Biculturalism and Birealism

PART I: VILLANUEVA AND THE NEW SENSE OF SELF

In his book, Villanueva wrote about what it is like to be a Puerto Rican, a Latino, A Hispanic and a Chicano all at the same time. He uses many common terms among Latinos and Hispanics, but, from my point of view, I was personally not exposed to any new terms while reading part of his book. However, one of the things that I saw was that often than not, he had to clarify on many terms because some of them have one or more meanings and he needed to ensure that he was getting his point across using the correct term, with its correct meaning.

One of the words that stood out to me while reading part of his book was the term biculturalism. Villanueva describes biculturalism as “the tensions within, which are caused by being unable to deny the old or the new” (Villanueva 39). According to him, the “idea” of a bicultural society or human being in which both cultures are easily blended is nothing but an “ideal” because there will always be a battle between both cultures, there will always be a battle for not knowing who or what you are (Villanueva 39).

 I have to say that his definition of the term makes sense, but I do not believe that what he sees in biculturalism is the same as what I see. I personally believe that your ability to be a part of both cultures is not something that is inborn and it needs to be mastered, and when mastered there just shouldn’t be any problems with not knowing who or what you are. Anyways I just wanted to give my perspective on the term, now to the real stuff.

How could I use this term for my future assignments? Well, perhaps I will not be able to use the exact term, but I would say, that from Villanueva’s definition of biculturalism we can conclude that the term biculturalism resembles the idea of a hybrid. If I remember correctly, from the definition agreed in class, a hybrid reality is possible whenever one is not able to clearly define between real life and virtual life, pretty much between the old and the new just as Villanueva pictures biculturalism. Perhaps the ability to be bicultural and to live in a birealistic world is not an inborn ability. But I surely hope that eventually there will be a time in this “hybrid world” in which people will be able to master the art of biculturalism and “birealism” and will know exactly who they are, what they are and of course, where they are as well.

PART II: TEST QUESTIONS

Multiple Choice Question

According to Nakamura in Menu Driven Identities, what does it mean if a race has no box and if it can’t be clicked on? For example, if you try to say that you are Mexican American but this is not one of the options.

a.       It means that Mexican Americans do exists, but are simply less important than the other races that have a box

b.      It means that the company behind the menu does not acknowledges that Mexican Americans are important too

c.       It means that if it has no box, then functionally, it can't exist (CORRECT ANSWER).

d.      It means that the web developers behind the menu forgot to include Mexican Americans because they are not Mexican American themselves

True or False Question

In Menu Driven Identities, Nakamura compares the narrowing down of identity options to a decision tree (TRUE).

References:

Villanueva, Victor. Bootstraps: From an American Academic of Color. Urbana, IL: NCTE, 1993. 34-50. Print.