Pat Mora Essay

     As a young child, Rodriguez finds comfort and safety in his noisy home full of Spanish sounds. Spanish, is his family's' intimate language that comforts Rodriguez by surrounding him in a web built by the family love and security which is conveyed using

During the 1960’s, the Civil Rights Movement wasn’t the only one occurring. Struggling to assimilate into American culture, and suppressed by social injustices convicted by their Anglo counterparts, the Chicano movement was born. In the epic poem “I am Joaquin” written by Rodolfo Gonzales in 1969, we dive into what it means to be a Chicano. Through this poem, we see the struggles of the Chicano people portrayed by the narrator, in an attempt to grasp the American’s attention during the time of these movements. Hoping to shed light on the issues and struggles the Chicano population faced, Gonzales writes this epic in an attempt to strengthen the movement taking place, and to give Chicanos a sense of belonging and solidarity in this now

Caminero-Santangelo, Marta. 2007. On Latinidad: U.S. Latino Literature and the Construction of Ethnicity. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida.

In addition, with making it on her own she learns what it is like not to have her mother in her life. Nieve’s mother and father never got along. As a result, she witnesses the hatred her father has towards her mother. Guerra writes “Elena and I finally broke into the closed room… We were stunned because it's filled with pictures of my mother from when she was young”(54). This shows how much her father can not stand to see her mother because he has everything locked away in a room full of pictures of her. Continuing with not wanting to see her mother he also, does not want her alive either. Guerra writes “The worst part is a rag doll with my mother’s name embroidered on her chest that’s stuck full of needles” (54). That is a voodoo doll and therefore he wants to cast a spell on her mother for her to die.

Being a Chicano, he worked in the fields as a boy with his parents, but he later grew up to become an author, poet, and educator. His experience as a Mexican-American farmer let him create unique poems and short stories based on the arduous times he went through. Rivera’s family is very important to him, because for migrants, family is all they have to rely on. “ Much of Rivera’s boyhood was spent alongside his

To begin, in the story Mama Elena was a selfish person. She believed that she needed to do things that benefit her. For instance, the issue of Mama Elena’s family tradition, about the

Rivera begins her paper by simply giving the reader a list of many of the works Denise Chavez has written during her literary career. It is through this list

One of the specific things she does to secure Jonas’s safety is trying to speak to the guards in their own language. ‘” Mother grabbed the officer and began speaking in Russian-pure, fluent Russian. He stopped and listened. She lowered her voice and spoke calmly. I couldn’t understand a word” Sepetys (26). She also uses money to save her son’s life. “Mother pulled a bundle of rubles from her pocket and exposed it slightly to the officer. He reached for it and then said something to Mother, motioning with his head” Sepetys (26). The mom’s quick wit of pulling everything of value off her body like the amber pendant and the necklace saved Jonas from being separated from the family. Elena was also smart enough to bring valuables just in case something

Sandra Cisneros’s Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories depict the hardships that Mexican Americans face because of their complicated identity. In the story “Little Miracles, Kept Promises,” Chayo’s letter to the Virgin of Guadalupe illustrates the pressures placed on Mexican American women in a patriarchal society. Mexican American women are expected to conform to the role of being obedient, however Chayo illustrates the struggles she faces when she deviates from the customs enforced on her. Chayo’s experiences are common to Mexican American women; the obstacles that women encounter such as attaining sovereignty in their community is explained in Gloria Anzaldua’s “Borderland’s/La Frontera.” While Chayo resists conforming to her culture’s beliefs she grows to embrace her Mexican heritage once she begins to view it from a new and liberating perspective.

In 1963, accompanied with her family, Tanya Barrietos migrate to the United States Of America at the age of three. As Tanya’s parents settle in West Texas they invoke a rule of not speaking nor reading Spanish in the house. She demanded her parents to speak to her in Spanish, but they believe their daughter had a better chance to be successful in America if she could only speak Engish. They felt Barrietos would be portrait by her peers as “true American “. During that stage in her life she was dismissive of being a latina. My comprehessive examination about the author feelings towards her ethnic language was negative due to the fact that she saw a lot of Hispanics as waitress, and cleaning hotels which in those times were one of the few jobs they could get due to the fact they could not speak English.` .

Two powerful Chicanas who have been an inspiration in the battle of objecting the mass media’s attempts of cultural suppression, are Sandra Cisneros and Gloria Anzaldua. One moment in particular that demonstrated how strong Cisneros felt about keeping her writing the way it is, is present in a letter that was meant to be a response to a mother who was upset that her child would be exposed to the content in a House on Mango Street. Instead of giving in or blatantly being rude, Cisneros responded with grace and respect while still maintaining a secure stance. Within this letter, Cisneros explains that our stories should not be silenced because they may help others understand key moments in their lives especially in the developmental stages of a child as they are often “suffering from experiences [they] couldn’t talk about” (Cisneros, 2016). Gloria Anzaldua ‘s reflections in Borderlands/ La Frontera demonstrate her indestructible will and passion for life, as well as her grounded opinions on being the keeper of your own identity. She describes moments in which she “had to leave home so I could find myself, find my own intrinsic nature buried under the personality that has been imposed,” which presents her opinions on various aspects of culture, family, mestizaje, and of course identity. Anzaldua’s ability to exhibit pride and confidence in her writing as well as in herself allows for outsiders to look in and exposes the reality of the culture including the good, the bad, and the ugly (Anzaldua,

"Many immigrants do not talk about what they endured back home. They were fleeing that world, and when they left they didn't want to talk about it because there had been pain and heartbreak under the caste system of the South. They didn't want to burden their children with what they had endured" (brainyquote.com. n.d.). American journalist, Isabel Wilkerson, recounts her personal experiences as a child fleeing the oppressive South in the 1960's. Even today, immigrant children do not have the language nor communication skills to express the frustration of living in between two worlds and in which one they are torn from and the other that does not embrace them. Fortunately, in the poem, "Isla", the poet Virgil Sáurez, gives immigrant

The Latin experience as a whole encapsulates a world that not many get to experience. Those who do, brag of its liveliness; those who don’t, gawk at it. What isn’t known is how the latin artist, whose culture places values on work and family much higher than creative expression, survives through such tyranny. Artists such as Gabriel Marquez and Gabriel Mistra use their culture to inspire their writing. Their work, much like the work of other writers and poets, is depressing to say the least. With no support from a community, these artists use metaphors, vivid imagery, and other effective literary devices in order to convey the neglect that they have grown accustomed to.

Thirdly, the writer uses her fatalism to make the reader feel pity for Veronica. For example “Don’t talk like that. They are my family that is enough”, this quote portrays how fatalism has taken over her as she is brainwashed and is not open minded to the world she is living in and how she is stuck in a tiny box in squalor of the village. She seem that she never ever born to see anything fascinated her eyes and that is more special than her village and also due to her lack of education such as “I have no qualifications, not even Standard Six”, and the responsibility that she has taken over as she needs to take care of other children and her parents-

The competitive nature between Elena and Lila was an immense topic in the last discussion. This competitive nature is elaborated on and extends into these next chapters Elena is excelling in both areas. She is developing as a woman quickly, starting her period