Vicki Ruiz makes some really interesting observations in her article, “’Star Struck’: Acculturation, Adolescence, and Mexican American Women, 1920-1950”. She attempts to examine how Americanization “influenced a generation of Mexican women coming of age” during the 20s through the 50s (363). Most of the article emphasizes the war between staying Mexican and becoming American.
One of the main points she brings up is how Mexicans as a whole had to live this kind of double life. There was a pressure for them to “walk in two worlds” (364). They had to prove that they were American to the Americans while at the same time proving that they were still Mexican to the Mexicans. I found this interesting because this is a feeling that hasn’t really gone away for Mexicans (and other Hispanic/Latinos). There’s a movie that came out in 1997, starring Jennifer Lopez, called Selena. In the film she brings the famous Mexican Tejano singer back to life. There’s a famous quote in the film where Selena’s father is lecturing her about being Mexican American. He says, “We have to be more Mexican than the Mexicans and more American than the Americans, both at the same time! It’s exhausting” (Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUZ5Yhwzz80 ).
By coming to America, women (especially young women) were able to participate in a freedom they hadn’t experienced before, through work. One woman describes America as a place were women are treated like humans (373). This could be a narrative for most women of all races that we’ve learned about. The feeling of having earned their own money gave women power. Though most Mexican women experienced this freedom, the article explains that most of the money was immediately included towards the family income. Furthermore, if a Mexican woman wanted to keep her money, the only option to do so was to move away from her family and find her own place. I like this observation she makes because it shows the conflicting sides of growing up as a Mexican woman in America. To be American meant having the ability to spend your own money but being Mexican meant that you had to share. By choosing one over the other is almost like throwing away your future or throwing away your heritage.
The use of consumerism and its contribution to the Americanization of Mexican women was something I had not thought about before. She starts off by explaining how there was a great desire for mobility amongst the Mexicans in the United States. This is something that the consumer world picked up and ran away with. Through film, radio and magazines women were able to gossip about the biggest stars and digest the newest fashion and make-up tips that gave the illusion of upward mobility. Even magazines written in Spanish were directing young women into this direction. In addition to this, she explained how film shaped the stereotype of the “hot and fiery” Latina; a troupe that continues to live on today (371).
Though the article does well at pointing out interesting observations, I still have some questions. At one point she talks about the middle-class Mexicans and how they wanted their children to marry white people only. What is the break down of the middle-class Mexican? Are they comprised of only white Mexicans or are there black middle-class Mexicans too? What’s the reaction from the white middle-class to the Mexican middle-class. When she brings up the way women had to watched the way they dressed, where does this come from? Does it come from the religious culture or is this a way to distinguish themselves from other Americans? Is this a result of their feeling of being constantly observed by other Americans? As a general question, the fear of deportation was brought up near the end of the article. In regards to the way people react to immigrants and immigration policy today, have America and the American people changed?
-Alisha Rivera