Theme of Assimilation in Richard Rodriguez’s: ‘Blaxicans and other Reinvented Americans’

            The concept of immigration in America and the way in which it has changed over years are the few key issues that Richard Rodriguez focuses upon, in his essay titled “‘Blaxicans’ and Other Reinvented Americans.”  Race in America, Rodriguez says, is not a classification of just color as it has a much larger picture to it, as he goes on to say that “The American conversation about race has always been a black-and-white conversation, but the conversation has become as bloodless as badminton (Rodriguez, p. 88).”  He goes on to state that the racism in America is more about the way culture difference and environmental variation constitute an individual. 

Rodriguez feels that ethnicity has no connection to race as he feels that an individual can actually choose his/her ethnicity depending on the manner in which they wish to act and on also on the basis of various aspects of life that they highly value. Rodriguez recollects an incident of his own life, when living in a Chinese locality. When he first moved into that neighborhood, he felt that the colors to be conflicting and everything looked highly odd and unaccustomed.

With the passage of time, however, he accustomed himself with the differences that existed in his neighborhood and he actually started liking the Chinese people.  At one point in his article, he recollects one of his interviews wherein he was questioned about his ethnicity.  His reply to that question was “I am a Chinese and this is because, I live in a Chinese city and because I want to be Chinese (Rodriguez, p. 92).”  This is the definition that Rodriguez offers for ethnicity.

Assimilation is one important point that supports his definition of ethnicity.  The notion of assimilation is actually something wherein an individual tries to integrate with the Americans so that they will eradicate all sorts of racial differences that they have in their minds. This can result in numerous cultural issues and is actually perceived as something that is highly impertinent.

One relevant example that Rodriguez provides to support this is about a girl calling herself as being a “Blaxican” because she was born to a Mexican mother and an African father.  According to Rodriguez, “By reinventing language, she is reinventing America (Rodriguez, p. 92).”  This situation related to race and immigration points towards a very crucial aspect about how America should respond and act in relation to ethnicity, and how people have the freedom to choose their own culture and the way they want to be referred to as.

Even while in college, he claimed to have labelled himself as being a Hispanic.  He states that people of Latin American origin do not refer themselves as Hispanics, as it is a word that the Americans use to define some people. However, Rodriguez strongly believes that there is nothing as such called a Hispanic race, as Hispanic is a term used to refer to a particular ethnicity. Labelling an individual as being Hispanic explains the way that individual leads his/her life and the culture to which that particular individual belongs. Rodriguez says, “I am in favor of assimilation. I am not in favor of assimilation. I recognize assimilation (Rodriguez, p. 91).”  By stating so, he says that he agrees to the developments that are taking place in America with respect to culture. 

Rodriguez articulates that assimilation is a natural phenomenon that takes place. He refers to a particular story to explain this natural process of assimilation, in which Laotian people and the Mexicans live closely with one another, while they do not like each other. In one of his interactions with a few Laotian kids, “the Laotian kids were complaining a lot about Mexicans, but when I suddenly realized that she was speaking in English with a Mexican accent (Rodriguez, p. 92).”   Through this, it is clear that despite not liking the other race with which they were living, the races surely have an impact on each other, without even having the knowledge of anything as such happening in their lives. 

Even though communities can offer high degree of stability, they often cannot and there is actually is no way out to avoid this kind of influence. The point that Rodriguez makes in this context is that different people perceive their own lives differently, even when they are present in similar kind of situations.  Precisely, perceptions of life differ from one person to another, irrespective of them being in same circumstances.

While Rodriguez is not totally either in favor of or against assimilation, and while he is also not trying to change anything that is happening in the American society in relation to assimilation, he has learnt to accept it and live with it. He, however states that, racial and ethnic distinctions are no longer a big issue for anyone in America, and that differences are slowly becoming part of the daily lives of everyone living in America and they are no longer perceived to be a great deal in themselves.

Even though people and cultures are distinct and unique in nature, they tend to unite and blend at some point. Rodriguez states that “Culture is fluid. Culture is smoke. You breathe it. You eat it (Rodriguez, p. 91).” Assimilation is something that naturally takes place with the passage of time.  However, it is neither good nor bad; it needs to be just acknowledged.

In a particular community, when factors like actions and interests, which tend to change constantly become the determinants of the community formation and when things like race and ethnicity, which are constant do not have much role to place, then such a community offers nothing but ‘change.’  Through this articulation, Rodriguez points to the fact that people these days are readily accepting the unfamiliar now and this was not the case in the past.

The crux of Rodriguez’s essay is that cultural boundaries have started fading away slowly.  As the number of immigrants to America is increasing, more and more cultures have started to blend with each other and are ultimately becoming into a universal one. America, which was earlier being identified as being a black and white nation, today is no longer being determined like this as there are more and more people migrating to America.

This is aptly applicable to the subject of education and allowing in-state tuition to the undocumented immigrants, which is currently permitted in just 11 states of America.  Having such a provision has dual benefits, while it reduces the access barriers to education, it also reduces the burden on the immigrant families in offering quality education to their children.  The ultimate stance that Rodriguez takes is that, today people living in American are actually living in a society that is filled with diversity and high level of cultural influences, and there are numerous cultural influences that are shaping the current generation of people living in America.  Cultural boundaries today are slowly fading away.  Hence, Rodriguez strongly feels that one cannot and should not be judging people of a different race or culture. 

Works Cited

Rodriguez, Richard. "'Blaxicans' and Other Reinvented Americans." Stanford, Judith. Now and Then: Current Issues in Historical Context. New York: NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2006. 97-93. Print.