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ASIAN AMERICAN AND LATINA/O
COLLEGE STUDENTS' LIFE STORIES
Balancing Two Worlds: Asian American College Students Tell Their Life Stories. Edited by Andrew Garrod and Robert Kilkenny. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2007. xiii + 270 pp. Photos and notes. $55.00 (cloth); $19.95 (paper).
Mi Voz, Mi Vida: Latino College Students Tell Their Life Stories. Edited by Andrew Garrod, Robert Kilkenny, and Christina Gómez. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2007. xiii + 262 pp. $55.00 (cloth); $19.95 (paper).
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Despite the predominance of a black-white racial framework in the United States, demographic trends point to the reality that Asian Americans and Latinos are two of the fastest growing populations in the country. According to the 2000 census, Asians and Pacific Islanders were 4.2 percent and Latinos were 12.5 percent of the U.S. population.1 In addition, Asian Americans and Latinos are highly visible in institutions of higher education; in 2000, Asian Americans made up 5.9 percent and Hispanics 8.9 percent of students enrolled in all institutions of higher education.2 Regardless of this growing presence, stereotypes abound about these two groups, with media images portraying Asian Americans as model minority superachievers and Latinos as undesirable immigrants. These two edited collections provide important contributions to the literature of ethnic studies and education by centering these students' voices to challenge stereotypes and push beyond a black-white racial binary. |
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For both collections, students enrolled in Andrew Garrod's education course at Dartmouth College were provided with guiding questions related to their relationships, awareness of racial and ethnic identity, parental expectations, academic success, and political activism. The Latino students were also enrolled in a sociology course taught by Christina Gómez. Students were initially free to develop a narrative that evolved through individual meetings with Garrod and later editing by Robert Kilkenny. What emerges are two collections of essays detailing the complex struggles that these students undergo as they seek to make meaning of their lives. |
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In Balancing Two Worlds, fourteen Asian American students—eight men and six women representing Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Burmese, Pakistani, Indian, and multiracial backgrounds—share their struggles to understand their complex identities amidst external pressures such as stereotypes of being model minorities and foreigners, cultural conflicts with immigrant parents, religious influences, and traditional expectations along lines of gender and sexuality. Focused primarily on the stories of 1.5- and second-generation Asian Americans (who come to the United States at a young age or are born in the U.S. to immigrant parents), cultural conflicts take center stage. Students detail their struggles with their parents, longings for more affectionate relationships and deeper understandings that are obstructed by cultural chasms. Particularly as the students enter adolescence and seek acceptance from their mainly white peers, these conflicts intensify. The authors also critique their parents' traditional gendered expectations and messages about the proper role of an Asian American woman in marriage and regarding familial obligations. Each student negotiates this struggle differently: there is some level of criticism based in their western Americanized values combined with great sensitivity to their parents' perspective. |
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Another striking theme is the prevalence of racism and racial stereotypes as authors remember being called "Chink" or hearing anti-Asian jokes told in their presence. These "casual" incidents reveal a widespread pattern of "racial microaggressions"—the types of subtle, racially laden comments such as, "you're not like the rest of them" in reference to one's racial group.3 While not being outright assaults, such comments are derogatory, and students describe their shock and offense when white friends offhandedly make anti-Asian remarks followed by the obligatory explanation of their exceptionalism. Is such a comment a signal of being "accepted" and not seen as the Asian other? The authors struggle with wanting to be white in the face of experiences that remind them that they are not. They are conscious of being stereotyped as model minority math and science geeks and desire to be seen as individuals by avoiding association with large groups of other Asians. Similarly, the theme and challenge of interracial dating also emerges as several authors express great awareness of racialized notions of masculinity and femininity. Asian American men in particular relate their hesitation in asking a white woman out on a date for fear of an inevitable rejection. |
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The identity struggles of the students merit special mention. The burden expressed is palpable as the authors seek to negotiate the conflicting messages of their immigrant communities with their American lifestyles. Some writers describe their identity as a process of choosing the best of both worlds (Nguyen), while others describe the pain of "balancing on the hyphen" between Asian and American (Hirashima) and resenting these binaristic choices. In a particularly painful contribution, L. Lee writes, "I wander between the two cultures, my heart wavers then tears in two. . ." (p. 111). Still others convey with great insight that they ultimately choose to seek their true selves, questioning and often rejecting binary choices (K. Lee, Rahim, Krishna, Heussner, Luckett, Ng). An especially powerful entry by Gupta describes this process as searching for a sangam, a place where bodies meet, as in the example of Kanya Kumari, a town in South India, where three bodies of water flow together. Gupta writes, "I felt very connected to these sangams. The separate waters are akin to the mishmash of different origins I have felt within myself, never knowing where I fully belong, if I fully belong. Being in Allahbad [India] and Kanya Kumari gave me some comfort with these issues, made me feel that my own distinct parts were as natural as the bodies of water themselves" (p. 127). These sangams represent a process by which the students' seemingly fragmented shards of identity can melt together, expressing the full complexity of identity along the lines of ethnicity, culture, religion, gender, and sexuality. Possibilities for new formations abound. |
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Similar to the organization of Balancing Two Worlds, Mi Voz, Mi Vida is composed of memoirs that center on the "the evolving lives and Latino identities" of fifteen students who attended Dartmouth College (p. i). The editors' main goal is to help the students "find their voice" through the ruggedness of student experiences in educational institutions. The book is divided into four sections—resilience, biculturalism, mentoring, and identity—each comprised of student stories that best capture each theme. Vexing questions of color, race, ethnicity, citizenship, sexuality, and religion are addressed by juxtaposing the experiences of students from diverse Latino groups. |
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Running throughout the memoirs is the opposing tension caused by the promise of social and economic progress with the aspiration to maintain an ethnic identity. Education proves to be more than purely an academic process; it is a transformative experience that alters not only political and social structures but the self as well. Navigating through the academic and social environment at Dartmouth did not call for negligible adaptations but raised critical questions concerning racial, class, gender, and sexual identities. Marissa, a Chicana from Los Angeles, began to identify the "beauty" of her ethnicity while at Dartmouth. "I had never considered anything about my looks 'ethnic' until I came to New England," Marissa asserted. "As more and more people complimented me for my features, I started to feel like those women in the telenovelas" (p. 90). In essence, this quote captures the four main themes proposed by the editors. First is resilience, which demonstrates how students' strength of character enables them to further their education. Second is biculturalism, which fundamentally questions the relation to one's racial identity. Mentoring, the theme that follows, reifies the collective support that students encounter. For some students their mentor was a new friend, a former teacher, or a sibling. These mentors provided invaluable support throughout their educational experience, which eased the tension of maneuvering through a predominantly white and upper-class student body. Marissa reminds us of the last theme, Latino identities, which most of the students discuss. Identifying with one Latino ethnic group was disputed at Dartmouth. Latinos—an umbrella term for all Caribbean and Latin Americans—became problematic when sameness was expected of individuals. While a comparative analysis at the macro level of Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, and Mexicans may show that they speak the same language and share similar histories, the fine distinctions become evident only at the micro level. |
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A particular strength of these collections is their inclusion of diverse Asian American and Latino voices. Just as it may be politically efficient to lump all Latinos and Asians under one umbrella, Garrod, Kilkenny, and Gómez show that the locus of understanding the Latino or Asian American community stems not from perceptions of their sameness but from the rich particularities and qualities they embody. Balancing Two Worlds includes sections on the experiences of Asian American groups that are often marginalized: South Asian Americans—and particularly Muslims after September 11, multiracial Asian Americans, and gay Asian American males. And Mi Voz, Mi Vida is nicely interlaced with the experiences of students who originate from various geographic regions and Latino groups. The inclusion of Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Hondurans, Cubans, Colombians, and Chicana/os from Texas, Illinois, California, and New York lend distinctive stories to similar obstacles. These works are rich in detail and personal insights. |
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One fundamental drawback of both books, however, lies in how unrepresentative these stories are. For example, as Vernon Takeshita astutely points out in the afterword to Balancing Two Worlds, readers should consider the youth of the writers. College students are struggling with identity at a particular time in their lives, where labels and politics can take on heightened importance. Takeshita also points out that some Asian American students judge their parents' Asian values uncritically and are limited by their perspectives as American born. In this way, Asian American stereotypes may be perpetuated, contrasting the "backwards East" with the "progressive and democratic West." As noted above, this collection focuses on second-generation stories, where cultural conflicts are at their most raw. |
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A bigger limitation is the risk that the books depict these students' experiences as ordinary cases. Clearly, Dartmouth College is part of the eight elite Ivy League colleges that few students of color attend.4 These students represent a minute fraction of all students across racial lines, much less Latino and Asian American youth in general. Data show that first-year Latino college students are overrepresented in community colleges and are scarcely found in private, elite colleges such as Dartmouth.5 In addition, while great public attention focuses on Asian American "overrepresentation" at elite private schools, the reality is that in 2000 there were more Asian American students at public two- and four-year institutions than at schools such as Dartmouth. In fact, the greatest growth of Asian American students between 1990 and 2000 occurred in public two-year colleges.6 Thus, if anything, the stories of Latinos and Asian Americans attending community colleges and public universities are the most common experiences. The stories presented in Balancing Two Worlds and Mi Voz, Mi Vida are more about the extraordinary rather than the norm. |
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Yet this discrepancy should not lead readers to dismiss readily the memoirs of those students who attend and graduate from elite institutions across the country. The history of race and racism in the United States shows that, until the past few decades, institutions of higher education closely monitored and averted the admission of nonwhite students. For the first half of the twentieth century, Jews and other immigrants groups classified as nonwhite had limited access to the most prestigious universities across the country because they were believed to be threatening white racial norms.7 Under Jim Crow, Asian Americans, African Americans, and Latinos experienced the complicated results of this racial ideology. Mexicans and Puerto Ricans were not allowed to enroll in most higher educational institutions, but those who were admitted were routinely tracked into vocational or regional institutions.8 |
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Studies of students at historically white institutions (HWI) such as Dartmouth do reveal certain misunderstood experiences encountered by students of color. High levels of stress, identity struggles and cultural conflict, the complexity of adjusting in a HWI, and the disproportionate dropout rates (for Latino students) are better understood through this nuanced compendium of memoirs.9 As Ruben Donato's historical study of Colorado shows, Latino students have always attempted to enter postsecondary institutions.10 Nevertheless, most historians have not succeeded in showing the development and quotidian events of the Latino educational experience. And they have only begun to uncover the pre-1965 history and experiences of Asian and Asian American students in higher education.11 Many factors contribute to these oversights, such as the lack of historical sources, the dearth of research in Latino and Asian American educational history, and the scarcity of historians who focus in these areas. |
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Another drawback of the collections is that historians might find these two books frustrating as they lack any historical contextualization or narrative, which traditionally bind essays together. What is the history of college admissions? Why Dartmouth College? And how have the educational experiences of Latino and Asian American youth changed over time? Other scholars have written books on similar subjects. The books Nuestra Voz: Memories of Our Education, edited by Roberto Calderon, and Asian American X, edited by Arar Han and John Hsu, are constructed in a similar fashion and also lack a historical trajectory.12 Thus, as in any collection of personal essays, the main value here rests in the richness of the primary sources—the students' voices themselves. Yet without a stronger historical context, these books would not benefit a reader who is new to understanding Asian American and Latino issues. Paired with more standard readers in Asian American and Latino studies, the volumes might add depth and complexity.13 |
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Perhaps it is unfair to saddle these stories with the burden of representing all Asian American and Latino students' experiences to avoid perpetuating stereotypes. At the same time, the diversity, complexity, and richness described help to neutralize this risk. Garrod and Kilkenny write in the preface to Balancing Two Worlds, "It is our hope that readers of this anthology will be engaged by the particularity and detail of these stories, while at the same time connecting with the individual human experiences" (p. x). What ultimately makes these anthologies compelling is not the fact that they attempt to tell a story about the ordinary, but that they show how Latino and Asian American students deal with the extraordinary and succeed at the most critical moments of their lives.
Mario Rios Perez
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Sharon S. Lee
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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NOTES
1. The Asian Pacific Islander figure includes those who reported Asian or Pacific Islander as race alone or race in combination with one or more races. Profiles of General Demographic characteristics, 2000 Census of population and housing, U.S. Department of Commerce, May 2001, 3, http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2000/dp1/2kh00.pdf.
2. William B. Harvey and Eugene L. Anderson, Minorities in Higher Education: Twenty-first Annual Status Report: 2003–2004 (Washington, DC, 2005), 55.
3. Daniel Solórzano, "Critical Race Theory, Race and Gender Microaggressions, and the Experience of Chicana and Chicano Scholars," International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 11, no. 1 (1998): 121–36.
4. Richard Fry, Latinos in Higher Education: Many Enroll, Too Few Graduate (Washington, DC, 2002).
5. Steven R. Aragon and Mario Rios Perez, "Increasing Retention and Success of Students of Color at Research-Extensive Universities," New Directions for Student Services 114 (2006): 81–91.
6. Robert T. Teranishi, "Asian Americans and Higher Education Policy: A Critical Race Perspective" (paper presented at the Association for the Study of Higher Education Conference, Anaheim, CA, November 2006).
7. Marcia Graham Synnott, The Half-Opened Door: Discrimination and Admissions at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, 1900–1970 (Westport, CT, 1979).
8. David J. Leon, "Manuel M. Corella: The Broken Trajectory of the First Latino Student and Teacher at the University of California, 1869–1874," Aztlan 26, no. 1 (2001): 171–79; Victoria Maria MacDonald and Teresa Garcia, "Historical Perspectives on Latino Access to Higher Education, 1848–1990," in The Majority in the Minority: Expanding the Representation of Latina/o Faculty, Administrators, and Students in Higher Education, ed. Jeanett Castellanos and Lee Jones (Sterling, VA, 2003); Gerald McKevitt, "Hispanic California and Catholic Higher Education: The Diary of Jesús María Estudillo, 1857–1864," California History 96, no. 4 (1990–91): 320–31.
9. Tara J. Yosso and Daniel G. Solórzano, "Leaks in the Chicana and Chicano Educational Pipeline," in Latino Policy and Issues Brief No. 13 (Los Angeles, 2006).
10. Beginning in the 1920s Adams State College, a small liberal arts school in Colorado, was sympathetic to the needs of Mexican and Hispano students. At one point, Latino students comprised 25 percent of the undergraduate student population. See Ruben Donato, Mexicanos and Hispanos in Colorado Schools and Communities, 1920–1960 (Albany, NY, 2007). For a similar study on Arizona, see Laura K. Muñoz, "Desert Dreams: Mexican American Education in Arizona, 1870–1930" (PhD diss., Arizona State University, 2006).
11. Allan W. Austin, From Concentration Camp to Campus: Japanese American Students and World War II (Urbana, IL, 2004); Gary Okihiro, Storied Lives: Japanese American Students and World War II (Seattle, WA, 1999). See also Barbara M. Posadas and Roland L. Guyotte, "Unintentional Immigrants: Chicago's Filipino Foreign Students Become Settlers, 1900–1941," Journal of American Ethnic History 9, no. 2 (1990): 26–48.
12. Roberto R. Calderón, Nuestra Voz: Memories of Our Education (Riverside, CA, 1999); Arar Han and John Hsu, eds., Asian American X: An Intersection of 21st Century Asian American Voices (Ann Arbor, MI, 2004).
13. For example, Ronald Takaki, Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans (Boston, 1998). See also the various articles included in the special issue of New Directions for Student Services (Jossey-Bass, 2002, no. 97), titled "Working with Asian American College Students" and edited by Marylu K. McEwan, Corinne Maekawa Kodama, Alvin N. Alvarez, Sunny Lee, and Christopher T. H. Liang. Also see Min Zhou and James V. Gatewood, Contemporary Asian America: A Multidisciplinary Reader (New York, 2000). On Latinos, see Juan Gómez-Quiñones, Roots of Chicano Politics, 1600–1940 (Albuquerque, NM, 1994); Gina M. Pérez, The Near Northwest Side Story: Migration, Displacement, and Puerto Rican Families (Berkeley, CA, 2004); and Virginia Sánchez Korrol, From Colonia to Community: The History of Puerto Ricans in New York City (Berkeley, CA, 1994).
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