Essay 1 The novel All Our Kin was written by anthropologist Carol Stack about a poor, black neighborhood in the Midwest known as the Flats. As a white, middle class woman, Carol Stack was already at a major disadvantage in gaining acceptance into The Flats. Other anthropologists told her that it would be dangerous for her to research The Flats and if she does, she should only interact with “higher status” members of the community. Stack decided that she would find families on her own and succeeding by becoming friends with the residents and accompanying them in their everyday lives. In Labor and Legality, Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz conducts ethnography on a group of undocumented Mexican immigrants named “the Lions”, after their hometown Leon, Mexico. Gomberg-Muñoz worked in a restaurant with the Lions and developed friendships with them, interviewed the Lions, spent time in their company. She also went to Mexico with the Lions and interviewed their families and other people outside their social network. Both novels deal with people who live in (or were living in) poverty and have been disenfranchised by the American government. All Our Kin addresses strategies of coping with poverty, primarily through the use of social networks, in a neighborhood known as the Flats. Labor and Legality does not delve into poverty much; instead, it focuses on …show more content…
The residents of the Flats support each other by participating in an activity known as swapping. Swapping is a crucial survival method of where goods and services get redistributed across families, as resources are scarce and funds run low. Without swapping, a family could fall into crisis because it is unable to meet its needs, whether it may be food, diapers, clothing, or rent money. Swapping helps families stay afloat despite the high cost of living. Because of swapping, there are low rates of starvation and homelessness in the
In a story of identity and empowerment, Juan Felipe Herrera’s poem “Borderbus” revolves around two Honduran women grappling with their fate regarding a detention center in the United States after crawling up the spine of Mexico from Honduras. While one grapples with their survival, fixated on the notion that their identities are the ultimate determinant for their future, the other remains fixated on maintaining their humanity by insisting instead of coming from nothingness they are everything. Herrera’s poem consists entirely of the dialogue between the two women, utilizing diction and imagery to emphasize one’s sense of isolation and empowerment in the face of adversity and what it takes to survive in America.
They lived there because they were poor and black, and they stayed there because they believed they were ugly.” (1.2.1) consistently focusing on that the Breedloves ' property is not simply momentary; she highlights that it is involved. Their race as well as their self-loathing and mental issues hold them down. Dunbar underlined in his piece the seriousness of the agony and enduring that these covers attempt to conceal. When he says “ And mouth with myriad subtleties” There 's an entire host of “subtleties” that play into the distinctive classifications of society and class, particularly when you 're managing the unstable world of racial prejudices. This family is facing hardships due to social class and race Morrison addresses the misfortunes which African Americans experienced in their movement from the country South to the urban North from 1930 to 1950. They lost their feeling of group, their association with their past, and their way of
A leading American historian on race, policing, immigration, and incarceration in the United States, Kelly Lytle Hernandez’s Migra! A History of the U.S. Border Patrol tells the story of how Mexican immigrant workers emerged as the primary target of the United States Border Patrol and how, in the process, the United States Border Patrol shaped the history of race in the United States. Migra! also explores social history, including the dynamics of Anglo-American nativism, the power of national security, and labor-control interests of capitalistic development in the American southwest. In short, Migra! explains
Harvest of the Empire is a valuable tool to gaining a better understanding of Latinos. This book helps people understand how varied Latino’s in the United States are. The author also helped give insight as to how Americans reacts to differences within itself. It does this by giving a description of the struggles that every Latino immigrant faced entering the United States. These points of emphasis of the book were explained thoroughly in the identification of the key points, the explanation of the intersection of race, ethnicity, and class, in addition to the overall evaluation of the book.
Sacrificing a leg, arm, hand, foot, or even a life is what immigrants go through when crossing the border from Mexico to the United States. Enrique’s Journey: The True Story of a Boy Determined to Reunite with His Mother by Sonia Nazario in 2006. Sonia Nazario being an American journalist and daughter of Argentinean immigrants. This novel can be classified as a biography. Enrique’s Journey involves many themes; however, the main theme of the book is family. Mothers ‘abandoning’ their children and then reuniting. Another main theme would be immigration, which connects the book to history. The author’s purpose is for one to be able to transport themselves into the characters shoes by having sympathy. As well as to those who have empathy and suffered through the same or similar experiences. This will review the overall point of Enrique’s Journey and my own critique of the book itself.
Martinez, Demetria. 2002. “Solidarity”. Border Women: Writing from la Frontera.. Castillo, Debra A & María Socorro Tabuenca Córdoba. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 168- 188.
Crouch, Ned. Mexicans & Americans : Cracking The Cultural Code. NB Publishing, Inc., 2004. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 21 Nov. 2011.
Ngai, Mae M. 2004 “Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America” Publisher: Princeton University Press.
As long as civilizations have been around, there has always been a group of oppressed people; today the crucial problem facing America happens to be the discrimination and oppression of Mexican immigrants. “Mexican Americans constitute the oldest Hispanic-origin population in the United States.”(57 Falcon) Today the population of Mexican’s in the United States is said to be about 10.9%, that’s about 34 million people according to the US Census Bureau in 2012. With this many people in the United States being of Mexican descent or origin, one would think that discrimination wouldn’t be a problem, however though the issue of Mexican immigrant oppression and discrimination has never been a more prevalent problem in the United States before now. As the need for resolve grows stronger with each movement and march, the examination of why these people are being discriminated against and oppressed becomes more crucial and important. Oppression and Anti-discrimination organizations such as the Freedom Socialist Organization believe that the problem of discrimination began when America conquered Mexican l...
Labor and Legality by Ruth Gomberg-Munoz is an intense ethnography about the Lions, undocumented immigrants working in a Chicago restaurant as busboys. The ten undocumented men focused on in Gomberg-Munoz’s are from Leon, Mexico. Since they are from Leon, they are nicknamed the Lions in English. She describes why they are here. This includes explaining how they are here to make a better future for their family, if not only financially, but every other way possible. Also, Gomberg-Munoz focuses on how Americans see “illegal aliens”, and how the Lions generate social strategies, become financially stable, stay mentally healthy, and keep their self-esteem or even make it better. Gomberg-Munoz includes a little bit of history and background on “illegal”
Jose Antonio Vargas’s article on My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant is a writing about his childhood journey from the Philippines to the United States as an Undocumented Immigrant. Vargas writes this article to emphasize the topic of immigrant and undocumented immigrant in the United States. He uses all three appeals: pathos, ethos, and logic in his writing, in specific, he mostly uses pathos throughout of his entire article with a purpose for the reader to sympathize and to feel compassion for him. The use of these appeals attract many readers, they can feel and understand his purpose is to ask for others to join and support other people who undocumented immigrant like himself. In addition, it gives other undocumented immigrant people courage
. . She grew up in a black neighborhood that was one of the poorest and most dangerous in the country; I grew up in a safe, quiet middle-class neighborhood in a predominately white city and went to high school with a total of two black students. I was a science journalist who referred to all things supernatural as “woo-woo stuff”; Deborah believed Henrietta’s spirit lived on in her cells” (p. 7). Here, Skloot tells us where herself and Deborah Lacks are from and their feelings about “supernatural” occurrences. Skloot draws a contrast between the backgrounds and sentiments of herself and Deborah to demonstrate the differences that upbringing and environmental influences can arouse in two people; Skloot introduces the dynamic of race to demonstrate that race and economic status were, and still are, prevalent issues in relation to the success of two racially different groups.
The contrast between the Mexican world versus the Anglo world has led Anzaldua to a new form of self and consciousness in which she calls the “New Mestiza” (one that recognizes and understands her duality of race). Anzaldua lives in a constant place of duality where she is on the opposite end of a border that is home to those that are considered “the queer, the troublesome, the mongrel and the mulato” (25). It is the inevitable and grueling clash of two very distinct cultures that produces the fear of the “unknown”; ultimately resulting in alienation and social hierarchy. Anzaldua, as an undocumented woman, is at the bottom of the hierarchy. Not only is she a woman that is openly queer, she is also carrying the burden of being “undocumented”. Women of the borderlands are forced to carry two degrading labels: their gender that makes them seem nothing more than a body and their “legal” status in this world. Many of these women only have two options due to their lack of English speaking abilities: either leave their homeland – or submit themselves to the constant objectification and oppression. According to Anzaldua, Mestizo culture was created by men because many of its traditions encourage women to become “subservient to males” (39). Although Coatlicue is a powerful Aztec figure, in a male-dominated society, she was still seen
A main theme in this novel is the influence of family relationships in the quest for individual identity. Our family or lack thereof, as children, ultimately influences the way we feel as adults, about ourselves and about others. The effects on us mold our personalities and as a result influence our identities. This story shows us the efforts of struggling black families who transmit patterns and problems that have a negative impact on their family relationships. These patterns continue to go unresolved and are eventually inherited by their children who will also accept this way of life as this vicious circle continues.
Throughout the story, the writer uses the different lives of an African family and their union with an African American to show the cultural rift that occurs. Their daily lives show how people of different cultures strive to live together under the same roof. The clash of cultures is portrayed in the way they react to each other in the different circumstances.