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Personal identity and culture
The importance of cultural identity
Personal identity and culture
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Personal identity and culture
The importance of cultural identity
Personal identity and culture
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
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
In the short story "Names Nombres" by Julia Alvarez, the protagonist Julia experiences a meaningful change in her identity when she moves to New York. As she adapts to her new American environment, she struggles to reconcile with her Dominican heritage. Starting school, she faces challenges with her name being mispronounced or altered to Jules/Judy by others. Through Julia's experiences, the story explores the complexities of identity, culture, and the impact of an American upbringing. Alvarez beautifully portrays the complexities of cultural identity through her experiences, highlighting how it can be both a source of strength and confusion, which is significant.
Mexican-American students went back to the prestigious Anglo schools, but now, Anglo-Americans were trying to Americanize them even more. “...segregation became widespread during the 1920s, aided by the “No Spanish Rule”―the rule prohibiting Mexican children from speaking spanish in school” (Acuña 187). Mexican-Americans took pride in speaking Spanish, now they were being stripped away from their culture. In fact, they would get punished for speaking spanish. Most of the time Mexican families spoke Spanish in their homes, but once they stepped outside their door they had to speak english.
The poem/short stories written by Julia Alvarez (Names/Nombres) and Sandra Cisneros (My Name) both talk about the issues of identity and culture. Alvarez talks about the relationship between her Spanish/Dominican heritage and her American identity while Cisneros more so talks about the importance of holding onto her cultural heritage. They both use metaphors, imagery, and symbolism to showcase their messages and talk about the complexities of cultural identity. Alvarez uses metaphor when she uses her name, “Hoo-lee-tah”, as a metaphor for her own identity, which she has grown to be caught between her cultural identity and her American identity. She’s torn between the desperate want to fit in and not stick out like a sore thumb, and the pressure
In Munoz's, "Leave Your Name at the Border", the main element that was being talked about was the fact that when people, immigrants specifically, come into this country, they feel that there is a social pressure that is being put upon them so that they will fit in. This pressure tends to make people do things such as change their names in order to fit in. An example in his situation would be that his stepfather changed his name from Antonio to Tony in an effort to "Anglicanize" it. This concept of fitting in has become a big struggle for many people that are currently here, and also for those who want to come here. An overwhelming sense of social pressure overcomes those who feel like outsiders because their identities do not fit in to the
Her story reflects this; “(w)hile she felt strongly about the importance of English for her son, she herself was proud of her Mexican heritage and had no desire to become an English speaker.” Cox tells another story to support her second and third ideas. She explains: “It was not uncommon for Hispanics to travel between their native and adopted countries on a regular basis. These frequent visits help reinforce the customs, values, and language of Latin America.” She also writes about how Chicanos, American-born Mexicans, “often humiliate new immigrants attempting to learn English.”
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.
The text is important because not many people know the difficulties of being Mexican-American, especially when it comes to being themselves or the inner turmoil that comes with it; being Mexican-American means following traditions and speaking perfect Spanish, while at the same time having a grasp on American traditions and
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.
Over time generations have been influenced by others, yet there has been a sense of embarrassment or self-disgust when pointing out each of the generation’s roots. Throughout “Always Living in Spanish” written by Marjorie Agosin, she shares the passion she has for Spanish. She reveals her strong relationship with it and how she would not want to give it up, it was hers. She does this to give off the impression that roots are beautiful no matter where they are from and that there should be a sense of pride when one does use the language of their past or performs a cultural tradition. In author, Yang’s, “American Born Chinese” he also gives off a similar moral.
In the non-fiction short story “Barrio Boy” by Ernesto Galarza, is about a boy who is a Mexican immigrant, and his journey through the public school system. First, Galarza proves this when Ernesto enters Mrs. Hopleys office and has to pull out his last report card from his old school in Mexico, he also mentions his mother's name Henriqueta which is a Mexican name. The writer also articulates Ernesto learning english with Mrs. Ryan and how he struggles to enunciate words in english. In addition, he points out that on the playground the children spoke their indigenous language, saying insults like womp, chink, dago, or a greaser. Moreover, he emphasizes that he graduated the first grade with honors and continued to do so, he astounded his third
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
With society’s demanding high expectations and criticizing views, people get pushed around easily. This results in people wanting to separate from society, and become their person, as shown in Polanco’s “Identity,” Chang’s New York Times article, and Tupac’s “The Rose That Grew From Concrete.” To separate from society and become their person, people must first show society they are not going to deal with them anymore, and not let themselves be pushed around anymore. New immigrants have recently been showing they will not deal with the pressure to anglicize their names anymore, as shown in Chang’s New York Times article “As American as Vartan, Luis, and Na.” Chinese immigrant Hongxia Liu questions why immigrants would not like to keep
The experience of powerlessness that Cleofilas felt after going through with what abuse she was dealing with was way more than an experience what the narrater had to go through taking the diner over and making it his by just taking orders and cooking right after Javier was arrested. In the story Deportation at Breakfast Javier was taking in by authorities and the narrator had to act very fast on something he should stand forward in, in my opinion the narrator and Javier are in the crisis in this story. The 1 customer in the deli, had just found out what just happened and decided to serve the eggs on his own because Javier was running the deli by himself, and there was no one to cover for him when authorities took Javier, so when authorities came in and escorted him away there was no one to run the deli. After the one customer was serving himself, some other
However, I assimilated so rapidly that I neglected my cultural roots. After two years in a school with no South Asian companions, my parents noticed that not only did I never speak anything but English at home, but also that the intended pronunciation of my name became Raúl, my more common, easier to pronounce alter ego. My parents hoped to revive my lost interest in our cultural heritage, so they completed the tedious task of transferring me to a public school before I could learn the word assimilation.