Carmen's Ilucion Interview

Ilucion who also goes by Carmen is a middle-class, nineteen-year-old student and employee I work with at kohls. She is a second generation American with a prominent Mexican background. Ilucion’s parents came to the United States from Mexico looking for a new start and a better education, her father came to the united states at the age of 16 and attended high school in the U.S to receive his diploma. While her mother came to the united states at the age of 19 looking to go to college, whoever became pregnant and did not further her education. Since they are Mexican they brought along with them the culture and traditions, and it has been an integrative part of her growing up, and help her become who she is today. I choose to interview Ilucion

because of her strong Mexican background, and our differing traditions. Ilucion and I do have very similar things in common, because of our age brackets, but her culture and the struggles her family has grown through are very different then my own. Ilucion is a legal citizen because she was born in the United states, however her parents had to go through the proper channels to become U.S citizens.
When I asked her why she also goes by carmen she stated that most people do not know how to pronounce her name who give up trying so when she is at work or school most people call her Carmen because it is easier for her.

I also asked her how this made her feel, and she seemed very discouraged because people do not try to call her by her legal name but take the easy way out. When I asked her how important education was in her family she gave me a list of how important it was by generation. The first generation did not receive an education it was considered for the rich people which they were not, her grandparents were farmers and had no need for an education. For the second generation, her parents were more concerned with getting an education because they wanted to leave Mexico and not be farmers like their parents. And lastly for the third generation meaning her, education is everything and her parents really pressure her to do good in school and have high expectation for her and her sisters. Her parents want her to have a better life then they did and have a career that they love instead of settling for any job. This has caused her to work harder so she is able to make her parents happy and have a fulfilled life that her parents never had the chance to

have.
Race brings to mind a category of people who share the same skin color and associated physical qualities (Blaine, 2007).

whites are known to associate laziness, aggressiveness, cruelty, and low intelligence with Hispanics (Blaine, 2007), with that being said I went one to ask her about her race and how she is judged. I asked Ilucion if she has ever been judged by her race and her response was “I have not experienced racism, but my parents have, they would look at the color of their skin and would get called dirty, wet bags or Beaners”. I then asked her if this hurt her feelings that her parents had to experience this and she stated that her parents never acknowledged the people who said these things. Her quote of this was “Mi gente estuvo aqui primero, asi que tú eres el beaner, el wet bag”. Which translates into my people were here first so you’re the Beaner, the wet bag. I guess it is all how you want to take it, so it is good that they did not give the people the time of day to hurt their feelings. They have experienced many stereotypes though because of their skin color one being that they are bad people and that they would steal from anyone or anything. They are also seen as crime families, but that does not mean all Mexicans are this

way.
Another question I asked was do people try to avoid conflict and confrontation, and the answer was yes. She said that because people look at them as bad people, often people are scared of them, like they are going to hurt them. She did state that if people do get in conflicts with Mexicans that they will do anything to defend themselves but that does not mean they will harm others on purpose.

I have learned many new things from Ilucion. I thought it was interesting to see how Ilucion’s Mexican heritage has affected how she lives in the United States. She believes that Mexican communities are closer than American communities, and she wishes that the United States could be more like Mexico in this way because they take care of their people. I think that this is true, and that maybe if American communities were more like Mexican communities than people may not have as many problems with the Mexican people. It was interesting to see how someone with a strong traditional background thinks of their culture compared with someone, like me, who does not have a traditional one because my family is just considered Caucasian. I enjoyed the interview, and liked learning about the similarities and differences between my culture and Ilucion's.