Scalpel And The Silver Bear Analysis

            In addition, having a language barrier does not suit her case. The idea of “not knowing how to speak a language of my home countries is the biggest problem that I have encountered, as have many Latinos” (Raya 121-122). “Pocha” (Raya 122) is used in Mexico to describe those “who were raised on the other side of the border”. More so, “it expresses a deep-rooted antagonism and dislike…to ridicule Mexican Americans” (Raya 122).  Evidently, the failure to speak proper Mexican Spanish fall under the dislike category. Even if a Latino speaks Spanish well, “it can never be good enough” (Raya 122). Consequently, Latinos who “speak Spanish in the U.S.” (Raya 122) have a tendency “of being called “spic” or “wetback”” (Raya 122). Hence, in order to be considered “fully Latina in college, however, I must know Spanish…I must satisfy the equation: Latina [equals] Spanish-speaking” (Raya 122).

In the novel How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, The girls have a hard time with assimilation. Because of this it has the girls confused on how to adapt to America. In America, the girls cannot ask for as much as they use to in the Dominican Republic. The reason for this was because Carlos cannot find a job so they were short on money. Because of the Garcia girls moved back and forth between two places, they tend to struggle to fit into America.

In The Scalpel and the Silver Bear we embark on a journey with Lori Arviso Alvord through her life on the reservation, going to school, then eventually making it back to the reservation. In a world where humans act so programed, Dr.Alvord incorporates her native beliefs and rituals to break up the monotony of modern medicine. She begins her story describing what life is like on the reservation, they are very minimalistic and traditionally focused. Everything is done with a purpose and they teach the children to not attract attention to yourself, this was proven extremely difficult when Dr.Alvord started college at a white majority school. She excelled in college and medical school and found comfort with other Native American students. She perused

After reading Alvord and Cohen’s The Scalpel and the Silver Bear, I found myself looking at the world in a new spiritual way. Alvord is known to many as the first Navajo woman surgeon. Having grown up as a Navajo with a white mother, her life was a constant mix of her Navajo ways and the ways of the Western world. One of the main philosophies of her Navajo culture of healing that she focuses on is ‘walking in beauty’. The Navajo do not view the body as a single being but as a connection to the rest of the world. With the belief that everything is connected, the Navajo believe that negativity in any aspect of one’s life will bring something bad to the person later. A harmonious life, one in which their mind, body and spirit is positively connected to those around them, leads to a healthy one. When Alvord decided to go against her Navajo ways and enter the world of Western medicine she did so with the goal to bring the healing philosophies of her people with

Page 18-Ruth is jewish, and goes by the French name, “Renee” to keep her cover.

Science Application International Corporation (SAIC) is the organization I work for. It is a service based company that provides its expertise to the Department of Defense and the Federal Government as well as other smaller organizations. I’ve been approved to work remotely and have been actively doing it for over five years. My proposal for SAIC is to expand the ability to work remotely to a larger group of employees.

The Navajo creation story explains that medicine was brought to the people by an ancient owl. This owl sent down a magic bundle containing the powers of healing to the new world. For thousands of years Navajo people have used this knowledge to heal and live in harmony with each other. As a product of two worlds, Dr. Lori Alvord was one of the first people to combine modern medicine with Navajo beliefs by overcoming cultural differences.

Glancy uses Pushing the Bear to contextualize concrete history. She frames the reality of the Trail of Tears using fictional accounts from multiple narrators, while also integrating historical lists and documents into her story. Pushing the Bear is unique because it tells a history through so many perspectives. Each is relatively short, and the reader is often thrown without transition from one narrator to the next. This technique creates a unique historiography because of its ability to address historical context of a large group as opposed to an individual. By giving all participants of the Trail of Tears a voice, Glancy tells a more “true” history than one ever could using a single narrator account of history. Glancy includes many bills

Several of the events that the Garcia girls experienced are common negative aspects of cultural integration. Harassment and discrimination are common forms of cultural conflicts that occur between two opposing cultures. Cultural values that have become forged into a person’s life usually remain with them for long periods of time. In this case, the Garcia girls were unable to completely adjust their perspectives of Dominican values to accommodate to their Americanized living situation. They held on to their traditional Dominican values, which conflicted with American culture. As a result, they experienced harassment and discrimination.

Cultural diversity in the medical field is, at times, greatly hindered because of religious beliefs, language barriers, and the hierarchies of diverse cultures and these have the propensity to affect the continuity of care for the patients. “Every person has different aspects that constitute their identities, according to how they see themselves….This means that seeing an individual in terms of

Dani’s struggle with the Demon Bear, while it can be interpreted as a symbol of America’s history of mistreatment of Native groups, can also be decoded as a symbol of the growing force of Big Business and the economy during the 70s and 80s in the United States. (Fawaz, Plate 25) During a period in which consumerism reigned, many Americans were forced to come to terms with a growing economic system that threatened to swallow them whole if they were not one of the lucky few to come along for the ride (Shi and Tindall, 1189). Dani stands in for the average American, taking a defensive stance as she is faced with the Demon Bear, who is much larger. She is all alone, situated in a dark expanse with no one to protect her (Fawaz, Plate 25). Americans

In her essay “Se Habla Español,” Tanya Maria Barrientos raises the question of self-definition by discussing the struggling to find her ethnic identity in American society with Latino heritage. The essay starts with the author expressing her embarrassment facing society’s expectation on her fluency of Spanish based on her Latina appearance, in particular when she signed up to learn Spanish—the language her parents use to communicate. As a child who grew up in the United State, Barrientos learned the poor reputation on Spanish americans and developed the wish to isolate herself from the stereotype, which she approaches by not speaking Spanish. Then, as America became more open to different ethnic groups, the author suffers from finding a place

Acculturation can determine whether a first generation Salvadoran American student’s pursues higher education. As new immigrants immersed in the American culture, they have to adapt or comprehend the culture acceptable “behavior, values, language, and customs” in order to educational succeed (McCallister 2015). Moreover, California is a diverse state that first generation students come across a dilemma of longer period of time to dominate the native language. For instance, Lucy grew up in Central California, in a small Hispanic enclave. As a result, Lucy was exposed to Spanish conversations at home and in the community, except in the school. School provided Lucy the opportunity to apply the immersion technique:

In the novel The Scalpel and The Silver Bear, Alvord is Native American and specifically has roots from the Navajo tribe. At the beginning of the novel she is conflicted by coming from a biracial family where her mother is white and her father is Navajo. This conflict follows her all of the way to college in choosing an Ivy League school. She later decides on a school known as Dartmouth because of the fact that they had substantial amount of Native Americans than any other Ivy League school. Alvord graduated from Dartmouth with a psychology and sociology degree but still had aspirations to become a doctor. She returns to school at Stanford to study medicine, after fulfilling her degree she made her way back to New Mexico near Gallup.

She does so by using short anecdotes such as, “ I remember being sent to the corner of the classroom for “talking back” to the Anglo teacher when all I was trying to do was tell her how to pronounce my name.” If you want to be American, speak ‘American’. If you don’t like it go back to Mexico where you belong.” Stating this in her essay clearly shows how she has faced discrimination for her language. This short story also proves the relationship between language and identity and how the teacher tells her she belong in Mexico and why? She says that only because of her language and ‘American’ is not a language. The ethos in this essay clearly gives her the right to write about this topic because she’s had harsh experiences with being oppressed because of her language. Although the anecdote is ethos it could very well be pathos as