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It was a humid day in the tropics of Quezon City, Philippines. Cerene Jae Diaz was a three year toddler living under a traveling business woman mother and an engineer father -- not married. Cerene lived a simple life of being waited on by Nannies. She could fall, and one of her nannies would be by her side in 2.5 seconds. However, her simple life came to a halt that when she found out she was moving to America. Her life would take a drastic turn from island city life to bay area suburban life. Summer of 2002, she flew from Quezon City to SFO. 14 hours later the plane would land in the foreign country to the little girl’s eyes. Her life from that point on is simply history. Instead of learning tagalog and going to a private all girls catholic …show more content…
From August 26, 2010 for about 4 years, Cerene was in a relationship with a 2 years older Filipino guy named John Matthew Domingo. However, the significance was not in the relationship itself; the life changing moment was when they had decided to end the relationship. At first, it was a disaster to Cerene. The first week she was crying herself to sleep every night, texting the guy, texting the guy’s friends, and wrapping herself in a ball of emotions sobbing about how she would not find love again. As time went on, she had two decisions-- sulk and cry over something that can’t be changed or learn from the situation. She, then, looked at all the reasons the relationship failed and realized that she deserved it to herself to become a better person from the mistakes she had made. She also realized that the guy was imperfect as well, and it isn’t worth her time to obsess over a person who gave up on her and did not treat her as well as she deserved. It was 2 weeks after the break up when Cerene got up from her bed, wiped her tears off, deleted all the pictures relating to him on her phone, and started her journey to be a better person. She decided to lose weight(from 130 lbs to 112lbs), work on her trust issues, and simply be the best her she could be; there was nothing holding this girl back. Currently, the ex is in her AP Calculus class and she can walk in with confidence knowing that she respects him but she is so much better without
...ance. Jeanne’s Papa on the other hand was not very proud that Jeanne was becoming more and more American he wanted her to be more Japanese. While Jeanne was striving to become Miss America 1947 her Papa wanted her to “be Miss Hiroshima of 1904” (Wakatsuki, 164). Jeanne began to see her father as unforgivably foreign.
In Sandra Benitez’s novel, A Place Where the Sea Remembers, we get to know the lives and struggles of the residents of a small town in Mexico. Each character faces a conflict that affects the course of his or her life. The conflict I chose was the conflict that Marta was with her child and how her anger about the child made her do things she wished she could take back. It all starts with Marta and her sister. Marta is pregnant and thinks she can't take care of the kid so she wants an abortion. Then once Choyo Marta’s sister husband found out he insisted to take the kid once he is born. So then Marta decided to take care of the baby until it was born but then after time went by the husband of Choyo said that he wouldn't be able to take the kid because he was already going to have a child with Choyo. Once Marta was told this she let her anger get the best of her which then lead her to
Living Out by Lisa Loomer is a play that tells the story of the complicated relationship between a Salvadoran nanny and the lawyer she works for. Both women are smart, hard-working mothers who want better lives for their children. The play explores many similarities and differences between them. Through the main character Ana, we understand what it’s like to leave a child in another country and to come to come to the United States. We also get what the potential cost is like to sacrifice your own child in order to care for someone else's. Through the lawyer; Nancy, we understand the pressure on women today. How they try to do everything perfectly and sometimes having to put work before their family. The play also looks at the discrimination and misconceptions between Anglos (White American’s) and Latinos.
In the second story of Drown by Junot Diaz, Yunior and Rafa have already been in the United States of America for about three years. In this story, their mother’s sister came to the United States. They travel to the Bronx in order to celebrate their aunts and uncles’ arrival. In Fiesta 1980, we meet their father and sister, and learn more about their mother. Through the way they all interact, we learn more about each family member’s characteristics and their family dynamic.
First, and most obvious, Monica Sone accounts for, in an autobiographical manner, the important events and situations in her life that helped create her self-identity. She recounts an event at the age of five, when she found out that she, ?had Japanese blood.? This recognition would spark the chain of many more realizations to come. Sone describes the relationships she had with her parents and siblings. She seems very pleased with and delighted by the differing, yet caring personalities of each person in her family. Sone describes herself as a typical American child: going to school, playing mischievously with friends on the block, reading, spending quality time with...
The Vietnam War caused great destruction in Laos, and so the Lee family migrated to America, after spending a short time in refugee camps in Thailand. After settling in America, Foua gives birth to Lia, who unbeknownst to them will suffer from epilepsy soon after she is born. For four years, little Lia is admitted to hospital seventeen times, after suffering both grand and petit mal seizures. Through miscommunication and a failure to understand each other’s cultural differences, both the parents of Lia, and her American doctors, are ultimately at fault for Lia’s tragic fate, when she is left in a vegetative state.
Familial influence can have a great impact on a protagonists’ life decisions and future, whether it be a lack of paternal guidance or cultural expectations. This can be seen in the life of Yunior, the protagonist in Junot Diaz’s Drown. Yunior immigrated to the USA from the Dominican Republic when he was little shortly after, his dad left the family and went to live with another woman. This lead to Yunior’s mom becoming a single mother and the breadwinner of the house. The focus of this essay will be on the chapter in the book called “Drown”. In the chapter Yunior remembers his adolescence with his friend Beto and their life in their Dominican dominated neighborhood. The chapter showcases the financial struggles of Yunior and his family along
She questions, “What I am to you now that you are no / longer what you used to be to me? / Who are we to each other now …” (Sutphen 1-3). She remembers the good times, but she is uncertain about what he is feeling. She wants to know, and she needs to know. According to Shawn Lewis, “Divorce people often fantasy hiring a hit-man one moment, and discussing a reconciliation in the next moment. They sometimes become recluses, and frequently spend sleepless nights contemplating whether life will be worth living the next morning.” In other words, the doubts are consuming her. There are unanswered questions, which leaves the woman confused about her feelings. Likewise, the reader can relate to the woman because she is having anxiety waiting for answers. On the other hand, the reader are left wondering how her partner felt towards
In the 1960s, a wave of Cuban immigrants moved into the United States to escape their ruthless dictator, Fidel Castro. Aleida Rodriguez and her siblings were some of those immigrants. In her reflection, she looks at photographs of her childhood while she reflects upon the impact of emigration within her family during the sixties. In the excerpt from “my Mother in Two Photographs, Among Other Things,” author Aleida Rodriguez reveals the cultural rifts caused by relocation.
In An American Childhood by Annie Dillard, Dillard reminisces on her many adventures throughout her childhood living in Pittsburgh. Her stories explain her school, her home life, her family, and growing up. Dillard also talks about changes in her life, and how they affect her, and how she felt about others around her. One’s childhood is a crucial part of life, because it’s a time of learning more than any other time of life. Childhood is a time of curiosity and realization. What you learn in your childhood has a big impact on how you make decisions and act as an adult.
America was not everything the mothers had expected for their daughters. The mothers always wanted to give their daughters the feather to tell of their hardships, but they never could. They wanted to wait until the day that they could speak perfect American English. However, they never learned to speak their language, which prevented them from communicating with their daughters. All the mothers in The Joy Luck Club had so much hope for their daughters in America, but instead their lives ended up mirroring their mother’s life in China. All the relationships had many hardships because of miscommunication from their different cultures. As they grew older the children realized that their ...
In Drown, a collection of short stories, author Junot Diaz presents readers with an impoverished group of characters through harsh, but vivid language. Through the voice of Yunior, the narrator throughout the majority of the stories, Diaz places the blame for Yunior’s negativity and rebellious nature on the disappointment caused by his father and the childhood illusion of America. Diaz, through language and symbolism, forces readers into an emotional bond with Yunior while exposing the illusory nature of the American dream. Although intertwined with each story, “Fiesta, 1980” allows for a more concise discussion of Diaz’s purpose. Diaz’s language, even at first glance, appears very different from conventional authors:Mami’s younger sister- my tia Yrma-finally made it to the United States that year. She and Tio Miguel got themselves an apartment in the Bronx…He didn’t say nothing to nobody.
That feeling of leaving his parents in the Philippines to go with a stranger when he was 12 years old is truly unfortunate, but his mother was looking looking out with his best interests in mind. She just wanted her son to get a taste of the American dream, and have a better life in America rather than suffering with her in the Philippines. Vargas’s essay moves the reader emotionally as he explains when he was finally successful in getting the highest honor in journalism, but his grandmother was still worried about him getting deported. She wanted Vargas to stay under the radar, and find a way to obtain one more chance at his American dream of being
The Hero’s Journey is a pattern of narrative that appears in novels, storytelling, myth, and religious ritual. It was first identified by the American scholar Joseph Campbell in his book A Hero with Thousand Faces. Campbell also discussed this pattern in his interview to Bill Moyers which was later published as a book The Power of Myths. This pattern describes the typical adventure of the archetype known as The Hero, the person who goes out and achieves great deeds. Campbell detailed many stages in the Hero’s Journey, but he also summarized the pattern in three fundamental phases: Separation, Ordeal, and Return that all heroes, in spite of their sex, age, culture, or religion, have to overcome in order to reach the goal. Alice in Wonderland, written by Lewis Carroll, provides a good example of the Hero's Journey. This story describes the adventures of Alice, a young English girl, in Wonderland. Although she lacks some of the stages identified by Campbell, she still possesses many of them that are necessary for a Hero to be considered a Hero.
Allos was a young boy from a little province of Binalonan located on the central part of the island of Luzon in the Philippines. He lived with his dad, who farms on their own land, which is the primary source of their living. His mom, living in the town, selling goods in the market. They were among the peasants who worked very hard for the rich landlords just to feed their family. When his brother Leon came back form a war in Europe, he met a girl from another town who he liked. They got engaged and married. There was a tradition during those days that if the girl wasn’t a virgin, the man would have to return her to their village. And when the people found out that the girl deceived Leon, they tied them on a tree and started beating them. Allos’ dad stopped them and when it was over, Leon left the town with his bride and started a new life. Amado, the youngest of his four brothers, who was attending grade school in town living with his mother and their baby sister. His father brought him to the village to help them on their farming. His other brother, Luciano was on camp serving the United States. They all worked so hard for his brother Macario, who was attending high school at the province capital. They needed money for Macario’s education so his father sold a hectare of their four-hectare land. When they needed more, they sold more land. They gave up almost everything they owned just to make their son Macario go to school. One day when his father and his brother Amado were farming, Amado started beating up the carabao. His father stopped him and Amado told his father that he couldn’t live like this anymore. So he ran away from home, leaving Allos as his father’s only helper on the farm. When his brother Macario went home to visit, Allos was speechless. He’s not used to see an educated man. He dressed formal, talked and acted like a real gentleman. When they all gathered on house, Macario said that he needed more money to finish three more months of school. But the money wasn’t enough for three months. So their father decided that they will sell the remaining hectare of their land telling his son not to worry at all.