In the essay “Blaxicans and Other Reinvented Americans” written by Richard Rodriguez, Rodriguez argues that race should not identify an American, but instead, a person’s culture should portray their full identity. As a matter of fact, people like Americans, are judged by how they look or dress, but in reality, they can really appear to be something else. In the essay, Rodriguez treats himself as Chinese stating,“I answered that I am Chinese and that is because I live in a Chinese city and because I want to be Chinese” (Lines 163-165). To specify, Rodriguez has assimilated into the culture thriving for new experiences and conveying a message that is based on his knowledge and calling the Chinese culture his “home”. His actions, in other words,
In the essay “ ‘Blaxicans’ and Other Reinvented Americans” is an effective writing style to persuade his audience because Rodriguez shows the reader how ironic people are in many different situations. For example, “There is something unsettling about immigrants because….well because they chatter incomprehensibly, and they get in everyone’s way. Immigrants seem to be bent on undoing American.” This reveals how Rodriguez shows verbal irony due to the fact that he is saying it but he does not really mean it for example in this quote Rodriguez said it but he is not the one who believes that while the white people are the ones who really consider immigrants as “Chatter”. To add on, Rodriguez shows this to display how the white people is just trying
...rself in between the two, and in doing so partially “unmakes” the ethnic identity passed on to her from her ancestors. The question of whether she is more assimilated into American culture or is more dissimilated from the culture of her ancestors is arbitrary and ambiguous. She is simultaneously both and neither; she is a new person who enjoys the American way of life but will always feel burdened by the “weight” of her ancestors “upon [her]” (297).
When Chinese immigrants enter the United States of America, it is evident from the start that they are in a world far different than their homeland. Face to face with a dominant culture that often times acts and thinks in ways contrary to their previous lives, immigrants are on a difficult path of attempting to become an American. Chinese immigrants find themselves often caught between two worlds: the old world of structured, traditional and didactic China and the new world of mobile, young and prosperous America. They nostalgically look back at China longing for a simpler life but look at the United States as a land of opportunity and freedom that they did not know in China. For this is why they came to America in the first place, to provide for their children and themselves what they could not in China. To do this, of course, they are faced with the challenge of assimilating. Learning the language, acquiring education, owning property, etc. are all ways to seize the American Dream. However this poses a problem for the Chinese immigrant for, in the process of assimilation, they lose some of their Chinese culture. This especially rings true for the children of Chinese immigrants: the second-generation Chinese Americans.
	"It mattered that education was changing me. It never ceased to matter. My brother and sisters would giggle at our mother’s mispronounced words. They’d correct her gently. My mother laughed girlishly one night, trying not to pronounce sheep as ship. From a distance I listened sullenly. From that distance, pretending not to notice on another occasion, I saw my father looking at the title pages of my library books. That was the scene on my mind when I walked home with a fourth-grade companion and heard him say that his parents read to him every night. (A strange sounding book-Winnie the Pooh.) Immediately, I wanted to know, what is it like?" My companion, however, thought I wanted to know about the plot of the book. Another day, my mother surprised me by asking for a "nice" book to read. "Something not too hard you think I might like." Carefully I chose one, Willa Cather’s My ‘Antonia. But when, several weeks later, I happened to see it next to her bed unread except for the first few pages, I was furious and suddenly wanted to cry. I grabbed up the book and took it back to my room and placed it in its place, alphabetically on my shelf." (p.626-627)
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,
Thesis: In American Born Chinese by Gene Yang during the scene of Wei-Chen’s first lunch color choices, the deliberate positioning of characters, and symbols illustrate the uphill battle members of non-dominant cultures specifically Wei-Chen and Jin-Wang face in attempting to fit into and gain acceptance from the dominant culture.
In Richard Rodrigues’ dissertation titled “‘Blaxicans’ and Other Reinvented Americans” Rodriguez; a sociologist, who was on his way to earning his Ph.D, explains how using race as a basis for identifying Americans is not valid; culture should be what defines a person's identity. Throughout his essay he gives anecdotes about things he has learned and even decides to use the new terminology of the anecdote in his title. In his writing, he discusses how he was on a talk show, and while conversing with Bill Moyers, Moyers asked him what race he identifies himself as, either Hispanic or American and he replied “I am Chinese, and that is because I live in a Chinese city and because I want to be Chinese” (162-165). This quote denotes that
Both Eric Liu and Richard Rodriguez both felt that they were betraying their culture while they were being more accepting to white or outside American society. Richard Rodriguez felt this feeling when he was learning and using the public language which in his case did not come without a cost. There was a certain sense of betrayal he felt and that was intimated by relatives that he had somehow committed a sin by learning and eventually only speaking this so called "public language". He was given the nickname “pocho” which is someone who is becoming an American and forgets about his native society. Eric Liu was also given a nickname by his own people terms a “banana” which is on the outside of a banana it is “yellow” but if you look in the inside it is “white” which in his state he has assimilated into white American society. Stereotypes that he took in consideration also created a path for him to follow that leads up in a long range of regrets. He states, “As I had done in high school, I combated the stereotypes in part by trying to disprove them. If Asians were reputed to be math and science geeks, I would be a student of history and politics. If Asians were supposed to be feeble subalterns, I'd lift weights and go to Marine officer candidate school. If Asians were alien, I'd be ardently patriotic. If Asians were shy and retiring, I'd try to be exuberant and jocular. If they were narrow-minded specialists, I'd be a well-rounded generalist. If they were perpetual outsiders, I'd join every establishment outfit I could and show that I, too, could run with the swift.” which is probably a path that he wouldn’t have fallowed if he accepted his own culture. He also continues to ramble on about his three adjoining arenas which are his looks, his loves, and his
While traditional Chicano identity was originally conceived as the backbone of the 1960s Chicano Civil Rights Movement, it is still an essential part of the Mexican-American identity today. The Chicano identity was important in unifying the broad base of Mexican people in America, allowing Chicanos today to grasp their heritage and refrain from assimilating into an Anglo-American culture. Rather than change, the definition of Chicano identity has progressed in order to accommodate to the environment of today’s society. The traditional Chicano identity, amidst the turbulent era of the “Sixties,” centered on a cultural nationalistic standpoint. Although at the time, nationalism was essential to unifying a wide group of people, it also came with
Rodriguez states, “...I met a young girl in San Diego at a convention of mixed-raced children, among the common habit is to define one parent over the other…..But this girl said “Blaxican”. By reinventing language, she is reinventing America.” This helps imply that the girl's exposure to more than one culture has helped her shape who she is as a person. This comes to show that the same way that the little girl reinvented herself, can also demonstrate that Americans can also change their conservative, misguided views of immigrant cultures from being different from their own. The only way to indicate that Americans can change their ideals is by exposing them to immigrant cultures in order to not only reshape them but also
As a result, literature has to follow certain guidelines to be classified as Asian American; being placed in a box limits many great pieces of work to gain the recognition they deserve. As Wong and Sumida state, Asian American Literature is a presentation of American culture within Asian American history and culture, rather than a representation of the entire culture. “Asian Americans” is a large and complex, pan-ethnic group of people making it difficult to classify them all under the same stereotypes. Many Asian American works portray Asian Americans as “perpetual aliens or castaways whose cultures tumble nicely and helplessly” (4). This is because Asian Americans create their own culture, a hybrid of Asian culture and American culture, they don’t fully fit in with American culture just as they don’t fully fit in with Asian culture. Asian American Literature is a reflection of just that, it doesn’t fit into specific guidelines, breaking away from the labels that others create and making its own impact by culturing its readers on being Asian American. Whether the author is Asian American or is solely writing about Asian American culture, it still classifies as Asian American Literature
The article shows her ideas with a specific focus on the Latino community in English-language country. The writer said “After my first set of lessons, I could function in the present tense. Hola, Paco. De que color es tu cuaderno? El mío es azul”. (Barrientos, Tanya p.64). This is evidence throughout the article that she said such as this sentence and writes some words in Spanish that she don’t know. The writer was born in a Latin American country, and feels like a Latina (the brown-skin) even if she was raised in the United States and does not speak Spanish anymore. In addition, this article also serves as inspiration for people with different backgrounds that suffer from the same problem, helping all the people that face the same problem. I’m also have same experience. I’m growing up in Shandong province, but born in Guangdong province. It is so far from Guangdong to Shandong. And China is an old country, the culture and habit is not similar from place to place. If there are a few mountains between two cities, the language is total different. So every time when I come back to my hometown, the citizen, especially my grandparents, which growing up in tradition, will call me “yuasangia”, which like the writer’s struggles in American. However, the different is that this noun just for others province people who live in or travel to my hometown. Every time when I say my hometown language
With disconnected allusions, metaphors, and unrealism Rodriguez not only conveys his ideas throughout his essays but also is able to show us part of himself as a writer. He respects people’s role in society. He treasures how assimilation can change a culture. He has a passion for brown for converting color and race. He loves language for it’s continuous changes that it has been through over time. He values transformation, whether it is of color, culture, language, or a nation.
...me Americans has been realized. Wong is multicultural and not Chinese. However, when she examines back to her childhood, she feels miserable. Her unhappiness is significant because this feeling shows us her present concept on her initial heritage. She can understand why her mother took them to the Chinese school at this issue. She could be an American and still having Chinese heritage. There are many All-Americans but she likes to be someone who is multicultural, and she had numerous possibilities to hold her Chinese culture. The reason for her unhappiness is that she missed these possibilities. She thought that maintaining more than one backgrounds is interesting. Through being an All-American Girl and departing her Chinese culture, she came to realise the importance of her original heritage and the factual significance of being multicultural.
In “Legal Alien,” poet Pat Mora explores the cultural tension present in the lives of Mexican Americans where the speaker in the poem describes a bicultural individual who is able to fluently speak both English and Spanish and who uses both languages in his/her everyday work and social life. The individual works a standard office job and frequently visits Mexican restaurants, but the individual has a difficult time being fully accepted by his/her community and Americans view the person as “exotic,” “inferior,” and “definitely different,” while Mexicans see the person as “alien,” an outsider and as a result, the individual becomes viewed by society as a token of the bicultural experience, only existing on the margins of both cultural worlds,