In Search of Your Own Identity

Within the Mexican community, competing notions of racial identity has long existed. Aware to gradations of color in race and their shading of white and non white identity, Haney Lopez introduces the

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 is hard for them to seek true identity when Whites did not want to give any acceptance to their culture. Between language and culture barriers, Mexicans could not find any means to gain freedom in America. The discrimination facing them not only set them back as a society, but did not allow them to grow personally. We see this throughout The House on Mango Street and Zoot Suit. Both of these books give clear examples how Mexicans on a personal level could not keep struggling with the stereotypes being pushed on them.

The autobiography book, Hunger of Memory showcases the struggles Richard Rodriguez undergoes during his journey towards Americanism. Rodriguez endures struggles towards transforming from being a Mexican to an American boy (Rodriguez, 27). During his education, Rodriguez is considered as a minority the fact he is an immigrant to the United Kingdom. In other words, what Richards concludes is that complexion, race, assimilation, as well as Americanism, are the major challenges he faces during his education. Given the above affections to the American society, it becomes a trial for immigrants to adapt to the American environment that they dream of. Life was generally

Richard Rodriguez is a famous Mexican-American writer, famous for his articles on immigrant culture and assimilation. Assimilation, according to Rodriguez, is the integration of one’s culture with another. Rodriguez is not in favor of or against assimilation but acknowledges that it is occurring in America. Rodriguez first discusses the Canadian model of assimilation, where individuals in a mixed-race culture prefer to remain ethnically and culturally separate. Rodriguez proposes that America adopts a Mexican model of assimilation, where one is classified by the culture that one adopts rather than by one’s skin color. Americans have a conflicted and confused view of assimilation, preferring to keep a distinguished sense of self, while actually assimilating culturally with many different ethnic groups.

When I was younger I wanted to belong. I wanted to belong to a group of girls who were considered as ‘cool’. I wanted to be as pretty as them and wanted to have the same nice clothes they had. Back then I considered myself as ugly and unlovable. Being beautiful or at least good looking meant to me that I could be happier and more successful in life. However, I realised that I would never be able to be someone else.

The personal essay titled “The Space In-Between” by Santiago Quintana details the struggles he dealt with while trying to figure out his identity as a member of both the Mexican and American cultures. Even though Santiago was born and raised in Mexico, he was often questioned about his ethnicity because his physical appearance did not align with that of a “true Mexican.” Instead of having brown skin, black hair, and brown eyes, he has white skin, light brown hair, and blue eyes. Since Santiago looked so different, he was singled out, bullied, and treated as if he were a foreigner in his own country. The difficulties he faced clearly had numerous negative effects on him emotionally, however, there was an unexpected and overwhelmingly positive

Growing-up in a predominately Mexican/Mexican-American community as a first-generation girl, like I did, is no walk in the park. Not only was I to uphold my parent’s traditional Mexican values such as: learning to cook and keep to a household, as well as a marriage, but also to uphold my new American values of independence and success measured in money as well as in property. At school I was taught to forget my first language, Spanish, and speak only in English, reminding me that: “You don’t want to speak with an accent.” At home I was reminded that Spanish, was and still is my first language and to leave English for school use only, reminding me that: “We can’t understand you in English.” Through this tug-of-war, between both cultures expectations of who I was to be/become, there was a desperate need to find my own identity, away from either culture. Sandra Cisneros’, The House on Mango Street, documents the need and struggle to find one’s own identity, through the narrator Esperanza’s experiences growing-up in a predominately Latino community in Chicago. Throughout the book Esperanza tries to understand the many different factors that influence her life and identity: in particular ethnicity and gender. Although, Esperanza suggest that she doesn’t want to be identified by either her Mexican identity or her sex; both of these factors play a major role in her struggle to find her own identity, by the way that they are intertwined in her own thoughts and in the descriptions of

Lately my mornings are spent getting up between 5:30am and 6am. I get myself ready, I never look fantastic just passable, and I go to work. Part of my morning routine is getting my dog, Donovan, ready for the early part of his day as well. We go to the yard for his bathroom routine, we go inside where I feed him his diet dog food and inject him with insulin, we go upstairs where I place a new diaper wrap around his mid-section (dogs with diabetes leak, who knew?), and he goes back to bed to sleep beside my husband. After we say our goodbyes I head to work, or school, or whatever adventure life has for me that particular day. Rinse, wash, repeat. I had no idea when I was in my teenage years that my life at 32 years old would be a tattooed, married, full time working, full time schooling, boring, Puerto Rican, animal lover. Well, the animal loving part I knew since I was maybe 2.

Gloria Anzaldua, Sherman Alexie and Richard Rodriguez are three different American authors that struggled with marginalization because of their heritage and culture. It shows that most people that are part of the minority ethnic group, struggle with finding their identity when they are forced to engage in a different society other than their own group. The authors find themselves in a linguistic and cultural borderland because they were looked down upon. They were discriminated by the dominant ethnic group when they try and stick to their heritage and they were shunned and neglected by their own people whenever they try to adhere to the standards of their new country.

When I started school, I added student to my list. But this doesn’t just relate to me, everyone has their own lists, their own stories. When a couple has a child they become parents, two people with similar interests become friends, and peoples who share the same background create cultures. Author Gloria Anzaldua describes how she found her identity in her essay “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”. A story about both her feelings and her own story on the social and cultural difficulties Mexican immigrants faced when growing up in the southern United States. In Her essay she explains how there was 2 sides to the coin. They were ridiculed and forced to speak perfect English by their families and the US school system, but they were also antagonized by other more “pure” Mexicans for not speaking Spanish. Anzaldua says she first found her identity when she read her first book by another fellow Chicano. She says “a feeling of pure joy flashed through me…I felt like we really existed as a people” (211). Which is to say, that we as people tend to combine and live under one roof and when we find people who we can relate to, who we find a deep rooted connection, we feel pride and we rally around that feeling. “And peoples who share the same background create

Personal identity is essential in the human experience. Identity is complex and can be broken down into two main groups: introspective identity, and bodily identity. Introspective identity is based off of the groups, mentalities, or beliefs that you align yourself with, and bodily identity is based off of the physical side of yourself. Whether physical or introspective, your identity impacts every action you take. Whether choices ranging from what colors you prefer to which college you want to attend are primarily based off of your introspective identity, which is a combination of both memory and consciousness, physical identity impacts how others perceive you. Consciousness is mainly the awareness of bodily identity as well as continuous introspective identify, while memory is awareness of introspective identity. These two different facets of identity are imperative in the distinction between bodily identity and introspective identity. In means of personal identity introspective identity (which is evident in memory), is essential, while bodily identity (based partially in consciousness) has less credit.

We are human. No matter what gender we are or how we represent it, we are human. Some of us however, may not feel that we make our gender proud by not following the imaginary laws society has enforced on us, telling us who we are to be. Take masculinity for example, the manlier you are, the more respected you are as a man, where if you are male and do not follow the quota of a man, you are not as respected, and often looked down upon. When a youth is on a search for identity, they will often make the choice to leave home and try to discover who they are, and what their purpose in the world is. Stephen is a young boy who has found himself on a journey to find out who he is. His father is enforcing the idea that he must be more masculine and

Everybody has an identity, it makes them individual and unique, and it defines who you are as a person. This project about my identity showed me what makes me unique. I would have never known how much my friends mean to me or how my identities connect with each other. I have three identities that make me who I am, cultural, personal, and social. A specific quality that covers my cultural identity is being Czechoslovakian. Both sides of my family have at least a part of Czech in them. My great-grandparents are from Czech Republic and my grandpa was the first generation in America, he was born in Ohio. This is very important because I have always identified as Czech and it is a big part of me, as I am so interested in ancestry. For my personal identity, the biggest part is my personality, being loud and outgoing, has always been important to me. The reason being, it is how people view me. A lot of people know me as the loud person or the person who talks a lot. That is meaningful to me considering I like people to view me in a certain way The last identity, social, is one of the most important to me because it involves my friends, and through this project, I learned how vital they really are to my social identity. I realized that I have a good amount of friends in this project. It is nice to have people as a support system and to relate with. These qualities show that I value being loud and outgoing. It also says that I value my family and they are a big part of life. The last one, social, ties in with the first one because it shows I am outgoing and friendly.

Many people question themselves, what is it exactly that makes them unique? What is it that defines them as a unique person that no one in the world possesses? In philosophy, these questions do not have just one answer, and all answers are correct depending on which theory appeals most and makes sense to you. In general, there are two ways people approach this question, some say that a person’s identity is the “self” that carries all of their experiences, thoughts, memories, and consciousness (ego theorists), and some say that a person’s identity is just a bundle of experiences and events that a person has been through in their life, these people deny that the “self” exists (bundle theorists). In this paper, I will be arguing that a person’s identity is just a bundle of experiences, denying the self and the memory criterion.