...Personal Response to Tanya Barrientos’s “ Se Habla Espanol” Honey Jupiter Strayer University English 115 Professor Charles Bretan 01/15/15 Abstract This essay “Se Habla Espanol” by Tanya Barrientos really expresses her struggle with being a Latino who does not speak Spanish. Barrientos was born in Guatemala. At the age of 3, her family moved to the United States. When Barrientos got to the States, she immediately stopped speaking Spanish. Now living in Texas, her parents decided that she could only speak, read, and write English. Barrientos made it a point to fit in with Americans. She hated didn’t like being called Mexican and hated what it seemed to mean to her. She stated, “To me, speaking Spanish translated into being poor. It meant waiting tables and cleaning hotel rooms.” (Barrientos) Barrientos saw it as a compliment not be considered Mexican. Her father wanted to show her that Mexican culture is beautiful and she should be proud of her heritage. Barrientos father sent her to Mexico for the summer in hopes that she would learn to be proud of being called Mexican. Surprisingly, her pride emerged and she wanted to learn to speak Spanish. Over the next couple of decades, the worlds’ view toward different cultures changed. It was okay to be of a different race. No one was associating Mexicans with just being waiters or housekeepers. Barrientos started taking classes, listening to tapes, and even hired a tutor. She even asked her parents to only speak Spanish to her...
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...“Like Mexicans” is a narrative essay written by author Gary Soto who is using his own personal Experience to describe his moral believes, cultural values that shaped his thinking and tried to influence his mindset. His cultural identity as a Mexican had a deep impact in shaping the principles of his life and had an impact on his attitude towards making a future decisions. Author is describing two periods of his life, when he was in his early teens around thirteen years of age and later when his emotions, thoughts and believes have changed, around his young adulthood early twenty’s . This essay talks about Gary’s childhood being raised in a closed Mexican community with the set rules and expectations of the society that every Mexican should morally obey. Everything that he learned, observed and truly believed has changed when he became a young adult. His values about life and people has drastically taken a different path in life, when he met his future wife Carolyn, who was a Japanese decent. The author very much concentrates on his grandmother and her strong influence on trying to talk Gary into marrying only a Mexican girl. For her everyone that was not Mexican would not be a fitted wife for her grandson Gary. She sais “ No Okies hijo”, “ My son married one, and they fight everyday about I don’t know what and I don’t know what”. She is using her personal unfamiliarity and unawareness about people from different backgrounds and that made her indirectly...
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...Academic Journal #1 Stacey Cayetano June 24, 2012 ENGL1035 Composing Process 1. What is the purpose of the subheading winter gardens, what is so significant about talking about God in a story named Making Babies? The purpose of the section of the story talking about God is to show the innocence of a child, how a child imagination can run wild and bring up questions that leave the parents wondering or trying to formulate how to answer in a way that doesn’t hurt their feelings or make them believe that what they think is correct. It also shows the difficulties of being parents how you as a human being doesn’t have the answers for everything but you should know how to answers your children doubts and curiosity. This part of the story also shows how religion has an influence on a child life and no matter how much you try to hide it the questions of supernatural being will always arise. 2. What is the significance of an entire community being involved with the birth and development of a child and why? From reading the story it is stated that the entire community is not involved in the birth and development of a child. It is just the parents and grandparents of the child that are involved with the birth. The community needs to help and being involved for the days that the mother and child are in isolation. With the help from the community, the child will have a variety of people that will help him or her during their development and help with the discipline...
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...Alexandra Ortiz English 120 Professor DiFranco Essay #2 Sacramento Both Ernesto Galarza’s “Barrio Boy” and Joan Didion’s “Notes From a Native Daughter” write about Sacramento’s past. Both authors talk about Sacramento during two different time periods. Joan Didion talks about the mid-century and Ernesto Galarza talks about the early 20th century. Although both author’s perspective of Sacramento differs from era to era, there are differences in certain characteristics described by both authors. Galarza’s essay focuses on an immigrant point of view arriving into Sacramento versus Didion’s experiences as a native decedent of Sacramento. Joan Didion’s Sacramento is a very different place compared to Ernesto Galarza’s , for him it’s an immigrant place where Mexican, Yugoslavs, Chinese and many other different cultures come together to make one home. For Joan Didion, Sacramento is a place that with the pas of time and the changes that has come with time, have forced memories to be lost and most importantly identities. Didion highlights the true nature of Californian lifestyle and how with its gradual disappearance more than the past is being lost, but a new generation is also losing an understanding of its true roots, its true history and as a result a loss of knowledge. The loss of knowledge is equivalent to the loss of identity because if one doesn’t know where they came from how one can truly know who they are. Didion talks about her own experiences as a child in Sacramento...
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...The Effects of Clashing Cultures Our world today is populated with distinctive cultures and their unique languages, communication, beliefs, etc. that make our universe exquisitely diverse. As human beings, we tend to adapt to our own culture quite fast and we become used to perceiving our group of people as the only thing that is "good." We fear wanting to assimilate or broaden our knowledge to other cultures, for it is our natural instinct to shut out anything unfamiliar to us. In her essay, "Arts of the Contact Zone," Mary Louise Pratt argues for importance of understanding the point where two cultures clash, the contact zone, and that it can be powerful to engage in one's culture by expanding our grasp of knowledge and wisdom in the diversity we live in today. Pratt introduces three major concepts in her argument that exemplify the objective of her essay: the contact zone, autoethnographic texts, and transculturation. Upon viewing two other pieces by Richard Rodriguez, “The Achievement of Desire” and Gloria Anzaldua’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” Rodriguez and Anzaldua demonstrate Pratt's argument by supporting her concepts about the influence of contact zones between two juxtaposing cultures. In her argument, "Arts of the Contact Zone," Pratt introduces the theme of her argument, the contact zones: the point where cultures clash and come together in unison. Where one culture has a lot more power than the other. A contact zone is the root of how...
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...transmit complicated ideas or even to hurt people. Generally speaking, using the language correctly allows people to communicate better, compared with animals. However, we live in a big world, which has more than 6 billion people now. With the existence of many different languages, the issues of translation are generated. After reading Alberto Rios essay – Translating Translation: Finding the Beginning, I know Rios understands languages and translation in complex and stratified ways, from cultures and manners. He writes “Language is more than what we say – it’s also how we say it, and whether or not we even understand what we are saying. ” in his short essay (508). It can be understood easily why Rios pays so much attention to languages and translation. He grew up on the southwestern borderlands, having a Mexican father and an English mother. (504) The place he grew up is a place where cultures of the United States and Mexico meet and collide. Based on his own experience of dealing with different cultures and different languages, he points out how to say is more significant than what we say. The elements making his essay to be persuasive and compelling is worth to be analyzed, such as his personal background, the examples of his experience he gives, the way he arrange the examples and the his unique writing style. Rios’ personal background not only determine the topics he prefers to write about languages, but also make his writing on these topics become more convincing...
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...of the most important aspects of this highly controversial topic, relate to America’s economy and culture. Certain people, such as Anna Quidlen, author of essay “Immigration: Newcomers by Numbers”, believe that America relies on both legal and illegal immigrants to boost our economy and help our nation become more universal. My research presents the other side of this argument, by showing how illegal immigration has actually threatened our nation’s economy and culture more so than anything else. I originally agreed with Anna Quindlen, after reading her essay; all of her points describing the economic benefits America receives by employing undocumented workers seemed reasonable and accurate. Her plea states that they are just regular people in search of work, trying to make a better life for themselves and their families. I’m sure this is true in a lot of cases but unfortunately, there are more repercussions for allowing illegal immigrants to stay in our country than what meets the eye. Yes, it is true that these Mexican workers will take jobs that Americans turn down and yes, they will do them for cheaper. So in that sense, yes, illegal workers do benefit our economy, “but what is good for corporate America is not necessarily what is good for Middle America (Buchanan 49).” Simply paying taxes and filling lower income jobs such as farmhands, construction workers, and maids does not outweigh the drainage that the illegal immigrants put on our healthcare, welfare, schools, prisons...
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..."It is education that has altered my life. Carried me far." This quote was drawn from the story "The Hunger of Memory." In this essay I will answer the prompt "To what extent does a person's culture inform the way we view others and the world." I will defend that prompt by saying "Our culture always informs the way we view people or the world around us." In the stories "Everyday use", "Hunger of Memory" and " Indian Father Plea." They are all good examples of my thesis statement because they use three areas of culture such as education, family and ethnicity. Those all help to explain how culture shapes the way we view things. A person’s culture influences the way that he or she looks at and interacts with the world. For example, in the story "Everyday Use" education plays a big role in the story." She used to read to us without pity; forcing words, lies, other folks’ habits, whole lives upon us two, sitting trapped and ignorant underneath her voice. She washed us in a river of make-believe, burned us with a lot of knowledge we didn’t necessarily need to know." Mama speaks these words in reference to Dee’s formative years. Rather than her daughter’s intelligence and accomplishments triggering pride in Mama, Dee’s schooling prompts fear and intimidation in her instead. Education is the means through which Dee rejects and belittles her family, thus leading to division and alienation. At the same time, knowledge is a provocation, reminding Mama of the exposure and opportunities...
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...The city of Chicago has long been considered a prime destination for many immigrant groups coming into the United States. Though, despite its popularity, the city has long shown disdain and disregard for those coming into its borders. This argument is made apparent through the stories of both the Polish and the Mexicans and Puerto Ricans who have come into the city. In the case of the Polish, author and historian, Dominic Pacyga writes on their story and ordeal in his work, Polish Immigrants and Industrial Chicago. His work specifically focuses on Polish in the South Side of Chicago between the years of 1880 and 1922. Pacyga paints a dismal picture for the Chicago Polish communities at the time. Often, many found low paying work in either the...
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...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. This essay originally appeared in the collectemalan...
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...What White Privilege?!! Explanation! I'm not saying that privilege doesn't exist, I'm saying that as far as White Privilege goes in Modern Society, it is an anthill being transformed into a Mountain to push an agenda. I agree with Black Conservative and Economist Thomas Sowell when he argues that moral condemnation of discrimination doesn't automatically make it causally crucial, that having a majority in any society is a given, that the idea of a homogonized "white" group in society that is accepted and given privileges is erroneous. The theory of White Privilege fails to give an accurate definition/ analysis of barriers in society and the idea that large amounts of minorities or lagging majorities (in other countries) is due to a privilege ethnic or race group, is flawed and racist. First, while the idea of condemning discrimination against members of our species is important, it is by no means causally crucial. People forget sometimes that there are other races outside black and white when it comes to this subject. Once other races are involved you start getting different results, stats and causes. What about the difference in test scores for Japanese and Mexican American kids for example. In his essay Race, Culture and Equality, Mr. Sowell writes: Japanese and Mexican immigrants began arriving in California at about the same time and initially worked in very similar occupations as agricultural laborers. Yet a study of a school district in which their children...
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...Expressive Essay (Observation, Ethnography or Memoir) First Draft ENC 1101 – CR Junkins Purpose: What do I want the student to do? In this course, we will explore the two most commonly used forms of writing for college students: expressive writing and academic writing. Expressive writing captures what is important to the writer. In order to succeed, writers must understand themselves. Such writing is deeply personal. Expressive writing is designed to prepare students for writing outside academics—communicating feelings and observations, beliefs and opinions, community and individuality—all skill sets that will enable students to succeed in any discipline or career path. From a learning perspective, expressive writing is often an easier form of writing than academic. It allows students to begin working with such concepts as language, reasoning and mechanics while working with material they find worth discussing. In this assignment, I want students to carefully examine both themselves and their community. What makes their community unique? What is their place within the community? How did their unique, individual personality take shape? Project Overview: How do I want the student to do the assignment? Component One: Personal Students will choose to write on one of the following three topics: • One’s sense of place (observation) • One’s place within a community (ethnography) • One’s relationship to an event from the past (memoir) ...
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...ADVERTISING EFFECTIVENESS AMONG MEXICAN-AMERICAN YOUTH by MELISSA MAIER BISHOP Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Arlington in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON December 2006 Copyright © by Melissa Maier Bishop 2006 All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A wise professor told me before starting my PhD work to not forget my distractions. Therefore, this work is dedicated to my three favorite distractions—my husband Jeff and my two sons, Abel and Peyton. Thank you, Jeff, for all of your encouragement, your support, and your shoulder to lean on and your ear to listen during the past five years as we’ve come together on this journey. Thank you, Abel and Peyton, for sharing me with my studies and for often keeping me company while I studied for my exams and wrote my papers. Thank you also to my wonderful committee who were all so encouraging and patient with me, especially my Chair, Dr. Mark Peterson. Your excitement for my ideas inspired me as well as your belief in me. You have an unselfish and self-sacrificing nature that shines through you, and you are a gift to all of your students. Many thanks also to Dr. Roger Dickinson, who was a great support to me over the past five years and a big reason I decided to join the program in the first place. Thanks to my parents and to Jeff’s parents for helping me out in so many ways during this...
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...American Studies American Studies can be a variety of different meanings to a lot of different authors. They are all pretty much on the same note, but with different alterations. For me, I believe that it is to make connections between the past and how it will impact the future. American Studies has transformed overtime. Each individual has their own beliefs and feelings of what it really means. In Gene Wise’s article he states how he is interested in how the field of American Studies has transformed overtime, what American Studies methodology is, and the types of questions that American Studies practitioners ask. I believe that there is no one way to understand America. For Gene, he begins to understand America by looking into the past. On the other hand, there was also the Linda Kerber essay that we had also read at the beginning of the semester. Kerber was saying in her article that there was something that was wrong with the myth and symbolist methodology. She also talked about how there are new approaches and diversity in the field and how it has altered the ways that American Studies practitioners write, teach, and learn. What interested me most in her article is how American Studies was quicker to welcome women and ethnic studies. I believe the answer to this is simply that the women represent a larger group and they are more out spoken. Kerber also saw a great deal of chauvinism with the myth symbolist methodology, as well as this certain approach not looking for structures...
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...UNIT 1 Special Note: The argumentative essay is a very useful test of a student’s ability to think logically. Argue: v. 1. to persuade someone to do or not do something. 2. to give the reasons for your opinion, idea, belief, etc. Argumentative: adj. someone who is argumentative often argues or like arguing. Argument: n. a set of reasons that show that something is true or untrue, right or wrong etc. When you have an opinion and try to convince your listener or reader to accept your opinion, you are agreeing with or disagreeing with something. For example: In an everyday situation, you may try to convince a friend to go somewhere or in a composition or speech class, the instructor may make an assignment in which you must support or oppose the use of nuclear energy to produce electricity. If you agree or disagree on an issue, you will want your reader or listener to accept your point of view. There are a few types of argumentative compositions such as: 1. Advantages and disadvantages 2. Expressing opinions/providing solutions to problems 3. Expressing arguments for and against a topic 4. Compare and contrast something or somebody PURPOSE of ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAYS * An argument follows when two groups disagree about something. * People can have different opinions and can offer reasons in support...
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