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drearivas-blog1 · 8 years ago

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The Misconceptions of Cultures

In the 1960s, Helen Zia was growing up in New Jersey and was provided with plenty of American history by her teachers while her father inundated her with stories of China's past. She was left wondering about people like herself, Asian Americans. In Asian American Dreams by Helen Zia, in chapter 2 there were many issues stated about racism, discrimination, immigration, English language and stereotypes. In reading Asian American Dreams I read that many Asian Americans did not learn about Asian American History, Asian American came to the United States for a better jobs and began as working class migrants. Asian Americans had a hard time speaking different languages. “1882 lynching of Chinese Americans there were many stereotypes that were similar”. It is stating that back then and till know there are still many “stereotypes” towards Asian Americans. Immigration policies are still uncreative today. In the reading Asian American Dreams talked about how black power became yellow power. Activism was necessary to bring Asian Americans out of invisibility.

As someone who is Latin American I can relate with Helen Zia. Growing up the youngest in my family I have faced many situations where I was picked on because of my background and not knowing how to speak my cultural language Spanish. I did not really know much about my own culture/history. Helen’s father wanted her brothers and herself to know about their culture history. He thought it was important for them to know the background of their own culture. My sisters and I were asked about our own culture and we could not say much. I remembered my dad was ashamed, so one day my dad wanted my sister and I learn and know about our background. My dad wanted to tell us about our culture the customs the different values and how to speak our culture language, Spanish. I feel that my dad and Helen's dad thought alike because they think it is good for us to understand the history of our own culture, so we can learn the importance of its values and beliefs and to understand each other. My dad told us that we have several strengths in our culture, like the traditions, dancing, the Spanish language and most definitely the food. Food is the most common symbol with which Salvadoran-Americans choose to define themselves ( pupusas, horchata). I learned from my dad that in Salvador it is very polite to serve guest food first, also to leave some food in the place if not it is considered disrespectful.

In Asian American Dreams there was this man named Joseph Hecco he was known as an “Asian American New Yorker” he learned English and became a U.S citizen, his English was perfect. I remembered while reading this in the in Asian American Dreams how Joseph never gave up to learn the English language. A couple years ago my cousin came from El Salvador and she only knew how to speak spanish. One day she came up to me and told me that was afraid that people would judge her because she didn’t know much about the English language. My mother told me she came to the U.S to get a better education and to make her parents proud. When she came from Salvador she was going to enter High School and wanted me to help her practice how to speak the language and to know the different concepts. We would practice several days and it would get challenging but she got it really quick. Once she started school people understood and would also help her. Over the years her English got so well that she got scholarships for colleges. She felt accomplished because was award due to the english language she learned. I feel that we should not give up, like how Joseph did he worked hard to learn how to speak English. Yes there is ways immigrants can learn the English language by going to school , having tutors, looking for tip and exercise that can help you. I think it is very important for everyone to know another language than their own.

Helen was afraid if she did not listen to her parents her parents would get mad at her saying “ this is not the kind of child I had raise”. Last year my older sister graduated from the Cal State University of Northridge and since then she has not been doing anything with her life. My parents push her into finding a job that fits with her degree but she takes it as a joke. One day my mom could not take it anymore because she does not help out at the house. My parents feel that they did not raise and sacrifice themselves to have a child like this. I had asked my sister why she is not looking for a job and she told me that she is afraid, she's afraid of making mistakes and if people do not hire her because she has no experience. I feel that many parents wanted their children to get a job right after they graduate because they have a degree and they do not want all the hard work to waste. but, I feel that parents should not be controlling them or putting pressure. I feel like it is the culture generation gap because many of our parents want us to succeed how they did, they do not want us to suffer how they did when they were young. We should learn from the mistakes they have done.

Helen Zia, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, was born in the 1950s when there were only “150,000 Chinese Americans in the entire country, and she writes as a personal witness to the dramatic changes involving Asian Americans”. Today immigration in the The United States has a long and proud history as an immigrant nation. But there are communities that have been left paralyzed by fear following President Donald. Throughout the years times have changed greatly in the last one hundred years, “immigration now is much more out of sync with our country's, without immigrants our would be a disaster.”

I learned in reading Asian American Dreams chapter 2 not only Asian Americans face bad situations in life. There are many different countries that face discrimination, racism in their culture. It is crazy to see that many of us from different racial can relate to each other and go through the same experiences. I feel that we need to find ways to protect ourselves and share on what we believe and make our dreams be heard.

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drearivas-blog1 · 8 years ago

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Childhood Obesity: The Health Issue

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/wol1/doi/10.1038/oby.2001.125/full

Children become overweight and obese for a variety of reasons. The most common causes are genetic factors, lack of physical activity, unhealthy eating patterns, or a combination of these factors. Approximately 22 million children under 5 years of age are overweight across the world. In the United States, the number of overweight children and adolescents has doubled in the last two to three decades. Overweight and obesity are independent risk factors for increased morbidity and mortality throughout the lifecycle. There are two types of diabetes appear as frequent comorbidities in the overweight and obese pediatric population. In some populations, type 2 diabetes is now the dominant form of diabetes in children and adolescents. Obesity-associated chronic disease risk factors are present in adults and also manifest in overweight and obese children. The increase in obesity has been observed from preschool to adolescence.

A child's total diet and activity level play an important role in determining a child's weight. Today, many children spend a lot time being inactive. For example, the average child spends approximately four hours each day watching television. As computers and video games become increasingly popular, the number of hours of inactivity may increase. Obese children are at risk for a number of conditions, including: high cholesterol, high blood pressure, early heart disease, diabetes, bone problems, skin conditions such as heat rash, fungal infections, and acne. According to the National Health and Nutrition Surveys show that bearly 8% of children age 4 to 5 are overweight in the U.S. It has showed that girls are being affected from that boys are, obesity in young girls has increased more than 2-fold, whereas that of boys increased less, 25%.

Overweight and obesity in children in later in life shows that the probability of overweight at 35 years of age for children with BMI in the 85th to 95th percentiles (weight for length growth) increased with increasing age. The prediction for adult weight was most accurate for BMI at 18 years of age with accuracy decreasing for BMI below 13 years of age. There is prevention/treatment of childhood obesity we need to increase in energy and decrease in physical activity are the primary environmental influences on childhood obesity. We need to have children in young ages experiences with foods and flavors, help develop healthy food preferences. Children who are overweight they should reduce severity of obesity and to treat, reduce and eliminate comorbidities. Childhood obesity is increasing over the years starting from young ages, we need to care for our children today before they reach to adult obesity and struggle the rest of their lives.

Deckelbaum, Richard J., and Christine L. Williams. "Childhood Obesity: The Health Issue." Obesity Research. Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 06 Sept. 2012. Web. 26 Mar. 2017.

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drearivas-blog1 · 8 years ago

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Trump Administration to Undo Obama-Era Transgender Bathroom Guidance; A Bathroom of One’s Own

http://www.weeklystandard.com/trump-administration-to-undo-obama-era-transgender-bathroom-guidance-report-says/article/2006931

http://www.weeklystandard.com/a-bathroom-of-ones-own/article/2002571

Barack Obama administration issued a federal edict decreeing that every public school in America allow students to use whichever bathroom they choose, and feel most comfortable. As of today our president Donald Trump and his administration want to undo Obama- Era Transgender bathroom guidance. The Trump administration want to undo federal guidance issued by their predecessors to threatened public schools with the loss of federal funding if they didn't allow transgender students to use the school facilities matching their gender identity.

“New York City’s Commission on Human Rights issued its own edict, declaring that anyone under the city's rule who refused to use the preferred gender pronouns in dealing with transgender individuals—he, she, "ze," or "hir"—would be guilty of harassment and subject to penalties up to $125,000 for the first infraction and $250,000 "for violations that are the result of willful, wanton, or malicious conduct."

I think it is not right to take away a right that we already have and worked hard to get and just take it away like nothing. We need to give our LGBT community the rights they deserve. We should let them use the restroom that they are desire to use from their identity. A trans women should be allow to use the women's restroom because they are a women and if they use the man’s you will never know what would happen to them. My best friend who is a trans told me that one of his transgender friends got beaten up because of the restroom he used, it is not right what the world has come to about this situation, we should treat everyone with respect because we are all human beings.

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drearivas-blog1 · 8 years ago

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My Identity Box!

Growing up I did not have a “box” where I stored all my memories in, my mom would usually hold everything for me because she did not want me to lose what is important for me. So, I used a shoe box that I had at home and decorate it with construction paper. Everything inside my box is very valuable to me. In the box I have many pictures of many of best memories I had in my 20 years of living. First, I have a picture of myself at my sixteen which was such a blessing. Also when I went to my first high school dance, that I am an aunt and when I went to prom with my closes friends. I am so thankful for them because till this day we still keep in contact and hang out here and then. I have a picture of my family when I was younger, I do not have a current photo of all of us together because my parents got divorced when I was only seven. I printed out a picture of a volleyball because my whole life, since third grade to senior year I played, and that is one of the things I am really passionate about. I have a pink ribbon because my senior year in high school during volleyball we were allowed to use pink to represent someone in our family that die due to cancer, so I used it for my great grandma. Also one of the reason why I put the pooh bear because i grow up with it, it was given to me by someone special. One of the key moments of my life was having the opportunity to travel to Europe to Italy and Spain, I had such an amazing time exploring Madrid, Barcelona, and Rome, that’s one of the reason why I put souvenir inside my box. It is a blessing for myself to attend a four year University right after high school, that is one of my accomplishment I have made. I love sports softball, volleyball and basketball but I stopped playing basketball because I broke my middle finger playing. Also I put the movie Titanic because I grew up watching that movie. As I did not mention in class I have a ring that I got my junior year in high school that represents me becoming an adult, that ceremony was really meaningful to me. Lastly, I put my Yoshinoya hat inside my box because it is important to me that I am employed so I can finally help my mom since she helped me my whole entire life.

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drearivas-blog1 · 8 years ago

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Christina Aguilera- Beautiful

Christina Aguilera is an American singer, song writer and actress. She is born in Staten Island, New York and raised in Rochester and Wexford. Beautiful by Christina Aguilera was a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. I can personally relate to this song because I have always been feeling insecure about myself. I tend to catch myself comparing myself to other girls. In the lyrics when she says “ I am beautiful in every single way, words can’t bring me down” this is giving me the advice that I need to stand up for myself and not let words or opinion of others change my character. I should love myself for who I am and not let anything bring me down. Another reason I can relate to this is because my best friend Daniel he is a transgender and he is suffering because he does not feel happy, beautiful in the body he is in. He has been called many names and he has been criticized because of who he is. Christina states “ you're beautiful no matter what they say” is saying we should not let all these stereotypes bring us down. There is always something beautiful in someone in almost everything, we need to focus on the positive and never the negative. "Beautiful" has been widely embraced as an anthem by the LGBT community for its message of self-empowerment and inner beauty.I love the way it's so encouraging, and supportive. The song says that it doesn't matter what you look like, what your sexuality is, or the way you live your life. There is a place in the world for everyone and everyone's beautiful in their own special way. It is a very positive message,“ we need to understand that beautiful is more than just an image it is the inner beauty”.

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