Brenda Reyes CHST 1100-40 Introduction to Chicano Studies #1: Que Onda?

Urban Youth Culture and Border Identity

In Qu Onda? Urban Youth Cultures and Border Identity, Cynthia L. Bejarano critically examines the identity construction of Mexicana/o and Chicana/o youth in a metropolitan Southwestern high school over the course of four years to demonstrate that identity is formed through factors such as immigration, social capital, assimilation, socio-physical setting, and education, among others, and how this identity construction influences the lives of Latino youth in American society. Bejarano also illustrates what the politics of identity along the Mexican border are and what their intertwining interaction create, an identity. Immigration is perhaps the greatest issue in debate that our nation is facing currently. Thousands, perhaps even more, of immigrants leave Mexico in search of the American Dream. These immigrants leave behind families and homes to come into the United States in pursuit of a better future. Upon reading Qu Onda? Urban Youth Cultures and Border Identity, Cynthia L. Bejarano almost immediately introduces the reader with the influence immigration has on identity development for Latinos along the border region. Inevitably, the immigration process impacts the identity of Latino youths along the border, for as the author states, The aforementioned research on the reception of immigrants in the United States, immigrant youths experiences and segmented assimilation, and ethnic self-identities suggests that ethnic identity, language, length of stay in the United States, neighborhoods, educational experiences, and exposure to U.S. popular culture have profound effects on youths. These factors coalesce in schoolyards and classroom settings and are fundamental to the identity-making processes of immigrant and native minority youths (17). In this setting, immigration affects the identity of Latino youths along the border in that they are leaving their home country for that one which is unknown. With this said, an individual has to assimilate him or herself within the culture in order to be successful within the educational system of the United States. As the textbook states, Overall, social capital contributes to how young immigrants adjust to life in this country as foreigners. Social capital serves as a resource that

impacts how they ethnically/racially and nationally perceive themselves in this country, and it can help reinforce their socioeconomic status, educational levels, and social networks (10). Since they are in fact foreigners, the manner in which they perceive themselves will limit or contribute to their success. Because of the fact that they are foreigners, they may be at a disadvantage and successful assimilation into the United States culture will impact how they perceive themselves and reinforce factors of their identity as well. Youth enter into the United States on different premises and its associated characteristics will contribute to the manner in which the society in which they live will view them. For example, say that a particular youth traveled to the United States on a visa to finish their educational background, this would be very different from a youth who enters the United States illegally in search for work. Respectively, the society in which they attempt to assimilate in will be affected by the premise on which they came. The youth who arrived with the student visa may be more welcomed and will be in a different setting than the youth who came into the United States illegally to work. He or she may not assimilate as easily as they may encounter resistance and will inevitably experience a different physical setting than the other youth. As the textbook states, Their socio-physical setting, therefore, shapes their relationships and experiences with other people. They acquire friends from various backgrounds or maintain friendships with people from their own race/ethnicity. Preserving the latter secures social networks within their communities and contributes to their overall social capital (11). The student will be within the college setting, surrounded perhaps mostly by people of their own age or different ages and various ethnicities, but individuals who can unit together because they can relate for the same educational goal for which they pursue. In contrast, the illegal worker will inevitably face resistance in attempting to find work, and may feel unable to relate to many individuals as he or she cannot truly express their identity to others. The socio-physical setting in which individuals reside will inevitably influence the relationships they have with others and contribute in great part to their assimilation process. Depending upon the experience on which the individual endures within the socio-physical setting, will the occurrence of identities be preserved. As the textbook illustrates, Immigrant youths

and children of immigrants seems to have simultaneously static and fluid identities, depending on their lived experiences within their homes, schools, and neighborhoods. Suarez-Orozco and SuarezOrozco (1995) explain: According to Erickson (1964), evolving a sense of identity is the critical task in development during adolescence.If there exists too much cultural dissonance and role confusion, there may be difficulties in developing a strong sense of identity(15-16). The existence of various labels such as Mexican-American, Mexican, Hispanic, Chicano, all contribute to the confusion of who they really are in terms of identity. They may find it difficult to in fact perceive what they truly are, as the difference amongst all of these labels is blurred at times by society. The age of the individual, may in large part, contribute to the state of their identity. For example, a young adult may negotiate the use of their ethnic identity label (16) at times interchangeably at their convenience while older people represented one sole ethnic label with furious pride. Through this it is clear that ethnic identities have a profound impact on the identity formation of youth. The presence of various factors inherently presented within the body of this paper give testimony to the impact upon which they intertwine and connect to influence the identity of youth along the border. As if that werent enough, identities are further complicated by the presence of the politics of identity along the Mexican border. As the textbook states, Identities are inherently complicated, particularly for Latina/o adolescents who find their lives in a constant state of flux, especially in the border politics of the Southwest, where questions of Latina/o identity tear at the fabric of two nations. The archetypal experience for the Latina/o on the borderlands include the invariable barrage of inquiries about which side of the border she/he is from. Relationships, interactions, arguments, emotions, policies, laws, intercultural exchanges, and national discourses, along with every lived experience and ideological framework on the border, explode with charges of heightened nationalism, ethnic pride, and a contestation of border identity. The borderlands thus is a place where people face simultaneous affirmations and contradictions about their identities (22). The presence of politics along the Mexican border make themselves known with the pressure on individuals to choose where they are from, while the current situation at the time and the interactions with other individuals within the culture will inevitably confuse the individual as to

their identity. The border simultaneously reinforces and undermines the foundation of the identities of the youth. As the textbook states, Identity politics at the borderlands promote tension and breed discourses of nationalism, bilingualism, monolingualism, racism, discrimination, and uniformitythere is always a politics to the construction and experience of identity (25). The identity politics of the border demonstrate that language is a definitive component of identity, one which reinforces and simultaneously undermines identity, in situations in which more than language is spoken for who is to say that one language is more prevalent than the other? Language is a component which has the potential to unite individuals while simultaneously tearing them apart. As was previously introduced in this course, the term Chicano at one point in time was considered to be derogatory for some individuals, while others felt pride at being considered a Chicano. The complexities of identity make themselves present within the border identities of youths and the integration and intertwining of various factors of identity to create cultures that integrate aspects of both Mexican culture as well as those of the United States. As the textbook states, Moreover, the sociocultural webs unique to the geopolitical borderlands shape the cultures teenage Latinas/os create. Cultures, in all of its colors and variations, helps to represent, define and explain who they are (88). While a notion or tradition may be present in the culture of Mexico, a contrast is created with the American culture. Further reading illustrates, Thus, teens create youth cultures according to their subaltern status in the U.S. borderlands. Mexicana/o and Chicana/o youth cultures distance themselves from each other to integrating music, pop culture, clothing, customs, and languages in an effort to occupy a specific location on the cultural continuum of Mexicanness (88).