Kyla Rand Assignment 2A Rhetorical Reflection Section HBMcGough October 5, 2013 Leave Your Name at the Border The

United States of America was built upon merging cultures. With each of these cultures come different holidays, values, languages, and names. But when one of those cultures dominates over the others, how much must those minorities give up to become a part of that society? In his article Leave Your Name at the Border, Manuel Muoz asserts that those of Mexican heritage have to lose the identities they keep through their names if they want to be accepted in the United States, an idea that can be successfully related to college students self-definitions based on names. First appearing in a New York Times opinion article in 2007 (Nytimes.com), Leave Your Name at the Border addressed the effects of different cultures integrating into American society. In that year, several immigration laws went through Congress and brought attention to the massive numbers of illegal immigrants popping up (Pear). Tempers were hot on immigration, but a lot of that tension was not directed at illegal immigrants. Instead, it targeted anyone of different backgrounds and demanded that, to be accepted as an American, they all become as similar as possible. Muoz used this article to speak to the United States public as a whole about how all of these diverse cultures were merging into just one dominant culture, and each of the minority societies were suffering in the process. These cultures were no longer allowed to be themselves but instead had to change their names and stop publicly speaking their own language in order to get jobs and acceptance in schools. In a society that prides itself on everyone being different in their own way, there is a dark line that divides being different from being too different. Having a difficult name or not speaking clear English is something society shies away from. As a testament to this divide, take the example of typing a Mexican name that has an accent or tilde, a process that is time-consuming and arduous. The in Muozs name takes at least five clicks to enter into a document in Microsoft Word, and most other programs wont allow for any unusual characteristics. This means that names with these characters must be changed to a more American name just to be written down. American society leaves no room for people to be too far from their version of acceptable. Nevertheless, college is a time for young adults to truly question who they are and what they want to stand for. It is a time to decide who gets to define what they are. Muozs article, reproduced in a textbook for college age students (Convergences), forces its new audience to consider how much a name means to them. It doesnt put the focus so much on one culture, since immigration is not as important of a topic to this setting, but on the purpose behind a name. The stories of judged people bring to mind the need to consider whether the audience judges or discredits others based on what they are called. The article also asks its audience to reflect on how they allow others to define themselves based on their own names. Are they changing who they are just so theyll fit in better, or are they defining themselves in spite of what society calls them? This new context changes the purpose of the work from identifying an issue to questioning the impact of that issue on todays society, but it is still very relevant for the new audience in that it focuses on self-reflection.

Self-identity is very important to each persons life. Who each person believes they are sets the tone for their entire existencewhat they think they are good for, the goals they believe they can achieve. If that power is taken away, as Manuel Muoz describes in his article Leave Your Name at the Border, it is very easy to lose so much of their personal cultures and familial identities. By changing who they are individually so that they can be accepted into a synchronized society, they are losing a great part of who they really are. A name is representative of an identity, and, as the article impresses upon its new audience, it is very important to pay attention to how each persons name is being used to define them.

Works Cited Muoz, Manuel. Leave Your Name at the Border. Convergences: Themes, Text, and Images for Composition. Ed. Robert Atwan. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2009. 112-117.

Print.
Muoz, Manuel. Leave Your Name at the Border. Nytimes.com. The New York Times, 1 Aug.

2007. Web. 3 Oct. 2013. Pear, Robert and Carl Hulse. Immigration Bill Fails to Survive Senate Vote. Nytimes.com. The New York Times, 28 June 2007. Web. 4 Oct. 2013.