In the first chapter “ La Guera" grows up with the wrong crowd. Even her own mother couldn’t take her anymore so she sent her away but she came back the same.…
The characters within this play are Margarita(the swimmer) Simon(the brother), Aida(the mother), Eduardo(the father), and Abeula(the grandmother). Margarita Suarez, a nineteen year old girl has entered a contest to swim from San Pedro to Santa Catalina. The relationship between this family is vital to the play. Milcha Sanchez-Scott uses drama and humor to shape this play whilst the help of language, ethnicity, and her ability to capture the audience's attention at the right time. Sanchez-Scott also uses frequent references towards religion which is a link between her personal life and her work. While Margarita is swimming through the Pacific Ocean, her family is trailing behind her in a boat. During the beginning part of the play everything is calm and the audience begins to get to know a little about the family. The language the characters speak plays an incredible role within the play because it's mostly in English and Spanish, which gives the audience a sense of who the Suarez family really is. The language signifies that the characters are Cuban whilst providing the reader with enough information to understand the Eduardo and Aida Suarez's(Margarita's mother and father) daily life struggle and their stories of traveling to America. They fled Cuba to come to America for what most would call, the American dream.…
The characterization, in The House on Mango Street, of Esperanza’s great-grandmother and Rafaela is used to convey how women were inferior to men in Esperanza’s society. According to Esperanza, her great-grandmother was a very wild woman. That is why she refused to marry until a man “threw a sack over her head and carried her off” (Cisneros, 11). This shows how unimportant women are, of that time, that a man could kidnap a woman and she could do nothing, no matter how wild she was. Also, despite her wild personality, Esperanza’s great-grandmother shows how women could be forced into marriage without a say in who they marry. Like Esperanza’s great-grandmother, Rafaela has many hopes such as dancing at the dance hall or bar. However, she never…
A quinceañera is the celebration of a young woman’s coming of age. In the Spanish language “quince” means fifteen, the age that a Hispanic girl becomes a woman. The term quinceañera refers to both the young woman and the name of the celebration. This celebration is composed of two equally important events. One event is a mass that is specially organized and decorated for the quinceañera. The second event is a party…
Yet, Rohter in a New York Times piece clarifies that unlike what many believe Selena was not automatically a success. In reality, there was much resistance to Selena which is evident through the derogatory terms used by upper-class neighborhoods of Mexico to describe her (Rohter). As a consequence of the film focusing on the double discrimination Selena faced in the U.S. and overlooking the difficulties Selena had to overcome on the south side of the border it can be said the success story of Selena in Latin America is undermined while her success story in America is overemphasized. Thus, the idea that she represented the American dream is perpetuated. Though before it is further explained how this is so the meaning of the ‘American Dream’ should first be…
A quinceañera is a religious tradition in the Hispanic culture in which a girl, is also called a quinceañera, is welcomed to womanhood. When reaching womanhood she is considered to be more of an adult than a child. The quinceañera attends a church service dressed in a beautiful dress with maids of honor and chambermaids that accompany her. The parents and godparents sit with the quinceañera during the church service. The mass symbolizes her reaching maturity as her family will now view her as an adult. During mass the priest gives her his bless. At the end of the mass, chambermaids and maids of honor pass bolos, which are small gifts to the guest. The…
The movie is addressed by a fifth grader named Mayra. Mayra is nine years old and leads the camera around her school and around her single bedroom house that she shares with three of her family members. She lives with her mother and uncle, both being undocumented immigrants from El Salvador. Mayra is worried about the ramifications of being kicked out of school and if she was going to be deported. She talks about the impacts that Prop. 187 have on her and other kids at the school. The stories and voices of Mayra and other students demonstrate the lack of awareness, compassion, and racism that exists at Hoover.…
Through first-person reminiscences and interviews, the viewer can have an insight into the problems that the Puerto Rican population has to face in terms of language barriers, school problems, and welfare dependence. One of the key scenes in Puerto…
Ignacio who everyone knows as Nacho (the main character of the movie), is a young orphan that loves God and enjoys the lucha libre which translated into English means the Free Style wrestling. Nacho knows that the Fryers forbid him to watch or even play lucha libre, but each time Nacho gets a chance, he secretly rehearses his wrestling moves. Whenever the enthusiastic orphan gets caught, he is punished and gets assigned shores around the church and the orphanage. As Nacho grows, his dreams and enthusiasm grow with him. Nacho is assigned to cook and serve the fryers and orphans as one of his main duties. One day in class they introduced a new teacher, a beautiful young nun named Encarnacion (one of the most important characters of the movie) who is about the same age as Nacho. Encarnacion is introduced to the class as a transfer from a convent in the mountains but the people in the class can’t see her right away. As Encarcancion comes into the classroom and begins to speak to the class, right away Nacho is captivated with her beauty and kind hearted spirit. After class Nacho attempts to have a conversation with Encarnacion and is…
Hello, my name is Lexie. I am about to turn 15 years old. This means I finally get to have my Quinceanera! You may be wondering, “What is a Quinceanera?”. A Quinceanera is a Hispanic tradition that celebrates a young girl’s coming of age. I may live in America, but my family is HIspanic. My dad is from South America, and my mom is from Mexico. I can’t wait to be able to celebrate my Hispanic heritage! Another question you may have is, “Why do Hispanics have a Quinceanera?”. The Quinceanera celebrates a young girl’s (Me!) and acknowledges her journey from childhood to womanhood. “What happens at a Quinceanera?’, you ask? Well, a Quinceanera has customs based on God, family, friends, food, dance, and music. The festivities welcome religious traditions, responsibility, and family virtues. The Quinceanera begins with a religious ceremony. Then, there is a reception held in the home of the family or a place where parties are usually held. During a reception, there is food, music, and there may even be a waltz or dance performed by the Quinceanera and her Court. The Court of Honor is a thing where the…
1. Evaluate this statement: "The South did not lose the Civil War; the North won the conflict." Your answer should discuss the different war strategies of the two sides, the political and military leadership of North and South, and ways in which both sides conducted the war from 1863 to 1865. It should also discuss political, social, and economic homefront issues that may have influenced the outcome of the war.…
Through Juana’s story, Reyna, impersonates the journey and struggles that many people have to endure to get to the United States so they can have a better life for them and their families. Juana’s main motivation to cross over to the other side is to find her father that “abandoned” her and her mother when she was still a little girl, but she is also driven by harsh living conditions, oppression by a corrupt government, and hunger. Throughout her youth in Mexico Juana encounters many problems, both emotional and physical and these later encourage her to look for a better life in the United States. When she is twelve she is left in charge taking care of her baby sister in a flooded house while her mother goes out and looks for her father who still hasn’t returned from work. The next day as her father wakes her, she sees that her sister is missing and the baby is found drowned in the depths of the water of her flooded house. Juana has to deal with the guilt of her sister’s death, causing her great emotional and physical pain. As if things were not bad enough, this is not the only thing that Juana has to endure throughout her youth. After her sister’s death, her father leaves for “el otro lado” in search of work, leaving behind the debt of her sister’s funeral. No money…
One that participates in a culture provides them with a sense of belonging (Chávez, 1983). “With the process of learning is absorbed from a social environment, in the rituals, symbols, and actions that are communicated directly.” The social aspect of the Quinceañera has the purpose to teach and reinforce the important cultural values of the Hispanic culture. In the preparation for a Quinceañera, one is building, maintaining, and activating social networks. These networks are extended family members and people from the outside community. Many extended family members will help out with expenses (Lombardo, 2014). With this teachable moment, one learns how important communication is with one’s family and makes it different from other cultures. The cultural distinctiveness is the difference in the aspects of language, social organization, religion, and values that are a part of the Hispanic culture shown in the preparation, festivities, and purpose of the…
Luisa’s character also seemed to represent this contrast in lifestyles within Mexico that was a major critique of the PRI. She appeared at first to be beautiful and seductive to the outside world. Throughout the movie, it became clear…
Mira is able to achieve the American dream and eventually bring his wife and two children in to the USA. However almost 30 years later his brother Joseph had a very different journey. He is imprisoned in a deportation camp when trying to escape Haiti as its political situation deteriorates and almost loses his life to violent gangs who believed he had allowed the riot police to shoot from the roof of his building (kakutani). The two may have different journeys and experiences but they both share a family history of distrust in the United States of America due to almost 20 year occupation that occurred in the early 1900’s. While the journey of one of the brothers was easier than the other they both faced their…