LITR 4340 American
Immigrant Literature Lecture Notes
Mexican Americans: Immigrant / American Dream story--or another Minority?
The US-Mexican War, 1846-48; Some History of Mexican Immigration: "100 Years in the Back Door, Out the Front"; Gloria Anzaldua; San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site;
response to midterms
seems so long ago now, but thanks for work
midterms returned last weekend along with research proposals (Model Assignments)
welcome to reply, discuss, esp. if problems with research topic (Model Assignments)
immigrants x minorities
my idea, not necessarily one you'll hear elsewhere, though
problem: can't trap minorities in definition
consistent winners among points midterms made:
choice (immigrants) and lack of choice (minorities)
assimilation or resistance?
Both of these can play into midterm2 essay adding New World immigrants
most frequent and basic criticism: follow assignment (AP experience)
test-taking
use resources (including assignment), organize materials
coordination of exam with Course Objectives
terms and definitions
historical backgrounds
build back into Midterm1 Essay draft, extend into Midterm2 Essay draft
You may think this is just buttering up the teacher and being untrue to yourself, but all writers learn to consider their audience and create a common ground between their interests
lecturing: here's where they are, here's where I am--how to meet so both succeed?
Web Highlights
Research reports, 2 sources
Assignments
Hispanic / Latino
poetry reader: Liliiana? Rosa?
(Jasmine or Arielle for 1 April discussion?)
Sandra Cisneros, "Barbie-Q" (IA 252-253)
assimilation or resistance?
252 "Every time the same story"--the girls' make-believe is universal, not separate except by its limits in terms of acquisition--but most readers would say "they're being girls" rather than "they're being Mexicans"
"Barbie" as symbol of vanilla white America (but adapting) (Barbie images) (original Barbie)
but . . .
253 "So what? . . . " could be a minority or multicultural identification. Accepting the water-soaked and sooty Barbies as they are rather than insisting on Barbie-perfection could be an acceptance of a different status
But maybe stretching too small a story to too big a point
Any other takes on "Barbie-Q"?
Woman Hollering Creek and other Stories
House on Mango Street
Caramelo (2003)
Cisneros's style
ability to write miniatures, teachable lengths--even poor readers can concentrate that long
evocative, impressionistic, sensory, dreamy
charming at various depths:
-
adolescent viewpoint > adolescent readership: childhood always seems fresh, recent, magical but potentially threatening
-
adult level: symbols and archetypal patterns with multiple or ambiguous resonances
can be intellectualized, thematized or not
Nash Candelaria, "El Patron" (IA 221-228)
voluntary participation?
226 how old when you left Mexico?
color code
221 brown-skinned kewpie doll
law (generally speaking, "the law" works for the dominant culture, but a minority culture may see the law as only more trouble.)
222 the law!
223 Pancho Villa
(Identification with Pancho Villa would be resistance)
gender inequality
222 "woman"
Dominant culture moment--Candelaria:
extended family vs. individualism
221 Dios, El Papa, y el patron > traditional culture = hierarchy of decision-making, not left to individual freedom of choice
223 men + duty
Patron 227-8--reason and conscience override traditional social structures
p. 224--Tito + college experience / protest against American corporate imperialism
How does Tito's status declare some degree of dominant culture status?
228 Junior and Lolita were squabbling over what channel to watch on TV
Nash Candelaria, "El Patron" (IA 221-228)
221 Dios, El Papa, y el patron > traditional culture = hierarchy of decision-making, not left to individual freedom of choice
221 descending order (hierarchy)
221 bus in San Diego > L.A. and us
221 Southwestern U
221 brown-skinned kewpie doll
221 you macho, chauvinist jumping bean!
222 go to the kitchen with the other women
222 "woman"
222 the state university
222 the law!
223 My father fought with Pancho Villa
223 fought los Jaqpones in the Pacific
223 men + duty
223 "No blood for Mideast oil! Boycott the Exxon army!"
223 rich college boys
223 [cf. Big Fat Greek Wedding]
224--Tito + college experience / protest against American corporate imperialism
225 just as stubborn as his father and sister
226 Sons are supposed to obey their fathers
226 how old when you left Mexico? What did your father say? [preview Pilgrims and dominant culture]
227 only the older children had hear Papa's story of how he left Mexico
227 el patron in Washington
227-8--reason and conscience override traditional social structures
228 Junior and Lolita were squabbling over what channel to watch on TV
Gary Soto, "Like Mexicans"
301 Grandmother's advice: don't intermarry; Mexicans as distinct, separate identity (> minority)
302 Mother: barber--they make good money, but Mother in the kitchen (gender identity / inequality)
assimilation:
302 my brother and David King + Scott, 2nd-generation Okie
302 talked about school and friends and record albums
302 never marry an Okie / Mexican (separation, distinctness x-assimilation)
but . . .
302 But the woman I married was not Mexican but Japanese [intermarriage, melting pot as immigrant story]
303 "Marry a Mexican girl" > someone of my own social class
303 Plymouth [> Pilgrims! Of Plymouth Plantation--i. e., dominant culture]
303 Japanese Methodist Church
304 I was a college student, hinting that I could take care of her daughter
304 image of kitten as outside wanting in (the "wanting" is the essential part of assimilation)
304 three kittens clawing and screaming to get in. Like Mexicans, I thought.
Reyna Grande (1975- )
83 father N > $ < house in Mexico
Family to predominantly Latino Highland Park, Los Angeles
Immigration history Mexico
Circular migratory pattern
83-4 U.S. Immigration and Reform Act of 1986
Legal permanent residents
84
The Distance Between
Us 2012
Dedicated to father and all DREAMers
Book One,
Ch 19
84 May 1985, 10 years old
84 my cousin Felix, Abuelita Chinta
84 father calls, shock
85
Carlos, Mago > Abuela Evita’s [extended family]
85 heart beat so hard it hurt
85 Mango grove, sugarcane field
85
Grandmother’s neighborhood, La Guadalupe
85 Don Ruben’s house turned into liquor store
85 Drunks like Tio Crece
85 Betty
85 I could kiss Juan Gabriel—lyrics of song
86
Elida smirked, rags, beggars
86 The Man Behind the Glass, in the flesh
86 skin color of rain-soaked earth
86 Ashamed
Papi = Natalio
87 Looking back . . . how awkward for him as well [empathy]
87 Mila . . . woman who had broken up my family
87
El Otro Lado
87 Light-skinned, light makeup, stylish outfit x Mama’s olive skin + pants
[color code]
87 clothes: peaches, browns + olive skin
87 Mila five years older, looks younger
88 betraying my mother
88 Money for pot of menudo [a.k.a. pancita]: traditional Mexican soup of beef
tripe (stomach) with peppers and other seasonings.
88
baby dolls with blue eyes, smell of a new toy [dominant culture smell?]
88 wanted Papi to be kinder [Elida]
88 Mami, understood her anger
89 losing my hair once again
fnf
89 Chata,
special nickname
89
Inspected house he had built for us
89 Which .
. . your room?
89 pajamas
> scorpions
90
go home? Home?
90 Even though the house is finished, no jobs here > miserable poverty
90 Carlos . . . job? > school
[extended family]
90
Mila naturalized U.S. citizen
90 Flying back x coyote
90 Not coming back . . .
90 A new life in El Otro Lado
91 Mago all I have
91
my mother’s constant comings and goings
91 come back only to leave again
91 If Mago left me
91 Photograph on a wall
91 Only person who truly loved me
92 school, lied, envy, shame
93 bad things come to women who
don’t know their place
fnf
93 Mila looked furiously at my
grandmother
fnf
93 It’s
different for women in the U.S. . . . not treated like servants [traditional /
modern]
93 Mago:
won’t go without Reyna
93 maternal
instincts won over need to save herself
93 take all
my children back with me
93 Betty .
. . fly . . . U.S. citizen
93 Born in
the U.S. a privilege
94 sneak across border like a thief
94
la migra
94 Tio Gary: the opportunity to have a better life
94
can’t have Betty
94
“She has never had a good vision of the future.”
95 Laws in the U.S.
95 If you had just listened to your mother . . . .
95 Mago: can’t leave our little sister behind
95 Record shop, different side to Mami
95 Ever since El Otro Lado had taken her away
95 It was there, except not when she was with us
96 stubbornness, pride, or he won
96
the mother she was before she left
97 left and left and left
Book One,
Ch 20
97 Attempts across the border
97 Blame myself
97
Toothache
fnf
98
too young to fully grasp the danger
98 Thousands who had died
98 My fault
98 Lose my job
99
an unwanted, parentless child [children]
99
Feeling torn about our situation
99 Why does it have to be so hard?
100 cf. church pilgrimage
100 sounds coming from la migra
100 every step farther away from Mami and Betty
101 Papi like a frightened animal
101
helicopter . . . animals . . . . lizards
101
I want to live in that perfect place . . . . to have a family
101
Carlos (characterization
fnf
)
101 place called Chula Vista
102 what El Otro Lado looked like
102 Palm trees
102
The freeway . . . amazing so
enormous
fnf
102
Golden arches
fnf
103 sunflower seeds . . . Mago reached out her hand [characterization]
103 Exit to Disneyland
103 Do everything . . . like speak English
103 Did what El Guero said
104 map Mago once shared with me
104
Mami and I had switched places, but distance between us just as big
104 2000 miles between me
104 Your home now, Chata
104 Umbilical cord buried in Iguala
104 I promise I’ll never forget [where I came from]
Potential advantage of Mexican and Hispanic Literature
de-emphasis on race
fresh attention to class?
Question:
Will Mexican Americans assimilate and join dominant culture? Or remain separate and distinct as a minority culture?
Short answer: trends in both directions
What's at stake for educators?
Do we "celebrate difference" and emphasize multi-culturalism?
Or do we emphasize "a common culture?"
Recall controversies over bi-lingual education vs. English-only education.
Are we concerned with maintaining cultural diversity, or helping our students improve the economic quality of their lives?
Both? Mexican America as interesting cultural variation on immigrant-minority division
Third way? Neither immigrant nor minority, or both?
bi-lingual, bi-cultural society, esp. in the Southwestern United States--examples: "the Valley" in Texas culture, El Paso / Nuevo Laredo, San Diego / Tijuana in California
metaphor of "borders" often appears in Mexican-American identity: crossing and recrossing borders is parallel to maintaining outsider and insider identity
Mexican Americans may remain in the "divided" second-generation position for longer than other immigrant groups, owing to the special considerations below. In other words, all immigrant groups go through a stage of being both "native-land" and "American" before becoming "American," but Mexican Americans may prolong this indefinitely.
Why?
Special consideration
Mexican American population may increase so dramatically (especially in the Southwest) that there may not be as much of a dominant culture to assimilate to.
2. Are Mexican Americans immigrants or minorities?
Answer: some of both
"Mexican American" an inclusive term, potentially including Mexicans as well as any American of Mexican descent.
alternative term: Chicano (many local & historical variations on meaning)
also "la raza"--"the people," esp. Mexican Americans but may include other Hispanics
2. Are Mexican Americans immigrants or minorities?
Answer: some of both, or maybe a third identity
"Mexican American" an inclusive term, potentially including Mexicans as well as any American of Mexican descent.
alternative term: Chicano (many local & historical variations on meaning)
also "la raza"--"the people," esp. Mexican Americans but may include other Hispanics
Among all Hispanics . . . Mexican Americans may have the best claim on "minority" status.
LITR 4332 American Minority Literature (Minority) studies Mexican Americans as at least potentially a minority group comparable to African Americans and American Indians.
That course does not study all Hispanic or Latino groups of Non-Mexican Hispanics as minority groups. Each of these groups has their own story, but generally that story more closely resembles the "immigrant narrative" of the dominant culture than the "minority narrative" of African and Native America (definitely not immigrants).
To answer the immigrant-minority question . . .
the dominant culture of the United States, itself formed by immigration, primarily interprets the Mexican presence as immigration . . . .
This interpretation is justifiable according to statistics and contemporary national boundaries, laws, and definitions.
How do Mexican Americans fit the immigrant model?
Movement of large numbers of people across national boundaries, into USA for economic opportunities
"In 1970, the Mexican immigrant
population [in the USA] was less than 800,000, compared to nearly 8 million in 2000."
(http://www.cis.org/articles/2001/mexico/release.html)
Some shifting of national allegiances (i. e., increasingly, immigrants or their children or grandchildren would no longer regard themselves as "Mexicans" but as "Americans.")
Some tendencies toward assimilation, though assimilation may take additional generations. Spanish > English
naming of children: Carlos > Kevin; Maria > Kristin.
Intermarriage with other ethnic groups (including dominant culture) appears more prevalent than for African Americans (maybe reflecting different Hispanic attitudes toward racial mixing)--cf. "Like Mexicans" + Japanese girlfriend
Mexicans have range in intermarriage, esp. compared to dominant culture
But divorce rate increases with every generation in USA
After some generations, numbers of Mexican Americans or Hispanics no longer identify themselves as such but simply consider themselves as "whites" or "Americans." (These numbers are indefinite and hard to track because such identifications are voluntary.)
Such assimilationist trends may increase beyond the Southwest; e. g., in parts of the Midwest a Latino surname may mean no more than an Italian or German surname.
How does Mexican American story differ from immigrant narrative?
One obvious, non-controversial way that Mexican Americans diverge from the standard immigrant background
"Classic" or "Traditional" immigrant model involves immigrants (e. g., Asian Americans, European Americans) crossing water to reach USA, which may involve a different level of commitment--"cultural guillotine"
But Mexican Americans mostly cross on "land bridge," increasing possibility of return to home country and potentially decreasing commitment to assimilation to new country
(Check today's pictures)
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|
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Border between USA and Mexico is less natural than political or economic.
contrast U. S. weather maps:
Other implications:
water and air travel may imply minimal financial resources + commitment to change
land travel: poor people have always walked and hitched rides--back and forth
(This could have bearing on "model minority" immigrants like Asian Americans--supposed ethnic or cultural differences may really be class differences)
In what ways do Mexican Americans fit the minority model?
Some record of involuntary participation and exploitation: USA conquered and annexed parts of Mexico much as it conquered and annexed parts of Native America.
historical maps of American expansion in early 1800s
In this regard, Mexican Americans do not resemble immigrant groups but rather a minority group, esp. Native Americans, in that "they were here first" and didn't necessarily join
Mexican Americans often wish to retain Spanish language, especially in the home. This can resemble other immigrant groups, but the size of the Spanish-speaking community makes retention of other language more likely. Retention of unique speech habits can be a sign of minority status, as with African American dialect, Ebonics, etc.
Retention of extended families, with potential gender inequality and de-emphasis of education, individual striving
high birth rates, esp. early childbearing (tends to limit education, curtail upward mobility)
high dropout rates, also curtails upward mobility
some lack of emphasis on education and restriction to traditional roles involving men as outdoor workers, women as homebound. Some of this lack of emphasis on education may derive from Catholicism, which historically limited literacy to the priesthood, while Protestantism emphasized importance of literacy to individual believer. (Dominant culture as protestant.)
Question:
Will Mexican Americans assimilate and join dominant culture? Or remain separate and distinct as a minority culture?
Short answer: trends in both directions
What's at stake for educators?
Do we "celebrate difference" and emphasize multi-culturalism?
Or do we emphasize "a common culture?"
Recall controversies over bi-lingual education vs. English-only education.
Are we concerned with maintaining cultural diversity, or helping our students improve the economic quality of their lives?
Both? Mexican America as interesting cultural variation on immigrant-minority division
Third way? Neither immigrant nor minority, or both?
bi-lingual, bi-cultural society, esp. in the Southwestern United States--examples: "the Valley" in Texas culture, El Paso / Nuevo Laredo, San Diego / Tijuana in California
metaphor of "borders" often appears in Mexican-American identity: crossing and recrossing borders is parallel to maintaining outsider and insider identity
Mexican Americans may remain in the "divided" second-generation position for longer than other immigrant groups, owing to the special considerations below. In other words, all immigrant groups go through a stage of being both "native-land" and "American" before becoming "American," but Mexican Americans may prolong this indefinitely.
Why?
Special consideration
Mexican American population may increase so dramatically (especially in the Southwest) that there may not be as much of a dominant culture to assimilate to.
Mexican American as immigrant / minority
Richard Rodriguez, from Hunger of Memory
Language
Rodriguez 229 I grew up victim to a disabling confusion: English x Spanish
(Reconciliation of this confusion would tilt toward either immigrant or minority status--assimilation or separation?)
assimilation or resistance?
232 Rodriguez on bus with "ghetto black teenagers"
What's Rodriguez about with the black teenagers on the bus?
232 the sounds of the outsider
233 reinforces feelings of public separateness [i. e., resists assimilation, reinforces minority status]
Sometimes immigrants react strongly to minority groups in terms of whether to be identified with or against them
Rodriguez 231 somehow committed a sin of betrayal by learning English. But betrayal against whom? . . . immediate family.
(This is more of a minority feeling--that you should not assimilate but stay with your people, rather than going over to the dominant culture)
(+ extended family)
Richard Rodriguez as important Mexican American author
Hunger of Memory first explicitly Mexican American book that many of my generation wrote
Politically a hot potato (which can also put him between immigrant and minority status)
Some of Hunger of Memory complains about problems with Affirmative Action--Rodriguez became a darling of conservative political groups, invited to conferences
But
In later books he came out of the closet and discussed his homosexuality, which got him disinvited . . . .
Dominant culture moment--Rodriguez:
230 "Pocho"--colorless or bland . . . becoming an America, forgets his native society.
Compare dominant culture as "unmarked" (example last week: Lucy's khaki skirt and tassel loafers in "Gussuk")
232 In public I expect most of the faces I meet to be the faces of strangers. (How do you do?) If meetings are quick and impersonal, they have been efficiently managed. . . .
My city seems silent until some ghetto black teenagers board the bus I am on. . . .
Compare "impersonality" to Dean Whiteside in "Soap and Water":
106 . . . the surgeon approaching with his tray of sterilized knives. She never looked into my eyes. She never perceived that I had a soul. . . .
Miss Whiteside had no particular reason for hounding and persecuting me. Personally, she didn't give a hang if I was clean or dirty. She was merely one of the agents of clean society, delegated to judge who is fit and who is unfit to teach.
Dominant culture moment--Soto:
303 Plymouth [> Pilgrims! Of Plymouth Plantation--i. e., dominant culture]
American consumer items gain status by association with Anglo culture--last text of semester: "Hunting Mr. Heartbreak"
compare Barbie doll in "Barbie-Q"