In How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents, Julia Alvarez discusses the four girls’transition from the Dominican Republic to America. The Garcia’s are an immigrant family who must find a balance between their identity as Dominicans and their new identities as Americans. Yolanda, the sister on whom the story primarily focuses, must find a balance between the strict and old fashioned culture she comes from and the new, innovative and radical culture she is now learning to embrace. Immigration challenges Yolanda and her sisters to create a bi-cultural identity—a task at which they ultimately fail. They embark on a search to find themselves, feeling torn between two distinctly different and opposing…
In Julia Alvarez’s short story, ”Nombres”, and in the visual, “Graduation Day”, both depict the common theme that people should embrace their culture and heritage. In “Nombres”, the theme can be seen when Julia's mother states, “You know what (Julia’s) friend Shakespeare said, ‘A rose by any other name would smell as sweet’,” (Alvarez Pg. 1). This shows that Julia’s mother doesn’t want her to be ashamed of where she comes from, and that she should embrace her name. This theme is also evident in the visual,” Graduation Day”. The fact that the loving daughter, who just graduated from school, is hugging her hard-working father, shows that she is grateful for him, and that she is proud of him. Also in “Graduation Day”, the daughters decorated graduation…
Though I am aware that this is not a creative writing assignment, I cannot help but, at the very least, mention my personal experience as a first generation Mexican-American as it was fundamentally influential to my choice to read Sandra Cisneros’s novel as well as my overall understanding and analysis of Caramelo. Reading Caramelo has awakened within me senses, memories, experiences that have been dormant, or as Celaya, according to Gonzales, repressed for many years. As a child, raised by my mami, Tita (Cristina Ellen), and my abuelita, Cristi (Maria Cristina), Spanish was the only language spoken at home. Like Celaya, when spoken to in Spanish, I replied in English. Birthdays, we sang “Las Mañanitas,” “The Little Mornings,” instead of Happy Birthday, just as Celaya recalls in Caramelo. We celebrated “las posadas,” the twelve days of Christmas with a rosca, bread in the forma of a cake, large and redondo, round, with a plastic bebe, baby, Jesús baked within. On the day of los Reyes Magos, the three wise men, our shoes were filled with pesetas, coins. Abuelita, or grama as I called her in my Spanglish, prepared: tamales dulces, sweet, of pineapple and strawberry; chiles rellenos, filled with raisins, meat, nuts, and topped with salsa agria, sour cream, and queso, cheese; flan; paella, rice with seafood. Summers we drove forever, manejábamos lejísimos, just as Celaya, mami’s left arm quemada, burnt red, across the border and all the way through Mexico, 18 hours, with el PoPo, Mt. Popocatepetl, always on the horizon. Usually two months in Cuernavaca,…
Through these two women, the modern reader can achieve a sense of understanding as to two of the primary roles that women played during the revolution in the early 20th century. Camila is a young women who embodies a primarily domestic role, providing comfort, care and shelter to the rebel soldiers as so many women did during this time in Mexican history. War Paint provides a stark contrast to the mild Camila; as her name suggests, she is a fierce and hardened warrior, a soldadera.� Her role in the revolution is much different: she actually joins the ranks of the rebel band led by Demetrio Macias, and fights alongside the men. While the two women are highly developed characters who accurately represent the portion of society from which they come, there are many women who participated in the revolution whose roles did not fall into the "domestic" and "warrior" categories. Many women were journalists, lobbyists, and propagandists; some were nurses, tending to the wounded…
Second, Cisneros also uses metaphors to explain how her great-grandmother becomes an independent woman. After she is forced to marry this man she becomes independent because she had to do something she never wanted to do which was marry. An example of a metaphor from the text that was used to show her independence is,”She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many so many women sit their sadness on an elbow”(Cisneros). This quote explains how unlike any other women Esperanza’s great-grandmother stared out a window her whole life to pass her sadness by while other girls would just hold their head up with their arm.…
Right from the start of the essay, Cofer establishes Latina stereotypes as harmful by relaying her own personal experiences with them. Cofer evokes visual and auditory imagery when she recounts the story of the man who “with both hands over his heart…broke into an Irish tenor’s rendition of “Maria” from West Side Story” (Cofer 370). Cofer’s use of imagery intensifies her experience and makes it much easier to relate to, thereby inspiring empathy toward her and resentment toward the stereotypes under which she suffers. Cofer later creates more imagery when describing the man who “sang a ditty to the tune of “La Bamba” and “stepped directly into [her] path” (373). Cofer’s sensory imagery conjures a feeling of being cornered and caged, unpleasant by anyone’s standards. The images highlight the persecution that is part of Cofer’s life, making them more relatable and once again inspiring empathy for the Latina woman’s plight.…
As Clemencia struggles with identifying as both sides of La Malinche, Chayo, of “Little Miracles, Kept Promises” searches for a way to accept the Virgencita de Guadalupe as a source of power and not passivity. Cisneros writes Chayo in a different scenario than Cleofilas or Clemencia; she is writing to the Virgin in thanks because she finally understands who the saint is – it is through this letter that Cisneros details Chayo’s transformation from a girl with no connections to a woman connected to both the Virgin of Guadalupe and her fictional La Gritona. Even as she is not explicitly mentioned, La Gritona makes her appearance as Chayo appreciates that there is more power in the Virgin, and in herself, than she ever knew before. Chayo writes her letter to the Virgin in thanks on the news that she is not pregnant, but she still feels the pain of her femininity. There is not power, she believes, in being a woman; she…
I lik jjjc As the novel opens, Cisneros addresses the problem of poverty and the suffering of someone in it. In the first vignette, "The House on Mango Street", Esperanza has recently moved into a new house. One of the nun caretakers at Esperanza's school saw her outside her house. When asked where she lived Esperanza showed her and the nun replied "you live there? The way she said it made me feel like nothing. There. I lived there. I nodded" (Cisneros 5). The nun makes Esperanza feels sad and that she isn't good enough. This is an example of one class looking down on another which is one of Cisneros's lessons. This ties into another story called "Gil's furniture bought and sold", which is about Esperanza goings to a cheap store and the owner showing her a music box. The store owner doesn't even turn on the lights for Esperanza because he assumes that she isn't wealthy enough to buy anything. The class looking down on another class issue is very common in esperanzas early life. In the vignette "Cathy Queen on Cats", Cisneros writes about Esperanza's neighbor, Cathy who is moving away from the neighborhood because a bunch of Mexicans are moving in. She says "then as if she forgot I just moved in, she says the neighborhood is getting bad"(Cisneros 12) Cathy's negative attitude towards someone of a different race is common of upperclassmen of Esperanza's area. Cathy thinks she's better then all of the other people on the neighborhood just because she is white. She also goes to say that she is related to the queen of France which makes her higher on the totem pole. Higher classes looking down on lower classes relates to the vignette "Louie, His Cousin & His Other Cousin", Esperanza meets a family with a lot of poverty based problems. Louie lives in a house like Esperanza's and one day his cousin comes by. Louis cousin was in a stolen car and uses it to drive around the kids and give them a chance to do something they probably won't ever get to do again. Once the cops…
Esperanza’s great-grandmother “looked out the window her whole life, the way so many sit their sadness on an elbow” (Cisneros 11) and Rafaela—her neighbor—“gets locked indoors because her husband is afraid Rafaela will run away since she is too beautiful to look at” (Cisneros 79). Themes of spousal abuse arise as the home becomes a “prison…guarded first by domineering fathers, and second by domineering husbands” (Pagán). Esperanza does not experience this imprisonment herself, but vows to get “[A] house all my own…Not a man’s house. Not a daddy’s” (Cisneros 108). This promise comes after Esperanza sees the other female figures in her life being oppressed, particularly Sally—a classmate—who “got married…young and not ready…she is happy…expect he won’t let her talk on the telephone. And he doesn’t let her look out the window” (Cisneros 102). Esperanza’s refusal to conform to her cultural belief is a result of the homes being a symbol for imprisonment and…
The film “Mujeres Adelante” focuses primarily on the role of Mexican-American women, throughout major historical events (from the beginning of the Spanish conquest to the end of the 20th century). Women have been major contributors to maintaining a functional society. Throughout the film some themes that arose were in regards to the United States oppressing Mexicans, and the lack of portrayal of women as intelligent activist.…
Cisneros repeats various negative and similar cases of different women which ultimately shed light on the need of improvement of the situation of women. This could be seen in the similarity of the vignettes “Marin” and “Sally”. In the vignette “Marin”, Esperanza writes “Is waiting for a car to stop, a star to fall, someone to change her life.”, and in the vignette “Linoleum Roses” were Esperanza writes “She says she is in love, but I think she did it to escape.” These two vignettes are both very similar since the both use the rather negative parts of the situation of women, marrying young/the dependence of a man, to highlight the gravity of the situation, to express the…
The House On Mango Street and “ Only Daughter” both prove that being an Mexican- American women is a struggle. As Cisneros shows her first hand experience, and as well shows it through story telling. Yet without telling a biography and going straight to the point she shows emotion by using literary elements. Sandra Cisneros Chose to use metaphors and imagery to express the hard ships of being a Mexican- American women. If Sandra Cisneros did not use literary elements to show the lifestyle of a Mexican-American women, the points that she showed in both the texts would not have been as powerful as they were.…
In this essay Barrientos argues that the language she speaks defines her identity and who she is as a person. As Barrientos was growing up, she realized being Latin-American was not what she wanted to be, she decided to didn’t want to speak Spanish, as Barrientos says, “To me, speaking Spanish translated into being poor.” She also said “It meant waiting tables and cleaning hotel rooms. It meant being poor.” She thought if she stayed away from Spanish stereotypes they would…
‘It’s Hard Enough Being Me’ by Raya is a short story about her own experience. It seems to be the cultural awakening of a female college student that occurs when she goes off to college in New York. Coming from the Mexican American family, Raya did not think much about where she comes from and who she is until college. Raya says, “In El Sereno, I felt like I was part of the majority, whereas at the College I am a minority” (119). Now that she is in a new environment, she feels detached from the society. Moreover, Raya’s mom did not want to teach her Spanish because she des not want her daughter be called “spic” or “wetback” (119). Raya had the advantage of being Mexican and Puerto Rican, but never had the chance to develop her main language when she was a little girl because it would be used against her. In this essay, the author uses the emotional appeal to show that how she is treated by Mexicans when she can’t speak perfect Spanish as well as how she is treated by Americans while attempting to speak the language. “Soy yo and no one else. Punto.”(120), this last sentence in her article uses two competing languages and it…
Cofer’s mother is in the middle of the assimilation phase she is involved in both the American culture and the Puerto Rican culture. She often shops at La Bodega which is a Spanish supermarket she shops there for food because she insisted on only using products whose labels she could read. She also felt more comfortable at this “hole in the wall” store because it reminded her of home. Cofer’s mother also tries to conform to the American culture by shopping at sears and Penney’s for Cofer and her brother’s clothes. They also eat at Woolworth’s which is an American restaurant. Cofer’s mother has a balanced role in both cultures. Pp 53-55…
