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
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.
Munoz states a valid point that over time Anglicization leads to the loss of identity or culture this is unavoidable unless families keep their cultures traditions intact and never lose sight of their identities. Manuel Munoz mentions in the short essay Leave Your Name at the border “when white teachers asked, what your name means?’ when what they really want to know was “What’s the English one.” (Munoz 159) with this statement Munoz brings up the normality in the non-acceptance of foreign names in the United States. This type of arrogance causing Mexican parents to anglicize their children’s names.
Iranian writer, Firoozeh Dumas, in her narrative essay, “The F Word,”illustrates the challenges of having a different name in America. Dumas’ purpose is to represent the importance of accepting one’s identity and other’s. Having a different name brought her a great challenge to fit in with her peers. Through the story, she learned how to accept her own name and how should others accept people’s differences. She portrays this idea in a humorous way.
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.
The story begins with an omniscient narrator describing how Mery Yagual struggles with her identity. She was born as María de las Mercedes Yagual Pozo but goes by Mery Yagual. In the story, it says that she struggled with her identity, “she gets up every day being María Yagual and she wants to be Mercedes Pozo” (83). Mery wanted to identify as less Indian because that’s what she believed was best. Mery is the protagonist and her identity is the principal conflict.
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
Names/Nombres written by Julia Alvarez is a short story regarding a little girl, Hooleetah, moving with her family from the Dominican Republic to New York City in the 1960s. It is extremely clear within the beginning of the story that the girl absolutely despises it when people pronounce her, or her family's’ names wrong, this is proven when she corrects the customs officer under her breath when he mispronounces her family’s last name. “At Immigration, the officer asked my father, Mister Elbures, if he had anything to declare... but I said our name to myself, opening my mouth wide for the organ blast of trilling my tongue for the drumroll of the r, All-vab- rrr-es (Alvarez 1). As the story continues each member of her family is assigned with many different American names, as people found it hard to pronounce their actual names.
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.
He lump-sums race and ethnicity without identifying their incongruences because race is a social construct in contrast to ethnicity that is based on choice. Furthermore, ethnicity can be used as a resource for identity formation, Cisneros in her short story “My Name” she expresses her encounter with the foreignness of English and illuminates the beauty of Spanish, "At school they say my name funny as if the syllables were made out of tin and hurt the roof of your mouth. But in Spanish, my name is made out of a softer something, like silver" (13). Thus, ethnicity is not a corrective measure in relation to race, but rather a tool that augments cultural
The struggle of not finding an identity in a culture because of a last name such as Barrientos can be a real challenge. Especially if the language associated with the name is as foreign as to someone who does not understand the language the name originates from. In Tanya Barrientos autobiographical memoir “Se Habla Español” the frustration is voiced and expressed through her description of molding into the American Anglo culture. Then coming to terms to accept her Latina culture without speaking her native language. Her incapability to only speak English was the decision of her parents when they came to the United States in 1963.
The drama “Simply Maria or the American Dream” by Josefina López describes the life of Maria, a Mexican-American woman living in Los Angeles. From a young age, Maria was instilled with the values of Mexican culture, however as she grew beliefs different from her culture began to develop in Maria’s mind. This led to Maria’s departure from her home in pursuit of college after a dream of a future where Maria followed her parent’s wishes to marry and have children. The drama “Simply Maria or The American Dream” delves into several themes. However, the theme most notable in the drama is the search for identity conveyed through the three girls, symbolizing Maria’s Mexican culture, her role as a woman, and her desires.
Every sacrifice has a greater outcome. Living in a country as an immigrant is difficult especially when there is a need to learn a new language. Living in the United States requires to at least understand English and if a person is trying to get into a well paying job it is necessary to know how to speak English. There are times when students have to give up their native language in order to succeed in their education. It was not until I read Bilingual Sestina by Julia Alvarez that I actually went in depth and realized how much a person can actually struggle as a bilingual.
When I was young, I kept hearing from my Mother, “women should stay at home and do the household chores, such as cleaning the house and taken care of the family, while men is working and providing support for the family.” While growing up, I refuse to accepted it; I don’t want to be a domesticated woman only, I would like to have a career too. The poem of Julia Alvarez, “Woman’s Work”, reminds me of those old days when I was dreaming of my future. I can prove that managing the cleanliness of the house is a hard work. As what Alvarez stated, “Doing her woman’s work was a hard art.”
