Due to California’s geographic location and rich history, it is a state that can efficiently depict the immigrant experience theme. Although an immigrant, also known as an irregular migrant, can come from any nation or ethnicity, there seems to be a commonality in their treatment. The following collection of excerpts and literary works focus on the perspective of the treatment of irregular migrants and the bevy of effects that follow. For the effects of oppression, as seen throughout history, do not cease after de jure discrimination ends. Alienation and a feeling of lack of nationality are common sentiments felt by sons and daughters of irregular migrants. Pervasive and malignant ideologies are formulated about immigrants. Their image is falsely …show more content…
Nina is a daughter to a Japanese mother and a Polish American father, and grew up in Japan, Wisconsin and Los Angeles. This multiethnic upbringing has allowed Nina to peer into different lenses that allow her to attempt to speak as a member of the dominant race, yet able to feel the injustices against immigrants. After receiving her B.A. from Yale University Nina Revoyr continued her literary education at Cornell University, where she began writing her first novel “The Necessary Hunger.” Between her B.A and her M.F.A Nina taught English in Japan for two years. After she received her M.F.A. Nina taught at Antioch University and is currently the executive vice president and chief operating officer of Children’s Institute Inc. Also, Nina Revoyr commonly uses her sexuality as a means to fuel her literary works. Her most notable works …show more content…
At the age of seventeen Carlos immigrated to America and worked in the West Coast fields during the Depression era. Records on Carlos Bulosan are ambiguous and uncertain, but some details remain to be widely agreed on. He grew up on a rural environment in a lower class family of seven total. An unhealthy Carlos Bulosan quickly realized that Filipinos were being socially and economically exploited. He sharpened his reading and writing skills by spending a great amount of time at his public library, and began to publish poetry to describe the experiences around him. Carlos’ radical and intellectual views have been described as a voice and as a representation for the poor and oppressed Filipino, immigrant minorities. Although Carlos Bulosan is also seen as a pioneer for Immigrant Filipinos, his writings and voice weren’t long lived due to his frailty and illnesses. He died on September 11, 1956 in Seattle, Washington. A few of his notable works
Family Dinners: gone. Lunch at the new greek place: gone. Meeting up with friends for coffee: gone
In his book, “…And the Earth Did Not Devour Him,” author Tomás Rivera documents through a fictional non-traditional novel, the life experiences of a child that endured many difficulties, he describes the hope, struggles, and tragedies of the Mexican-American migrant workers in the 40s and 50s, and how they travel from home to work to survive. The book’s focus is in Texas, although other areas are mentioned throughout the United States. Divided into 14 different short stories and 13 vignettes the author records the predicament of the Mexican-American migrant workers in Texas and explains how the migrants had to overcome constant discriminatory actions by the White Americans and endure difficult living situations because of poverty as well as unsatisfactory job
In Amin Ahmad’s I belong here, the reader is faced with a sense of sympathy that makes the reader’s view of the world, not only questionable, but alterable. This personal experience, written in the year 2010 shames the fact that this world has and shows how little progress the world has made in the judgment and discrimination of immigrants. These people look differently, speak differently, and live differently; but on the inside they are the same. Nonetheless, they are looked down upon by people from different cultures. The author uses his personal ethos and pathos to support the claim of value that immigrants are not treated fairly.
The English immigrants are given a brief introduction as the first ethnic group to settle in America. The group has defined the culture and society throughout centuries of American history. The African Americans are viewed as a minority group that were introduced into the country as slaves. The author depicts the struggle endured by African Americans with special emphasis on the Civil War and the Civil Rights movement. The entry of Asian Americans evoked suspicion from other ethnic groups that started with the settlement of the Chinese. The Asian community faced several challenges such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and the mistreatment of Americans of Japanese origin during World War II. The Chicanos were the largest group of Hispanic peoples to settle in the United States. They were perceived as a minority group. Initially they were inhabitants of Mexico, but after the Westward expansion found themselves being foreigners in their native land (...
In a country full of inequities and discriminations, numerous books were written to depict our unjust societies. One of the many books is an autobiography by Richard Wright. In Black Boy, Wright shares these many life-changing experiences he faced, which include the discovery of racism at a young age, the fights he put up against discriminations and hunger, and finally his decision of moving Northward to a purported better society. Through these experiences which eventually led him to success, Wright tells his readers the cause and effect of racism, and hunger. In a way, the novel The Tortilla Curtain by T.C Boyle illustrates similar experiences. In this book, the lives of two wealthy American citizens and two illegal immigrants collided. Delaney and Kyra were whites living in a pleasurable home, with the constant worry that Mexicans would disturb their peaceful, gated community. Candido and America, on the other hand, came to America to seek job opportunities and a home but ended up camping at a canyon, struggling even for cheapest form of life. They were prevented from any kind of opportunities because they were Mexicans. The differences between the skin colors of these two couples created the hugest gap between the two races. Despite the difficulties American and Candido went through, they never reached success like Wright did. However, something which links these two illegal immigrants and this African American together is their determination to strive for food and a better future. For discouraged minorities struggling in a society plagued with racism, their will to escape poverty often becomes their only motivation to survive, but can also acts as the push they need toward success.
Immigrants were held for long periods of time before they could get into America. People who had to send here were Steerages, a lower class, they had been “named” by the medical exams “E” for eye trouble, “K” for hernia, “L” for lameness, “X for mental defects, “H” for heart disease, Mary Gordon, 1987. In the other hand, Angel Island and Ellis Island had many differences between them. Ellis Island was in the East coast, Upper New York Bay. In additional, Ellis Island was a castle garden, and it was used for immigrants from Europe. “Immigrants could pass through Ellis Island in mere hours, though for some the process took days”, May Gordon, 1987. The immigrants who passed Ellis Island had been treated by terrible things such as “stolen their names and chalked their weaknesses in public on their clothing” Marry Gordon, 1987. Immigrants who had to go to the Angel Island was treated worse. They would be separated men from women and children at the moment they had arrived. Then they had to do the medical exams which required undressing in front of strangers. If they fail the test for various diseases they would be deported immediately. After all of the examinations, the immigrants did not pass through yet, they would wait in a detention dormitory and a bunk until the interrogation process, and this process took a few days to months. In conclusion, I rather to live in Ellis Island and
Immigration has existed around the world for centuries, decades, and included hundreds of cultures. Tired of poverty, a lack of opportunities, unequal treatment, political corruption, and lacking any choice, many decided to emigrate from their country of birth to seek new opportunities and a new and better life in another country, to settle a future for their families, to work hard and earn a place in life. As the nation of the opportunities, land of the dreams, and because of its foundation of a better, more equal world for all, the United States of America has been a point of hope for many of those people. A lot of nationals around the world have ended their research for a place to call home in the United States of America. By analyzing primary sources and the secondary sources to back up the information, one could find out about what Chinese, Italians, Swedish, and Vietnamese immigrants have experienced in the United States in different time periods from 1865 to 1990.
Moving from the unpleasant life in the old country to America is a glorious moment for an immigrant family that is highlighted and told by many personal accounts over the course of history. Many people write about the long boat ride, seeing The Statue of Liberty and the “golden” lined streets of New York City and how it brought them hope and comfort that they too could be successful in American and make it their home. Few authors tend to highlight the social and political developments that they encountered in the new world and how it affected people’s identity and the community that they lived in. Authors from the literature that we read in class highlight these developments in the world around them, more particularly the struggles of assimilating
When Spaniards colonized California, they invaded the native Indians with foreign worldviews, weapons, and diseases. The distinct regional culture that resulted from this union in turn found itself invaded by Anglo-Americans with their peculiar social, legal, and economic ideals. Claiming that differences among these cultures could not be reconciled, Douglas Monroy traces the historical interaction among them in Thrown Among Strangers: The Making of Mexican Culture in Frontier California. Beginning with the missions and ending in the late 1800s, he employs relations of production and labor demands as a framework to explain the domination of some groups and the decay of others and concludes with the notion that ?California would have been, and would be today, a different place indeed if people had done more of their own work.?(276) While this supposition may be true, its economic determinism undermines other important factors on which he eloquently elaborates, such as religion and law. Ironically, in his description of native Californian culture, Monroy becomes victim of the same creation of the ?other? for which he chastises Spanish and Anglo cultures. His unconvincing arguments about Indian life and his reductive adherence to labor analysis ultimately detract from his work; however, he successfully provokes the reader to explore the complexities and contradictions of a particular historical era.
This book serves as the best source of answers to those interested in questions about the origin of ethnicity and race in America. Impossible subjects is divided into seven chapters, and the first two talk about the action and practices that led to restriction, exclusion and deportation. It majorly traces back experiences of four immigrant groups which included the Filipino, Japanese, Chinese and Mexican. Ngai talks of the exclusion practices which prevented Asian entry into America and full expression of their citizenship in America. Although the American sought means of educating the Asians, they still faced the exclusion policies (Mae Ngai 18). All Asians were viewed as aliens and even those who were citizens of the USA by birth were seen as foreign due to the dominant American culture (Mae Ngai 8). Unlike the Asians, Mexicans were racially eligible to citizenship in the USA because of their language and religion. However, she argues that Mexicans still faced discrimination in the fact that entry requirements such as visa fee, tax and hygiene inspection were made so difficult for them, which prompted many Mexicans to enter into the USA illegally. Tens and thousands of Mexicans later entered into America legally and illegally to seek for employment but were seen as seasonal labor and were never encouraged to pursue American
Kessner, Thomas and Betty Boyd Caroli, “Today’s Immigrants, Their Stories.” Kiniry and Rose 343-346. Print.
The California experience of the East Bay African-Americans and the Los Angeles Native-American Indians were similar in terms of opportunity, but culturally unique. This paper will compare and contrast the experiences of Africa-Americans in the East Bay during WWII, based upon the readings of Gretchen Lemke Santangelo’s “Abiding Courage: African American Migrant Women and the East Bay Community”, and American Indians in Los Angeles, as described in the Nicholas G. Rosenthal’s work, “Reimaging Indian Country, Native American Migration and Identity in the Twentieth-Century Los Angeles.”
When we think of our national health we wonder why Americans end up obese, heart disease filled, and diabetic. Michael Pollan’s “ Escape from the Western Diet” suggest that everything we eat has been processed some food to the point where most of could not tell what went into what we ate. Pollan thinks that if America thought more about our “Western diets” of constantly modified foods and begin to shift away from it to a more home grown of mostly plant based diet it could create a more pleasing eating culture. He calls for us to “Eat food, Not too much, Mostly plants.” However, Mary Maxfield’s “Food as Thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating”, argues differently she has the point of view that people simply eat in the wrong amounts. She recommends for others to “Trust yourself. Trust your body. Meet your needs.” The skewed perception of eating will cause you all kinds of health issues, while not eating at all and going skinny will mean that you will remain healthy rather than be anorexic. Then, as Maxfield points out, “We hear go out and Cram your face with Twinkies!”(Maxfield 446) when all that was said was eating as much as you need.
Throughout history, both men and women have struggled trying to achieve unattainable goals in the face of close-minded societies. Authors have often used this theme to develop stories of characters that face obstacles and are sometimes unable to overcome the stigma that is attached to them. This inability to rise above prejudice is many times illustrated with the metaphor of hunger. Not only do people suffer from physical hunger, but they also suffer from spiritual hunger: a need to be full of life. When this spiritual hunger is not satisfied, it can destroy a life, just as physical hunger can kill as well.
Food insecurity and poor nutrition is an alarmingly large problem for low income families, especially in developing countries. Many strategies exist to fight this problem, although not many of these address all the factors contributing to it along with all the possible solutions to solve it. In many cases, multiple strategies must correlate and work together so that all the determinants of this issue are addressed and can fight food insecurity from different angles. This essay will discuss the significance of the problem, a range of possible strategies to solve the problem, and go into detail on a select few that will correlate and work together to solve different factors of food insecurity and poor nutrition.