My Own Version Of La Mestiza Consciousness

For more than 300 years, immigrants from every corner of the globe have settled in America, creating the most diverse and heterogeneous nation on Earth. Though immigrants have given much to the country, their process of changing from their homeland to the new land has never been easy. To immigrate does not only mean to come and live in a country after leaving your own country, but it also means to deal with many new and unfamiliar situations, social backgrounds, cultures, and mainly with the acquisition and master of a new language. This often causes mixed emotions, frustration, awkward feelings, and other conflicts. In Richard Rodriguez’s essay “Aria: Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood”, the author

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

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.

"I think I got the best of both worlds. I had the benefit of a 'proper' Filipino upbringing. At 12, I had a 'solid' foundation of values and beliefs, no doubt a result of my Catholic education. Also, my Tagalog (language of origin) was not in danger of being forgotten, as often happens with much younger immigrants.

The idea of mestiza consciousness is an acknowledgement of both the genetic and cultural mixing that come from falling between the cracks of two cultures. Gloria Anzaldua uses the idea of mestiza consciousness to describe the constant shifting between two or more cultures that Chicana women experience. She describes the issues that arise within various communities due to an “us vs. them” mentality, and argues that mestiza consciousness can also act as a tool to heal these wounds, and to reshape one’s identity by merging various identities.

One of the ways an individual can understand cultural diversity is by creating a meaningful and genuine relationships with people who are from different cultures. Cultural diversity is an important phenomenal for teachers in training to become familiar with and I believe it is for this reason that the Education Department at Medgar Evers College has as one of its eight-unit standard Personal and Global Consciousness. The department under this standard expects teachers in training to examine, deconstruct, and reconstruct their own and others beliefs, values and perspective, to understand their own cultures, and to develop empathy and acceptance towards others culture. Teachers wishing to work in New York City

The fascination with consciousness dates back to the time of Plato and Descartes. Since those times the term “consciousness” has spurned controversy in many scientific fields, including the fields of biology, psychology, and neuroscience. However, with the recent advancements in brain imaging technologies, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG), human consciousness has shifted from being a subjective, abstract idea into being a observable scientific phenomenon. As neuroimaging capabilities progress, the public interest in consciousness also grows.

I wasn’t allowed to claim the thing I felt and I didn’t feel the thing I was supposed to claim” (Henriquez 78). Mayor is born in Panama, but he only lived there for a year. He does not remember anything about the country. He relies on the stories from his brother, mother and father to imagine the country he was born in. He feels little connection to Panama. He has lived in America most of his life, and all his memories were made in America. Although he wants to claim he is American, he finds it difficult because the students at school often bully him and make fun of where he came from. He feels as if the community that he wants to claim does not accept him because he was not born in America. Mayor is confused about his identity. On the contrary, Mayor’s mother, Celia, has no problem claiming she is Panamanian and American. She has deep roots in Panama, and she is a U.S citizen who takes advantage of privileges as an American. For example, she is a consistent voter when it comes to who will be president, and she is proud of doing her duty as an American. Unlike Mayor, she is able to appreciate both sides to her and have a clear self- image. I was born in America, but I am ethnically Haitian. Sometimes I feel more Haitian and other times I feel more American. Sometimes I do not know whether I am to say I am Haitian, because I was not born in Haiti nor have I ever been there. However, I have come to accept both, like Mayor’s

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

It is strange to comprehend how all people are so different from one another. Every single person has gone through personally unique experiences and has a unique set of memories. People are the sum of their own experiences. However, people connect with others too often intertwine and have similar experiences together. In Rudolfo Anaya’s “Bless me Ultima” the young Chicano Antonio learns about the world through his own personal perspective. Since he lives with others and sees and hears similar things as they do, he is influenced similarly, but he still develops his own ideas through his own noticings. What stands out to him in his environment is the base for his ideas. Environment shapes identity because outside pressures, such as family and

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

Julia Alvarez’s How the García Girls Lost their Accents demonstrates the distinct experiences Dominican men and women face entering a foreign country by challenging their respective ideas of themselves. Numerous times during the novel, Alvarez displays the cultural differences the García family have to adjust to after moving from their home country of the Dominican Republic to the United States. They’ve endured sexual harassment, mental breakdowns and a loss of culture due to their immigration to America. These experiences have effectively altered their lives forever, transforming them into new “selves” that may have never came into fruition had they stayed home in Dominican Republic. Throughout their journeys, the Garcías had started their lives with the potential to become one self -- but encounter experiences in the surrounding culture -- that ultimately change them. As a result, they lose their much of their Dominican heritage trying to assimilate to American culture, but never become truly successful in doing so. Alvarez shows these immigrants, who travel to the United States, are neither American or non-American but borderline in between. They exhibit characteristics of both cultures, and thus, belong in a culture of “selves” that places them directly in the middle.

Serge Gruzinki’s chapters four and five of “The Mestizo Mind” discuss westernization of the Spanish Americas, specifically Mexico, and how rather than secluding and treating the indigenous Mexican populations poorly, the Spanish included them into their kingdom and shared culture with them. There was a phenomenon known as the Mestizo phenomena where the indigenous populations seemed to have embraced and copied the western cultures. Chapter four discusses the various ways in which the aboriginals embraced the western culture and began mimicking it, where as chapter five goes deeper into the mixing of the two cultures, and how the Spanish incorporated some of the aboriginal culture into their own, creating a shared and unique culture mixing the

While I was growing up, I lived in many places. I was born in Budapest, Hungary and lived there until my father finished his medical degree when I was two years old. Soon after, for financial reasons, my family and I moved to the United States. First we lived in Missouri for five years, next we moved to North Carolina to be closer to our family. Periodically we returned to Hungary to visit relatives. With each visit, I learned more and more about Hungary, the language, and European culture. Luckily my mother had the wisdom to take my brothers and I back to Hungary to do a year of schooling there. That single year expanded my perspective of the world, it was no longer the United States as a separate entity from the rest of the world, but it