Julia Alvarez attempted to rewrite the immigrant experience from the female perspective by sharing her own life story as an immigrant seeking asylum from her oppressive dictatorship ruled homeland, the Dominican Republic. Alvarez’s novel How the García Girls Lost Their Accents is a semi-autobiography of her own journey to and from the Dominican Republic to the United States by drawing on her own experiences and observations about the fractured sense of identity accompanying immigration to the United States.
In her book, From Out of the Shadows, Viki L. Ruiz argues the contributions to history that was made by farm workers, activists, leaders, volunteers, feminists, flappers, and Mexican women. She explores the lives of the innovative and brave immigrant women, their goals and choices they make, and how they helped develop the Latino American community. While their stories were kept in the shadows, Ruiz used documented investigations and interviews to expose the accounts of these ‘invisible’ women, the communities they created, and the struggles they faced in hostile environments. The narrative and heartfelt approach used by Ruiz give the reader the evidence to understand as well as the details to identify or empathize with.
The 64-year old investigative reporter spent over eight years writing his remarkable book, Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America, which was published in 1999. In his early life, Gonzalez was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico and was raised in East Harlem and Brooklyn. As a journalist, and before that as a Puerto Rican community activist who helped found and direct two national organizations, the Young Lords in the 1960’s, and the National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights in the late 1970’s, Juan Gonzalez has spent decades living in and reporting on scores of Latino communities throughout the United States and Latin America, devouring in the process every study or account of the Latino experience he could find (Gonzalez, XXII). With the many historians that have conducted research in the recent decades, Juan realized that by connecting the past to the present and by crossing academic disciplines, he could touch on more than one Latino group while still making the entire process comprehensible to both Latinos and
“Never Marry a Mexican” is both the title of Sandra Cisneros’ short story published in the collection Woman Hollering Creek, and one of the most ironic as well as provocative statements present in the Chicana literature. The story itself is a critical as well as self-reflexive exercise in understanding concepts such as gender, race and ethnicity. Working with the presumption that the affiliation to distinct gender as well as racial and ethnic background is determined by the certain level of performativity, Cisneros illustrates difficulties in performing a double role , frequently faced by the second and the third generation of Mexican immigrants in the United States. Following paragraphs will consider Cisneros’ story with Judith Butler’s concept
Bobrow-Strain deftly highlights the structural inequities that prevent Latinx people from moving ahead in society. The author emphasizes the enormous discrepancies encountered by Latinx communities and provides attention to the structural constraints they meet via Aida's experiences, such as her mother's low-wage employment and her own restricted access to decent education The growth of Aida's character serves as an example of the tenacity and power typical of Latino cultural settings. Aida refuses to let her surroundings alone define who she is despite the difficulties she endures. Her pursuit of education and her participation in activism to bring about change in her community demonstrate her drive to overcome her circumstances.
Ruth Gomberg-Munoz's Labor and Legaility: An Ethnography of a Mexican Immigrant Network, describes the lives of undocumented immigrants from Mexico who work as busboys In a Chicago restaurant. Gomberg-Munoz gives insight into the new lives of the boys, through her compilation of their experiences both before crossing the border and after moving away from home into an unknown world. As an ethnography, the book gives information and details of the workers without arguing or taking a stance on immigration itself; it is instead presented in a manner that attempts to give readers a full understanding of the undocumented life through the revelation of the ones living it. She provides readers with a perspective on the daily struggles faced when living
Furthermore, it explores the cultural hybridity of the Chicanos and the need to create a new uniting identity (Anzaldúa 77-83). The book
Barbara Carrasco works in advocating to change treatment of women. I decided to do my research paper because I believe that there's a difference between how a Chicano depicts and paint
Selena Quintanilla’s father once said, “We have to be more Mexican than the Mexicans and more American than the Americans.” In today’s society, many have encountered the challenge of not being able to be who they really are because they fear not being accepted by others, more specifically their culture. But, what happens when an individual is part of two worlds that have just as many rules? Gloria E. Anzaldúa was a Mexican-American writer and poet who made a major contribution to the fields of cultural, feminist, and queer theory. Anzaldúa identifies as a Chicana and speaks different variations of Spanish, some of which she exhibits in her works.
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
Christopher Castaneda 3/2/2023 2nd period Multicultural Literature Dan-el Padilla was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He came to the U.S when he was only 4 years old legally but unfortunately his visa expired while in the U.S which meant he had become undocumented. Padilla shows us throughout his memoir Undocumented how being undocumented challenges your life. Padilla argues what is succes and how you can attain it and how your social status does not define who you are. My own view on Padilla’s interrelated themes is that success can be whatever you’d like it to be because people have different successes and goals in life.
September 26, 1942 marked a riveting day for the literary world who received a new writing giant that would make a resounding impact for the Latino community for decades to come. Anzaldúa was born to parents Urbano and Amalia Anzaldúa and was the eldest of four children, all born in Raymondville, Texas. Anzaldúa spent her childhood living in ranches and even traveled to West Texas to become a migrant worker. At age 11, her family relocated to Hargill, Texas for better educational opportunities and through that, Anzaldúa’s vast knowledge of the South Texas landscape and experiences with discrimination soon came to influenced many of her later works. Anzaldúa became interested in writing at a young age, she wrote poetry, journal entries and
Many stories embody the cultural aspects of Mexican-Americans and their struggles with living in a discriminatory society. Stories like With
“The common denominator all Latinos have is that we want some respect. That 's what we 're all fighting for” - Cristina Saralegui. Judith Ortiz Cofer published the article, “The Myth of the Latin Woman,” where she expresses her anger towards stereotypes, inequality, and degradation of Latin Americans. Cofer explains the origins of these perceived views and proceeds to empower Latin American women to champion over them. Cofer establishes her credibility as a Latin American woman with personal anecdotes that emphasize her frustration of the unfair depiction of Latinos in society.
Julia Alvarez’s “Something to Declare” leaves all readers feeling a sense of familiarity with His-panic Americans, particularly Dominican Americans, and their struggles. While Julia Alvarez and her siblings were fortunate enough to make it into the United States, it is not a walk in the park for even them to assimilate into American society. Thus the question becomes is the United States Alvarez’s real home or is the Dominican Republic her real home? Whatever the real answer is, the technical answer is that the United States is her home. Also, Alvarez manages to make English her own, conveying the stories she wishes to in the world’s most popular language while never really improving upon her native tongue.
