Mexican or American: The Struggle for Cultural Identity

What struck me most about the articles is the overwhelming way that politics has shaped the view of Mexicans in the United States, as well as the identity of American-born children of Mexican immigrants. The article from The Journal of Latino-Latin American Studies claims that by increasing restrictions on visas and increasing border control, while at the same time decreasing restrictions in other areas of production, the United States is encouraging an influx of illegal immigration. It seems to me as if this may be a purposeful tactic. The United States is able to give the appearance of enforcing border control, while maintaining low-wage production and keeping costs down. I am not sure if this is truly the case, but this hypocritical ideal does seem to support the growing animosity towards Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in the U.S. This in turn contributes to the struggle that many Mexican-Americans face in terms of their cultural identity.

CNN contributor Ruben Navarrette tells of his struggles with identity in his article "My Mexican-American Identity Crisis". On a trip to Mexico he was faced with an identity question right away. In the Mexican airport there were two lines: one for Mexicans and one for Foreigners. Growing up in California, he was always labeled as Mexican, but there in Mexico he was American. Navarrette explains the perpetual struggle brilliantly when he says, "Meanwhile, many Mexican-Americans I know don't feel like they're part of either [the U.S. or Mexico]. ... You get the best of both worlds, but you're rooted in neither. In Mexico, we're seen as Americans. And in the United States, we're considered Mexican.” What Navarrette portrays in his article is not what I believe many Americans think about the relation between Mexican-Americans and their Mexican heritage. From the way Navarrette puts it, it seems that Mexicans of the higher class dislike Mexican-Americans and their parents because they consider them to be traitors of their home country. However, because of the way the American government portrays immigration, Mexican-Americans receive resistance on the other end as well.

George Sanchez, professor of American studies, ethnicity, and history at the University of Southern California gives another take on Mexican-American identity in the United States. He claims that Mexican-Americans have had some clear lines in regards to their culture. According to him, many Mexican-Americans were either for assimilation or wanted to keep their Mexican culture and heritage. Particularly in the 1970s and 1980s, the distinction was quite clear. His cultural struggle occurred in college when he realized that this way of viewing culture was to flat and unrealistic. His belief is that culture is always changing and evolving, as well as incorporating new aspects from other cultures. In this way Sanchez is promoting the idea of a separate Mexican-American culture that is not strictly Mexican or American, but a mixture of both.

While both of these articles reference the struggle for cultural identity among Mexican-Americans, there is also proof of the development of a strong Mexican-American (or Chicano) culture in the United States today. There are festivals celebrating the music and art of the Chicano culture, as well as other cultural events. As neither Mexican nor Mexican-American, it is amazing to me that politics in the United States can cause a person to feel so displaced from their own country, not to mention their own heritage.

Links: http://blog.theautry.org/2011/10/06/george-sanchez-disentangling-mexican-american-identity/

http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/30/opinion/navarrette-mexican-american

"Not Just Mexico's Problem: Labor Migration from Mexico to the United States (1900-2000)" by Ruth Gomberg-Munoz in The Journal of Latino-Latin American Studies