Summary Of Mericans By Sandra Cisneros

Sandra Cisneros and Dwight Okita are writers, who are greatly influenced by American culture. Both authors discuss and establish the topic of American identity in “Response to Executive Order 9066” and “Mericans.” Okita defines “American identity” as the connection and experience with culture rather than where your family originated from. Cisneros short story is about making sense of a culture instead of making assumptions based on physical characters. However, both establish that the physical appearance of a person and their heritage do not determine what it means to be American.
Sandra Cisneros’ “Mericans” is a short story about how a young American girl is struggling to find her own cultural identity. Through a number of images and ideas, Cisneros had illustrated the girl’s struggles. In the story, Micaela stands outside of her family’s church, which goes to clarify that she feels like an outsider even though she is of Mexican descent. The children in the story embrace American culture than a native culture with the use of comic characters. Micaela struggles to understand her grandmother’s heritage, and it takes quite an effort in doing so. The "awful grandmother” as the young girl calls her is an example of a person in the story living in two cultural worlds, while she clings to her cultural heritage, she still doesn't

The poem is about the experience of a young teenage girl during the relocation of Japanese Americans to camps. The young girl goes on to explain as how her favorite food is hot dogs, which explains how she isn’t accustomed to the Japanese heritage. Within this poem, the cultural heritage and physical appearance do not determine what it means to be an American. Okita talks about how people can experience culture, expressing this more by telling his story about the young girl who is overwhelmed by American culture, but soon finds comfort and