LITR 4332 American Minority Literature UHCL 2008 final exam sample answers

LITR 4332: American Minority Literature
final exam 2008 sample answers

essay on Mexican American literature: A. (default option).
“Latinos / Hispanics” as ethnic group and Mexican Americans as “ambivalent minority.”

Peter Becnel

Mystic Mixtures

Latinos/ Hispanics are defined as an ethnic group rather than a minority because they chose to immigrate to the United States. The assimilation that their group faces is no the result of the imposition of a greater military power, or invasion, but the issue is complicated by the fact that the southwestern portion of the United States is so heavily influenced specifically by Mexican culture. Perhaps this is because of its proximity to Mexico, or because at one point much of this area was a part of Mexico. Regardless, Mexican Americans face a different issue post-immigration in terms of cultural identity and the need to assimilate. Many of the reason that Mexicans immigrate to America are due to the benefits of being an American citizen. (job opportunities, government benefeits such as formal education) This is problematic because many of these benefits may only be used at the risk of Jeopradizing cultural identity. Mexican Americans are particularly interesting in terms of cultural experience because their native country is so close to the land in which they immigrate. Ambivalence, however, is a theme in Mexican culture regardless of immigration, as we see through their mixture of mystical and traditional religious beliefs.

Tony’s older brothers are an excellent example of “immigrant culture leaving its past behind to gain rights and opportunities”, and also demonstrates Mexican americans as “the ambivalent minority”. (objective 5b, objective 5c) In Bless Me Ultima Tony’s older brothers are assimilated through their activity in the military. However, their circumstances are different than those of Henry in Love Medicine because rather than being drafted, they volunteer. The men believe that the army presents a way that they can make money without having to work on the highway system like their father. It is a manner of ascerting their freedom. These values, the desire to leave their family and be on their own, are cornerstones of American society and family structure.

However, these are not tenets of the traditional Mexican American social structure; which is much more family oriented, and extended kin relationships are often formed and maintained throughout a lifetime. An example of the importance of family in traditional Mexican culture is demonstrated by this passage from The Miraculous Apparation of the Virgin of Guadalupe: “He bowed before her. He saluted, saying: “Lady, God grant you are content. How are you this morning? Is your health good, Lady? I am going to cause you grief. Know that a servant of yours is very sick, my uncle. He has contracted the plague, and is near death. I am hurrying to your house in Mexico to call one of your priests, beloved by our Lord, to hear his confession and absolve him, because, since we were born, we came to guard the work of our death. But if I go, I shall return here soon, so I may go to deliver your message. Lady and my Child, forgive me, be patient with me for the time being. I will not deceive you. Tomorrow I will come in all haste.” Traditionally family values are so important, that Juan Diego is willing to defy the Virgin in order to fulfill his obligation to his sick uncle.

In Bless Me, UltimaThe desire to leave their family and the decision to join the military are much more likely symptoms of the dominant majority’s influence on the family values of Tony’s brothers. An example of this is seen on page 67 where the boys have returned from their military exploits, and having seen a piece of the world, are more than ready to sacrifice their family values for life in the American “fast-lane”. “’It’s either California, or going to work on the highway with him-‘… ‘I can see the action now,’ Leon rubbed his hands,’money, booze, women-“. The notion of traditional family values has been pervaded by the men’s desire to experience an American version of happiness. This is happiness derived from pleasure and immediate gratification rather than one derived from concern for family and protection of the welfare of the people close to you. It is argueable whether the military changes the mindset of the brothers through assimilating them to the dominant majority culture, or simply by showing them that other aspects of the world exist (giving them a thirst to experience all the world has to offer). This type of intercontinental travel would not have been possible in Mexico.

This is another example of ambivalence because with the brothers it is the benefit of making money through their job in the military that assimilates them further into American culture. I believe that this is a form of assimilation for a few reasons. First, it is the first goal of the military to take away the notion of individualism, to break a man down during bootcamp so that he may be reconstructed as a member of the group. Second, by showing the brothers other options, other ways of living, assimiliation is inherently taking place through proposition. The reason that all cultures assimilate is proposition, the notion of a different life is presented, it appears better for whatever reason, and the ethnic group or minority decides to hop on board where the grass appears greener. The influence of the military is seen in another fashion in the story as well in the form of the madman Lupito. He was driven mad by his experience in the war, and it causes him to become dangerous to anyone in any society. In a manner of speaking his military experience ruined him. This event in the story demonstrates the Mexican American reluctance to sacrifice their men for the good of the country.

The notion of Religious ambivalence is a recurrent theme throughout the novel and serves to accentuate socio-cultural ambivalence. Tony is faithful to catholic doctrine, follows the tenants of the church, but believes that a fish god lives in a pool near his house and that Ultima possesses magical powers to cure or curse. The notion of Religious ambivalence in the novel is first suggested by the title Bless Me, Ultima. This presents religious ambialence because Ultima, by traditional Catholic doctorine, is a heretic, a witch, and practices dark magic. The ability to bless things and make them holy is reserved for the priest, and the fact that Tony is ultimately supposed to become a priest further complicates things. Religious symbols are combined, and mixed into a heterogeneous religious understanding throughout the novel. The golden carp is perhaps the most obvious demonstration of this type of mixing. A fish is generally a symbol for Christ dating back to the reign of Cesar Nero. The Cesar was such a terrible tormentor of Christians (also the origination of 666- the sign of the beast) that the fish was used to symbolize a mutual understanding that two people were brothers in Christ. A golden carp is an interesting symbol because it homogenizes notions of classic Christian doctrine (the fish, the golden calf) and nearly pagan mystical symbolism. It causes Tony ambivalence because while he is struggling to experience God through the traditional church venue, a god so obviously appears to him in the water in the form of a great golden fish.

Ambivalence is a part of the Mexican experience regardless of immigration. The culture is rooted in an ambivalent religion. However the change that we see amongst Mexican American immigrants is in the prioritization of family values. As we seen in The Apparation… traditionally family comes before all other things in life. Even after the mother of God appears to Juan Diego he still remembers his obligation to his uncle. The shift in values occurs as a result of American influence over the Mexican people. It is apparent that the military is a powerful agent for this kind of shift in values, but it is more likely a product of living in America in general.

Lacey Fleshman

Mexican Americans as the “Ambivalent Minority”

The term “Latinos” or “Hispanics” is a very broad term that can be applied to people from all over the world, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, and Mexico just to name a few. However, “Mexican American” specifically relates to Mexicans who are living in America. While Mexican Americans fall under the ethnic category of Latino/Hispanic, not all Latinos/Hispanics are Mexican Americans. Of all the minority cultures we have studied, the Mexican American has the most grey areas. These grey areas stem from the debate of whether Mexican Americans are an immigrant group or a minority group. “As individuals or families who come to America for economic gain but suffer social dislocation, Mexican Americans resemble the dominant immigrant culture. On the other hand, much of Mexico's historic experience with the USA resembles the experience of the Native Americans: much of the United States, including Texas, was once Mexico” (objective 5c). The decision to assimilate (as an immigrant) or resist the dominant culture and remain separate leaves many Mexican Americans with “mixed feelings.” These conflicting ideas have created “The Ambivalent Minority” in which the solution is often a combination of traditional and modern cultures. Evidence of this blending can be seen in the “creation story” of the Mexico, The Story of the Virgin of Guadalupe and in Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me Ultima. In addition, many of our class discussions revealed interesting stories about how Mexico’s traditional culture, the culture of grandparents and great-grandparents, continues to influence the new generation of Mexican Americans.
Ambivalence in The Story of the Virgin of Guadalupe is seen, not as a conflict but as a “fusion of European-Catholic and Indian-traditional elements” (instructor’s notes). In the opening paragraph of the story we see “a poor Indian” living in Mexico City ten years after the European conqueror Cortez has come and gone. Juan Diego is a native of Cuautitlan, renamed Mexico City by the Europeans. The fact the Juan Diego’s homeland has been taken over by Europeans parallels with parts of Mexico being taken over by Americans (Texans). Although the story tells us “of all things spiritually he belonged to Tlatilolco,” Diego is on his way to the Catholic church; this is when Diego sees an apparition of the Virgin Mary (a Catholic figure).

There are several interesting things about this meeting that illustrate the assimilation of the Indian culture into the European culture. First, the place he meets the Virgin is on the hill of Tepeyac. Tepeyac, as we discussed in class, is also believed to be the worship site of the “indigenous mother goddess Tonantzin” (Wikipedia). It is no coincidence that the site for worshiping the Aztec’s mother goddess is the same site in which the Catholic mother of God wishes her temple to be erected. The two religions blend with the honor and worship (and subsequent temple) of the Virgin Mary. The second interesting thing about Juan Diego’s first apparition is that when he hears the beautiful song of the birds he says, “Perhaps I am now in the terrestrial paradise which our elders had told us about? Perhaps I am now in heaven?” Here again we see the merge of Indian beliefs with European beliefs. Both ideas occur to Diego and both seem as equally plausible; this shows readers that he has tried to assimilate while at the same time holding on to his customs.

Similar to Juan Diego is Antonio Marez, the main character in Bless Me Ultima; both are faced with the decision to assimilate or resist and both choose to combine belief systems in order to find their place. Antonio Marez and his family epitomize the ambivalence of the Mexican American population. In this one family readers see the immigrant mind-set and modern opinions alongside minority views and traditional values. And then there is Tony who wanders in and out of these divisions leaving a string through the labyrinth that connects him to each one. Tony’s parents are Mexican’s who remember Mexico before the “tejanos,” before Americans came and brought fences, highways, and railroads. Gabriel, Tony’s father, laments his old way of life that was destroyed by the dominant culture: “the tejano came and built his fences, the railroad came, the roads – it was like a bad wave of the ocean covering all that was good” (p54). In this way his family resembles a minority group who did not choose to come to America, but had America forced upon them.

On the other hand, they are also immigrants: “She persuaded my father to leave the llano and bring her family to the town of Guadalupe where she said there would be opportunity and school for us” (p. 3). Tony’s parents have left the llano and moved to town in order to provide a better life for their children; in this way they resemble the dominant immigrant culture. Tony is caught in-between his father’s desire to resist the dominant culture and hold on to his wild vaquero roots and his mother’s wishes that he assimilate, become educated and become a priest. Throughout the novel Tony has conflicting emotions…is he his father’s son or his mother’s priest. He concludes that “maybe I do not have to be just Marez, or Luna, perhaps I can be both” (p. 247). As I learned from our class discussions, this model of uniting traditional values and modern methods has become a way of life for many Mexican Americans.
One of the most interesting aspects of this course has been the in-class discussions. Hearing firsthand experience on the issues presented in the texts we read brought them to life. The theme of ambivalence in Mexican American narratives was continually reinforced by Mexican American students in class. Students began to readily relate their personal experience, thoughts and beliefs (and those of their families) as our texts covered the topic of religion. In chapter “Doce,” Ultima comes under attack for being a bruja or witch. Ultima’s magic is not in question; it is the use of her magic that is in question. Is she a curandera who uses her powers for good or is she a bruja who does evil? It astounded me that so many students in the class held very firm beliefs and had even had experiences with curanderas and/or brujas. I had never heard these terms before in my life until I read Bless Me, Ultima and I would have attributed the ideas to an outdated belief system used in the novel as a literary device had not so many Mexican American students related personal experiences with curanderas. The very fact that these students sat in a university and shared such beliefs proved to me that the Mexican American history of blending dominant and minority traditions and beliefs is not a thing of the past but remains strong to this day.
Like the Native American Indians, the Mexican people did not choose to come to America but were invaded. On the other hand, many Mexicans have immigrated to the United States and have assimilated into the dominant culture. The uncertainty of how to categorize Mexican Americans, as immigrants or minorities, has led to the creation of another option – “The Ambivalent Minority.” Many Mexican Americans hold fast to their traditions and beliefs while at the same time assimilating into the dominant culture giving future generations of Mexican Americans the ability to take the best from both worlds.

Mary Anne Kane

To Assimilate or Not to Assimilate…That is the Question!

As Dr. White stated in class, "Hispanic" and "Latino" are basically the same terms, but describe people of different locations. Both "Hispanic" and "Latino" are considered "umbrella terms" and cover every Spanish-American or Latin American group, including Puerto Rican, Dominican, Colombian, Cuban, Venezuelan and Mexican, to name a few. To simplify this, it can be said that Mexican-Americans are a sub-group of Latino, Hispanic America. Objective 5c is about the Mexican American narrative: “The Ambivalent Minority” or Third Way. According to this objective, "ambivalent" means having "mixed feelings" or contradictory attitudes. It also explains how Mexican Americans, as a group, may feel or exemplify mixed feelings about whether they are a minority group that will remain separate from or an immigrant culture that will assimilate into the dominant culture. In “The Miraculous Apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe” and in Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima, the reader can see how the Mexican Americans have ambivalent feelings and attitudes that contradict what they were taught at home. Readers can also see how these feelings make it difficult for most Mexican Americans to assimilate into the dominant culture.

An ethnic group is usually defined more by its culture, behavior, traditions, circumstances and language. Because most Latinos or Hispanics share similarities in these characteristics, especially in language, it is easy to understand how Latinos and Hispanics are considered an ethnic group. Within this group, the Mexican Americans are usually considered as an “ambivalent minority.” This description is appropriate, given the history of Mexican America and the Southwest United States because of the fact that much of the Southwestern United States were actually a part of Mexico until the war with Mexico, in which Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas were claimed by the United States. The Mexicans in these states had to decide whether to assimilate or to move to what was left of Mexico. This makes the Mexicans different from other Hispanic or Latino groups because other Hispanic or Latino groups did not have to go through what the Mexicans did when the United States took their land. Just like the Native Americans, the Mexicans were pushed out of their lands by the dominant culture and forced to either join the Americans or leave the land they had lived on for centuries.

This ambivalent attitude can be seen in “The Miraculous Apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe.” The story is told of Juan Diego, “…a poor Indian, named Juan Diego,…a native of Cuautitlan. …Of all things spiritually he belonged to Tlatilolco.” Even though he was an Indian and was raised to believe the religion of his tribe, he converted to Catholicism as an adult. The Virgin of Guadalupe appeared to Juan Diego and commanded him to go to the bishop and tell him that she wanted a temple built in her honor. When Juan Diego did what she asked, he felt that the bishop did not believe him. He told the Lady he failed her “…because I am a nobody, I am a small rope, a tiny ladder, the tail end, a leaf, and you, my Lady, you send me to a place where I never visit nor repose.” He felt that he was not believed because the palace was somewhere he never went and those who were accustomed to be there could not have believed him.

When Juan Diego is to go to the Virgin and get a sign to take to the bishop, his uncle becomes very ill and asks him to go to the town to get a priest to perform his last rights. Juan Diego seems to be torn between the request of the Virgin of Guadalupe and his duty to his family, which is taken very seriously in the Hispanic cultures. He is again torn when he takes the bishop and his attendants to see where the Virgin of Guadalupe wants her temple built and he asks to be excused to go home to see about his uncle. The bishop and his attendants decide to go with him, making Juan Diego feel the contradiction of family duty and duty to the Virgin of Guadalupe.

In Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima, there are many examples of how the Mexican-Americans are torn between assimilating into the American dominant culture and remaining a separate minority culture. The ambivalence of Gabriel Márez, Tony's father, is expressed many times throughout the book. He comments on the fact that he and his family were exploited by the new Anglo culture. Because his father was a vaquero, the “…big rancheros and tejanos came and fenced in the beautiful llano,” (2) taking the land that he and his ancestors had roamed free on for many years. While angry at them taking the land from them, he cannot decide whether to fight them, or join them. In many ways, Tony’s father joins them. He not only works on the highways (10), he dreams about moving his family to California to work in the vineyards (14).

As Lacey Fleshman pointed out in her Minority-Culture Presentation, Tony was also a victim of the ambivalence that cursed the Mexican Americans. On his first day of school, Tony was given new shoes to wear. “The new shoes felt strange to feet that had run bare for almost seven years” (53). As he was going to school, he had to have shoes; both of these were steps to assimilation.

Another time Tony feels the ambivalence of assimilation is when he sits down with his classmates to eat lunch. Tony unpacked a traditional Mexican lunch and the other children laughed at him. “They showed me their sandwiches which were made of bread. Again I did not feel well.…I yearned for my mother, and at the same time I understood she had sent me to this place where I was an outcast” (58-9). A child of seven must deal with being away from the protection and love of his mother while fighting the inadequacy and insecurity of being a new kid in new surroundings. It is understandable that Tony would feel a little angry with his mother for putting him in that position.

In Rhonda Fisher’s essay Loss, Survival and Ambivalence in Minority America on the 2007 Final Exam, she writes that “Of Ultima, Tony states, ‘She knew that as I grew I would have to choose to be my mother’s priest or my father’s son.’ Tony’s situation serves as a microcosm for the choice that most Mexican Americans face—he must struggle with his own ambivalence and choose to follow either his father or his mother’s heritage, and the Mexican American in general must struggle with his or her ambivalence and ultimately choose to either follow their Mexican American heritage or assimilate into the dominant culture.” Rhonda goes on to quote JH in the 2005 Final Exam entitled Narratives of Ethnicity: Native Americans and Mexican-Americans, “Anaya gives Tony much to be ambivalent about. He is forced to make choices between his mother’s and father’s families, [to choose] whether or not to be a priest [and] whether he should only believe in one God […] He is ambivalent about choosing between a traditional or contemporary culture.” From these two quotes, the entire accept-or-reject conflict faced by all Mexican Americans can be seen. As a Mexican American, I can tell you that those choices can be very painstaking choices to have to make. Whether we choose to assimilate wholly into the American dominant culture or to retain as much as we can of our Mexican heritage in our lives, we will never be seen as wholly Mexican or American. We will always be a hyphenated person to those around us. After all, isn’t that what a minority really is?

Sarah Wells

Mexican Americans: The Ambivalent Minority

Latinos or Hispanics are a large group of people who are not all from the same country. These labels are considered more as an umbrella term. For instance, Latino or Hispanic can refer to people from Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Uruguay, etc. Mexicans are also placed under this umbrella, which makes them a subset of Latinos. This being said, the Mexican group is seen as a part of the Latino culture. Thus, not all Latinos are from Mexico. They can be from a number of countries.

Mexican Americans are seen as a minority that is very unlike others. According to Objective 5c, they are labeled as an “ambivalent minority” because the immigration of Mexican Americans is not the same across the board. Some Mexicans have immigrated to the United States willingly, for personal benefit, but others were settled here before the dominant culture, much like the Native Americans. Ambivalence is a satisfactory term for Mexican Americans because it means to have mixed or conflicting feelings about something. Mexican Americans seem to have mixed feelings about whether or not they want to join the dominant culture of remain a separate minority group.

Ambivalence is seen in Bless Me, Ultima through Tony’s father, Gabriel. His father dreams of moving westward with his sons to California. When his sons come home from the war, Gabriel is disappointed to hear that they do not want to move with him. They tell him, “We don’t want to go to California. We just want to be on our own, move to Santa Fe and work” (72). This is very similar to the dominant culture. The dominant culture is seen as mobile, and children are expected to move away and start their own lives. But Gabriel is not consistent with the dominant culture at all times because he also has resentment towards it. He bears a grudge against the dominant Anglo culture for taking over his land. Gabriel was raised in a family of vaqueros, but then “the big rancheros and the tejanos came and fenced in the beautiful llano” (2). He was then forced to move to Guadalupe and give up his vaquero lifestyle. This “lowered [Gabriel] in the esteem of his compadres, the other vaqueros of the llano who clung tenaciously to their way of life and freedom” (2). The loss of his friends added to Gabriel’s resentment to the white man. Not only did he lose his profession, but he also lost his friends and their respect.

Tony also displays feelings of ambivalence. His pertain to the subject of religion though. Tony has been raised as Catholic but when he is presented to an alternative God, he feels confused. Samuel tells Tony a story about a god who was turned into a golden carp and lives in the river. This confuses Tony because he thought there was only one God. He thought to himself, “the roots of everything I had ever believed in seemed shaken. If the golden carp was a god, who was the man on the cross?” (81). He does not know what to believe because he does not fully understand religion yet. Like many children, Tony is concerned with why certain things are happening. However, in religion, there is not always a reason for everything. This leads to an ambivalent mentality for Tony.

What Tony wants to be when he becomes an adult is also an example of ambivalence in Bless Me, Ultima. He understands he “would have to choose to be my mother’s priest or my father’s son” (41). Tony’s mother is a woman of religion, while his father is a man of the land. Choosing his father’s way would be a way of staying with the minority culture, while choosing to be a priest would be a way to engage with the dominant culture and would be unlike the rest of his minority family. When speaking of Tony, his mother says, “just think the honor it would bring our family to have a priest” (31). Tony is distraught about this throughout the entire book and still at the end, there is no resolution. Tony will most likely have feelings of ambivalence about this for most of his life.

Ambivalence can be seen in “The Miraculous Apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe” as well. Juan Diego was selected by the Virgin to go to the bishop and tell him that she wanted a temple constructed for her. However, Juan’s uncle became deathly ill at this time. A traditional minority culture takes care of their families before anything else. However, since it is the Virgin that he is supposed to be serving, Juan is torn between the two. Being the Virgin’s messenger is important to him but being there for his uncle is even more important. He eventually decides to serve the Virgin and “as Juan Diego pointed out the spot where the lady from heaven wanted her temple built, he begged to be excused. He wished to go home to see his uncle Juan Bernardino”. The reason this was such a hard decision for Juan was because he had an ambivalent attitude.

Mexican Americans will continue to be faced with the issue of whether to stay true to their culture or assimilate to the dominant culture because of the way they became the minority. This will continue to be a problem for many Mexican Americans.

Emily Newsome

Ambivalence in Mexican American Culture

. . . The most blatant demonstration of ambivalence in Bless Me Ultima is the language. The book is written mostly in English, but there are significant portions in Spanish. The fact that the majority of the language is in English shows the assimilation into the dominant culture, but the Hispanics as a group still cling to their roots. This is evident even outside of the texts that we have covered in this course. According to many of the Hispanic families that I know, it is considered a betrayal of your family and your heritage to not know at least a small portion of Spanish, and more often than not members of this group that attempt a complete assimilation into the dominant culture are ostracized. An equally interesting observation is that the dominant culture has absorbed many of the slang terms of the Mexican language. For instance, when reading through the novel, many of the curse words were familiar to me, because of my interaction with the culture. Also, as I was writing this essay, the term llano did not fall under the radar of my spellchecker, which sometimes ironically flags English words.

Another discernable case of ambivalence in the Mexican novel is the pull that Antonio feels between his father’s way of life and his mother’s. His mother is very clear that “[s]he could not see the beauty in the llano and she could not understand the coarse men who lived half their lifetimes on horseback” (Anaya 2). Antonio’s father clings to the traditional ways of the Hispanic culture. Prior to the immigrants coming in and fencing off land and creating titles and deeds, the Mexicans were free to roam the land and live off of its products. As the culture moved closer to that of the dominant group, men became farmers – Albertine of Love Medicine also complains of her great-grandparents being forced onto worthless land and having to farm it (Erdrich 12). They fenced in their land and ceased to roam. This is the culture that Antonio’s mother has been assimilated into. Antonio struggles with the pull between both. He sides with his father and Ultima as he feels a connection with nature and as he listens “to the mystery of the groaning earth” (15), but at the same time he feels the pressure to follow in the footsteps of his mother’s family.

School and education also creates a sense of ambivalence in the Mexican culture. Antonio’s mother greatly emphasizes the need for him to go to school and become a priest. Also, Antonio’s sisters love their school and once they learn the English language, it is all that they use. Antonio, however, feels that “the school would take [him] away” (32). This is a perceptive statement for such a young boy to make, but it is obvious that he understands the strain that an American education will put between him and his culture. The necessity to go to school also takes time out from his equally valuable education by Ultima. The education by Ultima is perhaps more important than that of the American school. Her ways of healing and her magic are dying out, and she is among a select few that can properly teach Antonio. The interference of the American schools raises the heartbreaking issue of forced assimilation. Antonio has no choice but to attend school, but in doing so he loses out on learning a lost art and valuable life lessons.

The idea of ambivalence in the Mexican culture also presents itself in the concept of religion. Once Antonio is introduced to the golden carp he begins a struggle between gods. He cannot understand the failures of the god of the Catholic religion, yet he feels a betrayal to his family with the belief in the golden carp. Antonio also wisely observes “how Ultima’s medicine had cured [his] uncle and how he was well and could work again. [Antonio] had been thinking how the medicine of the doctors and of the priest had failed” (Anaya 106). He cannot comprehend believing in something that fails time and time again when there is something much more powerful in the work that Ultima does. Antonio, however, rarely expresses this outside of his thoughts. He is torn by the grief of deserting the religion that his mother holds so dear. The idea of being torn between the religion of the land and the religion of the dominant culture is also present in “The Story of the Virgin of Guadalupe.” Juan Diego – a Mexican Indian, which also presents an ambiguous heritage – cannot decipher whether he is in “the terrestrial paradise” of his elders or in heaven.

The magic of Ultima in itself is ambivalent. She is accused of being a bruja, but others see her as simply a curandera. One is good and the other evil, but Ultima’s magic is never defined as being either. It is seen as good by most because she helps people, but Ultima herself states that for a person to alter destiny is incredibly dangerous, so perhaps her magic contains both good and evil. She also mixes her magic with things of the dominant culture, as in the case of rubbing Antonio’s “body with an ointment of Vicks and many of her herbs” (Anaya 172). This sentence stood out to me so clearly as I read it, because Vicks was such a common part of my own childhood. The mixture of that with herbs creates ambivalence around Ultima’s magic.

The Hispanic people are forced to assimilate into the dominant culture after their lands are conquered, but they manage to maintain a significant portion of their culture. This creates a highly ambivalent atmosphere for their children to cling to, but the ambivalence is not necessarily a bad thing. Ultima puts it best when she states “every man is a part of his past. He cannot escape it, but he may reform the old materials, make something new” (Anaya 247).

Santos Ann Hinojosa

Tradition and Heritage or Assimilation

Mexican-Americans are America’s ambivalent minority that is to say that there are mixed feelings on the role they play in America’s society; are they seen as minorities or immigrants? Unlike, the American Indians and African Americans, Mexican Americans can be seen as both. A Mexican American minority can be seen as one who has been in America since before Texas or any of the other states, which belonged originally to Mexico, became a state of the United States of America. These Mexican Americans make-up the minority aspect, they did not come to America, America came to them. Like the American Indians they were invaded and forced to assimilate. Then again there are Mexican Americans who are considered immigrants; they are the ones who have chosen to come to America-seeking the American Dream. I will only concentrate on the minority accept of Mexican Americans. Mexican American’s have mixed feelings about whether they are a minority group that will remain separate or do they become part of an immigrant culture that assimilates (Obj 5c).

In Bless Me Ultima you have both assimilation and resistance. Ultima is an example of the old traditional ways; she was a curandera, a person who used herbs, prayers, and magic to cure people, she did not assimilate. Antonio’s uncle had been very sick and they had sought the help of the local doctor and priest, to no avail neither had been able to help or cure Lucas. Antonio’s family had no choice but to fall back on tradition and ask Ultima for her help (92). So here you have a see-saw of assimilation and reversal to traditional beliefs. It was the old traditional ways Ultima’s magic, that cured Lucas. Ultima passed on this tradition to Antonio, she taught him which herbs cured what; in doing this she was resisting she was keeping the old traditional ways of the curandera alive.

Antonio’s parents see-sawed between assimilation and resisting. His father wanted to have the American dream, he wanted to move to California and make his fortune. However, he wanted his grown sons to follow him there. He wanted them to continue in the traditional ways of remaining together and working as a whole for the family dream (obj. 4a). His sons had a different plan they too were assimilating but not in the same sense as their father. Antonio’s brothers had been around the world and now they wanted to see more, they resisted their father’s traditional dreams.

Antonio’s mother also swayed back and forth from assimilation and resistance. In one hand she resisted to learn English, in this way she would keep tradition alive, her children could only communicate with her in Spanish. However, she knew the only way her children could achieve their goals was if they were fluent in English. Many of the older people did not like their children learning English, but Antonio’s mom knew that English was an important and necessary assimilation to succeed (171). So even though she herself resisted learning the new language she made sure her children assimilated by learning English.

The adults resisted the dominant culture by not learning to speak English. Their children may learn to speak English but they will have to know Spanish to be able to communicate with their parents. Within the Mexican American society there is the question do we assimilate or do we keep our traditions alive. I believe there is a little of both. You have families that have completely assimilated, even down to the language; Spanish is no longer spoken or understood. Then you have families who keep their heritage and tradition alive, by teaching their children both English and Spanish.

“The Miraculous Apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe” can be seen as a story of creation; the assimilation of the original inhabitants of Mexico with the conquering Europeans; becoming the Mexican people. Juan Diego shows ambivalence; does he do as the Virgin requests or does he attend to his uncle who is sick. In the traditional since of his society he is pulled toward his sick uncle, because “generally speaking, minority groups place more emphasis on “traditional” or “community” aspects of human society, such as extended families or alternative families, and they mistrust “institutions” (obj. 4a). Juan Diego is torn by his dilemma to do as requested by the Virgin or to go to his sick uncle. He decides to do as he is asked, but only after he is assured of his uncle’s health. The Virgin tells Juan Diego:

Hear me and understand well, my son the least that

nothing should frighten or grieve you. Let not your

heart be disturbed. Do not fear that sickness, nor

any other sickness or anguish. Am I not here, who is

your Mother? Are you not under my protection? Am I not

your health? Are you not happily within my fold? What

else do you wish? Do not grieve nor be disturbed by

anything. Do not be afflicted by the illness of your

uncle, who will not die now of it, be assured that he

is now cured (The Miraculous Apparition of the Virgin

of Guadalupe).

Juan Diego continues on his task and eventually convincing all that the apparition is genuine.

Mexican Americans unlike other minority groups struggle with their ambivalence to either embrace their Mexican American traditions and heritage or to set those traditions aside and fully assimilate in the dominant culture.

Josh Hughey

I can’t decide whether or not to be ambivalent!

If one were to do a word association exercise in which participants, in response to a word, would say the first word that comes to their minds the result may be as follows: “Hispanic.” “Mexican.” “Latino.” “uh…Mexican.” That is to say that most would agree that Mexicans could be included in the categories of Hispanic or Latino. However, all Hispanics or Latinos cannot be called Mexicans. This is a classic logical syllogism. “All Mexicans are Hispanic but not all Hispanics are Mexican.” The term Hispanic can include possibly only Mexico and Central America. However, the term Hispanic may also be used to refer to a native of Mexico, Central America, South America (most likely excluding Brazil and French Guiana), and even a couple islands like Cuba and Puerto Rico. Every last one of these locations, as well as smaller countries and states within them, has it’s own completely different culture. All of these cultures, with the possible exception of the highly Europeanized Argentines, would be consider a minority culture in America. This is most likely why they are lumped together as Hispanic or Latino. Mexicans, however, make up the largest potion of the Hispanic population in America, probably as a result of proximity. Also a result of this proximity is a constant blending of or dispute between the Mexican culture and the dominant American or Colonial European culture.

Mexican Americans, more than any other Hispanic group, appear to be ambivalent as to what culture they should really embrace. This is very well exhibited in Bless Me, Ultima. Antonio feels this conflict in almost every single chapter. For the sake of this essay Catholicism will be viewed as part of the dominant culture, considering the Europeans forced it upon Mexico’s native inhabitants. Antonio’s greatest struggle within the story is the decision between the Christian god and the possibility of other gods or higher powers. His mother comes from a family of farmers and wants him to become a priest. She expresses the dominant culture in this way. His father comes from a restless nomadic people who live a somewhat faithless, or at least Christian-less, existence and he seems to want a more traditional life for his son. In this way his father expresses the minority culture. Antonio is torn between these two thought patterns. Then there is the matter of his faith. His mother is a devout Catholic and raises him to be so, but at the same time she and the rest of the family have a deep respect for Ultima. This is ambivalent on their part for Ultima’s occupation seems to go against the dominant culture and teachings of Catholicism. This seems a modern extension of early Native Mexicans either resisting Spanish rule or embracing it, along with Catholicism. This is exhibited in “The Miraculous Apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe.”

Upon reading these texts and observing aspects of the culture in person (this is Texas after all) one may come to the conclusion that Mexican Americans are not actually ambivalent at all. Antonio goes to church as well as deeply respects Ultima. Though he most likely will not be a priest he does exhibit the concept of faith. In “The Miraculous Apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe,” though a Catholic icon is appearing, the scenery as well as aspects of the miracle, such as the flowers in the cloth, seems to exhibit both dominant and minority symbols and meaning. All of this being said it is quite possible that Mexican Americans are in fact not ambivalent about their minority status. For the most part they do not fully integrate as an immigrant nor do they remain totally separate as a minority. They seem to be happy blending dominant and minority culture to various degrees from person to person or are at the very least ambivalent about their own ambivalence. They have become the min-immigrant culture.

Paul Acevedo

2. Immigrant or Minority Culture? The Ambivalence of Mexican Americans

Mexican Americans are a unique minority group. They are categorized as Hispanics, which we do not study as a minority group. The term Hispanic is too broad, as it encompasses people of many national origins. In general, Hispanics in America more closely resemble immigrants than minorities. But Mexican Americans qualify as a minority group because of the way they owned and lost land to the dominant culture. Much like American Indians, becoming part of America was not voluntary for many Mexican American families. Yet many people continue to immigrate to the United States from Mexico. Because they could either embrace assimilation as immigrants or resist it and remain a minority group, Mexican Americans are known as “the ambivalent minority."

The Virgin of Guadalupe, an important symbol in Mexican American culture, is a good example of ambivalence. In “The Story of the Virgin of Guadalupe,” an Indian named Juan Diego is asked by the titular virgin to visit the Bishop of Mexico and have a temple built in her honor. Juan wants to comply with her wishes but he has familial obligations as well. His uncle has become gravely ill. “If I proceed forward, the Lady is bound to see me, and I may be detained, so I may take the sign to the prelate, as prearranged; that our first affliction must let us go hurriedly to call a priest, as my poor uncle certainly awaits him,” Juan reasons. His ambivalence between serving the virgin goddess and helping his uncle mirrors the Mexican American minority group’s ambivalence towards assimilating into the dominant American culture. The Virgin of Guadalupe also exemplifies syncretism, the merging of two opposing principles in a religion. She has American Indian features and yet represents the Catholic mother of Christ. A painting of her appears on Juan Diego’s cloth, which is made of Indian and Spanish materials. She is a bridge between the American Indian and Spanish immigrant cultures.

The Virgin of Guadalupe and other forms of syncretism show up in modern Mexican American literature, such as Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima. The book largely takes place in the town of Guadalupe, whose patron saint is the Virgin. “My mother had a beautiful statue of la Virgen de Guadalupe,” Antonio Marez, the Mexican American protagonist states. He is raised as a Catholic, worshipping God and the Virgin alike. His feelings are torn between them. Later in the story, his religious ambivalence is magnified when he learns of the Indian golden carp god. The golden carp’s story combines both Indian and Christian elements. “Can a new religion be made?” Antonio asks. The new religion he imagines would likely be syncretic as well.

Bless Me, Ultima is an excellent minority narrative. Like many minorities, the Mexican American culture is strongly concerned with the traditional extended family. Antonio’s family takes in Ultima because she is elderly and helped deliver their children. Antonio’s father Gabriel wants his sons to work with him and both he and his wife are greatly distressed when they move away. Gabriel had always been a vaquero, or cowboy. “Even after the big rancheros and the tejanos came and fenced the beautiful [plains], he…continued to work there…” So Antonio’s family felt the effects of the dominant culture encroaching on their land and life style. America came to them. Antonio’s mother Maria comes from a much different family than Gabriel, a family of farmers. She desperately wants Antonio to become either a farmer or a priest. Antonio is constantly pressured to choose between the opposing wishes of his parents. This difficulty in choosing between two different life styles is a perfect example of the Mexican American culture’s ambivalence.

Mexican Americans are known as the ambivalent minority because they share aspects of both immigrant and minority cultures. Many come to America seeking financial prosperity, just like immigrants. But their people also once occupied lands like Texas and lost them to the American dominant culture. This mixture of origins and attitudes is symbolized by the Virgin of Guadalupe, who bridges traditional and modern religions. The protagonist of Bless Me, Ultima is torn between multiple religions and career choices, just as Mexican Americans must choose between assimilating or resisting the dominant culture. Perhaps they will choose a combination of both, continuing the syncretism that has always been a part of their culture.

Excerpts

Erin Chambers

Mexican Americans seem to have done an excellent job of assimilating to the dominant culture but also holding on to their heritage. They seem to be able to integrate very well and overcome obstacles. While this may cause the Mexican Americans to never fully assimilate, it does make things easier when living as a minority. Some Mexican Americans also seem to create a smaller culture within a culture which helps them hold on to their heritage. By treating Mexican Americans as a disadvantaged group, we are only encouraging the gap between them and the white man. In Bless Me, Ultima you see Tony having a constant struggle with how to live his life. He sees constant struggles with his friends and family. Tony faces ambivalence when he wants to go to school that teaches in English but at home his family speaks Spanish. He has to choose between the ways his family lives and his education. The best thing for Tony is to take the good from both ways of life and combine them into his own independent way of living.