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2019 Midterm2
(assignment) |
LITR 4340
 American Immigrant Literature Model Assignments |
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Jasmine Choate
New World: A Cocktail of Immigrant and
Minority Identities
Expanding the Immigrant narrative
through the readings and class discussions focused on the New World immigrants
has opened up another perspective into the identities of immigrants. From our
discussions, I feel that I have gained a good sense of how this branch of
immigrants create an identity within America that is all their own. However,
reading through the model assignments of students, who were previously in my
position, has given me better insight as to how facing both immigrant and
minority experiences can lead people to form an identity that combines them both
here in America.
In their Midterm 2 Essay 1 titled “New
World Immigrants: Blurring the Lines”, Amber Boone does an excellent job at
providing clear and concise information on how the New World immigrants have
become a unique group of people here within America. Discussing the historical
context of how the New World countries have been treated by the United States
offered a solid foundation for why these immigrants tend to feel a strong sense
of pride to their home land which inevitably severs a complete connection to the
dominant culture here. Boone eloquently describes what really has to be taken
into consideration when discussing the distinct mixed identities of the New
World immigrants; “their unique and exotic pride for their country, attempts at
maintain their original language, and strong family ties help to set them
apart.” (Amber Boone 2016) By pointing out what causes the New World immigrants
to blur the lines between immigrants and minorities, Boone gave a clear
definition of their experience.
Kimberly Loza narrows down the topic of
identity within New World immigrants within their Research Report Start titled
“The Border Culture”. Loza focuses on the idea that Mexican American’s can be
seen as both immigrants and minorities here within the United States. She
reinforces this approach with two articles that mention how the US border is not
a barrier to people, nor their culture. Being a Mexican American, I could relate
to the points that Loza makes about the importance of having both cultures come
together in order to feel complete. “it is exhausting but, it is something that
we do because we want to show love to the two cultures that we love and embrace
so dearly.” (Kimberly Loza 2016) It is the combination of both cultures that
defines a Mexican American, not the differences. Another interesting point that
Loza mentions within her report is the idea of Mexican Americans not crossing
the border, but the border crossing them. I myself had never that saying, but it
explains a lot about how Mexican Americans experience the oppression that
minorities do here in the United States. This exploitation combined with the
drive to find better jobs here in America while still maintain the close ties to
their roots across the border, establishes the Mexican American identity as a
mix of both the immigrant and minority narratives.
After reading through and analyzing
Boone and Loza’s works, I wanted to find a previous web highlights assignment
that discussed at least one of them to see if I could gain a different outlook
on the information that I did not initially notice myself. I found Ruth Brown’s
2018 Web Highlights titled “A People in Between” that fortunately included both
of the works I found extremely helpful. Ruth was also able to recognize Boone’s
use of historical context within her explanation as a strong point of her essay.
However, I did not notice that this made the impression of Boone providing more
information and leaning towards the minority side heavier than the immigrant.
“She seems to produce more evidence to support the minority side, rather than
the immigrant side, explaining that historical evidences lend more to a minority
relationship with the U.S because they are more likely to resist assimilation…”
(Ruth Brown 2018).
In regards to Loza’s research report, I found that Ruth
and I were most intrigued by different aspects of it. She was more impressed by
the idea of the “Third Nation”, where I focused on Loza’s personal relation to
the topic. However, Ruth makes an excellent point on the fact that both works
provide examples of how the minority experiences comes through stronger than the
immigrant one when taking a look at the New World Identity. Reading through the
works of previous students helped reinforce the information we discussed in
class, as well as what I interpreted on my own.
