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What Is The Thesis For The Distance Between Us By Reyna Grande

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The Distance Between Us Final Essay Rough Draft
For an immigrant living in a new country, it can be hard to figure out where they truly belong. This was how a particular author of a memoir felt. In the memoir, “The Distance Between Us,” the author, Reyna Grande, wrote about her life as an immigrant moving from Mexico to the US in search of a better life. With her new life in the US during part two of the memoir, she faced multiple changes and challenges, such as struggling to assimilate into American culture without completely losing her Mexican side. Reyna was indicated to struggle with her identity because she wanted to feel American, did not want to let go of her culture, and did not feel Mexican enough.
To start with, to finally feel like she fit in with the other American students, Reyna wanted to attend her high school prom. For example, Reyna states, “Not going to prom was the worst thing that could happen! For the first time I felt like a normal girl doing what girls do here in America” (Grande 284). According to Reyna, going to prom was …show more content…

For instance, the text states, “And as I stood there trying to talk with Meche, I kept stumbling on my Spanish words. She laughed and said I spoke like a pocha, a Mexican born in the U.S. I felt ashamed to realize that learning English had cost me my Spanish” (Grande 270). In other words, Reyna’s Spanish had become worse after she lived in the US, despite being born and raised in Mexico. This evidence emphasizes that she was gradually losing her Mexican culture in exchange for American culture. Though she would appreciate being integrated as a US citizen, she still wanted to hold onto her roots in Mexico. However, it was evident that she felt like she did not belong or fit in with her former culture. This demonstrates how Reyna struggled to find her identity because she no longer fit in with her former

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In one scene, when her father is teaching her how to sing the song “Reloj no marques las horas”, is notable that she is having troubles with her pronunciation of the letter R, in Spanish, and she was not even interest in learning Spanish, she only wanted to go outside and play with her friends. So when she grew up, it took her a lot of practice, to be able to sing in Spanish, but she did it and she did it very well, but on spanish interviews she had no fluency. This is a very common issue in the Chicano community, a lot of kids do not know speak Spanish because English is the only language that they developed at school and in their daily basis. Campbell describes the absence of a mother language in upcoming generations as a form of assimilation. “By and large in the United States, it is the pressure of the American culture that forces Mexicans or Latinos to ultimately make English their first language,” Campbell says.

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