The first three chapters are there in a way to give the reader a since of background information on the caste system, which in a way helps with the examples she shows throughout her reading. Laura shows how unequal and corrupt this caste system was for the indians, blacks, mulattoes and mestizos. Life was hard! Everyday was a struggle.. What I found very interesting is how the Spanish legal system didn't necessarily have power over the indians, but had complete control over the land, which they in return used to control them. Laura always calls this structure of living a sanctioned domain.
Nowadays, Puerto Ricans are having the same problems as the African Americans did before with the North Americans in terms of the use of English. Something similar is happening to Puerto Rican society and their education towards English. North American people think we do not know how to speak it because we are stupid and not clever. We can speak it, not like them, but we can communicate with them. The main reason for a language is to communicate.
Growing up in the United States as a young Latina girl has its difficulties. I may not be Puerto Rican , but I am Colombian, and I for one understand the racial inequalities placed upon us. Caleñas , Paisas , even Gringas have to deal with the harsh comments of being looked on as cocaine mules. Even portrayed as having a humongous butt ,over sized breasts and long black hair ; the Latina in reality is your average independent , strong and beautiful woman. “The Myth of the Latin Woman,” Judith Ortiz Cofer talks about her life in America as a Puerto Rican.
Many still face injustices of racism even in today’s world, where major inhumane actions such as slavery are largely a thing of the past. I interpret Margaret Walker’s quote in a variety of ways. First, I think she goes out of her way to point out the struggles of many African Americans in an elegant and unique way. The dehumanizing of slavery and segregation is something that I believe has happened many times. It’s easy to study these subjects time and time again and become numb to the fact that real people had to suffer through such conditions.
Without the wisdom of what gender roles are actually reinforcing within men and women, domestic violence continues today. This exists especially within cultures and individual beliefs that continue the tradition of the masculine macho man and the feminine fragile woman. Toni Morrison projects this well in her novel Tar Baby, between two of her main characters, Son and Jadine as well as Sandra Cisneros’ Women Hollering Creek and her main characters Cleofilas and Juan Pedro. Exploration of Mexican-American’s society and its outlook of male and female roles sets a firmer foundation to the understanding of the issues of domestic violence that arise between Cleofilas and Juan Pedro in Women Hollering Creek. The focus on Son’s beliefs on his masculinity and the way it ought to be between him and Jadine in Tar Baby, directly
The beauty standards of white Western culture, the sexual abuse of Pecola by her father, and Pecola’s low economic status have multiplicative effects on Pecola and all aid in her progressive alienation from society as well as her fall towards insanity. Deborah King states that “the experience of black women is assumed to be synonymous with that of either black males or white females” (King 45). It is mistakenly granted that either there is no difference in being black and female than being generically black or generically female. The intensity of the physical and psychological impact of racism is very different from that of sexism. For example, the group experience of slavery and lynching for blacks, and genocide for Native Americans is not comparable to the physical abuse, social discrimination, and cultural denigration suffered by women.
The final /s/ is variably aspirated and deleted among all social classes. For example, in Andalusian Spanish, the aspiration of /s/ is claimed to correlate with a variety of phonetic effects. The final/s/ does one or both of the following: Opens or lengthens the preceding vowel, or Lengthens or devoices the following consonant. With those two concepts in mind, the words libro/libros (meaning book/books) would have the final /s/ completely sounded out and aspirated in Andalusian Spanish. For those speaking PRS, the plural form would still be pronounced like the singular, libro.
Gloria Anzaldúa was a prolific writer coediting with Cherríe Moraga and was a sixth-generation Tejana. In her essay, “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” Anzaldúa argues that American education makes it hard for one person to understand their own cultural identity while adapting to American culture as well. She claims that the education system is focused around only American English language and pushes out other cultures. Students from other cultures can’t even speak their own language and have to stick with speaking in English. Anzaldúa argues that this can lead to linguistic terrorism which is when a person feels uncomfortable about his or her own culture and feel awkward talking in their native tongue.
The essay the myth of the Latin woman by Judith Ortiz Cofer teaches the readers how a woman was stereotyped and the difference between the American cultures from the Puerto Rican culture. Indeed, Judith wanted to fit in the American culture but this was difficult due to her different custom, and culture. Judith wants to portray to readers how Americans repeatedly stereotype the Latin women and the Puerto Ricans. Clearly, the main differences between the Americans according to the essay is the clothing style as the Americans have a modest dressing way while the Puerto Ricans prefer to dress in a vibrant and flashy manner. The other main lessons that confer want to teach the reader is that despite hard times in life one can still be successful.
It also shows Conrad's feelings toward the treatment of Africans which aren’t easily understood. An anonymous writer writes, “Conrad’s excellence in style is very controversial; some believe that he is a literary genius", while others “criticize him for being limited, pretentious, and vague." In my opinion he is a great man who seeks social change and improvement. He is often considered racist by other readers but he is simply writing down his observations such as people’s actual actions and thoughts. That in turn scares people because of the fact that someone might reveal that Caucasians believed that they were the superior race and the belief in "White Supremacy, African inferiority."