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In the story ‘The Money’ Junot Diaz talks about a life changing event that happened when he was 12 years old. He first starts talking about his family’s economic position. He describes how his father was always losing his forklift positions and his mother not having a stable job. Diaz’s family lived in a small apartment, where they never had snacks or any good food that would sustain them to have a healthy balance. But his mother would always find a way to save about $200 to $300 dollars to send back to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, where Diaz’s grandparents lived to also support them as well. Junot always knew not to steal because knew the consequences behind that action so him and his other siblings stayed away. One day in the
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summer his family went out for a vacation, but when they got back their front door was unlocked and obviously, some thieves managed to get in and steal their mothers saved money she had to send to her parents and his D&D collection books.
He then knew he could not trust his “friends” or other strangers anymore.
In my family money was always a problem, but not quite to the extent of Junot Diaz’s situation. I live in a calm and quiet neighborhood or as people would call it a ‘white’ neighborhood. We lived in a four room house with a big backyard enough to run around and play. My father only went to school in Mexico until second grade, then had to work to help out his family. Now he works as a farm irrigator along with with my grandfather working out by the Oregon slope. My mother only went to school one year here in the United States, but then, she had to drop out because she had to help out with her 7 brothers and sister. Later on, she enrolled in college and received her Associates in Early Childhood Education. She works at the Oregon Childhood Development Coalition as a preschool teacher. The money has never been enough for my parents. They always wanted more. They did not notice that they
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had all their essentials, but the idea of them not having enough for extra things they wanted to do like travel or make new renovations to the house. Fast forwarding to 2013 when my older brother started working, he began to help with bills, and it allowed for my parents to take weight off my parents shoulders, it also allowed them so save a little extra for emergencies or other things they wanted to do around the house. Two years later, my sister also started working. She also helped with the bills and took another weight off my parents shoulders. This allowed them to save even more. Now, my parents have what they always wanted, which was an additional room, a patio, and a pergola in the backyard. I can tell my parents are now happy with their home. They are as happy as if they won the lottery. Even though at the beginning, it was a bit rough and trying to handle a full household with only two incomes. All this stress and hard work paid off. What my family and Junot Diaz’s family had in common was having to send money to Mexico for my grandmother. Even though having a home and my parents having a good job we still had problems because my parents were paying many bills and with eight members living in the house and none working except them two was very hard, but the no matter what, getting food to the table was never a problem my parents most important task for us is to always have food in our stomachs, even though it was only beans with tortillas. The smell of chorizo with eggs on a Saturday morning and Mexican music playing in the background was a sign telling us that it was cleaning time all day after we ate. Honestly, those were the best days because everybody would be in a good mood cleaning the house. At the end of cleaning the house smelled like if it was inside out. Smelling like the fresh breeze on a warm summer morning. Growing up, my parents always told me to eat my vegetables, just like any other parent. My mother would always come home with groceries and healthy snacks for us to have, because nutrition was also a main focus for her. All my brothers and sister including me would always run up to the groceries and get excited when we saw snacks. We were like little kids in candy shops, you could never have us let go. Unlike Junot Diaz, where his parents did not have enough money to provide those nutrients that they needed to be healthy. I believe it is very important to always have the correct foods for your child. If the child does not receive any of the correct vitamins or nutrients, the child cannot grow up at the pace that they should be. We had the privilege to grow up in a caring home where nothing was needed. I am thankful for what I had and still have. My parents always tried their best to provide for us and made anything we wanted possible. I believe a big part that played in our lives were as well, was how we grew up in a very calm environment where nothing serious happened in our neighborhood. My parents moved from the Oregon Slope to Ontario when I was only a year old.
They moved into a four bedroom home that had a big yard for us to play around. We were like little puppies running around with a new toy. It was a calm neighborhood where the only things that happened were across the street where the elderly people would live. It was a neighborhood where other people would call it ‘the white neighborhood’ because mostly all Hispanics would live on the east side of town and most of the white people lived on the west side. Of course I lived in the west side. I think my parents moved there because they knew the situations at the east side. There were always cops getting called for numerous reasons. They did not want that for us because they were scared we would get involved with the wrong people and in situations we would later regret. Junot Diaz’s parents did not have a choice on where to live because there was not many options due to financial problems. This caused Junot to hang around the wrong people who he thought were his friends, but they ended up breaking into Junots home and taking his mother's money she had saved to send back home to Santo Domingo. We were fortunate enough to distinguish the difference between good friends and bad. Your personality depends on how you are raised and the environment you grew up in. I grew up in the environment where everything was respected and everybody were friends. This taught me how to be humble and kind to one
another. All in all, my life was different than Junot Diaz’s. I had the privilege to grow up in a safe environment. Even though my family was financially stable, we had rough patches along the way, just like any other family would. My parents never failed to bring food to the table every day and I am thankful we were not in a more serious situation where we skipped a meal. I am also thankful for my parents who cared about our health and wellbeing. We as a family living in a great neighborhood taught us how to be respectful kids that were never in other peoples homes. We are as happy as if we won the lottery. Although Junot had a rough childhood, he knew how to be responsible and independent. At the end he stood up for his mother and took back what had belonged to her. In Junot’s action of getting back the money was well thought of. In that decision I agree, because who would not want to take back what is theirs. This story made me realize that not a lot of children and young adults have what they need, so it made me thankful and also made me want to take an action to this community and world. I want other families to feel as if they won the lottery and live in paradise with their loved ones.
Summary of “The Money” by Junot Diaz In this essay, the author recounts a life event from his childhood. The story begins with Junot describing his family's financial status and living arrangement. Diaz and his four siblings lived with their two parents in a catchpenny apartment in a rough urban borough. Not steadily employed, his mother and father were in a constant struggle to keep the family afloat monetarily; to the point where decent, alimental food was not a likely sight in the household. Despite their meager inhabitance his mother was stowing $200 to $300 monthly and sending it to her parents in the Dominican Republic.
In his essay, “History for Dollars,” David Brooks argues the importance of the study of the humanities to improve your reading ability and i agree because the humanities focus on reading and it helps improve your reading skills because you’re gaining more knowledge of reading. He talks about the enormous power of being that one person in the office who can write a strong and concise memo. He stresses the idea of one who has the ability to read for understanding, write, and paraphrase issues with efficacy helps you in life succeed in
Junot Diaz is Dominican American, and he came from a very poor family with five other siblings. Since they were not that wealthy, they lived in a simple way. Even though his mother was basically the bread winner of the family since his father could not keep a job, she still manages to send money back home every six months or so. When they got home from their vacation, they had found out that someone has broken into their house and stole most of his mother’s money. It was easy for them to be a target because they were recent immigrant, and in their neighborhood cars and apartment were always getting jacked. His mother was very upset; she blamed her children, because she thought it was their friends who had done such a thing. “We kids knew where
In Junot Diaz’s essay “The Money” he explains where his family stands economically. Stating that his father was regularly being fired from his forklifting jobs and his mother 's only job was to care for him and his four siblings. With the money brought home by his father, his mom would save some. Her reason was to raise enough to send to her parents back in the Dominican Republic. When his family went on a vacation, they came back to an unpleasant surprise; their house had been broke into. Eventually Diaz was able to get back their money and belongings. Diaz returned the money to his mother although she didn’t thank him for it, this disappointed him. Like Diaz I have also encountered a similar situation where I was disappointed. When I was in second grade, my life life took a completely different turn. My dad took an unexpected trip to Guatemala, on his return, the outcome was not what I expected.
When I was little I remember driving across country, going to Florida, and past neighborhoods that were anything but mine. They had old houses that looked like they were going to fall down any minute, real trashy looking. In Colorado, my house was nice and always kept up. I sat in the car wondering what kind of people lived in those run down places and what they were like. The answers came to me years later when I read the book, Famous All Over Town, by Danny Santiago. The main character, Chato, is a young Hispanic boy living in a neighborhood like the ones I saw when I was little. After reading the book, although I never thought I would have anything in common with people who lived like that, I learned that Chato and I have do have similarities, but we have more differences.
Rodriguez’s situation was that “his parents are immigrants to the United States and several of his siblings were born in the United States in the State of Texas.” His dad was well educated back in their country, Mexico, but they’re being declined because of the existence of bigotry. “His parents were having a tough time finding a job because of their situation – they have found several jobs but are paid below minimum sometimes.” Rodriguez’s parents have multiple jobs just to survive on their daily basis. Rodriguez’s family situation has affected them all – Luis was affected the most and went astray as he was so desperate into fitting into the society and is able to help his parents. No matter how hard life will be, there are ways to avoid gangs and criminal behavior – government programs and other resource center helps a family to survive and even lend a hand to parents and educate them of how to suppress their child to go astray and be involved with crimes and gang
Immigrants come to America, the revered City upon a Hill, with wide eyes and high hopes, eager to have their every dream and wild reverie fulfilled. Rarely, if ever, is this actually the case. A select few do achieve the stereotypical ‘rags to riches’ transformation – thus perpetuating the myth. The Garcia family from Julia Alvarez’s book How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, fall prey to this fairytale. They start off the tale well enough: the girls are treated like royalty, princesses of their Island home, but remained locked in their tower, also known as the walls of their family compound. The family is forced to flee their Dominican Republic paradise – which they affectionately refer to as simply, the Island – trading it instead for the cold, mean streets of American suburbs. After a brief acclimation period, during which the girls realize how much freedom is now available to them, they enthusiastically try to shed their Island roots and become true “American girls.” They throw themselves into the American lifestyle, but there is one slight snag in their plan: they, as a group, are unable to forget their Island heritage and upbringing, despite how hard they try to do so. The story of the Garcia girls is not a fairytale – not of the Disney variety anyway; it is the story of immigrants who do not make the miraculous transition from rags to riches, but from stifling social conventions to unabridged freedom too quickly, leaving them with nothing but confusion and unresolved questions of identity.
"Looking for Work" by Gary Soto is a narration of a nine year old boy, Gary, who is a Mexican-American who wants to become wealthy. He gets this idea during summer and sets out around the neighborhood looking for small jobs. He did a few errands and earns about a quarter. He also watches television shows and is attracted to the life of perfect white families. He wants his family to be like them too. He thought that way; the white people will like them more. His family was very different, and his sister could not understand why he wanted to be more like white people. In the end, when everyone left, he continues to search for a job.
Enrique and many other Central American kids have a hard life. They come to America where they think their mothers will magically solve their problems because their mothers are supposed to be perfect. Enrique and others realize this isn’t true and goes on to accept it. Migrants resent their mothers a little bit, but come to start loving them as the migrants did before their mothers left. Migrants also learn about life lessons on the trains. Migrants learn that people should not be trusted, but not all people are bad. The migrants just have to learn which people are bad and which aren’t. Migrants also learned that you shouldn’t have high expectations of everything and also that you shouldn’t put your problems on one person and expect them to go away. You have to figure life out on your own.
They lived in constant poverty and went to bed hungry numerous times because of their parents’ lack of money. The Walls children had to fend for themselves when they wanted something to eat. This was made clear when Jeannette said, “When we wanted money, we walked along the roadside picking up beer cans and bottles that we redeemed for two cents each” (Walls 62). They probably walked for hours only making enough money to buy a candy bar that would hold over their hunger for a few hours. The children were forced to make their own money because they knew that if they continued to wait on their parents they would starve. Jeannette also explains how she used to steal food at school. She says, “During recess at school, I’d slip back into the classroom and find something in some other kid’s lunch bag that wouldn’t be missed…and I’d gulp it down…” (Walls 68). Jeannette was hungry most of the time due to how her parents lived, and out of necessity she determined that one of the best ways to satisfy her hunger was to steal from her classmates. Both examples show that the Walls children had to rely on themselves and not be dependent on their parents. Most of the time, their parents were too self-absorbed in their own dealings and they did not have time to properly care for their children. This caused the children to become self-reliant and learn the importance of standing by each other. If it was not for
My mother is an outspoken woman. In her tiny appearance lies an extraordinary fortitude story. Bravery is a virtue that not a lot of people possess, but my mother has proven her courageousness. Before my mother gave birth to me, she lived in San Luis Potosí, Mexico. Her family lived in poverty, and every bit of food was valued and cherished at their table. It’s hard to tell whether my mother’s decision to migrate to the United States was an act of courage or impatience. She certainly had no bright future at home, her parents could barely afford used clothes from the town’s thrift shop. She certainly wanted to find a way to turn her life around and provide the needs for her family, so she decided to come to “The land of opportunities.”
Although having a Mexican mother and an American father was not always socially acceptable, growing up with a different food taste, having a close-knit family, as well as regularly getting disciplined shaped how I am as a person today. I was dipped into a very different childhood most children did not grow up into.
After reading The Book of the Unknown Americans, I realized how difficult immigrating to the United States can be. I am an immigrant also, so just reading the story makes me relate to many problems immigrants experience relocating to a different country. Immigrants often face many issues and difficulties, but for some it is all worth it, but for others there comes a point in time where they have to go back to their hometown. Alma and Arturo Rivera came to the United States to better their life, but also so that Maribel could attend a special education school. While Arturo had a job things had gone well for the family, but once Arturo lost the job and passed away the two of them had to go back because they felt that that was the best option for them. Reading this book made me realize how strong an individual has to be to leave their own country and relocate somewhere else not knowing if this will better your life or cause one to suffer.
Growing up in a marginalized minority is a difficult task because there are a lot of differences between cultures. In the Mexican American culture, family is crucial, this is where one comes when one needs someone to talk to. In my experience, I had was raised being stuck in the middle of two different cultures I had to know what my identity was through, family, school, and through my travels.
Growing up, the biggest challenge I faced was being a first generation Latina student. My family came from an extremely rural neighborhood in Guanajuato, Mexico called La Sandia. Both my parents achieved up to 5th-grade education in their hometowns. They decided to sacrifice their lives in Mexico to provide a better life for their family and then decided to migrate to the U.S to achieve what many people consider the American dream.