Identity In Bless Me Ultima By Rudolfo Anaya

Caught up in the whirl of a gringo society, confused by the rules, scorned by attitudes, suppressed by manipulation, and destroyed by modern society. My fathers have lost the economic battle and won the struggle of cultural survival... I look at myself. I watch my brothers. I shed tears of sorrow. I sow seeds of hate. I withdraw to the safety within the circle of life MY OWN PEOPLE. (Gonzales)

With all the negative thoughts and feelings about his family, Rodriguez never took the time to repair his relationship with him and his family, because books were very important to him than his family. As Rodriguez begin to separate from his family and culture, his Spanish accent also begin to disappear, which he felt very excited. In the beginning of his article he talked about the first day, he enters the class and could “barely able to speak English” (239). Rodriguez felt that he did not fit in with the rest

Rodriguez lost all connection with his family. He was unable to converse with them he had grown so far apart. Rodriguez felt “embarrassed” to embrace his personal background. He spoke of when his parents came to school and could not not speak English fluently and how it made him embarrassed because he did not want to profess his ethical background.

Gloria Anzaldua’s short essay, Towards a New Consciousness, begins with the description of her mixed culture, a mestiza, and the conflicts she faces in being torn between being Mexican and Native American. Anzaldua expresses her struggle of her torn heritages by describing herself as being caught between two cultures and their values. Instead of being able to love and respect both cultures, Anzaldua feels as if we people feel the need to take up one side of our heritage and end up hating the other part. She paints an image as standing on an opposite side of a riverbank, yelling back and forth answers and questions showing that we eventually end up favoring one side and only getting pieces of the other

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.

Rodriguez talks about how in America a person is encourage to stray away from the family and venture out and become their own man. In Kincaid´s essay she discusses how her mother was the worst, and that how that changed her. Which is the main similarity, Rodriguez grew up in an immigrant family, where the child´s life goal is to surpass his parents. Rodriguez writes,

In defining one’s identity, many different factors are considered; such as one’s nationality, characteristic, personality, ability, experience, religion, and etc. Especially for those people who live in America, so called country of immigration, has much more complicated identities than those Asian country people where mixed people are rarely noticed. Thinking about the concept of identity, some people easily categorized themselves as simple factors and terms which could describe their surface; white, black, Asian, European, pretty, ugly, nice, mean and so on and so forth. And that is the most point where majority people stopped to list their identities from exploring more in complicated range. However, there are many people who dig more than common people; one great example would be Denise Chavez, who is the author of the novel called Loving Pedro Infante, who kept asking herself about her identity to approach more accurate and clear ideas. In her work, reader could see the confusion of Tere, the main character of the novel, went through her life as Latin-American female in dealing with finding one’s true identity and how she accept her as who she really is. Denise Chavez, who is obviously Latin-American lady, mirror her own life experience through the character she created and introduce to readers about tough life she lived in America as Mejicana. The main character of this novel have a clear understanding and strong idea about herself throughout the novel, even if

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.

Our differences, no matter how we tie them together, raise another issue in Blanco’s life and in everyone’s life: family. This is an issue everywhere, whether one has an adoptive, mixed, half, semi-normal, lack-of-a, or a nuclear family, family influences everyone, it unites us in humanity: casts judgment, gives praise, provides support, and frustration. Because even though, Blanco’s relationship with

From his birth, Antonio is immediately pulled between cultures, his mother’s brothers state “We must take with us the blood that comes after the birth. We will bury it in our fields to renew their fertility and to assure that the baby will follow our ways.” (Anaya 6) While his father’s “compadres” disagree and say, “We will burn it and let the winds of the llano scatter the ashes.” (Anaya 6) The two cultures cannot come to agreement because of their differing superstitious beliefs and therefore crate the altering paths that Hispanics are forced to choose between. The road that Antonio will follow will ultimately be the same road that his brothers faced, they too were born into split cultures, they dealt with the altering customs of the English-speaking culture and that of his family. Later in the novel his brothers tell Anthony of the realization that I believe all Hispanics eventually realize when they become older. His brother Gene says “We're men, Andy, we're not boys any longer. We can't be tied down to old dreams." (Anaya 72) Antonio’s brothers had recently returned from the war, it is there that they realized the truth of the world and were able to find their identity.

In the “The Achievement of Desire” and “Para Teresa” Richard Rodriguez and Inez Avila describe the troubles of balancing life at home and at school. Rodriguez conveys the difficulties he had to face separating from his own culture to achieve academic success. His article portrays the cultural world and the educational world as separate institutions that cannot coexist in America. Throughout his text Rodriguez provides detailed experiences in order to explain his thought process. Inez Avila however presents her article as a letter dedicated to a school bully. In contrast to Rodriguez perspective Avila wrote her poem in English and Spanish to appeal to Mexican -American culture. She walks the reader through an argument between her and a fellow classmate as she was cornered in a bathroom. Her poem depicts how children who share the same culture discriminate within their own community. Both these articles are told from a Latino-American point of view yet they radically differ from each other.

First of all, the setting of this novel contributes to the Rivera family’s overall perception of what it means to be an American. To start this off, the author chooses a small American city where groups of Latino immigrants with their own language and traditions, lived together in the same apartment building. All these immigrants experienced similar problems since they moved from their countries. For example, in the novel after every other chapter the author

As a working-class Mexican immigrants’ son, Rodriguez inevitably sense the separation between him and his family, whom he feels deepest love, as he advanced his academic level. Through education, Rodriguez changed but his parents didn’t change as much as him. His parents saying and behavior often reminded him of the person he once was and the life. Instead of admiring his parents, he felt embarrassed at their lack of education. He deliberately

For Enrique his pre-birth and childhood had incorporated many obstacles that made him choose the path he was going to take. Before Enrique was even born he had no idea what his struggles were going to be. The neighborhood and even his family were a figment of Enrique’s imagination. Enrique was born into a broken family that had many needs his parents were not able to provide. Enrique’s family was not high in economic status and resorted to living in Tegucigalpa,

An immigrant's life is impacted by many things when arriving to the United States. For example, when arriving to the United States they have trouble communicating with others or fitting into a new life that awaits for them. Alvarez uses imagery and symbolism to show that American Identity can be heavily impacted by the need to fit into society and adapting to a new culture while trying to stay true to one’s native culture. Author Background and Historical Context