Bajo La Alambrad, Nombre, And La Pulga

Bajo la Alambrada, La Soledad, No Speak English, Mi Nombre, and La Pulga, on the surface, are all stories that seem to be just personal stories of people who are of Mexican-American descent. In actuality, all these stories have at least one common theme of examining the struggle of assimilating to the American culture. These pieces of literature are all reflections of the experience that immigrants and children of immigrants have in a culture that fails to accept them or in even making an effort to try to accept them. In Bajo la Alambrada and La Soledad, Francisco and his family are living an impoverished life while working as crop pickers. The experience of Francisco’s family is a reflection of migrant workers in the 21st century, not much …show more content…
In No speak English, Mamacita doesn’t speak English but towards the end of the story her grandson has started to speak English. Mamacita tells him,”No speak English, le dice ella al nene niño que canta en un idioma que suena a hoja de lata. No speak English, no speak English. No, no, no. Y rompe a llorar” (Cisneros, 38). Mamacita is angry that her grandson is speaking the language of the country that has refused to accept her culture that’s deeper than music and food. To Mamacita, speaking the English language is a way of saying to American society, “Yes, I’ll speak just like you and conform to your ways.” In the chapter, Mi Nombre, Cisneros writes, “At school they say my name funny as if the syllables were made out of tin and hurt the roof of your mouth” (11). Even Esperanza’s name is something that’s hard for Americans to accept. The same can be said for many other names of foreign origin. Americans tend to have not even take the time to pronounce something as little as someone’s name