Urban Youth Culture and Border Identity

[Name of InstitutionUrban Youth Culture and Border Identity

Introduction

The border from Brownsville, Texas and Matamoros, Tamaulipas is one of several borders of the two countries of Mexico and the United States. Living in a border is a contrast of cultures, attitudes, government, economy, and different perceptions of life. It is also a constant awareness that Mexicans living in the borders of both Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants are groups that deserve our attention decipher know his identity. Especially Mexican Americans are a group that is difficult to identify by the fusion of two cultures that often absorb. These issues have been a subject of interest for researchers and Cynthia Bejarano also discusses it in her book “Que´ onda: Urban youth culture and border identity”. They reveal problems, advantages, disadvantages, differences, and interaction between the two groups.

Discussion

Identity Experiences

Identity is an important part of being human, which makes us recognize who we are and where we come from. The Mexican American border is in a situation where you can not only identify as Mexican or Anglo culture only. The geographical position and its hybrid culture, the Mexican American is neither Mexican nor Anglo: he is a mongrel of the two cultures that want to be accepted and be part of the two cultures. It is a border that merges the two cultures and the citizen makes a person more open to thinking one way and lead his life (Chavira-Prado, 1994). The legal nationality, having been born in Mexico, had no relevance in both sides of the border; the identity was based on being an Indian or Latino and proceeds in a given community. But that all changed with the start of mass migration of refugees. Being one side or and gave the other important differences rights and duties. Being a refugee, being Indian was significant, especially against a Mexican, whether Indian, migrant or native. The traditional bases of identity: community, language, region, and now changed are others: the migratory status, the camp, the legal nationality and language (native and Spanish).

The inhabitants of the northern Mexico border are luminal beings who are “Far from the center and near the border.” Individuals living in border periphery and face daily to difference and otherness (Chavira-Prado, 1994). They are subject interacting between two countries live in one, while in the other working or study; transiting “freely” between communities that share a border, and manage to transcend it. They are subject to transgress the limit and make it performance space from which to build a peripheral identity, as the border, according Shuddabrata Sengupta, “is a show, a performance that has been refined over decades of maturation of hostilities “(2002).

Factors Influence Identity Development for Latinos

Economic interaction of the countries has a huge impact on how they relate. A problem at the border and especially throughout the United States is discrimination against Mexican Americans. The researchers give reasons that are clearly explained by their social, economic, and cultural. The attitude expressed by ...