LITR 4333 American Immigrant Literature UHCL fall 2007 student web highlight

Topic: For this web highlight I found articles that were related to Mexican Americans including immigrant, the American Dream, and minority stories.

“El Patrón” illustrates both the immigrant and minority sides of Mexican American’s relationship to America. The father in the story has a hierarchy that he follows: Dios (God), El Papá (the Pope), and el patron (the boss). Putting the boss in [the same category] with God and the Pope illustrates his deference to bosses, who are [generally] white… if you hold someone in this high of a regard, you can never work your way up to equality with that person. At the same time, his son shows the assimilation side. He went to college, and now is in trouble with the law because he is dodging the draft. [DG]

Many ethnic groups…fall either into the immigrant category or the Minority category, but one…between both is the Mexican Americans. It is difficult to place them in either category because some are immigrants and others minorities since the dominant culture resides on some parts of the country that once belonged to Mexico… Mexican American can assimilate to the dominate culture like in Cisneros’s “Barbie Q.” The young characters are fascinated by Barbie. “‘Your Barbie is roommates with my Barbie, and my Barbie’s boyfriend comes over and your Barbie steals him away…’”(IA 253). Barbie is a [pale], blue-eyed, blond haired doll created by the dominant culture. These are [dark haired, dark skinned, and brown eyed] Mexican American children assimilating to the dominant culture. They are accepting the fact that the dolls they enjoy as a toy looks nothing like them and they don’t question it. They just look forward to playing with her and adding to their collections. [RO]

In the non-fiction piece, “Like Mexicans” by Gary Soto, he talks about how his grandmother always advised him to “marry a Mexican girl” (VA 301). [She] believed that anyone who was not of color was an “Oakie,” and she… that her grandson should marry someone who looked more like him; “a brown girl” (VA 302). Much to Soto’s surprise, he falls in love and marries a Japanese girl, who had somewhat assimilated as evidenced by her driving a “Plymouth” and attending a “Japanese Methodist Church” (VA 303), but she is more like him than he originally thought… her family is also poor. Soto’s people are caught between the immigrant narrative because they tend to intermarry, preventing them from fully assimilating, but they are also part of the minority narrative [too] due to their skin color, and the fact that they cannot blend in completely with the dominant culture. [J O’G]

I found the previous essays useful in getting a better idea of what it expected on the midterm. All three pieces have interesting and valid points that are backed up with support from the text.