Kayla Rivera

I. Introduction

A. How can I gain the attention of the audience?

1. Have you ever noticed how diverse many peoples cultures and identities are and

how is everybody different in so many ways yet so alike?

1. The cultural diffusion in the world's economy is enabled by transnationalism within

central american communities.

2. They share their traditions, beliefs, and values which is also a part of their identities and this

is something that Edgar from High-Risk Homosexual struggled with.

C. Thesis Statement—What is my essay about?

1. Transnationalism has positive effects like sharing one another's culture but also has

negative effects being the lost identities of the central americans who have to immigrate.

II. Middle (3-5 Main Points)

A. Point #1— A large amount of central americans lose their identities when leaving their

motherland and coming to America and Conforming to the American dream thus leaving

their own identity behind.

1. In the article Expressions of Maya Identity and Culture in Los Angeles by Giovanni Batz,

the author states “Maya migration and settlement in Los Angeles is examined to determine

discrimination and anti-immigrant environments that influence some Maya to conserve or

relinquish their identity” on the first page as an introduction to the loss of identity within

their culture.

a.Many central americans, in this case, Mayas, had difficulty being able to have pride in their

own identity. They always had to worry about deportation, racism, and not being accepted into

the country by its natives so to avoid this, they would pretend to be the more acceptable

race; Mexican.

2. Many central americans had to ditch what they’ve known all their lives to conform to Mexican

traditions, this of which is implied in the text, stating, “Identity is constructed through culture and through

The daily practices of people.”

a. Whenever a white american would see a central american, they would automatically assume they

were mexican and so many Guatemalans identified as Mexicans from that point forward and left

behind their native cultures.

3. Many Central Americans had to conform in different ways known as identity other than just race,

but also sexuality like shown is Edgar Gomez’s book.

B. Point #2- Edgar from High-Risk Homosexual by Edgar Gomez struggled with not having the confid

to accept his identity without pretending to be the man everyone else wanted him to be because

It was seen as traditional.

4.”I was just like her. Her face. Her shade. Her baby. That was the problem” stated on page 32 implicates

There’s an issue with his resemblance and similarities to his mother which refers to his feminine gay side.

a. Him being raised by his mother and picking up on her feminine traits, the family wanted to change

him and roughen him up to a more traditionally acceptable male persona.

5. The men in Edgars family thought that being gay was wrong and being a stereotypical man
was right, Edgars father stated on page 20, “Raise him right” when referring to his potential feminine

ways being the wrong way to raise a boy.

a. Situations when his family would try and change

him into the man they wanted to him to be rather than accepting him for who he is are what contributed

to Edgars insecurities about himself and confining his true self from the world.

6. Culture is a part of why they wanted Edgar to be the stereotypical man of their race and this happens

not only in his family but in other cultures as well.

C. Point #3- Cultural traditions play a large part in central american identities

7. “Parents stressed the importance of raising their children to understand the importance of being

Salvadoran or Guatemalan and Americans and revealed culturally and linguistically to

understand their histories” stated on page 7 of the article “Visibly Hidden Language Culture and

Identity of Central Americans in Los Angeles.”

a. This exemplifies how the central americans want to decolonize their historical roots and assure that

their traditions will be carried on.

8. Also stated in that article on page 8 is, “Blurring of identities that occur

in part from the fear of being “found out” because of the lack of legal status meant “passing ash a

Mexican” in order to avoid deportation back to Central America.

a. This speaks on the topic of Mayan people having to leave their own culture and identity behind to

survive by pretending to be mexican. Racialization was seen in this situation because white American

s saw all hispanic and latino people as the same thing, they also saw Guatemalans, Salavadorians, and

other Central American ethnicities as Mexican just because they all spoke the language of spanish.

9. Language is something that is a part of transnationalism and identity, it’s something brought from

land to land through the connection of people.

D. Point #4- Transnationalism allows us to communicate and connect with different cultural and

economical countries which is why many choose to move to places for a better chance of success or
their resources

10. This was shown in Central American Identities by Cortez Carranza, starting on page 4,

“Panama became a major international travel route and brought modernization and global capitalist

economy to Central America.”

11. The Panama Canal is one of the worlds biggest trading routes and is considered transnationalism

because it’s an exchange of resources between many different countries.

12. This isn’t the only example of how we connect and change through transnationalism, stated on

page 251“Research has identified a primarily suburban settlement pattern spanning the northern

portion of the metro area with regards to Latin American immigrants to the Atlanta area”

13. Many Central Americans and Latin Americans travel and adapt to the lifestyle of the country they

move to.

III. The motherland of Indigenous or Hispanic people holds their identity and culture and when they

leave, traveling to other’s motherland, they pick up on their culture and way of living and sometimes
have to forcefully leave their own behind.

A. Summary of Main Points

1. Identity is a man-made construct and is something you choose to identify with or by

and transnationalism plays a large part in what you identify as.

2. “Identity is not permanent as we might imagine from examples of our own lives”

Stated 3 of Central American Identities by Cortez Carranza.

B. Re-State Thesis

1. Transnationalism allows people to have a diverse identity, picking up traits and cultural beliefs from

multiple places and adding it into one.

2. The construct on individualism vs. community prevents people from actually being who they

want to be because they’re being controlled, colonized, and having to accept the new persona.

C. Central Americans must decolonize the New South and find their true selves and be who they

want to be in the free spirit without worrying about being discriminated against or beaten down

for their identity.

I. Everybody is different in their own ways and are bound to their own thoughts, opinions,

and beliefs.

D. Transnationalism is what grants people the opportunity to gain another

perspective of things and share culture and traditions as one.