Jose's Immigration Journey

Acclaimed American author Richard Rodriquez’s autobiography “Days of Obligation” conveys that his feelings for both Mexico and the United States can be expressed through contrasts. Rodriquez uses pathos, tropes, and schemes to articulate his feelings. His purpose for writing about the contrasts between Mexico and California is to help readers understand the differences that affected his life. Rodriguez’s relationship with his literate audience is personal, since he is opening about his personal life and his views on it.

Frequently, we do not put too much attention to our own cultural values and traditions until we are exposed to a different culture, and start comparing. In order to have a more productive and fruitful life I believe we need to become more self-aware and more sensitive to the culturally and ethnically diverse community we live in. Two cultures that have been sharing the same living space for centuries are the Hispanic and American culture. In this paper I would be analyzing each culture giving a brief background and pointing out some aspects in how they differ, like the perception of time, family, orientation, and others. American culture has a couple of aspects in which it differs from the Hispanic culture, which for the

Correspondingly, Vargas has not only immersed himself into his new culture, but learned to love it as well. He “built a career as a journalist, interviewing some of the most famous people in the country” (Vargas). Even though he is living the American dream, he is also “living a different kind of reality… in fear of being found out (Vargas).” Because of his status, it is hard to live a “normal” life. Even with all he has done to “earn” citizenship, he is still unrecognized as

I wanted to look at how he transitioned from one country to another. I also looked at if he felt in racial tension or hostility as an immigrant in the south. I also focused on the concept of community in the US compared to Guatemalan community.

This separation from his family caused a longing in his life. But this longing was superseded by what he suspected his teachers could give him. Rodriguez develops a double personality of sorts. The person he is at home, the polite child who lovingly does what his parents ask of him. And then the academic persona he

Jose Vargas tells the story of his life; from coming to America, finding out that he is residing here illegally, learning how to live with that, and finally to sharing with everyone that he is an undocumented immigrant. Jose has a difficult task in front of him, though. He must win his audience over to his side so that he can further his agenda of developing an easier path for undocumented immigrants to receive citizenship. There are many ways he could go about this, trying to skirt the topic of his illegal activities, but Jose is an intelligent man and knows how to influence his audience. He uses the story of his life to connect with others, and in connecting with them wins them over, even if only indeterminably so. In My Life as an

The hardships one would encounter in their lives have become a part of our society, because they act as stepping stones to build ourselves with trials to reach any higher ground. It’s ready is the best, and worst possible actions we have done to ourselves.

According to Huntington, unlike previous immigrants, Hispanics wish to retain a dual culture. This presents them with the culture clash of two varying views on culture as well as education. There are several factors that have made this culture of immigrants assimilations’ so much different than the past immigrants that America has so fondly welcomed with open arms. These include contiguity, scale illegality regional concentration, persistence and historical presence.

Immigration has been a topic for heated discussions for many years. However, no one has really ever looked into what immigration actually is or how hard it is for the people trying to immigrate. In the common reader we are given an insight to what immigration is, and the risks that follow.

There have been several regions of United States that have gone through cultural changes throughout time. The indigenous people on the East coast went through a cultural change when the pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock. The people that lived in the North went through a cultural change when the French entered by the St. Lawrence River bringing their Roman Catholicism religion. The people that were living in what is now Alaska went through cultural change when the Russians entered the area with their new language and orthodox religion. More recently, the people of Miami have gone through cultural changes since the Cubans have entered Southern Florida. To understand the migration of Cubans to Southern

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

The article “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant” was written by Jose Antonio Vargas. In it, Vargas tells of the time when his mother brought him to the Phillippines’ Ninoy Aquino International Airport when he was twelve. His mother told him that she wanted to give him a better life so he boarded onto a plane with a man he had never met before and was told that he was his uncle. He arrived in Mountain View, California and moved in with his grandparents Lolo and Lola. Vargas says that he grew to love his new home and when he entered sixth grade that’s when he found his passion for language. He tells of his struggle of making a distinction between “formal English and

Latino immigrants have always had many obstacles when coming into the United States, the difference between the American and the Latin cultures is what has caused a huge hurdle that immigrants have found hard to overpass. This obstacle has caused many generations to go through cultural assimilation. Mize et al. (2012) explain that cultural assimilation is the adaptation of immigrants to unfamiliar cultural patterns, which include language and the value systems of other cultures. In order for immigrants to be successful in another country, which is not of their origin; they need to learn how to assimilate to their new homes. Immigrants have learned that they need to adapt in order to get to experience new opportunities and also to learn from new cultures that are not theirs (Mize et al., 2012). Immigrants have learned that they are not leaving behind their own believes and norms, but mixing their norms, this gives them the opportunity to create and mix their culture with the new. Cultural assimilation can be hard to achieve because in one hand it is important to change in order to live within a different culture, but on the other hand it is important for a person to maintain their identity regardless of where they live. At times immigrants find it difficult to achieve a balance and for many families it is a struggle over generations. There are different levels of assimilation, some immigrants come to the

Americans are encouraged to leave home and become their own man (Rodriguez 257). Americans talk about Hispanics and their impatience that they don’t give up their family (Rodriguez 261). For each one of his claims he tells a mini story about each one. I can see why he made these claims and how they are relevant today.

El Norte, “The North” has been a dream to almost every citizen from Latin America countries that are marginalize and feel rejected by society and their own governments. We hear tales of El Norte were anyone who crosses the border and works hard can save money to send to their families, can eventually afford to buy a car. and then owned a home of their own. When I got the opportunity to move to El Norte, I could not comprehend any of the ambitious people around me said I would be able to attain with my brand new green card. At that time the only thing I could think of is that I would finally be able to spend time with the voice from the other side of the telephone. A voice I was schedule to hear once a week in the neighborhood mini mart run by Sambrano, the owner of the only telephone in town. That voice that will asked me, how school was going? If I behave well and payed attention to my mother and grandfather? I would answer his questions with delight and tell him tales of my older brothers mischievous behaviour towards me. The conversation will always end with a teary voice from the other side, telling me that soon he will be able to see me. I can honestly say I can only recall one memory of my father from my pre-Norte life. My brother Jesus and I playing in with the sand of a small dry stream near our home, we lift our heads up when we hear footsteps approaching, when we recognize the silhouette of the person approaching we ran towards him