Mary’s Assimilation Process
My interviewee is a 1.5 generation female immigrant, she was born in another country, in Mexico, but migrated to the United States before she was 13 years old. (Feliciano, lec,1/4/16) She is currently 37 years old and wishes to be referred as Mary for this project and identifies as Mexican. In this paper I will discus how her family migrated to the United States, how her culture influenced her life and how she managed to assimilate through an interview and other course material like the lectures and readings or films. Mary’s father had already spent time in the United States, prior to bringing his family with him. They were a transnational family: Economic migrants because at least one of the parents migrated for …show more content…
Her dad had learned English but he only used it when he needed it. Mary explained to me that her parents thought it was important and beneficial that they were going to be bilingual. Her parents’ ideas about bilingualism was similar to the Language as a resource model that argued that not only is fluent bilingualism associated with positive educational outcomes but that fluent bilingualism leads to better communication with immigrant parents and co-ethnic communities furthermore, it is also an important skill to have (Feliciano, Lec, 1/20/2016). So, that’s why they established the “only Spanish rule” (Mary) in their house hold so that they wouldn’t lose their Spanish roots and in the long run it would benefit them. This connects to the 3 generation Fishman Model that says that the 1st generation will acquire some English, the 2nd generation will be bilingual and that the 3rd generation will be English monolingual (Feliciano, Lec,1/20/16). This connect to that model because although she was not 2nd gen, she was still able to acquire both languages, becoming …show more content…
She decided to sneak out because her parents didn’t know about the relationship. The never let her or her sister go out, “they only my brothers [go] out, we weren’t allowed to have a boyfriend yet because we were meant to help my mom out at home.” (Mary). In the article “We Don’t Sleep Around Like White Girls Do”: Family, Culture and Gender in Filipina American Lives Yen Le Espiritu argue that gender double standards exist, females are expected to be morally superior, expected to do more household chores and discipline is enforced more strictly on girls than boys. (2001) Just like the Filipinos have these double standards so do many Hispanics. For example, like in the movie Real Women Have Curves, the mother just wanted her daughter to become a housewife and she didn’t think it was right for her daughter to go to college. Mary knew that if she confronted her parents they wouldn’t understand so she hid it from them. A little after she found out she was
My interviewee is a 1.5 generation female immigrant, she was born in another country, in Mexico, but migrated to the United States before she was 13 years old. (Feliciano, lec,1/4/16) She is currently 37 years old and wishes to be referred as Mary for this project and identifies as Mexican. In this paper I will discus how her family migrated to the United States, how her culture influenced her life and how she managed to assimilate through an interview and other course material like the lectures and readings or films. Mary’s father had already spent time in the United States, prior to bringing his family with him. They were a transnational family: Economic migrants because at least one of the parents migrated for …show more content…
Her dad had learned English but he only used it when he needed it. Mary explained to me that her parents thought it was important and beneficial that they were going to be bilingual. Her parents’ ideas about bilingualism was similar to the Language as a resource model that argued that not only is fluent bilingualism associated with positive educational outcomes but that fluent bilingualism leads to better communication with immigrant parents and co-ethnic communities furthermore, it is also an important skill to have (Feliciano, Lec, 1/20/2016). So, that’s why they established the “only Spanish rule” (Mary) in their house hold so that they wouldn’t lose their Spanish roots and in the long run it would benefit them. This connects to the 3 generation Fishman Model that says that the 1st generation will acquire some English, the 2nd generation will be bilingual and that the 3rd generation will be English monolingual (Feliciano, Lec,1/20/16). This connect to that model because although she was not 2nd gen, she was still able to acquire both languages, becoming …show more content…
She decided to sneak out because her parents didn’t know about the relationship. The never let her or her sister go out, “they only my brothers [go] out, we weren’t allowed to have a boyfriend yet because we were meant to help my mom out at home.” (Mary). In the article “We Don’t Sleep Around Like White Girls Do”: Family, Culture and Gender in Filipina American Lives Yen Le Espiritu argue that gender double standards exist, females are expected to be morally superior, expected to do more household chores and discipline is enforced more strictly on girls than boys. (2001) Just like the Filipinos have these double standards so do many Hispanics. For example, like in the movie Real Women Have Curves, the mother just wanted her daughter to become a housewife and she didn’t think it was right for her daughter to go to college. Mary knew that if she confronted her parents they wouldn’t understand so she hid it from them. A little after she found out she was