Essay About Mexican Americans And Mexican Americans Language

Dutch
Essay Preview: Dutch
Report this essay
In identifying the linguistic, political, social, economic, religious,
and familial conventions and/or statuses of four Hispanic groups living
in the United States; the following four groups have been chosen,
Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and El Salvadorians. Each
group has a rich cultural identity but has been placed in the same
category, Hispanic Americans, on the basis of language. All these
groups share the Spanish language, though each has a different
dialect and some words spelled and pronounced the same have
different meanings. For example, sopa means soup in some countries,
but in others it means soap.
Mexican Americans language is made up of a mix of their national
language Spanish and English, sometimes referred to as Spanglish.
Politically Mexican Americans were very active in the Mexican American
Civil Rights movement spearheaded by Mendoza, V. “…Reies LДÑ-pez
Tijerina and the land grant movement, is picked up by Rodolfo “Corky”
Gonzales in Denver who defines the meaning of Chicano through his
epic poem I am Joaquin, embraces CД©sar ChДЎvez and the farm
workersвЂ¦Ð²Ð‚Ñœ(2000). The movement as defined by Mendoza, V. “The
Mexican American Civil Rights MovementвЂ¦Ð²Ð‚Ñœ “…encompassed a broad
cross section of issues—from restoration of land grants, to farm
workers rights, to enhanced education, to voting and political rightsвЂ¦Ð²Ð‚Ñœ
Socially Mexican Americans seem to want what all immigrants who
come to this country seeking; the American Dream. (Alba, R. 2006).
Educationally, Mexican Americans, no matter the generation rarely go
past High School; according to the reading, Alba, R. “Huntington
presents data that appear to show very low levels of Mexican-
American educational advancement beyond high school, regardless of
generation.” And that;
“Thus, he cites numbers reported from the National
Latino Political Survey, conducted at the end of the
1980s, to show that no more than 10 percent of
Mexican Americans of any generation earn a
credential beyond high school and only 4 percent of
the fourth generation attains the baccalaureate; 40
percent of this generation fails to obtain the high
school diploma.” (2006)
Through out the immigration of Mexicans to America it seems that
little progress is made for Mexican Americans to move up from
immigrant status to mainstream social status. Due in part to the
amount of discrimination and poor educational systems that were
provided to them, Mexican Americans have not really assimilated
themselves into the American mainstream culture. (Alba, R. 2006)
Economically, Mexican Americans are pushing for fair pay. This
plays out most predominately in the Mexican American Civil Rights
movement as discussed earlier with Cesar Chavez. (Mendoza, V.
2000). Fair pay, benefits and adequate wages are still an issue for
Mexican Americans.
Family for Mexican American seems to focus on the Grandparents,
especially the Grandmothers, they appear to be the staple of the
family according to GonzДЎlez-Clements, A. in Mexican American
traditions in Nebraska, “Grandmothers, those special women who held
them and fed them and healed them, grandmothers who knew the
remedies, the stories, the crafts, the foods, and the language that
some of us have forgotten.” American Christmas traditions have been
adopted, in place of their traditions such as Gonzalez-Clements, A.
“The traditional Mexican posada, a house-to-house celebration of song
and food that replicates Joseph and Marys search for shelter on
Christmas EveвЂ¦Ð²Ð‚Ñœ
Puerto Ricans