The reality of life can often differ from childhood to adulthood. Twelve-year-old Pablo Medina experienced this first hand. In the reflective essay, “Arrival: 1960,” Medina tells about his experiences of moving from Cuba to America. Upon arriving, his expectations for America are set high. Coming from the communism he saw in Cuba, Medina was expecting a land of freedom, apart from violence, and segregation; he was expecting an overall better life for himself. After just a few days of being in New York, the young boy was exposed to the harsh realities of his new life in America.
Prior to arriving in America, Medina had never experienced snow. As he takes his first few steps into this new country he sees this clean, fresh snow. He describes
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“But the snow on the ground did not stay white very long. Nothing does in New York. It started graying at the edges four days after our arrival” (Medina 72). Medina notices this on his way to school, little does he know this is just the beginning of a eye opening experience. Shortly after he gets to school he sees something unexpected, “He [the teacher] slapped her across the face several times. Most students, already practicing the indifference that is keynote of survival in New York, barely turned their heads. I, however, stared, frozen by violence” (Medina 73). This shows the exposure he received in school, he was not expecting the teachers to use violence as punishment but he learned that in school, there was violence and segregation. The teacher lately made a comment about Medina’s skin tone, he reflects on this by saying, “Skin? What does that have to do with any of this? I had never thought of my skin, let alone considered it a mark of foreignness” (73). In the moment, he did not realize that because he was colored, he was any different.
Just as the snow grayed and lost it’s purity, Medina felt as because he was also not pure white that he was looked down on. As Medina reflects on the situation, now as an adult, he understands what made him different. This story shows a different view of America that people do not typically see. This makes Americans think, is this