Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz’s ethnography Labor and Legality uses a mixture of narrative, interviews, and observation to educate the reader about the lives of undocumented workers in the United States. Gomberg-Muñoz focuses specifically on a group in Chicago called the Lions and describes how this small group has managed to create their own culture made up of language, social structure, kinship, gender roles, and authority. Often the Lions have to navigate between three different cultures: the one they were raised in, in Léon; the American culture; and the one they created as undocumented workers. The Lions are from Léon, Guanajuato, Mexico so Spanish is their first language.…
Emilia Rosa Rodriguez was the third child of Diego and Luciana Rodriguez. The Rodriguez's were one of the biggest Mexican drug smuggling families, Emilia's father being the leader of the clan. During her early childhood years, the rivalry between hers and another drug smuggling family, the Santos', intensified, resulting in a deadly gunfight between the two families. Many peoples from both of the sides died, including Mia's father (Mia was the nickname her father gave her). Soon after that, when she was 7, her uncle sent her to live with a wealthy family in New York prevent her ending up like her father.…
I started liking his music when i first heard a song from chalino called “nieves de enero”. Rosalino "Chalino" Sanchez was a Mexican singer and writer perhaps best known for his narcocorrido recordings. On May 16, 1992, he was murdered in Culiacán. Born in August 30, 1960 in Badiraguato Mexico, and raised in a poor family on a ranch called Las Flecha, Badiraguato, Sinaloa, Mexico.…
In 1996, Sandra Cisneros bought a house in the historic King William neighborhood of San Antonio, Texas. She made improvements to her home and painted it purple to reflect her Tejano heritage. However, her neighbors felt that the purple did not abide by the housing regulations of the neighborhood and petitioned the local commission to force Cisneros to change the color. I believe Sandra Cisneros should/shouldn’t be able to keep her house purple.…
No one knows. No one listens. No one cares. Melinda Sordino is an “outcast”. In the novel, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda is unfortunately a young victim of rape who silently possesses a hidden, screaming message.…
In the essay “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” Gloria Anzaldúa talks about her experience struggling with her identity growing up as a Chicana living in the United States. Her experience also relates to many other Latinos living in the United States who struggled to find their place in society and a language to speak freely without feeling fear and embarrassment afterwards. She talks about how throughout her life the language she used was suppressed in various ways and forms as she was forced to assimilate to the dominant English language. Anzaldúa also discusses some examples of how the Spanish language changed and evolved in since the first Spanish colorizations began in the region. Overall, the main message she is sending is that she is who…
All my life I have used my arms and hands. Never before have I thought what it would be like to lose them. In fact, never has it occurred to me how important it is to have a functioning body. A task that seems to be normal and every day can be excruciatingly difficult for those who have lost parts of their body. Our bodies are a symbol of health; our bodies must maintain optimal health.…
From watching the film, I understand that women who are incarcerated do not receive the proper prenatal care in order to give birth to children. I feel that shackling an incarcerated mother to a hospital bed, when in labor, is cruel and unnecessary. Doing so has the potential to increase the risk of a child and/or mother to experience problems during birth. After hearing Tina Torrez’s experience when giving birth to her daughter as an inmate, it was clear the care inmate mothers receive is unacceptable when compared to the care mothers who are not labeled as inmates receive. Hearing her experience bothered me because of the fact that even though she was pregnant and giving birth, she was still treated as if she were not a human with physical and emotional feelings.…
In the case of Andrea Yates, she is a Christian, home-schooling teacher who committed filicide on June 20, 2001. She took the kids in, one by one, into the bathroom of her home and drowned them. After killing the five children, she confessed her crimes to 911 dispatchers. When news of the story came to the public, it came as a surprise to those who only thought of her as one who could do no evil. In the perspective of others, this sin created a basis for judgment and questioning everything she has ever done and how her past actions foreshadowed to the future.…
Julia Alvarez is known as a famous Dominican-American writer. She was born on March 27, 1950 in New York City. Julia was the second sister out of four sisters. Soon after she was three months old, Julia and her family moved back to the Dominican Republic. Julia and her large family lived a very comfortable lifestyle.…
She has had a profound impact on not only the ballet community, but the world as a whole. Struggling with being an underprivileged, non-white dancer herself, she decided to give back and help those in similar situations. She established ABT’s Project Plié, which works to promote ethnic minorities and give them exposure to ballet (Collins). Similarly to how she was introduced to ballet, the project works in conjunction with the Boy’s and Girl’s Club, as well as ballet companies such as Orlando Ballet, Ballet Austin, and Cincinnati Ballet (Collins).…
I believe the way Tatiana De Rosnay alternated Julia and Sarah’s stories and time frames was effective. Reading about these events through two different points of views was really interesting. While reading Julia’s point of view, we can see that some people are guilty of not caring or are oblivious to the Vel’ d’Hiv roundup, however in Sarah’s point of view, we can understand the fear and humiliation the Jews were going through. There were also a few drawbacks in this style as well.…
Erma Johnson was born in Racine, Wisconsin in 1933. Shortly after, his family relocated to Arkansas, the place where he grew up. They were extremely poor sharecroppers, often Johnson would have to pick cotton all day just to help his family barely make a living. One time, after working for a man for a week, the man refused to pay him, and being black, he had no recourse, he just had to accept it. His family often could not afford basic necessities like shoes.…
sing. They were so well trained and talented that they could improvise cadenzas on their feet. It is well believed that castrati were only known for singing fast agile coloratura, when in fact they were also well known for the sheer power and volume of their voices. As a result it is important to look at not only agility but also vocal strength when it comes to casting castrati roles in our modern day productions.…
Some people say that the good die young, and this was sadly the case with Selena Quintanilla. On April 16, 1971, Selena Quintanilla was born into a Mexican-American family in Texas. No one knew that on that day an icon was born. Selena would later grow into a strong, beautiful singer, songwriter, and business woman. She became the “Queen of Tejano Music”, set new standards in the music industry, and broke language and cultural barriers all before the age of 23.…