The Bilingual Difference Essay

“Our culture, our traditions, our languages are the foundations upon which we build our identity.” - Unknown. The concept of bilingualism represents several different ideas, two writers share their personal stories about learning being immersed into the English culture and learning the language. They both share their views of what Bilingualism means to them personally and make arguments about the importance of the concept.

Barrientos starts with sharing her embarrassment to sign up for Spanish classes—the language used by her parents to communicate. Society’s expectation on her fluency of Spanish based on her Latina appearance causes self-questioning: where do I fit in? However, Barrientos initially refused to face her ethnicity as a Latina, beginning at a young age. The poor reputation on Spanish Americans causes Barrientos to isolate herself from the stereotype, by speaking English instead of Spanish. However, society changed: different

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

Gloria Anzaldua, an American writer, passionately displays her mixed feelings of the Spanish and American differences of culture and language through the pages of How to Tame a Wild Tongue. She consistently proves her identity through the use of Spanish language in the text, albeit the text is primarily in English. However, Anazaldua is not a Mexican citizen, she still feels so deeply connected to its’ culture. Even so she can speak English and has struggled with the barriers that arise, she continues to claim that her culture and language make up who she and the other Chicanos are and it is highly valued to them.

In Julia Alvarez’s fictional book, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, she tells the story of four sisters immigrating to America. Their story is told in reverse chronological order; starting when they are adults, and ending when they are children. The four girls are born into a privileged household in the Dominican Republic. While they are young, they must flee to the United States when their father gets himself into trouble. When the family comes to America in 1960, they struggle to adapt to the new culture.

Rosanna Tavarez visited our class to share her experience in the United States from a Hispanic perspective. Ms. Tavarez’s parents are from the Dominican Republic. In their early twenties, they moved to the United States and settled in New York, and spent time in Miami. Ms. Tavarez was born in New York, and lived in a predominately Hispanic neighborhood. Specifically, she described her neighborhood as having the exact characteristics of a neighborhood in the Dominican Republic. For example, you could hear Spanish music and see people outside playing dominoes. In general, Ms. Tavarez spoke positively about her experience growing up in New York with an immigrant family. Yet, she did describe the discrimination her parents faced.

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.

In How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, cultural displacement has a lasting effect on the Garcia family, particularly the Garcia daughters. Their acculturation to American life sparks an identity crisis in the face of racism, language, and relationships. This struggle is exemplified through Yolanda. Yolanda’s journey is an impassioned search for belonging – for immersion in her Dominican heritage, or in the surrogacy of America. In trying to forge her identity, however, she discovers that she is an amalgam of both cultures and never fully assimilates into one.

Anna Lisa Raya is both Mexican and Puerto Rican.Her father is a second ganeration Mexican-American She lives in El Soreno, a Mexican neighborhood,in Los Angeles. When she first attended college in New York she discovered that she was defined as a Latina.Upon arriving in New York as a first year student , she not only experienced culture, but for the first time she had to define herself according to the broad term “latina”.she felt like she was a minority mainly because Latinos always encounter discrimination. But as a young girl she was never the perfect image of a Latina. For example, she was always mistaken for Asian or white. Mainly because of her appearance was very different. Since she wasn’t raised in Mexico she didn’t learn how to

The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria is an essay by Judith Ortiz Cofer. In this essay she writes about her experiences to demonstrate the stereotypes of Latin woman and the struggles they face in America. In Puerto Rican culture it is normal for a girl’s mother to encourage her to look and act like a woman and dress in clothes too “mature” for her age. This is a conflicting message for these young women because they are also kept under scrupulous surveillance, since virtue and modesty are equivalent to their family’s honor. Two Ways to Belong in America tells about how there are two ways to belong in America; legally and to feel you belong. It exhibits this by telling of two sisters who used to think alike, but now share opposing views on their lifestyles. The author, Bharati Mukherjee, is an American citizen who married outside of her Indian culture and has lived all over the United States. Her sister Mira has a green card and does not wish to become an American citizen, even though she has become successful in her contributions in the fields of pre-school education and parent teacher relationships. Mira married an Indian student and they have plans to move back to India when she retires. Out of these two essays, The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria is more effective.

Growing-up in a predominately Mexican/Mexican-American community as a first-generation girl, like I did, is no walk in the park. Not only was I to uphold my parent’s traditional Mexican values such as: learning to cook and keep to a household, as well as a marriage, but also to uphold my new American values of independence and success measured in money as well as in property. At school I was taught to forget my first language, Spanish, and speak only in English, reminding me that: “You don’t want to speak with an accent.” At home I was reminded that Spanish, was and still is my first language and to leave English for school use only, reminding me that: “We can’t understand you in English.” Through this tug-of-war, between both cultures expectations of who I was to be/become, there was a desperate need to find my own identity, away from either culture. Sandra Cisneros’, The House on Mango Street, documents the need and struggle to find one’s own identity, through the narrator Esperanza’s experiences growing-up in a predominately Latino community in Chicago. Throughout the book Esperanza tries to understand the many different factors that influence her life and identity: in particular ethnicity and gender. Although, Esperanza suggest that she doesn’t want to be identified by either her Mexican identity or her sex; both of these factors play a major role in her struggle to find her own identity, by the way that they are intertwined in her own thoughts and in the descriptions of

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents explores the complications four sisters face when trying to immerse themselves in American culture. This includes religion, language barriers, fitting in at American schools, physical appearance, and family dynamics. Alvarez writes about many of the same struggles she faced during her own cultural transition.

Aydann is a six year old female, who was born in Ft Lauderdale Florida on July 28th, 2004. Aydann has a sister who is 18 years old and is a senior in high school. She lives with her family in a middle class neighborhood in central Florida. Aydann’s mother is of Hispanic decent and her father is of European decent. Spanish is spoken regularly in Aydann’s home by her mother, sister and grandmother, who live one block away, but Aydann has not begun speaking Spanish. Both of Aydann’s parents attended college and have degrees, and work in a professional setting. Aydann’s parents have been married for almost 18 years.

A skill or talent that I have is the ability to speak two languages. I am fluent in both English and Spanish meaning I am able to speak, write and read in both languages. I developed my bilingual skills at a very young age.

However, by the end of my freshman year, I had a new interest in language and culture. This interest was not fueled by academic curiosity but rather by the simple desire to connect and understand others. I had begun dating a Mexican-American boy and his family intrigued me. My boyfriend’s mother, Doris, and father, Enrique, met in the 60’s during Enrique’s annual migration from Mexico to southern Missouri as a harvest worker. The two had met, fallen in love, and moved to Mexico where they started their family. Four children and 12 years later, they returned to the U.S. to enroll their kids in public school. What