Alonzo

It’s 1920 and you, Alonzo Vasquez, are a Mexican immigrant to the United States. While you love your new country, it is very important to you that your family remember and honor your culture and traditions, many of which are tied to your homeland. You are increasingly worried that your children, in the process of becoming “American,” are ignoring the importance of their heritage. Why is it so important to you that your family retain some cultural connection to Mexico and your Mexican heritage? What evidence is there that your children are being wholly “Americanized?” What conflicts has this created between you and your children?

My name is Alonzo Vasquez, and I somewhat recently moved to America in an attempt to make a better life for myself and my family, without whom I would be naught but a hollow shell of a man. We moved to this country from our native land of Mexico, not because we disliked living in Mexico. Rather, quite the opposite. Being of Mexican descent is, aside from my family, the object of my greatest pride. But the fact of the matter is we were suffering whilst living in Mexico. We were making nowhere near enough money to survive off of, let alone flourish upon. We had long heard of the many places and opportunities for financial success in America, and after much deliberation, we finally left our beloved homeland to attempt to find the key to our financial success.

Since we've been in America, our financial situation has changed slightly, but it is nowhere near enough. I suppose we fell victim to the traps set by over exaggerated rumors, seeing as how this country is not like what I expected. It was foolish and unrealistic to think that when we came here, things would immediately change. That the American people would regard us as equals. That all of a sudden, wealth and happiness would be ours. Foolish indeed, for none of this has happened, nor do I expect it to happen for a good long while. Sure, conditions are, in a way, better here... I make more money. The standard of living is far improved. But it's nowhere near what I had hoped for.

What's worse, however, is the loss of our native culture in our family. The American family is quite a bit different than the Mexican one. I respect that... I do not, however, respect the efforts of my family to try and become "Americanized." In Mexico, it is the man who bears the burden of raising and supporting his family. The woman stays in the house, transfers the values of the family, and tends to the children. But now my wife has the desire to leave the house and find work like many of the American women. She is one of the few Mexican-American women that understand the English language. Very often she attempts to force me to learn it as well. I grudgingly do so, only because I believe it will help me advance in my job. I feel as if with each word I learn, I lose a bit of my heritage along with it.

The children do not understand why I'm so insistent on remembering where we come from. They do not realize what struggles our ancestors were faced with. What battles our nation fought. These struggles and battles define our lives to this day. Without the past, we would not be who we are in the present. Our way of life is sacred to those who understand what we went through... but my children do not understand. As such, they are distancing themselves from our culture. They choose to associate themselves with the white children from their school, and have taken it upon themselves to learn their mannerisms and now act as a typical American child does. They always seem to be out with their friends, never spending any time with the family. I feel as if I've lost them. What happened to the days when children were to help with chores and respect their father? Did I miss something entirely? Did I wake up in some form of alternate reality?

I suppose I did. Because America, in comparison to Mexico is just that. I hope and pray every day that things will somehow improve... go back to the way they're supposed to be.

But my cries are blown away with the wind. The cold, bitter American wind.