...woke up to my alarm at 6:15 and clicked the snooze button until it was just about at seven in the morning .Always pushing myself to rush my morning. This morning instead of riding the bus like I usually did, I had convinced my father to drive me to school to drop me off along with my bike. A group of four friends and I planned on biking after school to my friend Joe’s house to stay the night, as well as a couple other things for the day. Before I had gotten down the stairs and to the truck my father had already thrown my bike in the trunk of our F-150. When we reached the school, I was grabbing my bag. While my father was pulling the bike out of the truck. My father walked me over to the bike rack, along with my bike and he chained it up for me. After that I told him I loved him. Just like what most people say to there parent before they leave. He left for work and I went about the usual last day of school the pointless saying goodbye to friends and teachers we would most likely not see during our summer. Signing every ones year books, the thing I never bothered to ask my dad to buy me. Sense it was the last day of school it was a half day. I would not be pointlessly stuck at school for a full day. School had just finally ended and it was still only eleven. It still hasn't even reached lunch yet. I had the whole day with my friends, I was excited. Joe told us he wanted to show us someplace cool. I walked over to the bike rack heading over to meet up with my four friends Joe, Jared...
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...perpetually bracing himself against a strong wind. “Straddle-legged” means that the legs are wide apart. This means that Seabiscuit was resting his legs since he was injured he had his legs wide open to rest them up. Page 217 – “Shimmered” – A smile shimmered over smith’s face. “Shimmered” means shine with a soft tremulous light. This means that Smith had a bright smile on his face. 2. Chapter 14: I really like the picture on chapter1 that’s when Howard was driving his Buick race car. this car is an antique and that was his first business which he was really successful at even though he traded his cars with horses he was still successful which is pretty impressing! 3. Chapter 16: Smith was the one that said “but I know my horse” he know something was wrong with Seabiscuit. I had a cat when I was back in Dubai she was only 6 weeks old when we adopted her from her mom, so she would eat or drink at all for couple day so...
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...prove their ethnicity? My first name, Emily, sounds like a typical American name. Whereas my last name, Martinez, sounds Hispanic. I never thought much of my name, I just viewed it as a way for people to call me. When people told me their ethnicity, I accepted it and never analyzed if they actually portrayed that ethnicity. I identified as Hispanic because I was born in America to Mexican parents. A time in my life that caused me to develop a belief of my cultural identity was when I was accused of not being Mexican enough. This caused me to experience teasing about which ethnicity I am, doubting if I truly demonstrated my ethnicity, and realizing the ethnicity I am, but how that doesn’t define me. Both of my parents were...
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...the majority of my life in the United States has taught me the differences and similarities of Mexican and American cultures. Since both of my parents come from Mexican heritage, my roots align more with the Mexican culture. Therefore, I have learned the essential values of the Mexican culture from my parents, such as language and behavior. My appreciation for both cultures has come from all the experiences I have gathered from living in El Paso the majority of my life. Although I have spent the majority of my life All of my years living in the United States, I find myself abiding by traditional Mexican values. Due to this I have been able to differentiate the values and norms of both cultures. One aspect...
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...experiences in which my race has been questioned based on my skin tone. I consider myself a Mexican American girl. Many people, however, have had their opinions on what it means to be Mexican AND American. To me being Mexican American means that your roots are from Mexico but you yourself were born in America. When I walked down the street people told me that they knew I was a Mexican American. Other people, however, have had the problem of defining who I really was. All of my life I was brought up as a Mexican American girl whose parents immigrated to the United States for a better life for their family. In other words they came to the U.S. for the “American Dream.” Much of my relatives are in Chicago in which they also came for a better life. However, all of my family is not here because some are still back home in Mexico. I often visited my family in Michoacán, Mexico. I loved going there because there I was able to explore and visit my roots and where I came from. As a child my family members in Mexico called me “La Güera”. Being a child I had no idea what it meant. I thought it was cute nickname and that is why I would always respond to it. As I grew up I asked them “Porque me llaman güera cuando no soy blanca?” (Why do you call me Güera when I am not white?) My cousins answered the question with the simple answer of “Porque nacisteis en los Estados” (Because you where born in the states.) I was confused because I knew that I wasn’t white. I was Mexican and I was proud of...
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...October 2014 First Generation American-Mexican I am a first generation American-Mexican, I was born and raised in Northern California; Santa Rosa, CA., it is about one-hour from San Francisco, California. It is a place filled with various cultures from many different cultural background, customs, and traditions. The majority of individuals living Northern California are from Mexico as it borders the United States. While, growing up my school had a few American-Mexican: Chicano population, with the majority Caucasians and Asian. My school had few African-Americans. As a youth, I sought to grow up and assimilate into the American culture while maintain my cultural identity. As my identity makes me who I am today, and someone I am not. As I grew older, I learned what made the United States different amongst other nations as it was the melting-pot of various cultures from all around the world, in which made it unique from other countries. Furthermore, at Santa Rosa Junior College challenged my mentality to keep an open mind of others, in which I was blind, but each day at school meeting new people, and engaging in conversation with individuals asking them, various questions of what they wanted to do, what was their major, and what gave them passion to keep studying. I had to readjust my ideals about higher education. Higher education has help me find my identity, through knowledge. As I hold on to my customs and traditions that my parents have bestowed upon me. As a...
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...Labyrinth of Solitude by Octavio Paz reveals a lot about the Mexican person and its character, manners and thinking. Much of what he proclaims in his book resonates with many of those who call themselves Mexicans. I, as a proud Mexican-American agree with Octavio’s idea of what the Mexican is, wherever he or she may be in North America. The Pachuco in Octavio’s account resonates closely with me because as someone who grew up in a developing neighborhood in a major city, I witnessed many fellow Mexicans rebelled in order to be different - as a way to identify as someone other than an American or a Mexican. Indeed, I saw with my very own eyes my closest friend become radically different. He became a different person and our relationship diminished....
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...of a particular ethnic or social group. “Mexican” culture mainly defines me. However, it has been influenced by the “American” culture I have been surrounded by extensively. Values define what is wrong or right within a group while norms are considered social rules and guidelines followed by this group as proper behavior. Having been born and raised in the border town of El Paso has taught me to appreciate both Mexican and American cultures in their similar and contrasting characteristics. Having Mexican roots, I was initially taught to speak Spanish. To the elders in my family, it is disrespectful to mix English with Spanish while speaking. It is referred to as “Spanglish,” like my uncle says. Although the majority of my relatives are bilingual, it is a norm to converse in one language only. The kitchen is probably the most important area of a Mexican household. Cooking brings families together during family reunions or special events and it is normally done by the female members. My mom would rather make us enchiladas as opposed to buying them because she conveys her care and affection through her cooking. It is common to place family above all else in the Mexican culture, and cooking reflects that to an extent. As children, my mother stayed home to care for my brother and myself while my dad worked. Consequently, we received much parental care and attention, which is not common in the American culture. As a member of the Mexican culture, I was raised to practice the Roman...
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...Tereza M. Szeghi Informative synthesis March 14, 2015 Yujie Chen Poverty influences Poverty is one of the main problem in the world, either developed country or developing country. Poverty both influence developed country, America and developing country, Mexico. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian and The Devil’s Highway, they both facing the poverty issue. Sherman Alexie is telling us about the Indian American living in a hard life and Luis Alberto Urrea is telling us about the poor Mexican people migrating to United States for gaining wealth. Both of the two stories meets the same problem which is poverty forcing them to make change. The path to success are tough and hard, both of them have to discard something for the cost. However, their ending are not the same. Sherman Alexie is telling us the real life of Indian American who still lives in the Indian reservation. For those people, their poverty are generational and inheritance. “Seriously, I know my mother and father had their dreams when they were kids. They dreamed about being something other than poor, but they never got the chance to be anything because nobody paid attention to their dreams” (Sherman Alexie 12). As Arnold talks about his parents living in poor, he is helpless and feeling despairing because he knew that the poverty has been an issue for the Indian American for many generations. To think about more deeply, another view of what Arnold says is, he still believe that Indian people are...
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...hole to creep into our society. And what I believe today hermanos, is that the greatest problem right now is los enemigos disfrazados de amigos; our enemies disguised as friends. Even before I officially became president in 1917, The United States, recognized me as the de facto president in 1915. I had supported our light skinned friends by sending troops to support a Mexican American rebellion. But I did not realize then what I had done. I was growing a problem that Diaz had planted. Dicen que Diaz era la madre de los extranjeros y su madrastra del pueblo mexicano. They say that Diaz was the mother to foreginers and the stepmothers to hs own fellow Mexicans. During his presidency, Diaz had sold Mexico, to Foreginers. Under the presidency of Porfirio Díaz, foreign mining and oil companies had received generous concessions from the government in order to develop natural resources. Deje que este discurso sea mi declaración de mi intención de devolver la riqueza de petróleo y carbón para el pueblo de México . LEt this statement be my declaration of my intention to return the wealth of oil and coal to the people of Mexico. In terms of mining I urge that we raise taxes on the mining companies, and remove the right of diplomatic recourse for mining companies, and declare their actions subject to the Mexican courts. At thi s conference let us address ways to return the motherland back to her rightful heirs. Viva MExcio! damas y caballeros. Ladies and gentlemen. Today we...
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...I am the second son of my parent’s marriage and the middle child of three. I was born in a modern hospital in the state of Arkansas and provided with all the routine care one expects a child to receive in the USA. I was welcomed into a stable family with a gainfully employed father and a stay at home mother. It is fair to say that I started life with a certain amount of privilege. Our income level allowed my mother to stay at home and run the household as well as provide a private education in the form of homeschooling. This too is a privilege and most likely contributes to the way in which I see the world. My mother has a BS degree in education and my father was born into poverty and work was his education. Between the two of them I was daily...
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...Mac Foster Mrs. Brown Adv 11th Lit 15 December 2016 Gary Soto Gary Soto, a Mexican-American author, was born in 1952, Fresno, California. His parents were both Mexican-American. Soto did not expect a lot in his life, he imagined he would "’marry Mexican poor, work Mexican hours, and in the end die a Mexican death, broke and in despair’" (Lee). That’s what many people would have predicted for him. However, he instead became a writer of great worth, writing poems and short stories. “Soto is one of the most important voices in Chicano literature”(Sullivan). Soto, an established writer, uses his experience from life and his surroundings when he was a child to write stories about life in a Mexican-American community. Soto grew up in a small family,...
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...Growing up my parents always taught my brother and I to embrace our Mexican culture. I might have been born and raised in America, but I would always be Mexican first. My parents in raising my younger brother and I were kind, but firm. They instilled in us the values of hard work and the importance of education at a young age. My parents both having not finished high school knew the struggles they went through without an education. They wanted my brother and I to have a proper education, so our lives would be open to more opportunities. Education is an aspect that can set you apart from someone else. It might be what gets you that job or that promotions you’ve been wanting. Especially, as a Mexican-American in the Unites States we often face discrimination. People call us “lazy, uneducated, and how were stealing American jobs”. However, that's farther from the truth. My family immigrated from Mexico to the Unites States in search of a...
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...She began with telling her story from her childhood when she used to write the same kind of stories as she was reading. Her characters are same as she the stories she was reading. she did not imagine that people like her can exist in literature until she found some Africans authors books. This shows we could make our perspective toward anything by just reading books. As Adichie said in her talk that “What this demonstrates, I think, is how impressionable and vulnerable we are in the face of a story, particularly as children” she described her experiences about single stories throughout her life. She experienced her single story about Mexicans. Debates going on media about the migration of Mexicans and Mexicans trying to cross the border made Mexicans very miserable people in her eyes. She had the Mexicans single story until she visited Mexico and actually experience their rich culture and their lifestyle. This is how single stories are made “Show people as one thing and one thing only over and over again and that is what they become.” Moreover, the problem with the single story is they create stereotypes and the problem with the stereotype are not they are untrue they are incomplete. It is our responsibility to do the necessary investigation before believing any story. If we try to find the complete story about any particular thing we can avoid any single...
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...Dia de los Muertos is celebrated each year from Oct. 31 through Nov. 2 it’s a Mexican tradition in which families and friends come together to remember those who have passed away, because Dia De los muertos, has become such a growing tradition here in the states, mainly in areas with high number of Latinos I decide to focus my study on how Dia de de los Muertos is celebrated here, in Los Angeles. Olvera street, located in N. Alameda st, one of the oldest parts of downtown Los Angeles, is home to many Mexican holiday celebration, for that reason I decide to practice my ethnography there. Olvera Street is a Mexican cultural shopping destination for locals and tourist and for many years it’s also become a center destination for many Mexican holiday celebrations like the Dia de Los muertos. The Dia de Los muertos celebrations at Olvera Street began from October 25 though Nov 2. I visit the event on four different occasions; I specifically chose days in which different activities/events were taking place. Each day I attend I participated and spoke with several different people, among them were: event coordinators, ritual practices, merchants, and families. One woman, a local olvera street vendor, whom I had most of my conversations with, became my key research assistant. NOTE: for the sake of...
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