Who Am I?

2 additions to document , most recent 11 months ago

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Jan-16-25	Wording change
Jan-16-25	Wording change

2 changes, most recent 11 months ago

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The United States is a product of combining cultures, as the term “melting pot” implies. For Sonya Sotomayor, the states were a place to escape poverty and destruction during World War II. With countless cultures and ideologies fleeing and mixing in one place, it may be easy to lose cultural habits that define families and individuals. Through personal anecdotes, effective credibility, and cause-and-effect organization, Ms. Sotomayor explains how she maintained her culture and remembers who she is in a “color-blind” society.

Sotomayor uses a few personal anecdotes to relate to the crowd in the sense of identity. “Who am I?” she asks in the first sentence of her speech. This is a question people ask themselves every day. She goes to answer the question through the lens of her culture. Is she her ancestors? Is she the food she eats? Is she the traditions upheld by her Puerto Rican family? The reader is then forced to think back to the main question: Who am I? These things don’t tell us who she is. This is a common roadblock for people struggling with their cultural identity. She addresses this with her next question: “Now, does any one of these things make me Latina?” The answer is no. No blanket statement or tradition within a culture can define someone. Through these questions, she identifies the struggles of answering and maintaining her culture.

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Pursuing the idea that someone is made by their culture, she establishes credibility to showcase her knowledge of Puerto Rican culture. She states that a special part of her culture is the food she eats by listing her favorite dishes. She uses strong descriptions to build ethos and pathos that evoke a sensory experience for the audience. Her rare taste gives her credibility amongst the audience because, generally, taboo likings imply that you have experience in something. For example, I wouldn’t be able to say that my favorite song from an artist I don’t listen to is one that nobody knows of. I would say that my favorite song is the most popular. Furthermore, she recounts her experience of Puerto Rican traditions through her childhood. Playing Latino games and watching Spanish comedians exemplify her knowledge and credibility of her culture. This is important in identifying who she is because it shows that she is well-versed. That should be enough. Nonetheless, she still has questions about what these things mean for her. She is more than the games she plays, the food she eats, and the shows she watches. Her position as a Latina judge influences the credibility that she holds during this speech. Being an educated woman who has faced difficulties throughout her life helps the audience to relate to her struggles. Her open-ended thesis of "Who Am I?" carried weight for the audience during this pivotal moment in their lives and her credibility allows her point to get across more fluently.

Weighing all the factors that make her who she is, she dives into the complexities of acculturation in America by cause-and-effect organization. She explains that although America emphasizes the importance of cultural diversity, it also emphasizes a color-blind nature that is seen as progressive but harmful. The beauty of cultural diversity is that our differences are celebrated. It is known that diversity makes the United States what it is, but it is normalized to culturally assimilate and see everyone as the same. Although color doesn’t make someone who they are, the color represents “richness to existence”. Her “cause” being the American propensity to block out differences leads to her initial question: “Who am I?” She utilizes this format to show the problem and how it led to her questioning her identity. This format allows people to view culture differently than they may have before, and maybe treat the melting pot of America more like a salad bowl.

DMU Timestamp: December 23, 2024 22:19