LITR 5731 Seminar in American Minority Literature UHCL 2004 sample student final exam

LITR 5731: Seminar in American Minority Literature

Sample Student Final Exam Submissions, fall 2004

Kristy Pawlak

8 December 2004

American Minority Literature Final Exam

Answering original Option 1.

Mexican-Americans: Where do they really fit?

One of the first questions that has to be addressed before the study of minority literature can begin is, quite simply, “Who is a minority?” Before this class, my answer would have been relatively simple—a group of people joined together by a common characteristic, usually race or ethnicity, who make up less of the population than white people (or males, or heterosexuals, or whatever the most numerous “other" happens to be in each case). Of course, that is not the way in which the term is used in this class where we must differentiate between minorities and immigrants. It soon became clear that the largest differentiation between the two is choice. Did you choose to be an American or was the decision forced upon you or your ancestors? However, when it comes to one group of people, Mexican-Americans, the lines are not as clearly drawn as they are with Native Americans or African-Americans. Sure, in parts of the country there were people who lived in Mexico and then as a result of a war or a treaty all of a sudden found themselves to be living in Texas or America, even though they never moved or consented to the change, but, then too, did proud Frenchman find themselves one day converted to Americans after the governments reached an agreement. Borders move and lands change hands all of the time; there has to be more to the question of minority status. The rest of the story lies in the experience of living as a member of the group within the dominant culture. How has the lack of choice faced by the original group impacted the later generations of the group? Several factors combine to make Mexican-Americans the “ambivalent minority.” Among these are their geography, their impact on the area in which they live, and their active immigration activity. Woman Hollering Creek provides realistic insights into the questions raised when trying to determine the place of Mexican-Americans in the minority world.

It might be easy to overlook something as simple as geography when studying why Mexican-Americans don’t fit neatly into the minority box, but it is a crucial factor because it has a direct impact on the voluntary vs. involuntary aspect of their minority status. Simply put, while it would take significant capital and major lifestyle changes for African-Americans to pack up and head back to Africa, and Native Americans have no where to head back to, Mexican-Americans have a fairly easy road to Mexico if they want to go. The ability to travel easily between the two countries reduces the sense of choicelessness experienced by other minority groups. This geographical proximity to Mexico also allows for a greater connection to the past and retention of cultural characteristics and even language. The ambivalent aspect of including Mexicans in the minority category is often seen in their own feelings towards their “Americanization.” In the short story, “Bien Pretty”, Lupe is seems ashamed of her lack of true Mexican heritage. She bristles when Flavio refers to her as “you Americans,” but when faced with the reality of his true knowledge of Mexican culture she has to admit, “I wanted to be Mexican at that moment, but it was true. I was not Mexican” (149,152). It’s almost as if she’s taken for granted that her cultural roots will always be close by and so she has not truly maintained them, something that a groups like African-Americans cannot do. They must continually strive to retain the history and culture of their ancestors; Mexican-Americans can just cross the border.

Just as African-Americans don’t have the luxury of visiting their cultural roots for a weekend, they also don’t have the burden of the Mexicans in feeling that they have rejected their true homeland or have been rejected by it. The short stories by Cisneros are full of examples of Mexican characters belittling their American relatives and vice-versa. There is a tension that results from the geographical proximity of Mexico and America. Consider, the short story “Never Marry a Mexican,” where the narrator tells us of her mother’s advice to “Never Marry a Mexican” even though her mother was a Mexican herself, but one born in America, not in Mexico like her father—“and, it’s not the same, you know” (68). She goes on to explain that her father’s Mexican family felt that he had married beneath himself because her mother was from “el otro lado, the other side” (69). Interestingly, had he married a white woman from the other side, they would have thought that he married up. In the story “Mericans” the “awful grandmother knits the names of the dead and the living into one long prayer fringed with the grandchildren born in that barbaric country with its barbarian ways” (19). So while other minority groups can romanticize their ancestral homeland, for Mexican-Americans it is right next door with all its own problems and prejudices. It is like family—they love Mexico in spite of its shortcomings, not in ignorance of them.

Perhaps relative to the geographical considerations already explored, the status of Mexican-Americans as a minority group in America can also be considered in light of their impact on the culture in the areas in which they live. The syllabus for this class asks the question, “Does a Mexican who moves from Juarez to El Paso truly immigrate?” Answering from a cultural aspect, in many respects, no. The Mexican would likely have little trouble communicating, finding friends who share his background, locating a restaurant that serves familiar food, or finding a church to worship in. This is because wherever Mexican-Americans have settled, they have had a tremendous impact on the cultural aspects of the area. Consider the tiny glimpses into the lives of both Mexicans and Mexican-Americans given in “Little Miracles, Kept Promises.” The religion, the culture, and the day to day concerns of these people unite them regardless of the side of the border they are from. Mexican-Americans have struck a unique balance between total assimilation and total isolation. They adapt to the world around them, but they change it as well. In areas where they were “there first” they did not retreat into their own communities and leave the white settlers to theirs. Instead, they wove themselves into the fiber of the community. It is hard to think of the Mexican-American in El Paso or even San Antonio as a minority because those places are so indebted to Mexican culture.

Because this class has defined minority groups at least partially in contrast to immigrant groups, it is useful to explore Mexican-American’s in this respect. The position of immigrant vs. minority is perhaps the greatest cause of uncertainty about the place of Mexican-Americans. All you have to do is turn on the news or a political debate to hear about the thousands of Mexicans who risk their very lives to come to America. The official process to immigrate to America from Mexico entails a long wait and strict guidelines and yet waiting lists are long. The effect is that the original lack of choice for the Mexicans who happened to live north of the Rio Grande is overshadowed by the vast numbers of others since who have chosen, at all costs, to get across that border.

There are, of course, many aspects of the Mexican-American situation that argue for their inclusion as minorities, but it is the difficulties of the classification that make it an interesting subject to examine. Given the proximity of Mexico to America, the impact of Mexican culture on America, and the large number of willing Mexican immigrants, perhaps the best phrase available to describe them is truly “the ambivalent minority.”

“The Wounded Family of the Native Americans”

One of the most compelling aspects of the first half of this semester was the idea of the African-American concept of the extended family and of community as family. In that case, the need for alternative family structures arose out of necessity. Slavery commonly broke up nuclear families and relationships between masters and slaves produced offspring without the possibility of a “normal” family. This concept of alternative family structures has continued in recent years as a strong point of the African-American community and helps them deal with the problems that plague portions of the population such as drugs, poverty, and absentee fathers. Aspects of this phenomenon can be seen in the Native American community, but in looking at The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven and at Black Elk Speaks, it seems that the subjugation of the Native American had a more negative affect overall on the family structures held prior to that time than did slavery on African-Americans. This is to say that both experienced immediate disruptions, but while the African-American community adapted and has even benefited from the experience, the Native American literature reflects more bitterness and less productive re-structuring.

First of all, it should be noted that Native Americans began with more of an alternative family structure in that while the nuclear family was important, “father and mother” are mentioned repeatedly in Black Elk, the tribes were highly interdependent groups which functioned as large families. As mentioned in course objective 3, the dominant culture emphasizes the individual where minority cultures emphasize the community. Consider Black Elk’s comments, “I looked back on the past and recalled my people’s old ways, but they were not living that way any more. They were traveling the black road, everybody for himself” (165). Black Elk saw the rise of individualism as the downfall of his people. The historical emphasis of Native Americans on community began to lead to disruptions as modern times saw the adoption of “white” ways.

In The Lone Ranger the difference in customs of the Indians and those of the whites is shown in this statement about marriage; “When an Indian marriage starts to fall apart it’s even more destructive and painful than usual. A hundred years ago an Indian marriage was broken easily . . .Now, Indians fight their way to the end, holding on to the last good thing, because our whole lives have to do with survival” (32). The experience of being subjugated has so affected the fabric of the culture that family structures have changed as well in ways that are “destructive and painful.”

The changes to the family structures among the Native Americans seem to have been less abrupt but more damaging than those to other minority family structures. Therefore, there is also a greater sense of bitterness that comes through the writing. For instance, while marriage bonds were historically easy to dissolve among Indians, obligations of fatherhood apparently were not. The Lone Ranger explains that it is far worse for an Indian on the reservation to abandon his children than for a white man to do it because “white men have been doing that forever . . . that’s assimilation for you” (34).

Perhaps because of the “loss and survival” narrative of the Native Americans, aspects of the loss of the community family structure emerge more forcefully, but they also emerge with a sense of helplessness. The Lone Ranger gives a glimpse into this sense of loss when Victor arrives back from his trip with Thomas and “was ashamed of himself. Whatever happened to the tribal ties, the sense of community?” (74). He knows that he is missing something, that something important has been lost, but he does not recognize that it is the ability to think of Thomas and all his fellow tribe members as brothers that he is missing.

Just as slavery had an irreversible and devastating effect on the African-American community, the subjugation of the Native Americans disrupted the family structures that had worked for centuries. The difference as it is reflected in our literature is that in this area, the Native Americans are still dealing with the loss while African-Americans have used the changes forced on them years ago to forge a positive environment for today.