In the film “Mi Familia,” we follow the story of the Mexican-American Sánchez family who settled in East Los Angeles, California after immigrating to the United States. Gregory Nava and Anna Thomas introduce the story of this family in several contexts that are developed along generations. These generations hold significant historical periods that form the identity of each individual member of the family. We start off by exploring the immigrant experience as the family patriarch heads north to Los Angeles, later we see how national events like the great depression directly impact Maria as she gets deported, although she was a US citizen. The events that follow further oppress this family and begins separate identity formations. These …show more content…
These two characters showed significant psychological work in hopes of changing their “problematic” social identity. Both of these characters were conscious of the stigmas that surrounded their identities, each, however, had distinct ways in which they dealt with those stigmas and changing their meanings as they grew older. Many would say that the way in which they were able to transform their identities meant either embracing it or denying one’s own identity fully as the film progressed and new societal pressures arose. Toni was one of two daughters of Maria and Jose; she was the youngest daughter. Growing up Toni was constantly praised for her beauty and throughout the film, she was hypersexualized by the people in her community. Being a beautiful Latina woman put her into categories and set expectations for her. Her sister was already married and being the only other daughter she was expected to be next anytime soon. In hopes of gaining respect and relieving the pressures of being a woman in her community, Toni decided she would become a nun. During her time abroad as a nun, she found a passion for activism and met someone she had fallen in love with. Although she was committed to the church, she was not able to freely love and continue her mission to do justice, therefore she left the church. Toni was brave, strong, and smart. At the time, however, many did not see her and her actions in that way. People dismissed the good that she was doing
The movie what’s cooking depicts a film about four families with different cultures and the same problem most families endure in America. The family chosen to write about is the Avila’s Mexican American family. This paper will construct a genogram which gives a picture of the relational dynamics in the family’s and an assessment of the relational Infidelity between the parents that effects commitment and the breach of trust, ending in separation and divorce; presented in the Avila’s family. The Avila’s family has planned a Thanksgiving dinner, which is American tradition dealing with invited guests.
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.
The film Selena uses the themes of discrimination, music, and family to express the struggle Mexican-Americans go through to find and establish their sense of identity. Through the musical career of Selena’s father, we see the difficulty of finding acceptance and establishing an identiity. After having his family, we see the effects his past experiences through his kids. Through Selena’s success, we see the crossing of borders and establishing of new identities.
Norma Elia Cantu’s novel “Canícula: Imágenes de una Niñez Fronteriza” (“Canícula: Snapshots of a Girlhood en la Frontera”), which chronicles of the forthcoming of age of a chicana on the U.S.- Mexico border in the town of Laredo and Nuevo Laredo in the 1940s-60s. Norma Elia Cantú brings together narrative and the images from the family album to tell the story of her family. It blends authentic snapshots with recreated memoirs from 1880 to 1950 in the town between Monterrey, Mexico, and San Antonio, Texas. Narratives present ethnographic information concerning the nationally distributed mass media in the border region. Also they study controversial discourse that challenges the manner in which the border and its populations have been
Enduring hard times. The Sanchez family clearly demonstrate various levels of difficulties while trying to purse you a life in the United States of America. It was not the typical American dream that so many immigrant families anticipated when they landed on this great continent. Therefore, food, income and employment are some factors that were cause for concern.
In the novel, Divided By Borders; Mexican Migrants And Their Children by author Joanna Derby, accessed in November 2017 summarizes the main ideas of the effects on transnational family relationships over time and the adaption of the family system. Derby explains her motivation into creating the novel is sparked by her own divided family experience and the emotional aspects that tie to real life connections to audiences who may relate or lack knowledge of. Derby effectively designs her research based on 12 groups of families; this gives the audience the interpretation of the children's side and the migrant parents leaving them to caregivers. The novel utilizes interviews to showcase the children's point of view on their parent's migration
In Gloria Anzaldua’s Borderlands/La Frontera, she uses her own personal experiences growing up and living near the border that separates the United States and Mexico. Anzaldua makes us reexamine the purpose of a border and the negative effects that come with it. Since she lives close to the border, she cannot completely identity herself as an American nor would she be able to call herself Mexican. As a Chicana, she did not know where she belonged in society. The two cultures she lived under put her in this constant state of transition. The struggles she faces strongly resembles the ones that Piri Thomas faces in his novel Down These Mean Streets. Despite the fact that Thomas was actually of Puerto Rican and Cuban descent, many people failed to recognize him as such and saw him as an African-American.
Many young second generation daughters of Mexican heritage has grown up with a distinctive gender norm. In the midst of the second world war, the expression of freedom and equality spread throughout the country. This initiates for women to become more tuned to the social affairs the men had left behind. Thus, immigration brought a lot of Mexican families into Los Angeles. Double exposure to familial expectations and the American way of life brought in a sense of desperation of trying to balance both. The second generation daughters who have been exposed to the loudly spoken
This essay will touch upon both characters and elaborate on the idea of society alienating two brilliant minds.
My interviewee, Delia, is the child of Mexican-immigrants and was born in Mexico. At the age of eight, she was brought to the United States, which makes her one of many 1.5 generation immigrants (Feliciano Lec.1/4/16). For the remainder of this paper, my respondent will be referred to as Delia in order to conceal her identity. In this interview paper, I will discuss Delia’s family’s migration
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
In Julia Alvarez’s fictional book, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, she tells the story of four sisters immigrating to America. Their story is told in reverse chronological order; starting when they are adults, and ending when they are children. The four girls are born into a privileged household in the Dominican Republic. While they are young, they must flee to the United States when their father gets himself into trouble. When the family comes to America in 1960, they struggle to adapt to the new culture.
In How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, cultural displacement has a lasting effect on the Garcia family, particularly the Garcia daughters. Their acculturation to American life sparks an identity crisis in the face of racism, language, and relationships. This struggle is exemplified through Yolanda. Yolanda’s journey is an impassioned search for belonging – for immersion in her Dominican heritage, or in the surrogacy of America. In trying to forge her identity, however, she discovers that she is an amalgam of both cultures and never fully assimilates into one.
The movie My Family portrays a three generations of a Mexican American family who has emigrated from Mexico to East Los Angeles. The film is narrated by, Paco, the eldest son of the family. The film begins with the journey of Jose Sanchez, the father of Paco, to Los Angeles from Mexico. He left his hometown in Mexico because his brother had died and he had no family left, so he went in search of distant relative who lived in Los Angeles, California. When he arrived he meets his relative known as El Californio, became good friends and began to grow a corn farm together. After his arrival, Jose, joined the many people who crossed the bride to work. In one of those occasions he meets and then marries the love of his life, Maria. As they were
I was laughing at how relatable, how real, how honest it all felt. “This is how you treat your mother? . . . And this is how you treat your daughter?” (The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, p. 55). This was a phrase that constantly echoed throughout my family home. The parallels were amusing but soon became uncomfortably similar. The transnational family, the machismo, the self hate that lived within children of color, Whiteness, the trauma from living in an impoverished country with a corrupt government, Oscar’s mental health, the Fukú, the Zafa, and so many more similarities were piling up. It was theory disguised as a fictional narrative. Not only that, but very similar concepts were being discussed in Leisy Abrego’s Sacrificing Families. Although different genres, both Abrego and Díaz have arguments on what structures a transnational family (a family that “sustains multi-stranded social relations that link together their societies of origin and settlement”) (Arredondo 2016). Both include the concepts of gender, internal colonialism, and intersectionality.