Brumfield 1

Family Roots

1. Escape from the Old Country by Adrienne Su (853-854)

2. Names/Nombres by Julia Alvarez

3. Sonrisas by Pat Moras (954-955)

4. Playing Metal Gear Solid IV: The Phantom Pain by Jamil Jan Kochai (201-208)

5. For My People by Margaret Walker

6. Green Chile by Jimmy Santiago Baca (876)

7. The Abuelita Poem by Paul Martinez Pompa (877-878)

8. Of the Threads that Connect the Stars by Martin Espada (874)

Savannah Brumfield

ENGL-150-01

Dr. Liam McCoughlin

06 December 2022

Family Roots

With my anthology, Family Roots, I collected eight poems and short stories I believe

beautifully exemplify the toss up between family heritage and American culture, and I believe

that individuals can apply or relate to at least one message or story from the collection to their

own lives or experiences. The themes and the messages from the collection do not necessarily

correlate with one another, but they each represent a different aspect of cultural identity that

should be considered when wanting to figure out who we are. Additionally, each poem is written

by an author of color, whether they are American born or immigrants. I thought excluding white

authors and including only authors of color with different ethnic backgrounds would further

develop the importance of using literature to understand culture, since the deeply rooted beliefs

and thoughts of the white American would not do justice at highlighting the reality of identity

hardships on non-white individuals.

I wanted to begin my anthology by addressing the hardships or challenges when it comes

to accepting one’s identity; their American identity or their cultural identity. I wanted this to be

the first message perceived by the audience because I think the readers will be able to relate

immediately to the anthology’s content. A lot of the readers may have picked this anthology

because they believe they struggle with recognizing how their culture shapes who they are or

how they fit into their family dynamics. The first poem that really exemplifies the feeling of
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loneliness in America due to cultural identity that I wanted to begin the anthology with is

“Escape from the Old Country” by Adrienne Su. Being unable to fit into American society like

the narrator had dreamed of brought them only stress and isolation, wanting to go back home or

to the “old country”. A lot of individuals may feel as though that because they do not always fit

into the norms that many young, white Americans create, they must try to fit into their own

cultural norms, which is not always as accepted. “Names/Nombres” by Julia Alvarez continues

this idea of cultural norms not being accepted by Alvarez’s personal account of having difficulty

in understanding why it was hard for her American peers to say her name right or to not assume

her ethnic name means she is a foreigner. This does not discourage Alvarez, however, sharing

how she was able to accept the different names she received as who she is as she grew older as

being the names of the identities they represent. “Julia” or “Alcatraz” was who she was to her

American peers, while “Hoo-lee-tah” or “Julita” was who she was to her family. The third piece

in this section is Pat Mora’s poem “Sonrisas”, which is a poem that shares the message of feeling

happy and comfortable having a bicultural family. The narrator is in a “doorway” between the

American side of her family and the Hispanic side, yet she is greeted with smiles in both rooms.

The narrator, while maybe not being able to distinctively confine herself to one of those rooms,

feels at ease with moving between them. All three of these pieces represent a different part of

accepting cultural identity in America; the loneliness that comes with wanting to fit into

American culture by denying one’s ethnic identity, the struggles of wanting to hold onto both

identities and finding peace at having two separate, concurrent identities, and the happiness that

one experiences when they feel connected to both of their cultural identities.

For the second part of my anthology, I wanted to hold onto the focus of hardship one

experiences in finding their identity by centering the attention on the challenges one’s cultural
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ancestors faced when coming to America. “Playing Metal Gear Solid IV: The Phantom Pain” by

Jamil Jan Kochai would be one of the featured short stories in this section because it does an

amazing job at illustrating the feeling of alienation when constantly being placed into the

perspective of a white man in one’s own culture or homeland. Another moving factor in this

piece that differentiates it from the other pieces featured in the anthology is that it is in the

second-person point of view, which puts the readers into the shoes of the narrator as if it is

themselves living out the narrator’s tale. This piece might be especially moving for Middle

Eastern readers, who always unconsciously consume media that illustrates people that look like

them or their families as “bad” guys and might perceive their own culture as such. Another piece

of literature I wanted to add to this section that highlights both the hardships and triumphs of

cultural identity is Magaret Walker’s “For My People”. This piece focuses on a new ethnic

background yet to be discussed, which is the African-American culture. African-Americans have

suffered the worst forms of discrimination and assimilation in American history, and America

has found ways to disregard the era of hatred towards this racial group by creating holidays like

Black History Month to appreciate and honor African-Americans for their triumphs. “For My

People” does the same thing–discussing the hardships African-Americans faced in older

generations and the victories they received when fighting for their rights. If we take both the

hardships and the triumphs of our elders and ancestors, we are able to create a better world for

our culture and ethnicity. Both of these pieces serve the purpose of depicting the hard truths of

our cultural identity and how America perceives those identities.

The final section of my anthology focuses on the idea that the American identity that

confuses many of us is just a mixing bowl of various cultures, where parts of the culture we

yearn to connect with is part of our everyday life like in “Green Chiles” by Jimmy Santiago Baca
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or the memories we held dearly of our culture was masking common American traditions like in

“The Abuelita Poem” by Paul Martinez Pompa. I want to end the anthology with Martin

Espada’s “Of the Threads That Connect the Stars,” which, simply out, serves as an explanation

as to why our family may not carry the traditions or beliefs they were once held because they do

not serve the best interest of the future generations.

When it comes to who we are and how we carry ourselves, the traditions, customs, and

beliefs we believe or participate in –or choose to change or terminate–are learned from our

family and carried on depending on our relationship with our family and culture. However, it has

become a rising occurrence in the United States where individuals feel lost or unconnected with

their family’s heritage or their own identity when trying to fulfill both their family’s desires and

the expectations of American society for various reasons. Being unable to have conversations

with family members on our family roots can become frustrating when it is due to

communication barriers. The question now is how does one find comfort in their identity and

heritage when there are little to no available means of verbal communication? The answer to that

question, simply put, is through reading literature. An old-school method of sharing traditions,

literature has been used for centuries to share the tales of ancient societies or figures that are

written solely from the feelings and beliefs of the writer. It is written in language that we

understand, and, at times, can be written in a way structurally that engages us to want to learn

more. But it is not just any literature I suggest one to pick up in the hopes of learning more of

their cultural identity. Fictional works written by authors of color with characters or stories that

do not follow the traditional American tales we commonly read of can help us identify with

literature better. Non-fiction or informational pieces tend to highlight–in great, realistic

detail–the traumas and jubilations of cultural history, while fictional stories craft these adversities
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and achievements into motivating tales that can guide one to shape their own perspectives on the

topic. I believe that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie would agree with my argument based on her

TedTalk, “The Danger of a Single Story.” She spends her time discussing the importance of

diversifying fictional stories, especially children's books, in their character representation. For

children of color growing up, it can be confusing to read books where the characters do not look

like you or do not follow the same routines due to–unknown–cultural differences, and it can be

dangerous at times reading the same single story that does not apply to you. Books are powerful

tools that, and they are powerful enough to “dispossess and to malign, but…also be used to

empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a person, but stories can also repair

that broken dignity” (Adichie). In a society where different cultures are dehumanized in media

and literature, like seen in Kochai’s short story, a lot of individuals that identify in any way to

those cultures may become critical of themselves. She might agree that readers who become

critical of their culture because of the media they consume would be more inclined to ignore

their family's culture and default to America’s. That does not mean that America’s culture is

better or more superior, and it may actually be more harmful to conform more to their culture

than that of one’s familial culture. Single stories are harmful to white Americans and critics when

the stories that do feature ethnic characters or traditions only share the hardships of that culture.

Adichie shares how her roommate in college “had felt sorry for me even before she saw me. Her

default position toward me, as an African, was a kind of patronizing, well-meaning pity” due to

the common perception of African culture in the United States. In America, it is common in our

society to feel superior or as though we can be “saviors” to immigrants or individuals from other

countries, particularly those in Africa, Asia, or South America. While Americans may not intend

to be patronizing or offensive when interacting with a person of color or an immigrant, they carry
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a lot of the prejudices and stereotypes they created from media into those interactions, which can

be perceived as offensive or ignorant. All in all, literature should stray away from the common

“single story” of the white man eating apples and steer towards stories of Hispanic girls making

tamales or African-American girls braiding their hair. They should focus on the triumphs and

positive moments people of color experience to end the American perception that outside culture

is “bad” or needs to be “dispossessed”. Moreover, Teju Cole would also agree with my

arguments for my anthology based on the arguments he makes from the excerpt “Carrying a

Single Life.” He claims that “Literature can save a life. Just one life at a time”, (Cole) for the

same books or scriptures that persuade one person from bombing a city may convince another to

take part in the bombing. This is not because the messages or themes in the books are being

perceived differently by the two individuals, but due to the fact that the worthiness of those

literary works are weighted differently by those individuals. Books, stories, and poems do not

hold a universal significance, but they do hold some significance in a few people’s lives. A lot of

the stories and poems featured in my anthology may be nothing more than entertainment for the

readers, but there may be a reader or two who reads one of those pieces and feel more than

entertained. They feel enlightened, engaged, or intrigued by cultural differences exemplified in

the anthology rather than the traditional American stories. Perhaps it is their identity that is saved

instead of their life, but it can be argued that our lives are dependent on our identity, so they

could go hand-in-hand. All in all, knowing our culture and how it defines us is pivotal in

identifying who we really are as Americans. Whether that means to conform entirely to

American standards, to learn to adapt to the traditions of our families cultures, or to mix what we

understand of both to create our own cultural identity, literature can help us form these decisions
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through the power of its message or individually as it relates to us on a deep level emotionally

and cognitively.
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Works Cited

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. “The Danger of a Single Story.” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The

Danger of a Single Story | TED Talk, TedTalk, July 2009,

Alvarez, Julia. “Names/Nombres”. Academy of Our Lady Mount Carmel,

https://academyolmc.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/09/NamesNombres.alvarez.pdf

Baca, Jimmy Santiago. “Green Chile.” The Norton Introduction to Literature,

edited by Kelly J. Mays, Norton, 2022, pp 876.

Cole, Teju. “Carrying a Single Life: On Literature and Translation: Teju Cole.” The New York

Review of Books, 25 June 2020,

Espada, Martìn. “Of the Threads That Connect the Stars.” The Norton Introduction to Literature,

edited by Kelly J. Mays, Norton, 2022, pp 874.

Kochai, Jamil Jan. “Play Metal Gear Solid IV: The Phantom Pain.” The Norton Introduction to

Literature, edited by Kelly J. Mays, Norton, 2022, pp 201-208.

Moras, Pat. “Sonrisas.” The Norton Introduction to Literature, edited by Kelly J. Mays, Norton,

2022, pp 954-955.

Pompa, Paul M. “The Abuelita Poem.” The Norton Introduction to Literature, edited by Kelly J.

Mays, Norton, 2022, pp 877-878.

Su, Adrienne. “Escape from the Old Country.” The Norton Introduction to Literature, edited by

Kelly J. Mays, Norton, 2022, pp 853-854.

Walker, Margaret. “For My People.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, 2022,

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/21850/for-my-people.