Spanish Paper *Creativity Required*
You will have to make it all up if you dont have a story or someone to interview.
This assignment will have three parts.
• In the first part you will be interviewing someone you know who is a native of a Spanish-speaking country, an immigrant who lives in the US.
• In the second part, you will read personal stories of immigrants and will express your reflections on their experiences.
• In the third part, you will offer your opinion about Arizona’s Immigration Law and your final thoughts on what you have learned from this activity about Latino(a) immigration to the US.
Part 1
The person you will interview will serve as a resource for information about some aspect(s) of his/her home country’s culture as well as the process of immigration. If you feel that a person is not willing to discuss his/her immigration story, please, abandon this topic, but report this in your paper and offer you thoughts why he/she might feel this way. You may choose any cultural aspects about which this person is particularly knowledgeable or an area in which they have experiences they want to share with you. For example, in addition to the discussion of the immigration story(ies), your interview and paper might address one of the following issues:
• Typical foods of the country
• Music/dance/festivals
• Religious practices
• Arts/crafts
Alternatively, the person may simply describe a typical day in his/her life in that country (home/family life, work life, food, etc.) or describe a family holiday celebration. Everyday life practices are also a very important part of a culture, and this person can serve as a window into the lifestyle of that country, as well as shedding light on the reasons for the decision to immigrate to the US. One possible way to initiate a conversation is to ask the person what struck them as so different about the US when they arrived here. This may help to highlight aspects of their own culture they may miss or may have taken for granted.
Preliminaries: Select an adult who was born and raised in any Spanish-speaking country. Invite this person to participate in this project with you, and tell him/her that you will use a pseudonym (a false name) to protect his/her identity. The person you interview should also be advised that s/he can end the interview at any time if s/he does not want to participate in your project, and may refuse to answer a question s/he is not comfortable with. For ethical considerations, it is important that this interview is voluntary and that the person agrees to participate. Conduct an interview (or a series of interviews) with this individual. Be sure to take notes during the interview as the information this person presents will be the basis for your paper.
This part of your paper should include the following elements:
1 A brief description of the person (city/town/country this person is from, age, gender, number of years living in US, extent of continuing contact/trips to native country, etc.).
2 A brief description of the topic of focus and the reason why you chose this topic with this person.
3 The information you have gained from this person on the chosen topic. What did this person tell you about? Recount the content of your interview. (You may want to include short direct quotes from the interview where appropriate.)
Part 2
Please, read at least 3 personal stories from these websites:
• The American Prospect: The Undocumented American Dream
• My Immigration Story: The story of U.S. immigrants in their own words
Then, based on the stories you read, respond to these questions:
1 What did you learn from the personal stories you read and the interview you conducted?
2 As a person who studies a foreign language, what do you think about immigrants who do not learn English immediately? Imagine that you are in line at a post office and you are in a hurry. A person who is before you does not speak English well, and you need to wait a longer time. How would you feel?
3 If you lived in a Spanish-speaking country, what problems do you think you would face due to the fact that your Spanish is not perfect?
Part 3
Please read these articles related to Arizona’s immigration law:
• New York Times: Arizona Enacts Stringent Law on Immigration (Apr. 2010)
• Los Angeles Times: Read for yourself: The full text of Arizona’s controversial illegal immigrant law (May 2010)
• Los Angeles Times: U.S. judge dismisses challenge of Arizona’s SB 1070 immigration law (Sept. 2015)
• New York Times: Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona Shifts Focus From Immigration Debate (Feb. 2016)
Based on the articles, respond to the following questions:
1 What is your opinion about Arizona’s law of immigration? How do you think it would affect Hispanics, who live on a territory of this State? Do you think your opinion is influenced by learning, which took place, while you completed first two parts of this assignment? If so, please, explain how.
2 How does this law, in your opinion, respond to the reality of globalization? We will follow David Held’s influential definition of globalization as “the intensification of worldwide social relations, which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by event occurring many miles away” (Democracy and the Global Order).
Final thoughts
At the end of your paper, please offer your own reflections on the following questions
• What did you discover about the life of immigrants from Spanish-speaking countries?
• Did this activity change your attitude towards immigrants. If so, how?
Sources
You need to have consulted a minimum of 3 sources for this project. Remember, whenever you use resources (including books, journal articles, newspaper or magazine articles, websites, class discussion websites, and more), you must document them in accordance with the MLA style and policies on academic integrity and plagiarism.
See MLA—Citing Your Sources for help with documentation.
Length of Assignment
Your completed assignment should be approximately 4-6 pages (not counting title page, double spaced, font size 12) or 1300-1700 words.
