The Privilege Of Being An American, Aurora Morale

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The Privilege of being an American, Aurora Levins Morales' "Child of the Americas" "Child of the Americas" celebrates the privilege of being an American as a condition of advantage and celebration according to Aurora Levins Morales. Morales celebrates her American experience in the poem by emphasizing how her languages, her ethnic heritage, and her historical background, all point to different advantages that distinguish her American experience from that of other individuals. Americans who have the ability to speak two languages, in this case English and Spanish, are immersed in a world that has richness of words and to some extent a new language. These Americans also have a mixture of cultural backgrounds such as European, African, and Taíno Indian that fuses in their art, foods and every aspect of daily life. Additionally, the diversity of historical backgrounds provides Americans with an intrinsic understanding of experiences and hardships that embellish our present. The author speaks fluent English and Spanish giving her an advantage over others. Morales's poem "Child of the Americas" focuses on the author's bilingualism where it celebrates the point that in the Americas she can speak more than one language. She shows equal levels of attachment to both languages and what these mean to her on a personal and cultural level. An example of her love and mastery of the English language is in line 7, "I speak English with passion: it's the tongue of my consciousness." Here she reveals a great level of comfort and respect when she speaks English "with passion". This passion also helps Morales with her creativity since she thinks in the English language; it is by her admission the language of her consciousness. In the next line of the poem she states, English is "a flashing knife blade of crystal, my tool, my craft", telling us how she makes her living.

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