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Shaping the american literary identity
How culture affects identity
Cultural and ethnic identities
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Shaping the american literary identity
How culture affects identity
Cultural and ethnic identities
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Shaping the american literary identity
In the essay “Blaxicans and other reinvented Americans” author Richard Rodriguez demonstrates how skin color should not define you, but instead, your cultural roots should define you. For example, Rodriguez states “in the Latin American, one sees every race of the world. One sees white Hispanics, one sees black Hispanics, One sees brown Hispanics who are Indians, many of whom do not speak Spanish”(line 94-96). This reveals that the government puts the people in a category without their consent. For example, people from Mexico are Hispanic also people from El Salvador are considered Hispanics, but they are two completely different cultures and traditions.
1 Samantha Carrillo Ms. Alcala ELA 11 Period 3 14 August 2017 Within the essay “ Blaxicans and other Reinvented Americans “ by Richard Rodriguez, Rodriguez’s uses irony throughout his essay by stating to be Chinese but in reality, he is Hispanic. He also mentions how he is Mestizo, not only does he go by one race but by several races that in reality are not what he is. He identifies himself as Chinese because of fact that he lives in a Chinese city and well because he wants to be Chinese.
In Richard Rodriguez’s essay, “Blaxicans and other Reinvented Americans,” Rodriguez’s use of irony is effective because he wants everyone to know that your culture is what defines you and not your race. For example in the essay, Rodriguez states, “I am Chinese and that is because I live in a Chinese city and because I want to be Chinese” (163-165). This shows that since Rodriguez lives in a predominantly Chinese city, ultimately made him know so much of the Chinese culture. Even though Rodriguez is Hispanic, he does not define himself Hispanic just because of his race his Hispanic, but he does define himself Chinese due to the fact he grew up the Chinese way which is a totally different culture from the Hispanic culture. Also the fact that
Alternative Assignment Option Nomocracy in Politics In Natural Liberty in the Bible Belt: An Explanation of Conservative Voting Patterns in Southern Appalachia, Barry A. Vann discusses how the voting patterns of people in Appalachia may have explanations as far back as their ancestors in Ireland. The people of southern Appalachia have had a history of voting for the politician who promises to not enact policies that pit ethnic groups against each other. Many people credit this voting trend to the Appalachians’ need to cling to God and guns. Barry A. Vann makes the argument that “the ethnic roots of the people who call these two sub-regions home have played roles in creating distinctive voting patterns between them.” Many Appalachians have a strong resistance to a big, centralized government and tend to want to give more power to individual states rather than giving power to a strong federal government.
“Hispanics, Latinos, or Americanos: The Evolution of Identity” 1. Comas-Diaz used heading and subheadings to assist in defining terms in her essay because she wanted to show the difference among the terms. This type of structure is appropriate for her essay because separation is necessary to describe the different types of people. 2. Generic Terms for Hispanic/Latino Population • Hispanic - A word created by the United States Bureau of the Census, to describe people of Spanish origin, who lived in the USA during the census in 1970.
The reading, “Latinos in the U.S. Race Structure” explains how Latin Americans view race and the way that race is viewed overall in the United States. The reading gives reasons as to why there is a disconnect between the two viewpoints. After reading the article, I saw two issues that Rodriguez helped me clarify and they were; how Latin Americans understanding of race differ from the understanding of the U.S and how Latinos’ experiences of race show that race is manmade. The first issue that Rodriguez helped me understand was how Latinos perception of race differs from the U.S.
As I was growing up I never looked at myself as a complete Mexican. My parents raised me Americanized. However, my Freshman year of high school I had experienced linguistic profiling in a different form. Patricia Rice, author of “Linguistic Profiling”, states, “Many Americans can guess a caller’s ethnic background from their first hello on the telephone” (187). In other words, Rice believes people begin judgement by the sound of a voice.
Foremost, the politics and etiquette surrounding the terms Hispanic and Latino/a, using them interchangeably, confuses many people – including myself before this class. This engenders the questions: who is Hispanic and who is Latino/a? Let us investigate the term Hispanic, which became “official” in the 1980 census and allowed one of Spanish or Spanish speaking descendent to identify as “Spanish/Hispanic” (Rodriguez 1992). Before the 1980 census, there was a common notion that such individuals had been born outside the US or were immigrant children (Rodriguez 1992). The 1980 census also allowed one to identify themselves based on ancestry and culture rather than by race, such as Mexican, Cuban, Puerto Rican, or other.
In America, we put labels on practically anything. Many people would label each other based on their abilities, personality, or occupation based on their race, gender, or sexual orientation. For example, people associate women with being nurses and men being firefighters or police officers. Especially with the matters of race do people put labels and base assumptions. Since their migration to the United States, Asian Americans have dealt with discrimination and praise from being a ‘model minority’.
Culture is an essential part of a community’s identity, because it links individuals to a collective bond. The Americas have always contained a vast variety of cultural communities, especially in the United States. The US is known for being one of the most diverse nations in the world, housing hundreds of different cultures. Mexican-Americans display a strong sense of a cultural background, which falls as a subset of the bigger Latino culture that links all Latinos. Oral history is a major aspect on the Mexican culture, which contributes to the truth of how history in the United States actually happened.
When I would describe myself in terms of identity to me it’s simply that both my parents originated from Mexico, but I was commenced in the United States. The word that is used to describe this in a somewhat correct fashion for my situation is a Chicana. In my perspective my actual history is Mexican history not American history. I noticed that society says that my history
Although, I understand being able to categorize each other can be helpful at times, sometimes it does feel confusing and limiting. Often times I don 't know which box to check mark when the only options for race are White, Black, or Asian, because I don 't identify as either. Hispanic and Latino are technically ethnicities, but sometimes they are included in these lists. Hispanic generally refers to someone from a Spanish speaking country such as Spain, while Latinx can refer to anyone of Latin American descent. I agree that the US as a whole needs to "reevaluate their stipulations on health, assistance and
The author, Rodriguez, introduces his audience to the reality of the process of Americanization: regardless of origin, one cannot inhibit the power of indoctrination of the American culture. One may derive from a primarily Mexican, Middle Eastern, or say, Pacific Islander heritage, however, the “majority culture” in the region of residence is what will soon come to define an individual. Hence why Rodriguez propagates that we all have a little Chinese within us. Rodriguez establishes his ethos as a renowned expert and speaker in the process of Americanization. He then introduces the fear that is often exhibited by the older generations – the loss of distinct heritage among our youth.
Race, nationality and ethnicity Race and ethnicity are seen as form of an individual’s cultural identity. Researchers have linked the concept of “race” to the discourses of social Darwinism that in essence is a categorization of “types” of people, grouping them by biological and physical characteristics, most common one being skin pigmentation. Grouping people based on their physical traits has lead in time to the phenomenon of “racialization” (or race formation), as people began to see race as more of a social construct and not a result or a category of biology.
Ethnicity is a group or an individual’s conception of cultural identity and refers to cultural separation between and within societies. “Ethnicity is often woven into our self-identification, especially in the United States. Most Americans are a compilation of many nationalities, each with its own cultural traditions”. Ethnic constraints are seen in many environments and can eventually lead to negative stereotypes that are objectionable. “There are ethnic groups with great internal cultural variation, and there are clear boundaries between ethnic groups whose mutual cultural differences are difficult to spot”.