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LITR 4332 American Minority Literature Model Assignments Research Project Submissions 2013 research post 2 |
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Carolee Osborne
April 24, 2013
Mexican Americans have a unique history in relation to
immigration into the United States. Historically many members of this group were
forced into an unknown culture due to a lack of military resources. Through
several wars the United States has acquired large areas of Mexican territory;
thus, its people unwillingly became citizens of a strange culture which fostered
the feelings similar to that of a child who is forced to conform to a step
parent’s wishes. In
addition, the close proximity of two economically imbalanced nations creates a
situation of temporary labor in which large groups of transient people never see
themselves as residents of this country. Yet, it is in the best interest of
those who have chosen to stay and become a part of the American Dream to
assimilate into this culture.
Throughout
the Mexican American culture, however, lays a theme of ambivalence. I want to
uncover the reasons this feeling of ambivalence is prevalent with Mexican
Americans more than any other minority group. Samuel Huntington explains that “Unlike
past immigrant groups, Mexicans and other Latinos have not assimilated into
mainstream U.S. culture, forming instead their own political and linguistic
enclaves … rejecting the Anglo-Protestant values that built the American dream.”
(Huntington)
Mexican Americans display their ambivalence toward
America through their education, their identities, and their culture
One primary example of the ambivalence that is felt
throughout the Mexican American is the idea of education. Mexican American
children struggle with education partly because they are torn between their
Mexican heritage and their need to assimilate to the American ideology. David
Lopez explains this problem through his book
Ethnicities:
Children of Immigrants in America
by showing that “disproportionate property, group size, historical depth, and
racist stereotypes interact to create special barriers to upward mobility for
Mexican American youth in such a way that their school and their socioeconomic
trajectories cannot be explained by the analysis of individual characteristics.”
(Lopez 60) This author believes that the poverty, racism and historical ties
prevalent in the Latino culture as a group, hinder any merging of ideology and
thus contributes to the hardships Mexican American children face in school.
There is often a language barrier between the children and the teacher since
most of the Mexican American children are taught by their parents to use Spanish
at home, and this creates a feeling of alienation. In addition being bilingual
at an early age might cause confusion for the child who may act out this
confusion through anger or disobedience Thus, a feeling of ambivalence may form
an early age. As a result, a large number of young people feel alienated and
drop out of school.
A loss of identity necessarily results in a feeling
of ambivalence and this loss is felt throughout the Mexican American culture.
One’s identity involves different aspects: A person might find his/her identity
through gender, family, and heritage. Oscar Acasta explains that the Mexican
American “in ways both Mexican and American, and in ways they are neither
Mexican nor American.” (Acasta 4) Self-worth is wrapped in identity therefore
without it, a person feels as though he/she is less than everyone else. A person
seeking identity might feel ambivalent through having no sense of individuality.
A result of this emptiness often leads to a return to the past.
Acasta
also states that Mexican American “minority
children increasingly become aware of their ethnic identity, but that there is
usually a great deal of assimilation into the dominant culture as they grow;
however, at certain points in the lives of some minorities—often in the second
or third generation—who are more or less perfectly assimilated, there is a trend
toward dis-assimilation, that is the minority decides to revert back to their
earlier ethnic identity” (Acasta 7). Ambivalence, therefore, becomes a result of
trying unsuccessfully to find identity in a new culture. As a result, searching
for something more accepting further separates the cultures.
Ambivalence can manifest itself through a feeling of
a loss of culture. It is difficult to embrace things that are alien, and the
Latin culture has strong ties to food, sports, and language.
Maria
Gonzalez depicts this in her book titled
The Politics of Culture where she explains that the Mexican American “privilege[s]
American mainstream
culture over
Mexican by everything from mundane food
choices (hot dogs instead of tamales) to the desire for an education in an
American university.
American
culture becomes appropriate, and
Mexican
culture is transformed into the
'other': choosing to watch a football game over a soccer game; listening to
American rock music instead of
Mexican music; demanding English be spoken
at home and not Spanish.” (Gonzalez ch. 2) These changes may seem small, but
tend to escalate and endanger the continuity of the Mexican culture, because the
desire to gain acceptance into the new culture results in a feeling that the old
culture is somehow inferior. Gonzalez continues this argument by showing that “A
Mexican who lives in the United States may
still hold
Mexican values unless she/he choose to
assimilate into the
American mainstream, but characters who
assimilate into the dominant
culture leave behind their
culture of origin.” (Gonzales Ch. 2) Having
to dismiss one’s culture in order to become Americanized can spark feelings of
resentment and therefore give birth to an ambivalent feeling.
The history of the Mexican Americans which includes
the loss of territory, causing some of them to become Americans against their
will and the close proximity to the United States has brought out a feeling of
ambivalence more than that experienced by any other immigrant group in America.
Through the loss of identity, culture, and
self-worth, Mexican Americans have developed a feeling of ambivalence. Education
becomes affected through this ambivalence as a child struggles to assimilate
with American culture while maintaining the Mexican customs. This creates a loss
of identity which causes ambivalence through losing one’s self worth. Although
some Mexican Americans have assimilated to American culture, some have embraced
their Mexican ways. The solution for this challenge lies in a number of things,
but one major change needs to be in the wage scale offered. This country must
create better training programs to ensure the skills necessary to make a livable
wage. Education must highlight the rich contributions in all aspects of the
Mexican American to ensure pride in cooperation rather than shame and
ambivalence. Finally, community programs should be created for the parents of
young children which foster interaction among various subcultures.
Only when everyone works together can pride and continuity result.
Bibliography
The Root Of The Controversy." Chicano Controversy: Oscar Acosta & Richard Rodriguez 33.(2002): 2-5. Humanities Source. Web. 21 Apr. 2013
González, María C. "Chapter II: The Politics Of Culture."
Contemporary Mexican-American
Women Novelists: Toward A Feminist Identity
(1996): 34-52. Humanities Source.
Web. 21 Apr. 2013.
Huntington, Samuel P. “The Hispanic Challenge”. Foreign Policy , No. 141
(Mar. - Apr., 2004), pp. 30-45.
Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, LLC.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/4147547.
Web. 21 Apr. 2013
Rumbaut, Rubén G, and Alejandro Portes. Ethnicities: Children of Immigrants
in America. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001. Print.
