“How to Date a Brown girl, Black girl, White girl, and Halfie” by Junot Diaz came across to me as a handbook for teenage boys dating an ethnicity of girls. The boy in the book uses comments from other people to determine what and what not to do around certain kinds of teenage girls. The narrator is a Hispanic teenager. His tone is confidence and reassurance. The language he uses is filled with informal English some Spanish he tries to throw in. The reason behind the use of Spanish language is to impress girls even though his Spanish is not well. He comes off has very masculine, like most men, but underneath all of it he is pride less. To add credibility to the story, the narrator mentions “government cheese” which may imply that they
“Por primera vez en mi vida, comence a guachar como se portaban los batos, como eran las rucas, como pensaba la mayoria de la raza aca en los barrios.” “For the first time in my life, I began to see how the guys behaved, how the women were, how the majority of the people in the barrios thought.” When he put sources, he would put them exactly how the person stated it in Spanish; then he would rewrite an English version in case the reader couldn’t understand the Spanish version. Otherwise it would have been a very hard book to read and comprehend. Being able to speak the Spanish language gives him the identity and credibility of a Chicano.
A Rhetorical Analysis of Gloria Anzaldua’s, “How to Tame A Wild Tongue.” The latin american and mexican diaspora have continuously been at odds as to which dialect of spanish tends to be the most proper or rightfully utilized, in being examined by each other as while as the anglo society. Well the multi-ethnic diaspora that resides within Gloria Anzaldua’s (the writer) home, the Borderlands, tends to exude the conceptualization of multiple dialects of spanish speech into one.
Moreno's character started the play by speaking Spanish, but every other character in the play spoke English. This created reinforced the themes of cultural division and knowing one's family ancestry and heritage. The language barrier that Moreno's character presented at the beginning of the play added depth not only to his character but to all of the others in the scene. It showed that his character was different from everyone else but more appreciative of where he was from. He left Mexico to come to America so that he could have a better life, but he didn't want to leave his old life behind.
These were some of my favorite readings so far that we had been required to read through. They were very enlightening and provided many great perspectives and stories from white and minority people alike. The three readings I enjoyed the most are Defining Racism: “Can We Talk?” by Beverly Daniel Tatum, Color-Blind Racism by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, and Smells Like Racism by Rita Chaudhry Sethi. What I liked about Bonilla-Silva’s piece is the quotes taken from the white privilege.
Growing up my parents instilled in me that I was beautiful and my skin was beautiful. It was clear to me that everyone else didn’t feel the same way. I went to a couple different schools throughout my life starting with a predominantly black school then a predominantly white school then a very diverse school and at each one I still experienced colorism. At the black school I was not liked because I was darkskin and my hair was kinky and I was just not as pretty as the light skinned girls.
Not only does Diaz write novels and short stories, but he also takes action towards exposing the problems that Dominican people especially women face everyday. There might be some people who consider Diaz to be an Antifeminist and also a disgrace to his country, the Dominican Republic, but the only thing that Diaz is doing with his writing is exposing the reality of what its meant to be an immigrate from another country and how machismo affects Feminism in Latin cultures. Diaz shows his feminism by exposing machismo and what women in Latin cultures deal with everyday. Machismo is a term used to describe the dominant male behavior in Latin cultures. Machismo can also be describe as a man objectifying a women as a
One of the area of conflict that rose in the book involves the usage of the English language in relation of the family’s native language, Spanish. As a Mexican-American raised in the States the exhibition of the English language, whether the use of the tongue is fluent or not, cause a strain in the Mexican culture as the culture takes in consideration of their romance and richness of history in their native tongue (Rothman 204). Language represent the supporting backbone of a person as the progress in life as the ability to communicate without misunderstands, however a person can cause the loss connection to the past romance of the culture and art of cultivation that brings the language to lifes from their inabilities to comprehend the ability/asset to its fullest potential (Rothman 204). To fully understand the true meaning behind a spoken chain of words can be understood by the method of trying to first comprehend the cultivation of the word and the definition behind them. Cisneros embeds the use of Spanish in fragments depicting a sense of reality within a fictional novel, Caramelo, as well with the use of interchangeable dialogues with spanish phrase to express the illustration of Celaya’s family and the culture in which is translate in of importance of pride.
Jane Dailey’s “Sex, Segregation, and the Scared after Brown”, published in The Journal of American History, couples religion, sex, and the struggles of segregation during the civil rights movement. More specifically, Dailey addresses the language of “miscegenation”; asserting that religion was a vessel utilized by both sides of the segregation argument (Dailey 122). For the believing Christian, segregation of races was of “cosmological significance. The Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education sparked much controversy in the religious word, mainly with those who supported segregation.
In the poem “ What it is like to be a black girl”, Patrica Smith uses metaphorical language to show us how young black girls are being judge in society based on stereotypes . It’s describing how she wants to change and become like other people in the racial society because she’s having a hard time accepting who she is. In the beginning of “What it’s like to be a black girl” it gives you a view of a young black girl who doesn’t feel accepted in society. It emphasis the fact that many young black girls want the world to accept them for who they are.
The story how to date a brown girl (black girl, white girl, or halfie) by Junot Diaz is a manual on how to date someone or be involved in sexual relations. The audience the article is directed to is high school and college readers able to handle the mature language. These actions are then suggested after the author suggests he fake being sick as to stay home with his girl. Diaz gives multiple options as to what the girls reaction could possible be. Young men and women from poor families feel the need to hide certain things from their home such as the government cheese.
The mix of Spanish and English words throughout the
Rodriguez would speak English in school because to him it was a “public language”, while Spanish was a “private language” (72). Rodriguez
They must have misunderstood far more than they understood of each other.’ After years of marriage, they still had practically no language in common. Thus, Carlos started to retreat into silence. It is very probable that he became simply tired of being constantly misunderstood and mocked by his wife because of his weak English. In his case it was more a self-preservation than creating the identity by conscious abstaining from expressing his opinion directly.
By doing this they make not only themselves uncomfortable speaking Spanish but get others to think that they aren’t the ideal Chicano/a. That’s why Anzaldua tells herself, “I will no longer be made to feel ashamed of existing. I will have my voice: Indian, Spanish, white. I will have my serpent’s tongue—my woman’s voice, my sexual voice, my poet’s voice. I will overcome the tradition of silence.
One being her academic culture, where she is expected to speak clearly and adhere and know to the English language. Another being her Spanish Chicano culture, certain expectations and different regulations are required of her starting at a very young age, and throughout her life growing up in a Mexican-American family. Gloria’s Latino culture has brought along many challenging beliefs, even