Growing up Chicana I was told that it is very important to know my cultural background and the importance of the word Chicano/a itself, but as a kid it was hard to understand something that even adults today still struggle with. When people heared the words latino or chicano they often would think of someone who spoke spanish or was born in a spanish speaking country, but for someone like me who does not speak spanish nor was born in a spanish speaking country, I became very disconnected from my chicana background and it wasn’t until the beginning of last year where I began to finally understand what it really meant to be a chicano. I was given the chance to join a program called La Raza Youth Leadership that helps teach latino students
Being Hispanic means two different things to me, and I find myself to be a pendulum swinging back and forth between them every once in a while. On the one hand, being Hispanic means that people will always assume things about me that may or may not be true. I’m part Mexican, so I must like spicy foods, right? My last name is Fuentes, so I must speak Spanish, right? I’m Hispanic, so I must be destined to be a poor minority for the rest of my life, right? To all of these questions, and more, my answer is a firm “no.” Yet, that’s part of what being Hispanic means for me: Constantly dealing with the ignorant people who can’t help but put people into neat little boxes based on skin color or their ethnicity. When I swing to that side of the topic,
As of 2015 the U.S Census Bureau revealed that approximately 116 million families are living in the United States. These families possess their own unique style, culture and set of beliefs. My family, consisting of my married parents and my older sister, are no different in the aspect that we too hold our own set of beliefs. The socially constructed term ‘family’ traditionally is defined as a unit that is related by marriage or blood, share financial responsibilities and care for any children/dependents (Lofquist et al., 2012). Growing up as a Haitian American, my ideas of what it means to be a family have been greatly influenced by my cultures and my religion. The Haitian culture greatly emphasizes family relationships and familial
Through this university I have been able to become involved with various student organizations, including CEPA and the PILOT program. CEPA stands for the Club de Español Para Amigos. This club provides opportunities for its members to practice their Spanish speaking skills, meet and collaborate with organizations that support the Hispanic community, and volunteer in areas that support Spanish speaking community. This club has allowed me to combine my love for Hispanic language and culture, and do philanthropic work. As a Spanish major, it has provided me with the opportunity to network and practice the skills that I have learned in the classroom. Another organization I am affiliated with is the Pilot program. This is a leadership program on campus. As a member of this club I attend a variety of workshops in order to receive credit as a certified leader and then a master leader. These workshops cover topics including diversity, skill building, self- improvement, and leadership programs. This organization has allowed me to grow as a leader, and become a more well-rounded
Edited by several scholars such as Gabriella F. Arredondo, Aída Hurtado, Norma Klahn, Olga Nájera-Ramírez, and Patricia Zanella, this book in particular highlights the development of Chicana identities in the twentieth century by showing “how Chicana feminist writings move discourse beyond binaries and toward intersectionality and hybridity” (Arredondo e.al. 2). What is interesting is how the feminist scholars in this book used different epistemologies and methods in capturing the experiences of the Chicanas which include oral histories, poetry, theatrical performance, painting, dance, music and social science survey. Some of the contributors also combine “analytical tools and cross disciplinary boundaries” (5). The approaches used are very unique as they enables to unravel the Chicana experiences thoroughly and disrupt “the notion of Chicana identity as monolithic and homogeneous” (6). Also, the format of the book which presents articles and then the responses by another activist or scholars offers a very distinct way of presenting critical and provocative analysis. Such format allows the editors to “reaffirm the tensions and creativity of individual and group consciousness that underlie Chicana feminism and scholarship” (Salas 122). From this edited volume, I choose three articles along with their responses. Those articles are Cartohistografía: Continente de una voz/Cartohistography: One Voice’s Continent by Elba Rosario Sánchez (response: Translating Herstory: A Reading
I don't fully understand what 'Chicano Consciousness' means. From what I got in the articles a Chicano is simply a person that identifies as a Chicano. However, there are a lot of people that identify as Chicanos and so there is a common understanding and common ground. I think what makes it unique is that all Chicanos are still very different from each other, but in being different they're the same. I don't know, I think it's very interesting. Also, another thing that struck me while reading was in the article titled ' What is a Chicano'. There was a section where the author said that he was in his neighbor talking to a African-American and told him he wasn't Mexican because he wasn't from Mexico. I had never thought of it this way, it has
n an oral history interview conducted in 2011, Chicana scholar Keta Miranda shared a startling observation about her experiences during the early days of the Chicana/o movement.1 In 1969, Miranda, who was becoming increasingly involved in the student movement in Los Angeles, traveled to Denver to take part in the first Chicano Youth Liberation Conference. She vividly recalls participating in workshops on electoral politics, police repression, and education, all of which were meant to set a nationalist agenda for the Chicana/o movement. The first Youth Liberation Conference responded to a pressing need to unite an array of decolonial struggles for Chicana/o self-determination—from the land-grant movement in New Mexico and Arizona ðled by Reies
Growing up in a Mexican household has many definitive factors. Growing up an Hispanic child means being awoken by loud Spanish music every Sunday morning which sent a reminder to your brain telling you that it was cleaning day. It means having your parents call you names such as precioso, mi rey, and gordo at any age. Growing up in a Mexican household means never having to buy outside food because “there’s food at home”. Growing up in a Mexican household means many things but all these things make us who we are.
There were also a significant amount of connotations for the aforementioned denotation of the term Chicano that arose in the 1960's Chicano Movement. The most important of these was based on the sense of social awareness and political activism that characterized those of the Mexican American hybrid culture who were educated and sought reform due to the facts learned via their education (Gutierrez). College students developed an attitude that greatly resembled that of a sense of entitlement after having learned about their culture and history names that Mexico originally occupied land in California and that in other parts of the U.S. This awareness led these (relatively) young people to become politically active
Chicano society in the United States is still having some issues regarding acculturation and racism. It has been a conflict between Mexican-American and Anglo-American, each fighting to keep their legacy alive, by attacking the other community for many years, since the Mexican American war. Also, the racism against Mexican was and still is a problem, although not as harsh as before. Chicanos are fighting to keep their traditions and history alive.
For our families with Latino roots, we had four speakers; Jesse Farias, Elia Banuelos Padron, Kathleen Cifuents Nekumanesh, and Eduardo Fabian Paramo. Indeed, Jesse, Elia, and Eduardo mention how their parents including themselves had to migrate to the United State for a better life from Mexico, Elia and Kathleen mention how their religion was Catholic, and within Elia’s family they would exhibit male supremacy with strict gender role. I was easily identified with all speakers because I am also a Latina. My parents migrated from Mexico to the United Stated for a better life to obtain the American Dream. I was happy to hear from Jesse that his dad is from Michoacan because my dad and mom’s family are from the same state. Even though I was not
“No te quede en el sol por mucho tiempo te va poner negro” Don't stay in the sun for too long you’ll get black.Those are words that I have heard while growing up. Growing up in a Dominican household the culture and beliefs are really strong. A culture that has been passed down through generations. A culture that has been accepted, however just because it's my culture doesn't mean that I have to accept it. In my family, lighter is better, more beautiful. It's not only my family, in Dominican culture being light skin tone is usually related to beauty and success. However, I don't agree with that, the color of your skin doesn't decide if you will be successful. It is who you are that decides that. It is hard to try to talk to the family about
Growing up, I barely heard the early 2000’s hits blasting from the car radio; instead, Marc Anthony would always serenade us. Growing up, Christmas day didn’t begin Christmas morning; instead Christmas day began Christmas Eve night. Growing up, I didn’t dismiss my heritage; instead, I embraced it. My Latino background defines who I am. Surging throughout my body, my Puerto Rican and Salvadoran heritage has shaped me into the person I am today.
Provided how squeamish I can be, I did not want to become a medical health professional despite my ancestral lineage’s commonality of such professions. This trend led my family to expect me to mirror my grandfather’s career and become a medical physician. My family viewed health care workers as the optimal profession for humanitarian purposes. However, my grandfather believed that an engineer creates solutions to human problems and thus can have a larger human impact than a health professional. I decided to major in chemical engineering as an undergraduate with his words in mind.
In the Preface of Major Problems in Mexican American History Zaragosa Vargas writes, "Nearly two thirds of Latinos in the United States are of Mexican descent, or Chicanos- a term of self definition that emerged during the 1960's and early 1970s civil rights movement. Chicanos reside mainly in the Southwest, the Pacific Northwest, and the Midwest. Their history begins in the precolonial Spanish era, and they share a rich mestizo cultural heritage of Spanish, Indian, and African origins. The Chicanos' past is underscored by conquest of the present-day American Southwest first by the Spanish and then by the United States following the Mexican American War" (xv). When one thinks of a Chicano one thinks of the Mayans and Aztecs, the conquests,
However, many Hispanic families were and in some cases, still are viewed as lower-class citizens. According to Barrientos, “To me, speaking Spanish translated into being poor. It meant waiting tables and cleaning hotel rooms. It meant being left off the cheerleading squad and receiving a condescending smile from the guidance counselor when you said you planned on becoming a lawyer or a doctor” (561). They are not respected in a lot of communities, they live dirty, and they have bad jobs. These stereotypes are reasons why Barrientos did not want to be called Mexican and never wanted to learn Spanish. If diversity had been celebrated when Barrientos was a child, as it is celebrated and honored now, she would have grown up speaking Spanish and being proud of her heritage.