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Society affects identity
Influence of society on identity
Identity formation in society
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In the stories “La Migra”, “Everyone's Abuelo,” and “Sally”, we learn that many Latinos struggle with being confident in their identity because they always seem to seek acceptance from others. For example, in the story “Sally”, we read about a young Latina girl that struggles to be accepted by her peers which ultimately led to her “becoming a different Sally. [Who] pulled her skirt straight, rubbed the blue paint off her eyelids, and [stopped] smiling” (Cisneros). This quote leads us to believe that Sally wasn't confident with who she was because she changed her entire image in order to be accepted by others. This in turn, ultimately led to Sally's unhappiness because she wasn't being her true self. If she had just been comfortable in her own skin then she probably wouldn’t have been chasing after acceptance from her peers. …show more content…
She describes her history as being nothing more than “drunken boasts and corridos passed off as truth, there’s no end to it like the mirrors in the maze” (Saenz). She is embarrassed because she hates the fact that the history she knows may not even be true because whenever her family tells her stories she feels like they are just a bunch of exaggerated lies. She also seems to want to create a new self-image for herself but she feels trapped because as she tries to be someone else her heritage always finds its way reflecting like “mirrors in the maze”. As a result of this she struggles with believing in her true self and what her heritage stands for. In the poem “La Migra”, we learn about the injustice many immigrants suffer because of the unfair treatment they face by the border patrol. We see this at first glance when the patrol officer tells the immigrant “I can touch you wherever I want but don’t complain too much because I’ve got boots and kick – if I have to”
In both the movie, La Misma Luna, and the newspaper series, Enrique’s Journey, migrants are faced with many issues. The most deadly and scarring issues all relate back to bandits, judicial police, and la migra or Mexican immigration officers. The problems that arise are serious to the point of rape, robbing, and beating. It is not easy crossing the border illegally and secretly, but the successful ones have an interesting or even traumatic story about how it worked for them.
On one hand we can see that she pushes back and challenges her tradition on the other hand it is difficult to not see emotion expressed by herself when she is alone. One scene that does do this is when she is buying condoms for the first time but does not know what to purchase. This small but significant scene revels that although she is strong and ready she also needs guidance through her path of adulthood. She is able to ask a pharmacist for advice but not her own mother. This lack of connection to be open up to mothers is emphasized enough to create awareness that young Mexican American women need someone to talk to and it should preferably be their
Both Dumas and Cordero are growing up in a culture that is different from their parents’; this difference is one reason why both girls have a feeling of ‘otherness.’ Even though both girls feel a struggle between their heritage and the American culture they live in, they deal with this struggle in dissimilar ways. Although Cordero does love her family, she feels as though she is trapped by her Mexican heritage. She is surrounded by Mexican-American females who are oppressed, unsatisfied, and often longing for a different life. We get many stories of her grandmother, cousins, and neighbors who are stuck in a place of discontent with no way out; and she does not be part of an endless loop of females who are under the control of men.
“Donde esta mi mami?” Enrique cries, over and over where is my mom?” (Nazario 5). Enrique repeats these words again and again as his mother leaves headed for the U.S. These words represent the depth of abandonment Enrique felt and shows the effect Lourdes's choice had on her family. This one, difficult decision to leave her family for money, will destroy her family. As readers, we witness how this hard decision could have been the wrong one as the helpless, five-year-old would have to live without her. Lourdes starts to feel guilty about her decision and just reminds herself, that this sacrifice was necessary and her children will understand this. Tragically, Enrique doesn't understand what he did to make his mother leave. Enrique and Lourdes both suffer from this decision, as Lourdes greatly misses her children, and Enrique desperately misses his
Relating to Alvarez and her struggle is very easy and well known in every generation. Society puts a ridiculous high standard on outer appearances, especially for girls and women. Women grasp the perspective of the standards that are set and put them into drive. Women become stressed, emotional, and nutcases because they want to please others instead of pleasing themselves. In some cases, women have died trying to live up to these customaries, if not becoming dangerously ill. As a young lady, knowing what could happen, frightens but doesn’t phase me. Wi...
Demetria Martínez’s Mother Tongue is divided into five sections and an epilogue. The first three parts of the text present Mary/ María’s, the narrator, recollection of the time when she was nineteen and met José Luis, a refuge from El Salvador, for the first time. The forth and fifth parts, chronologically, go back to her tragic experience when she was seven years old and then her trip to El Salvador with her son, the fruit of her romance with José Luis, twenty years after she met José Luis. And finally the epilogue consists a letter from José Luis to Mary/ María after her trip to El Salvador. The essay traces the development of Mother Tongue’s principal protagonists, María/ Mary. With a close reading of the text, I argue how the forth chapter, namely the domestic abuse scene, functions as a pivotal point in the Mother Tongue as it helps her to define herself.
Elena Poniatowska escrita durante una epoca de cambio en Mexico. Antes de sus obras las mujeres mexicanas eran sometidos, docil, y pasivo. En la tiempo de sus obras las mujeres estaba tratando salir de los estereotipos de antes. Esta problema social tomo un afecto en Elena. Aunque ella no viene de un movimiento literatura directamente, ella escrita con el concepto de compremetido. En su narrative El Recado ella crea un mujer estereotipical que no puede controlar sus emociones. La titula es eso porque ella viene a ver su amante, pero el no esta, asi ella escribe las cosas que sentia. La perspectiva es de un personaje y ella nunca interacta con otros personajes. En facto la unica descripcion de un personaje otro de la protagonista es de su amante Martin. Habla de otros personajes, pero solamente de sus acciones. Porque ellas es la unica perspectiva que tenemos es sencillo a sentar compasion para una protagonista de quien nombre no aun sabemos. Ella da la descripcion de toda que vea, y mas importante todo que se sienta. Tambien tropos y figuras retoricas dan un tono significante al poema. Estos sentimientos de la portagonista y el tono emocional de la narrativa transporta una tema de una mujer estereotipical y debil quien quiere ser reconocido.
The poem "La Migra" by Pat Mora carries the main idea of how power can lead to abuse. Mora shows how abuse is represented in the treatment of the Mexican woman by a border patrol agent in her poem and how this picture resembles how mankind treats animals. With the bilingual addition to Mora's poem, when the Mexican woman says, "Agua dulce, brota aqui, aqui, aqui" (lines 33-34), she is presenting the conflict of a language barrier, just like the one between animals and humans, where it is not communicated what is needed and what is unfair. Mora uses the power of language to bring her characters to life. When something is taken to the point of abuse, the actions are identical, like when the border patrol agent says, "I can touch you whenever I want but do not complain too much because I've got boots and kick" (lines 12-14). The table turns at the end, when the Mexican woman takes control of the situation with power. It does not matter how the abuse started; in the end, it is always the same---someone taking control over someone else. Abuse of power is demonstrated through "La Migr...
Although our society is slowly developing a more accepting attitude toward differences, several minority groups continue to suffer from cultural oppression. In her essay “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” Gloria Anzaldúa explores the challenges encountered by these groups. She especially focuses on her people, the Chicanos, and describes the difficulties she faced because of her cultural background. She argues that for many years, the dominant American culture has silenced their language. By forcing them to speak English and attempting to get rid of their accents, the Americans have robbed the Chicanos of their identity. She also addresses the issue of low self-esteem that arises from this process of acculturation. Growing up in the United States,
La Migra is a poem about two children a girl and a boy, who are playing a game about Mexicans crossing the American border. This poem is divided in two stanzas, because it expresses two different points of view; the girls point of view that is pretty much as the point of view an Hispanic or any immigrant would have, and the boys point of view that would be the point of view a racist border patrol or just anyone racist would have. Change in the point of view of the two children implies realism into the poem La Migra. The main point of this poem is to remind the reader about human feelings, and remind the reader about illegal immigration into the United States. Pat Mora uses Image, blank verse, and anaphora to develop her theme of immigration
In “How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents” the author, Julia Alvarez develops the theme of overcoming obstacles through the technique of point of view and dialogue. One emotional and pivotal moment occurs in the middle of the book, when Yolanda describes her teenage years living in the U.S. She states, “We could smoke and no great aunt would smell us. - We began to develop a taste for the American good life, and soon, Island was an old hat.” (p.108). Additionally, a powerful example of dialogue is when Yolanda feels insecure about her heritage, and her fixed mindset about how love is support to be. She states, “I cursed my immigrant origins..” (p.94) Yolanda is frustrated with her given life, and feels like if she was an American, life
The eternal endeavor of obtaining a realistic sense of selfhood is depicted for all struggling women of color in Gloria Anzaldua’s “Borderlands/La Frontera” (1987). Anzaldua illustrates the oppressing realities of her world – one that sets limitations for the minority. Albeit the obvious restraints against the white majority (the physical borderland between the U.S. and Mexico), there is a constant and overwhelming emotional battle against the psychological “borderlands” instilled in Anzaldua as she desperately seeks recognition as an openly queer Mestiza woman. With being a Mestiza comes a lot of cultural stereotypes that more than often try to define ones’ role in the world – especially if you are those whom have privilege above the “others”.
In the essay "It’s Hard Enough Being Me," Anna Lisa Raya relates her experiences as a multicultural American at Columbia University in New York and the confusion she felt about her identity. She grew up in L.A. and mostly identified with her Mexican background, but occasionally with her Puerto Rican background as well. Upon arriving to New York however, she discovered that to everyone else, she was considered "Latina." She points out that a typical "Latina" must salsa dance, know Mexican history, and most importantly, speak Spanish. Raya argues that she doesn’t know any of these things, so how could this label apply to her? She’s caught between being a "sell-out" to her heritage, and at the same time a "spic" to Americans. She adds that trying to cope with college life and the confusion of searching for an identity is a burden. Anna Raya closes her essay by presenting a piece of advice she was given on how to deal with her identity. She was told that she should try to satisfy herself and not worry about other people’s opinions. Anna Lisa Raya’s essay is an informative account of life for a multicultural American as well as an important insight into how people of multicultural backgrounds handle the labels that are placed upon them, and the confusion it leads to in the attempt to find an identity. Searching for an identity in a society that seeks to place a label on each individual is a difficult task, especially for people of multicultural ancestry.
The Latino women and girls in the novel are extremely concerned about their appearances, because they feel that if they aren't attractive then they won't be noticed by men, and they are raised to believe that they need a man to fulfil their life, and that they need a husband to support them, and if they don't look attractive then they are not going to be noticed, and if they are not noticed, then they think they won't end up getting married. A good example of this is Marin. When Marin talks about a real job Marin says that the best place to work is downtown, not because of the work that is there, but because "you always get to look beautiful and were nice clothes." She also tells the girls that the only thing that matters is if your skirts are short, and your eyes are pretty, so that you are noticed by guys.
Montoya, Margret E. "Masks and Identify," and "Masks and Resistance," in The Latino/a Condition: A Critical Reader New York: New York University Press, 1998.