How To Tame A Wild Tongue Essay

I loved Mexico so much, but after suffering a kidnap attempt my parents decided that the best thing to do was to immigrate to America. Our life in Mexico was set and coming to the states was like starting all over again. Learning a new language, trying new foods, and adjusting to the American way of life was very difficult, but I fell in love with the country that witnessed my birth. During the migration from one country to the other, my family went from having everything to having nothing. I never thought that I would go very far in my academic achievements because I was always the kid who didn’t know English. I was that child who was once called a “Mojado” or “Wetback” only because I didn’t speak the language that everyone else did. Growing up in a neighborhood where drug smuggling was an everyday thing, I came to realize that the only way out of this cycle was through education. As a young boy, I decided that I was going to be bilingual and show everyone who made fun of me that I was capable of being educated in

I’ve always been proud to be Mexican-American. I recognize that this aspect of myself makes me unique. I represent a rich culture with so much to offer. My family immigrated to North Carolina in the late 90’s; however, almost two decades of separation from our hearth hasn’t dulled our Mexican culture and pride. Now, more than ever, it is important for young Hispanics to embrace their roots. It is imperative for young Hispanics to send a message that being American and Hispanic isn’t mutually exclusive. Hispanics, first-generation, second-generation, or even fourth generation, have so much to offer to the United States. I embrace my Mexican heritage- my Hispanic heritage, because I want other young people to do so too. I want to lead by example and one day be able to pass the torch to a next generation of young Hispanics.

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.

Language is much more than a method of communication. Permeated within it are traditions, customs, and legacies of one’s culture. The identity of an entire population is in the distinct vocalizations of their native language. Unfortunately, as a wave of immigrants enters the United States at young ages, many face language barriers that pose significant challenges. Language barriers affect a multitude of immigrant populations to different degrees. This, in turn, causes many of them to abandon not only their native tongue but a piece of their ethnic identity, as well. In Maxine Hong Kingston’s personal narrative,“The Language of Silence,” she describes the difficulties she experienced throughout her childhood with a language barrier as a

I am a U.S. born citizen. My parents moved to the United States in 1984 without knowing anything about this country. Looking for a fresh start and new opportunities, my parents settled in Houston. With hardly knowing any English, my parents knew this was the place to make dreams become a reality. Luckily, I had older siblings to look up to whenever I needed help. Like Lahiri, I was trapped in between two different cultures while I was growing up. At home, I only spoke Spanish, but in school it was English. My habits and customs were different than others. Life as an immigrant’s offspring can be very difficult. As I grew older, I allowed myself to open my eyes and see the beauty of being an American from Hispanic descent.

Social science teaches that a person’s self identity is a reflection of that which other people put on the individual, in other words a person’s behavior steams more from what they see of themselves from someone else’s perspective and less from how they see themselves. In the case of the Mexicans, this concept holds true. From that, which has been studied thus far this semester, Mexicans/ Mexican Americans are good examples of this concept. Their sorted past has resulted in a new kind of Mexican American and perhaps a new kind of Mexican. Certainly the Mexicans American’s experience in this country has brought about some changes from the first generation of Mexicans who were born in this country to those who

It was a wonderful eye-opening experience to interview Carmen Anton, a Spanish immigrant for this project. I learned so many things about how she arrived in American as a small child with only her sister by her side and her strive to become American. The emotional struggles of Carmen and her sister, Elena, were real and I didn’t realize it was that emotionally draining to come to a new country. Her experience showed me how hard it is to fit into a new society knowing absolutely nothing about the world she was dropped into. The fact that she flew here with her younger sister and then live for three months without her parents to guide her in this unfamiliar setting, shows me how strong and brave Carmen was at the young age of eight. When she first came, she assumed it would be like

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

Like many American-born-Chinese children, I did not seem to realize and accept that being Chinese and American was possible and it was something to be proud, not ashamed, of. In Rodriguez’s terms, “ I became more tactful, careful to keep separate the two very different worlds of my day” (598). When I was at school, I portrayed myself as another person than who I was at home. In school, I pushed myself to keep a facade just to make my peers believe I was no different from them; I wanted to be white and share the same ideals as they did. Being surrounded by a drastically different group of people from your own in school leads one to feel ostracized. The ethics and lessons from school is thoroughly enlightening, but you have to give and take. Rodriguez left his heritage behind which widened the gap between his family, yet in return he received a higher

Elizabeth Diaz: She was born in San Francisco, CA to Mexican parents. Automatically made her a U.S. Citizen until this day labeled as full Mexican. Diaz said it was difficult for her to grow up into the Mexican culture, never really fit in. Going to Mexico they would call “gringa” meant “white girl” for being born in America. Living in America same thing you don’t fit in. One thing she dislikes was people labeled her many racist things. For Diaz being a grown woman, she 's proud being Mexican American and learns more about her culture.

“Don’t listen to them,” my grandmother said as she wiped the tears from my face and ran her fingers through my long, black hair. I remember the constant teasing from my peers in elementary school. Growing up in a predominately white neighborhood, my family and I were looked at differently because we were “people of color.” All of the parents who would drop their children off for school in the morning would stare at my father. Growing up, it was incredibly difficult to figure out who I was because I was Mexican and Caucasian with a Puerto Rican step father who raised me since I was three. Thus, his culture heavily influenced me as well. At family parties I was spoken to in English and Spanish with both Mexican and Puerto Rican dialects.

Nevertheless both “culture clash” and this sense of “otherness” within communities creates a harmful effect in society but equally harmful is the alienation that appears as an outcome of their presence. The other tends to feel this alienation most when realizing there is disengagement between them and their society, work, and even at times themselves. Alienation is what a Hegelian theorist would call the essence, for it is what both of these ideas are factored out to. Coco Fusco’s book “English is Broken Here” does an adequate job of bringing to the forefront those themes through her compilation of essays from other Latino/a and herself.

I, Oscar, was born in the city of Santa Ana, El Salvador, the second of 5 children of a very poor family. I was raised in El Salvador up to the age of 15 years old. Due to a civil war that devastated the country and its people, I was forced to depart and try to find a better life in other horizons. I arrived in Los Angeles, California where I found myself in a different environment. Living in a mostly Hispanic neighborhood, where people spoke Spanish, but a lot of the words I could not understand because there were slang words from different Hispanic countries, and some other ones were a mix of Spanish and English. It was a mixture of cultures and languages. Soon after my arrival, I was enrolled at a white majority high school, Ulysses S. Grant High School from where I graduated in 1983. Then I married my wife Gladys, our wedding service took place in the oldest Catholic Mexican church in the city, and our reception took place in Chinatown. I already had my two daughters and was working full-time when I started to go to school at the Los Angeles City College, where I earned an Associate’s Degree in Liberal Studies.

Some say diversity is America’s strength. My life has been shaped by the two countries that touch it. I am an American citizen: I was born and raised in a Texas suburb that has influenced my interest of many things, and proudly pledge allegiance to the American flag. I am a daughter of two mexican parents, an immigrant father and a mother who was born in the United States but not very far from the mexican border. My roots go back to the city of Monterrey, the capital of Nuevo Leon state, Mexico. As such, Spanish is my first language, it is spoken around the house regularly. Essentially, with my father as my role model, I often find motivation and bravery in the beliefs my environment has shaped me as a person.

By knowing my personal identity it can help others in life. I feel like identity helps you have a clear understanding of your answers to the 6 W’s: Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How. That is how I would try to work with others in life. The “What” can symbolize what you stand for. The “Who” can symbolize who you stand by. The “How” can symbolize how you manifest your identity. The “Where” can symbolize where you stand. The “Why” can symbolize why do we take a stand. Lastly, the “When” can symbolize when do you act on your stance. It may sound crazy but I feel like this tool can help out a lot. I know not all will be on the same side with the principles I go by, but having a clear understanding will certainly help us have a productive discussion. The most meaningful thing to understand about your self-identity is that it can be nearly to how others visualize you for which case you will be at understanding the world a lot more and people around you. It can be very differing from how others picture you and so you may sense that you are confused. It may also feel that life is fighting you back to make others acknowledge who you are. As I had already mentioned from the beginning, is that one of the tremendous issues people have with their personal identity is that they may not be appreciative of others or may have like a shield blocking of who they are and what they believe in. Today many people are feeling hurt from this to a unquestionable extent because the world we live in seems to want us to conduct oneself and live in ways that others should go by. Identity comes from choice; choice comes from identity. On a daily basis, the steps you make, the people you hang out with, and the standards you have settled on to support will display your identity. Therefore, you should decide to build on an identity that makes the world appreciate your values and unique