Leave Your Name At The Border Summary

In “Leave Your Name at the Border” the author explores the complications that arise when people try to assimilate to a new culture. Growing up, he and his companions would speak English at school and Spanish at home. As a result, “Spanish was for privacy – and privacy quickly turn to shame” (210). He also talks about how his relatives and childhood friends have begun giving their children American names while traditional Mexican names have disappeared. “He wonders aloud what has happened to the ‘nombres del rancho’ – traditional Mexican names that are hardly given anymore to children born in the states: Heraclio, Madaleno, Otilia, Dominga” (210). Muñoz’s unmistakably Mexican first name was always a mark of his roots, and it was an obstacle