Wednesday, September 28, 2011

I am Joaquin Reflection

I am Joaquin by Rodolfo Corky Gonzales is an homage, to what I believe to be, the various Mexicans and Mexican-Americans that have struggled to embrace and re-claim their cultural and personal identity when having to face the American (United States to be more specific) assimilation machine. There are two types of cultures; one that embraces other cultures (aka a melting pot) and one in which demands outsiders to conform to their standards and way of life (aka Assimilationists). It is my opinion that most people would like to regard America as a melting pot, but know and admit that a hint of superiority exists with those of natural citizenship. The speaker of this poem seems to be caught in between two worlds and two moral dilemmas. As discussed on the first page, he can assimilate and survive while having to live with the shame of turning his back on his heritage or he can fully embrace his culture and become spiritually sound at the expense of his “hunger” and possible livelihood gains. The speaker’s use of the word “sterilization” depicts and accurate representation of what he believes he has to accomplish in order for him to become a full member of society in the eyes of the American culture.
            Throughout this poem, many of the themes that resonated with me were that of unification, liberation, freedom, endurance, survival and determination. The speaker was able to illicit all of these by constantly emphasizing and repeating the phrase “I am…” By doing this he is repeatedly confirming his identity (whether to himself or to the audience, I’d be interested to find this out) by acknowledging that he, among all the people, saints and revolutionaries he mentioned, are one in the same; they are a people united for the same cause. At the same time, I feel and sense a bit of reluctance in his tone as if he wants to take action but doesn’t or can’t because he is just a “campesino” or farmer/peasant and just a puppet of the current political system with no real powers. The author also takes the tone of resentment. I feel his struggle to give up and play along and to rebel and fight for his beliefs. How far will he go and how much will he sacrifice before he gives up entirely?
            What I gather from reading this is that culture and heritage is not something that he will easily surrender in light of what he believes his ancestors and countrymen fought and died for as this seems to be a prevalent theme throughout the poem. This makes me think: What would any of us do to protect what we believe in or who we are? Is it acceptable to sacrifice a bit of yourself or sell yourself to guarantee self preservation? What is most important is that Joaquin, like many of us, want recognition of hard work and that him, you, me and we, are all people deserving and wanting to be treated like humans and not as second class citizens to be manipulated and taken advantage of by the system. The key message to take away from this poem from how I’ve interpreted it, is to constantly endure and survive, but not at the cost of sacrificing one’s identity. Identity, as it were, begins with an “I” and in a poem of a man constantly trying and attempting to reclaim his identity by embracing his culture and the people who defended it against a giant machine; it’s the most concrete thing he has to hold on to.
            When I read this poem and think of America today, I see extreme patriotism everywhere whether it be Mexican-American, African-American, European, Asian etc. Back to my point at the beginning as to whether or not the United States specifically has truly embraced its melting pot status, still puzzles me. Historically, there seem to have always been people seen as inferior by fellow Americans whether due to race, religion, sexual preference etc during certain time periods, such as the treatment of African-Americans during the Revolutionary war into the Civil Rights Movement, Japanese-Americans during World War II and even certain European-American working class people in the industrial age during the early 1900’s. All, if not the majority, have found their place in American society today. Is it because of this melting pot factor or was it by process of gradual assimilation that they were able to grow roots peacefully somewhere? I find this a very interesting and fascinating question because I know that everyone’s take on it will be different. Hoping to play devil’s advocate, I’d be really interested in hearing everyone’s thoughts on the matter and hopefully my thought process makes sense to anyone reading this.

1 comment:

  1. I don't think that the melting pot image is an accurate description of American culture. What Gonzales and other writers of the Chicano Movement tried to achieve was to assert a clear Chicano identity, one that is entirely independent of other cultural influences in America (especially white Anglo-American). Of course, as a mestizo nation, being part Spanish and part Aztecan, this was a task bound to fail, which is why later on, authors like Acosta (The Revolt of the Cockroach People) or Morales (The Rag Doll Plagues) tried to propagate a Chicano postnationalism, or why pissed off and double oppressed Chicana feminists like Anzaldua developed the concept of the "third space" in which each individual can negotiate their own identity based on whatever factors pleases them.
    To make it short, America is not a melting pot, as that would result in the vanishing of the traits of individual cultures which, I believe, no one truly desires. So what you call patriotism is, arguably, just the attempt to define each cultural heritage in a country that has no unified ethnicity in the first place.

    Cheers

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