A hero is someone who invests their time helping others rather than themselves. They are always conscious of their surroundings and environment. Heroes help their enemies and friends regardless of the circumstances. A hero is also someone who is humble and knows when to be protective of others and themselves. Heroes are people who acknowledge flaws, and fix mistakes, those were my own definition of a hero. In “Undocumented Immigrant”, Jose Antonio Vargas tells the truth about his illegal status in the United States. Not only was he an immigrant in the United States, he was his own hero. Vargas proved that he is a hero through code switching, bravery and honesty. There aremoments in life where people have to code switch whether it is for a …show more content…
When he was in high school, it was brought to his attention that Harvey Milk was assassinated because of his sexual orientation. Vargas mentions that “[d]uring the class discussion, [he] raised [his] hand and said something like: I’m sorry Harvey Milk got killed for being gay… I’ve been meaning to say this… I’m gay.” In the past, people were assassinated because of the color of their skin, but Vargas felt that it was wrong to be assassinated for who one really is. Since Vargas was not afraid to announce his sexual orientation, now, he is not afraid anymore to announce his life as an undocumented immigrant. Being part of the LGBTQ community was not something that people would conform too. It was very disappointing when Vargas grandparents found out about his sexual interest: because Vargas is Catholic and being gay is a sin. In the article, Vargas mentions, “as a Catholic, he considered homosexuality a sin and was embarrassed about having a [gay grandson]. Even worse, I was making it difficult for myself, he said. I needed to marry an American woman in order to gain a green card” (Vargas 5). Many immigrants marry Americans as an advantage of getting a green card. Vargas did not want to take advantage of anyone. Most of the things Vargas accomplished he accomplished himself. However, he did receive help from his grandparents by coming to the United States with an uncle he did not know about. Vargas life worked in mysterious ways, and he overcame his obstacles by speaking truth. It gets tiring telling
Being a hero means to be willing to risk your life for others. Such as, Pat Tillman. Pat Tillman was a fantastic football player and he loved playing it too. Despite that, Pat Tillman turned down a 3.6million dollar contract to the Arizona Cardinals to go fight the war against terrorism. He ended up dieing from friendly fire. All this goes to show how brave Pat Tillman was to risk his life and give up his football career to go fight in Afghanistan to help protect the American people. Likewise, the people that helped evacuate New York City after the
Jose Vargas, an undocumented immigrant, believes hard work can greatly impact the ability to gain citizenship in the United States. In the article “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant” Vargas explains his life and how much he struggled lying his way through school and work. To persuade the reader to believe that he should be considered an American citizen, Vargas uses rhetorical strategies throughout his essay. Vargas’ use of pathos was very effective because it caused the reader to empathize for him and providing information about his background made his character more reliable through ethos, however his lack of logos made a big difference throughout his article.
Illegal immigrants has many background stories about how they survived through the journey and afterward. No one really knows about their life story until people actually read about them or know them in person. Many people leave their family members and come to the United States just for better job, education and life in general. Jose Antonio Vargas is also an illegal immigrant who came to the United States as a child with a stranger, leaving his mother behind. He didn’t know that he was an illegal immigrant until he went to get his driver 's license. Ever since he was ashamed of himself and wanted to reveal himself. That’s why he wrote an essay called “my life as an undocumented immigrant” in the New York Times magazine to tell everyone that he is an
There are millions of people who attempt to cross the border every day. These people cross the border from different countries to the United States to live a better life, to provide for their loved ones, and to live the American Dream. The American Dream is to be able to spend time with family while paying the house bills and the car bill all while having a job. People migrating to the United States could be an advantage and a disadvantage in the United States. In “The Crossing” by Ruben Martinez the social issue is immigration. Immigration is a problem in this story because we see a lot of immigrants trying to migrate to the United States. Ruben Martinez mentions in the short story “The Crossing” This desert is armed with Mexican and American
"Why did she sing when she can’t even pronounce the words right? Haha that F.O.B. is so stupid!" These were the haunting words that I overheard my classmate utter to her friend as I was walking off the stage from my solo singing performance, cold sweat trickling down my face and warm tears welling up as my vision got blurry. These words remained etched in my memory as I was constantly reminded of the fact that I needed to improve my American accent to conform and assimilate into the American society.
The policies implemented by the United States to strengthen the border and enforce immigration policies have led to the abuse and profiling of undocumented immigrants. Undocumented immigrants live in constant fear of deportation and are subjected to multiple human rights violations as they are abused, exploited and discriminated against. Immigrants are racialized and stereotyped. The US government has passed laws that discriminate against undocumented immigrants, making it harder for them to live and survive in America. These laws are due to the perception that undocumented immigrants are a burden on the US economy, but on the contrary undocumented immigrants provide an economic benefit to the US, and due to the benefit they provide society
Some countries of Latin America such as Venezuela, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Panama have been experienced economic problems the past years. Since there is no way to solve that problems, people have to migrate to another country such as the US because they are looking for a better life. They pick the United States because it is one of the most stable, well organized and safe country in the world. For those reason Latinos decided to move to the US, however, moving to the US is not an easy decision to make because Americans are not familiar with Latino immigrants due to problems that they have been had with Mexicans, so Americans established many rules that make immigrants get in troubles if they do something stupid when they try to enter in
What is a hero? A hero can be classified as a number of things. A hero can be a person who in the opinions of others has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal. Ervin Staub, a holocaust survivor from Hungary and as scholar on altruistic behavior, has written, "Goodness like evil often begins in small steps. Heroes evolve; they aren't born. Very often the rescuers make only a small commitment at the start, to hide someone for a day or two. But once they had taken that step, they begin to see themselves differently, as someone who helps. What starts as mere willingness becomes intense involvement." The business man, Oskar Schindler, demonstrated a powerful example
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
A hero is a man who is distinguished by exceptional courage, nobility. and strength to carry out tasks that involve great risks. A hero can also be a person who fights for other people to help or save them. from their fears and fears. He opposes the villain - a person who does wicked or intentionally harm others in some way, emotionally or otherwise.
In "Like Mexicans" by Gary Soto, it begins with the statement, “Again I dream” and then further explains a descriptive detail of a meal that only existed through his mind of imagination because of his economic stance. One of the primary points in the poem is the critique of poverty stricken culture of several Mexican and Mexican-American families. An example of the most compelling lines of the poem is his concluding two lines: “let the day end and us begin, the fork, the knife, the plate, all useless.” The selection of words highlights a compelling portrait of himself fantasizing the world where hunger is not prevalent to him, but shortly understands it was an escape and represents a harsh reality of no purpose to have kitchen utensils because
In my opinion, a hero is someone whose principal purpose, whether it be in one situation or over the span of their entire life, is to help others while simultaneously making the world a better place. When the word hero is brought up, the most prevailing image that comes to mind is superheroes like Batman and Superman. But I don’t think you have to have superpowers or even be well known in order to be a hero. There are people all over the world whose intention is to do selfless deeds and go out of their way for others without expectation of obtaining anything in return. These are the type of people I like to consider everyday heroes. They go through life just trying to be the best they can and trying to help as many people as they can. Whether
Webster’s dictionary defines a hero as any man admired for his courage, qualities or exploits, especially in war. Some people attribute the term hero mostly to war. My personal definition of a hero is someone who takes a stand against evil or an unjust cause. The term hero can be applied to anyone, it isn’t necessary to save the world from explosion to be a hero. The act of standing up for a friend can also be called a heroic act.
Furthermore, Vargas faced many personal and career obstacles in his story. For example, at the age of 12 his mother sent him thousands of miles away to live with Vargas’s grandparents in America who were both naturalized citizens because she wanted to give him a better life. After Vargas arrived in San Francisco, he fell in love with the area and loved living with his grandparents. As years went by, Vargas, who was 16 at this time, went to the D.M.V. to get his driver’s permit, but fortunately the clerk working at the office told Vargas that his Green Card was fake and never to come back. After questioning his grandparents, Vargas finds out that he was smuggled into the United States of America and all his documents were fraudulent. In Vargas’s essay, “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant”, his story fiddles with the readers emotions and makes the reader ponder the issue of immigration in the United States of
It eventually made him only want to marry a woman who was just like him, a woman who was poor. Everyone in Soto’s life wanted him to marry a Mexican girl not only because they would both be poor, but because all of his close family members married Mexicans also. Even his best friend Scott wanted him to marry a Mexican girl,