Rosanna Tavarez Analysis

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.

In Richard Rodriguez's essay , “ Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood ” he writes about how he struggled as a child who only spoke Spanish but lives in a society where the “public” language is English . He believes that speaking proper English will somehow help him fit into society and find his identity. Throughout the essay he contrast the Spanish language identity and English language identity. As a young boy, Rodriguez finds consolation and safety in his home where they only speak Spanish. He feels that he only has a true identity when he is at home surrounded by those who speak the same language as him

In America today, we are faced with several different minority groups arriving to the United States. The most common of all minority groups are the Hispanics. America is known for their language being English, but as the year's approach, that language has faded and a new face in English language has taken over, it's called Spanish. We as the people of America have become controversial over this major change, and due to that major bilingualism and political movements that have occurred from the government to the education departments. In this paper, I am going to talk about the four most common Hispanic groups in our country today and the political, social, linguistic, economic, religious, and familial conventions and/or statuses that they

Several of the events that the Garcia girls experienced are common negative aspects of cultural integration. Harassment and discrimination are common forms of cultural conflicts that occur between two opposing cultures. Cultural values that have become forged into a person’s life usually remain with them for long periods of time. In this case, the Garcia girls were unable to completely adjust their perspectives of Dominican values to accommodate to their Americanized living situation. They held on to their traditional Dominican values, which conflicted with American culture. As a result, they experienced harassment and discrimination.

In the work of Amy Tan’s “Mother’s Tongue” she provides a look into how she adapted her language to assimilate into American culture. She made changes to her language because her mother heavily relied on her for translation. She was the voice of her mother, relaying information in standard English to

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.

Many of the Latino authors in this book, being Americans who left a country in Latin America or who have ancestors who did so, seem to experience what most modern day

Gloria Anzaldua’s article “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” focuses on the discrimination against Latin American individuals, who are residents or citizens, of the United States. Gloria Anzaldua empathizes the bullying in schools and in her daily life. Despite all the bullying and discrimination she had to put up with, Gloria stands up for herself and fights for her culture and origins. She chooses to love herself for who she is, which allowed her to put those ugly comments and actions aside to grow into the person she is today. Amy Tan’s article “Mother Tongue,” also focuses on the discrimination against her efforts to speak and write English. Amy Tan emphasizes the topics of standardized testing and discrimination within schools that go

During his childhood, he felt English was an obligation to fit in. As his family’s proficiency with English increased, their close ties with being solely Spanish speakers diminished: “We remained a loving family, but one greatly changed. No longer so close; no longer bound tight by the pleasing and troubling knowledge of our public separateness,” (lines 127-130). Growing apart from his family illustrates native Spanish speakers lose bonds because their shared identity no longer separates them from American

Through both Tan and Rodriguez lives, they were faced with the challenge of choosing between the private languages that they spoke and shared with their family and the public language that was accepted by society. In Tan’s home, her mother combined their native Chinese language with English words she was familiar with. This subsequently formed a comfortable language that was only used within their family. Similar to Tan, Rodriguez grew up sharing Spanish, his native language, as a private language between parents and

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

“Bassackwards” by Jay Nordlinger, published by National Review Digital on January 29, 2007, is a short article arguing why immigrants should learn to speak English instead of supervisors learning the broken version of their language. Although Nordlinger wants immigrants from all around the world to learn English, he mainly focuses his writing on immigrants of Latin descent who speak Spanish. He talks about all the variations of Spanish that are taught to supervisors and business owners to help them communicate with their workers. There are classes such as “Restaurant Spanish,” “Fireman Spanish,” and “Health Care Spanish.” He then gives us an example of “Construction Spanish” which is the most popular, by

When one visualizes Latino culture, the prevalent images are often bright colors, dancing, and celebrations. This imagery paints a false portrait of the life of many Latino’s, especially those that are forced to leave their home countries. Latinos often face intense poverty and oppression, whether in a Latin country, or a foreign country, such is true in Pam Ryan’s novel Esperanza Rising. Ryan chronicles the issues that many Latino immigrants face. The first is the pressure from the home country. Many of the countries face turmoil, and many are forced to leave their homes and culture. Once in a foreign place, people often struggle with standing by their own culture or assimilating to the new culture. Latino authors frequently use young adult literature as a platform to discuss the issues they face, as young adults are coming of age they struggle with their identities, personifying the struggle of old culture against the new culture.

“Sorry,” Shay said. “My Grandmother doesn’t speak any English” (84). This is obviously different than my culture. They have grandparents that can barely speak English and their native language is Spanish. Their culture is also different because they believe in different religions and had to learn English differently than I did. It is also harder for the characters in this book to speak with their family members because they are not totally fluent in Spanish.

Each minority group in the United States has a unique experience that is important tobe aware of unique struggles of these different groups, but it is possible to have a framework to help explain and understand the experience of being a minority in the United States. Gloria Anzaldúa does this in a valuable way through her idea of the borderland. The Muslim American and Arab American experience, as described in Moustafa Bayoumi’s How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America, parallels that of the Chicano borderland experience as described by Gloria Anzaldúa in The New Mestiza, showing that Anzaldúa’s framework of the borderland is a useful for considering the experience of minority groups in the United States even when