In Magali Muria Tunon’s dissertation Enforcing Boundaries: Globalization, State Power and the Geography of Cross-border Consumption in Tijuana, Mexico, she uses the phrase “hybrid identities” to describe a group of people whose culture is a mixture of traits from two different cultures. In the quote above, Tunon provides an example of a hybrid identity by naming Tijuanenses, inhabitants of the Mexican city of Tijuana, as people who developed hybrid identities. She describes how Tijuanenses regularly crossed the U.S.-Mexico border, which is located near Tijuana, and entered the U.S. in order to shop. This constant trade and communication with Americans caused Tijuanenses to grow familiar with American customs. Tunon claims that Tijuanenses eventually stopped considering American “material culture” as foreign since it was such a ubiquitous part of their daily lives (97). This acceptance of American society led Tijuanenses to adopt certain parts of American culture and combine them with Mexican principles, creating a new hybrid identity. Thus, Tunon defines a hybrid identity as a “distinct local identity” that is formed …show more content…
when people living on the border between two neighboring cultures interact within both cultures so frequently that they fuse facets of both cultures to form a hybrid identity that manages to be unique while displaying characteristics of the cultures that merged to produce it (97). Throughout the article, Tunon is under the assumption that “consumption practices” reveal a society’s culture since such habits show what items people value enough to purchase on a widespread basis (98).
She also presumes that trade must be accompanied by communication, which is necessary in order for commerce and the transfer of information, such as cultural values, to occur. Based on these assumptions, any gradual differences in the spending habits of Tijuanenses could be due to shifting societal values, which could further be caused by the integration of American values into the culture of Tijuana. That is why Tunon believes that she is justified in thinking about the formation of hybrid identities in terms of the shopping expeditions that Tijuanenses went on and how their purchases changed over time as they interacted more with American
society. As the child of Vietnamese immigrants, I must say that an example of hybrid identities in my personal life is my mother. She was born in Vietnam, but she moved to the U.S. as an adult. Since then, my mother has always shopped at a variety of stores, owned by either Asians or Americans, in order to get the best prices on her purchases. Even though she did not speak a word of English before coming to the U.S., years of shopping at American stores has given her the ability to speak, understand, and write conversational English. In addition, she developed a preference for American stores over Asian ones and often tells me that American products are cleaner and more reliable than their Asian counterparts. This is evidence that my mother embraced some parts of American “consumer culture” (98). However, it is obvious that my mother still values the Vietnamese way of life. She speaks Vietnamese at home and expects the same of me; in fact, she dreads the thought that I will forget her native tongue if I neglect it in favor of English. She also places great value in Confucianism and Buddhism, scolding me whenever I fail to show enough respect for my elders and ordering me to pray to my ancestors at the family shrine during every religious holiday. This proves that, despite my mother’s decision to embrace certain American values, she still lives according to the “standards and values that prevailed in” Vietnam (98). Since she spends a lot of time interacting within both American and Vietnamese communities and decided to mix components of both cultures to create a new identity for herself, I believe that my mother is an example of someone with a hybrid identity.
Have you ever disobeyed your families culture? Or ever wanted to forget about something in your past culture? It’s not always easy, to follow traditions, sometimes you want to create or change your lifestyle.In the poem ‘’El Olvido’’ by Judith Ortiz Cofer and ‘’Life In The Age Of The Mimis’’ by Domingo Martinez. The authors of these texts indicate the idea that trying to hide your cultures identity is defiance against your heritage.
Traditionally history of the Americas and American population has been taught in a direction heading west from Europe to the California frontier. In Recovering History, Constructing Race, Martha Mencahca locates the origins of the history of the Americas in a floral pattern where migration from Asia, Europe, and Africa both voluntary and forced converge magnetically in Mexico then spreads out again to the north and northeast. By creating this patters she complicates the idea of race, history, and nationality. The term Mexican, which today refers to a specific nationality in Central America, is instead used as a shared historic and cultural identity of a people who spread from Mexico across the southwest United States. To create this shared identity Menchaca carefully constructs the Mexican race from prehistoric records to current battles for Civil Rights. What emerges is a story in which Anglo-Americans become the illegal immigrants crossing the border into Texas and mestizo Mexicans can earn an upgrade in class distinction through heroic military acts. In short what emerges is a sometimes upside down always creative reinvention of history and the creation of the Mexican "race (?)".
Another way it is seen that culture influences one's views, is through moving. When one moves to a new place their cultural identity impacts the way they view their new surroundings. In the essay “Where Worlds Collide” author Pico Iyer portrays this idea of how cultural identity influences perspectives of those who move. In this essay as foreigners come to LA, it is said that they find the snack bar where a “piece of pizza cost $3.19 (18 quetzals they think in horror, or 35,009 dong)” (62). Because the foreigners come from a place with a completely different culture, to them pizza that costs $3.19 is extremely expensive. This is a good representation of how when moved, people view the world and their new surroundings based off of their culture. While in American culture, $3.19 for pizza
In “Like Mexican” when Gary announced he fell in love with a Japanese girl his family did not immediately accept the good news Gary thought it to be. Gary’s grandmother wanted him to marry an “Okie” (People different from his own culture.) The false assumption from Gary’s family led to disbelief and hesitation, but Gary realizes that one defined by their race and ethnicity does not determine who you are and your financial situation (Soto 280). In the end Gary Soto managed to be “different” and didn’t follow his Mexican stereotypes. No matter what race, country, ethnicity people are that people can also have similar financial status and living environment was the lesson he learned from his experience. In contrast, Deborah Tannen’s “Gender in the Classroom” conducts surveys and observations by splitting the students into “degree programs they were in, one by gender, and one by conversational style.” The four foreign, male students “spoke in class at least occasionally.”(Tannen 286). Although, it was particularly hard for the Japanese woman to speak in an all female-based group, because the woman was so “overwhelmed” by the change of atmosphere; She was surprised by the other, quiet and shy women to be so talkative and loud. “The differing ethics” from the varied backgrounds led to Tannen’s experiment as a success. Tannen also learned a lesson from her surveys. She thought that “everyone’s style changes in response to the context and other’s styles” no
Tayo’s mixed identity is an interaction between native culture and white culture as ethnically he is half laguna pueblo, half white. His own identity is a conflict within himself personally. The community ostracizes his family for his mother’s choice to fraternize
She explains how Mexican and Chicano literature, music, and film is alienated; their culture is considered shameful by Americans. They are forced to internalize their pride in their culture. This conflict creates an issue in a dual culture society. They can neither identify with North American culture or with the Mexican culture.
The final paragraph of Watson’s chapter, he asks “where does the transnational end and the local being?” This opened my eyes to further examine my own environment to see what is specifically from my culture and what I have adopted from other nations. The majority of nations can be viewed as a melting pot. We are all a mixture of different aspects of cultures to create a growing and changing culture.
Firstly, they used immigration to show the impact it has on race & ethnic identification. The changes in immigration laws have helped to move the demographics of more than one category. The influx of educated immigrants and the skillsets that they bring with them has helped to push the typology of categories for the groups that they belong to, it has also helped to move the relative positon of those groups in the social order. As a shift in the economic and educational achievements of immigrants are pushing the framework of each category, it is leading to an increase in the heterogeneity between and within the racial & ethnic groups. Changes in immigration is also leading to a change in the social relations within and between groups, as it is leading to increased interracial interactions in schools, workplaces and households. This is shifting the boundaries of this category as well. Secondly, the authors use multiracialism or hybridity, which is the ability of individuals to fit into multiple categories. It is seen that over time individuals are identifying themselves with multiple racial & ethnic categories, this is due to increased similarities between shared attributed by different groups. Increased interaction between groups has led to the identification of these similarities, and therefore has not only shifted the typology of categories but also the
I will begin to examine the Mexican American ethnic group, probing the historical circumstances that impelled them to come to America, focusing on the structure and functioning of their family life to determine or, at least, to raise clues about how and why they have been able or unable to maintain an ethnic identification over the generations, and take a brief look ahead to being to speculate what the future endeavors are for this ethnic group and their constitutive families.
When asked to define ones cultural identity people usually take the path that leads to their country of origin. They describe their beliefs and tradition which mirrors the values of people within that geographic location. But what about the people who are torn between two cultures? How would they define their cultural identity? This is the problem faced by Henry Park, the protagonist of the book Native Speaker by Chang-Rae Lee. Originally from Korea, he immigrated to the United States with his parents when he was little. However, his struggle of trying to find his acceptance into the American culture still continues. The book outlines his endless uncertainty of trying to define his cultural identity and his feelings as an outsider to the American Culture. Not being able to commit to either of the cultures leaves Henry confused regarding his true Cultural identity which Chang very artfully presents as a fuzzy line between the American and Korean Culture.
Latinos who were raised in the United States of America have a dual identity. They were influenced by both their parents' ancestry and culture in addition to the American culture in which they live. Growing up in between two very different cultures creates a great problem, because they cannot identify completely with either culture and are also caught between the Spanish and English languages. Further more they struggle to connect with their roots. The duality in Latino identity and their search for their own personal identity is strongly represented in their writing. The following is a quote that expresses this idea in the words of Lucha Corpi, a Latina writer: "We Chicanos are like the abandoned children of divorced cultures. We are forever longing to be loved by an absent neglectful parent - Mexico - and also to be truly accepted by the other parent - the United States. We want bicultural harmony. We need it to survive. We struggle to achieve it. That struggle keeps us alive" ( Griwold ).
Crouch, Ned. Mexicans & Americans : Cracking The Cultural Code. NB Publishing, Inc., 2004. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 21 Nov. 2011.
The Latino Threat Narrative has excluded Latinx from the sense of national belonging of the United States. Nation is a product of nationalism, which is “an imagined political community– and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign. It is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion” (Anderson, 6). In other words, nationalism is a socially, psychologically, and politically constructed community created and imagined by the people who perceive themselves as part of that community. It is social and psychological process that makes people believe they are connected to one another and share ties. However, nationalism is limited and exclusive, not everyone has the privilege of being part of that community. For instance, “the nation is imagined as limited because even the largest of them, encompassing perhaps a billion living human beings, has finite, if elastic, boundaries beyond which lie other nations”(Anderson, 7). In other words, nationalism divides communities and creates restrictions and prohibitions that are similar to immigration laws. The hegemony of American nationalism include people who are only of European descent, born in the United States and speaks only English. Particularly, Gonzalez due to her illegal status she was not welcome to be part of the American nationalism. Therefore, she was forced out and excluded from the American narrative. In this case, nationalism is a form of oppression against marginalized groups. Nationalism divides those who do not fit in the status quo. As a result, the idea of nationalism divides vulnerable communities from entering the narrative. Thus, the American patriarchal form of nationalism transforms into American Exceptionalism in which the United States brands
The purpose of this paper is to identify James Marcia’s identity status theory and how it pertains to the author 's life during adolescence and early adulthood. The author will reflect as well as address the four statuses of development. Noting that Marcia’s theory has proven to be an effective and dependable tool in helping to determine the status of the identity development in adolescents.
The use of cultural anthropologists has proven beneficial for companies like Google, Intel, and Microsoft in implementing their business models in other countries (Baer 2014: 1). During a meeting with a Mexican supplier, Ted offended the visiting businessman by refusing to go on a tour of the city offered by Manuel. In past oriented countries such as Mexico, sharing cultural history is a very important factor, and is usually shared by the business host. This also shows the differences between the monochronic ways of the United States and the polychronic thinking that Mexico uses.