Moving from the city to a suburb is hard for a regular american teen, but moving to a whole new country, feels impossible for a newly immigrated latina teen to be successful in their new country. Some facts about this issue is that “hispanics is the least educated group in the united states. More than one-fourth of hispanic adults have less than a ninth grade education. Hispanics having the lowest rates of high school and college degrees, messes with their chances for a good job and a successful life” (Barriers to Educational Opportunities for Hispanics in the United States). Factors that make it hard for teen latina immigrants to become successful in America are that the latinas teens parents may need their daughter to stay and help around at the family house, and that it’s hard for them to go to an American school when they don’t even know english, and have to do school work in english.
Latino families that have just immigrated to America may need their teen daughter to stay at home, and help out around the house instead of getting an education and leaving the home for college. Sandra Cisneros is a latina women who went through the hardship of being from a family who immigrated to the United States, but overcame all the hardships she had and become successful in life. She is a recipient of many awards and author of two majorly sold novels, The House On Mango Street and Caramelop.
In the introduction of her book “The House on Mango Street”, she describes how it was hard on her family for her to leave the family house to go to college, then leave it again when she came back. “Now she summoned her courage and told her father she wanted to live alone again, like she did when she was away at school. He looked at her with that eye of the rooster before it attacks, but she wasn’t alarmed…the father decided too much college and too many gringo friends had ruined her. When she thinks to herself in her father’s language, she knows sons and daughters don’t leave their parents’ house until they marry.
127 our experts are availableright now
When she thinks in English, she knows she should’ve been on her own since 18.” (xii) What this is saying is that hispanic families, most of the time, take family over everything. In this situation, Sandra loves her family but want to live on her own and try to make it as a writer in the world. But, her father wants her to stay at home, help out around the house, and live in the house until she marries so she doesn’t have to live on her own. Latino families have a strong family bond, and when the daughter of the family is leaving for college or any type of school, the family may still need them around the house and it’s hard for the family to let them go.
These kinda story happens all around the US and the world. The story of the latina women staying home, helping out around the house then marrying, or the story of the latina women leaving home and becoming a successful independent women. In the podcast with Tanya Saracho, she talks about her life of trying to stay in school in Texas with her mom rather than in Spain with her dad. She makes the final decision late in highschool to stay in Texas and she becomes a successful playwright and tv show writer, writing “VIda” and “Nothing Like The Holidays”.
In the podcast, Tanya Saracho mainly talks about how she came about and wrote “Vida”, but she also talked about how it was hard for her to decide which family member to leave and which one to leave behind. She ended up staying in America with her mom, but leaving her dads house in Spain for good was a very hard thing for her dad and herself. This explains that it was hard for her to leave one side of the family to pursue success in America. It’s hard for hispanics to leave their families and get an education.
Being a young teen who immigrated from a hispanic country to America makes it hard for the latina teen to prosper in school because they don’t know english well, and they aren’t used to the american schooling system, especially doing it in english. In “Hispanic Girls Face Special Barriers on Road to College” by Katherine Leal Unmuth, this article talks about all the problems latina’s face with education in the United States.
“But like many young Latinas, she faces a host of challenges in the coming years, as she works to graduate from high school, go on to community college, and then enroll in a four-year institution. Sanchez moved from Mexico when she was 9 years old and enrolled in the 156,000-student Dallas Independent School District. After taking bilingual classes taught in Spanish and English, she found the transition to all-English classes in middle school difficult.” This explains to us first hand that it was hard for Sanchez to do classes in english to be difficult for her.
It’s hard for the latina teen to become successful in school in America when they don’t know english and these two stories are right from latina women who experience it. In the podcast, Tanya talks about how hard it was for her to go back and forth from Spain to America and adjusting to the different schooling systems. She says that trying to become successful in her american school was hard for her because she didn’t know english well and didn’t have a lot of help. This shows that it was hard for Tanya to be successful in school in America.
In conclusion, immigration from a hispanic country during a girls teen life to America makes it hard to get an education and leave their family home.
