|
Sample Student final exam answers 2019 (2019 final exam assignment) Part 3: Model Research Reports |
LITR 4340
|
 |
Rosa Ramos
“The Border Crossed Us”
My family has a history of going back and forth across
the U.S. and Mexico border. My grandmother (paternal) was born in the 1920s and
raised in the Hill Country of Texas. Her family moved to the border town of
McAllen, Texas and she met my grandfather, who was an illegal immigrant in
Texas. They married and moved to a border town in Tamaulipas Mexico to claim
land that was being gifted to anyone who moved there. My grandmother’s family
stayed behind in the border town of McAllen and planted there roots there (many
are still there today). I don’t know much more about my family history, but I
suspect that they have likely moved back and forth between Texas and Mexico as
the economy changed.
The U.S. border has not always been where it is now,
there was a time when Texas and California and everything in between belonged to
Mexico. After Mexico won their independence from Spain, what is now Texas
belonged to Mexicans. As time passed, White people restricted Tejanos access to
voting and land, and set the Texas Rangers and police on them. Anglos were
automatically considered Texans if they lived in Texas, but Tejanos (Texas
Mexicans) had to sign a pledge of loyalty to Texas to be considered citizens.
According to Marquez, there are three areas, the United
States, Mexico, and the border culture which is a mixture of both U.S. and
Mexican culture making it one distinct culture. As I read what Marquez wrote, I
made connections to my own life and was able to see how my family fit into this
narrative.
As a child, I grew up with family on both sides of the
immediate Mexico and U.S. border. We would travel across to visit but when my
immediate family crossed the border again during my lifetime, it was due to my
immediate family needing more money. My dad initially found on the U.S. side,
and we were able to travel between both places easily. Like New World
Immigrants, we wanted the commodities that the United States offers, but we did
not want to be far from our family and culture which resides on both sides of
the border line. Marquez refers to people that cross the border on a daily basis
for work and/or school are as a “transborder”. We were a “transborder” family,
living on the U.S. side and going back home to Mexico on the weekends.
A question Marquez asks if whether the generation of
immigrant children will follow the path of earlier immigrants and travel back
and forth between the two or if they will assimilate between the two. In the
case of my immediate family, we moved further north and ended up in Baytown.
Initially, and for all of my childhood, we would make the trip down south only
twice a year; we would spend a week in the summer and a week during Christmas. I
looked forward to those trips and wished we could visit more; however, as the
years passed we visited less frequently. My sister and I assimilated to the U.S.
culture, and after my dad passed away, we stopped visiting altogether although
we still have family in both the Mexico and U.S. side. Nowadays we keep in touch
via Facebook.
Growing up, we would refer to the United States as “el
otro lado” which means “the other side.” Michael Dear refers to the border line
between both countries as a “connective membrane” rather than a line that
divides the two countries. According to him, on both the U.S. and the Mexico
side, the people in the border area claim to have more in common with each other
than with the rest of their country. Border dwellers are more likely to be
bilingual (if first generation), have a shared history, and have many shared
customs and traditions.
As I was looking through Model Assignments, I came across
Cesar Cano’s “Language: Unifying and Divisive Tool” and I was able to relate
that to my personal experience with language. At the young age of six or seven,
I became the “language broker” for my family. A language broker is someone who
translates for family members with someone who does not speak the home language.
I learned English and helped my parents navigate the American culture with my
limited grasp of the English language. My younger sister did not have to be a
language broker as the position was taken and due to this her Spanish has
suffered. Although she can hold conversations with family members, her Spanish
is limited to simple family-related conversations.
While on vacation with my then seven-year-old, daughter,
she made an observation of a family that was checking out. She said, “Mom, that
little boy is like you.” Confused, I asked her why, and she replied, “He helps
his family speak English.” That little boy was a language broker, much like I
had been, and still am for my family. My daughter is a second-generation U.S.
citizen and her lack of “need” to speak my native tongue is evident. Although my
daughter understands some Spanish, she finds it difficult to communicate her
thoughts. When she was first born, I made an effort to speak Spanish to her.
However, as she learned more English, it became easier to communicate in my
“host country’s” language. There is a certain shame that exists for not having
done a better job at helping my daughter attain bilingualism. If she is not able
to speak our native tongue, her children will not speak it either and part of
our culture will be lost. I fear I have cheated her of part of her culture. My
sister and I talk about the things that my daughter may never understand because
she does not speak the language, and the loss is immense.
What becomes almost comical is that the United States is
known as a country of immigrants, however, there is a great dislike for
immigrants who do not assimilate to dominant culture standards. Especially
today, when racial divide seems higher than it has been in recent years,
Mexicans are told to go back where they came from. The irony is that they are
exactly where they came from.
Arnoldo. (2010, June 15). MEXICAN AMERICANS. Retrieved
April 5, 2019, from
https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/pqmue
Cano, C. (2013). Language: Unifying and Divisive Tool.
Retrieved May 5, 2019, from
http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/LITR/4333/models/2013/f/RR/RRCano.htm
Dear, M. (2013, February 01). "Third Nation" along the
US-Mexico border. Retrieved May 05, 2019, from
https://blog.oup.com/2013/02/third-nation-along-the-us-mexico-border/
Episode 115: Violent Policing of
the Texas Border. (n.d.). Retrieved April 5, 2019, from
https://15minutehistory.org/2019/01/11/episode-115-violent-policing-of-the-texas-border/
Little, B. (2018, April 09). The Violent History of the
U.S.-Mexico Border. Retrieved April 5, 2019, from
https://www.history.com/news/mexico-border-wall-military-facts
Little, B. (2018, October 17). Why Mexican Americans Say
'The Border Crossed Us'. Retrieved April 5, 2019, from
https://www.history.com/news/texas-mexico-border-history-laws
Márquez, R. R., & Romo, H. (2008).
Transformations
of la familia on the U.S.-mexico border
