lareina2@... wrote:
The issues of acculturation and assimiliation run deep
and are painful in this land of multiethnic and multicultural groups.
What do I call myself? Who am I? Much of the pain of the generation
that follows the immigrant one often causes much confusion, and
sometimes, self-hatred and denial of ancestry. How can I call myself a
Mexican when I can speak only a rudimentary Spanish and only visited
the birthplace of my grandma and great-grandma once? When I visit
Mexico, I recognize its beauty and its devastation, and when I land in
the United States, I am happy to drive my sedan, go inside my condo,
and turn on my tv to "Law and Order." Both my parents are of Mexican
descent, but both were born in the US. On my mom's side, both my
grandparents were born in the US as well. When my maternal grandfather
was offered the opportunity to visit deep into Mexico (not Juarez or
Tijuana), he said, "My parents left Mexico for a
I remember as a child growing up that my father instilled a deep
pride of my Mexican ancestry. He was a young man during the Chicano
Movement, and even attended the Moratorium in 1970. I have never had a
negative attitude about the word Chicano/Chicana, but as a child of the
'80s, I never saw the need to be as political as my father. I have
often told him that I will fight in marches if I need to, but my fight
against prejudice and racism is fought in the classroom, where I expose
my students to Mexican-American literature and topics. For years I
have often felt like a traitor, however. I see the struggles of the
new immigrants, but I do not truly understand, having been raised in
middle-class suburbia. I feel uncomfortable when speaking Spanish,
for the words do not come easily to me in front of an audience as they
do when I am alone. I see people as individuals. and have often
overlooked the ethnic/racial back
I'm sorry for rambling, but I do not fit totally in either
culture. I came to genealogy as a path for a better understanding of
who my family is and was, and where they came from and for health
reasons-- and I've discovered that I am the Spanish, I am the
indigenous; I am the slave, I am the slave-owner. I am the conqueror
and the conquered. To hate the Spanish is to hate a part of myself.
To deny my indigenous background is to deny myself. To reject the
American is to reject myself. I am all of these, and yet none of
these, entirely. We all must come to our own level of acceptance or
rejection of who we are and from where we come. I think much of my
feelings are well-stated in this famous poem by Rodolfo "Corky"
Gonzales, "I am Joaquin": http://members.cox.net/mechademoh/I_Am_Joaquin.html .
This is great. Rodolfo Gonzales passed away in 2005. Would you consider
sitting in front of a digital recorder and reading his poem into
digital format.
let me know and we'll work on producing it. Well you might say but it
might be better for a man to read it. Well if that is the final
decision we need a volunteer to step forward.
joseph
I taught a Chicano/Chicana lit course, and as I told my
students, Chicanos/Chicanas, Mexican-Americans, Latinos, Hispanics,
Americans of Mexican descent, Spanish, Americans, none of these labels
tell us and everyone around us who we are. Each emphasizes a small
part of the total sum of our culture and customs. Each of these terms
are fraught with all of the love and hate we feel about others and
about ourselves. So in the end, there is no answer. We can search for
the "truth", but I have found that to be elusive.
So, as I end my ruminations, let me just say that I have learned
to accept all who created me, and all who influence me. I love the
Mexican culture, and I appreciate the country I was born in and where I
live.
Well, thanks for reading this far. I hope we all can shed some
light on this most important subject.
Rosalinda Ruiz
Southern California
-----Original Message-----
From: Arturo Ramos
Sent: Jan 12, 2006 11:55 AM
To: ranchos@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [ranchos] Re: double surnames
Erlinda:
The whole Chicano vs. Mexican-American vs. Latin@ vs. Hispanic debate
is a very contentious one in the United States. I think that all of
those terms are very politically laden such that there is no single
one that everyone would agree with. There is an interesting episode
where the renowned author Sandra Cisneros balked at being featured in
Hispanic magazine because of such a disagreement. She agreed only
after the magazine agreed to show her on the cover in a profile shot
with a fake tatoo reading "LATINA" across her arm.
There is an interesting article on this:
http://www.hispanicmagazine.c
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