...2014 First Generation American-Mexican I am a first generation American-Mexican, I was born and raised in Northern California; Santa Rosa, CA., it is about one-hour from San Francisco, California. It is a place filled with various cultures from many different cultural background, customs, and traditions. The majority of individuals living Northern California are from Mexico as it borders the United States. While, growing up my school had a few American-Mexican: Chicano population, with the majority Caucasians and Asian. My school had few African-Americans. As a youth, I sought to grow up and assimilate into the American culture while maintain my cultural identity. As my identity makes me who I am today, and someone I am not. As I grew older, I learned what made the United States different amongst other nations as it was the melting-pot of various cultures from all around the world, in which made it unique from other countries. Furthermore, at Santa Rosa Junior College challenged my mentality to keep an open mind of others, in which I was blind, but each day at school meeting new people, and engaging in conversation with individuals asking them, various questions of what they wanted to do, what was their major, and what gave them passion to keep studying. I had to readjust my ideals about higher education. Higher education has help me find my identity, through knowledge. As I hold on to my customs and traditions that my parents have bestowed upon me. As a first generation...
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...of a particular ethnic or social group. “Mexican” culture mainly defines me. However, it has been influenced by the “American” culture I have been surrounded by extensively. Values define what is wrong or right within a group while norms are considered social rules and guidelines followed by this group as proper behavior. Having been born and raised in the border town of El Paso has taught me to appreciate both Mexican and American cultures in their similar and contrasting characteristics. Having Mexican roots, I was initially taught to speak Spanish. To the elders in my family, it is disrespectful to mix English with Spanish while speaking. It is referred to as “Spanglish,” like my uncle says. Although the majority of my relatives are bilingual, it is a norm to converse in one language only. The kitchen is probably the most important area of a Mexican household. Cooking brings families together during family reunions or special events and it is normally done by the female members. My mom would rather make us enchiladas as opposed to buying them because she conveys her care and affection through her cooking. It is common to place family above all else in the Mexican culture, and cooking reflects that to an extent. As children, my mother stayed home to care for my brother and myself while my dad worked. Consequently, we received much parental care and attention, which is not common in the American culture. As a member of the Mexican culture, I was raised to practice the Roman...
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...Periodically, one question comes to my mind, where do I belong in this immense world that I was put in? Although the answer to that question changes slightly as time passes, it undoubtedly revolves around one central concept- my identity. Often times I proudly refer to my people, Chicanos, as warriors. This label is concise with who we are because throughout history we have been able to fight and counterattack injustices brought upon us by others. I identify as a Chicana not only due to the fact that I am of Mexican descent, but also because I feel like the warrior spirit of my ancestors dwells within me. Even since ancient times, my people were brave and fearless warriors...
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... There is no doubt in my mind that I define myself as a Chicana, not Latina, not Hispanic. A Chicana is the first generation Mexican American, born to parents of Mexican descent and raised in the Mexican traditional way, living in an American society and also being born and raised in Chicago. I am the first generation Mexican American. My parents raised me with the values, traditions and culture as they grew up in Mexico. Chicana are viewed in somewhat like way in the American and Mexican society. . Since I’ve been little, my parents instilled me with their family values, traditions and culture. Our family value’s revolves on religion and family. From my second grade to seventh grade, I attended...
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...As a Mexican-American, it’s hard to know to wich world I should identity myself; I really feel Mexican when I eat spicy foods all days or when I dance banda in the party's, but that feeling goes away when I speak English in school or even in my house. As a Mexican, I feel myself a true, native, Mexican born American. So I am Mexican-American. Althought sometimes I feel confused as to wich world I belong to, for me there’s no question I’m first Mexican; I’m the result of my parents American dream, I use to live in Mexico and I know how to work and talk like all the Mexican people do, but when I speak english I reveal my obvious American nationality. Sometimes I feel really sad and angry when someone refers to me as an allien or...
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...with his frustrations. In the ‘’The Unexpected Lessons of Mexican Food,’’ Montano uses food to make a bridge between Mexican and American culture. First, Montano uses food to make a bridge between Mexican and American culture when in the article he refers to himself as a ''Wexican'' (936). ''Wexican'' is a union between the words White and Mexican. According to the article, ''In the Mexican side of my family I was known as the white one’’ (936), and ''On the other side, my cousins called me a ‘Wexican,’ a white Mexican despite my similarly toned skin'' (936). He was not recognized for either even though he spoke Spanish and strongly identified with his Mexican heritage. Right after writing about his biracial identity, he makes the bridge when he tries to eliminate his frustrations by using Mexican and American products to cook, and he feels more comfortable because ''I could make a food that doesn’t have to be Mexican or American'' (936). In his introduction, Montano refers to ‘’the earthy smell of boiling pinto beans’’ as something that apparently both sides of his family liked (936). Later in life, his experience in Argentina with cooking Mexican food for his friends helped him realize and gain confidence in his identity as a Mexican- American (940). Second, talking about Eagle Pass, Texas, Montano uses food to make a bridge between Mexican and American culture. It is the hometown of his dad. Eagle Pass is an American town by the Rio Grande River with Mexico. Montano describes...
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...eventually became a schoolteacher and then an academic, speaking and writing about feminis t, lesbian, and Chicana issues and about autobiography. She is best known for This Bridge CalJed My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color ( 1981), which she edited with Cherrie Moraga, and BorderlandsfLa Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987). Anzaldua died in 2004. "How to Tame a Wild Tongue" is from BorderlandsfLa Frontera. In it, Anzaldua is concerned with many kinds of borders - between nations, cultures, classes, genders, languages. When she writes, "So, if you want to really hurt me, talk badly about my language" (par. 27), Anzaldua is arguing for the ways in which identity is intertwined with the way we speak and for the ways in which people can be made to feel ashamed of their own tongues. Keeping hers wild - ignoring the closing of linguistic borders - is Anzaldua's way of asserting her identity. "We're going to have to control your tongue," the dentist says, pulling out all the metal from my mouth. Silver bits plop and tinkle into the basin. My mouth is a motherlode.· The dentist is cleaning out my roots. I get a whiff of the stench when I gasp. "I can't cap that tooth yet, you're still draining," he says. "We're going to have to do something about your tongue," I hear the anger rising in his voice. My tongue keeps pushing out the wads of cotton, pushing back the drills, the long thin needles. 'Tve never seen anything as strong or as stubborn," he says. And I think, how do you tame...
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...Growing up my parents always taught my brother and I to embrace our Mexican culture. I might have been born and raised in America, but I would always be Mexican first. My parents in raising my younger brother and I were kind, but firm. They instilled in us the values of hard work and the importance of education at a young age. My parents both having not finished high school knew the struggles they went through without an education. They wanted my brother and I to have a proper education, so our lives would be open to more opportunities. Education is an aspect that can set you apart from someone else. It might be what gets you that job or that promotions you’ve been wanting. Especially, as a Mexican-American in the Unites States we often face discrimination. People call us “lazy, uneducated, and how were stealing American jobs”. However, that's farther from the truth. My family immigrated from Mexico to the Unites States in search of a...
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...Stanford University in California, and earned his master’s degree in American History with Specialization in Chicano history in 1976. Moreover, after two years Dr. San Miguel Jr. acquired his doctorate in Social Sciences in Education at Stanford University in 1978. Currently, he is a professor of History at the University of Houston. Through the years, he specializes Mexican-American...
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...population of Mexicans, and has had a significantly large population of Mexicans since they became U.S citizens after the Treaty of Hidalgo was signed in 1848. The treaty was an agreement between the U.S, and Mexico, transferring land to the U.S, but not only did they get land; Mexicans who resided in those states also stayed, and most became U.S citizens. Since then, Mexicans, and their U.S born children have faced many problems such as, discrimination, inequality, and segregation. For many years Mexicans, and Mexican-Americans dealt with the inequality, until the 1960’s when they decided that there had to be an end to all the discrimination that Mexicans faced, and started what is now known as the Chicano Movement. The Chicano Movement had a huge impact on not only Chicanos, but also on the nation. A) During the 60’s there were several civil rights movements that took place, and according to Rodolfo F. Acuna “the bases of social movements were inequality, and a moral outrage at the lack of fairness in the system” (Acuna 287), and this is what the Chicano Movement was. In order to understand the Chicano Movement, it must be defined; in short, the Chicano Movement was part of the Civil Rights movement during the 60’s whose goal was to get better education, voting rights, equal wages, and restoration of land grants; as it had originally been agreed to in the Treaty of Hidalgo. The word “Chicano” used to be considered a bad word, a word used to describe the Mexican-Americans...
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...can be seen. El Movimiento most commonly known as the Chicano Movement had originally started in the late 1840s, shortly after the U.S-Mexican war, but didn’t fully kick-off till the 1960s. The Chicano Movement had various leaders the most commonly known being César Chávez, Dr. Hector P. Garcia, and Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzáles. It was also followed by Student and youth organizations from California to Texas. Another major part of this movement was Chicano art that was nourished by their pride in their culture and heritage. Although the Chicano Movement was mostly centered toward the Mexican-American community the ideas they were striving for, broke ethnic boundaries. Cesar Chavez is best known for being a Latin-American civil rights activist. Chavez started his activism in 1952 when he became an organizer for the Community Service Organization (CSO), he traveled throughout California giving speeches in which supported worker’s rights and encouraged Mexican-Americans to register and vote. When he left CSO he co-founded what is now known as UFW. He along with Dolores Huerta co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), later changed to United Farm Workers (UFW), in 1962. The NFWA first boycott...
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...myself every day. I want to be the first from my family to graduate from high school and head to college. I feel that getting an education is the right thing to do, so I can give back to the community where I was raised. Having a drive towards my education and representing my ethnicity has made me live differently from those around me. Being Hispanic is very important to me because I’m representing an ethnicity, which is often torn down by others. I know that I represent not only myself but also my Hispanic background, which has shaped me into who I am. My culture gives me strength to keep moving forward in order to break stereotypes. I represent myself as a Mexican-American, which drives me to be a role model for younger individuals who feel as if they...
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...Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans, A new beginning in the United States North America is known to have various groups of different ethnic backgrounds and cultures. Most people in the United States if not them have ancestors who moved to the U.S for a better way of living or to escape challenges that arrived in their respected countries. According, to www.education.byu.edu Individuals of the Latin American origin contains over 14% of the population of the United States. The two groups that will be discussed in this paper will consist of American Mexicans the largest of the Hispanic groups and Puerto Ricans who are the second largest group of Hispanics in the United States. The Mexican American and Puerto Rican groups are the fastest growing group in such states as Utah, New York, Illinois, Texas, California, Arizona and Colorado. The Hispanic population continues to rise in the United States as more opportunities are given to them and this paper will introduce different challenges that these two Latino groups experienced in the United States. This paper will identify two of the largest growing Hispanic groups which consist of Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans. In this research paper I will recognize who these two groups are, where they originated, why these two groups migrated to the United States, and also include the challenges that they face pertaining to work, health, education, family, and religion. Originated and Migration Mexican Americans are identified...
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...readers understanding with many aspects of life. Yet, for a poem to transcend time, the author must accomplish one fundamental thing: to create a connection between the poem and the reader. Thus, awakening of the mind, body, and soul. The poems chosen, are an attempt to understand and connect self to a forgotten and at times, unknown culture and heritage. To accomplish the task at hand, the first step was to search for Mexican-American poets. Second step was to find a common theme (culture and heritage) or writing style. Lastly, all of the poems needed to be predominantly in English. With a variety of Mexican-American poets, the task was not as simple, nonetheless, it was accomplished. The following five poems examine the language, symbols and metaphors used by the poets that elicit a deeper understanding of a culture: “187 Reasons Mexicanos Can’t Cross The Border” by Juan Felipe Herrera (688), “Legal Alien” and “Learning English: Chorus in Many Voices” by Pat Mora, “My Name” by Sandra Cisneros, and “I Am Joaquin” by Rodolfo Corky Gonzales. Furthermore they illustrate the struggles of Mexicans in the U.S. and the perseverance required to succeed in a country where we are not entirely welcomed. These literary...
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...played and there are not many Mexicans in general. We had one Tex-Mex restaurant, and it wasn’t even good. It wasn’t until my college writing class took a field trip to a local Mexican food trailer, that I truly experienced the fusion between Mexico and the United States through food. On the other hand, I do not have a lot of experience with Mexican food, so this topic is kind of new to me. I play baseball, so I am immediately attracted to the soccer aspect of both cultures because of the competition and how a sport can bring two nations together. Its interesting how cultural fusion can blend two different countries together as one. Mexican cuisine and soccer fuse the cultures of the United States and Mexico in ways that have made both countries into what they are today because of the increase of cultural fusion. One way cultural fusion is expressed and elaborated on through cuisine is shown in Patricia Sharpe’s article “Let’s Have Mex-Tex.” She communicates the change over the years from Tex-Mex to “Mex-Tex.” This article focuses on how the “Mex-Tex” food is increasing in Texas and allows the reader to be informed of good restaurants with such origins. On the official Texas Monthly website she states that Mexican food from the heart of Mexico is the start of “the new culinary era.” Sharpe believes this phenomenon is the better route for Mexican food and it brings back the original Mexican culture. The article outlines the top five real Mexican restaurants, including Fonda San...
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