Opinion

Guest column: America betrays its bicultural citizens

Children who grow up in this country with Hispanic families learn to incorporate both cultures into their lives, but America betrays its bicultural citizens by discriminating against them daily.

“Spanglish is unrelated to any other language because it is not a language itself, but rather an overlapping and mixing of Spanish and English lexical items and grammar,” according to Wikipedia.

It is funny to think that overlapping two languages has its own term, especially when these two languages are the most dominant in the U.S.

The Hispanic population is growing, however, and there seems to be a disconnect between the two cultures, although there are clear overlaps such as Spanglish.

Both the Hispanic U.S. citizens and DREAMers share a common betrayal from the country they call their home — DREAMers face a lot more legal obstacles.

Bicultural children and adults are able to merge two cultures so well that it is hard to determine the culture to which they belong.

They embrace their home country, the U.S., while appreciating their family’s native country, or their own country of origin.

However, there are a lot of problems with being bicultural. A person may feel like que ni eres de aqui ni de alla (that one is neither from here nor from there). There goes my Spanglish.

A lot of the Hispanic U.S. citizens’ children and DREAMers can relate to both cultures, yet feel disconnected, to a certain extent, from both.

Discrimination happens to anyone who is not a Caucasian male. U.S. citizens’ children and adults who are of Hispanic descent look and sound Hispanic most of the time. This opens the door to oppression.

The DREAMers and Hispanic citizens experience the same oppression with the added stress and fear of living in the shadows. However, both of these groups are sometimes too Americanized to be “real” Hispanics. They can manage to find an identity, but it might be questioned.

As stated earlier, the DREAMers’ struggle is very much like the one of the bicultural US citizens but without the benefit of being called a citizen.

They have been raised, educated and have acculturated to America, yet they cannot receive any of the benefits that being an American entails. These young adults and children are in a much more complicated position than the Hispanic citizens.

They have grown up here and identify as American, yet they are not recognized by America. Yes, the DREAM act has passed, and hopefully this has shut them up, right?

No. It has not, and I hope it does not.

Hispanic children became their family advocates from early on, since many times they are the only ones who knew English. They know how to advocate, so we cannot expect them to be happy with an unrecognized status.

This legality just adds to the betrayal of their American dream and their oppression.

Just remember that their countries of origin were either dangerous, poor or both. They sought a better life, and to a certain extent the U.S. provided that.

Their parents would not have fled their homelands without a good reason, and even though people from these countries are not legally recognized as refugees, they have similar traumatic experiences.

Hispanic-Americans — yes, this includes DREAMers and any bicultural individual, for that matter — already have an internal struggle of identifying with Americans, so do not add to it.

Learn to appreciate the beauty of different cultures and the wonderful people they bring. Learn not to add to this systematic oppression.

Just as Hispanic and American cultures have already been merged in Spanglish, the disconnect that still exists is hard to bridge — but not impossible.

Our country betrays me and countless others, but everyone has the opportunity to advocate for this community, and that includes you.

Astrid Tzoc is a social work graduate student. 

9 Comments

    • Unfortunately, just like the swasticka, and the word gay, some things eventually have their meanings changed.

  • Five will get you Ten … that most legal Hispanics are against Dreamers; they just won’t admit it. I mean, who wants an instant degree of difficultly in obtaining better wages and benefits, when you have 10 million new legals competing for the same jobs, and undercutting wages.

  • Well said. I hope others can be open-minded enough to try to understand this perspective. And anybody who disagrees can make their own post and express themselves. Please respect my views because most likely I wont read anyones comments on my post, since people have such harsh criticism and always feel they are entitled to argue when they can make their own post.

    I am a constant victim of this oppression and wish other non-hispanics can understand this. I feel alienated in my own country, which I don’t think is fair.

  • Not sure your point to be honest. Are you saying America has betrayed you because even though you are a citizen, because of your Hispanic ancestry, you being discriminated? Are you saying that people that are illegally here are being discriminated? Are you saying that the average non-hispanic should appreciate different cultures?
    Not real sure just where the betrayal comes in to be honest and on the subject of immigration I have mixed feelings. I believe we have the right to control our borders, to limit who can enter and become a citizen. I also think the process need to be overhauled and I don’t think children raised here should be deported but remember those words on the statue of liberty were meant for those that would come here legally and become citizens.

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