Translate

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Mexican American Selena: It can be exhausting to be Mexican American




A student of mine in my Race & Ethnic Relations class this evening shared this scene from the movie, "Selena."  I must have seen this last when the movie first came out 20 years ago in 1997, starring Jennifer López.

After viewing it, I said, "This short segment is what totally made this movie for me." 

It conveys the difficulties of being Mexican and American, marginal in two worlds.

Movies and stories like this that express our truths are liberating, to say the least.

This one segment should find its way into every Ethnic Studies classroom in the nation.

We should also demand for bilingual education as a new default in public education—less because our languages are a resource and more because they are our right—a right that aligns to our original claim to the lands where we currently live—and from which our ancestors never departed—as Mexican Americans in the U.S.


Peace/Paz,


Angela Valenzuela

c/s


No comments:

Post a Comment