Empathy Is The True Catalyst For Understanding

When reading Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, I was reminded about the struggles of being an immigrant in the United States with all of the barriers with learning a new language and culture. I really saw this when it came to all Spanish words that are written in the book. To be able to understand her own culture, the reader has to have a basic understanding of Spanish. Culture is really taught through language, and there is a lot missing if the reader does not have this basic understanding. When immigrating to the States, people have to learn English not only to communicate well, but to fill out paperwork, and to understand the culture. For this essay I am going to focus on one story that resonated a lot with me when I was reading

America is a melting pot with so many cultures, however I didn’t know my own culture to begin with. On my way to school I began to I wonder about my own culture, and what unknown knowledge lies under the tales of other minorities. With my hunger to satisfy my need to learn more about my culture, I took a Chicano Studies college course. This has to be one of my favorite academic subject because I was told many different facts and statistics of the Chicano population, from the pregnancy rates of young women to the social experiments done on Chicano students from grade school to high school. This passion to have the Chicano perspective be seen was what led me to try and get at least a Chicano based unit in English classes. However, it was denied

Being a Mexican-American, who was raised in the small town of Encarnación de Díaz – located at Los Altos de Jalisco, MX, – and then moved at the age of seventeen to Corpus Christi, TX, was not a smooth transition. The most difficult things I have encountered in my life must have been speaking a new language and adapting to a new type of living. I was fortunate enough to have amazing teachers who taught me to read, write and speak in English back in Mexico, but I was still not confident enough to speak the language when I arrived here. Although, many have told me that my English doesn’t sound as if I just moved here five years ago, I still believe I have so much more to learn.

    As I read the “Hunger of Memory” I noticed that we share a lot in common with the protagonist Richard Rodriguez, who is also Mexican and faced a similar situation like Thai immigrants (Rodriguez, 1-5). In fact, we have a couple of common interests and ideas regarding education, race, and language. As the prologue begins, Richard narrates how he feels a disadvantaged boy due to the tension between the public and his private identity. He regrets having adopted the English language the fact that is has reduced the intimacy

“I love my Mexican heritage and culture. It’s a part of me and a way of life that has been passed down from generations.” He said and went on to tell the class about his family, his hard working mom, their cultural traditions, their family values, festivities, the food they ate, language they spoke at home, music they loved and so much more. He even told them about Tally. To his surprise, the class listened and asked questions, showing more than a hint of curiosity. No one teased him, or whispered behind his back.

In the two readings “The Achievement of Desire” by Richard Rodriguez and “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, the similar idea presented in both text is that students whose families come from immigrant background tend to work the hardest as in adapting to the English language. The reading by Richard Rodriguez provides a different message of how him coming from Mexican heritage had to adapt to the school environment in the U.S., albeit he was able to obtain academic excellence. However, having success in education cost him to be isolated and to have less communication with his family. Richard as a student was able to develop strengths in literacy and grammar thanks to his immense curiosity and habit of reading books. Since he would read many different books, he was able to gather different points of views and perspectives.

Growing up in Puebla, Mexico it was difficult for my father to possibly dream of attending school and learning the basic reading and writing that today is a privilege to current generations. For instance, I can still reminisce on those bright sunny mornings in which my father would take me to school, his constant words, “Estudia para que seas alguien importante, para que tengas un mejor futuro” always made me ponder what he meant. Till one day he sat me in the kitchen while my mother’s cooking filled the air and he explained to me all the reasons why he wanted me to follow a path to greatness. My father came from a poor family where education wasn’t seen as important, and school was out of my father’s reach; till one day his mother enrolled him into an elementary. He mentioned that, that day was a day he will always cherish, although his happiness didn’t last long; money was scarce and it became essential for my father to go work in the fields with my grandfather. My father often cried but wouldn’t let his father see the tears in his eyes, his dreams were crushed to pieces, he couldn’t attend school and had to work under the intense heat of the sun at the young age of 6, but what he was always grateful for is spending time with his father. As the years passed he found the courage at the age of 30 to attend school and teach

Arlene’s parents came to the United States each looking for a better life. They found work, each other, and had children, girls whom they sent to good schools to learn English. They always told their girls that they could do anything that they wanted in America. So, when they grew older, Arlene and her sister attended college, became professionals, and had English-speaking, American children of their own. Arlene’s family story is a nostalgic one – one that evokes sepia-toned images of hopeful European immigrants stepping off, onto Ellis Island. However, Arlene’s family story has a twist: her last name is Garcia and she is a not a child of European immigrants but one of Latino parents.

Empathy is the ability to understand the situation and share the feelings and also be able to identify a client's experiences. A counsellor must be able to imagine how it feels to be in a client's shoes and manage to understand the situation from their point of view. "Empathy has been described in different ways: walking in another's shoes, entering into another person's frame of reference or having the ability to experience life as the other person does by entering the person's world of thoughts, feelings, emotions and meanings", (Martha,2012) .In the other hand, the good counsellor still have the ability to be understanding even though the they are not agree with the client's perspective in order to solve the client's issues effectively.

The next aspect that we are going to talk about is race. Growing up race wasn’t something that was around. While in grade school there were one or two Hispanic students but other than that there weren’t any racial differences in my school. When I went to high school the number of Hispanic students increased but otherwise that was it. We didn’t treat any of these students any different just because of their race. Around town there were Hispanics as well but there was never anything that caused problems. When I was very young I always found it interesting to try and listen to the Hispanic people talk to see if I could pick up any words that they said since I was learning Spanish in school. When I went to Central Community College this is when race was really shown to me.

In July of 2007, I migrated to Planada, California from a rural town in the mountains of Durango, Mexico. This event was the beginning of my educational journey, my liminal identity and has fundamentally shaped the person that I am today. I was born and raised in a tiny rural village call El Palmito, in the Mexican state of Durango. El Palmito lacks many resources and opportunities for women: I remember that our school consisted of only one room, with only one poorly trained teacher to teach grades zero through nine. When I was thirteen years old I immigrated to California with my parents, however my parents were not able to adjust to the lifestyle here and decided to go back to Durango. Wanting the best for me and my education, they allowed

At the age of seven, I was enrolled in public schooling in Mexico. Being a Mexican American student in a public Mexican institution, but most importantly, being a woman, opened my eyes to the cross cultural disparities faced by women in underdeveloped communities as well as the similarities carried on through cultural ideologies.

My parents had seen their desires to go to college truncated by the lack of financial resources in their rural Mexican town, yet that never stopped them from inflicting on my siblings and I the incredible importance that lies behind having an education. However, as I grew older, it became harder for me adhere to my original Mexican culture and upbringing. The more I tried to assimilate to the “American” lifestyle, the more I was tempted to detach myself from my family’s Mexican roots—language, culture, and all. When I was younger, I enjoyed translating for both my parents; I thought it was cool to feel needed and useful. However, as I got older, I realized that my parents had no idea how to read bank statements and that they had always depended on me a little too much. It hurt me to resent my parents for not being able to travel about our community without my help. It hurt me to realize that my parents struggled with basic math. I wanted to continue thinking that they were the brightest people I have ever met—I wanted to run to them when I had questions in English class or did not understand how to multiply— but the reality was that, in aspects like language and culture, they needed me more than I was allowed to need them. It has been hard seeing my parents in this new light because they provided me with so much and I did not want to treat them differently—they were my heroes, and here I was, projecting my Americanized outlook that belittled them for their inability to add and subtract basic amounts from their paycheck. What hurt the most was the temptation to look down on them for not being able to accomplish menial things that American society deemed

In my original personal narrative, I mentioned that I grew up in a mostly white middle class town with a 15% Latino population. In some ways, I grew up in a town that is in the forefront of a national discussion about increasing multiculturalism and acceptance of Latino Americans. We have come to realize that not all illegal immigrants are criminals here to do us harm. Some are people who have been here many years, raised families and contributed to our society. During my childhood, I had friends that were Korean and Latino descent, and I am grateful to have experience with those diverse cultures. In this class and in a previous teaching class, I worked with and got to know students of different ethnicities. We learned in class about legislation that would provide English learners with more support while they are assimilating and learning English (Buenrostro,2017). This can only benefit everyone as we raise the level of proficiency for the newest students. We Americans may have different cultures and traditions, but we all have value that can add to our society. I hope to continue my ethnic studies to further my understanding of other cultures. With the power of knowledge, we can break down barriers and stereotypes.

Social Justice is defined as “the equal distribution of opportunities, rights, and responsibility despite differences in physical traits and/or beliefs and behavior. It is an international and multifaceted issue that fights for better treatment and equality of people.” (“Pachamama Alliance,” 2017). According to this definition, my understanding of social justice is that it is a way to advocate for other individuals in order to assist their needs in society. For example, I would want to advocate for Hispanic mothers and children who have been through abuse. My empathy towards this group started because of my personal history with an abusive father who suffered from alcoholism. “Empathy involves thinking about a person and the challenges he or she is facing and coming to understand what it is like for that person to have that experience.” (Cameron & Keenan, 2013, p. 72).