Monday, 12 June 2006: Mexican Americans: Immigrant / American Dream story, or Minority?

Dominant culture moment: Pauline Chapman

Nash Candelaria, "El Patron"

(223)  "When my turn came," he continued, "I enlisted in the Marines at Camp Pendleton."  

(223)  "I should never have let him go to college. . . That's where he gets such crazy radical ideas.  From those rich college boys whose parents can buy them out of all kinds of trouble."

(224) ". . . we could come back if we survived, to our jobs as busboys and ditch diggers:  that's why I have to go to college.  I don't want to go to the Middle East and fight and die for some oil company when you can't even afford to own a car."

The military/The Draft

Represents governmental power and authority

"Joining" demonstrates loyalty to new country;

Could be means to citizenship;

Way to get money for college, support a family

Also can be viewed as exploitation of the poor by the rich and powerful

College

Education and a means to a better life

Also, a way of learning "modern" ideas that may conflict with traditional family values

Can be expensive to attend, so can be associated with privilege

Exxon oil company

Corporate America--power & money

car

Considered a bare necessity for life in America, except in dense urban areas;

Means of getting to work and freedom for social life

Food

(224)  . . . that nothing white bread that presses together into a doughy flat mess. . . a funny little salad with chopped garbage in it covered by a blob of imitation goo. . . Not ordinary vegetables. . . but funny, wiggly long things like wild grass . . . or worms.

new and possibly undesirable food is a part of assimilation

Sandra Cisneros, "Barbie Q"

(253)  Two Mattel boxes.  One with the "Career Girl" ensemble, snappy black-and-white business suit, three-quarter-length sleeve jacket with kick-pleat skirt, red sleeveless shell, gloves, pumps, and matching hat included.

(253)  So what if we didn't get our new Bendable Legs Barbie and Midge and Ken and Skipper and Tutti and Todd and Scooter and Ricky and Alan and Francie in nice clean boxes...

Barbie

Role model for American girls;

Encourages girls to be independent, career women

Also concerned with appearance, clothes, other material possessions.

The abundance of Barbies and her "friends" reflects the abundance of products of all types available in the US.  How much is enough?

Mattel Corporate America and the power of advertising

Corporation has influence over the attitudes and socialization of young girls

nice clean...assumption is that the girls from the dominant culture get their Barbies new and perfect; parents can afford to buy them new

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbie

quotes from Wikipedia:

icon of Western childhood

Barbie has often been used to promote gender equality as an example that women can "be anything".

Ruth Handler stated that she felt it was "important to a little girl's self-esteem to play with a doll that [had] breasts", believing it would allow them role-play and imagine their future lives as adult women.

(253) . . . so long as you don't lift her dress, right?--who's to know?"

illustrates narrator's ability to appear like the dominant culture,

at least on the outside