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Maria Enriquez

English 115

Professor Rodrick

December 7, 2017

Mexican American Identity

Mexican Americans are a rising ethnicity in the United States, but these people have the

hardest time identifying where they belong. One of the biggest ethnicities so far is Mexicans,

better yet Mexican Americans. American society tends not to see them as equal even though they

were born and raised in the United States. Although society has been changing their perspective

on Mexicans belonging in the United States they still feel out of place and feel the need to

conform. Mexican Americans have had the biggest impact on change to their identity living in

the United States because they live in fear, change of language, and having the feeling they have

no place in which they belong to because of discrimination against them by a society who look

down at them, therefore they try to conform rather than stand out.

Fear is a scary feeling, it shuts you down making it hard to think and function properly.

Fear plays a role in a Mexicans daily life in the United States. In the article Beyond

acculturation: Immigration, discrimination, and health research among Mexicans in the United

States both authors state, Some still expressed fears of immigration officials who were known

to make periodic raids throughout the area. Perhaps in part due to these fears, these first-

generation women conducted their lives mostly within the neighborhood. In other words the

fear Mexicans feel drive them to stay with what they know which is their neighborhood because

of the fear of immigration. Being in closed into one area affects their identity because they stick

to what they know rather than expanding their environment and mind which keeps their identity
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to remain the same keeping a closed mind to other things outside their own environment. The

fear drives Mexican Americans to be conformed into their home instead of out in society.

Not only does immigration play a role in fear but also the fear of being judged or even

discriminated. Mexican Americans are judged by society because of their differences that set

them apart along with America not being the place where they belong. In the article Beyond

Acculturation: Immigration, Discrimination, and Health Research Among Mexicans in the

United States according to Viruell-Fuentes and Edna, Patricia said, I wouldnt go to a restaurant

where people go. I couldnt go there, I feel humiliated when they look at you like that ugly.

Both authors point out how the fear of being judged makes Mexicans keep themselves in closed

making them blend in society in order to not stand out because of the fear of being judged by

others. They are no longer representing the Mexican side of themselves because that side is being

looked down upon by those who dont approve of it changing half of their identity they are told

to be proud of is now being conformed. Mexican Americans face the fact that they must change

their identity in order to conform in society no longer being judged by what they are.

Mexican Americans are taught two languages one language is taught at school which is

English and the other by their parent which is Spanish, but as they grow older they are told that

speaking Spanish in public shouldnt be done. They are also told it is wrong because Spanish is

not the language of the country. In the Norton Reader a short story called How To Tame a Wild

Tongue by Gloria Anzaldua the author points out I remember being caught speaking Spanish at

recess-that was good for three-licks on the knuckles with a sharp ruler. Basically, Anzaldua is

saying she was punished at a young age for speaking her native language and many other

Mexican Americans go through this as well because they are taught that in order to be part of

society you must only speak English and speaking any other language is wrong. You must get rid
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of you language to conform to the rest of society. This takes away your identity because

speaking another language opens up doors to yourself and the world that influences the way you

view things

Speaking another language in America is taught to be wrong. Although it is part of your

identity Anzaldua states, In childhood we are told that our language is wrong. Repeated attacks

on our native tongue diminish our sense of self. The attacks continue throughout our lives.

Anzalduas point is that not only are they being taught to vanish their first language but are being

attacked if it is not done. This relates back to the idea that Mexican Americans live in fear

because if they do not conform by hiding their native language then they are attacked by society.

In a Ted Talk video Im Mexican Does That Change Your Assumptions About Me? Vancour

states I identify as a woman of color, I straddle two worlds, as a white woman and as a Mexican

and what most people dont know about me is I feel like my truest self when I speak Spanish.

Vancour gives a strong opinion about herself and how language can give a person identity, a part

that makes them feel true to themselves and the faade they have created because of society.

Both languages make a persons identity because you relate to the people who speak the

language creating influence, but by removing this language you are removing the connections

you may make with someone who speaks Spanish as well.

Mexicans Americans come from two sides. A side in which they grew up knowing

through culture, religion, and language being taught by their parents and the other side that is

taught through school and by being influenced by society. These two sides make up a Mexican

American, but they do not know where they fall in place when both sides play against them. In

another article Findings One Place: Shifting Ethnic Identities of Recent Immigrant Children

From China, Haiti, and Mexico in the United States the author, Steve Song, talks about how their
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appearance affects their place in American society. Song states In contrast, for minorities and

immigrants of color, ethnic and racial identities are constantly imposed on them by virtue of their

physical appearance, so that they are often seen as less than full-fledged, unhyphenated

Americans. It is often said that the way we look changes our identity from the way we dress to

even the color of our skin. At the same time I believe that Mexican Americans dont feel like

they conform because of the way they look because they look different from others, I also

believe this leads to them believing they must change their appearance the best they can in order

to be a part of a place where they are accepted and belong. That identity no longer holds the

same value as before because the way you perceive to look can help identify the type of person

you are, therefore changing your appearance and identity as a whole.

Feeling out of place is a trait Mexican Americans hold because where do they belong?

Their parents are Mexican but they were born in the United States growing up with American

culture mixed with Mexican culture. So what can they fall under? Song states racial/ethnic

identity is more complicated for the children of immigrants. Unlike their parents who come to

the new world with a clearer and more defined sense of their ethnic identity, the immigrant

children are caught in two cultural worlds in which they must navigate through various national,

ethnic, and racial allegiances [] the process of becoming American entails a struggle to

reconcile their sense of self with those of their parents. Songs point is that their parents know

where they are from and where they stand in society even though they still try to conform, but

for Mexican Americans they dont know as much. Parents teach their culture of where they are

from, but in a whole new country where those traditions are not practiced by the rest which

causes confusion for their children. They are told they are not Mexicans because they didnt

grow up in Mexico but are then told they are not American because their parents are not from
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America, making them feel as though they have no place; that they are stuck in this confusing

middle ground. Mexican Americans do their best to find the place in which they belong, but they

struggle to find it and eventually just do their best to conform to society, letting go of their native

roots in order to have a place in which they feel they belong.

Mexican American goes through many obstacles that interfere with their identity, but are

not as impacted as African Americans. Although African has the highest rate in discrimination

and live more in fear. In the graph presented at the end of the page, demonstrates that Mexicans

are the second highest race to be affected by discrimination. If we are right about the percentage

of Mexicans being discriminated, then a major consequences follow for the fact that Mexicans

live in fear to be among society because of the discrimination and judgment that other races

apply towards them because they are different making them want to conform trying to make

themselves like the rest in order to avoid this kind of hate that makes them hate their own

identity.

Mexican Americans are affected by fear, change in their language, and having no place in

which they belong to has helped shape their own identity because they must let go of a side they

are told to lose in order to conform with the rest of society and not stand out. They no longer

have a sense of feeling joy to have a Mexican background, but grow in American culture. That

joy then changes to becoming uncomfortable because they dont feel accepted into society

because of their language or appearance. Mexican Americans change who they are, their identity,

so they can conform into a society that refuses to accept them for their background and where

their parents come from.

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Poll asks how big of a problem racism is in our society today. The graph shows a

breakdown of who says racism is a big problem between blacks, Hispanics and whites.
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Work Cited

Anzaldua, Gloria. How to Tame a Wild Tongue. The Norton Reader, edited by Marilyn

Moller, W.W. Norton Company, 2016, pp. 471-479.

Fox News. How Big Is Racism In Our Society Today. Fox2Now, 24 Nov. 2015. Accessed

December 7, 2017.

Im Mexican. Does That Change Your Assumptions About Me? YouTube, uploaded by Tedx

Talks, 1 Feb. 2017, https://youtu.be/sE4-req-Hes

Song, Steve. Finding Ones Place: Shifting Ethnic Identities of Recent Immigrant Children

From China, Haiti, and Mexico in the United States. Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol.33,

no.6, 2010, pp. 1006-1031, Social Sciences (General). Primexplore. Accessed December

7, 2017

Viruell-Fuentes, Edna A. Beyond Acculturation: Immigration, Discrimination, and Health

Research Among Mexicans in the United States. Social Sciences & Amp; Medicine,

Vol.65, no.7, 2007, pp. 1524-1535. Primexplore. Accessed December 7, 2017