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Leave Your Name At The Border Analysis

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In the passage “Leave Your Name at the Border” the author Mr. Muñoz states that he is a Mexican-American from Dinoba, California, a small town near Fresno. The author primarily focuses on how birth names and acquired nicknames affect immigrants, he criticizes forced assimilation by referencing various personal experiences which include five major points, he begins by mentioning observations he and his mother made suggesting that some immigrants try to appear more fair-skinned and use Anglicized pronunciations in order to fit in or assimilate, he also notices that traditional Mexican names were being phased out and replaced by “American” names within his family and among his hometown friends this signifies how assimilation can erase another
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161 Words | 1 Pages

In Munoz 's article "Leave Your Name at the Border," the author sheds light on how names can reflect an individual 's ethnicity and perhaps some negative qualities. Munoz also describes how he saw countless examples of people of similar backgrounds having to change their name to a more Americanized version. Munoz even tells a story of how his stepfather adopted an English name for the respect he would gain from others. He proceeds to further explain how the Anglicization of his stepfathers name, from Antonio to Tony, gave him "a measure of access as he struggled to learn English and get more fieldwork. " For Munoz ' stepfather, an English name gave him an American identity—one that many individuals hope will lead them and their families into

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532 Words | 3 Pages

One day Peggy asks Francisco to walk her home after school, she invites him inside and Peggy’s parents hear his accent and ask if he is Spanish to which he proudly replies, “‘I am Mexican’” (Jimenez 39).

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701 Words | 3 Pages

Richard Rodriguez and Gloria Anzaldúa are two authors who both immigrated to America in the 1950s and received first hand experience of the assimilation process into American society. During this time, Rodriguez and Anzaldúa had struggled adjusting to the school system. Since understanding English was difficult, it made adjusting to the American school system increasingly difficult for Rodriguez. Whereas Anzaldúa, on the other hand, had trouble adjusting to America’s school system due to the fact that she didn’t wish to stop speaking Spanish even though she could speak English. Both Rodriguez and Anzaldúa had points in their growing educational lives where they had to remain silent since the people around them weren’t interested in hearing them speaking any other language than English.

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145 Words | 1 Pages

Richard Rodriguez’s claim about a person's identity is the using race as a basis for identifying Americans is not valid; culture should be what defines a identity. Richard Rodriguez says that newcomers were being “welcomed within a new community for reasons of culture. “ (136-137). Richard Rodriguez says that newcomers were welcomed when they were identified by their culture. Richard Rodriguez also says “I am Chinese, and that is because I live in a Chinese city and I want to be Chinese.“

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938 Words | 4 Pages

The immigrants entering the United States throughout its history have always had a profound effect on American culture. However, the identity of immigrant groups has been fundamentally challenged and shaped as they attempt to integrate into U.S. society. The influx of Mexicans into the United States has become a controversial political issue that necessitates a comprehensive understanding of their cultural themes and sense of identity. The film Mi Familia (or My Family) covers the journey and experiences of one Mexican-American (or “Chicano”) family from Mexico as they start a new life in the United States. Throughout the course of the film, the same essential conflicts and themes that epitomize Chicano identity in other works of literature

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883 Words | 4 Pages

Thoughts come to mind when we hear of a Mexican name. According to Deputy Suarez, “when you heard a Spanish surname that ended with a z, you thought of Mexicans and the various federal codes they violated when they jumped over a steel fence into the United States” (Tobar 238). The first thing that comes to mind when a Spanish name is heard is that they illegally crossed the border, which makes them with a criminal. People with a Spanish or Spanish sounding last name, are immediately thought of as immigrants who are breaking the law, thus being a criminal.

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808 Words | 4 Pages

The mood shifts as Hanson uses another anecdote about his immigrant students to challenge this claim. He uses his second-generation Asian students, who have become assimilated into American culture, and uses rhetorical questions to ponder why his Mexican-American students have a different experience adapting to America. One of the biggest points of this argument is location. Mexico is close to the U.S. and in Hanson’s words it is, “only a short drive to the south rather than oceans away”. So, Mexican immigrants do not experience the same kind of homesickness or isolation immigrants usually feel.

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622 Words | 3 Pages

Firoozeh Dumas, in her narrative essay “The ‘F’ Word,” explains what it’s like to grow up with a foreign name in America, and how Americans react to such names. She uses an informal, entertaining tone to hold the reader’s attention, but gradually shifts to a more serious tone to express how something as small as a name can make a difference in both how people view a person, and how that person deals with the judgement and their own feelings to inform readers who may not know how much of an impact something like a name can make. Throughout the entire narrative essay, Duman keeps a generally light, humorous tone. She uses an informal way of writing, allowing almost any reader to connect with her words and take something away from reading this

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1432 Words | 6 Pages

She gave examples of white people trying to adapt to hip – hop, and black slangs used in advertising by companies. In another essay, “Leave Your Name At the Border” by Manval Munoz, he explains how the immigrants are trying to blend in with American’s culture and acting something they are not. Munoz also talks about the fear of losing

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1039 Words | 5 Pages

George was a Mexican American from California and was within my social circle—a buddy. We knew his parents were from Mexico and that George was American born. I cringe to remember how we would pronounce his name in the Spanish form even after he had asked us to stop. We thought we were simply teasing George as we did all of our friends, but now I realize we were drawing attention to his Hispanic culture and communicating to him that he wasn’t one of us, that he didn’t belong. This is possibly one of my most deliberate portrayals of racial

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994 Words | 4 Pages

As a result of their emigration, America was now viewed as “multiethnic and multiracial” and “defined in terms of culture and creed” (Huntington 1). On the contrary, when people traveled across the border from Mexico, their culture was not so widely accepted. Mexican traditions and values were seen as a “serious challenge to America’s traditional identity” (Huntington 2). The “original settlers” of America were incredibly open to people travelling from Europe, but when people came from Latin America, they were

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678 Words | 3 Pages

This quote explains that the author feels out of place. When Barrientos came to the United States she stopped speaking spanish, partly because her parents wanted her to speak english. One reason she did not want to be classified as Mexican American was that society has negative connotations outsiders. Learning spanish

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585 Words | 3 Pages

This is because the movement itself began as a search for identity in a nation where Chicanos where once classified as White, but never received any of the rights associated with it and where later reclassified as Hispanic. It is also because what was once considered Mexican culture is no more as it has been taken, manipulated, and killed by the Anglos in their conquest. In “I am Joaquin” we see this concept throughout the work in a variety of forms that range from what Mexicans are to the concept of being Chicano. One major example of the search for Identity in the work is shown in the beginning with the paradox question where many young Chicanos are forced to choose between cultural life in poverty or stability at the price of their culture. Basically it states that they must choose between embracing their heritage at the cost of stability or to reject it and conform to the Anglo world and have a chance to be successful.

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1054 Words | 5 Pages

In the poem “To live in the Borderlands means you”, the borderlands become a place of change, such as changing from just one culture or race into a diverse culture or race and not-belonging. (Singh, A., & Schmidt, P. 2000). The poem describes how the author’s own background ethnicity people, mixicanas, identifies people like her, chicanas, as “split or mixture that means to betray your word and they deny “Anlo inside you.” (Anzaldua, F. 1987). The poem describes that the borderland is a place of contradiction, such as of home not being a home.

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854 Words | 4 Pages

Migration and border controls are one of the most controversial and debatable topics in the USA, given its current political status. People of color are constantly being stopped and thoroughly checked at the migrations stands in airports every day, every hour. People of color are seen as enemies and criminals, while Caucasian people are seen as innocent. The superiority of being a Caucasian and disdain to any other nationality/ethnicity has reached epidemic proportions. It is nothing new that every country acquires border controls, although some may be harsher and more injustice than the others.

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