"Brian O'Brian
Silence is Golden
Brian Stepanek, better known as Arwin from 'The Suite Life of Zack and Cody', stars in the new short comedy series 'Brian O'Brian.' He plays a clever, problem-solving guy who turns everyday events into comedy mishaps. Whether it is trying to swim at the pool, or mocking the opera singer, Brian O'Brian will have you LOL. Each episode is silent, but just watching the crazy physical comedy is enough to keep you entertained. Catch it on Disney Channel."
--- Quoted from the site itself.
My comments:
How fucking stupid. This show is a waste of time and it is NOT comical at all. Some witty advertisement as a replacement should be considered. Seriously. There's sense of humor and then there's this. This is obviously entertaining to those who lack sense of humor. I watched about 2-3 episodes of this and I could swear I had an "angry frown" on my face the whole time. What's the world coming to? Come on. Do something about it.
Random Rambling Rants
- Laayla
- Houston, Texas, United States
- I'm Laayla. I ramble. I rant. I question. I complain... and sometimes I happen to enlighten.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Monday, November 17, 2008
Chavez; Mexican Immigrants
Laayla Muhammad
November 11, 2008
Anthropology 104
Rites of Passage
November 11, 2008
Anthropology 104
Rites of Passage
1. There are millions of immigrants illegally entering the United States on a daily basis, with many of them being undocumented. Some choose to stay in the U.S. for a short period of time and are known as migrants, while settlers are immigrants that choose to reside permanently. Specifically, Mexican immigration has become a concerning matter with many people not having the knowledge of the experiences of the immigrants. In Shadowed Lives: Undocumented Immigrants in American Society by Leo R. Chavez, Rites of Passage may reveal the “importance of the transitions individuals undergo as they pass from group to group and from one social status to another” (Chavez 1998; 4) yet the transformation of the individuals come to a halt when some struggle in completing all three phases. Crossing the border comes along with complex components, with certain rituals and proceedings that these individuals suddenly become involved with. With new statuses, they also obtain more responsibilities and rights, giving them the option to make a tighter grip around their firm decisions. I will be explaining the three phases that these individuals pass through: “separation from the known social group or society, transition (the “liminal” phase), and incorporation into the new social group or society” (Chavez 1998; 4-5). The analysis of these phases is significant in figuring out why undocumented immigrants choose to behave the way they do and carry on a certain lifestyle that may seem too strange to relate to at first. I will reveal how Chavez uses these three phases to interpret the experiences of the undocumented migrants as they go move from Mexico to San Diego County. Along with revealing the pattern of this model, I will also elaborate on how there is a personal choice for these migrants to either change and prepare themselves for stage or remain the way they are for various reasons, proving the rites of passages to be insufficient at times.
It is important to notice that these undocumented migrants sometimes are unable to carry out all three phases of the passage. For example, most migrants remain as migrants because eventually, they return to Mexico after making a small yet sufficient earning for that period of time in San Diego County. There are reasons such as facing obstacles through the last phase, incorporation, due to fear of getting caught by lawful authorities for being illegal aliens, and being sent home when they are not ready to return. Therefore, they are stuck at the liminal phase, unable to successfully transit through and blend in with the “American society” in the way they eat, dress, work, talk, behave, and so on. Knowing this, one should realize that, “In most rites of passage, incorporation occurs when the participant acquires the appropriate knowledge, experiences, and behaviors, then successfully completes the proper rituals” (Chavez 1998; 5). This phase for undocumented immigrants may include rituals such as appointments to become legal, having enough knowledge to understand the personal rights and even the money to hire a lawyer for obtaining legal residency and not be taken advantage of. Some of the other reasons lay in the fact that most of these undocumented migrants are unable to complete transition and incorporate themselves with the bigger society because they are unable to achieve “secure employment, family formation, the establishment of credit, capital accumulation, competency in English” (Chavez 1998; 5) and therefore, fail to alter their status to becoming settlers in the Unites States.
The first phase, separation, involves various complex decisions that these migrants make, putting them in a situation where they feel as if they have to separate themselves from the environment they are well familiar with and have lived most of their lives in, and move to a strange land up north in order to perhaps change their lives completely. Beatriz and Enrique Valenzuela, a couple that live southeast of downtown San Diego, share their experiences openly with Chavez about their migration. Beatriz admits, “I was afraid because I never had left home before. So when I was on my way here, I was very afraid. All the way from Manzanillo to Tijuana I cried—the whole way” (Chavez 1998; 25). These individuals not only separate themselves from the land they are familiar with, but from their friends, family, even old occupations that they are not satisfied with, and the whole community that holds the customs they are part of. But why? Why do they really want to move to the United States and why do they think that notion should be acted upon? The true reasons lay behind the fact that most of the time, Mexicans notice that “employers sometimes lure workers to the United States,” (Chavez 1998; 25) and that friends and other relatives return and tell great stories about living conditions in San Diego. As an immigrant myself, my family was motivated to come to the United States to provide great career opportunities through a better educational system for all their children. As I read about the rites of passage, I too become familiar with the feelings of these undocumented migrants and can easily understand the hardship they face and even why some of them fail to incorporate and adjust themselves to the living conditions here in the United States.
Taking risks begin in the first phase, separation, and carry out until some of them finally decide not to incorporate themselves and remain stuck in the transition phase. First of all, individuals who leave their family members back in Mexico have to accept the fact that their families will experience lots of complex problems by “experiencing justifiable anxiety about the potential dangers of the journey” (Chavez 1998; 61). Some migrants never even make it to the border because they are hurt, robbed, raped, and/or killed. Since these individuals carry no sort of identification documents, they are easily taken advantage of with because it is highly unlikely for anyone to find out about them or worry about them. My mother for example had to leave her sick mother in Pakistan so she can she move to the U.S. in order for her children to receive better educational opportunities. Only a few years later, her mother passed away from shock concerning the dangerous our family might face while trying to adjust to the American customs with no other relatives or friends to rely on. Instead I must point out that there are lots of angered and worried citizens of the U.S. that are aware and troubled by Mexican immigration and have impulses to hurt anyone that may be involved in that. From an individual’s experience, he heard someone say, “Let’s shoot some aliens” right before firing a hunting rifle toward a hillside where many undocumented migrants were (Chavez 1998; 61).
After experiencing such difficulties, it may not be hard to realize why incorporating into the larger society may become even a greater challenge for these individuals. Having problems learning the English language might make them feel inferior and feel too challenged to carry on normal lives like the rest. It also may be hard to actually find a decent job, and since these undocumented migrants are illegal, employers take advantage of them and hire them for less than minimum to do the dirty work. These migrants have no choice but to take it or leave it because for one, they cannot report any of this to the authorities and second, someone else might take the job instead. Another reason which I remember mentioning is the fact that they choose not to live in fear all their lives of getting caught. If caught in traffic by a police for simply speeding, they could be going back to Mexico consequently. Fear of upsetting anyone else who might report them to INS might also put them in a situation where they are unable to express their feelings and live in fear instead. Migrants who choose to become citizens of the U.S. legally usually give up when they realize the tremendous amount of paperwork they have to read and understand, the money they will need for processes and lawyers, and the time they will have to wait with unlimited restrictions. All the members of my family were able to obtain their greencards and become permanent legal residents of the U.S. except that it took us thousands of dollars, great amounts of patience, and 12 years. Due to 9/11, our applications were put on hold and there was no progress being made until my mother fell in love with my step father, an American citizen, and therefore such a coincident factor helped our case greatly. The point in bringing such a personal experience is that some Mexican migrants may feel that having spouses that are American citizens is the only way to become residents faster. Having children born in the U.S. pints to the problem of calling a family an “illegal alien family” (Chavez 1998; 131). Finding stable working jobs is also an issue, due to not being able to obtain work permits, driving licenses, valid identification documents, understanding the job’s requirements due to language barriers, and so on. Many undocumented migrants who do find jobs experience abuse, such as an 18 year old El Salvadoran named Julia who worked as a maid and was told to save up her income rather than get paid every week. “According to Julia, the woman of the house said they went bankrupt and fired her” (Chavez 1998; 150). Another example includes a Salvadoran who lived with his wife and “exchanged labor for a place to sleep” (Chavez 1998; 150). Undocumented migrants struggle through unlimited hardships even after migrating to the U.S., making the phase of incorporation unable to achieve and therefore, returning home eventually.
Undocumented individuals go through complex steps in order to either stay as migrants and eventually return to their homeland or become settlers after successfully finishing the separation, transition, and incorporation steps of the rites of passages that Chavez reveals. The model itself cannot depict patterns of migration for all the individuals for there are variety of reasons to not advance to the next phase and thus rejecting transformation. From having various motives to live a better life right back in Mexico or in San Diego, these individuals undergo severe hardship in separating themselves from the familiar and engaging in the unknown. As a settler myself, I was able to successfully incorporate myself into the larger society due to the fact that I had not so strong connections overseas in my homeland and that the English language did not become a factor that I had to struggle with. Using that as a benefit, I was able to use my confidence to obtain a better education than the one I was receiving overseas and as a child, I was easily fascinated and therefore, prepared to alter my lifestyle, the way I dress, talk, and do many things in life. At the end, it comes down to achieving the stages of moving to another country and having the ability to hang on and finish the process or breaking the model and returning home to perhaps try again some day. Yet still, one may wonder about the migrants who may not feel accepted in the American society even after having great resources to live a functional life. Shouldn’t satisfying basic needs become the main priority for the migrants? What’s even more important to wonder is if Mexican immigration remains as a controversial topic due to economic issues or personal issues where racism still occurs? Do the incorporated migrants who have become settlers see Mexican immigration from a view different from economic and political reasons? The “Rites of Passages” and its phases that Chavez elaborates on may justify the transitions some migrants take according to the model in order to become settlers of the U.S., but not all. Therefore, the model is not ideal because personal factors come into play, inevitably making it hard for individuals to incorporate themselves in another society with a different status.
It is important to notice that these undocumented migrants sometimes are unable to carry out all three phases of the passage. For example, most migrants remain as migrants because eventually, they return to Mexico after making a small yet sufficient earning for that period of time in San Diego County. There are reasons such as facing obstacles through the last phase, incorporation, due to fear of getting caught by lawful authorities for being illegal aliens, and being sent home when they are not ready to return. Therefore, they are stuck at the liminal phase, unable to successfully transit through and blend in with the “American society” in the way they eat, dress, work, talk, behave, and so on. Knowing this, one should realize that, “In most rites of passage, incorporation occurs when the participant acquires the appropriate knowledge, experiences, and behaviors, then successfully completes the proper rituals” (Chavez 1998; 5). This phase for undocumented immigrants may include rituals such as appointments to become legal, having enough knowledge to understand the personal rights and even the money to hire a lawyer for obtaining legal residency and not be taken advantage of. Some of the other reasons lay in the fact that most of these undocumented migrants are unable to complete transition and incorporate themselves with the bigger society because they are unable to achieve “secure employment, family formation, the establishment of credit, capital accumulation, competency in English” (Chavez 1998; 5) and therefore, fail to alter their status to becoming settlers in the Unites States.
The first phase, separation, involves various complex decisions that these migrants make, putting them in a situation where they feel as if they have to separate themselves from the environment they are well familiar with and have lived most of their lives in, and move to a strange land up north in order to perhaps change their lives completely. Beatriz and Enrique Valenzuela, a couple that live southeast of downtown San Diego, share their experiences openly with Chavez about their migration. Beatriz admits, “I was afraid because I never had left home before. So when I was on my way here, I was very afraid. All the way from Manzanillo to Tijuana I cried—the whole way” (Chavez 1998; 25). These individuals not only separate themselves from the land they are familiar with, but from their friends, family, even old occupations that they are not satisfied with, and the whole community that holds the customs they are part of. But why? Why do they really want to move to the United States and why do they think that notion should be acted upon? The true reasons lay behind the fact that most of the time, Mexicans notice that “employers sometimes lure workers to the United States,” (Chavez 1998; 25) and that friends and other relatives return and tell great stories about living conditions in San Diego. As an immigrant myself, my family was motivated to come to the United States to provide great career opportunities through a better educational system for all their children. As I read about the rites of passage, I too become familiar with the feelings of these undocumented migrants and can easily understand the hardship they face and even why some of them fail to incorporate and adjust themselves to the living conditions here in the United States.
Taking risks begin in the first phase, separation, and carry out until some of them finally decide not to incorporate themselves and remain stuck in the transition phase. First of all, individuals who leave their family members back in Mexico have to accept the fact that their families will experience lots of complex problems by “experiencing justifiable anxiety about the potential dangers of the journey” (Chavez 1998; 61). Some migrants never even make it to the border because they are hurt, robbed, raped, and/or killed. Since these individuals carry no sort of identification documents, they are easily taken advantage of with because it is highly unlikely for anyone to find out about them or worry about them. My mother for example had to leave her sick mother in Pakistan so she can she move to the U.S. in order for her children to receive better educational opportunities. Only a few years later, her mother passed away from shock concerning the dangerous our family might face while trying to adjust to the American customs with no other relatives or friends to rely on. Instead I must point out that there are lots of angered and worried citizens of the U.S. that are aware and troubled by Mexican immigration and have impulses to hurt anyone that may be involved in that. From an individual’s experience, he heard someone say, “Let’s shoot some aliens” right before firing a hunting rifle toward a hillside where many undocumented migrants were (Chavez 1998; 61).
After experiencing such difficulties, it may not be hard to realize why incorporating into the larger society may become even a greater challenge for these individuals. Having problems learning the English language might make them feel inferior and feel too challenged to carry on normal lives like the rest. It also may be hard to actually find a decent job, and since these undocumented migrants are illegal, employers take advantage of them and hire them for less than minimum to do the dirty work. These migrants have no choice but to take it or leave it because for one, they cannot report any of this to the authorities and second, someone else might take the job instead. Another reason which I remember mentioning is the fact that they choose not to live in fear all their lives of getting caught. If caught in traffic by a police for simply speeding, they could be going back to Mexico consequently. Fear of upsetting anyone else who might report them to INS might also put them in a situation where they are unable to express their feelings and live in fear instead. Migrants who choose to become citizens of the U.S. legally usually give up when they realize the tremendous amount of paperwork they have to read and understand, the money they will need for processes and lawyers, and the time they will have to wait with unlimited restrictions. All the members of my family were able to obtain their greencards and become permanent legal residents of the U.S. except that it took us thousands of dollars, great amounts of patience, and 12 years. Due to 9/11, our applications were put on hold and there was no progress being made until my mother fell in love with my step father, an American citizen, and therefore such a coincident factor helped our case greatly. The point in bringing such a personal experience is that some Mexican migrants may feel that having spouses that are American citizens is the only way to become residents faster. Having children born in the U.S. pints to the problem of calling a family an “illegal alien family” (Chavez 1998; 131). Finding stable working jobs is also an issue, due to not being able to obtain work permits, driving licenses, valid identification documents, understanding the job’s requirements due to language barriers, and so on. Many undocumented migrants who do find jobs experience abuse, such as an 18 year old El Salvadoran named Julia who worked as a maid and was told to save up her income rather than get paid every week. “According to Julia, the woman of the house said they went bankrupt and fired her” (Chavez 1998; 150). Another example includes a Salvadoran who lived with his wife and “exchanged labor for a place to sleep” (Chavez 1998; 150). Undocumented migrants struggle through unlimited hardships even after migrating to the U.S., making the phase of incorporation unable to achieve and therefore, returning home eventually.
Undocumented individuals go through complex steps in order to either stay as migrants and eventually return to their homeland or become settlers after successfully finishing the separation, transition, and incorporation steps of the rites of passages that Chavez reveals. The model itself cannot depict patterns of migration for all the individuals for there are variety of reasons to not advance to the next phase and thus rejecting transformation. From having various motives to live a better life right back in Mexico or in San Diego, these individuals undergo severe hardship in separating themselves from the familiar and engaging in the unknown. As a settler myself, I was able to successfully incorporate myself into the larger society due to the fact that I had not so strong connections overseas in my homeland and that the English language did not become a factor that I had to struggle with. Using that as a benefit, I was able to use my confidence to obtain a better education than the one I was receiving overseas and as a child, I was easily fascinated and therefore, prepared to alter my lifestyle, the way I dress, talk, and do many things in life. At the end, it comes down to achieving the stages of moving to another country and having the ability to hang on and finish the process or breaking the model and returning home to perhaps try again some day. Yet still, one may wonder about the migrants who may not feel accepted in the American society even after having great resources to live a functional life. Shouldn’t satisfying basic needs become the main priority for the migrants? What’s even more important to wonder is if Mexican immigration remains as a controversial topic due to economic issues or personal issues where racism still occurs? Do the incorporated migrants who have become settlers see Mexican immigration from a view different from economic and political reasons? The “Rites of Passages” and its phases that Chavez elaborates on may justify the transitions some migrants take according to the model in order to become settlers of the U.S., but not all. Therefore, the model is not ideal because personal factors come into play, inevitably making it hard for individuals to incorporate themselves in another society with a different status.
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