Mericans

In the short story "Mericans" by Sandra Cisneros, we appear to be reading about a small place in Mexico. The author uses many details in the story for us to visualize the cultural environment. The mix of Spanish words in the story such as, La Virgen de Guadalupe and la ofrenda give the sense of a different culture. The use of the awful grandmother kneeling at mass makes you visualize a specific heritage and cultural behavior. The word "barbarian" that the grandmother uses to describe the birthplace of the children, also points out cultural differences. It seems the author is trying to make us sense a native culture, and not to make assumptions based on physical characters.

The "awful grandmother" (Cisneros p.30) is an example of a person in the story living in two cultural worlds, while she clings to her cultural heritage, she still doesn't want to accept the American culture of the children. The children, in the story, may look like Native Americans or Mexicans, but their main language is English. The children also use examples of American culture with the comic characters, "Flash Gordon" and "Ming the Merciless."

The children in the story embrace more of the American culture than a native culture with the use of the comic characters. The little girl tends to struggle understanding her grandmothers cultural heritage, and it seems to take her quite a bit of effort doing it. The children seem to be content playing and carrying on without the bother of what the grandmother is doing, and they have no references to heroes of their native culture.

The story tends to have a familiar setting to me, one that I am around, especially with the children running around and playing carefree. My grandmother is quite religious and she also does many of the things that the grandmother in the story does.