Like many kids with a penchant for reading, I started venturing into the world of young adult literature as a preteen. I read a lot of "coming-of-age" novels about, well, kids coming of age, and started to identify with them as, well, a kid coming of age. I saw the characters in those books as role models for, among other things, how to deal with growing up, and identified with them on a level of basic human experiences, regardless of their background. However, these books didn't necessarily produce an identity, at least for me, but instead mirrored the broader experiences I had.
Sandra Cisneros's The House On Mango Street, as well as Gary Soto's poetry, helped produce in me a unique category of ethnic identity as not just Mexican, and not just American, but as both. I identified with their characters not just on a human level, but based on the cultural and linguistic traditions I had only seen before in my family. Most notably and symbolically for me, both Cisneros and Soto wrote in Spanglish, a uniquely Latin-American mix of Spanish and English words, phrases, and sayings. Their characters code-switched all the time, something I only saw in my family and community, and in this way of speaking and writing produced an identity fully its own, as neither halfway between Mexican and American nor as only one or the other, but as completely both. The House On Mango Street was the first book I read that really addressed my experience as bilingual and bicultural. Through the characters' traditions and linguistic quirks, Cisneros, as well as other Chicano/a writers, didn't just reflect their own experiences, but produced a strong piece of my identity in the process.
Interesting, I have never heard of or come across any literature written in Spanglish. That's really cool. But I like your point of how it didn't necessarily a "category" of identity, but instead created an individual identity. In my opinion, establishing individual identity is much more important than producing "categorical" identities. Also, it was interesting how you defined Spanglish as not a halfway between Spanish and English, but rather completely both.
ReplyDeleteI love your point about Cisneros' writing, because I didn't speak Spanish when I read the novel and so it was difficult for me to relate to.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you believe that a category of identity is not created, however? I think you could argue Cisneros strives to create dynamic individual identities within her work, but that those characters also stand for something more than themselves, there is a universality about them, otherwise you yourself would not have related to them.
From personal experience I can relate that as bilingual/bicultural it is hard to find an identity that incorporates both equally. I love how you describe the impact Cisneros' writing had on you, making you define yourself in a unique way. Especially when you mention Spanglish in the book, it reminds me of how I switch off between Finnish and English at home, and how it's tough to reconcile both sometimes.
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