Translation Nation by Hector Tobar Article Critique

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While one must admire Tobar's commitment to understanding the totality of the immigrant experience, Tobar's infiltration of this underground economy was certainly not as ground-breaking as when white journalist John Howard Griffin darkened his skin to pass as a black man and understand black culture in the late 1950s and wrote Black Like Me to describe that experience. Griffin literally could have been lynched while disguised as a black man, or killed as a white sympathizer. Tobar did not face those same consequences. In fact, his probably worst consequence would have been to be caught in an INS raid, and he would have been able to provide appropriate documentation to end that problem. Because he was not in actual jeopardy, one must question whether Tobar could really understand the feelings of immigrants who worked in fear of deportation, thus accepting substantially substandard working conditions, every day, and had to do so in order to feed their families.

Another thing that Tobar does do very well is describe how Latino culture has influenced American culture as a whole. He contrasts the America of his childhood with America today to show that Latino culture really has permeated so many different parts of America that it is almost impossible to separate what is Latino from what is American. For example, soccer was a relatively unknown sport just two generations ago; it was a sport that some children played, was not important in high schools or colleges, and there was no real support for a professional soccer team. However, soccer is the significant sport in Mexico, Central America, and South America, and the soccer craze has become part of American culture. While soccer still does not have the following in the United States that it has in other countries around the world, the U.S. National soccer teams, both men and women, are very competitive with major teams from around the world.

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The United States now has professional soccer teams. Finally, one need only consider the ubiquity of the descriptor "soccer mom" to understand how much soccer has become a part of the American culture. Tobar describes this in his book, while also investigating how other aspects of Latino culture, such as food, music, and artwork have all influenced American popular culture.

Another thing that Tobar manages to do very well is describe the ambivalence of the predominate white culture to the Hispanic spread that is occurring in modern America. There are a substantial number of very vocal people who are calling for much harsher boarder controls and zero-tolerance policies for illegal immigrants. Tobar's book was written before Arizona's current legislation allowing police to stop people suspected of being illegal immigrants, which almost has to be based on race-based observations, but one can see in his observations that parts of the country were trending towards this type of outward discrimination. On the other hand, Tobar's casual mention of certain things makes it clear that illegal immigrants form an important part of the United States' economy, even if they are part of the underground economy. Tobar was underground in a Tyson chicken processing plant; the clear implication is that people who consume Tyson chicken are somehow complicit in the use of illegal immigrant labor. The same people who routinely call for a closed border routinely benefit from the fruits of illegal immigrant labor, and this dichotomy is not one that can be fully explored or explained in a book......

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