Desmond Tutu once wrote, “You don’t choose your family. They are God’s gift to you, as you are them.” In the story, 90 Miles to Havana, by Enrique Flores-Galbis, the theme of the novel is, Family sticks together and matters most. Initially, in chapters 1-11 of the book on page 64, Enrique Flores-Galbis wrote, “Gordo’s temper has a low tipping point; pass that point and he’s capable of almost anything.”
In the article Always Living in Spanish, Marjorie Agosin tells us her purpose for writing in Spanish for all of her work. Her organization leads us through her childhood and why she wound up where she did. Chile was her home until she was on the run for being a Jew. She came to America and has been here ever since. Writing in Spanish is her way of reliving her childhood in Chile.
Manny and Me In the novel Parrot in the Oven. Victor Martinez introduces the Hernandez family. There is some drama and even some hate to spark your mind while reading.
In The Spanish Inquisition, 1478-1614, Lu Ann Homza successfully compiled and published records of the trial of Marina Gonzalez. Through these records, Homza was able to illustrate the antagonism directed towards the Jewish Community during the Spanish Inquisition. In 15th century Spain, an accusation of practicing Judaism was taken very seriously and could lead to the punishment of death. In 1484, without any explicit evidence, Marina Gonzalez was accused of heresy and apostate based on allegations that she was a secret Jew. According to Homza, “Diego Martinez de Ortega… announced that he intended to place an accusation against Marina Gonzalez… for the crime of heresy and apostasy”
Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia emphasizes the intense connections and relations among three generations of Cuban women during the Cuban revolution. Their memories, dreams and hopes are gradually revealed and connected, and the importance to them of Cuba and what it means to be Cuban is explored. Every character in the novel Dreaming in Cuban has been through a specific struggle, whether it is physical, psychological or even both. The novel focuses on the similarities of their different experiences of each character, and the family ties, intuitions, and dreams that bind them together. One of the most dynamic characters in the novel is Pilar.
The Author also shows us different types of tone and also irony throughout this short story. The boy in this short stories name is Yunior. We can infer that Yunior is a high school student maybe in his sixteens. Yunior is a Dominican Immigrant that has a lot of cultural and social insecurities. Diaz’s focal point is not only stereotypes and their ability for
The book I chose to read for our lit circle unit was “I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter” by Erika L. Sanchez. The story is an interesting read from start to finish full of twists and turns in the storyline. The main conflicts in the story are between Ama, Julia's mom, and Julia herself who always seem to be butting heads because they are coping with grief in different ways. Julia also has a major internal conflict with herself because she is self-conscious about her appearance around others and she at first blames herself for Olga’s death. The main theme of the book is the value of secrecy which can be seen once the story starts to unfold and the secrets that were once hidden rise to the surface.
In this article, Author Gloria Anzaldua writes about growing up in America as a Mexican-American and the struggles that she faced due to the language barrier. Gloria claims that she grew up around a variety of different forms of both Spanish and English, “Standard English, working class/slang English, standard Spanish, Standard Mexican Spanish, and North Mexican Spanish dialect”, are just a few. The language spoken, or combinations of the languages correlate with where the Hispanic person was originally from and where in the U.S. they are now, for example, “Chicano Spanish” is spoken in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. Another focus of this article is how Gloria would be punished in school for speaking in her native tongue and then at home by her for not speaking English properly. Gloria also felt the university she attended made the Hispanics take two speech classes, “in order to get rid of our accents”, she claims.
In the essay "Children of Mexico," the author, Richard Rodriguez, achieves the effect of relaying his bittersweet feeling regarding how Mexicans stubbornly hold on to their past and heritage by not only relaying many personal experiences and images, but also by using an effective blend of formal and informal tone and a diction that provides a bittersweet tone. Among the variety of ways this is done, one is through repetitive reference to fog. The word is used many times in the essay, especially in segments relating to Mexican-Americans returning to Mexico for the winter. One of the more potent uses reads as follows: "The fog closes in, condenses, and drips day and night from the bare limbs of trees.
It was a city, a city built from the litter of the sea. The street beneath her feet was made from timbers that had clearly been in the water for a long time, and the walls were lined with barnacle-encrusted stone. There were three columns supporting the roof, made of coral fragments cemented together. They were buzzing hives of life unto themselves; their elaborately constructed walls pierced with dozens of windows, from which light poured. There were three main streets that wound up and around these coral hives, and they were all lined with habitations and thronged with the Yebba Dim Day 's citizens.
Lorena Garcia wrote “She is Old School Like That,” this piece is about sex talks between mothers and daughters in the Latin American community. She examines the way which these talks are given and at what point in the life of the daughters they are given. Garcia points to the different methodology the Latina mothers used when talking to their daughters, and their reactions when they found out their daughters were engaging in sexual activity. Garcia claims that there is a certain pattern in which the Latina mothers behave. These women are the operation with a new definition of sexuality influenced and shaped by the heteronormative and patriarchal society.
Gloria Anzaldúa’s “La Prieta” tell her struggles with identity by talking about prejudices she dealt with while growing up. These prejudices, such as colorism, sexism, and heteronormativity, were not only held by people outside her social groups but within them as well. Anzaldúa goes on to explain the way identity is formed by intersecting factors and not only one aspect of someone’s life therefore denying one factor of identity can cause isolation and self-hatred. The fact that Anzaldúa developed faster than is deemed normal the first struggle in forming her identity.
Rodriguez ends his book with this Christmas narrative to show that being successful can drive families apart, especially between parents and their children. When Rodriguez was a child he was close to his parents and language was the main reason he felt this way. “My parents would say something to me and I would feel embraced by the sounds of their words” (15) His parent’s melodious words would comfort him and remind him his home. His world was based on who was talking and in what language, los gringos English or his family’s Spanish. He was extremely connected to his parents through speech.
Throughout generations cultural traditions have been passed down, alongside these traditions came language. The language of ancestors, which soon began to be molded by the tongue of newer generations, was inherited. Though language is an everlasting changing part of the world, it is a representation of one’s identity, not only in a cultural way but from an environmental standpoint as well. One’s identity is revealed through language from an environmental point of view because the world that one is surrounded with can cause them to have their own definitions of words, an accent, etc. With newer generations, comes newer forms of languages.
Esmeralda Santiago is able to intertwine her childhood memories and her experiences together with her family in order to communicate her life as Puerto Rican. Santiago depicts the importance of culture and customs in her memoir. Esmeralda was
