Just Like Us Analysis

In Our Fear of Immigrants, Smith begins with the story of a fourth grade class in Berkeley, California that is devastated by the loss of their friend, Rodrigo Guzman, whom authorities sent back to Mexico because of an expired visitor’s visa. With the help of their parents, these fourth graders in Berkeley, California sent their friend a comforting video and wrote a letter to their Congressmen in protest against the deportation of Rodrigo. Smith then tells of the protestors in Murrieta, California who blocked buses transporting undocumented immigrants to a holding facility (751).

Living in Mexico throughout her teen years was very rough. Unlike other teenagers where their parents constantly provide for their children, Marisela’s life was a lot different than the usual parent- child relationship. She lived with her Abuela ( Grandma) Lupe, along with her 3 brothers and sister. She constantly had to take care of her brothers and sister at such a young age, that she became the mother-like figure of the

What does this say about Hispanics? What kind of destiny do we face in the future? Clearly we aren’t going towards a very bright one. Why would these girls want this kind of future for themselves? Where they go off at a young age, with no education, get pregnant, and become a housewife for the rest of their lives.

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.

There are some many political, economic, social issues that social workers and even families faces. In the Sanchez case, immigration laws plays a huge part in their family. There are members of the Sanchez family that are undocumented and could face deportation if caught. The family needs immigration resources that will assist them with the adoption of the grandson and with Roberto in their home. Emilia, which is the daughter of Hector and Celia, was born in the United States. However, she could be denied citizenship because of her drug problem. This will show “poor moral character” which is under the immigration law (New Directions in Social Work, n.d.). Also, the Sanchez family faces financial problems. Due to undocumented status of some of members, the Sanchez family cannot take advantage of the resources that may help them with their financial problems. Roberto, which is the undocumented nephew of Celia, was injured on the job and because of his status is unable to receive any financial assistance like worker’s compensation. This cause financial issues for the household. Social issues has also plaque this family. Emilia has had an abortion which is against the belief of the family. They are devout Catholics and do not believe in abortions. Vicki, which is the daughter of Celia and Hector, has been diagnosed autism. The family has not seek out resources for the daughter. I believe the family may be ashamed of her and is not

Immigrants come from different parts of the world in many shades of white, brown, and black. In extreme cases, some immigrants are stereotyped as rapists, thieves, drug dealers, etc. or at the very least seen as second-class citizens. Depending if they support the issue or not, even the red or blue side of the political party, people tend to blind themselves from the reality of why they actually migrate. Natives tend to deny seeing the humanity in immigrants’ individual stories and lives. They not only migrate to different countries for better opportunities, but to find jobs to support their families and give their children a better education than they would have had in their country. George Saunders’ short story, The Semplica-Girl Diaries, relates to immigration because the SG’s reflect the treatment of immigrant workers in our society. The SG’s display women who have lived in extreme poverty and don’t have a better choice but to sell themselves to the rich as lawn

Anna and Mari do not have a huge support system in the choices that they make. Anna has her boyfriend and teacher who supported her choice to go to college. But only a few members of her family even considered it a good idea for Anna to go to college. Mari only support was Yoli, she was considered a lost cause from everybody else. Not having anybody support the choices you make or to be a voice of encouragement is though on a person. Without the support of Yoli, Mari was ready to accept the fact that the school said she should drop out of school, until Yoli supported her to make them eat their words. These young Chicana women were able to encourage themselves to do their own thing without much help from the outside world.

This relates to the human rights issue of immigrants due to enrique’s mom heading for the states to better her life. She was a maid , so therefore she didn’t really make that much money. She hoped for a better life and she thought she would be able to do this by moving to the states. In her eyes the only way to do this was heading for america.

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

Marisela fell under this category of youths that could not further themselves and their education due to their illegal status. Marisela had been a victim of being a proletariat since she did not have legal status and was struggling to become a citizen which would characterize her as bourgeoisie. Furthermore, when Marisela went off to college to the University of Denver she meets a boy named Luke who happens to have strong opinions on the subject of immigration. Luke felt that the United States would be better off if somebody could stop illegal immigrants from pouring across the southern border. He stated that the reason the country was poor was due to illegal immigrants taking all of the jobs and that the government should secure its borders and block new people from coming in as well as have the immigrants who are already here make a stronger effort to get legalized. (Thorpe, 2009 p. 118). Luke was coming from the point of a bourgeoisie, someone who has had no problems of experiencing what it was like to struggle to afford to be in the country or experience what it was like to live in the country with no papers. Coming from the side of the proletariat, Marisela tried to explain to Luke the difficulties of retrieving papers as well as the hardships that many illegal immigrants face living in the United States.

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

I started this essay off with a quote one of the characters mention in the book because it basically gives us the main idea the author is trying to get readers to understand throughout the book. By looking at the title of this novel, “The Book of Unknown Americans” and by looking at the author’s name- Cristina Henriquez, we can already get an idea of what this novel is going to be about. When someone first takes a look at the title and author of this book they would assume that it is going to be about immigrants who moved to the United States and struggled to fit in. After reading this novel, I now understand how difficult it was for these Latino immigrants to leave everything they have in hope for better lives here in the United States. Each person has their own meaning of what it means to be an American and their own reason of what most immigrants come here for. The Rivera family came here in hope for better resources to help treat Maribel because they didn 't have the resources they needed back in their country.

To begin, Esmerelda Santiago and her family immigrated into the United States from Puerto Rico. Immigration means, the movement of persons into a non-native country. At this point in time the family only consisted of Esmerelda, her seven younger siblings, Mami, Tata, Tío Chico, and Don Julio. After moving around from apartment to apartment, they finally settled down in Brooklyn, New York. Esmerelda explains that they came to Brooklyn, “in search of medical care for my youngest brother, Raymond, whose toes were nearly severed by a bike chain” (Santiago 1998: 3). Mami hoped for better medical attention for her child than she would have received in Macún, Puerto Rico. Esmerelda also describes the apartment they currently lived in on McKibbin Street, in New York as, “more substantial that any of our houses in Puerto Rico” (Santiago 1998: 6). This shows her level of living back in Puerto Rico was a worse living

Dinaw Mengestu, Richard Rodriguez and Manuel Munoz are three authors that have been through and gone through a lot of pain to finaly get accepted in their societies. They are all either immigrants or children of immigrants that had trouble fitting in America’s society at the time. They struggled with language and their identities, beucase they were not original from the states and it was difficult for others to accept them for who they are. They all treated their problems differently an some tried to forget their old identeties and live as regulalr Americans others accepted themselves for being who they are, but they all found a way to deal with their issues.

This summed up their sense of belonging, ensured by having their own territory and being with their own race. The need for belonging stemmed from their perception and actual experiences not only in school but the community as a whole. There was always the fight for one’s own turf. This was emphasized during this scene that showed the two Latinos who had to run from the group of Cambodians who were chasing them and the attack on these Latinos that necessitated them to split up. Unfortunately the woman made a wrong turn and bumped into another group which caused her to be physically harmed. This scene highlighted that though they belonged to one community, they did not quite see themselves as part of that community and sub-groups or tribes abounded because it was in these smaller groups that they found security. They needed to form groups based on their race and color. They stuck together and supported each other because they found comfort from one another just like members of a family caring for each other. They became so distrusting of other groups because of the past painful events that happened in their lives. Every race needed to establish that they were not inferior over the others. But all of these initial behavior and attitude changed because their English teacher paved the way for them to trust and support each other. As Eva said “It’s a sign of respect... for you”,