“Blaxicans” and Other Reinvented Americans
- Pages: 2
- Word count: 308
- Category: America Culture Race and Ethnicity
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Order NowIn Richard Rodriguez’s essay “’Blaxicans’ and Other Reinvented Americans,” he states that people can choose to identify themselves with a culture rather than a race because they cultures don’t describe the way someone looks; they describe the way they live and act. Rodriguez claims that Americans as a whole only consider race to be a black and white conversation. There are five racial categories that classify people. The groups are white, black, Asian, American Indian/Eskimo, and Hispanic. The problem with these groups is that it limits people to be classified into one group, but what about the people that don’t fit into any of the categories? According to Rodriguez, you will never find a Hispanic in Latin America. Hispanic is not a racial category, but more of an ethnic or cultural term. Typically, Americans think of our society as multicultural, but Rodriguez proposes a new way to view our society, which is through the concept of the mestizaje, which means blending together by blood. A model state of the mestizaje society is California.
Citizens in California have history beginning with the Gold Rush in the 19th century, which brought many different cultures and races of people blended together. At a conference he met a woman with parents of different cultures, Mexican and African, who changed her culture by claiming herself as a “Blaxican.” By saying that she was a “blaxican,” she changed what Americans believe to be normal and combined two races into one. The overall point that Rodriguez was trying to get across with his essay was that anyone could be apart of any culture, despite his or her looks. Even though he is considered a “Hispanic” in Americans eyes, he claims that “…[he is] Chinese, and that is because [he] live[s] in a Chinese city and because [he] want[s] to be Chinese” (409).
