LatinX Body Image

Throughout my years of observation, one of the things I have noticed within the Latino community is how much emphasis they put on the visual appearance of the human body. It is so important that it is almost one of the first things that my family mentions when greeting. "Tu te vez mas flacka hoy mija. Tu tiene que dejar de comer mucho porque tu te vez un chin gorda mija. Tu tiene que comer mas Wellington." So on and so on. While I do believe that people, in general, should watch the quality of food they consume, especially in this country when they are basically feeding us literal poison, too much emphasis on the physical appearance can cause low self-esteem. For the most part in Latino culture, women and men have certain ideal body images to strive for, each country with their own preferred body type. Focussing too much on the bodily appearance can hinder some people from going out and accomplishing greater things because that will always be a flaw of theirs in the back of their head. In the discussion, one woman mentioned how when she went to Egypt to meet her fiance's family, they were focused on the baby hairs that she had. That was interesting to hear because apart from the hair on your head, I personally never witnessed such an emphasis on body hair in Latino communities. It was interesting to see what other cultures find more relevant than other things in terms of the physical body.

Taming a Wild Tongue Review

This writing goes in detail about the differences in languages and even the alternate languages that deviate from Spanish. What shocked me, but not necessarily surprise me, was when Gloria recalled a time in which she was younger and was physically harmed due to the fact that she was simply speaking another language. My whole life I found significance and artistry when it came to dominating many languages. One of my side goals in life is to be proficient in using all the Romance Languages and even some other ones I find interesting like Arabic and Japanese. I value the differences among cultures because I believe that they all have a world to offer in terms of perspective. Seeing how people would harm others for speaking another language really shows me the evil in humans. This need to be superior when in reality it offers nothing other than ignorance. Being prideful can be good, but having an unhealthy patriotic view can bring out the worst in people.

Another piece that I enjoyed reading about are the many versions of the same language. Dominicans utilize so many slang words that our Spanish is almost a language of its own. Instead of calling cereal "cereal," we call it "confle" because of the Corn Flakes brand. That is just one of many examples. Being raised in the United States also made me adopt a form of Spanglish that I primarily speak with my cousins. When I saw the list of languages that she speaks made me realize that I'm more than just bilingual. It shows the power of language and how it connects people through experiences.

Education For Latinx in the U.S.

The most difficult obstacle that most Latinx people need to overcome is the language barrier between English and Spanish. From experience in trying to teach it to a lot of my cousins, English is an especially difficult language to learn due to the fact that there are many inconsistencies. So already immigrant children and adults are at a disadvantage when it comes to attaining a certain level of knowledge or succeeding in school. Another issue is the education system in inner-city areas. To put it bluntly, as possible, the system does not care about these immigrants and would rather pass them early on without giving them proper instruction on the English language and any subject at that. They view these kids as a lost cause and only give them As so that when they arrive at high school they are all of a sudden failing all their classes. To add more fuel to the flame, generally public high school teachers in the city also do not care enough to put the extra mile in to help these kids with disadvantages. They would rather fail them and leave it up to them to make some sort of living with barely a high school degree.
All these examples I have witnessed happened to cousins that were living with me. People that I consider to be my siblings, and even though I tried to help, there is only so much one kid can do especially when I was trying to explain concepts that I was years away from learning still. Now they work difficult jobs because of the lack of care from the education system. They do not put an emphasis on trying to help these kids. Reading about Miguel and watching the movie "Precious Education" made me realize the similar experiences most immigrants from Latinx countries go through but also the distinct differences. There is a lot of work to be done within the education system to guarantee the success for Latinx students.

Refugees, Economic Immigrants, and New Migration Review

People stay in areas that are not worth leaving. If you can live a comfortable life in a certain area, there would be no point leaving. People migrate when there is hope for living an even better life. People leave when they know that staying is not worth it whatever the case may be. Despite this situation, people who leave have to face a lot more trials and tribulations that last an entire lifetime. 

Maria Garcia in her essay about immigrants and the policies towards them shows how a country is only willing to let people in if it proves beneficial for it. The United States started letting elite members from Cuba when they can use that immigration wave as marketing against communist ideologies. They let a select group of Cubans come into the U.S. as a way to tell the world that communist does not work and democracy is favorable and these people are proof of that. The United States also previously let in immigrants from Europe during World War 2 also to convey this message that the States is a land of equality and everyone gets treated fairly here. 

When it does not prove useful to the United States, they manipulate the narrative and give people a negative stigma in order to reduce it from happening, they even go to greater lengths than this. The media starts depicting certain immigrants as "troublemakers" to increase the public's negative feelings towards them. They also say that immigrants are here to take away the opportunities of the people who were already here. Refugees that come south of the border are the ones that usually portrayed this way. 

The fact of the matter is that there is so much opportunity in this country, yet, the greediness of a powerful few does not allow it that everyone can strive and prosper here. There is so much hate in this country when in reality there is no need for it. It is possible to live in a society in which everyone is treated fairly but the process to achieve that can be problematic for some. For that reason is why we have so much conflict today.  

Latina/o Cultural Expressions Review

January 31, 2019

This essay, written by Edna Acosta-Belén, shows the development of the culture of various Latino communities living in the United States during times of great significance. One of the primary points mentioned is the fact how all Latino communities are different due to their native countries having distinct personalities and values; however, through the lens of the U.S., it is all the same. Due to the fact that the United States has so much influence, this can be an issue as then the general train of thought will be that all Latinos are the same and disregard any unique identities. My older sister was previously hired due to her knowledge of not only Dominican culture but also Puerto Rican, Cuban, Colombian and so on. This knowledge proved useful for her firm as they wanted to specifically attract these groups without marketing their product towards Mexicans. Unfortunately, many Americans associate many other Latino countries to Mexico as it is the most prominent culturally speaking. 

Belén goes on to speak about the evolution of Latino arts and media. During the 1900s, due to many social movements and immigration waves, many Latino poets, writers, painters, singers, etc. started to come to light as they wanted to highlight their personal and collective experiences of being a Latino in the United States. This new stream of works proved beneficial as it helped distinguish each Latino country yet still mention the similarities they all experience especially when coming to the U.S.

Looking at the landscape today, the Latino community has made significant strides in making known the different characteristics of each country. There is still more work to be done as not everyone is educated in this regard. It is good to deviate from a certain stereotype while also displaying the many negative obstacles Latinos face in this country.