Miss Clairol

1.  How does Champ keep responding to her mother when she asks her opinion on various beauty products at K-Mart?  Why does she respond in this way?  What does this reaction show about the potential relationship between a lower class, single, Mexican mother and her daughter?

2.  What is revealed when Arlene's towel slips?  What does her immediate response and positive attitude say about Arlene's character and personality?  How is this an illustration of the common occurrence of abusive relationships in poverty stricken homes and what does this say about why it is perpetuated?

Succeeding in American Society

In Richard Rodriguez's memoir Aria, he emphasizes the importance of learning English as a young child in order to successfully become a part of American society.  He reflects on his experiences with bilingualism growing up and the struggle of finding his place in public society.  This memoir focuses largely on the role of immigrant parents in supporting their children's education in America.  Like Aria, Tomas Rivera's short novel "And he Earth Did Not Devour Him" also resounds with this theme.  Throughout the novel, the parents express their desire for their children to finish school so that they may have more opportunities then they had due to their lack of education.  Both works highlight the generational differences of immigrants ability to succeed in America.

Although these texts were written in different era's, they both capture the relationship of immigrant parents to their children.  In each piece, the parents of immigrant children strongly desire for them to successfully integrate into American society.  In "And the Earth Did Not Devour Him" this desire is a desperate hope.  Raising their children in poverty, they encourage their schooling hoping one day that this will lead to their rise in society.  They do not want their children to end up like them, and they do not want their hard efforts to have gone to waste.  A child remembers his parents telling him that "(his) teachers are like (his) second parents." (Rivera, 95).  Rodriguez recalls his parents similar desires when he states "What would they not do for their children's well being." (Rodriguez, 21).

This desire led the parents to sacrifice certain qualities of their lives.  In Aria, they discontinue speaking Spanish with their children, in order to improve their English skills.  His parents sacrificed the comfort of speaking in a language they could express themselves in and traded it for the awkward and embarrassing attempts at communicating in English.  In Tomas Rivera's novel, the migrant workers toiled for longer hours so that their children need not help them in the fields but rather attend school.  In the chapter "Little Burnt Victims," the father so desperately wants a better life for his kids that he buys boxing gloves he could not afford for the hope that they might become professional boxers.  It is evident in both texts that immigrant parents want what they couldn't have for their children.

Overall, these works show the generational differences of American immigrants.  First generation immigrants, due to their lack of education and language barriers struggle to become a part of society.  There public individuality lacks (Rodriguez).  The children on the other hand, through the support of their parents and the immersion in English speaking schools, assimilate much faster.  They lose a part of their background, including their language as they gain acceptance in American society.

Discussion Question:  How does this pressure to please their parents by succeeding in school affect second generation immigrants?  

Never Marry a Mexican

This is a close reading of a passage from Never Marry a Mexican written by Sandra Cisneros

"I paint and repaint you the way I see fit, even now.  After all these years.  Did you know that?  Little fool.  you think I went hobbling along with my life, whimpering and whining like some twangy country-and-western when you went back to her.  But I've been waiting.  Making the world look at you from my eyes.  And if that's not power, what is?"

This passage takes place as the plot is developing.  Some background on the narrator's childhood and personal views have been shared and now the narrator, who is speaking in 1st person, is beginning to to tell a specific story.  The majority of the piece is a flashback, to this time in her life, and this man in her life who affected her greatly but she will not allow herself to feel like the victim.  She will change the situation in a way that she is empowered, and they are the ones that are suffering and pathetic.  

The tone of the narrator in this piece is a combination of bitterness, anger and empowerment.  The narrator seems to in a way, be covering up her feelings of hurt and longing for this man, with feelings of anger and pride and a "I don't give a damn." attitude.  She sees the way it turned out, and instead of wallowing in sorrow, she turns and twists the outcome in a way that gives her some satisfaction.  It is a definite Man versus Man conflict, but also a conflict of the individual versus the self.  She does not want to have any feelings of attachment, longing, or anything that makes her weak and dependent.  This is evident in her diction.  She is almost spitting and laughing at this man, calling him a "little fool," boasting of her power to change the scenario in a way which benefits her, that she has power over him, and he can never affect her negatively and never did because she can simply "paint and repaint (you) the way I see fit, even now."  Her syntax is ungrammatical, as if she is actually talking to him and he can't respond, he can only listen to her bring him down.  But it is evident that these are just thoughts she keeps to herself, that this man is unaware of her thoughts about him.  It is almost as if this passage is a way for her to convince herself that she is powerful and doesn't care.  Most of the time, if something causes a person to go off on an angry rant, it is because they truly do care.  Ranting about how much you don't care and are not affected is in itself a contradiction.  So even through the somewhat cocky diction, it is clear that the narrator is upset and insecure about this event.

As a whole this piece is about the bitterness of a woman who will never marry based on her negative experiences and views on men.  This passage is captures the heart of her "I don't care" tone, and sums up her need for power.  She cannot be brought down, not by men, because she uses them, not the other way around, and not by women, she brings them down.  She cannot be hurt because she will not love, and if an outcome occurs that she doesn't like, she can simply "repaint" it the way she sees fit.

Discussion Question:  In what way is this attitude of hers desirable?  What happiness is there in changing the way things were or are in your head in order to always be on top?  What satisfaction is there in hurting or destroying something you once loved just because you couldn't have it? 

My discussion question:

Is there a line and where is it between not enough and too much pride in ones people and culture.  What are the negative effects of both of these?

I Am Joaquin

I Am Joaquin, written by Rodolfo Gonzales, is an inspiring piece of literature that goes through all of the emotions of a human torn from his roots and trying to find a home in a new place while holding on to the pride and history of his people.

When I tried to pick one word to describe the tone of this poem I could not, for I realized that the speaker's emotion changed constantly and sometimes very quickly throughout the poem.  This poem, I believe outlines the feelings and struggles that many races, not only Mexicans feel as they try to assimilate into American culture, without losing their past.  The biggest dilemma as Gonzales expresses is succeeding in American society, without giving up your cultural pride.  He states,

"My fathers have lost the economic battle
and won the struggle of cultural survival.
And now! I must choose between the paradox of
victory of the spirit, despite physical hunger
or to exist in the grasp of American social neurosis.
sterilization of the soul and a full stomach."

Here, in the beginning of the poem, the beginning of his thoughts, he expresses his confusion on what to do.  He is torn.  All throughout the poem, the speaker shows an immense sense of pride and this pride cannot be completely satisfied.  If he holds on to his culture one hundred percent, not allowing America to erase his past and his roots, he will not fit in American society, he will not be able to climb up the social ladder to success.  However, if he does the opposite and "exists in the grasp of American social neurosis," he has succumbed to what he believes to be the "sterilization of the soul."  A bitterness is expressed as he sees "a country that has wiped out all my history and stifled all my pride."  This is a struggle of many immigrants, as they strive to succeed in America, but not get lost in the melting pot and lose their identity.   

After expressing his confusion on how to survive in America and still hold on to his culture, the speaker spends the majority of the poem expressing an immense pride and connection to the history of his country and people.  He relates himself to the strongest rulers and princes, the most courageous revolutionaries and martyrs, down to the lowest and weakest peasant who plowed the earth and toiled under the rule of tyrants. There is a constant theme of unity and possession, expressed strongly with bolded words and phrases; "MY OWN PEOPLE," "THE GROUND WAS MINE."  Even though everything seemed to be taken from his culture, they still had each other and they knew in their hearts that the earth was theirs.


The theme of this poem seems to me a cry to Mexican Americans to hold on to their pride, to remember their past, and not reject their mother and father and their roots.  If everyone who belongs to a particular race bands together, and remembers their past, they can hold on to their pride without sacrificing their culture.