whole trip around and made sure they would stay in the United States so Jose would be able to go. I think this teacher is a wonderful lady and I would love to become half the teacher she is.

The first step to helping Sofia, Diego, and Carlos transition it is good to understand their heritage. American’s are focused

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.

Do you ever depend on your mother and see her as a hero? Certainly, Olga Rivera is a Supermom that I can always count on. She helped her three sons that have health conditions. The first son she gave birth to had a disease called asthma. Her second son was born with a hearing impairment. And lastly, she gave birth to a son with a mental condition called Cerebral Palsy.

As the class continued I have been exposed to many different articles, authors, and videos. I have enjoyed all of the reading and videos thus far. I had a few of the assignments stand out to me, and take a deeper meaning than others. One of the activity’s that I had a strong opinion on is one we covered most recently in class named “One Last Time”, written by Gary Soto. This article has stood out to me the most this semester because it is strongly related to me and my family. My mom’s sister, Aunty Patty about 10 years ago married a Mexican guy that goes by the name of Paul Gonzales. He is from Mexico and has crossed illegally with his three brothers and 3 nephews with I am very close to. They came over to America hoping for a better life and hoping to make more money. They were stuck doing many jobs under the