...Ronald Takaki’s, A Different Mirror, sets off a voyage of retelling American history, however, the difference is that he includes the many minorities that took part of it. He does so by including pictures, songs, and firsthand account stories of people that lived in that era. Takaki talks about the great importance these races have in American history and how they, in fact, are part of it. He mentions that most Americans see America as a white country and view people who are not white through the “Master Narrative” filter. He defines the Master Narrative to be the teaching of American history from a white perspective, therefore enforcing the idea that Americans are only white people. Takaki challenges this idea by telling the history of a multicultural America in his book; he does so by telling a history that is inclusive of minorities, such as Mexican Americans. Therefore, teaching a more inclusive history vanishes the social distinction that separates white people and people of color. According to Takaki it is easy to misunderstand why many immigrants are not considered American; it is why he states that the master narrative is at fault. Many Americans see Mexican Americans as “aliens” and very foreign to this country. However, one...
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...of not all people around the globe. To many American historians, The Bear Flag Revolt is too fresh in their minds to forget it. The revolt took place in a span of one month between June and July of 1846 when a group of American settlers based in California felt the need to proclaim California an independent republic after revolting against the Mexican government. However, the efforts of these settlers did not last for long because as soon as after their rise, the American troops began to occupy California, and later on, it joined the union. To remind most residents of Napa and Sonoma, the mere use of the bear flag as the official state flag in California since 1911 is itself a big win for...
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...The central argument of Ronald Takaki’s book is that Americans view history through a filter called the Master Narrative of American History. Takaki states that “ this powerful and popular but inaccurate story, our county was settled by European immigrants, and Americans are white” (Takaki, 4). The Master Narrative is a small minded representation of what America is and who they are which leads to generalized thoughts that people have on a day to day basis. “ Through this filter, interpretations of ourselves and the world have been constructed, leaving many of us feeling left out of history and America itself (Takaki, 5)”. Ronald Takaki delivers his argument by including personal experiences and secondary sources while analyzing different ethnic...
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...Immigrants and Native Americans in the United States have always experienced stereotypes from people outside of their culture due to ignorance and lack of empathy. Sherman Alexie and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie use personal narrative to depict how one can easily stereotype and fit a person into a certain category. Ultimately, broadening one's view and understanding that humans innately have the same basic wants and need can eliminate stereotypes. To start, Sherman Alexie depicts the rough and depression lifestyle Native Americans have to endure living on a reservation. Using a first person perspective Alexie starts by writing how the system on a reservation is broken. He depicts this by writing “ When I spelled all the words right, she crumpled...
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...The Narrative of Illegality The discourse of “illegality” is one that has become deeply ingrained and unquestioned in our society. Although it is rooted in contradiction, the narrative surrounding “illegality” establishes these “illegal” immigrants as a threat to the creed, identity, and national security of the United States. Like other elements of the “common sense” instilled in us by neoliberal ideologies, “illegality” was constructed so capitalism and the global apartheid could continue to thrive. It is an effective measure that produces a vulnerable labor force and a never-ending supply of detainees. It does not stem from any natural principles and at its core “illegality” is arbitrary and paradoxical. “Illegality,” therefore, is nothing...
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...question. While writing any piece or publishing any book there will always be a set bias. There is only so much you can include and many times what is chosen not to be included speaks more volumes then what is included. In secondary education one is taught the history of the Americas in a Eurocentric perspective. Many of the ugly truths are hidden and many of the people we were made to believe were American heroes would largely be construed as villains to many if all the facts were presented. This has a lot to do with why its is not universally presented in such a manner, as many of the facts and ideas paint the roots of the countries foundation as villainous and the indigenous perspective is very intricate to explain. While the barriers of the ideas and terminology may be present it is still inexplicable how the history of Mesoamerica is still taught in such a Eurocentric point of view. As the first chapter of the Rodolfo F. Acuña’s book, “Occupied America: A History of Chicanos” suggests, the time period of 1492-1521 was more then just pyramids, explorers and heroes, as is the common narrative and one might be lead to believe (Acuña 1) These defining decades have layers and layers of historical events to them. It is well documented, even in...
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...Ben Martinez Professor Chavez Mexican History II May 2, 2015 Book Critique The Hunger Of Memory: And the Education of Richard Rodriguez “Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez” is an autobiography, that vividly paints and reveals a journey in which Rodriguez withstood numerous struggles in order to become the American he is currently known for. He endured what most would call a life set up for failure, yet he challenged himself and transformed from a young Mexican American to a genuine man. However Rodriguez remembers his own experience being a minority, questioning his own value and self as he grew older. Through his narrative we are able to see his core obstacle of learning to become the ideal American. Rodriquez consistently...
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...sight of the Alamo as we know it today. Lastly the Alamo is discussed as a battlefield and the way people see the Alamo today in different perspectives. The purpose for this novel is to inform the general public of the facts of the Alamo from the American and Mexican perspectives. I found this book to be a very interesting but hard read and I assure you I know a lot more about the Alamo then I ever did. Olson and Roberts do a very good job on making the reader think about how they “remember the Alamo”. Roberts and Olson appear to me as very educated historians; I do not disagree with them. Both authors examine their personal views of the historic event, while Exploring through the impact that the Alamo “story” has had on today’s society. The book brings out the events in a much more “alive” way unlike they are told today. Television and movies is an impact of the writing of The Line in the Sand. As we all know most movies are either entirely made up or they make false assumption towards reality, such as the history of the Alamo. Many people express contempt to the Alamo. In the footsteps of history we begin to learn about Santa Anna’s journey to the north and the Mexican history. Santa Anna marched north to bring Texas back under Mexican control. Santa Anna also was sometimes referred to as the “Napoleon of the West”. Like all men, Santa Anna had his strengths and weaknesses. He was an able military...
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...Immersed in American culture since she was three, Barrientos is fighting to be accepted by the Latino Community. The problem is that she struggles with speaking Spanish; her native language. In Se Habla Español, Barrientos says, Spanish is the unofficial meter of how strong a Latino’s roots truly are (Barrientos, 2004). This summary will analyze the essay “Se Habla Español” by Tanya Maria Barrientos. I will discuss Barrientos’ purpose, her audience, the genre and her tone. As a child, Barrientos was proud of not knowing how to communicate in Spanish. She believed, “speaking Spanish translated into being poor.” (as cited in Barrientos, 2004). She hated being labeled a Mexican and just wanted to fit in. Barrientos wanted nothing to do with being Latino and enjoyed just being an American who happened to from another country. As she grew older, America evolved and so did her views of being a Latina. Wanting to learn more about how Latinos lived as Spanish-Americans, she interviewed Latinos of various spectrums. She learned that if nothing else, Spanish is what ties them all together (Barrientos, 2004).Barrientos inability to speak Spanish made her feel like she couldn’t really call herself a Latina. She worried, when other Latinos see how much she struggles to speak the language, she’ll get that confused stare she witness so many times (Barrientos, 2004). Most people assume she already knows how to speak Spanish because after all, she is Guatemalan. Barrientos...
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...linguistic minority students around the world and how they struggle to cope in school and at home. Audience: Class HUM-111 and Dr. Connelly Purpose: To highlight the difficulties students have at school and at home when it comes down to learning a language which they aren’t acquainted to and the consequences of such, depending on their social background. Reflection on readings using Comparison and Contrast Maxine Hong Kingston (Tongue Tied); Richard Rodriguez (Aria); Gloria Anzaldua (How to Tame a Wild Tongue) In the short story’s ‘Tongue Tied’, ‘Aria’ and ‘How to Tame a Wild Tongue’, written by Maxine Hong Kingston, Richard Rodriguez and Gloria Anzaldua respectively, each author interrelates the issue of bilingualism and bi-culturalism as a personal, narrative-style, life experience. Their personal experience all share the same setting; them during childhood deprived of speaking their own language, struggling to get through school and get accepted in the American society and the impact on their lives as a result of such pressure. When comparing the short stories, it is clear that each individual writer share several aspects in common, as well as differences. One of the most recurring aspects that each author conveys in their short story is the notion of one’s self recognition – identity – as a child which they do not recognise when they are at school; in America. H. Kingston is Chinese, whilst Rodriguez is Mexican and Anzaldua is of Spanish origins. An example...
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...Roen−Glau−Maid: The McGraw−Hill Guide: Writing for College, Writing for Life, 2/e II. Using What You’ve Learned to Share Information The McGraw-Hill Guide: Writing for College, Writing for Life, Second Edition 4. Writing to Share Experience © The McGraw−Hill Companies, 2011 13 Reading, Inquiry, and Research ■ PART 2 | Using What You Have Learned to Share Information 57 TANYA BARRIENTOS Se Habla Español MEMOIR he man on the other end of the phone line is 1 Tanya Maria telling me the classes I’ve called about are firstBarrientos has rate: native speakers in charge, no more than six stuwritten for the dents per group. Philadelphia “Conbersaychunal,” he says, allowing the fat vow- 2 Inquirer for more than els of his accented English to collide with the sawedtwenty years. off consonants. I tell him that will be fi ne, that I’m familiar with 3 Barrientos was born in Guatethe conversational setup, and yes, I’ve studied a bit mala and raised of Spanish in the past. He asks for my name and I in El Paso, Texas. Her first novel, Frontera Street, was supply it, rolling the double r in Barrientos like a pro. published in 2002, and her second, That’s when I hear the silent snag, the momentary Family Resemblance, was pubhesitation I’ve come to expect at this part of the exlished in 2003. Her column “Unchange. Should I go into it again? Should I explain, conventional Wisdom” runs every the way I have to half a dozen others, that I am Guaweek in the Inquirer...
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...Richard Rodrigues’ exert “Aria: A memoir of a Bilingual childhood”, portrays the author’s personal story of how he lost his private self and gained his “own public identity” (67). Rodriquez links his private characteristics to his parent’s native tongue, spanish, while also linking his public image to english. The author opens up his personal memoir since the beginning, when he entered a Roman Catholic school. As a catholic kindergarten student, he resided in Sacramento, California with his siblings and his Mexican immigrant parents. His family live separated from “los gringos”, which are the caucasian in their community (63). He learn than english is “associated with gringos”(64). while viewing “Spanish as a private language” (65). He notices...
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...of a bearded man with a deep penetrating gaze and a visionary look. It is a name that probably rings a bell in the minds of many as a historical figure of the American Civil War. Some consider this great man a hero whilst others doubt the high regard and esteem with which he was held. Truth is however, that some do not have adequate information about this great man to be able to furnish a proper perception and opinion of the top tier soldier that Robert Lee was. It is in this regard that we seek to delve into the annals of recorded history and separate fact from hearsay putting the long running queries...
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...How can a writer provide his or her readers with personal insights about highly debatable themes, such as social and racial segregation impact in the fragile educational system in these United Sates–with a dash of political innuendos, as some might argue–without being deliberately facetious? Ruben Navarrette Jr., a proud Mexican America and Harvard graduate certainly aims and hit the nerve of old societal conceptions considered by him to be unfairly outdated, as he candidly elaborates a persuasive narrative in “Well, I Guess They Need Their Minority” (Maasik, Solomon 211). Navarrette sails through his writing, exposing a mix of personal frustrations and psychological torture from his early years. The article’s vivid description of a kid whose hard work and dedication to excel as a high school student ‘shooting for the starts’ and being accepted by the country’s most prestigious universities should be nothing but an inspiring tool to all young minds out there. Instead, the piece brings a harsh and dry reality picture of a world unknown to most teens; the real and spiteful world where the grown-ups live in: a place doused with prejudice, shallow in values, and worst of all, a place where skin or hair color not only imply but dictates social status and where the human rights solely sound good on the paper. Yet, while presenting his views on the hurtful reactions he encountered upon receiving good news from prestigious colleges that he’d met the standards to get in, Navarrette delves...
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...In “The Relationship between Obligation to Parents and Life Satisfaction for Vietnamese American Adults” by Tuyen D. Nguyen and Chau Nguyen we learn the Vietnamese adult children’s obligation to parents, and how young adults cope as they grow into adults. Nguyen explains that for some, Vietnamese American adults are experiencing social, economic, and cultural challenges associated with a new life in the United States but they are struggling in ways that did not significantly alter their traditional familial obligations. In his research, he surveys using primary data gathered from 95 Vietnamese American adults; this study examines the relationship between obligation to parents and life satisfaction of Vietnamese American adults. Through studying...
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