Mexican Role Model

This brings me to the certain unfairness, stereotypes, and myths about Hispanic/Latino culture. While growing up we experience some of these types of situations. When we think about a Hispanic/Latino person we think about tamales, tacos, rice and beans which is a stereotype. However, Susie Jans-Thomas wrote Beyond Tamales, Tacos, and Our Southern Neighbors: Exploring Latino Culture in Child and Young Adult Literature to show that there is more to them then just those expressions. I believe we have all experienced or witnessed racism, power abuse, and felt lost in one point of our lives. This just shows that we need to try to work harder and together more.

I was once told I had the world in my hands by my vice principal. The reason for his statement was because I was a Hispanic young woman with above average grades, and my involvement in extracurricular activities. Why was being a Hispanic young woman so much more special? This is where the harsh reality set in; Hispanic women have the tendency to not achieve their goals.

Growing up in a Hispanic household has shaped and built my values in life. At Appleton North High School, I am one out of the few Hispanic students. Knowing that my parents have migrated to America to give me a better future has motivated me to make it happen. Although, as a Mexican-American, I have felt out of place as a minority. However, with time I learned to accept my cultural differences. In fact, to this day, I thank my widowed father for the sacrifices and greater opportunities he has given me. My goal is to keep representing the few Hispanic students in college by working hard to achieve my career goals; not all Hispanics are fortunate enough to attend college. I also work to inspire young Hispanics to find their potential and follow

In Hispanic cultures, women have to meet expectations. Little girls are taught that they need to find a husband to take care of them. From a young age, they are taught by their mothers to cook, clean and care for their

Growing up in a Hispanic household has taught me many things. I have learned to see things as an optimistic person, and that it doesn’t matter where you come from as long as you work hard for what you want anything is possible. My family has always implemented the values of life that lead me to perceive what it was about to throw at me.

It was always odd talking about my culture because we as Hispanics are very family oriented. As a kid, I hardly spent time with my friends outside of school. My cousins were my friends. For Lahiri, it was difficult to get along with her friends as well. She states, “In addition to my distinguishing name and looks, I did not attend Sunday school, did not know how to ice-skate, and disappeared to India for months at a time. Many if these friends proudly called themselves Irish- American or Italian- American” (Lahiri 98). I can relate to Lahiri because I understand where she’s coming from. I would visit el Salvador nearly every summer, and none of my friends would even know. Since my parents could barely communicate with my friends, it was hard to spend much

Growing up as a first-generation college-bound Hispanic woman has proven to be a difficult journey. Both of my parents left their home countries at a young age and came to this country without any ideas or real opportunities on where to begin. At a young age, I have been taught that having a higher education is the key to having a successful and plentiful life. However, the journey towards achieving my dream of receiving a higher education has been filled with moments where I have challenged the stereotypes about getting pregnant and dropping out of high school, facing my grandma’s unexpected illness that affected me both academically and mentally, and the challenge of being a first generation college bound student in my family.

My Hispanic culture is exceedingly unique contrast to other cultures because we have countless of beliefs, holidays, lifestyles, etc. My world of Hispanic culture raised me to become an independent and determined person because being the first generation of a Hispanic family to attend college has my family beyond thrilled for me to put value to our heritage. Putting value in our heritage is a magnificent emotion because people anticipate Hispanics to fail; but, we prove them wrong when we accomplish our goals. The Hispanic culture’s strength is unbelievably astonishing because we are ambitious of our dreams and we don’t cease until we fulfill our wish. Including the Hispanic culture at University of Washington may open people’s mind that we

My Mother and Father relocated from Costa Rica to New York City where they met got married and where I was born. When I was just two years old, always wanting the best for us, my father moved our family from New York City to Jacksonville, FL in search of a better paying job and the American dream so he could provide us with a better quality of life. To ensure we were always clothed and feed, my father sacrificed everything for us and worked long hours to do so. Though I did have a pronounced, safe and active upbringing the North Florida school system didn’t expect much from the Hispanics that were starting to move to the then small town; unfortunately since my parents worked so much they expected the school system

By the droves, these students, as a result of teacher expectations, are disengaging from their own education to carry out the self-fulfilling prophecy of mediocrity. The fact that 83% of educators are White, middle class women creates another layer of disconnect for Latino students who are unable to positively identify with successful role models who share their background (Gandara, 2000). Unable to see themselves reflected in the degree-earning demographics and having few encounters with educators who are adequately trained to understand their plight, Latino youth are simply rendered impotent to affect change, thus completing their assent into hopelessness.

When one thinks about Hispanics, all too often the image of a field full of migrant workers picking fruit or vegetables in the hot sun comes to mind. This has become the stereotypical picture of a people whose determination and character are as strong or stronger than that of the Polish, Jewish, Greek, or Italian who arrived in the United States in the early 1900's. Then, the center of the new beginning for each immigrant family was an education. An education was the "ladder by which the children of immigrants climbed out of poverty into the mainstream." (Calderon & Slavin, 2001, p. iv) That ideal has not changed, as the Hispanic population has grown in the United States to large numbers very quickly and with little fanfare. Now, the

I grew up not ever talking about being undocumented because I did not want anyone, especially my friends pitying me. Just recently this year I began to tell my friends, after years of knowing them, that I am undocumented. I now view it as an aspect that sets me apart from the average student attending Hood River Valley High School. The biggest way I have helped promote diversity, has been, accepting to talk about my life in Spanish at Junior Night. This event takes place in order to encourage students, to continue their education past high school. One of the counsels at Hood River Valley High School recognized my motivation to focus on school through my grades and being an undocumented student. Instead of staying quite I accepted to encourage students not sure about attending college by explaining to them the amount of federal financial aid available to them and that although I don’t qualify for the majority of it, I still don’t let set me back from choosing to attend college. I also wanted to encourage undocumented students still in the shadows to turn being undocumented into a motivation and not let it stop them from choosing to succeed in

According to the National Education Association, 98% of Latinas want to graduate high school, but only 59% actually do (Flannery). Being of Hispanic ethnicity and growing up in a predominately white town, I can say that I had the privilege to never feel this stat on my shoulders. Growing up in today’s day and age in a very good town, it is great to say that more than everyone I have come across in my school district has given me the benefit of the doubt and has always pushed me to be my very best. However, there are always the people that think that one is limited to what they can and cannot do, in my case they were wrong, and more often than not it’s the people that are least expected to put people down that do. Maya Angelou

This is a narrative of one Mexican American woman’s experiences and her views on the importance of passing down the cultural beliefs of her ancestors. In the section of the country in which I live there is a large population within the community of Mexican American culture. Although I have frequent contact with people of Mexican American heritage either through employment or interaction out in the community, I have a limited understanding of their culture. For this reason, I chose to learn more about the population of people I have frequent contact with and as a professional work with as clients in the field of mental health counseling. The quest of finding someone knowledgeable to discuss the population, their cultural background and some of their necessities, as well as some past experiences, led me towards contacting a church. This took calling two different churches before the person at the second church informed me that I needed to speak with, Mrs. Socorro Garcia head of their Hispanic Ministries. Unfortunately, Mrs. Garcia was on vacation when I called, but I was able to speak with her over the phone the following week, setting up an interview in person at her office a couple days later. This was a relief because I was becoming concerned about locating someone for a personal interview.

However, many Hispanic families were and in some cases, still are viewed as lower-class citizens. According to Barrientos, “To me, speaking Spanish translated into being poor. It meant waiting tables and cleaning hotel rooms. It meant being left off the cheerleading squad and receiving a condescending smile from the guidance counselor when you said you planned on becoming a lawyer or a doctor” (561). They are not respected in a lot of communities, they live dirty, and they have bad jobs. These stereotypes are reasons why Barrientos did not want to be called Mexican and never wanted to learn Spanish. If diversity had been celebrated when Barrientos was a child, as it is celebrated and honored now, she would have grown up speaking Spanish and being proud of her heritage.