A number of factors contributed to the U.S. decision to go to war against Spain. Since the early years of the 19th century, many Americans had watched with sympathy the series of revolutions that ended Spanish authority throughout South America, Central America, and Mexico. Many people in the Uni...

The Chicano People Gloria Anzaldua writes about a borderland. Thisborderland? is what she explains as where two or more cultures meet with each other. Two essays in which she wrote are Entering into the Serpent and How to Tame a Wild Tongue. Both of these essays are written in English and Spanish,...

In Arts of the Contact Zone, Mary Louise Pratt discusses a conflict, which she has labeled the "contact zone". Pratt defines the contact zone loosely as the social spaces where cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other. In 1613 Guama Poma, a native Andean of Incan descent, wrote a twelve-h...

Biases When I sat down to write this paper about a personal bias I might have, I really wanted to convince myself that I wasn't biased towards anything, but that just isn't so. Unfortunately, I believe that everyone is biased against one thing or another. There would be no such thing a...

In Aria, the first section of the autobiography, Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez, by Richard Rodriguez, there are many core issues and ideas that run throughout each section. Each recurring issue or idea is represented by different terms or concepts he uses. One of the conc...

1. Oppression-three licks for speaking spanish, talking back, speech classes. Traditions of silence-well bred girls don't answer back, big mouth, questioning, carrying tales but not parallel to men. (nostros-nostros) It again brings to the forefront that women or children should be ...

A Loss of Language In Richard Rodriguez's "Gains and Losses," we are told the story of how he learned English as a young boy, and, in turn, stopped using his family's language, Spanish. The story is the portrayal of a Latino family that does not speak English very well ...

Vicente Pio Marcelino Cirilo Aleixandre y Merlo (Vicente Aleixandre) was a Spanish poet that was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1977. Aleixandre was born in Seville, Spain on 26 April 1898. His father, Cirilo Aleixander Ballester, was a civil engineer and was said to have come from a fam...

The role of the English language in Richard Rodriguez's "Gains and Losses" The essay "Gains and Losses" by Richard Rodriguez deals with one of the most important and controversial questions in American society–what is the role of the English language in the United S...

The Indian population in the early 1800s were subjects of the ruling elite. At this point, the ruling elite consisted of Spaniards, which considered the Indians to be barbaric and did not consider them to be humans. In 1810, the Gente de razon category was established to identify people who were...

The Significance of using Spanish and English in "Almost a Woman"Esmeralda Santiago i an american citizen with puerto rican origins who writes the novel called "Almost a Woman". Her book recalls her journey towards womanhood and describes the details of growing up Puerto Rican in the 1960's in Ameri...

The statement t h a t the Confederationprovided the United States with an effective form ofgovernment during the Critical Period in Americanhistory is false. Although i t had one majoraccomplishment,the settling of the Northwestterritory,the Confederation could not effectivelydeal with foreign polic...

Sandra Cisneros' Life and Language "What does a woman inherit that tells her how to go?" (Cisneros 3). There has never been a great literary work written without an inspiration or as a product of life experiences. Although Sandra Cisneros knew she was destined to become a writer, s...

There are several reasons why Latin American movements for independence did not fulfill the high expectations of their protagonists. First of all, it is important to look at why the Latin Americans craved independence and indeed there were many causes for this. These causes included the French Rev...

To speak more than one language or not to speak more than one language- that is the question. The dilemma between making English the only official language in America or having multiple official languages is an important issue that affects everyone that speaks a language in America, especially thos...

Teachers are sensational, I once would have said, when they totally love their jobs, and strive to help students expand their knowledge in a specific area. I once would have said that teachers are all alike, but now I believe that is a narrow point of view. The teachers I have had and the teachers w...

The Dominican Republic is unique from all other Latin American nations in part, because its heritage relates to Haitian cultural traditions rather than solely Spanish ones, much like the rest of Latin America (Brown & Standish, 1999). In fact, the Dominican Republic received its independence from Ha...

On April 23, 2010 the governor of Arizona, Jan Brewer, signed Senate Bill 1070 Immigration Law. This controversial bill, which abuses immigrants, recalls the racial laws of Nazi Germany in which the Jews were persecuted during Hitler's regime. In the Arizona case, the target of this law is the Latin...

A Small Accident Do you know more than one language? If you do, have you ever found yourself starting a sentence in one language and ending it with another? As a young girl, I used to mix my languages. Naturally, I did this while learning the English language. I applied the rules of the Spanish l...

Hispanic people have always played an important part in history of the United States. As early as the 1500's, Spanish explorers and colonists settled on the Caribbean islands that are today known as Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. In 1898, the ...

The world is a very diverse place. In Spain the people and their culture are very different from the United States. The people talk, act, and look different. Their attitudes are also different than American persons attitude. The diversity changes a person's opinion on their culture and other cult...

Costa RicaThe country's official name is Republica de Costa Rica or Republic of Costa Rica. In Spanish Costa Rica means "rich coast". You will find the country in Central America. Both water and land surround it. The Pacific Ocean is to the west and the Caribbean Sea is to the east. North of Co...

"Azucar" or sugar in English, is a Spanish metaphor which means that you should live a sweet way your life. Usually this is said when people is complaining or overworking, or even if you are happy at a party or dancing, people will say Azucar as a way to remind you that life is beautiful and you sho...

What Should the Status of Puerto Rico Be? Puerto Rico is located in the Caribbean Sea. Puerto Rico has been a Commonwealth under the United States since July 25, 1952 when Governor Muños proclaimed the new constitution. In the election of 1968, Governor Ferr&eacut...

What's a hero? A hero is define as "one that is much admired or shows great courage" by the Merriam Webster's Notebook Dictionary. A hero can also be define as what Benito Pablo Juarez is to Mexico. Benito was born in a small village in Oaxaca called San Pablo Guelatao on March 21, 1806 in ...