As the novel unfolds, T.C. Boyle’s The Tortilla Curtain reveals underlying racial tensions between white Americans and Mexican immigrants. As the novel shifts between perspectives from both sides, the issue of immigration and the reactions to it become the main focal point. Even when not directly discussing it, the most common symbol used to represent illegal immigrants is the coyote. In The Tortilla Curtain, T.C. Boyle uses a motif of coyote symbolism to reveal the animosity white Americans have toward Mexican immigrants. When coyotes are first introduced in the novel, they immediately show a parallel to Mexican immigrants and the border. After witnessing his dog being taken by a coyote, Delaney Mossbacher describes the coyote as a “dun-colored blur scaling the six-foot chain-link fence with a tense white …show more content…
The gate is meant to keep both coyotes and immigrants out, which equates them to being a similar kind of inconvenience or nuisance. Delaney displays opposition to this proposal from the beginning declaring that “the gate was an absurdity, intimidating, and exclusionary, antidemocratic even” (42). Although he is opposed to the gate, Delaney still finds himself combatting the amount of coyotes present in the area. In a nature column, Delaney writes that “we cannot eradicate the coyote, nor can we fence him out, not even with eight feet of chain link…Respect him as the wild predator he is” (214). From the article mentioned previously mentioned, it has been proven that “coyotes react to us, and we can foster mutual respect or a lack of respect through the cues we send to the coyotes”. Both of these revelations also apply to immigrants in the sense that both groups are impossible to keep out and not all of them are
Norma Elia Cantu’s novel “Canícula: Imágenes de una Niñez Fronteriza” (“Canícula: Snapshots of a Girlhood en la Frontera”), which chronicles of the forthcoming of age of a chicana on the U.S.- Mexico border in the town of Laredo and Nuevo Laredo in the 1940s-60s. Norma Elia Cantú brings together narrative and the images from the family album to tell the story of her family. It blends authentic snapshots with recreated memoirs from 1880 to 1950 in the town between Monterrey, Mexico, and San Antonio, Texas. Narratives present ethnographic information concerning the nationally distributed mass media in the border region. Also they study controversial discourse that challenges the manner in which the border and its populations have been portrayed in the U.S. and Mexico. The canícula in the title symbolizes “The dog days of 1993,” an intense part of summer when the cotton is harvested in South Texas. The canícula also represents summer and fall; also important seasons and concepts of that bridge between child and adulthood. She describes imaginative autobioethnography life growing up on ...
In both the movie, La Misma Luna, and the newspaper series, Enrique’s Journey, migrants are faced with many issues. The most deadly and scarring issues all relate back to bandits, judicial police, and la migra or Mexican immigration officers. The problems that arise are serious to the point of rape, robbing, and beating. It is not easy crossing the border illegally and secretly, but the successful ones have an interesting or even traumatic story about how it worked for them.
When Gloria Anzaldua writes in The Homeland Aztlan “this land was Mexican once, was Indian always and is and will be again” one can assume or conclude that she recognizes that the land was taken away from the Indians by Americans. Therefore, you can say that she catecterize the border as Indian Land. To my way of thinking,Gloria Anzaldua blends poetry, personal narrative and history to present the view and experiences of people affected by living in the borderlands and to establish credibility to the poem. On the other hand, this chapter and the two poems present a connection because the three of them express the drwabacks of being Mexican- American.
She explains how Mexican and Chicano literature, music, and film is alienated; their culture is considered shameful by Americans. They are forced to internalize their pride in their culture. This conflict creates an issue in a dual culture society. They can neither identify with North American culture or with the Mexican culture.
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.
Two walls can be analogized to the illegal immigrants passing across any state or country border. The physical fence around the Mossbachers’ home is one of these. Although they buy a bigger, better fence, the “…coyote had somehow managed to get into the enclosure and seize one of the dogs…” (37) Throughout the book, Delaney and Kyra worry about these animals entering their yard. This just shows that no matter how big of a boundary you construct, the “coyotes” will always find a way around it. The Arroyo Blanco wall can also be compared to a state or country border. It separates the things that can come in, and the things that cannot. Since the residents want to be apart from the rest of the world, this can be seen as a metaphor of ignorance. “They were out here in the night, outside the walls, forced out of their shells, and there was nothing to restrain them” (289). The canyon walls can be seen as racial boundaries that disconnect the Rincons from the rest of the world. This boundary is very important because it reminds the Rincons of how far away they are from the American Dream. Towards the end of the novel, the Rincons and Delaney are all swept away by a “wall of water.” This wall has knocked down all other barriers throughout the book, and allow the characters to collide. Candido has a change of heart and “…when he saw the white face surge up out of the black swirl of the current and the white
Literary magazines were not remotely interested in publishing Gilb’s stories, which focus primarily on the professional and personal struggles of working-class Mexican Americans. But his unapologetic stories about working-class Mexican Americans have made him a voice of his people (Reid130). Gilb’s short stories are set vividly in cites of the desert Southwest and usually feature a Hispanic protagonist who is good-hearted but often irresponsible and is forever one pink slip or automotive breakdown away from disaster (Reid130).
Martinez, Oscar. Border People: Life and Society in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands. (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1994), 232.
It was typical for the men to travel to the north first in order to find a job and set up the life for his family. In the town of San Geronimo, 85% of all men over the age of 15 had left the village in search of work in other parts of Mexico and in the United States. The men would make the trip alone and would send the money that they had made to their wives and children back in the village. The trip to the North was long and very dangerous. For the men who entered the country illegally, the trip could even be deadly. For the men who did have some money, they would hire a “coyote,” a man who would help them cross the border for a price. Sometimes coyotes were legitimate people who sought to help others, while...
Medina, Isabel M. “At the Border: What Tres Mujeres Tells Us About Walls and Fences.” Journal of Gender, Race and Justice 10 (2007): 245-68.
It has been observed that, from history American has served as a destination for most immigrants in the world the world (Williams 16).
The struggle to find a place inside an un-welcoming America has forced the Latino to recreate one. The Latino feels out of place, torn from the womb inside of America's reality because she would rather use it than know it (Paz 226-227). In response, the Mexican women planted the seeds of home inside the corral*. These tended and potted plants became her burrow of solace and place of acceptance. In the comfort of the suns slices and underneath the orange scents, the women were free. Still the questions pounded in the rhythm of street side whispers. The outside stare thundered in pulses, you are different it said. Instead of listening she tried to instill within her children the pride of language, song, and culture. Her roots weave soul into the stubborn soil and strength grew with each blossom of the fig tree (Goldsmith).
Conover, Ted. 2000 “Coyotes: A Journey through the Secret World of America's Illegal Aliens” Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group.
...l Narcotraficante: Narcocorridos & The Construction of a Cultural Persona on the U.S.-Mexican Border. Austin: University of Texas Press.
The Mexican-American border barriers were originally built as part of a three-pronged approach to diminish illicit contraband, drug smuggling, and illegal immigrants. This operation would curtail drug transport routes from Central America. Three headquarters were established along the Unites States border: operation gatekeeper in California, Operation Hold-the-Line in Texas, and Operation Safeguard in Arizona. These strategically placed headquarters have done an outstanding job securing our borders the past decade, however with drug smuggling on the rise, they require much more support from the government. Regrettably, adversaries of the barriers claim that they are more of a political gambit to instigate foreign affairs and a complete waste of taxpayers’ money. These opponents see the United States-Mexico barrier as an unsuccessful deterrent to illegal immigrants and unwanted drugs that ultimately and inaptly endangers the security and wellbeing of immigrants seeking refuge in the States.