Abstract
This thesis tries to prove that identity is not an accomplished fact. It is an ever developing and evolving concept. The thesis begins with the construction of the varied and interacted definitions of identity. Then it portrays the identity of immigrants in the United States of America specially Mexican immigrants through their cultural encounter with the new society. It gives a brief history of them and highlights the factors that force them to leave their homes to inhabit new society. The thesis attempts to answer these questions: Are Mexicans considered as a minority or not? How do they perceive themselves and the others? It is an attempt to give a new interpretation to one of the most famous Mexican immigrant poets, Jimmy Santiago Baca. The thesis portrays the journey that Baca, as an ex prisoner, makes until he finds the answers about himself and the others. In his poetic volumes, he raises many questions such as: how Mexican identity is formulated and where do they belong? Are they Mexicans, Americans, in between or both? He does not only try to remind Mexicans about their original identities and how they become different when they immigrated to a different society like the United States of America, but he also tries to help the new generations who grow up in this different country to understand who they really are. Thus, a generation becomes unconsciously trapped between two different cultures with two different motherlands
|
