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2019 Midterm2
(assignment) |
LITR 4340
 American Immigrant Literature Model Assignments |
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Lauren Kruse
New World Immigrants: Finding the
Balance between Immigrant and Minority
As I prepared to extend my original
long essay regarding the differences between the immigrant and minority
narratives—with an additional focus on New World Immigrants—I began to read
various essays, reviews and research report starts on the Model Assignments page
of the course-site. While there
were many valuable pieces to read, I focused my efforts on a few that I found to
have a strong focus on what it means to be a New World Immigrant.
Tammy Tran’s essay on the conflicts and solutions witnessed through the
immigrant and minority narratives, presented some of the intricacies faced by
New World Immigrants and how they must find a balance.
In “Mexican Americans: Immigrants, Minority, or Both?” Katie Morin also
broaches the delicate balance faced by many of our New World Immigrants. In her
research report start “The Border Culture,” Kimberly Loza focuses on the unique
relationship found among those who live on the Mexican-American border.
While there are many factors that
influence the experience of New World Immigrants, Tran begins by focusing on a
major conflict faced by those who have emigrated from the New World countries;
there is a conflicting desire to seek the opportunities and jobs found in the
United States, while wanting to maintain their connection to the homeland.
There is also the additional connection between the United States’ and
many of the New World countries’ political and economic histories.
This further connection means that New World immigrants often enter
America having already had an interaction with American culture and many
American’s also have pre-conceived notions of these immigrants.
One of the driving forces behind the differing encounters, whether as
minority or immigrant, often are defined by skin tone.
For example, coming from Puerto Rico with fair skin, one might find
themselves treated as an immigrant and more easily assimilate to the surrounding
culture; but some with dark “African” skin coming from Haiti, while they would
come as an immigrant, due to their dark skin they might be automatically grouped
among the minority bracket of African Americans. Thus, making their assimilation
more difficult, due to the limitations faced by minorities imposed by the
dominant culture.
Katie Morin also focuses on the
complexity of the New World Immigrant’s narrative, however, unlike Tran, Morin
focuses specifically on the experience of Mexican-Americans.
She notes that through her own reading of Model Assignments on the
Course-site, she has found the classification of Mexican-Americans as immigrant
or minority to be a messy subject.
Acknowledging the close proximity of Mexico to the United States, Morin finds
that some will use the closeness of Mexico to explain why many have a more
difficult time when trying to assimilate.
How could these immigrants abandon their culture and homeland when it
remains in their very backyard? In other writings, however, she finds that some
would argue that returning to the homeland is not possible, especially for
second-generation Mexican-Americans, due to the vast economic differences and
standards of living.
In her research report start, Kimberly
Loza also focuses on the difficulties faced by Mexican-American immigrants, as
they navigate the process of assimilation or acculturation.
Their journey to discover their identity as Mexican, American, or
Mexican-American, can be further complicated if they live along the border
between the two. As Loza focuses on
the uniqueness of the “Border Culture,” she notes that there is a unique blend
of the two cultures, bringing with it a balance of minority and immigrant
experiences. In her note that
borders are not so much barriers to block passage, as they are markers between
one space and the next (loosely paraphrasing), Loza exposes some of the gray
area faced by immigrants who live along the border.
When there is no true blockade to differentiate between one culture and
the next, there will forever be a bleeding of the one culture into the other.
In the case of the assimilation and acculturation found along the border,
they have resulted in creating their own sort of culture, the “Border Culture.”
These three essays/writings each
focused on a unique issue surrounding the New World Immigrant’s narrative, yet
they all demonstrated the complexity found among these immigrant peoples.
Faced with a history of bias based on skin-tone, language spoken and at
times a tumultuous history between their homeland and the United States,
immigrants from New World countries often face discrimination and display many
the same characteristics of minorities.
Yet many of these peoples travel to the United States seeking refuge,
wanting to pursue the American Dream, even working to assimilate to the dominant
culture in the hopes of establishing success and prosperity for their families.
After reading the works of Tran, Morin and Loza, only one thing is
certain; the narrative of the New World Immigrant, as with all immigrant
narratives, they face a challenging and uncertain road ahead, that one can only
hope leads to prosperity.
