Immigration Project Reflection

To start off the immigration project, we chose a literature book that had to do with kids our age or older and their stories about immigration and how the American culture effected them. The book I chose to read was called Once Upon a Quinceanera by Julia Alvarez. The book talks about many teen girls preparing for a Quince and the struggles they have to deal with. But before they can start preparing for one, most of them immigrated to America. At first, it was very new for them. But once they started hanging out around different people, they got influenced by American culture. They dressed differently and their personalities were changing too. I was glad to have the chance to read the book because I never really understood the hardships that an immigrant had to go through when coming to America. And also, that we influenced them so much that they started to forget about what their culture was. There were three other girls reading the same book as I was. Over our blogs, we got to discuss our feelings of the book. We mainly felt the same about the book and how we could see the American culture seeping into the girls.

Another part of the project was that we were required to design an art piece that connected to our book. I chose to do a re-make of the book cover. I made the background of the last dress pink. Pink was the traditional color for a girl to wear when she turned fifteen. But when most of the girls started coming to America. The dresses were either white or really light blue. I think that many people would be able to tell what the connection is between the book and the cover that I made. I chose to make my dress a copy off of on of Andy Warhol’s piece. He is a Pop Artist which I thought related to the book. Most of the immigrants were changing their personalities and doing what they thought was “popular” and what everyone else was doing in America. When people look at my painting, I want them to be able to tell what the painting is describing. I also want them to want to read the book because they think that the cover is so significant to the book. I liked being able to create an Artist Statement to go along with my piece because I was able to describe what my feelings were while I was re-making the cover. And for people to understand why I chose to pain what I did. My other choice to paint was a crown, which would have represented the final product of the Quinceanera. Meaning, the girls had to go through so much to just be able to have a Quince. For example, some of the girls parents were struggling with money, but it is a tradition that the girls have a Quinceanera so they had to keep it running. But I am glad that I decided to do the four dresses instead.

Last but not least, we were able to interview and immigrant and their process of immigration. I got the opportunity to interview a woman from Venezuela. She told me the reason why she immigrated and how she felt. She said that she was excited to immigrate because she had heard a lot about America. I found interviewing her a fun part of the project because it was really interesting being able to hear her story and how she felt. Since I was born in America, I wouldn’t know how it would be to immigrate. I think being required to interview out person was a good part of the project. I also liked that it was split up into three different interviews. The first one was so you could introduce yourself. The second one was to get the questions going. And the third was an in person interview so that way we could get more in depth of our persons story. Throughout interviewing her, I learned that not all people immigrated to America because their country was bad. Because she described to me that Venezuela wasn’t bad at all. It was just that her husband had gotten a Job in France and then she had moved to America.

Lit Circle 5: Once Upon a Quinceanera

.:Quote 1:. " The impassioned son of my friend's story could not help himself, and, weeping apologetically, he pulled out a knife and tore out his mothers heart. As he was running furiouslly back towards his mistresse's house, he stumbled and fell, and the heart slipped from his hands." page 176 - Julia Alvarez

.:Significance:. This quote relates to the question; what hardships do the charecters endure as they make a new life? I know this kid has probablly been with this mistresse for a while but this must have been a really hard thing for him. It must of been really hard for him because he had to prove to two women that he loved them both; his mother and the mistresse. But I guess he loved her more then his mom which is really hard to beleive. Depending on how his mom treated him. But anyways, It shows that he loves the mistresse so much that he would rip out his mothers heart.

.:Charecter Judgment:. I am going to talk about the mistresse. Could she possibly be that jelouse of his love for his mother? I think that was a very foolish thing for her to tell him to do that.

.:Question 1:. Would you ever do this to your mom if your true love had told you to? Even if it meant losing them forever? Why or why not?

.:Quote 2:. "No one learns in somebody else's head. But over time I believe generational wisdom does trickle down."

.:Significance:. This quote relates to the question; What was the journey like coming to America. It relates to this quote because when they came to America, they had many things to learn and yet made many mistakes.

.:Personal Connection:. I have a personal connection with this quote. My mom is always telling me of the mistakes that she had and uses it as a lesson to teach me what and what not to do. So mistakes do move down generations as lessons.

.:Question 2:. Have you made a mistake that you hope other people can learn from? What is a mistake that someone else did and you learned from?