American Like Me Blog Post 1

   America Ferrera’s personal essay emphasized how life in America is designed to benefit white Americans. Her first crush Sam opened her eyes to the way the world viewed her different than her classmates. She is never going to be pretty enough because she isn’t white, blonde, and blue eyed—the standard of beauty. She will never get the lead role in a movie or play a complex, dynamic character because she is Latina. She can’t be seen as herself, only as what people assume about her. She can never feel truly accepted because she is too “whitewashed” for her Latina classmates and to her white friends she is too “exotic”—that must be such an isolating experience.

 

When we are kids, we are so open to the world. We learn hatred, prejudice, and stereotypes. For America, she didn’t understand why people would view her differently until she had to live through it and experience it. When I was younger, I was always such a happy kid with so much optimism and enthusiasm, but as I have gotten older based off of what I have experienced and gone through I feel I have become more cynical and angrier. I may hold on to things more than I like, but I now know that the world is a lot more complex and twisted than what I thought it was like when I was five. The worst part of growing up is learning that the world is not perfect. Before her 9-year-old crush America had no idea that people viewed and judged her differently, and that is something she has had to carry around for the remainder of her life.

 

I think as people from the United States, we think we own the word “America”, we think that that word applies first and foremost to us. That is extremely egotistical. America’s name has nothing to do with her being from the Unites States, however, everyone she meets assumes that is the reason and makes uncomfortable comments about it. I love how she described the holiday that they celebrate in Honduras where they honor all America’s—South, North, and Central. I assume people are talking about the United States when they say something about America and people from other countries often refer to the Unites States as America. This takes away power and meaning to all of the other countries in North, South, and Central America and eliminates their existence.

 

Often when I hear stories of people from immigrant families, they feel a disconnect between themselves and their parents, because their parents are so stuck on old ways of life from their former country, and the younger generations are so immersed with American culture. I really enjoyed the change in narrative Reshma provided. She is so appreciative of the sacrifices her parents made—assimilating to life in the US, changing their name to be more “American”—so she could have the strength to embrace her own identity. What was most heartbreaking to read from Reshma’s story was when people told her and her family to go back to their country. Reshma was born in the US and her parents were kicked out of their former home country. The US is as much theirs as it is anyone’s but because someone looks or acts different, we assume they are foreign. The majority of the people who live in the US come from immigrant families (unless you are Native American), so really this isn’t their home country either. There is something so isolating feeling like you don’t have a home and that you are not welcome in your home.