Elena Trevino

2-21-2006

My topic is over immigrant narrative or minority immigrant. I found articles that closely related to this category that were about Mexican Americans.

Spring 03

Another group that can be grouped into this category is Mexicans.  They originally held land in the United States, which was taken from them, and were forced into Mexico.  Although many have chosen to adopt the culture of the United States, they also like to grasp their own culture and customs.  In “Like Mexicans” by Gary Soto, the author’s grandmother gave good advice.  This was to marry a Mexican.  However, he falls in love with a Japanese girl.  He is very surprised when he discovers that his in-laws are very similar to Mexicans.  This story is an example of not only how Mexicans assimilated into the American culture, but how the Japanese did the same. [KM]

Spring 03

In “Hunger of Memory”, the ambivalent minority is fully represented.  While there is a connection to the old world ways of language, the changing of the next generation occurs, as they are uneasy speaking Spanish. The language hangs on but gradually loses power as the generations of immigrants increases.  He says that his “mouth is not the only thing anglicized” and we are aware that language is not all that has changed for the narrator as he has experienced stage 4 and stage 5 of the IN.  The experience immigrants have learning English is evident as the narrator experiences the reverse of what immigrants experienced when they assimilated into the dominant American culture through adoption of English.  Some members of the narrator’s culture never do assimilate, like the long time friend of Rodriquez’s father who only talks in Spanish.  Identity is directly linked with language.  It was a way to keep cultural identity and also keep others out.  “Committing a sin by learning English” refers to assimilation.  The translation lost when taking Grandmother’s Spanish words and turning them into English is like the culture identity lost when assimilating into American culture.  The reluctance of the narrator’s family to participate in dominant culture shows resistance.  He later notices the accented English of other races he encounters in his neighborhood:  Japanese tourists, black teenagers, and Eastern immigrants.  While the black teenagers use their language to unite them proudly, the narrator wishes to suppress his language flag.  He is able to physically mix with the dominant culture and wants to leave behind any obvious markers of difference.  While the power of his language unites him with his family, the narrator wants to remain in the middle, able to choose as he wishes to be part of the dominant culture. [CP]

Spring 02

In order for the immigrant and minority narratives to be successfully used as a yardstick for studying multicultural issues in American society, it seems crucial that the distinctions between American immigrants, American Indians, African-Americans, and other minority cultures be recognized.  As the texts analyzed herein demonstrate, the observation of these differences becomes easy enough for readers in that the narratives differ so widely with regard to the writers’ history, tone, attitudes, outlook for the future, and psychological issues associated with loss of ethnic identity and oppression.  The narratives themselves, therefore, become useful mechanisms through which readers can identify differences and similarities between American minority and immigrant experiences. [JS]

Each of these articles brings different ways to see each story. Their views of taking out the important parts are successful. A lot of these articles I found differed a lot due to the nature of the story they were writing about.