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Midterm2 (2013 midterm2 assignment) Sample Student Midterm Answers 2013 #1: Essays on New World Immigrants |
LITR 4333
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Adam Glasgow
Are New World Immigrants Minority Groups, too?
The term "New World Immigrants" describes
those who immigrated to the United States from the Western Hemisphere; places
like Mexico and the Caribbean. These immigrants are different than "Old World
Immigrants" in a number of important ways. Their origins are closer to the
United States, and thus they have a much different relationship with the country
they are immigrating to than immigrants from the "Old World." Furthermore, their
close proximity to home enables and encourages them to hold onto many of their
traditional ways of life - something that makes them minority groups as well as
immigrants.
The big obvious difference between New World
and Old World Immigrants is the origins of the people themselves. When someone
immigrates from the Old World, it usually means that the person is almost
completely abandoning the old world. They likely have an idealized view of what
life in America is like, or possibly, very little idea at all. New World
Immigrants, on the other hand, are much more experienced with America and its
culture than Old World Immigrants are, and as such have a much better idea of
what to expect - good and bad. In "The English Lesson," a story we read in the
beginning of the semester, a character named Diego Torres has come to America
from Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. However, unlike his classmates, he
is not so crazy about America. He says, "I no give up my country, Santo Domingo,
for nothing," and goes on with, "I got no work at home. There, is political. The
United States control most the industry which is sugar and tourismo" (25). To
say Diego dislikes the United States would be a massive understatement. It is in
his best interest to come to the US to work, but he would have preferred to stay
home in the Dominican Republic. According to him, he would have done just that
if the United States hadn't taken over the few job providing industries in his
home country. He recognizes that living in the US is useful to him, but he is
not interested in assimilating.
These kinds of attitudes about the United
States from New World immigrants are common throughout the stories we have read
this semester. Take, for example, Edwidge Danticat's "Children of the Sea." In
that story a young man attempts to make it to the United States from Haiti on a
rickety boat with a small group of people, while a young woman stays in her home
country with her family. The young man is not someone who
wants to flee Haiti. He was working
to improve Haiti through his activism with the "Radio Six." He fled only because
he had to. The US occupation of Haiti would certainly paint the US in a less
than wonderful light in the eyes of these characters, but when the option is
death or a possibility of life in the United States, the young man chose the
latter. If he were to make it to the United States it is quite likely that he
would have not abandoned his native culture and fully assimilated to the
dominant culture.
Something else that makes New World
Immigrants something of a mixture between immigrants and minority groups is how
easy it is for them to travel back and forth between their homes in America and
their native country. In Paule Marshall's "To Da-Duh, in Memoriam," the
immigrated family is able to travel from their adopted home in New York to
Barbados where the rest of their family lived. The families dual-citizenship of
sorts is central to this story - the immigrated family identifies with both
their home in New York and their home in Barbados, while the Grandmother in
Barbados identifies only with her home there, and becomes depressed when she
realizes that the wonders of New York match or maybe even surpass the wonders of
her home country.
Being able to easily travel back to the
native country means that it is much more likely for immigrants to hold onto
more of their native land's culture and beliefs. An immigrant from Mexico who
regularly visits has a good chance of fluently speaking both English and
Spanish, for example. Cases like this are especially easy to see here in Texas
where we are so close to the Mexico/America border. As long as I've lived here
I've always had at least a few friends who regularly travel back and forth
between the United States and Mexico - and every time they went back and forth
they brought their culture with them. Everything from music, literature, art,
and even small things like candy. Most of the times these friends are proud of
their heritage, while at the same time appreciating what they have in America as
well. In this way, they are both immigrants in that they've come to the US for
opportunity and have in many ways assimilated, and minorities, in that they
desire to hold onto their native culture.
In one of the sweeter stories we've read
this semester, "Like Mexicans" by Gary Soto, we see an interesting take on
immigrants and minority groups. The main character, a Mexican American boy,
talks about his experience growing up in America and dating a Japanese girl. The
young man's best friend, an "Okie" named Scott, had some embedded racist
elements in his demeanor, going as far as to say "I would
never marry a Mexican" (302).
Attitudes like this seem to be slowly dwindling, but immigrants no doubt have
been and are aware of them. In this story even the characters
best friend harbors negative feelings
towards Mexicans, and he has no choice but to take it in stride. It does, in
combination with the advice his Grandmother gives him at the beginning of the
story, drive him away from being interested in white girls and more towards
girls with darker skin. Eventually, he meets and falls in love with a Japanese
girl. He discovers that the culture she has grown up in is a little different
than his own, but still very much "like Mexicans."
While it's true that some of the minority
literature we read in the first part of the semester did contain both elements
of immigrant and minority literature, like Olaudah Equiano's story, New World
immigrants tend to embody both elements at the same time. In Equiano's story he
is at first a minority after being forced into slavery, and then somewhat of in
an immigrant when he moves to the North. New World Immigrants are immigrants,
but the fact that they hold onto their old ways of life and frequently prefer
not to full assimilate also makes them minority groups at the same time. This is
exemplified in Sandra Cisneros's short story "Barbie-Q," a story where Mexican
girls are both assimilated (they want Barbies to play with, just like American
girls) but separate (the Barbies they end up with are different and darker in
color than normal Barbies are).
New World Immigrants are unique, even from
each other. Their relationships with the United States is often complex, and
rarely all positive. Their relationships with their home countries can likewise
be complex. Many seem to hold onto aspects of their old culture, and are proud
of where they came from in a way that Old World Immigrants don't seem to be as
often. The stories they write are frequently less optimistic, and more nuanced
and sometimes very sad. While the literature may be harder to enjoy (at least in
the way one enjoys a story with a happy ending), it is important to understand -
especially for those living in areas so full of these New World Immigrants.
