Questions for Cristy C. Roads

Author Questions 

Even though we have had some amazing readings this has by far been my favorite one for this class. I enjoyed it so much that I read through the whole thing in about an hour. It was impossible to put the book down. As a bisexual Cuban I could relate to a lot of what Cristy was writing and I saw myself in the text more than once. Although my family was never too religious they still had that embedded homophobia that's practically part of the culture. I eventually told my parents after years of subtly hinting at it and they didn't really care so I consider myself very lucky. I was really curious to find out how Cristy's coming out story was with her family. I know it's something people probably ask a lot but who was the first person you came out to and why did you feel like you could finally do it?

 I was born and raised in Cuba, I came over in 2008 when I was 10, and by 2011 I was already going through what most would describe as the "emo" phase. I really want to know what her all time favorite Green Day song is? Punk Rock is definitely something that helped me through some really tough times in my life and I always thought it was weird that I would look for comfort in these people who had no idea I existed. It was reassuring to know that I am not the only person who basically based their whole life off of a band. Since I know Green Day and Ren and Stimpy played a big role in Cristy's life I was wondering if they also played a role in inspiring her art style? If not how did she come up with it?

I did further research and read on her website that besides her writing and her art she also teaches here and there. I found it pretty cool that that's what she went with because I think teachers like her are very needed in today's world. Was teaching what she always had in mind? and if not how did she know that's definitely what she wanted to do? Like I said I think it's great that we have such open-minded and progressive people teaching the new generations, but it only brings up the question of; has she ever gotten in trouble for her non-conformant beliefs while teaching?

The Wage Gap That's Not The Same For All Women

Conceptualizing the Latina Experience in Care Work

By Mary Romero

For starters I would like to begin this blog post with a quote from the piece that really stuck out to me because it symbolizes the inequality not only between men and women, but also between women of different races as well. "This field continued to investigate black women's underpaid toil after emancipation in the South, and later their experiences migrating to the North to eventually dominate the care occupations as white women moved into factories and office work" (Romero 265). The wage gap and opportunity gap between men and women is evident but the one between women themselves is quite big too. Not only do white women get paid more than Black and Latina women, but they also get better opportunities of employment. Black women were only able to occupy the care work business because white women moved on to something 'better'.

In this category Latina women get paid the least depending on where they come from. It's known that Latinas who come from predominantly European backgrounds are privileged over those of darker skin stones. Also European immigrants may get better opportunities than both Black and Latina women. 

Seeing these statistics one can see that America just might be racist 

Even though this is evident, I will put it aside to talk about how being a care worker is seen as possibly one of the worst jobs one could have. Romero mentions that only people who have no other option take on these jobs because everyone looks down on them. Even though these are hard working and caring people they are summed down to servitude. And yes they serve people, but don't we all? In one way or another we all serve someone. There's nothing wrong with these jobs and Romero mentions that all the new literature and newer studies have destigmatized these jobs globally which I think is a great thing. 

Another thing that caught my attention about this work was, "Instead of conceptualizing emotional labor as paid or unpaid labor extracted from the employee to benefit the employer, recent globalization studies conceptualize "love" as the essential component of the work, partucularly among nannies, childcare worker, and nurses" (Romero 269). This jumped out at me because she mentions that employer literally search for women who have children of their own because they feel like they're more capable of showing love to their children. This is ironic and kind of cruel to me because a lot of the time these women have to basically abandon their kids  to go work for these privileged people, who simply don't have enough time to take care of their kids for x and y reasons, so that they can support their kids. They have to go take care of someone else's kids instead of their own so that their kids  can survive. And most of these families hiring them know this, but they're more worried about them having 'maternal love' to show to them kids. Like... isn't that your job ma'am???

Latina Body Image

Latina Body Image 

The Bloguera: Latin Body Image podcast was extremely relatable and nerve touching. They introduced the topic of Latinas and their "abnormal" amount of body hair. This is a stereotype we've all heard before and I dont know about everyone else,  but I'm frankly over it. When Patricia Valoy talked about her experience with her body hair it was like a flashback. She talked about how her fiance's family (Egyptians), told her she needed to shave her whole body, including her face. They were finding hair she didn't even knew she had and they wanted it all gone. 

Valoy's story brought back the last ten years of my life. Ever since I moved to the United States when I was 10 I was always teased for having "too much hair". I even had too much hair on my head for some poeple 

It really affected my self-esteem and it led to me potentially ruinning my hair because I would be constantly straightening it. I also have very hairy arms and was always teased for it. I used to work at white castle and you know when you work at a fast food restaurant you're required to wear hair nets so that there's no chance of hair getting on the food. I had a manager there who would constantly tell me I needed hair nets for my arms and I would just have to laugh it off because what else am I supposed to do right?

Another big thing is one's weight. Like Kassandra Pena said now a days there are so many unhealthy and harmful trends that force girls to meet a certain body image. And then we also have the entire family telling you "mija as subido de peso", "mija si sigues comiendo asi vas a rodar". This is something that seriously needs to be worked on in the Latinx community. This toxic behavior can easily lead to eating disorders that can potentially lead to even more serious mental illnesses. 

The point is that all of these beauty standards and body images placed on Latinas are extremely damaging and harmful for our self-esteems. Especially when you're emposing them on children who are still growing and learning to get comfortable with their own bodies. It can easily create bad cases of body dysmorphia. We need to break through the beauty standards and stablish healthy habits.

 

"If you want to be American speak American"

The Importance of Language

    We often forget the importance of language. The importance of expressing ourselves freely. How having our language stripped from us or diminished can make us lose our sense of self and lower our self-esteem. We also don't realize how many variations of one language there are. We judge the ones we don't relate with and try to write them off as illegitimate.

    The importance of language is one that goes beyond the 'proper' one we are taught in school. As we grow older and meet new people our way of speaking becomes like a journal. It serves as a book that tells of our experiences and our encounters with different people. We adapt and adjust to different settings and sometimes we take words or phrases from people that never leave our vocabulary.

    When I came to this country from Cuba, I went to a bilingual school full of kids from all over. I made a lot of Dominican friends and the Cuban accent slowly shifted into a mix of both. My dad was outraged. He would get legitimately angry at my accent, but I couldn't help it it was just something that happened naturally. I didn't feel like it made me any less Cuban, but not everyone agreed. We have this idea that once you come the United States and learn English you're a gringa now and somehow your whole identity shifts. This idea is wrong.

    We should be celebrating every language in every form of them. It's adaptation and it's a valuable skill. It's team work and it is damn good. 

   Our language is also stripped from us by white Americans who claim to live in the United States one has to speak English. "If you want to be American speak American". Please tell me what "American" is? The fact that the only word in English to describe estadounidences is 'American' is problematic in itself because the United States does not make up for all of America. America is a rather large continent with a rather diverse population.

 Anyway. Please show me where in the constitution does it say this?? On the contrary. The constitution has no specific language because this is a country of immigrants. From the very beginning. I do not need to speak English to live here. They do this at a way of erasing our culture and roots. like Anzaldua said, "El Anglo con cara de inocente nos arranco la lengua. Wild tongues can't be tamed, they can only be cut out.". Trying to strip immigrants of their language is another form of oppression. 

Latinx Studies Programs

Latinx Studies: If not There Then Where?

It's Not Segregation, It's Representation 

    As a recently arrived Cuban immigrant, I had a sixth grade history teacher who was blatantly racist and would teach history her way, and was usually wrong. She would often try to speak on the Cuban situation without having a clue of what she was talking about. She was a white American so I don't blame her for not knowing, I blame her for blatantly spreading fake information and getting angry when someone would try to educate her.

    After these awful two years of history classes I learned that representation is very important. It's not about teaching some kids a different way or different things. It's about teaching kids in a way that they can relate to the learning and engage with it. If you're giving them a completely unapproachable scenario, they are not going to follow it. 

    In the Precious Knowledge film we see a predominantly Mexican American community in a school system that does not care whether they graduate or not. They don't care whether they're learning or not because of their statistics. Even though it's a 2011 and the statistics might've changed, they say that 50% of the Latinx community end up as dropouts. But how can this not be the case when you have to go sit in a classroom all day surrounded by people who are practically rooting for your failure, learning things you can't relate to. Not only do these kids have to deal with the issues at home that come with being offsprings of immigrant parents, but they get no support in school. Like they mentioned on the film not enough is being done to get Latinx kids into college.

    Through the Mexican American studies program the kids in Tucson were learning not only to value themselves and their culture, but also to become better, kinder people in general. These ethnic studies classes gave them the confidence and boost they needed to make them realize their potential and that even if the whole system is against them, they can still prove the system wrong and persevere. "According to TUSD, students taking ethnic studies classes showed significant improvement on Arizona standardized tests" and "For the past six years, the graduation rate for students enrolled in ethnic studies electives has averaged 93%". Statistically speaking the programs were working wonders so what was wrong?

    In my opinion there were too many latinx students excelling and it wasn't good for the Anglo Americans. As usual they had to come in calling people racist and ruin everything 

    They claimed it was planting a bad cultural seed teaching kids that the system is unfair and that the should try to change it....... 

 

    If the system isn't unfair then how come Anglo-Americans make up 70% of the population but one 31% of the jail population. Meanwhile African-Americans make up only 12% of the population but 41% of the jail population... Again America how is the system not unfair?

    My point is that students need teachers who they can relate to and who will motivate them to become the best version of themselves. Teachers who can properly teach them about where they come from and how to honor their roots. Because only by knowing who you are can you become someone great in life. 

Immigration: A Foreign Policy Agenda

Article: Refugees or Economic Immigrants? Immigration from Latin America and the Politics of US Refugee Policy By Maria Cristina Garcia

    A question that arose while reading this essay was, How can a government put their political agenda over people's lives? Living, breathing people who are actually running for their lives. A country that was founded by immigrants who were also trying to escape life threatening situations and persecution. How did we forget our roots so fast? 

    The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act only considered a refugee a person who was fleeing from a communist of communist-dominated country. We all know America has always been about spreading democracy throughout the world, but what about countries that have some sort of democratic government but still have deplorable life conditions that can be life-threatening? Conditions such as high crime rates or terrorism rates and religious persecution.. 

    To me this Act just further proved that the U.S only cares about their political agenda. They don't actually care about the people in need. 
    Same goes with the Cuban immigration policies. When it was convenient for them they let as many Cubans in as possible. Trying to hurt the Castro revolution efforts they would even encourage Cubans to migrate and aided them. Afterwards when there were too many Cubans for their comfort they started puting restrains and asking the Cuban government to help regulate the migration issue. Not only did they showed biased towards the Cubans because of their political problems with the Cuban government, but they also let them down when it stopped being convenient for them. Their bias is still very much visible today. There are many who are a perfect match for the 'refugee' definition, but are still not given asylum because of racial stereotypes and biases.
    It's no news that the United States government has always worked under a hidden agenda, but this does not make it any better. You can't call yourself the "Police of the World" only when it's convenient for your to invade places to your own benefit. They should not put themselves in a pedestal for doing the bare minimum to look good.

    

A View of US Society Through the Eyes of the Subaltern

Panethnic Identities and the Overgeneralization 

of Cultures 

    America, the big melting-pot of the world. Can one achieve this generalizing idea without sacrificing one's own cultural values?

    Anglo American society has a way of putting Latinos/as in the same category, no matter where they're from. This, mixed with the idea that in order to be part of their society you have to push your own cultural beliefs aside and assimilate to theirs is beyond toxic. Edna Acosta-Belen talks about this in the reading. This creates a lot of internal conflicts in immigrants because they are forced to compromise their identities in order to fit in. Most if not all immigrants leave their homeland in search of a better life. When you're put in the predicament of maintaining your roots, or being whitewashed to create better opportunities for yourself, it is hard.

    These aren't the only issues revolving this topic. We also have the wide criticism of panethnic identities, which a lot of the times comes from our own people. The notion that you can't be Puerto Rican or Cuban etc. because you were born in the United States even though your parents were born and raised in those countries is something that plagues the Latinx community, and it honestly makes no sense. Also the idea that when you leave your homeland it somehow makes you less "authentic". A lot of the times these people share the same struggles and discrimination that immigrants do. Panethnic identities need to stop being invalidated in order to stop making panethnic people feel like they dont belong anywhere. 

      Acosta-Belen talks about the impact artist are having in the movement to rid the Latino/a community of these issues. How bringing awareness to these struggles, we can all come together to fight against them like we have done many times before. She mentions how for a long time the works of Latinos/as living in the United States was disregarded in their homelands because of the mixing with other cultures. Luckily this has changed and now "Latina/o writers and artists are not only having an impact in US society, they are also carving their own cultural spaces in their Latin American and Caribbean nations of origin". Inclusivity and acceptance are very important. We are not all the same and we all come from different experiences and cultures, but we all suffer the same discrimination and racism, because to them, we're all the same. Therefore I believe that in order to fight against this discriminatory system we all need to see our differences and celebrate them. Learn from each other, but maintaining our own beliefs and getting rid of the idea that "you're not a real (insert nationality), because (insert dumb reason).