Tuesday, 13 June 2006: Other Hispanic Americans: Immigrant / American Dream story, or Minority?

Web highlight (midterms): Daniel Robison

For this look at the mid-terms, I went through the student samples and selected those pieces that dealt with the texts for today.

Because America was, in a sense, built by immigrants, the stories of those immigrants provide a logical place to start when studying the literature of America. [BF]

Junot Diaz’s “How to Date a Browngirl…” also shows the adaptations that people of the in-between group make in order to live simultaneously in the Old and New worlds.  The narrator is speaking to someone who lives in America, but continues to exhibit many Dominican cultural traits.  In order to please an American date, however, he must do away with some of the more unacceptable aspects of his culture in order to properly impress her.  He must remember to “clear the government cheese from the refrigerator” and “take down any embarrassing photos of [his] family in the campo.” 

The immigrant and minority narrative can be compared and contrasted in many ways. [CA]

There are cultural groups that could fall into both the minority narrative and the immigrant narrative.  Hispanic Americans fall into this category.  There are several examples in “How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie.”  An example of how Hispanic Americans follow the minority narrative in this story is when the author mentions Uncle Tomming.  This shows their opposition to selling out or becoming assimilated like immigrants.  On the other hand, the story also mentions wanting the white ones the most.  This is the desire of the Hispanics to become part of the dominant culture by dating and possibly marrying into that culture.

American Immigrant Literature has expanded my perception of American history and culture. [PJ]

Between black and white cultures, a brown vein exists in American culture that is continually expanding . . . In her narrative, Silent Dancing, Judith Ortiz Cofer is haunted by memories of her childhood, where she lived a "beehive life" in El Building with her family in what used to be the dwelling of Jewish immigrants.  The thin walls of the old apartment building provided the narrator's mother an opportunity to be "surrounded by her language."  This clinging to native language and culture speaks to the non-assimilation of Hispanic American immigrants.  Hector, a character in Oscar Hijuelos, Visitors, also longs to hold onto his Cuban heritage.  Hector "was sick at heart for being so Americanized which he equated with fearful and lonely."  Ordinary Hershey's syrup and milk tasted magical with the spice of Cuba, but was just chocolate and milk in America.  This reluctance to assimilate solidifies the marked variation between the European immigrant and the forced African American immigrant narrative.  Hispanic literature expresses the hopes and fears of those cultures that live on the outskirts and in-between mainstream ideals.  Often, the unease and color issues associated with the Hispanic narrative are indicative of minority narratives because there is a resistance to assimilate and a shared discrimination.  However, similar to European immigrants, Hispanic Americans immigrated to America to realize dreams and be afforded opportunities for economical gain.

What I liked about these pieces is that all of the writers grabbed onto the concept of the difficulty for Hispanics to assimilate into the dominant culture and how there is a dichotomy between holding onto the Old World yet reaching out to the New.  The text written by PJ I feel is very well done.  The writer has a solid understanding of the selected readings but also a nice writing style.