Page 113 - Essencials of Sociology

86 CHAPTER 3 Socialization

Cultural Diversity in the United States

Immigrants and Their Children: Caught
between Two Worlds

It is a struggle to adapt to a new culture, to learn behaviors
and ways of thinking that are at odds with ones already
learned. This exposure to two worlds can lead to inner
turmoil. One way to handle the conflict is to cut ties with your
first culture. Doing so, however, can create a sense of loss,
one that is perhaps recognized only later in life.
Richard Rodriguez, a literature professor and essayist, was
born to working-class Mexican immigrants. Wanting their son Rodriguez took the second road. He excelled in his new
to be successful in their adopted land, his parents named language—so much, in fact, that he graduated from Stanford
him Richard instead of Ricardo. Although his English– University and then became a graduate student in English at
Spanish hybrid name indicates his parents’ aspirations for the University of California at Berkeley. He was even awarded
their son, it was also an omen of the conflict that Richard a Fulbright fellowship to study
would experience. English Renaissance literature at the
Like other children of Mexican im- University of London.
migrants, Richard first spoke Spanish— But the past shadowed
a rich mother tongue that introduced Rodriguez. Prospective employers
him to the world. Until the age of were impressed with his knowledge
5, when he began school, Richard of Renaissance literature. At job
knew only fifty words in English. He interviews, however, they would
describes what happened when he skip over the Renaissance training
began school:
and ask him if he would teach the
The change came gradually Mexican novel and be an adviser to
but early. When I was beginning Latino students. Rodriguez was also
grade school, I noted to my- haunted by the image of his grand-
self the fact that the classroom mother, the warmth of the culture he
environment was so different in had left behind, and the language
its styles and assumptions from and ways of thinking to which he
my own family environment that had become a stranger.
survival would essentially entail Richard Rodriguez represents mil-
a choice between both worlds. lions of immigrants—not just those
When I became a student, I was of Latino origin but those from other
literally “remade”; neither I nor cultures, too—who want to integrate
my teachers considered anything into U.S. culture yet not betray their
I had known before as relevant. past. Fearing loss of their roots, they
I had to forget most of what my are caught between two cultures,
culture had provided, because to each beckoning, each offering rich
remember it was a disadvantage. rewards.
The past and its cultural values
Sources: Based on Richard Rodriguez 1975,
became detachable, like a piece 1982, 1990, 1991, 1995.
of clothing grown heavy on a
warm day and finally put away.
As happened to millions of immigrants before him, whose For Your Consideration
parents spoke German, Polish, Italian, and so on, learning ↑ I saw this conflict firsthand with my father, who did not learn
English eroded family and class ties and ate away at his ethnic English until after the seventh grade (his last in school). He left
roots. For Rodriguez, language and education were not sim- German behind, eventually coming to the point that he could
ply devices that eased the transition to the dominant culture. no longer speak it, but broken English and awkward expressions
They also slashed at the roots that had given him life. remained for a lifetime. Then, too, there were the lingering
To face conflicting cultures is to confront a fork in the road. emotional connections to old ways, as well as the haughtiness
Some turn one way and withdraw from the new culture—a clue and slights of more assimilated Americans. He longed for secu-
that helps to explain why so many Latinos drop out of U.S. rity by grasping the past, its ways of thinking and feeling, but at
schools. Others turn the other way. Cutting ties with their family the same time he wanted to succeed in the everyday reality of
and cultural roots, they embrace the new culture. the new culture. Have you seen similar conflicts?