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Model Midterm2 answers 2018 Web Highlights Index to Midterm2 Web Highlights |
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Kristin Mizell
Past Perspectives
While reading through the previous web
highlights, I decided to review essays that focused on Mexican Americans. One
aspect I found interesting about reading through some of these essays was
reading from the point of view of Mexican Americans. Two of the essays I have
chosen as web highlights are written from the perspective of Mexican Americans.
As a white person and therefore a member of the dominant culture, I was
interested in reading about what students around my age thought about Mexican
American culture. By reviewing La Familia y Tradiciones by Ariana Gonzalez,
The Virgen of Guadalupe as an Example
of Cultural Hybridity by Blanca Castellanos, and To Assimilate . . . or Not to
Assimilate by Carolee Osborne, I have broadened my understanding of Mexican
American culture.
Osborne’s research report focuses on how “Mexican Americans display their
ambivalence toward America through their education, their identities, and their
culture.” Osborne’s report focuses on the importance of assimilation, she states
“ 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.” In contrast,
Castellanos’ essay moves away from the idea of assimilation and focuses on the
merging of culture. Her essay focuses on “cultural hybridity” in Mexican
American culture. I had never heard of this term, and Castellanos does a great
job of defining it and using the Virgen of Guadalupe as an example. Castellanos’
report defines cultural hybridity as “the mixing of cultures, or consisting of
two or more cultures.” She even refers to herself as an example, “I could be an
example of cultural hybridity,” she states, “I grew-up in between cultures, not
exactly fitting into one specific one, but able to blend in with both.” I
disagree with Osborne that assimilation is important, and am more interested in
Castellanos’ idea of mixing and blending cultures.
Gonzalez’s essay focuses mostly on her personal experience as a Mexican American
in the United States. She uses the class assigned reading and provides insight
into her own life in a Mexican American family. I found this very enlightening.
It can be hard to put abstract ideas into a concrete form in some cases, and
Gonzalez took the stories of people like her from class and spoke from her point
of view as a student of the class, just like me. It was especially interesting
to read about how she viewed certain aspects of white families. For example, she
writes this anecdote “And to compare this to a dominant culture, it reminds of a
phone company’s commercial. The wife just had her baby and to save money
on the call the husband left “wehadababyitsaboy” as his name. And then
they show the grandparents so nonchalant answering the phone and saying ‘oh. It
was John they had a boy’. When I first saw this commercial I
freaked. I could not believe that this was how ‘white’ people announced the
birth of a baby.” Family and tradition are a large part of Mexican American
culture, and she could not believe how nonchalant this family was.
Osborne also focuses on how important tradition and family are to the Mexican
American culture. Her research report focuses on why Mexican Americans can feel
ambivalent towards America, and she states “Having to dismiss one’s culture in
order to become Americanized can spark feelings of resentment and therefore give
birth to an ambivalent feeling.” Gonzalez’s essay touches on this with her
statement, “I believe that the Mexican American identity has lost itself in
stereotypes and expectations and there are many families trying to overcome
that.” Castellanos’ report shows how rather than dismissing their own culture,
Mexican Americans are able to combine cultures and aspects of religion, “this
convergence of different religions,” she states,
“is referred to as syncretism. Syncretism and cultural hybridity are
related in that religion plays a very important role in culture.”
These three essays focused on the importance of family, religion, and more in
Mexican American culture. I was able to read through the point of view of
Mexican American students and see how they responded to works in the class. This
allowed me to have a better understanding of terms and some aspects of Mexican
American culture. I used the term “syncretism” in my first midterm, and reading
how Castellanos used it allowed me to rethink some of my statements. This shows
the power of a good essay: it makes you think.
