In “Se Habla Espanol,” Tanya Barrientos elaborates on her personal experience growing up in the United States. In the first couple decades of her life, Barrientos distanced herself from her cultural roots fearing that she would be judge and belittle. It was essential for Barrientos to fit in with the American society. Barrientos formats the short story where she is speaking from firsthand experience.
In the essay “Aria: Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” by Richard Rodriguez. The author uses his memoir to show how he has fought through his childhood to understand English and how the english language had formed his identity. To him, Spanish was a private language, spoken only at home and in the comforting presence of his family. The Spanish language allowed him to connect with his parents because that was all they knew. However, After he was somewhat forced to speak English by the public, he became an outsider to his own culture, unable to speak Spanish, but still able to understand it as it states “we remained a loving family, but one greatly changed.
For as long as people can remember, the stereotype that men have “more power” than women in a relationship has been a relevant argument. In the novel How the García Girls Lost Their Accents the Author, Julia Alvarez, writes about four girls and part of that revolves around their relationships with men. In all of their relationships with men, he has the power in the relationship which means he makes the decisions for them. When they lived in the United States the girls and their mother had more say in the society. When they lived in the Dominican Republic men just saw them as submissive housewives who bear their children.
Everyday people are judging and being judged by others with unique criteria that we, as inhabitants of Earth deem necessary checkmarks to be met to afford and be afforded tokens of civility. In Judith Ortiz Cofer’s “The Myth of the Latin Woman” the memoir is brimming with personal accounts of fetishiztation and discrimination the author experiences as a Latin woman that have vast influence on her life. Throughout the text Cofer conveys the significance of how deep the status “exotic” to describe Latina women is held inside the minds of people which the author alludes to on page 879, “I thought you Latin girls were supposed to mature early,” [1] after being given a sudden, non-consensual kiss at a dance by her date. The author expresses the cultural dissonance between
Oscar Casares created a very believable character in “Mrs. Perez” by writing about Lolas passion, bowling, and including flash backs about her younger life and family. He used these flash backs and incorporated her family to go into depth about her past, and let the readers infer why she is the way she is. The bowling ball that is repeatedly mentioned throughout the story contrast her past life. By giving her a hobby, and showing the struggles she has experienced in her past, she becomes like a real person readers empathize with. To begin with, Casares often went back in time to show her seemingly unhappy life with her now deceased husband.
Generalizations take after specific individuals for the duration of their lives. Judith Ortiz Cofer is a Latina who has been stereotyped and she delineates this in her article, "The myth of the Latin lady: I just met a young lady named Maria. " Cofer depicts how pernicious generalizations can really be. Perusers can understand Cofer 's message through the numerous explanatory interests she employments.
Helen Maria Williams lived in London and later Paris, but Peru: A Poem, in Six Cantos allowed her to figuratively travel across the ocean. This virtual travel enabled her to deal with the South American country of Peru as if she was actually there. Williams ' Peru: A Poem, in Six Cantos depicts the fall of Peru in great detail.
Roberts, Edgar V, and Robert Zweig. Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Pearson Education, 2015. Print. "Sorry, I Don't Speak Spanish: Hispanics Deal with the Loss of Spanish Fluency."
Confident Relationships Built on Language Wouldn’t it be exciting to grow up learning more than one language? Imagine being in Japan for a week on vacation with a group of friends, and one day decided to go to the oldest zoo in Japan, Ueno Zoo. To get to Ueno Zoo, riding the bullet train was a necessity, except knowing which line was the correct line, when to get off the bullet train, or even which ticket to buy was a daunting task. Nobody in your group has the confidence to ask the workers for help since they don’t have the knowledge of Japanese to help them.
Selena Quintanilla-Perez was a talented Mexican-American singer, songwriter, spokesperson, and fashion designer. On top of her career, she had respect, and was admired as a great role model by Mexican Americans. The “Queen of Tejano” music, her contributions to music and fashion made her one of the most celebrated Mexican-American entertainers of the late 20th century. Billboard magazine named her the “Top Latin Artist of the 90s” and then “Best Selling Latin Artist of the decade”. Selena ranks among the most influential Latin artists of all time and is credited for catapulting a music genre into the mainstream market.
Cristina Garcia’s Dreaming in Cuban is narrated through a multiplicity of voices as the characters struggle to reconcile their identities either within Cuba or as immigrants in America. These narrative accounts express the consequences of political unrest in Cuba (between 1972 and 1980) on the formation of a stable identity, as well as the consequences of such on family kinships. As such, the main themes expressed throughout the novel include displacement and distance, which are prominently reflected through the characterizations of Lourdes and Pilar, and their connection to Cuba and America. Cristina Garcia’s Dreaming in Cuban, then, explores the consequences of cultural exile on shaping a stable sense of self-identity, challenging the idea
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.
However, in order for one to truly understand the arguments made by the authors they must also understand the context behind these arguments; therefore, knowing how the individual authors’ definition of bilingualism lets the reader truly absorb what points they’re trying to make and why. In Espada’s essay, he defines bilingualism as a way for a person to remain in contact with their different cultural identities. There are many areas in the essay where the reader could interpret this definition from. However, the most significant piece of evidence appears at the beginning of the essay where Espada mentions his friend Jack Agueros’ analogy to describe his bilingualism “English and Spanish are like two dogs I love. English is an obedient dog.
“We raced off, wondering how to fit the contents of our Dominican lives into four small suitcases.” After Julia found out about the big move, her family was concerned if they were going to get to the United States safely. Julia accepted her personal identity by, learning english, so in the future would help the move be easier to the
Though they are friends, the lives of Pedro Machuca and Gonzalo Infante differ drastically in many aspects including family life, the luxuries they can afford, and the political affiliations chosen by their families. All of which relate to the common everyday life of Chilean citizens during the Allende Presidency, and the Pinochet Dictatorship implemented after the coup d'etat. During this time, the civil unrest never ceased, and life for chileans was generally either good or bad based on social status, income, and party affiliation. Both Machuca and Infante are classic examples of the division inequality of life amongst Chileans, with Machuca being a poor boy who lived in a shanty town, having very little education, and owning very few possessions. Where as Infante is wealthy, has a high end private education, and can afford to buy various luxury items such as brand name shoes and food for his family.
