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Immigrants founded America.  For the past six hundred years Europeans, Asians, Africans, and Latino nationals have came to U.S. soil to create a new home.  Some came for work, new religion freedom, and to flee communism.  In Francisco Jimenez’s short story “Under the Wire”, he tells a story of a Mexican family’s journey to the famous California.  We will explore some of the reasons behind the California Dream.  Some are in love with the ideal of California; there are many types of dreams, the parallel of the same dream of Iowans as of Mexicans, and what happens when the dream goes bad.    I like the intro.  I'm waiting for clarity, but hope to get it as I read, about how you paralell migrants from the midwest to Jimenez's description.  Is that what you do?

     Francisco, a small boy who describes his life as a migrant child, described his father as saying “I did not know exactly what California was either, but Papa’s eyes sparkled whenever he talked about it with Mama and his friends.  “Once we cross la frontera, we’ll make a good living in California,” he would say, standing up straight and sticking out his chest.”  His parents had a surreal vision of America.  They felt that this land would bring great wealth, happiness, and a better life.  This vision that takes power over people like a drug is also described in James J. Rawls essay, California, A Place, a people, a Dream.  He states, “The California Dream is a love affair with an idea, a marriage to a myth, a surrender to a collective fantasy.”  This quote the same idealistic vision as Jimenez described of California being like heaven.  Start you paragraph with a clear point, not a fact or summary.  Your last sentence here is better as the point, for it connects most clearly to the thesis idea.

     Rawls analyses “that there are as many versions of the California Dream as there are dreamers”.  In Under the Wire, Francisco’s cousin said, “that people there sweep money off the streets” As a Californian I can testify that it is far from the truth, but it was a fable that this poor Mexican family fantasized about.  This misconception of California creating great wealth was also seen in an anonymous essay, Notes of a California Expedition.  “Common laborers receive $1 an hour, and carpenters are in demand from $15 to $20 a day!” These writings portray California as a pot of money.  Through all of the versions of the dream they all share one common idea, of a better life. I see a pattern with these first 2 paragraphs, which start with fact.  Readers prefer to enter a paragraph with the thesis related point near the top.  Review paragraph stucture (PIE).

     Looking for new beginnings many Iowans immigrated out west.  In then post-World War II years, the pre migration images of California held by former Iowans’ showed several reasons that they migrated from Iowa.  Denise S. Spooner published a diagram in the essay titled, A new perspective on the dream that showed 35% of former Iowans’ had a image that Southern California is a nontraditional land of opportunity.  This idea is the same as the Jimenez’s family dream that California held the key to a new life and choices.  The last sentence here again, best connects to the idea I was expecting in the intro.  Organize your paragraph around points most closely related to thesis.  Otherwise the focus of the pargraph (as it is now about Spooner), gets diluted.

     After the Jimenez family crossed the border they thought that their new life had started.  They thought that they would immediately begin working in the fields picking strawberries yet were disappointed to find that the fruit would not be ready for harvesting for two weeks.  The mother stayed true to the California dream and saying “we’ll manage, Viejo. Once work starts, we’ll be fine.”  She displayed a great sense of belief in her new country and was committed to then idea that it would provide for her family.  The children also did not lose hope.  Roberto, Francisco’s brother, pondered where the noon train came from.  He had been getting discouraged that his new land might not be the idea that they had fantasized about.  He stated, “This is California!” “I am not so sure, Remember what…” as he began to lose hope in the California Dream.  Just then the train traveled by them and the conductor dropped paper bag full of fruit and candy.  “See, it does come from California!” Roberto exclaimed”.  He reassured himself that the train did come from California because he believed that all good things come from there.  James Rawls had the same idea “California- Has Cream Gone Sour?”  He described, “California, Land of romance, becomes California, land of rampant immorality and sexual deviance.”  Both Jimenez and Rawls look into a negative perspective of the dream, what happens when the dream gets shattered.  In the case of Roberto when he lost hope he quickly twisted a new idea to recreate his romantic love affair with California.  Just as many other believers in the dream did as they saw California for its true self, accomplishments and faults.  Again, summary or information finished up by your point or explanation.  bring these ideas to the tops, that you'll compare Jimenez and Rawls. REad the sentence an ask is it information, Explanation or the Point of the paragraph.  The point needs to be at the top, followed by information and explanation.

     California is a place that drives many people to spiritual like faith.  The Mexican family described in Under The Wire, experienced several levels of the California dream.  The first is a love with the idea, second was the types of their dreams, third was the Parallel to the migration habits of the people from Iowa coming for new opportunities and lastly is the realization the dream might not be accurate to true.  All of the reasons that we explored other Californians that Immigrated to California also described in the works of the authors Rawls and Spooner.  Whether the dream is true or not it remains a fact the millions of people are still trying to migrate to California each year.  The California dream is a personal image just like heaven has millions of different versions, one thing remains true, and The Dream is still alive.               
      

Amy La Jeunesse

English 1B

April 29, 2008

Sinaola Cowboys

Bruce Springsteen

     “One way ticket to Acapulco, please”.  These are words that we Americans rarely hear.  The uniqueness that this rich land holds - is an aphrodisiac to many.  The California dream described as mythologized life basking in a sunny the orange groves or on a sandy beach appeal to many different cultures.  In the old days they migrated in covered wagons as they endured disease, natives with blood marked hands, and the rough terrain of the trail west.  Yet the taste for gold was motivation enough to attempt the odds.  Mexicans cross the U.S. border daily as they leave their family’s behind for a taste of the better life.  Many die in the deserts or get caught by the increasing border patrol agents.  Some make it here alive just to find that the real battle has just begun. 

     We explore and dissect Sinaola Cowboys, a song by Bruce Springsteen, where he is a story teller in a journey of a migration from Mexico to California.  It begins with two brothers Miguel and Louis.  “They crossed at the river levee when Louis was just sixteen. And found work together in the fields of the San Joaquin”.  The fact that the lyrics state that Louis was just sixteen years old, shows two things.  First, that he migrated as a boy showing that even at a young age he had a strong desire to live a better life in California.  Second it shows that it was more important for him to leave his mother and father, a very brave move, to fulfill his dream.  They young brothers migrated at a young age with hope of a better life and found work in the fields.

    Since they came to California illegally, they did not have a social security card and could only find work in the fields.  “Doing the work the hueros wouldn’t do”.  The white man publicly states that he does not want illegal migrants in California.  Yet the white man also wants his suit pressed, his hotel room cleaned and his fruit picked.  All tasks that he needs done but he does not want and will not do.  The illegal’s are fine as long as they work they work like a ghost in the shadow.  The white man does not want to see or acknowledge them but he knows that they are there.  They all do the jobs that middle class society sees as beneath them.  The brothers were working in the fields making money working in the shadows of the white reflection.    

     Until some men, the Sinaloa cowboys, offered them a job working in Fresno country manufacturing methamphetamine.  The chemical composition that is used to create this harsh drug is very dangerous and is flammable.  The brothers chose the risk over working in the fields.  They could make twice as much in a ten hour shift as they would working in a field.  They knew the risk as they said that the drug lords would “leave you spittin’ up blood in the desert, if you breathed those fumes in”.  The brothers sold their souls to the devil who used and abused them.  Their work was a thankless act, as they were just labor, if they were injured or killed the drug lords would kick them aside and get a new laborer.[1]

     They worked hard mixing chemicals and saving their money.  They were doing their time to try to get onto their feet as they lived the American dream.  One early winter evening the flammable chemicals sparked and there was an explosion.  Miguel carried his brother Louis’s body down a swale where he watched his brother die.  He drove Louis’s body to a eucalyptus tree and wondered if this was still the California dream.       

     The migration and the choice to work creating drugs turned deadly.  Was the 10K worth his brothers life?  They came to California for a better life, but in the end Louis lost his life.  “There in the dirt he dug up ten thousand dollars all that they’d saved, Kisses his brother’s lips and placed him in his grave”.  In this quote I see symbolism and Irony of situation.  Symbolism because the brothers worked hard to save their money and in the end Louis was not able to spend the hard earned cash and lavish life style that they dreamed of.  The phrase is ironic because it says that he dug up ten thousand dollars which is a reality then he kissed his brother’s lips and placed him in his grave shows an opposite expectation.  The same hole with the same dirt held the money which was their dream.  That same hole and dirt now held the end of their dreams as it held Louis’s dead body.  They came for the California dream and life style that many of the songs that we researched described but in this case the California dream took a wicked turn.

     The purist of a dream is a journey.  Many people believe in following a rainbow and at the end is the pot of gold, California being the pot carrying all of the treasures.  Nothing can deny the desire to migrate to this land.  “One thousand Americans head for the same ocean each day” reported a 1962 Newsweek cover story.  Now 46 years latter even more people migrate to the golden state.  All of the songs that we researched described people as they journeyed to California.  “There are as many versions of the California dream as there are dreamers”[2]  They came for various reasons.  Some for a new start from a drug induced, drunken and abusive life, some to escape the mid-west or to get greater opportunities in America.  Regardless of the reason of migrating here all of the songs described their dream as Rawls described it when he said “California – Has Dreams Gone Sour?”[3]   To many the golden land of new opportunities becomes a place of “failed dreams and broken promises.”[4]  “California, land of romance, becomes California, Land of rampant immorality and sexual deviance.”[5]  In this disillusion many peoples dreams become shattered.  In the case of Miguel he lost more then a shattered dream he lost his brother.  Yet through the devastation Miguel is probably still happy to be a resident of California.  I believe that he will remain here and still believe in his California dream.  He believes that the California life and work -vs- dollar here supersedes Mexico.  I see now why there are few one way flights to - Acapulco.

Amy La Jeunesse

Argument against Revamp Immigration

May 28, 2008

English 1B

     The Editors, at the Contra Costa Times wrote an article that appealed to the sympathy of the readers.  I was surprised that fine journalist would write such a subjective and boldly fallacy piece using pity as the backbone of their facts. The facts that supported their opinion were pity vs. real facts, border patrol, alliance between the U.S and Mexican president, Mexico’s failed of economy, and the “guest worker” system.  I will explain each of these topics and prove how they are fallacious arguments.
     First, the introduction describes an accident when several illegal immigrants died in the process of trying to enter the U.S.  “The horrific deaths in Texas of 19 illegal immigrants who suffocated while being transported in locked big rigs, put an exclamation mark on the urgency for change in the United States’ immigration policy”.  This statement sets the tone for the entire article of pity for these victims.  True it is sad that these 19 illegal immigrants suffocated while being transported, the fact remains that they all made a decision to flee their country knowing the risk could be deadly. 
     Border patrol’s the country line between Mexico and the Unites States Yet, their written policy is to persuade, or detain immigrants crossing the country line with the least force necessary.  The agents are trained to use force last; unlike Germany in the 1980’s when it was still split between East and West, the guards were instructed to use deadly force at all encounters.  Russians have also had a harder life and greater reason to flee because they poverty so extreme that the women and girls sold their bodies, mail order brides became a huge market, and communism controlled their government.  The Russians life style far exceeded the minor discomforts that Mexican immigrants experience.  On a scale of one to ten the Mexican immigrants desire to come to the U.S for better opportunities does not seem as desperate as the Russians.  Therefore, the moderate life in Mexico is not worth the deadly risk and if they chose to take the risk then they need to accept their fate. 
   Secondly, the authors claimed that the alliance between Mexican President Vicente Fox and President Bush were scheduled to mediate the topic of immigration.  The event of 9/11 changed the importance of the mediation meeting as the U.S changed their policy of immigration due to heighten levels of security in the Department of Homeland Security.  “The terrorist attacks changed the way the Unites States viewed all foreigners as potential terrorists” this example is how the editors think that terrorists changed the fate of the Mexican Immigrants.  They also went on to say that “Relations between the two countries cooled even further when Fox spoke out against the United States’ war against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq”.  This statement is fallacy and subjective implying that the U.S was holding a grudge against Fox for not supporting us in the war.
     The third shocking key idea is that claim Mexico as a victim for decades of failed economy.  “Mexico’s economy still hasn’t recovered from the decades of government neglect and abuse under the PRI ruling party”.  This quote is shocking because if insinuates that Mexico was a victim in the fall of their government and economy.  Mexico chose to make bad economic decisions and should not look to the U.S as a source to fill the millions of jobs that are needed to bring their people out of poverty. 
     The fourth irrational idea is that the Mexicans fill the jobs in the U.S that no one wants.  “On this side of the border, there are jobs that go begging because no one else will do them”.  This is a common simple idea to a huge issue of immigration.  As editors, I am surprised that they did not research the whole story of these 19 immigrants attempting to enter the U.S.  They lacked any reference on the income that is needed to support the immigrants once they have began work, the pyramid of government benefits for the illegal children, not born in American, will receive. 
     The U.S. government has a policy that they will support American citizen children of illegal immigrants.  This government funding covers education and medical care from prenatal - the first five years for low income or no income families in California.  The issues is that over looking 19 immigrants to enter the Us with the assumption that they work the labor jobs that no Americans wants is a narrow look in to a huge topic. 
     The U.S. Census states that on average couples have 2.5 children.  Latin American cultural descents tend to have more.  So if each of the 19 immigrants could have two children in the United States that quickly become 38 children that the government supports.  Their illegal status makes it unlikely that the parents will ever pay taxes.  As Ling Ling stated in State Needs a “Time Out”, from mass Immigration, “ Most low- skilled workers do not pay enough per child to off set even the costs of educating their children, around $7,000 per child per year” This $7,000 times the 39 offspring of the 19 immigrants becomes a overwhelming $273.000. 
     Ling –Ling also shares that fact of the “1997 National Academy of Sciences, each native household paid an additional $1,200 a year due to services provided to immigrant families.  This is a gross over look of the long-term consequence of the 19 immigrants’ if they had successfully entered the U.S.  
     The fifth misconception is that “guest Workers” is a great idea.  “Guest workers systems allows hard- working people to legally cross the border without becoming permanent residents.  Both countries would benefit from this arrangement.  While here, the guest workers would be protected by labor laws and pay U.S taxes.” This concept sounds like a good resolution on the surface but underneath it if a far cry from an answer. 
     The “guest worker” system will allow “Mexican worker to send up to $10 Billion back to their families, according to a 2002 report”.   The workers would pay taxes but the income that they make of  $13 – 24,000 per year barely covers the bill that will take to educate their children and provide government social service medical benefits.  On top of the bill that the U.S will be forced to pay they will be sending their billions and billions of dollars back to Mexico to support their economy, not the U.S which is supporting them.  
     Using drastic example to change the U.S immigration policy was an armature-writing tactic on part of the editors.  They appealed to the pity of the victim’s verses stating true facts and a long term out look on immigration. They claimed that Border patrol forced the immigrants to fall victims because of the closed border policy. They used the broken alliance with Presidents Fox and Bush and Fox’s lack of support on the war as an excuse for the lack of immigration police change.  They claimed Mexico as victim of a failed economy with out taking into account Mexico has decades of bad decisions leading up to their fallen government.  Lastly, we discussed the effect of the chance that these 19 immigrants successfully entering America and the waterfall of reactions. 
     America needs to regulate immigration at a nice balance allowing only the percent in that our economy and government can support.  Immigrants migrate to California because of the dream of opportunities for a better life.  With over-immigration the rich gold lifestyle that California offers will quickly be drained.  Without control and balance California will be depleted and Californians will want to move to Mexico with their new found economy found from illegal sending American money home.  

Amy La Jeunesse

English 1B

Professor Lewis

May 15, 2008

     The text books that I studied in grade school spoke of creation as the beginning, a group of electrons coming together to form a atom.  Some versions spoke of creation as being the work of a religious god.  But all of the text books were the same in describing Columbus as the explorer who discovered America.  The scholastic society overlooked the natives who already lived on this land.  Instead of teaching both sides like evolution vs. creation we were only taught one side which was that Columbus discovered America.  This thinking, explains why the white man thought that the land was theirs and that they were justified in their actions of forcing the Indians off the valuable land.   As the settlers moved west they forced the Indians from their ancestral land where their family networks were established, to outskirt areas with scarce resources.  The large family bloodlines were separated losing their culture and society.  In the poems, “Itch Like Crazy: Resistance” by Wendy Rose and “Indian Cartography” by Deborah Miranda, we see two stories of Indian tribes that were forced to migrate from their land by the forceful hand of the white man.  The Indians, Native Americans, remember their life before the government destroyed their land and way of life.  They re-live the memories of a land without the white man in their California dream.  As the government destroyed the natives land their California dream was also lost.  

     The authors guided the readers through a journey into the lives of Indian tribe members as the government speaks of surveying and destroying their land.  In Indian Cartography, Miranda’s father lived in a valley where the white man decided to dam the Santa Ynez River and flood their land.  She describes how her father grew up there and learned to swim.  The memories of his childhood days of learning to swim were washed away when the river was drowned by the dam’s water. Their family bloodlines, that mapped California, were displaced into far off lands with little and scarce resources.  The salmon that returned home to spawn in a river every year was no longer there.  She describes a lush, peaceful river valley that is now gone. Settlers from the European nation took away their way of life.  Her father felt sorrow for the lost land and drinks alcohol to console his loss.  In his drunken dreams he remembers the land before the white man.  The author delivers her message in a straight forward story line of her father’s life and how the government bought off the Indians and gradually destroyed their people.  She describes a river valley that is gone except for a ghostly essence is all that is left behind.  Rose also speaks of a ghost laden land - Sand Creek, Wounded Knee, Piedras, My Lai, Acteal, Hispaniola, Massachusetts Bay Colony – all places where their history walked and has now been mortared away.  Her land Tewaquachi is now a ghost town. 

     They speak of a great sorrow, a feeling of helplessness, as the terror of destruction comes knocking at their door.   Miranda describes her father’s experience by stating, “Where tragedy greeted him like an old unpleasant relative”.  Rose summarizes her feelings by stating, “The terror crouches there in the canyon of my hands, in the pink opening rosebud mouths of newborns or the helplessness of the primal song”.  They both speak of a helplessness that is brought about by the white man’s powerful government.

     Miranda’s poem is very straight forward as a time line of a story.  “The government paid those Indians to move away”, he says; “I don’t know where they went”.  Her choice of lyrics is an exact example of the message that she is trying to project. Whereas in Rose’s poem is coded with more hidden messages, through symbols and metaphors.

 “A mortar to split our seeds, every sunflower bursting from asphalt” is a beautiful description of Rose’s message.  Instead of saying in clear English, nature and plants were replaced with cement of a city. She chose symbolic words that allow the reader to paint a picture in their own mind. 

     The most significant difference in the poems is that Rose’s poem is not only a historical story but she speaks about revolting and fighting against the system.  “Now I dance the mission revolts again, let the ambush blossom in my heart, claim victory with their own language, know the strength spine to spine.” In this quote, she rises from being a victim and lets the fury give her strength to fight back, spine to spine means that she will confront the government with the support of many others. She will do it in English as an advocate for the native American community.  Beyond Miranda’s poem, Rose fights back to stop the cycle and to remember the natives that were forced to migrate from their land, forced to convert to Christianity or who fought back and encountered the fate of death.         

     Whether the poem is written in clear text or poetic words, the message is the same.  Sorrow, despair and destroyed lives, plagues the Native Americans.  Few history books give true credit to the real first settlers of America.  The true settlers have been forgotten as quickly as the water rushed in to flood their land.  To the native Americans, their stories live on forever in literature and poems that reminds us that the Indians were the first real California dreamers who are now left remembering ghostly dreams. 

Amy La Jeunesse

Professor Lewis

English 1B

June 19, 2008

     California is a breeding ground for multiculturalism.  From Mexicans running across the southern border, to the big blue ocean where Asian and Pacific Islanders enter aboard boats, to the skies above where Eastern Europeans and Indians touch down on the plane’s runway: they all hold the same idea of the “California Dream”.  This diversity of culture has led to a reflective array of self and society in the form poems, essays, novels, and films.  By analyzing three expressive pieces: “Crash”, a film, by Paul Haggis, Bordertown, a play, by Culture Clash, and American Son, a novel, by Brian Roley Ascalon, we will see that California was truly founded by multiculturalism.  Part of multiculturalism is the process in which different cultures learn to live together through racism, their similarities that are not defined by a border and, the loss of self and culture.         

     Paul Haggis produced a powerful piece that touched on the highly sensitive topic of racism and discrimination.  He was not afraid to go beyond the common racist statements like “Asians can not drive”, and developed an extreme view in a twisted web of different cultures entangled together.  Crash showed a circle of discrimination where everyone is ethnocentric to each other.  The movie showed that discrimination can be subtle and also extreme.  It is culturally taboo to admit that one is racist but Haggis was able show how we all discriminate. 

      This movie showed that America, the most culturally diverse society in the world,  still has racism obstacles to overcome.   Every culture thinks that they are the best and that their ways are the right way.  The whole world is racist to each other.  The director created this idea beautifully by showing a cascade of events that shows a cycle of discrimination from not just one culture but many. 

     The first event is a white couple walking down the street and then getting hijacked by two African American boys, the white woman is scared because the hijackers pointed a gun in her face thus destroying her level of comfort.  This is seen when Saundra Bullock's character states" I just had a gun pointed at my head and I am scared....  I want the locks changed...I should not feel bad because I had a feeling and I did not say anything and 30 seconds later I had a gun pointed in my face".  Here she is describing how she felt a bit of racism but dismissed it and letter became a victim of a crime. 

      With our core beliefs of ethnocentric we all claim not to be racist because it is such a harsh word.  The KKK and white supremacists made the concept of racism a negative and hateful trait.  Yet, as seen in the movie all cultures and all people tend to have a bit of ethnocentric attitudes.  The white woman’s attitude became negative and racist because of the experience that she had of being hijacked at gun point.  Her fear is real and her discrimination is understandable from her experience.  She latter sees a loving and warm side from her maid when she assisted her during her accidental fall down the stairs.  She had an immediate fear which elevated her racism and later she returned to neutral when she had a act of kindness returned to her. 

      The second event is when she did not want the Mexican locksmith to fix her locks because he has gang signs tattooed onto his skin.  She assumed that he will take her house key, copy it and sell it to other gang bangers who will then break into her home and rob her.  This same Mexican man goes home and is shown as a good father and husband who have worked hard to move his family out of the ghetto to a safe neighborhood.    

     Later that night he is called out to a Persians store where the door lock had been tampered with.  He tells the store owner that he needs a new door not lock.  The Persian man thinks that the Mexican is cheating him and accuses him of a scam.  He refuses to pay the lock smith and he leaves in anger.  The next morning the store owner arrives to see that his store has been broken into and vandalized.  He immediately accuses the Mexican locksmith and shows discrimination using it to fuel his frustration and anger.  The store owner’s wife also showed racism when she was cleaning spray painted that the perpetrator had wrote "rag head" on their wall.  The mother said "they think that we are Arabic, not Persian".  She implies that the bad guy does not know about their culture and certainly is not culturally acceptant.

     In this movie the whites were against the Mexicans and Blacks, the Blacks against the Asians, the Asians against the Persians, the Persians against the Mexican….the cycle of the racist circle continued.  Even the blacks were discriminating against other blacks as they called each other “not black enough” or “too preppy and lost their black roots”.  Crash showed a multicultural society struggling to survive with every culture racist against each other. 

     As Crash showed different cultures attacking each other the same discrimination is seen in Bordertown, a play, by Culture Clash.  The authors used the primary and secondary inspection to show a very great mirror image of two very different sides of a similar issue of crossing the border.  In the play we see two very different perspectives one from the U.S and the other from Mexico.  It showed that these people are more similar then they know, it takes more then just a line in the sand called a ‘border” to change people.

     The first act of the play opens with the writers in the desert being detained by the U.S. Border patrol.  The agent turns out to not be an agent but an vigilantly.  The militia man felt the immigration issue has gotten out of hand so he was going to take it into his own hands and stop the problem.  He brags that he has captured thirty-eight “mojados” this month alone.

     The second act of the same story they write about being in the desert detained by the Mexican border patrol stopping.  The irony is that both the U.S. and Mexican agent had a similar interest of enjoying live plays and both had asked for tickets to the play.

      A deep and very creative part of the play was displayed in dialect between a husband and wife.  In the play the man and woman enter the stage and the man climbs over the border and roughly makes love to his wife, he then climbs back over the fence and sleeps covered in an American flag.  The wife, sleeps under a Mexican flag symbolizes being Tijuana.  She confronts him and asks him why he uses her.  The man – an America uses her for all the cheap alcohol, donkey shows and lust that San Diego does not want but wants easy access to.  This was a well thought out description on how San Diego uses Tijuana but is described in a marriage.  The skit showed how the U.S draws from Tijuana but still looks down on them and has the attitude like “not in my back yard”.  Even though the U.S looks down on Mexico, we need them. 

     The Sheriff’s character stated that “in the 60’s you would have 5-10 thousand cross a year, now 4.5 million a month, dangerous felons here cross and live here illegally”.  He implies that most of the Mexican immigrants that enter the United States have felony records and will bring more crime to the states. 

     Racism ideas also affected other immigrants like the china mans character.  He came to the U.S in 1914, and started a started fishing business that grew to be a distributor.  Then in 1882 Congress passed the racial Covenant Exclusion Law stating that immigrants could not go beyond a two mile limit in open ocean therefore, forcing him out of business. 

     Bordertown is a wonderfully created play that used humor to address the serious issue of racism brought on by a multicultural society struggling to learn a balanced community. 

    As seen in Crash and Bordertown, stereotypes and racism is an effect of multiculturalism.  American Son, is an novel by Brian Ascalon, where he explores the life of two immigrant boys and how they stride to blend into a diverse society.  The main character, Gabe, is an interracial boy.  His father is a white American who deserted his family and left him with a longing for a father role.  His mother is a working class Filipino who moved to the US for a better life for her children.  Tomas, his older brother is also searching for an identity.  Tomas has however adopted the Mexican gangster persona by dressing, having the tattoos and mannerisms of a gang member.  He breeds guard dogs and sell them to the wealthy society of Los Angeles. 

     Gabe is ashamed of his Asian coloring and facial features.  His lack of self esteem allows him to be victimized by his abusive brother who physically assaults and verbally offends him.  Thomas, the older brother expresses his own lack of identity by intimidating Gabe and lashing out at society in an aggressive manner.  

      Gabe joins his brother Tomas on a delivery in an upscale neighborhood.  The client was a famous movie star and wanted to purchases a guard dog for his home protection.  During their meeting the client asks a Latino looking maid what she thought of the dog.  Tomas was offended that a maid would give her opinion and interfered with his business deal so Tomas asked her to get him a glass of water in a demeaning manner as to imply that she has no business interfering in the client’s matters.  The client then corrected him stating that she was his wife.  Tomas awkwardly apologized and replied that he was just thirsty but it was a advious statement of discrimination because she was Mexican.        

      Later in the story Gabe steals Tomas’s dog, sells him to the movie star and heads to Oregon in his brothers stolen low rider style car.  His car breaks down and he is forced to settle in a small town in northern California.  The community is mainly populated by white people which are a great difference from the melting pot of Los Angeles.  Gabe is taken aback by the friendliness of the community members and questions his sense of place amongst them.  His white skin is too white for his Filipino group back at home but here in the north he feels too Asian for the white people.   

     Gabe needs the assistance of a tow truck and is surprised to see that the tow truck attendant has taken a likeness to him.  He questions if the tow truck driver is “blind to his Asian skin and face” because he is treating him so well.  The tow truck driver secretly contacts his mother and she arrived in the town to bring Gabe home.  When they meet Gabe tells the driver that his white aunt is his mother, but the aunt actually accompanied his mother to the town.  He lied because he is ashamed of his Filipino mother dark skin and her funky eye glasses.  During their conversation, the fact that the aunt is not the mother came out and Gabe was caught in a lie and embarrassed.  His mother was devastated that her son lied and questioned if she should send her son to the islands for her bother to raise.  She brought her children to California for the “dream’ but is failing to provide a strong role model and guidance for her boys. 

     This novel shows how the Filipino mother came with a dream of a life for her children.  Yet, they face a lack of cultural identity because once she got to the states she abandoned her strong sense of Filipino heritage and also lacked truly blending into the American culture. 

     Multiculturalism is a give and take between cultures.  For a society to succeed they need to stop the wars within.  In the three works that we reviewed we saw an evolution of cultural.  In Crash we saw a world living in discrimination and how different cultures intertwine together.  Sometimes they are racist while other times they expressed cultural tolerance. 

     While “Crash” was a serious piece with a deep meaning the play Bordertown also uncovered a deep meaning but through comedy.  The play showed two very different sides of government and the U.S and Mexico’s stand on immigration.  The different opinions were alike in more ways then different, showing the true meaning an imaginary line called a border differentiates American and Mexican but we look the same and are the same in other ways. 

     “American Son” described multiculturalism on a dissected level showing that once the immigrant gets here how they might feel with a sense of lost culture.  This was a good piece that shows what happens when multiculturalism fails to assimilate.  

     With all of the negative stereotyping in the movie, play, and novel the fact remains that no where else in the world is there such a diverse culture as in California. People from all over the world come for opportunity in California that they can not get in their country.  The fact remains that multiculturalism is every where in California.  As a society we have embraced multiculturalism more then anywhere in the U.S. We can learn form the other cultures around us as well as they can learn from us.  We all are not that different for after all we all have the same “California Dream”.       

.   

Amy La Jeunesse

Professor Lewis

English 1B

June 19, 2008

     California is a breeding ground for multiculturalism.  From Mexicans running across the southern border, to the big blue ocean where Asian and Pacific Islanders enter aboard boats, to the skies above where Eastern Europeans and Indians touch down on the plane’s runway: they all hold the same idea of the “California Dream”.  This diversity of culture has led to a reflective array of self and society in the form poems, essays, novels, and films.  By analyzing three expressive pieces: “Crash”, a film, by Paul Haggis, Bordertown, a play, by Culture Clash, and American Son, a novel, by Brian Roley Ascalon, we will see that California was truly founded by multiculturalism.  Part of multiculturalism is the process in which different cultures learn to live together through racism, their similarities that are not defined by a border and, the loss of self and culture.         

     Paul Haggis produced a powerful piece that touched on the highly sensitive topic of racism and discrimination.  He was not afraid to go beyond the common racist statements like “Asians can not drive”, and developed an extreme view in a twisted web of different cultures entangled together.  Crash showed a circle of discrimination where everyone is ethnocentric to each other.  The movie showed that discrimination can be subtle and also extreme.  It is culturally taboo to admit that one is racist but Haggis was able show how we all discriminate. 

      This movie showed that America, the most culturally diverse society in the world,  still has racism obstacles to overcome.   Every culture thinks that they are the best and that their ways are the right way.  The whole world is racist to each other.  The director created this idea beautifully by showing a cascade of events that shows a cycle of discrimination from not just one culture but many. 

     The first event is a white couple walking down the street and then getting hijacked by two African American boys, the white woman is scared because the hijackers pointed a gun in her face thus destroying her level of comfort.  This is seen when Saundra Bullock's character states" I just had a gun pointed at my head and I am scared....  I want the locks changed...I should not feel bad because I had a feeling and I did not say anything and 30 seconds later I had a gun pointed in my face".  Here she is describing how she felt a bit of racism but dismissed it and letter became a victim of a crime. 

      With our core beliefs of ethnocentric we all claim not to be racist because it is such a harsh word.  The KKK and white supremacists made the concept of racism a negative and hateful trait.  Yet, as seen in the movie all cultures and all people tend to have a bit of ethnocentric attitudes.  The white woman’s attitude became negative and racist because of the experience that she had of being hijacked at gun point.  Her fear is real and her discrimination is understandable from her experience.  She latter sees a loving and warm side from her maid when she assisted her during her accidental fall down the stairs.  She had an immediate fear which elevated her racism and later she returned to neutral when she had a act of kindness returned to her. 

      The second event is when she did not want the Mexican locksmith to fix her locks because he has gang signs tattooed onto his skin.  She assumed that he will take her house key, copy it and sell it to other gang bangers who will then break into her home and rob her.  This same Mexican man goes home and is shown as a good father and husband who have worked hard to move his family out of the ghetto to a safe neighborhood.    

     Later that night he is called out to a Persians store where the door lock had been tampered with.  He tells the store owner that he needs a new door not lock.  The Persian man thinks that the Mexican is cheating him and accuses him of a scam.  He refuses to pay the lock smith and he leaves in anger.  The next morning the store owner arrives to see that his store has been broken into and vandalized.  He immediately accuses the Mexican locksmith and shows discrimination using it to fuel his frustration and anger.  The store owner’s wife also showed racism when she was cleaning spray painted that the perpetrator had wrote "rag head" on their wall.  The mother said "they think that we are Arabic, not Persian".  She implies that the bad guy does not know about their culture and certainly is not culturally acceptant.

     In this movie the whites were against the Mexicans and Blacks, the Blacks against the Asians, the Asians against the Persians, the Persians against the Mexican….the cycle of the racist circle continued.  Even the blacks were discriminating against other blacks as they called each other “not black enough” or “too preppy and lost their black roots”.  Crash showed a multicultural society struggling to survive with every culture racist against each other. 

     As Crash showed different cultures attacking each other the same discrimination is seen in Bordertown, a play, by Culture Clash.  The authors used the primary and secondary inspection to show a very great mirror image of two very different sides of a similar issue of crossing the border.  In the play we see two very different perspectives one from the U.S and the other from Mexico.  It showed that these people are more similar then they know, it takes more then just a line in the sand called a ‘border” to change people.

     The first act of the play opens with the writers in the desert being detained by the U.S. Border patrol.  The agent turns out to not be an agent but an vigilantly.  The militia man felt the immigration issue has gotten out of hand so he was going to take it into his own hands and stop the problem.  He brags that he has captured thirty-eight “mojados” this month alone.

     The second act of the same story they write about being in the desert detained by the Mexican border patrol stopping.  The irony is that both the U.S. and Mexican agent had a similar interest of enjoying live plays and both had asked for tickets to the play.

      A deep and very creative part of the play was displayed in dialect between a husband and wife.  In the play the man and woman enter the stage and the man climbs over the border and roughly makes love to his wife, he then climbs back over the fence and sleeps covered in an American flag.  The wife, sleeps under a Mexican flag symbolizes being Tijuana.  She confronts him and asks him why he uses her.  The man – an America uses her for all the cheap alcohol, donkey shows and lust that San Diego does not want but wants easy access to.  This was a well thought out description on how San Diego uses Tijuana but is described in a marriage.  The skit showed how the U.S draws from Tijuana but still looks down on them and has the attitude like “not in my back yard”.  Even though the U.S looks down on Mexico, we need them. 

     The Sheriff’s character stated that “in the 60’s you would have 5-10 thousand cross a year, now 4.5 million a month, dangerous felons here cross and live here illegally”.  He implies that most of the Mexican immigrants that enter the United States have felony records and will bring more crime to the states. 

     Racism ideas also affected other immigrants like the china mans character.  He came to the U.S in 1914, and started a started fishing business that grew to be a distributor.  Then in 1882 Congress passed the racial Covenant Exclusion Law stating that immigrants could not go beyond a two mile limit in open ocean therefore, forcing him out of business. 

     Bordertown is a wonderfully created play that used humor to address the serious issue of racism brought on by a multicultural society struggling to learn a balanced community. 

    As seen in Crash and Bordertown, stereotypes and racism is an effect of multiculturalism.  American Son, is an novel by Brian Ascalon, where he explores the life of two immigrant boys and how they stride to blend into a diverse society.  The main character, Gabe, is an interracial boy.  His father is a white American who deserted his family and left him with a longing for a father role.  His mother is a working class Filipino who moved to the US for a better life for her children.  Tomas, his older brother is also searching for an identity.  Tomas has however adopted the Mexican gangster persona by dressing, having the tattoos and mannerisms of a gang member.  He breeds guard dogs and sell them to the wealthy society of Los Angeles. 

     Gabe is ashamed of his Asian coloring and facial features.  His lack of self esteem allows him to be victimized by his abusive brother who physically assaults and verbally offends him.  Thomas, the older brother expresses his own lack of identity by intimidating Gabe and lashing out at society in an aggressive manner.  

      Gabe joins his brother Tomas on a delivery in an upscale neighborhood.  The client was a famous movie star and wanted to purchases a guard dog for his home protection.  During their meeting the client asks a Latino looking maid what she thought of the dog.  Tomas was offended that a maid would give her opinion and interfered with his business deal so Tomas asked her to get him a glass of water in a demeaning manner as to imply that she has no business interfering in the client’s matters.  The client then corrected him stating that she was his wife.  Tomas awkwardly apologized and replied that he was just thirsty but it was a advious statement of discrimination because she was Mexican.        

      Later in the story Gabe steals Tomas’s dog, sells him to the movie star and heads to Oregon in his brothers stolen low rider style car.  His car breaks down and he is forced to settle in a small town in northern California.  The community is mainly populated by white people which are a great difference from the melting pot of Los Angeles.  Gabe is taken aback by the friendliness of the community members and questions his sense of place amongst them.  His white skin is too white for his Filipino group back at home but here in the north he feels too Asian for the white people.   

     Gabe needs the assistance of a tow truck and is surprised to see that the tow truck attendant has taken a likeness to him.  He questions if the tow truck driver is “blind to his Asian skin and face” because he is treating him so well.  The tow truck driver secretly contacts his mother and she arrived in the town to bring Gabe home.  When they meet Gabe tells the driver that his white aunt is his mother, but the aunt actually accompanied his mother to the town.  He lied because he is ashamed of his Filipino mother dark skin and her funky eye glasses.  During their conversation, the fact that the aunt is not the mother came out and Gabe was caught in a lie and embarrassed.  His mother was devastated that her son lied and questioned if she should send her son to the islands for her bother to raise.  She brought her children to California for the “dream’ but is failing to provide a strong role model and guidance for her boys. 

     This novel shows how the Filipino mother came with a dream of a life for her children.  Yet, they face a lack of cultural identity because once she got to the states she abandoned her strong sense of Filipino heritage and also lacked truly blending into the American culture. 

     Multiculturalism is a give and take between cultures.  For a society to succeed they need to stop the wars within.  In the three works that we reviewed we saw an evolution of cultural.  In Crash we saw a world living in discrimination and how different cultures intertwine together.  Sometimes they are racist while other times they expressed cultural tolerance. 

     While “Crash” was a serious piece with a deep meaning the play Bordertown also uncovered a deep meaning but through comedy.  The play showed two very different sides of government and the U.S and Mexico’s stand on immigration.  The different opinions were alike in more ways then different, showing the true meaning an imaginary line called a border differentiates American and Mexican but we look the same and are the same in other ways. 

     “American Son” described multiculturalism on a dissected level showing that once the immigrant gets here how they might feel with a sense of lost culture.  This was a good piece that shows what happens when multiculturalism fails to assimilate.  

     With all of the negative stereotyping in the movie, play, and novel the fact remains that no where else in the world is there such a diverse culture as in California. People from all over the world come for opportunity in California that they can not get in their country.  The fact remains that multiculturalism is every where in California.  As a society we have embraced multiculturalism more then anywhere in the U.S. We can learn form the other cultures around us as well as they can learn from us.  We all are not that different for after all we all have the same “California Dream”.       

.