`` Se Habla Espanol ``

Although our society is slowly developing a more accepting attitude toward differences, several minority groups continue to suffer from cultural oppression. In her essay “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” Gloria Anzaldúa explores the challenges encountered by these groups. She especially focuses on her people, the Chicanos, and describes the difficulties she faced practicing her mother tongue. She argues that for many years, the dominant American culture has silenced their language. She claims that by forcing them to speak English and attempting to eliminate their accents, the Americans have robbed the Chicanos of their identity. She also addresses the issue of low self-esteem that results from this process of acculturation. Growing up in the United States, Anzaldúa says she had to accommodate to the American culture. The fact that she was discouraged from practicing her native language induced her to become ashamed of her roots. In addition, she explains that she constantly felt suppressed on account of her gender. By incorporating Spanish words, powerful personal anecdotes and historical facts about her people, Anzaldúa produces a unique composition in which she depicts an unfair and repressive world and reprimands the prejudices that hinder certain cultures from flourishing and establishing themselves.

Overall, I find that Yolanda’s experience in Colombia has affected her suburban experience. But no matter where she lives, she still has a strong Latinx identity. But, her children’s identity would have been different in the city due to a lesser Latinx population in the suburbs. Finally, the school system in Colombia and the US has its own similarities and differences. Demographic differences are a large factor when talking about a person’s racial

The book Beyond El Barrio Everyday Life in Latina/o America by Gina M. Perez, Frank A. Guridy, and Afrian Burgos Jr. is a book about the stereotypes, citizenship, and community of Latina/os in the United States. Each chapter shows a new theme such as latinos in baseball, Latinas/os in the military, and Spanish radio. The book shows connection between different communities of Latinas/os and how they have struggled to be apart of the U.S. society beyond the boundaries that they feel limited to. This book was a difficult piece of writing for me to understand but has ultimately changed the way I view Latinas and has shown clear intersections of politics, representation, and citizenship of Latinas and Latinos in the United States.

For example, when Anna Lisa experienced the culture shock for the first time, she felt confused because it was her first time being defined as a Latina. Also, when she described herself as a majority in El Sereno but then a minority in college, Anna Lisa felt intimidated. Anna Lisa always had others when she was at home but it changed when discovered herself. She definitely described the fear and confusion struck in her entering college. Anna Lisa also adds on how angry she felt as she would scold her mother for not teaching her Spanish as a little girl in El Sereno. In addition, Anna Lisa states that she cannot be a content Latina because she has to be a “politically-and-socially-aware-Latina-with-a-chip-on-my[her]-shoulder-because-of-how-repressed-I[she]-am-[is]-in-this-country” (Raya 121). In this statement, Anna Lisa states how many people feel because of racial stereotypes. By adding this statement, Anna Lisa states that she wants to be someone she isn’t and describes the pain of several other Latinos go through everyday for being

My interviewee is a second generation immigrant with one parent who was born in El Salvador and the other who has Mexican roots but was born in the United States. For the purposes of confidentiality my interviewee will be addressed as Ana from here on out. In this interview paper I will discuss the experiences that Ana faced growing up in a tri-racial household. I will also evaluate her experiences regarding assimilation to the lectures and reading assigned through out this course.

They would hold us back with their of the reglas de academia”. In her essay “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”. (1987) Gloria Anzaldúa illustrates how was her childhood, how look like been Chicano American in the United States: been a Spanish person even she was born here. In a country where English is a first language, is too difficult imagine been Chicano American or Chicano Spanish. That was the problem not only for Anzaldua but also for many Latino people.

Jaime is an 18-year-old Mexican American who lives with his mother and sister and has a baby with his current fiancée. He also attends a large urban high school. Within high school, Jaime encounters the challenges of being an immigrant and having a bicultural identity, develops resilience, understands the influences of his mother’s parenting style, and further develops his identity. He is nearing the end of his adolescence and beginning to show traits of an emerging adult.

Yo soy un mexicano blanco, and this a story of how I overcame the dilemma between society’s perception of me and my self-identification.

In Mother Tongue by Amy Tan, an American Chinese writer describes the different types of English she uses throughout her life. The different types of English are tied to her social identity which is evident in An Introduction: At the Root of Identity, from Whistling Vivaldi and Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us by Claude Steele a social psychologist writes about the variety of stereotypes places on people and how that ties with identity. Both writers highlight their perception on stereotypes they have in their research and life.Tan and her mother deal with stereotype threat based on their language. These conditions on their identity make Tan realize she has to be accepting of her broken language because it is a reminder of her culture and it keeps the bond between Tan and her mother alive; challenging the ideas on stereotype. This ultimately suggests that Tan no longer internalize the negative beliefs of individuals but rather is proud embracing who she is.

“Stupid Mexican!” She muttered as I accidently brushed her arm. I stopped and looked back she was beautiful. Her golden blond hair, piercing blue eyes, and a sun kissed complexion hid her ignorance well. I went into the bathroom and starred at the reflection in the mirror. The almond shaped eyes stared back at the girl before them. Her skin was fair and her curly brown hair over whelmed the mirror. As I starred I my self the words resonated, “Stupid Mexican!” I was confused. I am Cuban and Salvadorian; I realized I didn’t know what either meant. My mother told me that her father was a Spanish Businessman who was traveling through El Salvador and met her mother, a native to the country that had never stepped foot outside the small town she was born in. She said that my father was Cuban. She would show me pictures of him and his parents his mother as dark as the night. Her hair too over whelmed her photos. His father was fair in completion. Even through the black and white photo his blue eyes pierced my soul like those of that beautiful women. And there stood my father between his parent’s fair skin, nappy hair, and almond shaped eyes. His smile revolted me all I saw was the man who left his five-year-old daughter for another life. A man who left me, his daughter, wondering who I was and were I came from.

The article that I had to read was “Se habla español”. This article was looking at the future of the Spanish language in the United States. To summarize, prominent scholars of español came together to hold a meeting at Harvard’s “Instituto Cervantes Observatory of the Spanish Language.” They concluded that, “Spanish is not going to fade away and will stay the second-most-common language in the United States.” The scholars state that more American high school students choose to study Spanish rather than French or German as a foreign language. Also, businesses actively recruit bilingual employees thus upping the need for Spanish speakers. Politicians are also making bilingual efforts to appeal to Hispanic voters. Although, the scholars believe

Richard Rodriguez, an American author of an abundance of best-selling novels, believes there is a difference between “private language”, the language spoken with his family (Spanish) and “public language”, the language spoken with nonfamily members (English). In his short essay, “Public and Private Language,” Rodriguez argues that when bilingual people begin to distinguish the difference between their private and public language, they lose part of their identity which defines their culture and most importantly defines who they are; in spite of becoming incorporated in public society the people grew distant from their Spanish roots and families. In this short essay, I will examine three specific reasons why Rodriguez believes private language

The linguistic and cultural clashes that children encounter, and how they negotiate between their ethnic and American “mainstream” cultures, and how these clashes and problems influence their relationship with their parents and their ethnic identities as a whole and how they were dealt with differently as we look at two stories dealing with two girls who are both coming of age in different society from where they originally came from. Jairy’s Jargon a story written by Carmen-Gloria Ballista, is a story that encounters the life of a young girl coming of age in Puerto Rico, except she’s originally from New York. Milly Cepeda’s story, Mari y Lissy, is a story about twin sisters who differ in personality and are often at odds with each

Sandra Cisneros and Reyna Grande’s representation of their liminal identities contribute to the understanding of the formation of transnational identities. Their liminal identities are elaborated through the descriptions of their physical and emotional journeys across material and ideological borders that do not recognize transnational identities. To begin, in the jigsaw autobiography A House of My Own (2015) Cisneros mediates between her experience of growing up in Chicago, excavating into her Mexican father’s family history, been perceived as a gringa in Mexico and as a working class writer. In “An Ofrenda for My Father on Day of the Dead” Cisneros stresses the fundamental contributions that her father’s Mexican lineage added to her

Participant 2 attended school from 1950-1968. No legal policies had been implemented regarding bilingual education when participant 2 was going through school. Though she did not experience a segregated school setting, participant 2 shared the following memories during her interview: “the first day of school I was very disappointed because I went home… my name is Margarita. Me cambiaron el nombre, they called me Margret.” On her very first day of school, her identity was challenged which clearly saddened her because one’s name plays a very important role in who we are. Participant 2 also recalled her primary school teacher saying “sit over there you retard!” As a young girl, participant 2 would ask herself, “what did she call me?” but “Now I understand what she was telling me.” Participant 2 admitted to being punished for