Posted: December 22nd, 2019
What Does It Mean to Be Portuguese? Essay Sample
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The ultimate end of a society is to make utopia. to hold every individual individual viewed every bit. Under the Bill of Rights. everyone is created every bit. But how much of that statement is really true? Are we all created and treated every bit? Integration is a welcoming construct that is frequently frowned upon by other coevalss. The cultural nutrient. the summers of weekend banquets. the linguistic communication. the traditions. the music. the faith. the dance. and the vesture. These are all typical facets of civilizations around the universe. Some take pride in where they have come from. their roots. Others. maneuver off from it. They do so for many grounds. society’s influence being the top ground. Lusitanian people. besides known as Lusitanos. believe they have a community within the United States. but how much of that is imagined? Do segregation and societal infinites influence their positions? What does it intend to be Lusitanian.
in a society that is invariably judging you?
Turning up. I was ever involved in my community. The members around me influenced me. I took pride in being a Lusitano. Whether it meant attach toing my household to the local banquets to larn how to dance. seeking and larning to cook our celebrated cultural dishes. larning the linguistic communication at a immature age. or practising my faith as a Roman Catholic. I was ever seeking to hike my position in the Portuguese community. Learning the linguistic communication helped a batch because I could now interact with both of the communities I was a portion of. or so I presumed But non everything is as black and white as I thought it was back so. Sing this community with a mature. wiser position. I found the defects that are in most communities within a society today. This community is more of an imagined community. filled with prejudice people against their ain sort. The societal norms that are supposed to be abided by are largely superficial.
As a member of both communities. Lusitano and American. I divide my clip for both. which is non acceptable in a Lusitano community. I remain on the outskirts of this community because of my differences with the older coevals members. With them. your mundane life consists of advancing the heritage and traditions to other Lusitanian non-members. They want to turn their community. but merely with members of “their ain sort. ” Peoples that do non hold the makings are looked down upon. and “not worthy. ” I put both of those phrases in quotation marks because they are the cardinal footings in this job. It is an eternal rhythm of segregation. Like stated in Pratt’s essay. I am “trying to accomplish solidarity on an basically imagined prejudice. ” ( Pratt. 493 ) . Bing a portion of both civilizations can sometimes hold its ruins. “Their ain kind” consists of Lusitanian immigrants that immigrated to America.
If you are anything less. you are looked down upon. It does non count if you. as a first coevals. were raised precisely like they were ; you will ne’er be worthy plenty. This is because they believe one time a individual is nurtured in America ; they are no longer to the full Portuguese. They will have chances that they. the older coevalss. ne’er did. They will emerge themselves in the American civilization and diverge from the Lusitanian civilization. This is their head set. Americans are based on being financially stable and populating the American dream. They drill these facets into each of member to accomplish. They besides try to work out everything will violence. Their faith and traditions are barely practiced. something the Lusitanian people do non digest. But the members of each civilization do non see the benefits of each other. In a manner. they are selfish in seeking to rend each other out of the lives of their members. Achieving solidarity within this two-biased communities is instead hard because I live so near to many members of each. When interacting with members of each community. and sometimes both. they all have different values to explicate. all really valuable in their ain reading of the community.
In footings. I am a portion of my ain contact zone. with many of the other Lusitanian – American first coevalss. Our contact zone. or community. can be viewed as a “separate but equal flights that diverge. ( Pratt. 489 ) . Many Lusitanian immigrants did non hold an instruction upon immigrating to the United States. They were lucky if they made it to the 4th class in their fatherland. frequently because of fiscal grounds. Most were taught to farm and supply for their households. School was secondary and merely for the rich whom could afford it. Turning up in America has given me many chances my parents and their equals ne’er received. I am able to acquire an instruction. and supply for myself without holding to fight like they did. In a manner. I feel like they hold this against the United States. that is the power to take what you want to make in life and the paved route to acquire to where you want to travel. In researching our life in America and holding the freedom to take our way. some of us choose to get married outside of the Lusitanian civilization. or even change faiths. If they were an castaway before. they are on a different planet now to the older coevalss.
It was a tradition to be brought up as a practising Roman Catholic. Practicing anything else was a wickedness. Marrying a non full-blooded Portuguese was besides a wickedness in their eyes. These societal infinites are the underlying jobs to why most contact zones ne’er submerge within each other. “I usage this term [ contact zones ] to mention to the societal infinites where civilizations run into. grapnel with each other. of 10 in context of extremely asymmetrical dealingss of power as they are lived out in many parts of the universe. ” ( Pratt. 487 ) . The difference of the said to believe power and stereotypes are what halt them from interacting with each other. The job with this stereotype is that they “will ne’er know most of their fellow members. run into them. or even hear of them. yet in the heads of each lives the image of their community. ” ( Pratt. 493 ) . They believe to populate in America. but they do non stay by the Torahs and civilization of this state. Their societal norms were brought with them from Portugal. This frequently leads them to a confrontation with members of the opposing community. A sad. but true illustration is that most Lusitanian parents abuse their kids if they misbehave. This construct of raising a kid was used for coevalss as a manner to educate a kid how to act.
The first coevals Americans do non have that subject and are view to the older coevalss as spoilt and over privileged. Here. in America. is it illegal and punished by imprisonment and Foster attention for the kids. Many Lusitanos do non understand this construct. and many stop up with diverged households and clip in prison because of it. It’s hard to alter your whole manner of being if something you have been taught at a immature age is no longer acceptable in the community you are now a portion of. No affair the trouble. these constructs of the American society and civilization have to be accepted. Whether I am considered a Lusitano. an American. or both. my traditions and heritage that I find valuable from both communities will be passed down through my coevalss. Pratt briefly discussed this in her essay as being a signifier of transculturation. “they [ subsidiary group ] do find to changing extents what gets absorbed into their ain and what it gets used for. ( Pratt. 491 ) . The subsidiary group is known as the minority.
In my instance. that would be the contact zone of the Portuguese-Americans. Bing emerged in both civilizations leads to a different position on the universe. From that many position. certain facets or traditions are of import to each single individual. For illustration. for me. larning the linguistic communication is critical. It allows you to derive the regard of your seniors by interacting with them. and shows that our coevals will transport on the linguistic communication to their kids. It’s a signifier of regard when you can interact with a Lusitanian senior. Others do non look to see it a critical portion of the civilization. Another illustration is that I would instead go to weekend banquets filled with traditional celebrations than spend the weekend at the beach. Whether it’s the American community or the Portuguese community. each person within both will be influenced otherwise. To the older coevalss. the 1s that stick with their roots are accepted into the community. but within ground. I can non state others will make the same. but that is merely an result of being involved in many communities.
A Utopian society will ne’er be achieved if members of different communities can non look past their differences. and larn from each other. We spend most of our clip judging those different from us. either from the fright of the unknown or merely the manner we were brought up. but it has to stop. We need to recognize that holding your ain community is all right. but judging others based on merely your ain beliefs is non just to the remainder. In order for this to come together. many have to acquire off their high Equus caballus. and bask the different traditions and civilizations of those around them. Merely by extinguishing the bias and fright of the unknown will everyone be created. and treated every bit. Merely so will each coevals come together and bask and larn from each other. whether new or old. Everyone can larn from one another ; they merely have to be willing and unfastened to larn and see things that have non experienced before.
Bibliography
Bartholomae. David. and Tony Petrosky. Ways of Reading: An Anthology for Writers. Boston. MA: Bedford/St. Martins. 2011. Print.
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