American Culture By Achy Obejas Summary

In a world where people view cultural identification in black and white, simple categorization cannot apply to everyone. Immigration is one method that can result in a blend of two or more cultures, with immigrants simultaneously celebrating their home culture and incorporating novel traits into their lives. While many older immigrants attempt to preserve their native culture, youths often adopt new values and traditions throughout adolescence. The result of this mixture is transculturation, in which immigrants become a hybrid of cultures, reflecting aspects of both in their mentalities and actions. This essay will exhibit how Achy Obejas juxtaposes aspects of traditional Cuban values with American culture to demonstrate the transculturation

As she matures in the United States and attends college, the narrator begins to dress in the fashion of the other students, leaving behind the styles she wore in Cuba. When she returns home in a fringe jacket and flowing jeans, her mother states that she “almost didn’t recognize [her];” meanwhile, the sweater the narrator wore on her voyage from Cuba is “somewhere in the closet of [her] bedroom,” kept as a memory (Obejas 121). Her mother’s surprised reaction to her fashion shows that although the narrator has continued growing and developing American styles, her parents have kept their identities essentially unchanged. The narrator’s American culture is now as much a part of her character as her Cuban heritage. However, her adoption of these practices does not invalidate nor overshadow her ties to Cuba, as she still possesses the green sweater, her symbol of her native country. While she may no longer dress as she did in Cuba, her past is always with her. After her father’s death, her mother gifts her a box of possessions “all wrapped up in [the] old green sweater,” causing the narrator to become “overwhelmed by the treasures within it” (Obejas 129-130). The green sweater has always remained with the narrator, just as her Cuban identity has never left her. She has embraced new ideologies, but she still values her past. Her Cuban upbringing has merely blended with American culture to form an identity that transcends national