The Sour Cream Container

In the essay, “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” Gloria Anzaldua uses her voice to speak about social and cultural difficulties Chicanos face. Her voice comes from many years of struggling to identify herself within society. She brings to light many issues, including sexism and racism. I think she is writing to give others a voice, who face similar challenges. Anzaldua writes about her experiences through many different voices including Spanish, White, Indian, woman, and feminist.

Stereotypical images are in the cinematic register where they are intentionally included to make film sale and also to be critical in the narration process. Hollywood stereotyping Latino’s poet is common in many films displaying poverty and crime as part of their livelihood. Moreover, they use standard films

Once, there was a woman who claimed that her identity is like the spirit of Caesar. She was raped when she was nineteen, and public condemned her of losing her virtue, even though virtue is not a woman’s consumable good that can be achieved by purity or lost by accident. This reaction is similar to that of school teacher in the poem of Martín Espada, My Native Costume. In the poem, the teacher asks the writer to wear traditional costume for the students even though the writer defines himself as a lawyer. She is full of prejudice that Puerto Rican people will always wear traditional clothes, but she rather thinks that she is doing a good job for her students while saying “the children want to see a native costume” (Espada). Probably the public

In the 1960’s the Chicano community undertook a unique, dramatic, and multifaceted social struggle of affirmation. This historic phase became more and more varied and complex then previous struggles (Maciel, 2010).

In the media industry, there is a vast misconception about race and ethnic identity. This misconception, which can often be offensive, extends from all media platforms. In terms of art imitating life, the media has attempted to generate profit from a creative platform that, from their perspective, imitates real-life Latino culture. This approach was an attempt to relate to Latino culture, and sometimes even find ways to exploit it— though the mark was often missed. In George Lopez’s “Brown is the New Green” this missed target is further explained.

capitalism, the dance expression still practiced by a boomer generation of Tejanos stands as response to the mega-marketing of continual replacement of capitalism’s postmodernity. As a Chicanoized polka, that articulates an identity discourse of racialization and class oppression, I locate él taquachito as a residual element as a resource for either an alternative or oppositional articulation for today’s cultural expression. As a dance of the recent past, the distinct dance culture of the pachucos and pachucas—a select subaltern grouping—was grasped by the Tejana/o working class majority as a response to oppression. As a residual cultural element, él taquachito may offer an alternative or even oppositional relation to the present

Gregory Nava is a Mexican filmmaker who was born on April 10, 1949, in San Diego California. As a former UCLA alumni, Nava has produced several racially and culturally charged films that often break new grounds such as, El Norte, Mi Familia, and Bordertown. Thus, Nava dedicates his filmmaking career to give his audience a distinct point of view which is the central thread of his films and that which encompasses the Latino culture, experience, and their unjust treatment in America as oppressed minorities; with the hope of counteracting false stereotypes, misconceptions, promoting education, compassion, and acceptance of minorities. Nava does this by redefining the traditional labels of who the “insiders” and “outsiders” of society are, he also puts Latinos in the position of subjects through whose eyes the audience, experience plots, and who speak for themselves instead of being perceived voyeuristically by characters from outside the Latino community, and by incorporating what Nava describes as “dream realism” aspects to his films (Johnson, 2009).

Chicano Theatre is a relatively young genre of theatre in comparison to the traditional theatre that date back centuries. It was in the 1960’s that the term Chicano became prevalent in the United States. Chicano is used only of Mexican Americans, not of Mexicans living in Mexico. It was originally an informal term in English (as in Spanish), and the spelling of the first recorded instance in an American publication followed the Spanish custom of lowercasing nouns of national or ethnic origin (The Free Dictionary 2003). The transition of the meaning Chicano has varied throughout the decades, but it still holds its politically charged roots strong.

Although many common denominators do indeed exist between Nyuyorian and Chicano works of literature, it is also true that many differences separate their writings. Both types of writers give a voice to the members of the Latino culture and generations. However, their dialogue is set under a prognostication of different cultural, social, historical and political ideologies. This is revealed by an analysis of the themes, characters, narratives and poetic voices found in their works. Nyucorian writers rise in antagonism towards the American culture that has ignored their Latino culture while the works of Chicano writers seem to seek the wanting of a relationship between the Spanish and American cultures.

An American writer of Chicana cultural theory, Gloria Anzaldúa, in “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” asserts that language is intertwined with identity. She supports her claim by first using an allegory with imagery of a dentist visit in order to showcase the struggle of having a “unconventional” accent, then uses emotional appeal to reveal the Chicanx community’s insecurities about their language in order for the audience to have a personal understanding of their struggles, and finally utilizes a simile as a call to action for the Chicanx community to unite and take pride in their culture. Anzaldúa’s purpose is to emphasize how people should not be ashamed of their native tongue in order to encourage people to take pride in their cultural identity.

While reading Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed and Gloria Anzaldua’s two articles from Borderlands and This Bridge We Call Home many concepts were discussed that caught my attention. Freire and Anzaldua offer great, shocking revelations that focus on change in the oppressed and the oppressors, as well as bringing to attention the false sense of altruism, the seven stages of conocimiento and moving away from cultural assimilation to enculturation. Throughout the readings there were also an abundance of connections made to concepts within community psychology such as first order vs second order changes, the relationship between power and oppression and meaning focused coping. Reflecting on the reading material made connecting to the concepts presented effortless as much of what is talked about is easy to understand and relatable to people of color, both authors intended audience. I personally connected my life experiences to Freire’s theory of how the oppressed are portrayed and its effect on the oppressed as well as Anzaldua’s seven stages of conocimiento.

Moreover, because the Chicano movement was incredibly popular during the time in which this adaptation was written, the audience of the play can see through a different lense how the Latino community was extremely discriminated against. During this time, the Latinos were discriminated everywhere by everyone; they were viewed and treated as second class citizens. By portraying and identifying The Hungry Woman’s Medea with these minority group identities, the audience can greatly see the mistreatment that was and is still presently happening in our

In The Last Tortilla and Other Stories by Sergio Troncoso, the issues of racism and classism are addressed and exemplified along with the reflection of his own cultural perspective.

Euzhan Palcy’s 1983 film Sugar Cane Alley appears to be the traditional rags-to-riches story, but it actually explores problems involving race, gender, and class in Martinique during the 1930s. It is a story of colonial oppression in Martinique during this time. The film’s protagonist is a bright young man named José who is being taken care of by his grandmother Ma Tine. Ma Tine makes a number of sacrifices in order to make sure that José can continue going to school. She is his light, his hope, and his motivation. He works hard because he wants her to live a better life and not have to work so hard everyday. Jose is also guided by Medouze, his “spritual father”, and by Carmen, a young black man in his twenties who works hard and saves his money to follow his dreams of becoming a Hollywood actor.

Note: This essay intends to explain the differences in first and third person narratives, highlighting examples within the two stories “Let them call it Jazz” and “A sense of shame”, both of which deal with racism and its subcultures in a first and third person perspective, respectively. The arguments presented are limited to that of first and third person perspectives only.