Identity In Intercultural Communications And Chicano Poetry

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

Section A: I am a Mexican-American woman, born to Mexican immigrant parents, and by birthright an American citizen. In my phenotype, I do not look like a stereotypical American, with blonde hair, blue eyes, or a light complexion. I have black hair, dark brown eyes, and a light brown skin complexion. While exploring my identity and my sense of belonging in my Mexican-American, or Chicana identity, I can relate to the growth and development described in the Model of Death and Dying. For, I have the privileges of an American, but have witnessed discrimination against my fellow Mexicans counterparts.

Throughout history beginning with the Spanish inquisition, Chicanos have been overpowered, underestimated, exploited, and forgotten. Chicanos have been ripped from their dignity and viewed as ignorant, lazy, and uneducated. It was not till Rodolfo Corky Gonzalez created a poetic piece, “I am Joaquin”, that would change the way Mexicans thought of themselves for all eternity. No longer were they this broken social identity, but now they embraced being both the Mayan prince, and the sword and flame of Hernán Cortés, as stated by Gonzales, ultimately giving birth to the life changing social identity of Chicano. Over the decades, traditional Chicano social identity practiced a specific and powerful definition, nonetheless excluding several

Through intercultural learning and experiences, we can begin to see ourselves and the others around us not by our race, ethnicity, religion, or nationality but by the fact that at the end of the day, we are all human and only have one chance in this life.

The plot was credible giving the novel interesting and identifying from rising action, climax and the falling action getting the reader really intrigue to keep reading to know somethings unexpected was going to happen throughout the stories some parts were spontaneous. How describing the landscape of the llano or the Lunas farm. Giving the reader how the protagonist was feeling that way wanting to meet expectation but along the way facing obstacles that helped Antonio gain understanding. Encouraging the reader to find out like the golden carp was a myth I never heard that descended from the Aztec. Giving the reader a better view of Chicano literature point of view. Anaya used the dreams in a way to help further the understanding on certain

I also found the tolerance topic interesting. Our culture is very good as saying we need to be tolerant of others and not judge people for how they live. I have even heard a term among high school students that says, “You do you.” We are told everyday to embrace the differences in others and yet when a different opinion arises people throw the tolerant towel aside

The activity about choosing what I think most important about the question in ILS class let me think about diversity and identity at the same time. We put several aspects such as religion, gender, nationality, and many others on the board and move to the aspect which we think the most according to the questions. The result was really interesting. Sometimes, there were aspects which almost all the males choose, all internationals

Throughout the last few weeks we were talking about inter-culturalism, race, and gender identity. We have had multiple people and discussions about these topics. I have read many articles, heard speakers, and been taught a lot about these topics, but there is always something new that I can learn and always another perspective on the topics. These are topics that have been in the news and talked about a lot in the past few years, especially gender identity.

History can provide us with an understanding to the matters and happenings that have positively impacted society, cultures, and families. Yet, it can spark deep controversy with subjects that have been hidden deep, such as racism and inequality. According to Experiencing Intercultural Communication, “The history that we know and our feelings about that history are strongly influenced by our culture.” For Elvira Salas, history brings her many joyful and unforgiving memories growing up in a small, remote town in Mexico.

I am majoring in Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder, and as an engineering student, I am required to complete six Upper Division humanity credits. That is the reason I registered for Intercultural Communication. I figured it was only taking a week of my summer vacation and I could get three of the six credits I needed. I did not feel like I would get much from the class –because how much can you really learn in a week? - But my opinion changed on the second day. From wildly inappropriate conversations about toilet design to deeply personal discussions about race and culture, my interest was piqued. All in all, I got way more than I bargained for when I registered for the class.

The transfer of knowledge in an intercultural environment has been very valuable for me. The exchange with people from different cultures challenged me to change my perspective

I really enjoyed how in this class we learned more about identity and how to explore our own. And what I think worked really well was exploring what Identity was at the beginning of the semester. After we learned about what creativity was and was not we started on defining Identity and what non-unitary self-was. Non-unitary self is saying that you are more than just 1 just thing. I always knew that was true I just never knew the word for it. Before this class I was pretty solid in my identity, and how I felt about it. I knew that I was Somali-American and how that shaped my identity. I understand what culture clash was before I consciously knew that I was juggling two separate cultural identities. As I grew older I started to describe my identity as a triple threat, as an opposition to the norm of American society. I was Muslim, Black, and Woman. Being conscious of my identity allowed me to navigate many different spaces, especially when I came to college. In college, there are so many unwritten rules and understanding those nuances came from knowing my identity. It really helped when I understood the fastest way to make friends in college was to befriend the people of color in the room. But

The world as we know it consist of a series of diverse, yet interrelated values, beliefs, and morals that combine to create a variety of cultures. Many societies may vary in cultural content, whether in how they particularly behave, appear, or communicate. In my opinion, individuals’ cultures play a tremendous role in how their day to day communication is achieved. As humans who co-exist which each other in a multicultural world, we often have to learn, understand, and be aware of the cultural differences that exist among our societies. As a Miami local and a Latina, I am definitely aware of the barriers that exist within the variety of the Hispanic cultures that permeate Miami. For instance,

When arriving in Boulder, I was faced with more intercultural communicative interactions than at any other time throughout my life in Michigan. While both my roommates were from California, they had shared meanings of certain phrases that I was unfamiliar with before socializing with my roommates. In the greater context, the majority of the intercultural communication that I had practiced back in Michigan were inapplicable while dealing with these new cultures that I was unfamiliar with; however, due to the large amount of immigration to the United States, I was able to adapt to and understand most people I communicated with because of my wide variety of past experiences. Spencer (2002) suggests in one publication that multicultural communication is “virtually unavoidable” within the United States ( p. 610). Although I agree with Spencer, I would take it a step further to argue that students at the University of Colorado Boulder in particular have the one of the highest rates of intercultural communication interactions based on the wide variety of locations students originate from, the many different belief systems, and the natural open-mindedness of the Boulder citizens harnesses the myriad of subcultures that strive in such an accepting

This semester I was not able to attend as many cultural events as I would have liked. Out of the ones I did attend I learned a lot. Early on in the semester we made a flower and put different aspects of our social identity inside. Then we ranked how important those aspects were to our social identity. Something that I found central to my identity is my ethnicity. I think this played a factor in the cultural events I attended. This semester. I find that my ethnicity is very important to my social identity and it makes me interested in other individuals ethnicity and how it promotes differences in culture. The event that allowed me to understand another culture was hosting Indian students overnight. I volunteered to host two indian students overnight and it was one of the most interesting experiences I have ever had. I learned a lot about their school system and how it is much different from ours. I also got to bond with them over TV shows. This is something I didn't think would really happen. Something that I just assumed was that TV shows are very different in other countries. While they have their own type of culturally specific tv shows and movies we also had a lot of shared tv shows. This further informed my understanding of diversity because although all cultures are different they still have similarities and if we take the time to listen to others we can appreciate our similarities and our differences. Another event I went to on campus was The Holocaust Survive Talk.