MLO 5: Cultural Praxis
The student demonstrates that he or she has been actively immersed in and has internalized Hispanic culture.
There are three pathways by which this outcome can be fulfilled:
1. Pathway 1: By participating in a study-abroad program in a Spanish-speaking country for at least one semester. WLC's Spanish program has exchange agreements with the University of Aguas Calientes and the University of Queretero in Mexico, and the University of Córdoba in Spain. In addition, through CSU International Programs, you can study at universities in Madrid or Granada, Spain or in Santiago, Chile.
2. Pathway 2: By living and working in a local heritage community over an extended period of time without interruption for at least two years.
3. Pathway 3: By participating in and/or completing 10 of the following cultural learning scenarios with accompanying documentation, in the target language:
● Participate in service learning within a local heritage community for a minimum of eight weeks beyond the actual service learning requirement.
● Make a minimum of three home-visits in the local heritage community to interact and communicate with members of the Hispanic culture regarding topics of personal interest, the community, culture and language.
● Attend or view via media a minimum of 10 cultural events and /or social activities of Hispanic culture.
● Actively participate and/or perform in a school or heritage community event or celebration.
● Participate in a heritage-community project (of some duration) that requires proficiency in Spanish and knowledge of Hispanic cultures.
● Conducting a one hour in-depth interview with a speaker of Spanish, eliciting, in a conversational manner, comments of a biographical nature, cultural and social observations and anecdotal reflections.
● View and comment on 10 movie-length films produced within and about Hispanic culture.
● Participate at least five times in organized sports or recreation activities of Hispanic culture.
● Demonstrate cultural skills by making hotel reservations, ordering meals and shopping in stores or markets in heritage settings where Spanish is spoken. This objective is assessed by faculty.
There are three pathways by which this outcome can be fulfilled:
1. Pathway 1: By participating in a study-abroad program in a Spanish-speaking country for at least one semester. WLC's Spanish program has exchange agreements with the University of Aguas Calientes and the University of Queretero in Mexico, and the University of Córdoba in Spain. In addition, through CSU International Programs, you can study at universities in Madrid or Granada, Spain or in Santiago, Chile.
2. Pathway 2: By living and working in a local heritage community over an extended period of time without interruption for at least two years.
3. Pathway 3: By participating in and/or completing 10 of the following cultural learning scenarios with accompanying documentation, in the target language:
● Participate in service learning within a local heritage community for a minimum of eight weeks beyond the actual service learning requirement.
● Make a minimum of three home-visits in the local heritage community to interact and communicate with members of the Hispanic culture regarding topics of personal interest, the community, culture and language.
● Attend or view via media a minimum of 10 cultural events and /or social activities of Hispanic culture.
● Actively participate and/or perform in a school or heritage community event or celebration.
● Participate in a heritage-community project (of some duration) that requires proficiency in Spanish and knowledge of Hispanic cultures.
● Conducting a one hour in-depth interview with a speaker of Spanish, eliciting, in a conversational manner, comments of a biographical nature, cultural and social observations and anecdotal reflections.
● View and comment on 10 movie-length films produced within and about Hispanic culture.
● Participate at least five times in organized sports or recreation activities of Hispanic culture.
● Demonstrate cultural skills by making hotel reservations, ordering meals and shopping in stores or markets in heritage settings where Spanish is spoken. This objective is assessed by faculty.
Miles Reiter
In order to fulfill MLO 5: Cultural Practice: Cultural Internalization and Language Immersion, I analyzed one essay and one song, both based on the challenges of being an illegal immigrant in the United States. The essay was written Jose Antonio Vargas, and is called “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant.” Vargas is a Filipino man who immigrated to the U.S. from the Philippines at 12 years old. He was sent here by his mother to live with his grandparents. Vargas quickly becomes assimilated into the U.S. culture. He learns English, does well in school, and tries very hard to become an “American.” He feels that the U.S. is his home country, has many friends, and on the outside appears to be a happy, normal American kid. When he arrived in the U.S., has grandfather had bought him a fake green card. He is unaware of this until he tries to get his drivers license when he is 16 years old. The person working at the DMV tells him that it is fake and to never come back again. He tells his grandfather this story and his grandfather admits the truth. This fact drives the author to become an even better example of a model American citizen. He believes that if he works hard and lives the core values of an American citizen should be that he would one day be rewarded with his citizenship. He graduates from high school, goes to college, and ends up being a successful journalist, working for a number of very well known newspapers in several different states, but the fact remains. He is an illegal alien. He is stuck in a very difficult situation. On one hand he wants to succeed in life, work hard, and take advantage of the opportunities he is presented with due to the fact that he is a hard working, dedicated person who loves his job. On the other hand, he lives in constant fear of being found out by his employers, the government, and even his close friends. It is a daily moral struggle for the author. He must do things that he knows are wrong; getting fake passports, fake social security cards, and fake drivers licenses in order to pursue his career and improve his life. Along the way, he makes a network of friends and work colleagues, with whom he shares his secret of being an illegal immigrant. They try to help him, consulting lawyers and doing other things, but it seems there is no proper solution for Vargas. The pressure of not being found out is really suppressing for the author. He eventually decides to come clean, and tell his story in the form of this essay that I read. He feels a mix of guilt and liberation when retelling his story. It does not state what happens to him afterward.
The song that I chose to analyze is called “La Jaula de Oro” (The Golden Cage) by Los Tigres Del Norte. Though the group is Mexican, the base of the story is actually quite similar to the story of Jose Antonio Vargas. The song talks about being established in the United States. The singer has his family here and has lived here for 10 years. However, he still has no proper documentation and is an illegal alien. The title, “La Jaula de Oro,” refers to the author’s description of living in the U.S.: though the “cage” is made of gold, it is still a prison. The song questions whether it is worth living in this great country if he has to live like a prisoner. The stress of this causes him to cry at times. While this is a song and so cannot be take literally, in Vargas’ case he states that he does break down and cry at one point because of this. In the song, the author talks about other challenges not discussed in Vargas’ essay. One of these is the fact that his kids don’t really talk to him, because they speak English and he doesn’t. His kids deny that they are Mexican. He also longs to return to his home country of Mexico, a sentiment not shared by his kids. This is another difference between the song and the essay, as Vargas does not want to leave the U.S.
I interviewed twenty people for Capstone Project. It dealt with the reasons Mexican farm workers have for leaving their country and coming to the United States. I asked many questions that pertained to this. Some of these include: Do you feel comfortable/welcome here?, Do you wish to leave why/why not?, Overall do you like living here? Every person said that, overall, they like living here. One person said that they didn’t feel very comfortable here, because him and his family don’t have very many friends and they here about the violence, which makes them uneasy. One person said he would like to go back to Mexico but he can’t because it is too expensive and dangerous. Although I didn’t get this response in my interviews, I have heard some Mexicans saying that the children of Mexican descent that are born in the United States have negative attitudes towards farm work and barely speak Spanish. They are losing some of their Mexican culture in other words. They also consider themselves Americans (which they are) and have no desire to live in Mexico. This is parallel to what the song says. I think that many Mexican immigrants can understand what the song is saying through personal experience. The song also has a part that says the he only goes from work to his house, and that he never goes out because he is afraid of getting caught and deported. I have spent an extensive amount of time around illegal Mexican immigrants, and I have found that they generally do go straight home after work. This could be due to family commitments, tiredness, or some other reason. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if what the song says does hold some truth for them as well. On the other hand, I have gone out to lunch and had drinks with undocumented workers and they did not seem that worried. I suppose much depends on the person. I think a big difference between the people that I interviewed and Jose Antonio Vargas is that Vargas lived in a community that was primarily English speaking Americans (Mt. View, CA), whereas the people that I interviewed live in Watsonville. Watsonville is relatively well set up for immigrants, many of my interviewees stated that a reason they feel comfortable there is that they don’t have to speak English. Most of the businesses are focused towards Mexicans; most of the people who work at the banks and insurance agencies are Mexican. Therefore, many of the people I interviewed are not actively trying to assimilate into the prototypical American culture, as is Jose Antonio Vargas. I enjoyed both the song and the essay; I thought they were really interesting. The interviews were fascinating as well.
In order to fulfill MLO 5: Cultural Practice: Cultural Internalization and Language Immersion, I analyzed one essay and one song, both based on the challenges of being an illegal immigrant in the United States. The essay was written Jose Antonio Vargas, and is called “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant.” Vargas is a Filipino man who immigrated to the U.S. from the Philippines at 12 years old. He was sent here by his mother to live with his grandparents. Vargas quickly becomes assimilated into the U.S. culture. He learns English, does well in school, and tries very hard to become an “American.” He feels that the U.S. is his home country, has many friends, and on the outside appears to be a happy, normal American kid. When he arrived in the U.S., has grandfather had bought him a fake green card. He is unaware of this until he tries to get his drivers license when he is 16 years old. The person working at the DMV tells him that it is fake and to never come back again. He tells his grandfather this story and his grandfather admits the truth. This fact drives the author to become an even better example of a model American citizen. He believes that if he works hard and lives the core values of an American citizen should be that he would one day be rewarded with his citizenship. He graduates from high school, goes to college, and ends up being a successful journalist, working for a number of very well known newspapers in several different states, but the fact remains. He is an illegal alien. He is stuck in a very difficult situation. On one hand he wants to succeed in life, work hard, and take advantage of the opportunities he is presented with due to the fact that he is a hard working, dedicated person who loves his job. On the other hand, he lives in constant fear of being found out by his employers, the government, and even his close friends. It is a daily moral struggle for the author. He must do things that he knows are wrong; getting fake passports, fake social security cards, and fake drivers licenses in order to pursue his career and improve his life. Along the way, he makes a network of friends and work colleagues, with whom he shares his secret of being an illegal immigrant. They try to help him, consulting lawyers and doing other things, but it seems there is no proper solution for Vargas. The pressure of not being found out is really suppressing for the author. He eventually decides to come clean, and tell his story in the form of this essay that I read. He feels a mix of guilt and liberation when retelling his story. It does not state what happens to him afterward.
The song that I chose to analyze is called “La Jaula de Oro” (The Golden Cage) by Los Tigres Del Norte. Though the group is Mexican, the base of the story is actually quite similar to the story of Jose Antonio Vargas. The song talks about being established in the United States. The singer has his family here and has lived here for 10 years. However, he still has no proper documentation and is an illegal alien. The title, “La Jaula de Oro,” refers to the author’s description of living in the U.S.: though the “cage” is made of gold, it is still a prison. The song questions whether it is worth living in this great country if he has to live like a prisoner. The stress of this causes him to cry at times. While this is a song and so cannot be take literally, in Vargas’ case he states that he does break down and cry at one point because of this. In the song, the author talks about other challenges not discussed in Vargas’ essay. One of these is the fact that his kids don’t really talk to him, because they speak English and he doesn’t. His kids deny that they are Mexican. He also longs to return to his home country of Mexico, a sentiment not shared by his kids. This is another difference between the song and the essay, as Vargas does not want to leave the U.S.
I interviewed twenty people for Capstone Project. It dealt with the reasons Mexican farm workers have for leaving their country and coming to the United States. I asked many questions that pertained to this. Some of these include: Do you feel comfortable/welcome here?, Do you wish to leave why/why not?, Overall do you like living here? Every person said that, overall, they like living here. One person said that they didn’t feel very comfortable here, because him and his family don’t have very many friends and they here about the violence, which makes them uneasy. One person said he would like to go back to Mexico but he can’t because it is too expensive and dangerous. Although I didn’t get this response in my interviews, I have heard some Mexicans saying that the children of Mexican descent that are born in the United States have negative attitudes towards farm work and barely speak Spanish. They are losing some of their Mexican culture in other words. They also consider themselves Americans (which they are) and have no desire to live in Mexico. This is parallel to what the song says. I think that many Mexican immigrants can understand what the song is saying through personal experience. The song also has a part that says the he only goes from work to his house, and that he never goes out because he is afraid of getting caught and deported. I have spent an extensive amount of time around illegal Mexican immigrants, and I have found that they generally do go straight home after work. This could be due to family commitments, tiredness, or some other reason. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if what the song says does hold some truth for them as well. On the other hand, I have gone out to lunch and had drinks with undocumented workers and they did not seem that worried. I suppose much depends on the person. I think a big difference between the people that I interviewed and Jose Antonio Vargas is that Vargas lived in a community that was primarily English speaking Americans (Mt. View, CA), whereas the people that I interviewed live in Watsonville. Watsonville is relatively well set up for immigrants, many of my interviewees stated that a reason they feel comfortable there is that they don’t have to speak English. Most of the businesses are focused towards Mexicans; most of the people who work at the banks and insurance agencies are Mexican. Therefore, many of the people I interviewed are not actively trying to assimilate into the prototypical American culture, as is Jose Antonio Vargas. I enjoyed both the song and the essay; I thought they were really interesting. The interviews were fascinating as well.