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culture diversity
DIVERSITY OF CULTURE
diversity in different cultures
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A question I hear a lot is, "So how is it back home in Afghanistan?" Woah there, hold up! Not all Muslims are from Afghanistan. As a matter of a fact, there are plenty of Muslims, like me, que hablan español ("that speak Spanish"). Yes, that's right; I am part of the 38.3 million people in the Unites States, who speak Spanish as a first language. To add to the mix, not only am I Mexican but I was born in a small city called Toledo in Spain. The funny thing is, my fellow Muslims are surprised when I tell them I am half Mexican, but Mexicans are even more surprised that I share this similarity with them! So either way I am an outcast, which ultimately, makes me unique.
My parents named me "Iman" because they liked the sound of it. The name "Iman" originates from Arab roots. Although, I am half Arab because my dad was born and raised in Morocco, I consider myself more Mexican. My mom is Mexican and as a kid, I grew up going to quinceañeras (an extravagant party for when a girl turns 15 years old, similar to a sweet 16), having family parties almost every weekend with piñatas, eating l...
No matter what background we come from, we all have some type of language barrier. The immigrants in America, forming and identity means more than just learning English and acclimatizing into the society. People who are born in a foreign country and immigrate to the United States of America (first generation immigrants) have difficulties adapting to the American culture and learning the language. Second generation immigrants usually have no difficulty in adapting but tend to have difficulties in learning to function between the two cultures (American culture and their native culture). A Chicana who grew up in South Texas to a Mexican immigrant mother faces a similar type of problem. In the essay “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldúa. The author expresses her feelings about the social and cultural differences Mexican immigrants face when being raised in the United States of America. Anzaldúa also brings to debate about the important social problems such as sexism, racism, and identity construction.
On September 11, 2001, since the terrorist attacks, many American Muslims have been stereotyped negatively in the United States. Salma, a Muslim woman, says that the way Muslims have been recognized in the media has played a big role in the antagonisms directed to her. “I don’t know how many time I heard my classmates accuse me of being al-Qaeda or a terrorist” (Mayton 2013). Salma, along with other Muslims, even after a decade, are still struggling with trying to find their “American” and “Islamic” identities, while facing verbal attacks for their ethnicity. Too often, the general Muslin population gets lumped in with the immoral acts of a few because of the lack of knowledge about their culture.
When I moved to Texas, I experienced stereotyping because I'm from Mexico. During my first days in Texas, it was strange to hear comments such as, Mexicans only eat tacos, Mexicans are untrustworthy, or all Latinos are Mexicans. Those comments made me feel uncomfortable, but as
As many immigrants arrive in the United States of America and begin to call it “home”, comparisons between such immigrants are certainly inevitable. In particular, the U.S. Hispanic population gives more room for such comparisons since their cultures and traditions are very similar. Most of their similarities stem from a common Spanish heritage. However, there is a lot more to being Hispanic than just speaking Spanish or eating rice and beans. What most people do not understand is that there are also many differences amongst Hispanics and that, most of all, there are many differences between people born and raised in Hispanic countries and people born and raised in the United States who share a common Hispanic heritage.
The Latino Threat Narrative has excluded Latinx from the sense of national belonging of the United States. Nation is a product of nationalism, which is “an imagined political community– and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign. It is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion” (Anderson, 6). In other words, nationalism is a socially, psychologically, and politically constructed community created and imagined by the people who perceive themselves as part of that community. It is social and psychological process that makes people believe they are connected to one another and share ties. However, nationalism is limited and exclusive, not everyone has the privilege of being part of that community. For instance, “the nation is imagined as limited because even the largest of them, encompassing perhaps a billion living human beings, has finite, if elastic, boundaries beyond which lie other nations”(Anderson, 7). In other words, nationalism divides communities and creates restrictions and prohibitions that are similar to immigration laws. The hegemony of American nationalism include people who are only of European descent, born in the United States and speaks only English. Particularly, Gonzalez due to her illegal status she was not welcome to be part of the American nationalism. Therefore, she was forced out and excluded from the American narrative. In this case, nationalism is a form of oppression against marginalized groups. Nationalism divides those who do not fit in the status quo. As a result, the idea of nationalism divides vulnerable communities from entering the narrative. Thus, the American patriarchal form of nationalism transforms into American Exceptionalism in which the United States brands
According to Anzaldua, “ Chicano Spanish is considered by the purist and by most Latinos deficient, a mutilation of Spanish”(Anzaldua 32). The Chicano Spanish versus Spanish conflict that occurs in Latino society is a prime example of people considering themselves to be right in a situation where there is not a right answer. The Latino’s who speak Spanish that they believe to be normal are disturbed by the Spanish language changing. They believe that their own views are being challenged, they believe that they are correct, and they believe that anyone who challenges their views is inferior. The people who view all other views are, in reality, just trying to make themselves look more powerful. Like in Tan’s essay, people demeaned others in order to promote their own views, therefore, gaining power over the others who they demeaned. According to Tan, “ She said they would not give her any more information(...) And when the doctor finally called her daughter, me, who spoke in perfect english-- lo and behold-- we had assurances the CAT scan would be found”(Tan 2). The doctors treated Tan’s mother differently due to her use of what they considered “broken language”, leading to her being treated inadequately. People have an image of what they consider to be the right English, anyone who does not speak the right English is usually considered to be uneducated. In both Tan’s and Anzaldua’s essays, the lack of open-mindedness is one of the reasons that people want to become more powerful than others. People fail to realize that what they believe in is not always the right answer, like with stereotypes, the people are trying to gain power over others in order to make themselves seem more
Although our society is slowly developing a more accepting attitude toward differences, several minority groups continue to suffer from cultural oppression. In her essay “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” Gloria Anzaldúa explores the challenges encountered by these groups. She especially focuses on her people, the Chicanos, and describes the difficulties she faced because of her cultural background. She argues that for many years, the dominant American culture has silenced their language. By forcing them to speak English and attempting to get rid of their accents, the Americans have robbed the Chicanos of their identity. She also addresses the issue of low self-esteem that arises from this process of acculturation. Growing up in the United States,
My family’s Mexican traditions and life experiences played a great role in shaping my individual beliefs and values. I learned to embrace important values, roles, and norms from the Mexican culture. However, the experiences I have encountered throughout my life have influenced my interactions with others, life’s point of view, and the development of having my own sense of reasoning that differs from my family beliefs and values.
My grandma was the source of knowledge of the Hispanic culture for me. Through her sweet broken English to the eloquent way she spoke Spanish, I was always intrigued with her behaviors, beliefs, and values. One time she told me to learn Spanish fluently, and I responded with “it’s too hard grandma and I really don’t need to at this time”, and I’ll never forget with what she told me. She said, “Mija, it’s not about any reason that stops you, it’s about who you are. When you don’t learn and embrace the Hispanic culture, where I come from, you are not doing well. You blend in like everyone else. Si, you are half white, but that’s not all you are. Don’t ever forget to be proud of who all of you is.” I am proud to be Hispanic. The Hispanic culture
Americans have pursued negative stereotypes specifically with Hispanics as a way to give Latinos a racial value that separates them from Americans. This results in Latino Americans feeling like they aren’t “American enough” and they aren’t welcomed in their own country. A lot of the stereotypes that are given to Hispanics are mainly negative and meant to give a name for a whole ethnicity. A very common
I do not call Mexico home because the country my mother is so connected to feels foreign to me. I call the United States home only because it is all I have known for 17 years; however I am trapped in a limbo between two countries. I cannot fully identify myself to either country. I can speak Spanish fluently but there are times when my American accent comes out, and I get referred to as “gringa” (white female in Latin America) by my family, yet in America I am solely called
They are forced to forget their language in order to speak English and conform to society’s ideas. Assimilation is when people are forced to adapt and adjust to culture’s beliefs and views while they diminish their own culture. In her essay, “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” Gloria Anzaldúa, she discusses the issues of assimilation in the United States for Chicanos, a Latino born or raised in the United States who believes they cannot be characterized as Latino or American. Anzaldúa explains that since Chicanos are in the United States they should only speak English. She also brings up that in order to combat assimilation Chicanos in the United States developed their own language because they can no longer be Latino or American. But Chicanos are taught by other Spanish speaker, native Latinos, that their language is improper and poor Spanish. The Chicano language is a language Chicanos created which includes terms that are considered slang in Spanish while they incorporate English terms. Chicanos and Latinos are taught to silence their culture and their tongue to fit into society. However, she goes on to justify that their Chicano language is a part of them and their culture and without it they do not have an identity. People of color are often stereotyped because of their cultural background or the way they speak which leads an individual to be ashamed of who they are and where they come from; they are forced to assimilate into the American society which results in the loss of their culture as well as their
While Anzaldúa makes great points about the struggles of a Chicana women in America, her arguments imply that Mexican people are the only people that have to adapt to American culture. While Mexican people should feel free to express their cultures freely, language is a much more complex issue; it is not simply solved by not accommodating to English speakers. English speakers must strive to embrace other cultures and languages, and understand that they do not necessarily have to speak that language to accept
A few years back , I was born in Phoenix , Arizona to a mexican couple who I call my parents. Being Mexican American has not been easy. You have to grow up with the typical stereotypes that all mexicans
This all ties into my life because i am guatemalan my parents came here and they settled for a while in virginia where they had my older siblings monica ingrid daniel. Then they came to grand island where they had me my sister aida and my brother jordan. We all speak spanish, at first it was a little hard to learn a bit but we got used to it. My favorite type of music is spanish music.