https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvSPKuGT4lw

This is the link to my final project my digital story

Tsutomu Mirikitani

In ethnic American literature we watched the story of Jimmy Mirikitani born Tsutomu Mirikitani who was a Japanese artist living on the streets of New York City for years until being taken in by a filmmaker who took an interest in him and uncovering his story. The story of Jimmy Mirikitani is a story that genuinely touched me. His story was really impacting for a few reason and it was definitely a story that was thought provoking and even made me analyze myself as a person.  

    How many times do you see a homeless person as pass judgment upon them? We sometimes see homeless people and the ugly parts of a characters rare there heads. Sometimes people do not stop to think of others and their stories and there hardships and what they have gone through that has brought them to their current place in life. Jimmy Mirikitani was definitely a lesson for me. Mirikitani was a promising artist who came to America to revolutionize art he had passion for his craft and passion for perfecting it; and for awhile he ran within the art circle. However things definitely changed for him because of world war II and the tension and conflicts going on between America and the Japan at the time the Japanese were unfairly stereotyped. This was the beginning of the injustice of the American system that he experienced.

Jimmy Mirikitani was imprisoned in a Japanese internment camp and his American citizenship was taken away even though he was an American born Japanese. Without a citizenship his growth and success as an artist in America was crippled. To add insult to injury Jimmy Mirikitani was scared by his experiences in the Japanese internment camp. So much that he often depicted that time in his life through his art over and over again. With the help of his filmmaker friend he was able to get the help from the government that he needed and get some closer. At the end of the film Jimmy Mirikitani took a trip back to the internment camp during a reunion ceremony to honor those who had to go through sad part of history.  

Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes

Whenever I read Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes I think of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s I have a dream speech; Dr. King had a vision of equality among people of all races. Langston Hughes does address the problem of race and ethnicity and the lack of equality among people as human beings. However he also address the underlying issue of inequality among people of different social and economic classes. This inequality he is speaking of is not just an issue between people that are black or white. Langston Hughes expresses that this uneven economic playing field is an issue that is effecting all races and backgrounds. The economic disadvantage that races experience in this “free country” makes it near impossible to reach that American dream that everyone strives for. Hughes says therefore because of this equality American was never really America at all.

Let America be America again.

Let it be the dream it used to be.

Let it be the pioneer on the plain

Seeking a home where he himself is free.

In this first stanza Langston Hughes is going straight for the roots of the American dream. Because really the American dream started when this land was conquered and it was cultivated with the push for westward expansion and manifest destiny. That seed of “owning your own” and “being better off” grew into the essence of what the American dream is today. American’s want to own their own homes, cars, and businesses. Americans want to go to school so they can make more money and essentially live better lives. The whole underlying foundation to that dream is freedom. Overall no matter where you’re from, what you’re race is, or what your past is like we all want freedom.

Throughout the poem Hughes writes things like “Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—Let it be that great strong land of love”. He also writes “...But opportunity is real, and life is free, Equality is in the air we breathe.” In lines like this he is describing what America is known for and how America is often viewed by people on the outside looking in. He describes how people looking to escape to a place where equality is in the air we breathe. However for some people running away from their home country might be like jumping out of the pot into the fire because “America never was America to me”.

  Overall I can relate to this poem, America is my home and has always been my home it is where I was born and for the most part raised. However this is not the case for my parents because they were not born here. But they moved here because they had heard that America was the land of endless opportunity and question less equality (“But opportunity is real, and life is free”). Both my parents comes to realize that there are opportunities in America but there are not equal. Sometimes I wonder if they had choose another country to come to would things be better for them. Is the freedom they were told they would receive here any different from freedom they can receive somewhere else.

In the end of the poem Langston hughes urges America to take back America and make it truly America. He simply asking the people who are affected by this misleading dream to make it a reality. The true face of America may not line up with the portrayal or vision of America but that does not mean it never will and they doesn’t mean we can’t make it real.

From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives,

We must take back our land again,

America!

O, yes,

I say it plain,

America never was America to me,

And yet I swear this oath—

America will be!

PostCard to Columbus Sherman Alexie

Postcards to Columbus

Sherman Alexie

Postcard to Columbus is a poem written by Sherman Alexie that portrays an array of different emotions. However the emotion that strikes me the most in this poem is anger. Alexie’s narrator seems to be personal angry but also angry on the behalf of the entire Native American population the poem starts out with the lines

Beginning at the front door of the White House,

travel west for 500 years, pass through small towns

and house fires, ignore hitchhikers and stranded motorists,

until you find yourself back at the beginning of this journey,

this history and country folded over itself like a Mobius strip

With this first stanza Alexie is basically saying “ it all starts here”; the reason for the postcard, the emotion it invokes, the beginning of its journey. The reason for this poem all starts at the heart of the united states a building idolized by the American society and symbolizes so much for both American and Native Americans alike. ALexie then makes a reference to manifest destiny and the westward expansion that changed the lives of Native Americans. The journey continues through the negative aspects of american society and it continues to repeat itself like a Mobius strip.A Mobius strip is a  mathematical term for a strip with only one side and one dimension. This signifying the never ending cycle of negativity in America.

Christopher Columbus where have you been? Lost between

Laramie and San Francisco

or in the reservation HUD house, building a better mousetrap?

Seymour saw you shooting free throws behind the Tribal School

in a thunderstorm. Didn't you know lightning strikes the earth

800 times a second?

This next line is directed at christopher columbus and the example he set  and the ideas he believed in. Christopher Columbus’ presence on the land started a domino effect and he is no where to be found to see the results. The Narrator is asking Christopher Columbus if he is in or has seen these negative places helped create for the Native American population. Reservation HUD housing is the Department of Housing and Urban Development project set up by LB Johnson to create homes for impoverished. catching these American Indians who seem to attracted to a sort of cheese to the forced secluded housing. The rest of the poem demonstrates how Christopher Columbus, and the legacy he left behind, can act without consequences. And he does see understand or even care about what he has done to the native american population.

Beneath the

burden of 15,000 years my tribe celebrated this country's

200th birthday by refusing to speak English and we will

honor the 500th anniversary of you invasion, Columbus,

by driving blindfolded cross-country

naming the first tree we destroy AMERICA. We'll make the

first guardrail we crash through our national symbol. Our

flag with be a white sheet stained with blood and piss.

Columbus, can you hear me

over white noise of your television set?

Can you hear ghosts of drums approaching?

At the end of the poem in the last two stanzas the narrator alludes to Christopher columbus’ 500th anniversary of his invasion when he conquered and invaded their territory. The narrator brings up the fact the Christopher columbus was blind during his expedition in the sense that he has no idea where he was going and just blindly traveled across the land. So therefore in his honor they will also blindly travel across America.

 

Carlos Bulosan’s I would remember

Carlos Bulosan’s I would remember was the first piece of short story we read in ethnic american literature and it was my favorite. The story is made of themes that are beautifully woven together around surface level introductions to really interesting characters. Even though a lot of information is presented about each character it certainly is enough. As I previously stated the short story has many themes but the most prevalent theme in I would remember is the theme of death which is the first thing the narrator shares with the reader.

    There are five deaths throughout the story I would remember and the first death is the death of the narrator's mother. The narrator recalls the summer night when he heard his mother scream and rush over to her. His mother was nine months pregnant and giving birth. After the child was born the mother laid very still and eventually died. The narrator talks about how he wondered why is mother had to die and his brother had to live. And how because his little brother had unfortunately brought this grief upon him the brother would for ever be a stranger to him.

    The next death he recalls is the death of the family carabao. A carabao is a domestic water buffalo that is found in the Philippines. The narrators describes the animal as “like a brother”. I found it interesting that he was so close to the water buffalo and it was like a brother to him even though he already had a brother. During a day in May when the narrator and his father were out working the field there was a problem with the water buffalo and the father, who is normally a gentle and kind man, started beating the water buffalo with fury. The water buffalo took off and ran and jumped into a ditch and broke all its legs. The narrator and his father went into the ditch with the animal. The father was crying and was covered in sweat and he hacked of the head of the animal and the boy was angry with his father and wanted to strike him but instead he ran inside. I think the father was frustrated with the animal but there was also something much deeper than the frustrations with the animal. The carabao had to work the field in the hot sun day in and day out and the father had to do the same. I believe he felt just like the water buffalo and he took out his pent up frustrations on the animal.

    The third death the narrator witnessed was the death of a fellow Filipino he met on a ship will migrating to the United States. He was a simple and uneducated man who seemed to be filled with laughter. And he was very kind to the narrator one night the man, marco was stabbed and the money he has in his suitcase was stolen. The fourth death is the death of a man the narrator met while traveling, crispin. Crispin and the narrator were both very poor at the moment and didn't have much to eat. The narrator describes Crispin as someone who was luminous and every time he thought of Crispin he thought light or the hills back home. He was described as someone very gentle and educated who read poetry in a way that made the narrator cry. Crispin died of hungry one night; the narrator ate newspaper to survive and crispin refused to eat the newspaper. I feel like this is the narrators way of saying crispin refused to eat what society was feeding to him.

    The last death was a man named leroy. Like all the other characters in the book there is no skin color description or a description of how the person looked or what they wore. The narrator is not focused on what is on the outside but what is on the inside. Leroy was a Man who had a way with his words and a way of explaining things. “But he had a Way of explaining the meanings of words in utter simplicity, like  which he translated into “power,” and “power” into “security.” I was drawn to him because I felt that he had lived in many places where the courage of man was tested with the cruelest of weapons conceivable.” Leroy was violently lynched one afternoon for what appeared to no reason. I feel like Bulosan's work explores the meaning of the not just the human life but life in general and the effect a soul can have on earth while they’re here and the story and influence the leave behind once they are gone.

 

 

 

 

"My Name" Sandra Cisneros: The Power of Name

In “My Name”  Esperanza, a  Mexican-American girl describes what her name means to her and how it is perceived by others. In the poem the narrator says “At school they say my name funny as if the syllables were made out of tin and hurt the roof of your mouth” She describes her name as the number nine or a muddy color and give insight to what the names means in the context of her family. Esperanza feel defined by her name and that definitions driver her to desire a different name. The names she chooses are names she feels accurately depicts the person she is one the inside.

Esperanza wants a name that doesn’t “hurt the roof of the mouth” but she also wants a name that does not demonstrate weakness. Her great-grandmother was a wild woman who was tamed against her will. And she sat by the window and dreamed of freedom outside her domestic cage. In the Mexican culture, like many other cultures, women are put in the subordinate position; their roles domestic and don’t stem much further than that. Esperanza doesn’t want to have a life where she is submissive to anyone and her name for her has the power to determine the possibility of that happening.

Sandra Cisneros’s poem “My Name”, an excerpt from The House on Mango Street is a beautiful and insightful poem. Cisneros’s piece does a commendable job at pointing out the power that naming has. Names can build walls or fuel insecurities they can also build confidence and give people the permission to succeed. Names can be jam-packed with history and meaning and the can help identify a person's culture or ancestry.

 

I was really inspired by this poem. I was so inspired that I decided to compose a poem about my name with the same concept of Sandra Cisneros's poem.

Seven Letters

I am the first born child of my family.

When I was born my father thought long and hard of how

to make his name apart of my name.

So like surgeon he stitched and sutured together

parts of names and the product was my name.

 

Its choppy and blocky; tongues trip over it

and its falls clumsily out of mouths.

Its the purple and yellow and bruises the palate.

 

When it walks into a room it brings assumptions and stereotypes with it.

It bring the image of street corners and beauty supply stores;

Drive-thrus at fast food restaurants and loud conversations.

 

For some it isn’t the name of some who strives but for someone who settles.

It’s name of self induced struggle and minimum wage;

Shady Gentlemen’s clubs and the woman on “trash TV”.

 

I often wish I was named after a gem or a greek muse.

I wish my name was the color of sunshine;

Or the warmth of the first day of spring.

 

If I could I would nip and tuck and do away with the first two letters.

But I can’t so i’ll just take away it’s perception and give it new meaning

I’ve carried it for so long and for a while it felt like a burden;

It  was only a burden because I carried it’s false meaning as well.

 

Now it’s a as light as a feather.

Now I see it is only seven letters.