...From Chronic to Critical: A Latino Family Confronts End-of-Life Decisions By Karen Peterson-Iyer Gabriela Rivera is an 80-year-old Puerto Rican immigrant, who lives alone in her rent-controlled apartment in New York City. She has lived in the United States for almost 40 years and speaks some English, albeit somewhat hesitantly. Her primary language is Spanish. Although she is now retired, for years Gabriela worked in a factory where she was exposed to a variety of industrial chemicals now considered toxic. Gabriela's husband died four years ago of a massive heart attack. She has six adult children, three of whom now live out of state. Gabriela is a devoted mother, calling her children as often as she can afford and even sending them homemade sweets. She raised her children through their teenage years in the same apartment in which she lives today. She is loath to leave it, although she now pays the rent only with great difficulty and substantial financial help from her children. Gabriela has long suffered from high blood pressure, which she controls with medication. She also has type-2 diabetes. When she was originally diagnosed with diabetes, she met once with a nurse who advised her on diet, exercise, and weight control, but Gabriela has found it difficult to adapt her traditional tastes in food and her lifestyle to the recommendations the nurse offered. Subsequently, Gabriela's doctor prescribed medication to help keep her diabetes under control. She tries to take her medication...
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...the jobs they are taking from our country. Undocumented students are being denied the privilege of attending college because they are unaware of their rights to attend college. Every year, there are many undocumented students from different countries migrating to the United States. They migrate from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala in search for a better life. However, once they arrive to the United States they are faced with many obstacles that they did not know existed. Many undocumented students graduate from high schools, but only a few get the opportunity to pursue the American Dream because they do not have the right documentations. I believe the government should give undocumented student a visa in order for them to pursue their dreams. Chicanos and Latinos students are being affected by this situation because most of them end up going back to their countries. Other students end up working in low wage jobs for example, in restaurants like McDonald’s and construction. However, most of them get deported back to their country after their parents have found ways to bring them to the United States. Many of them end up going back to their country because they realize that they do not have a future in the United States because they know they will never achieve their dreams. Have you ever stood in an undocumented...
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...population. Many of these cultural groups are documented minority groups, which face many problems with accessing and receiving adequate health care. Looking at the 2010 U.S. Census, close to 36 percent of the population was a part of an ethnic or racial minority group. These minority groups include American Native Indian, African American, American Asian, Pacific Islander, and Latino or Hispanic. Some minority groups have increased risk factors and experience a greater and disproportionate burden of disease, preventable illnesses and disability and morbidity rates compared with non-minority groups ("Centers for Disease Control and Prevention," 2014). In this paper, the author will compare and contrast the health status for the minority group of Hispanic/ Latinos to the national average, describe how health promotion is defined and what barriers and disparities exist for this minority population, and will describe three levels of health promotion prevention and which would be optimal for teaching the Hispanic/Latino people. The Current Health Status of Hispanics The Hispanic /Latino minority group is our nation’s largest ethnic or race minority. According to U.S Census Bureau’s studies, as of July 1, 2013, there are approximately 54 million Hispanics living in the United States which represent 17 percent of the nation’s total population. The estimated Hispanic population for the year 2060 is...
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...and Criminalization of Youth Media today is like a distorted mirror, where usually only one views is portrayed. The images provided is a large part of how the social world is interpreted, which brings concern about the possible distortion of media representations. This can reinforce prejudice among the public. The social ambush in this situation would portray how African Americans and Latinos are filling the jails as fast as they can be built, creating this notion that young African Americans and Latinos are prone to end up in the criminal justice system. This stereotypical images of racialized youth is perpetuated and promoted through various forms of media, which can create this idea that people of this ethnic race are going to end up in the justice system. African Americans and Latinos face a lot of criminalization because of the social inequalities in America. This can stem from unequal opportunity to seek out jobs, government resources and equal justice because of their skin color and this notion that they are violate individuals. So when poor black and brown youth make bad choices in life, they are more likely to face criticism more harshly than other ethnicity like White or Asians. With this perceived perception of poor black and brown youth, they become targets of teachers, law enforcement and the justice system. With the help of media, it help shapes a certain image of who African American and brown youth are. This stigma affect the youth today who fill our jails because...
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...UIL Latino History Essay Una mujer de muchos logros What is History? What events are defined as history? Changing the world or even a community with just the tiniest of events is how history is created. Christy Martinez-Garcia is making history in Lubbock, Texas. Born and raised in Lubbock, Christy has long since been discourage for her race, yet none of these things have stopped her from achieving her goals. “Discouragement is my encouragement, tell me I can’t and I’m going to show you I can do it,” Christy stated when asked about herself and the hurdles of being an educated Latina. Christy has become a leader, activist, and an inspiration to an innumerable amount of individuals because of her endless aspirations to change the world. “Be fearless and have faith,” a quote Christy uses to conquer life endless impediments. Latino’s are often stereotyped as drug dealers, criminals, and gangbangers. None of these statements represent every single Latino. Christy is proof of this statement, she has proven every one of these stereotypes to be inaccurate. She has been the founder of various types of organizations, created a newspaper from the Latino perspective, and worked in grassroots communication in Washington, D.C. She is a woman of many accomplishments and has no intention of stopping. Latino Lubbock is one of Christy’s first biggest...
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...Dissertation research: Ethnic identity switching among Latinos in Queens, NY H. Russell Bernard (PI) and Rosalyn Negron (Co-PI) Project summary Problem statement: As the nation’s ethnic diversity continues to grow, things like the distribution of resources, ethnic conflict, and assimilation can not be understood in terms of neatly packaged identities in competition. Today, an increasing number of people regularly switch from ethnicity to ethnicity in normal discourse, in an attempt to maximize their economic and political interests. I propose to examine ethnographically and in depth the process of identity switching – that is, how people negotiate between multiple ethnic identities in everyday contexts – among Latinos in Queens, NY. Methods and analysis: From January to July, I will collect ethnographic data about ethnic identity invocation trends in the research communities, train a research assistant, select twelve participants for continuous monitoring and work closely with them for two weeks each. From August to September, I will train the research assistant further and use the knowledge gained from the ethnographic data phase to design and pilot test a household survey. Between October and December, this survey will be administered to a representative sample of 200 respondents. Using the data collected from these surveys, inferential statistics –odds-ratios, chi-square, and logistic regression - will be used to test the hypotheses. Intellectual merit: While ethnic identity...
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...Simon Adelle UCOR 102 Paper 3 Professor Marcum Making It in A Man’s World April 29, 2013 “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros exposes the life of the main character, Esperanza, for one year as she struggles with trying to find her place in America as a Chicana young girl while also coming of age. The novel starts the day Esperanza and her family of six move into a house on Mango Street, and immediately she expresses her antipathy for not only the house, but also for the area in which they move into and the people around who judge them because of their ethnicity. The story is not told in the traditional format of a continuous story divided into chapters, but rather Cisneros uses forty-four vignettes to allow for the reader to fully understand why Esperanza has the struggles that she has. Along with Cisneros’ illustrating Esperanza’s looking for her identity through images of Esperanza’s thoughts and female obedience, symbolism of violence, legs, the Statue for Liberty, and Nenny, and diction of Spanish words, not using quotation marks, and a maturing tone, she also uses these them to permeate Esperanza’s desperation to leave Mango Street throughout the whole novel. Cisneros’ use of vignettes highlights important moments in Esperanza’s life that emphasize how she develops over the course of a year. Cisneros uses the brevity of the vignettes to enhance the imagery to give the most vivid image through her limited amount of words for...
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...issues that Mexican Americans were facing which took the form of organizations, that later created an important stance to fight discrimination, segregation, exclusion, and end hostility. In 1929, LULAC was founded by veterans who fought the first World and second war, founded in Corpus Christi. The largest and the longest Latino civil rights group emerged at the height of discrimination and segregation. LULAC as well as the American GI Forum, this two organizations helped propel other major Chicano movement’s years after that, which included assisting in the fight to end school segregation using legal challenges. “LULAC focused its energies on fighting discrimination through lawsuits and other kinds of political organization” (Bedolla 73). This in term led in a federal, state, national and local court decisions prohibiting separation based on Mexican ancestry that resulted in the many cases that fell in the hands of the Supreme Court. Mexican Americans were unable to serve as jury’s. “Hernandez deserves the honor of being recognized as the first civil rights decision of the...
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...poverty most middle-class families find themselves when barely making ends meet and having to live pay check to pay check. Ana dreams of going to college in order to improve her life, but her parents want her to stay home and work in her sister’s small clothing factory, which is barely making ends meet due to the short staff. Ana’s teacher, Mr. Guzman, has convinced her that a better life awaits for her if she goes to college, and because he is convinced of how smart she is, he even arranges for Ana to be accepted by Columbia University in New York, which is one...
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...Brendan Lutz Dr. Jakubiak English 110 25 February 2011 Unit #2 Final Draft Not the Typical American Family Many of us love to just sit back and relax on weeknights, and just watch some TV. Popular shows of choice among families were sitcoms. These shows would portray different, unique types of families, and create their day to day lives into comedies. The types and class of families shown on sitcoms throughout the time of television has been widespread. Two shows in particular that I will discuss are “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”, and “The George Lopez Show”. Each show is based around one famous celebrity. “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” was centered around Will Smith, a famous rapper turned actor. “The George Lopez Show” was centered around George Lopez, a famous comedian. Each show was based around a specific ethnic group. “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” was solely around African Americans, and “The George Lopez Show” around Hispanic Americans. These sitcoms challenged the many sitcoms prior to its time, being about a family that was non-white. Skeptics felt these shows would not be popular due to the fact they do not appeal directly to the average American family. Skeptics were proven wrong, as each show ran for 6 seasons. “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” and “The George Lopez Show” both changed the perception of class and challenged the typical stereotypes that are normally associated with their respective race. The idea for a new show that would premiere on NBC in 1990 would...
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...began in the snows of Iowa was just an illusion were told a different story by the good people of South Carolina. After four great contests in every corner of this country, we have the most votes, the most delegates, and the most diverse coalition of Americans we’ve seen in a long, long time. They are young and old; rich and poor. They are black and white; Latino and Asian. They are Democrats from Des Moines and Independents from Concord; Republicans from rural Nevada and young people across this country who’ve never had a reason to participate until now. And in nine days, nearly half the nation will have the chance to join us in saying that we are tired of business-as-usual in Washington, we are hungry for change, and we are ready to believe again. But if there’s anything we’ve been reminded of since Iowa, it’s that the kind of change we seek will not come easy. Partly because we have fine candidates in the field – fierce competitors, worthy of respect. And as contentious as this campaign may get, we have to remember that this is a contest for the Democratic nomination, and that all of us share an abiding desire to end the disastrous policies of the current administration. But there are real differences between the candidates. We are looking for more than just a change of party in the White House. We’re looking to fundamentally change the status quo in Washington – a status quo that extends beyond any particular party. And right now, that status quo is fighting back with everything...
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...college career, develop relationships with instructors, and choose what type of success they want to have throughout their college profession. | When thinking about the phrase, personal responsibility, several different definitions come to my mind. It means taking accountability for my own welfare. Personal responsibility can signify that I am responsible for the choices that I make in my life. I can go on and on about different ways that this phrase can be interpreted. However, I think it would be best if I began by breaking down the phrase into two parts, and deciphering each word. Let us start with the word, personal. Merriam-Webster defines personal, in its adjective form, as “done in person without the intervention of another”. The word, responsibility means “the state at which one is held accountable for one’s conduct and obligations”. [ (Encyclopedia Britannica Company, 2012) ] If we were to take both of these definitions and combine them, you would get my definition of personal responsibility. A person demonstrates personal responsibility when s/he is liable for any actions that they perform, and any choices that they choose to make. This definition not only places responsibility on me, but it forces me to blame me, and only me, if I choose not to abide by the definition. It does not give me the right to point the finger at someone else or hold someone else accountable for my actions. So, why is this definition so important? Well, as a college student, responsibility...
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...appear emotionally detached from their loved ones, they lack social behavior, and they may even act violently or out of character in some other way. This can be interpreted common actions of someone who has just been in a warzone for a prolonged period, but the strange way they act is often defined as a symptom of some sort or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder similar to what you would see in victims of rape or violent crimes. The PTSD experienced in these violent crime victims and veterans are not the same the way each of the symptoms line up side to side is enough proof that the experiences are clearly different fundamentally. The tension is that not all veterans are afraid of what they saw and reliving it over and over because they have no choice. The problem lies in them missing the war experience rather than trying forget it. Veteran’s face serious social obstacles acclimating back into the society of the U.S. and as a culture we have become increasingly infatuated with individualisms ideals which makes it harder for them to build rapport with their community. It is necessary to explore how we as a culture are responsible for what happens to our veterans not just when they’re overseas but also when they come home. We also must examine more abstract ways of examining troubled veterans because there is an egregious amounts of troubled individuals who are experiencing unique struggles but are being treated as if they are uniformly effected by PTSD, which they aren’t. There still...
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...I often find myself reflecting on how events and circumstances in my education have changed my life. I remember what I loved the most, what has shaped me, and how this translates into what I hope to create for my own children someday. I find the relationship between education and social inequalities to one of the most important concepts in sociological issues today. In this paper, I will address on issues that I have faced in my secondary education. This includes how tracking and social mobility have intertwined to reinforce class disparities and worsened my educational inequalities. Then, I will address how these negative experiences eventually turned positive by having caring relationships and an immense moral influence with my teachers and...
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...hospice from a co-worker a few years ago when that co-worker was preparing to check her mother in hospice and she was in her forties. As she discussed with me her mother had a drug addiction problem her entire life. At that time I had never heard about hospice and I became interested in learning more about it. “Hospice is a special concept of care designed to provide comfort and support to patients and their families. Patients are referred to hospice when life expectancy is approximately six months or less. Hospice care can continue longer than six months if needed but requires physician certification” (Kinzbrunner, BM, 2002, p. 29-45). As I researched on the internet I found out during the 1960’s, Dr. Cicely Saunders began the modern hospice movement by establishing St. Christopher’s Hospice near London Street. According to Saunders (1975), the word “hospice” originated from the Latin word “hospitium” which means guesthouse. It was originally used to describe a place of shelter for sick travelers returning from religious pilgrimages. In addition to this information there have been more than 4,700 hospice programs in the United States. As I learned from my previous co-worker hospice care is there to make the patient’s life more comfortable as they prepare for their end of life and to provide support for the families. Hospice staff and volunteers offer a specialized knowledge of medical care, including pain management. The goal of hospice care is to improve the quality of a patient’s...
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