El Norte and My Family, Mi Familia, films directed by Gregory Nava, depict how Latino-Americans migrate from their native countries to the United States, challenges they face through their journeys, and the time they spend in America. Some critics say that El Norte is a stronger film politically in comparison to My Family, Mi Familia because of how El Norte keeps the journey raw and emotional. Through the trials Enrique and Rosa face as they travel from Guatemala to California, the viewer gains sympathy for them and rejoices with them when they reach Los Angeles; however, as the protagonists live in Los Angeles, we as the viewer learn through their failure to assimilate to America’s lifestyle, they will never reach their ultimate goal, the …show more content…
In the case of José, born and raised in Mexico, he had to assimilate by eventually learning English to acquire a job to support his wife, María, and his children. Movie critics may argue that Rosa and Enrique’s journey to Los Angeles has a greater impact than that of José. Traveling from Central America to North America is a hard journey to go on. While the path Rosa and Enrique had to take to reach the United States may have been more arduous, comparing the two journeys is an unfair assessment. José’s expedition to Los Angeles, while it was not shown as a visually dark time of his life, did portray how an immigrant may cross the border into America in a different way. In addition, since both films have the same director, Gregory Nava, his decision to emphasize the act of illegally crossing into America in one film and not the other allows him to the artistic license to portray other portions of life as an immigrant. In My Family, Mi Familia, Memo and Toni’s characters depicts the generational changes a family living with two cultures may …show more content…
She is said to be “bossy” by her brother Paco which causes her to not follow the traditional route of a Latino woman. She, at first, goes into a follows a nun order but then leaves to marry a priest and become a political activist. In his article, “La Movie Rara”, Daniel Enrique Pérez states, “She and her husband become radical leftists and spend the rest of their lives fight for immigrant rights (107)." In his article he is talking about the queerness of Antonia 's character. However, since she is working for the rights of immigrants, she has not completely assimilated. As far as the film goes, she is successful in this line of work by keeping Isabel, Salvadorian refugee, alive and makes this a career for herself and her husband. The level of assimilation in this character is then challenged by her brother,
The push-and-pull factors in Enrique’s yearn for the U.S not only allows him to rediscover himself as an individual in a world of uncertainty, it also eliminates his constant fear of failing as a promising human being; in addition exhibits the undying hope of a desperate man found in hopeful migrants. In Sonia Nazario’s “Enrique’s Journey,” his mother’s trip streamed “emptiness” into the heart of a once comfortable child and left him to “struggle” to hold memories they shared. Enrique’s life after Lourdes’ departure triggered the traumatizing demise of his identity. He threw this broken identity away while facing many obstacles, nevertheless each endea...
Sometimes many similarities can be found between two completely different works of literature. The poem “I am Joaquin'; and the short story “The First Seven Years'; at the same time exhibit both contrasting positions and similar ideals. Even though “I am Joaquin'; is told from Mexican-American perspective while “The First Seven Years'; is told from Jewish-American perspective, similarities are found in both. They tell of the American Dream and of the two mentioned families’ roles and influences as a means of attaining that dream. The roles of the families in these works and each version of the American Dream are based on the same ideals, but involve different methods.
The emotional letter that Juan left for his mother might be one of the most emotional scenes in the documentary. The pure emotions that the letter was written by Juan to her mother leaves the audience with the bonds and emotions felt between the kids and families. Juan Carlos’s father abandoned the family years ago and left to New York, consequently Juan believe it is his responsibility to provide for his family. He also wants to find his father in New York and confronts him about why he has forgotten about them. The story of Juan is not just about migration of children, but also the issue of family separation. The documentary does not dehumanize but rather bring the humane and sensitive lens to the story of Juan where the human drama that these young immigrants and their families live. Juan Carlos is not the first of Esmeralda’s sons to leave for the United states, his nine-year-old brother Francisco was smuggled into California one month earlier. Francisco now lives with Gloria, his grandmother, who paid a smuggler $3,500 to bring him to Los Angeles, California. Once Juan Carlos is in the shelter for child migrants his mother eagerly awaits him outside. After she sees him she signs a paper that says if Juan Carlos tries to travel again, he will be sent to a foster home.
Growing up in a Mexican-American family can be very fun and crazy. Having two different perspectives on two different cultures almost daily really shapes you to become a certain way as you grow up, which is what happened to me. Ever since I was about three months old I have been taking trips to my parents home town for a month time each time we have gone. Practically growing up in both Mexico and the United States for six years has really helped me understand my cultural background and the different parts of my whole culture, such as the food, heritage, language and culture.
Reyna Grande 's novel, Across a Hundred Mountains, focuses on the dynamic of the development and rethinking of the concept of a traditional Latino patriarchal family built up around male dominance. In low income and uneducated cultures, there are set of roles that throughout time have been passed by from generation to generation. These gender roles most often consist of the men being the breadwinner for the family. While the women stay home to cook, clean, and raise the children. Women are treated as possessions with limited rights and resources. Throughout the novel, Grandes challenges gender roles in the story of a young woman named Juana who, despite all adversity, fights stereotypes and is able to rewrite her own ending.
As a traditional, collectivistic cultural group, the Latino population is believed to adhere deeply to the value of familismo. (Arditti, 2006; Calzada, 2014). Familism is an emphasis on the importance of the family unit over values of autonomy and individualism”. (Santistaben, 2012). Family is considered to be the top priority in the Latino culture. Comparatively, at times, this isn’t true of our busy, work devoted western culture. In western culture we think of our family in a nuclear sense made up of a: mom, dad, and siblings. Conversely, Hispanic culture focuses on the whole extended family including aunts, uncles, grandparent, and cousins. Their culture believes having close connections with the entire extended family benefits the development of their children. The entire family helps the child by giving them differing levels of social and emotional support. (American Home Resolutions,
Unfortunately, the life in America is not as cheerful as Antonia taught it would be as she experiences lots of hostility, hardship, and misfortune. However, throughout all the predicaments and obstacles, Antonia preserves her beliefs and never succumbs to the values of a new, American culture in an attempt to shape her life. Antonia is a very positive, generous, hardworking, and exceptionally independent character. These innate traits of her personality follow her through the “thick and thin” as she swears by them under all the circumstances. For example, besides the language barrier and cultural differences, Antonia suffers the death of her father who committed suicide as the result of disappointment that he had experienced in America. Instead of scorning the meaning of life, she did whatever it took to provide for her family, which was experiencing an immense economics hardship. Everything that she earned, she gave to her family as she valued them over herself. Eventually, due to her wit and charm, Antonia got a job in the town where she found her passion for dance and made friends. Unfortunately, her passion for dance was viewed as inappropriate and her boss insisted that she chooses between her friends and the job. Unwilling to follow the orders and disappoint her friends, Antonia
The family is the fundamental base to learn patterns associated with behavior in society. Mexican-Americans are the largest ethnic minority group in the United States. The Mexican-American culture is mostly based on traditions and values that are passed on for generations. This is one of the main cultures in which parents teach their children the same ideals, values, norms and social roles they were taught while growing up. For Mexican-American family is essential and fundamental to their culture. The role the family plays in the development of children will influence the way they will behave in the future. Usually, the family structure of this culture is based on the trait of familism. Familism is common in Mexican descendants because it highlights
Growing up in a Mexican household where education isn’t a priority or important has been one of my major obstacles that I’ve had to overcome. Although my family’s culture believes that education isn’t necessary their experiences and lifestyles have influence and motivate my choices for my future. I come from a home where I have no role model or someone influential. I have no one to ask for advice for college or anything involve in school. In most homes, older siblings help their younger siblings with their homework or projects but in my house no one was able to provide me with any help. I grew up to be independent and to do anything school related on my own. My parents are both immigrants who didn’t get to finish elementary
The search for identity in Mexico has been a continuing exploration of many different cultures and realities. Although Mexico has an established democratic political system, cultural uniqueness has been in flux since the invasion of Spain in 1492. The Aztec culture was well instituted and was a direct decedent of the Olmec civilization that formed the Mexican identity over a thousand year reign. However over a two year attempt at genocide by the Spanish conquers the Mexicans have been struggling with an inability to recapture their roots ever since.
To help me understand and analyze a different culture, I watched the film Selena. The film tells the life story of the famous singer Selena Quintanilla-Pérez. Not only does it just tell personal stories from her life, it also gives insight to the Mexican-American culture. Her whole life she lived in the United States, specifically in Texas, but was Hispanic and because of that both her and her family faced more struggles than white singers on the climb to her success. Even though the film is a story about a specific person, it brought understanding into the culture in which she lived. Keeping in mind that these ideas that I drew about the Mexican-American culture is very broad and do not apply to every single person in the culture, there were very obvious differences in their culture and the one that I belong. Mexican-American culture identifies with their family rather than individualized or spiritual identities and the culture has gone through significant changes because of discrimination and the changing demographics of the United States.
The culture I was born and raised on was that of Mexican-American culture. My parents were born and raised in Mexico, and when they came to America and had kids, they instilled a hybrid of their culture, and American culture, in us. They were each raised in the Mexican culture, but wanted us to be raised as Americans also, and added this to our upbringing.
The film is concentrated on Mexican-American nationalism and immigration. In the beginning of the film, the main character sees himself more of an American rather than Mexican. He speaks fluently in English but does not know how to speak or comprehend proper Spanish. This is an example of involuntary language loss. Rudy, the main character, who was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, does not see himself as a white man but does not see himself as a pure Mexican either and is stuck in the in-betweens of both ‘Mexican’ and ‘American’ culture. Because of this, he is not of specific origin or descent but rather a Chicano. A mix between both cultures instead of just one.
Bestseller journalist, Sonia Nazario, in her literacy non-fiction, Enrique’s Journey, describes a young man’s journey trying to reconcile with his mother in the United States, but has to go through many obstacles to reach her. Nazario’s purpose is to inform readers about how immigration affects children and their mothers in Central America. She adopts an optimistic/determined tone in order to reveal to her readers the difficulty and bravery the children have to face to get to the United States. Nazario begins her credibility with ethos to retrace an abandon teenager’s journey through Central America, pathos to follow the mother son relationship, and logos by giving facts and statistics for illegal immigrants in the U.S.
When comparing Charles Tatum’s and Gloria Anzaldúa’s narrations of Chicano discriminated history, they both have viewpoints that are essential for the audience to know and possess different viewpoints that need to be understood. Tatum narrates Chicanos inequities in his viewpoint in 3rd person while Anzaldúa experienced the cruel treatment in first person point of view. After analyzing both texts, I found some important topics that need to be shared with the audience and why it’s currently not taught in U.S. schools as history.