Essay On Mericans By Sandra Cisneros

The writers Dwight Okita and Sandra Cisneros were very obviously influenced by many aspects of American culture. Both "In Response to Executive Order 9066" and "Mericans" authors Dwight Okita and Sandra Cisneros provide the topic of American identity and what it means to be an American. In Okita's poem, American identity is more about how one experiences culture than it is about where someone comes from. Both the poem by Okita and the short story by Cisneros display that one’s physical appearances, as well as cultural heritage, do not determine what it means to be an American.

Hundreds of thousands of people were interned at this time because America had recently joined the allies in fighting World War II against the axis powers, including Japan. The young narrators’ best friend Denise one day turned on her saying “You’re trying to
On the second page of Cisneros’s short story, “Mericans” A lady form out of town asks for a photo in Spanish and is surprised when they speak English, saying “‘But you speak English!’” to which the brother replies “‘Yeah,’… ‘we’re Mericans’” (Paragraphs 23-24). Many have believed for so long that simply if you look different, or ‘foreign’ you can only have that one culture, no matter who you are or where you’re from. Cisneros talks about the members of the family, with deep regard to race and skin color, such as “Auntie Light-skin, who only a few hours before was breakfasting on brain and goat tacos after dancing all night in the pink zone” or about “Uncle Fat-face, the blackest of the black sheep” (Paragraph 2). Her observations heavily contrast the deep Mexican roots of the rest of their family, such as the as she notices and thinks about race more heavily than anyone else in the family. This shows that even if someone has grown up in a very strong foreign background, and or home life, an individual can always be a true