Borderlands/La Frontera

In the text "Borderlands/La Frontera" Anzaldua speaks of her struggle to assimilate with American culture and being almost forced to lose her Mexican one. Something that really struck me from the text was when she mentioned that she was placed in a class that taught her how to get rid of her accent. How do you teach someone to get rid of their accent? To me this is such an unreasonable request. It shocks me that her mother would also go along with this and get angry at her for speaking with an accent and not sounding American enough. One of the things that makes America such a beautiful country is the diversity within it. All the different people from around the world who come to live here and strive for a better future is what it's really all about. Forcing someone to lose their accent is almost like teaching someone to not have a unique personality. Accents and culture make us who we are. How often do you see someone with a different accent and then all of a sudden here them speaking without it and think to yourself, "wow they sound so weird". People from different cultures should follow in Anzaldua's footsteps and fight to keep their culture. They should stay true to their roots and not be so quick to give up what makes them unique.

Dutiful Hijas: Dependency, Power & Guilt

In the text Dutiful Hijas, Martinez speaks of an issue that we commonly see throughout hispanic culture. The pressure for young women to live up to the expectations of their mothers and abide by the tradition to take care of them until their dying day. I find this to be quite a peculiar situation in the sense that due to the whole obligation outlook on the topic, it sort of makes the act not genuine. Caring for your mother should not be looked at as a duty. It should be something that comes from your own personal desire to care for someone who has given their all to you. The fact that mothers  place this moral obligation on their daughters and deprive them of the choice on how to live out their lives creates a sense of resentment between the mother/daughter relationship. If they did not feel forced into this life of duty, they would certainly be more willing to do it on their own. They would be living a life they choose and then when it comes time that the mother is sick, a genuine act of love would be demonstrated and they would automatically rush to their mother's side. This is also an act that should be evenly distributed amongst all the mother's children regardless of gender. This is just something that's supposed to come naturally to us, to care for our mothers as they care for us.