Ojito : A Critical Analysis Of Marcelo Lucero

Furthermore, in most cases, it may seem the United States has a system in which immigrants are not given the chance to form a bright future. In the novel, “Antonio soon found himself settling for jobs that were clearly beneath him. He stood under the baking sun at the on-ramp to the Santa Monica Freeway, selling oranges for two dollars a bag: a dollar fifty for the guy from the produce market, fifty cents for him,” (Tobar, 53). Many of the immigrants that live in the U.S. have little power that allows them to succeed. Some races have benefitted from it more than others. The Cubans, for instance, have had it much easier than most immigrants who have migrated to the United States; whereas, Antonio, a Guatemalan, had trouble finding a stable job that allowed him to sustain himself. In contrast to many other races, many Americans described Cubans as being visitors who represent, “all phases of life and professions, having an excellent level of education… More than half of their families with them, including children brought from Cuba to escape communist indoctrination in the schools,”

The author shows similarities between the narrator and his more skeptical colleague in an attempt to highlight the narrator’s thoughts. His thoughts show that his caustic colleague is very critical in describing the immigrant mother as a “bugger” and the daughter as a “pimply-faced bitch”. (pg. 55) The story then ends with a sense of hope for the young girl as she returns to school.

Immigration is a complex and multifaceted issue that faces the US. In his film, Sin Nombre (2009), director Cary Fukunaga aims to juxtaposition the issue of immigration with the issue of gang violence in Mexico, and show the difficulties immigrants face by giving his audience an insider’s perspective into the experience of immigrating to the United States from Honduras. He does this through a variety of characters; most notably Willie and Sayra. Fukunaga did extensive research on life in the Mara Salvatrucha gang and the process of immigrating to America, in order to make his film realistic and authentic. The result is a movie that not only shows immigration in a way that evokes empathy and enforces the humanity of immigrants in the viewer’s mind, but also gives the viewer a look into the realities of being in a gang. Through the use of strong characters, powerful dialogue and vivid imagery, Fukunaga uses pathos to put a human face to the issue of immigration, logos to inform and give his audience context about the issues the film addresses, and ethos to establish his credibility and make the film believable.

Gonzalez opens this chapter with, conceivably, the harshest narrative he could find to support his claims: He writes of a Latina mother forced by a judge to speak English to her daughter at home if she wanted to retain custody (Gonzalez 206). He continues on to describe the three categories of people affected by the

He also creates a very strong and intimate bond with other immigrants throughout the entire paper. He used pathos by telling the story of his own immigration, of the day he was brought to America, and of having to jump through certain loops to stay under the radar. He discusses having to lie to friends and coworkers and not being able to obtain a driver’s license or job without going to the extremes. By laying out every obstacle he had to jump over he immediately creates credibility and a link between him and other

Even more frequently, his use of “undocumented” immigrants rather than “illegal” immigrants. Simply by calling himself and others “undocumented,” it provides a positive impression for the reader. This is a stark contrast to news and society, both of which refer to them as “illegal” immigrants. Referring to

Lawrence Hill’s novel, The Illegal, is a classic tale of struggle in the lives of immigrants that illegally enter countries. The illegal takes to ground when a young aspiring athlete, Keita, who is affected by the instability in his country. Zantoroland, Keita’s country, is home to rife political conflict. Hence, his family known to be Faloo, become victims of this instability. Keita’s father, Yoyo, is a journalist that uncovers high ranking government officials and so when a coup d’état happens, it puts a target on his family’s head including Keita. Keita needs to leave the country or there is the possibility of being killed by these new government “officials”. His talent regarding athletics is his only way out of the country. Keita’s journey

There eyes make her feel different like an outcast not wanted by anybody. The way they find hers and judge her so quickly, so harshly. Mora again supports that she is viewed as an outsider, a ‘legal alien’ by following that up with lines fourteenth and fifteenth. “an american to mexicans/ A mexican to americans.” These two lines have a strong meaning, and also supports the way she feels, nobody wanted her. She did not belong to either because they judged her based on the other half of her race. the other half of who she is. When in all reality race should not matter, should not affect one's judgement. Somebodys race makes them no better nor no worse than the next person. Moras next two lines sixteen and seventeen, have a strong meaning and the use of a metaphor. “a handy token/ sliding back and forth.” She is referring to herself or her character as a ‘hand token’, which I would assume is a metaphor that symbolizes that she slides back and forth between what feels like two completely different worlds just trying to fit in. To be seen for who she truly is. “between the fringes of both worlds.” Mora now very matter of factly states that to her or her character those lives are two different worlds completely. It also supports that she does not mix them together very much. In the next line Mora chooses to show an emotion in a way. I believe Mora chooses to wait so long before putting a real

In Pat Mora's poem, "Legal Alien," the author describes her biracial character as being "viewed by Anglos as perhaps exotic, / perhaps inferior, definitely different, / viewed by Mexicans as alien," a description which highlights the situation encountered by people who strive to be prestigious individuals by floating between cultures and who consequently fail to be a part of any particular group (Mora 9-11). Often the individuals are biologically trapped between two probable lives, and they forge ahead to meet the opportunity of possibly belonging to the higher society while they degrade the small culture which has weaned them from birth. These people find themselves

She discusses how Mexicans identify themselves; since there are many different ways to identify culture, they make up several different cultures (Indian, Black, and Mexican). By the end she talks about the fight that Mexicans put up to stand up for their culture and their identity.

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

During the Mexican-American War the border moved, but the people didn’t. History has shown us that no matter how thick the border might be Latino Americans have a strong connection to their culture and roots; instead of assimilating, Mexicans live between two worlds. The film, Ballad of Gregorio Cortez gave us a perspective of two cultures; “Two cultures- the Anglo and the Mexican- lived side by side in state of tension and fear” . Cortez is running for his life as he heads north, while the Anglo believe that because of his Mexican ethnicity, he would travel south to Mexico. Throughout the film there were cultural tensions and misunderstandings; language plays an important part of someone’s identity, and for many Latino Americans Spanish is their first language. The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez also shows us that language plays an important role, and can cause confusion between two different groups. For example, Anglos refer to a male

By applying the formalist lens to the novel, The Illegal, the deeper meaning of struggle and hardships faced by refugees in unknown and neighboring lands is depicted. Formalism is the analysis of literature itself through its literacy devices, themes and structure. There is no outside information used to understand the text, such as the authors personal life and the history of the era in which the book is written in. All characters in the novel are dealing with their own struggles which ties in with Keita, the protagonist’s story. Viola, uses Keita’s refugee and illegal immigrant status to discover private information about Zantoroland and its relations to Freedom State. Similarly, John benefits from Keita’s fame and respect, while Anton gains money. The author, Lawrence Hill, uses literary devices such as metaphors, irony and imagery to shape the novel's theme of survival and struggle. To survive is not to live life, but just continuing to exist despite struggling through obstacles.

Continuing in the theme of conformity; if the boys are united by their heteronomy, Cuellar’s castration, in contrast, is the source of his ostracism. His unfortunate accident is a wound that ‘time opens instead of closes’, and as the story progresses, Vargas Llosa juxtaposes the boys socially inclusive youthful pastimes of football and studying mentioned earlier in the novel with his comparatively solitary penchant for the ocean and surfing “a puro pecho o con colchón” (94) in chapter five. In this passage, his distance from the others is symbolised by the isolation of the sea; the narrator says the water “se lo tragó” (95) and later, the boys state that “se perdió” (96). Clearly, Cuellar’s failure to partake in the testosterone fuelled rituals of sexual maturity in the city has seen him shunned from the rest of the boys and resigned to hanging out with “rosquetes, cafichos y pichicateros” (96) instead – the modern, metropolitan outcasts. Evidently, Cuellar is incapacitated by this highly heteronormative lifestyle, as the inherent masculinity of the city is a fixed identity that will perpetually exclude him, or anyone else who cannot fulfil Peruvian societies idea of gender appropriate behaviour.

One area that the movie “The Immigrant” failed to take into account was that of a male immigrant. In the movie “The Immigrant” the whole focus of the movie was Ewa trying to obtain enough money to get her sick sister off Ellis Island so they could go west. The way she started trying to obtain this money was by selling herself through prostitution. This method of acquiring money was something that was only common to the female immigrants. The movie completely failed to talk about male immigrants and common struggles they were faced with as new immigrants in America. One of the main issues these male immigrants were faced with as well as female immigrants that acquired real jobs was low wages. Many businesses and employers took advantage of the desperation of these newly place immigrants for money and used them for cheap labor. Thomas O’Donnell gave was examined as an immigrant in