(Please forgive my last blank post. There was an error copying the text from my word processor to the blog!)
The subjects of Americanization and Assimilation are extremely complicated in my mind. As a Latino, I am torn between the culture in which I was raised and the culture that I see around me every day. Realistically, other Latino youth and I are faced with a double-edged sword: Do we steer away from the culture in which we were raised in order to be accepted by the mainstream? Or do we shun the mainstream in order to maintain our culture? How will our decision affect our successes and failures in society?
With that being said, the idea of preaching American Assimilation as LULAC has done makes me think about how assimilating to American culture can help and hurt the Latino population.
How it helps: I often feel that the Anglo-American populous is afraid of change (We have seen a few examples of this as we have study different civil rights and group movements). Therefore, many of them feel that anything that meets their standards and expectations is good. Therefore, I feel that if we conform to their standards (speaking English, educating ourselves in American history, culture, and beliefs, and fulfilling their cultural expectations) we can properly assimilate ourselves educationally, economically, professionally, and socially. On this sense, I firmly believe that LULAC was correct: Because the Anglo-American population is the way that they are (please keep in mind that is not my intention to make any rash generalizations), the Latino population must unite culturally in order to succeed in America.
However, at the same time, how am I (or LULAC, for that matter) to determine what one can do in order to achieve success in America? Who are we to say that publicly clinging to our culture will not open doors for us as individuals? Will proudly bearing your identity truly stop you from succeeding in America?
Sadly, I feel that I may never know.
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