In a time of virulent debate in the United States over Mexican immigration, the poem, “Mexican is Not a Noun” speaks volumes. Regrettably, many individuals have a distorted view of Mexican people and tend to marginalize them by categorizing them as “illegals” and “aliens” simply because of how they look or the sound of their name (Villegas-Gold and Yoo, 2014). Therefore, Alarcon is very emphatic in his writing about what the word “Mexican” means. Alarcon emphasizes what “Mexican” means by using carefully chosen words, line breaks and stanzas. For example, in the first three stanzas of the poem, Alarcon is trying to emphasize that the word “Mexican” is more than just a title or a description of a race of people. Rather, “Mexican” is being discriminated …show more content…
against by working hard, long hours and being paid less wages than those who are white. “Mexican” is having to declare if they are “illegal aliens” when trying to obtain welfare to care for their families. In fact, Alarcon is making a point to say that “Mexican” is about how they have been treated, therefore, “Mexican” is a representation of the actions that have been taken against them. Alarcon is letting the reader know that “Mexican” is not just a proper name and not a representation of a race of people. However, he is saying that “Mexican” is much more and much deeper than a word. In any case, Alarcon goes on to write in the last three stanzas of the poem that “Mexican” is the actions that affect his people.
It is the very act of discrimination, the cruel words, the racial comments and the treatment as something insignificant. Therefore, it is “a nail in the soul” (Kirszner and Mandell, 2012, p. 542). However, Alarcon wants the reader to understand that “Mexican” is a word that makes his people who they are and that they are like everyone else. For example, in the last three stanzas of the poem, Alarcon uses powerful words with line breaks to highlight this when he writes: “…It hurts It points It dreams It offends It cries It moves It strikes It burns just like a verb” (Kirszner and Mandell, 2012, p. 542, 543). With each line break, Alarcon is grabbing the reader’s attention by making very emphatic statements. Obviously, when writing the poem, Alarcon was expressing his bitterness, anger and disgust toward the treatment of his people. Furthermore, his choice of words and line breaks elicit a sense of sadness and sympathy in the reader of the poem. Alarcon is communicating to the reader that his people are just like everyone else, they have dreams, aspirations, a desire to be accepted and want only to be treated fairly. Therefore, “Mexican” is not a noun or an adjective it is a
verb. Reference Villegas-Gold, R., & Yoo, H. C. (2014). Coping with discrimination among Mexican American college students. Journal Of Counseling Psychology, 61(3), 404-413. doi:10.1037/a0036591 Kirszner and Mandell, (2012). Lit. Wadsworth Cengage, Boston. Retrieved from https://www.betheluniversityonline.net/
In a story of identity and empowerment, Juan Felipe Herrera’s poem “Borderbus” revolves around two Honduran women grappling with their fate regarding a detention center in the United States after crawling up the spine of Mexico from Honduras. While one grapples with their survival, fixated on the notion that their identities are the ultimate determinant for their future, the other remains fixated on maintaining their humanity by insisting instead of coming from nothingness they are everything. Herrera’s poem consists entirely of the dialogue between the two women, utilizing diction and imagery to emphasize one’s sense of isolation and empowerment in the face of adversity and what it takes to survive in America.
The female, adolescent speaker helps the audience realize the prejudice that is present in a “melting-pot” neighborhood in Queens during the year 1983. With the setting placed in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement, the poem allows the audience to examine the experience of a young immigrant girl, and the inequality that is present during this time. Julia Alvarez in “Queens, 1963” employs poetic tools such as diction, figurative language, and irony to teach the reader that even though America is a place founded upon people who were strangers to the land, it is now home to immigrants to claim intolerance for other foreigners, despite the roots of America’s founding.
This book was published in 1981 with an immense elaboration of media hype. This is a story of a young Mexican American who felt disgusted of being pointed out as a minority and was unhappy with affirmative action programs although he had gained advantages from them. He acknowledged the gap that was created between him and his parents as the penalty immigrants ought to pay to develop and grow into American culture. And he confessed that he got bewildered to see other Hispanic teachers and students determined to preserve their ethnicity and traditions by asking for such issues to be dealt with as departments of Chicano studies and minority literature classes. A lot of critics criticized him as a defector of his heritage, but there are a few who believed him to be a sober vote in opposition to the political intemperance of the 1960s and 1970s.
I did not know that Mexican Americans were considered to be “white” however, I am not shocked to discover they were treated as second rate citizens. Although, the essay discusses how the Mexican Americans were afraid of being reduced to the standards of an African American they in many ways were treated the very same. For example, the essay discusses segregation of White bathrooms from blacks and hispanics the racial separation seemed to surprise the essay writer were I was not even roused. I am however, taken aback by how distant Mexican Americans seem to want to be from African Americans yet even in this essay the history of black people was referenced to several
Torres, Hector Avalos. 2007. Conversations with Contemporary Chicana and Chicano Writers. U.S.: University of New Mexico press, 315-324.
“We all use stereotypes all the time, without knowing it. We have met the enemy of equality, and the enemy is us,” quoted by Annie Murphy Paul, a journalist. Human beings typically have varied mindsets as they grow up with different cultural values as well as social environment. Author Gary Soto’s “Like Mexican” compares his Mexican life with his wife’s Japanese background, while author Deborah Tannen’s “Gender in the Classroom” contrasts the “gender-related styles” of male and female students. From the two perspectives Soto’s and Tannen’s experiences’ give a universal, stereotypical point how different gender tendencies, conversational styles, and cultural background can result in a miscommunication of one’s behavior.
In "Like Mexicans" by Gary Soto, it begins with the statement, “Again I dream” and then further explains a descriptive detail of a meal that only existed through his mind of imagination because of his economic stance. One of the primary points in the poem is the critique of poverty stricken culture of several Mexican and Mexican-American families. An example of the most compelling lines of the poem is his concluding two lines: “let the day end and us begin, the fork, the knife, the plate, all useless.” The selection of words highlights a compelling portrait of himself fantasizing the world where hunger is not prevalent to him, but shortly understands it was an escape and represents a harsh reality of no purpose to have kitchen utensils because
The popular revolutionary poem “I am Joaquin” by Rodolfo Corky Gonzales influenced many Chicana/os to embrace their heritage in the Chicano Movement in the 1960s. The poem created psychological work for the Chicano identity. Moreover, this poem developed and promoted social consciousness, commitment to activism, and cultural pride for many Chicanos. However, Gonzales primarily focuses on the identity and struggles of a Mexican-American male which excludes other narratives. Thus, the lack of inclusivity influenced me to recreate the popular poem, which centers on women from Central America who are rarely acknowledged in Chicano Studies. Therefore, our poem “I am Dolores” is focused on these three main themes: empowerment of women of color, resistance
The language of Gloria Anzaldua’s “We Call Them Greasers” can be used to disseminate the culturally constructed codes and conventions which influence the realities of both the author, and the poems’ fictional speaker. The poem illustrates the intolerant and brutal nature of border rangers as they sought to rid Mexican border towns of their inhabitants. As well as its language, the subject matter of the poem, too, is telling of the author’s cultural influences, which influence the stance she takes on the subject matter. Anzaldua constructs the poem’s speaker, however, to be a person who holds views which are in staunch opposition to her own. This use of clear contradiction helps readers identify underlying messages meant to be conveyed and understood beyond the text of the poem itself.
The contrast between the Mexican world versus the Anglo world has led Anzaldua to a new form of self and consciousness in which she calls the “New Mestiza” (one that recognizes and understands her duality of race). Anzaldua lives in a constant place of duality where she is on the opposite end of a border that is home to those that are considered “the queer, the troublesome, the mongrel and the mulato” (25). It is the inevitable and grueling clash of two very distinct cultures that produces the fear of the “unknown”; ultimately resulting in alienation and social hierarchy. Anzaldua, as an undocumented woman, is at the bottom of the hierarchy. Not only is she a woman that is openly queer, she is also carrying the burden of being “undocumented”. Women of the borderlands are forced to carry two degrading labels: their gender that makes them seem nothing more than a body and their “legal” status in this world. Many of these women only have two options due to their lack of English speaking abilities: either leave their homeland – or submit themselves to the constant objectification and oppression. According to Anzaldua, Mestizo culture was created by men because many of its traditions encourage women to become “subservient to males” (39). Although Coatlicue is a powerful Aztec figure, in a male-dominated society, she was still seen
I decided to analyze the poem English con Salsa by Gina Valdes, because I can identify myself with this poem in many different aspects. Both my parents and I were born in Mexico, but decided to move to the United States on February of 2000. With us moving here, we brought along our traditions and customs. My family has a blend of American culture with Latino culture since a few of my uncles married American women and had children. I feel that Valdes poem is about finding that “in between” feelings that are brought up when two cultures are mixed together.
The struggle to find a place inside an un-welcoming America has forced the Latino to recreate one. The Latino feels out of place, torn from the womb inside of America's reality because she would rather use it than know it (Paz 226-227). In response, the Mexican women planted the seeds of home inside the corral*. These tended and potted plants became her burrow of solace and place of acceptance. In the comfort of the suns slices and underneath the orange scents, the women were free. Still the questions pounded in the rhythm of street side whispers. The outside stare thundered in pulses, you are different it said. Instead of listening she tried to instill within her children the pride of language, song, and culture. Her roots weave soul into the stubborn soil and strength grew with each blossom of the fig tree (Goldsmith).
As long as civilizations have been around, there has always been a group of oppressed people; today the crucial problem facing America happens to be the discrimination and oppression of Mexican immigrants. “Mexican Americans constitute the oldest Hispanic-origin population in the United States.”(57 Falcon) Today the population of Mexican’s in the United States is said to be about 10.9%, that’s about 34 million people according to the US Census Bureau in 2012. With this many people in the United States being of Mexican descent or origin, one would think that discrimination wouldn’t be a problem, however though the issue of Mexican immigrant oppression and discrimination has never been a more prevalent problem in the United States before now. As the need for resolve grows stronger with each movement and march, the examination of why these people are being discriminated against and oppressed becomes more crucial and important. Oppression and Anti-discrimination organizations such as the Freedom Socialist Organization believe that the problem of discrimination began when America conquered Mexican l...
I felt more for Mexicans because of the way they were particularly illustrated. Typically, the Mexicans were the ones usually tending to Americans. I could feel the minority complex that Herrera was establishing within the words of his poem. The theme of individualism versus collectivism was very much present in ““Mexican Differences Mexican Similarities”. My mood for the majority of this poem was negative, yet I re read the poem just to try to note the positive aspects of Herrera’s poem. I was trying to look through different lenses, but at the end of the way I still feel as if I was more biased to one side –the
In reality, the Mexican maid does have more power because while she does not have his jeep, handcuffs, or gun, she “knows where to rest, where to drink” (28-29). Also in the second stanza she says that “your jeep has a flat and you have been spotted by the sun”, so the Mexican maid will most likely be better off than the border patrol because she knows the land and how to use it, as well as the ability to speak Spanish (22-24). The border patrol sees it as a disadvantage because she cannot speak his language, but speaking Spanish is a benefit actually because of where they are and it would probably be crucial in that type of setting. In this poem there is a playful tone presented although the underlying issue in these stanzas is a very serious and controversial one that is going on right now. The idea of writing this poem in the form of children playing a silly game is to simplify and make clear of the point of views of the border patrol and illegal immigrants and the type of things that go on every day at the border. This poem expresses what usually happens at with illegal immigrants and what they call La