Bicultural Experiences Research Articles

Inequalities, policies, and culture: English, Arabic, and Chinese in the Bahraini linguistic market

ABSTRACT Due to modernisation and Englishisation in Bahrain, noticeably different types of bilingual and bicultural experiences exist, especially among the youth. Recently, the rise of Chinese education policies in the region raises the question of how it might alter the local linguistic market and the forms of capital within it. Applying a scalar-chronotopic analysis to audio-recorded conversations from Bahraini youth as well as textual data from the Confucius Institute in Bahrain’s website and related press releases, this paper lays out key information about the status of languages in the Bahraini linguistic market to discuss how Chinese might alter the current state of affairs. This approach also highlights the indexical differences in how these codes are promoted and perceived. I argue that whereas the sociocultural aspect highlighted in the promotion of Chinese is somewhat absent when it comes to English, it still has neoliberal implications. I conclude with a discussion regarding a more productive integration of ‘culture’ in the promotion and acquisition of language.

Inter-Viewing Socialist Dancing Bodies

In October 2021, I interviewed three Chinese professional dancers who had completed undergraduate dance degrees in China and pursued their MFA in Dance degrees in the US. Their bi-cultural experiences and unique training narratives motivated me to re-search the Chinese dancing bodies beyond the borders. In this article, I draw on Robin Nelson’s methodologies of Practice/Performance as Research and Diana Taylor’s Performance Studies theory of the archive to examine the performativity of my interviewees’ dance experiences and my own educational experiences in both the US and in China. I explore how Chinese dancers, with their distinctive, yellow-skinned appearance, embody the national spirit and cultural traditions of China as they navigate various dance practices across the diverse landscape of the United States. Through their daily movements, these dancers inhabit a space of in-betweenness, leaving indelible but untraceable traces of their experiences on their bodies. My analysis delves into how these dancers, through their encounters in the field of dance and performance in the US, reinterpret their cultural memories, social identities, and socialist ideologies through choreography. Drawing from my own cross-border experiences between the US and China, I approach the examination of their performances through interviews, textual analysis, and movement interpretations.

“It’s the Best of Both Worlds!”: Investigating Bicultural Stress in Adult Bicultural Canadians

This study delves into the ecological factors that predict bicultural stress among bicultural adult Canadians while uncovering common themes surrounding their bicultural identity and developmental journey. A sample of bicultural Canadians (N = 147; 88% female, Mage = 20.72) participated in an online survey consisting of standardized self-report measures and open-ended inquiries about their bicultural experience. The study identified factors contributing to current levels of bicultural stress through regression analysis. Additionally, thematic analysis was conducted to explore participants’ narratives about their bicultural experiences. Participants were of diverse racial/ethnic Canadian backgrounds (Middle Eastern, n = 50; East and Southeast Asian, n = 22; South Asian, n = 27; Black, n = 21; multiple ethnicities, n = 22; Latin, n = 5). The regression results demonstrated that ethnic identity, family cultural socialization towards heritage culture, perceived discrimination, and generational status contributed to feelings of bicultural stress. Thematic analysis revealed a developmental trajectory encompassing participants’ realization of their bicultural identity, navigating bicultural stress, and cultivating an appreciation for their dual cultures. Findings suggest that bicultural individuals’ interactions with their social environment may develop their bicultural identity towards more positive outcomes as they approach adulthood.

Heritage Language Fluency: Effects on Second Generation, Asian American Youth's Bicultural Identity

This paper studies the bicultural experiences of second generation, Asian American high schoolers, specifically regarding heritage language. As this population is constantly in different environments where they have to adhere to different cultural contexts, many disconnects have continuously arised due to cultural gaps or clashes. Among these cultural disconnects is language disparities between that of the host and heritage country. Thus, the objective of this paper was to examine the relationship between fluency of heritage language and this demographic’s bicultural identity through a mixed-method survey. After conducting correlational and thematic analysis of the results, it was found that while significant commonalities are present in perspectives toward heritage language, there were unique intricacies within each data set that were molded by participants’ personal experiences and situations. Thus, from the data collected, heritage language fluency does play a part in shaping bicultural identity, but there is a lack of direct correlation. Asian American youth’s bicultural experiences and other fundamental aspects like assimilation pressures and surrounding communities work in conjunction with language to impact the bicultural experience. Therefore, considering the diverse sources of assimilation pressures, a cross-context collaboration is needed, where heritage language learning is supported and valued.

Analyzing the Intersectional and Bicultural Experiences of Black Immigrant Women STEM Students at a Diverse Urban University: A Phenomenological Study

Analyzing the Intersectional and Bicultural Experiences of Black Immigrant Women STEM Students at a Diverse Urban University: A Phenomenological Study

Multicultural body-based cultural frame switching: A dance/movement therapy approach

ABSTRACT This article considers how individuals who believe they do not belong to a single cultural or ethnic group, may feel culturally homeless as a result of low bicultural identity integration (BII) in which they feel their multiple cultural identities do not fit together but are contrasting. This feeling of dissonance between a person’s cultural identities can lead to norm violations in social situations due to their inability to culturally frame switch into the most appropriate cultural meaning system. The author’s proposed Multicultural Body-Based Cultural Frame Switching Model utilises dance movement therapy techniques and research from the field of cognitive psychology to help people increase their BII and better accurately culturally frame switch. The model increases memories of positive bicultural experiences through the exploration of body posture, which raises BII and allows for easier access to a person’s differing cultural meaning systems in a given situation.

Discourse Analyses of Chinese Visiting Professors at Canadian Universities: Adaptation and Transformation

Chinese visiting professors, as Chinese university educators, are playing both practitioners and conformists in adapting to Western teaching perspectives and pedagogies while maintaining Chinese teaching beliefs. This study attempts to understand the international university experiences (Canada) of Chinese visiting professors. Arguably, Chinese visiting professors might potentially engage in programs aimed at providing an advance preparation for Chinese international graduate students, furthering their successful transition in study abroad. This paper is oriented to a post-structural paradigm in order to remain open to the attitudes, beliefs, and values of participants. The findings of a discourse analysis of Chinese visiting professors at a Canadian university are presented. The findings disclosed specific accounts as provided by this research group (i.e. dual academic and teaching experiences, and bicultural experiences in Chinese and Canadian universities). Using the findings, recommendations were made in bridging potential challenges to studying abroad. Specific to this task is the construction of an in-country program aimed at preparing Chinese undergraduate and graduate students for study overseas (specifically in Canada).

Coleridge and Cosmopolitan Intellectualism, 1794–1804: The Legacy of Göttingen University. Maximiliaan van Woudenberg. New York: Routledge, 2018. Pp. x+340.

Coleridge and Cosmopolitan Intellectualism, 1794–1804: The Legacy of Göttingen University. Maximiliaan van Woudenberg. New York: Routledge, 2018. Pp. x+340.

Exploring the Stories of Asian-Canadian Women on What It Means to Be Bicultural

Individuals who identify with two cultures, or bicultural individuals, often face unique challenges as they attempt to negotiate the demands of their ethnic and dominant cultures. While much of the research focuses on conceptualizing and measuring bicultural identity, studies investigating the lived experiences of being bicultural are scarce. This study explores the stories of four second-generation Asian-Canadian women about their bicultural experiences and what being bicultural means to them. Drawing from narrative inquiry, interviews were conducted to collect stories from participants. The findings of this study indicate that there are multiple definitions of being bicultural and elucidate some of the challenges faced by second-generation Asian-Canadian women associated with their multifaceted identity. The results provide a better understanding of how Asian-Canadian women define and interact with their bicultural identity.
 Keywords: biculturality, culture, ethnies, identity, second-generation

Dynamic self-representation of interdependent Chinese: The effect of bicultural experience.

The process of globalisation has increased the opportunity for Chinese individuals to utilise influences from other cultures that differ from their own collectivistic culture. The explorations of the impact of acculturation on Chinese individuals' self-construals have become intriguing. Thus, we recruited German-Chinese (N = 192) people who live in Germany and had direct bicultural experiences, as well as Mainland-Chinese (N = 192) people who live in Mainland China and had internalised a second culture through more indirect means of exposure. We investigated their accessibility to both interdependent and independent cultural frameworks using temporal self-construal priming. The results showed that priming effects were observed in both cultural groups. However, the self-construals of the German-Chinese participants were more flexible than those of Mainland-Chinese under self-construal priming. Also, the results suggested that women were easier to be influenced by direct bicultural experiences, due to their private and collective self were different between the two cultures. These findings provide evidence regarding the opinion that individuals could use influences from more than one culture. More importantly, these results suggest that the acculturation induced by direct bicultural experiences facilitates cultural frame switching.

Exploring biculturality and beauty standards through breast discourse and breasted experience of sexual minority women.

Body satisfaction and embodied experience are fundamental components of women’s mental health. This is especially true for sexual minority women (SMW) who experience the complex demands of biculturality, as they must attend to the appearance ideals of both mainstream and SMW subculture. The current study aimed to investigate SMW’s bicultural experiences of body satisfaction and beauty pressures through a focused exploration of SMW’s breast discourse and breasted experience. Specifically, we hoped to discern more conclusive findings on whether the SMW subculture acts to protect SMW from the negative effects of mainstream, heteronormative beauty standards as proposed by previous research findings. We conducted a qualitative study of 11 SMW with questions focused on a variety of experiential areas including breast development, gender identity, romantic relationships, mainstream culture and media, and SMW subculture. Data analysis resulted in 13 primary themes and 26 subthemes. From the thematic aggregate, a preliminary theoretical model emerged detailing the relationships and interactions among various social and personal-based factors and influences. Results determined that breasts as a gender marker, gender identity, the breast/chest-gender identity relationship, and internalized sexism and beauty codes are the principal factors involved in SMW’s bicultural breasted experience and beauty standard negotiation. These factors, emergent themes, and the preliminary theoretical model are discussed, along with clinical implications, study limitations, and future research directions.

Self-Expression and World-Expression: Critical Multicultural Literacy in Maxine Hong Kingston and Sandra Cisneros

Self-Expression and World-Expression:Critical Multicultural Literacy in Maxine Hong Kingston and Sandra Cisneros Fatima Mujcinovic (bio) Speaking the word is not a true act if it is not at the same time associated with the right of self-expression and world-expression, of creating and recreating, of deciding and choosing and ultimately participating in society's historical processes. —Paulo Freire Since slave narratives and early immigrant autobiographies, literacy has been featured in United States literature as a major issue in minorities' struggle for power and equality. Some minority writers, such as Native Americans Zitkala-Sa and Simon Ortiz, have depicted the acquisition of dominant literacy as a forcefully imposed method of cultural assimilation. At the same time, Sa and Ortiz have acknowledged the fact that English proficiency, both oral and written, allows Native Americans to communicate their struggles for physical and cultural survival to wider audiences. For many Native American writers who publish in English, the use of dominant language to express indigenous content is an act of political activism and cultural preservation.1 Other minority authors, most notably Frederick Douglass and Richard Wright, have rendered English literacy as an effective instrument for self-empowerment and social integration. Exposing the systemic practices of denying or segregating education on the basis of race, their autobiographies have emphasized the importance of equal access to formal education in minority Americans' struggles for emancipation. As young men, both Douglass and Wright quickly comprehended the link between knowledge and power and pursued literacy/education as a means of reclaiming control over their lives.2 Revealing the meaning of literacy policies as deeply embedded in specific social arrangements and ideologies, these approaches counter the dominant view of literacy as a neutral, autonomous practice. In more recent literary works, US minority authors have gone further to question Western literacy/education as a monolithic ideological concept, exposing its failure to recognize the existence and validity of non-Western forms of knowledge. In their contemporary approaches to the meaning and practice of education in minority contexts, literacy is often presented in relation to cultural difference, hybrid identities, and political agency. For instance, contemporary US Latino/a writers have stressed the [End Page 98] importance of bilingualism in their portrayals of bicultural experiences, linking the concept of bilingual literacy to Latinos' cultural and political rights in the United States. Integration of Spanish and/or Spanglish in their writing in English serves not only to develop distinctly Latino settings and themes but also to interrogate homogenous definitions of modern American culture. Reflecting their strong commitment to cultural diversity and equality, the performance of multicultural literacy allows US minority writers to present non-dominant cultural practices, values, and symbols as meaningful parts of national culture. These interventions also communicate demands for multicultural models of knowledge: as they themselves participate in the creation of such models, minority writers strive to ensure that members of their communities in general are allowed to transform and create literacies. Because traditional definitions of literacy cannot fully convey marginal experiences, new conceptions are being produced and embraced as necessary modes of self-expression. The noted Asian American author Maxine Hong Kingston affirms this idea when commenting on her unique style of writing: "I am trying to write an American language that has Chinese accents; I write the American language the way I speak it. So in a way, I [am] creating something new, but at the same time, it's still the American language, pushed further" (qtd. in Rabinowitz 182). Sandra Cisneros, a prominent Mexican American writer, points out a similar linguistic polyphony in her work: "What I am especially aware of lately is how the Spanish syntax and word choice occurs in my work even though I write in English" ("Ghosts and Voices" 72). To tell the story of their communities, minority authors like Kingston and Cisneros recognize that inserting marks of otherness into the English language enables them to present the uniqueness of their ethnic traditions while also claiming their place in America's culture and language. This conscious process of adapting dominant literacy to create new literary models reflects a democratic understanding of culture, elucidating the need for inclusive and diverse literacy practices...

Immigration and Its Effects

Immigration and Its Effects Paul Ryer The Latino Threat: Constructing Immigrants, Citizens, and the Nation. Second edition. By Leo R. Chavez. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2013. Pp. xi + 297. $22.95 paper. $70.00 cloth. ISBN: 9780804783521. The Immigrant Divide: How Cuban Americans Changed the US and Their Homeland. By Susan Eva Eckstein. New York: Routledge, 2009. Pp. xi + 298. $38.50 paper. $156.00 cloth. ISBN: 9780415999236. The Diaspora Strikes Back: Caribeño Tales of Learning and Turning. By Juan Flores. New York: Routledge, 2009. Pp. viii + 237. $41.95 paper. ISBN: 9780415952613. Transnational Crossroads: Remapping the Americas and the Pacific. Edited by Camilla Fojas and Rudy P. Guevarra Jr. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2012. Pp. x + 478. $45.00 paper. ISBN: 9780803237957. Labor and Legality: An Ethnography of a Mexican Immigrant Network. By Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. Pp. v + 164. $19.95 paper. ISBN: 9780199739387. Life on the Hyphen: The Cuban American Way. Revised edition. By Gustavo Pérez Firmat. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2012. Pp. ix + 240. $24.95 paper. $55.00 cloth. ISBN: 9780292735996. Showdown in the Sonoran Desert: Religion, Law, and the Immigration Controversy. By Ananda Rose. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 2012. Pp. vii + 186. $29.95 cloth. ISBN: 9780199890934. Responding to the reality of intensified worldwide migrations today, scholars from many disciplinary backgrounds and theoretical perspectives have taken up the challenge of making sense of people in motion. How are different migrant streams and stories comparable, and how do their contrasts also illuminate the larger phenomenon? In this review, I will consider a set of books that exemplify the research of many migration scholars and, I hope, illustrate the value of comparative consideration in uncovering broader patterns and questions with which all students of immigration must wrestle. While most of these books lean toward qualitative narratives rather than enumerated policy prescription, the authors’ disciplinary backgrounds include anthropology, sociology, Latino studies, literary criticism, religious and legal studies, journalism, and ethnic studies. Thus each utilizes a different set of methods, in turn generating different sorts of data, interpretation, and indeed, ethical entailments. Collectively, however, they explore the multiple ways in which migration [End Page 277]has challenged old models of social life; the push and pull of migration; the nature of cultural hybridity; the tension between studying “the border” and borders more broadly; the underlying and evolving labor regime of neoliberal capitalism; and the multidirectional, global reality of migration today. For all scholars of contemporary migration, however, it would be wise to keep in mind Anna Tsing’s prophetic advice—that we not become so enthralled by a focus on migrants that we inadvertently create a new geography of center and margin that leaves behind those left behind, people who do not themselves migrate. 1They too are profoundly affected, and effected, by the processes of migration. Labor and Legality, by ethnographer Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz, takes a close look at the lives of ten Mexican men working without papers in a restaurant in Chicago, as well as at their family ties and remittance practices. The revised edition of Life on the Hyphen, by literature professor Gustavo Pérez Firmat, is a study of the bicultural experiences and world created by and for “1.5 generation” Cuban-Americans. In The Diaspora Strikes Back, cultural theorist Juan Flores brings a notion of “cultural remittances” (4, 9, 11) to the fore in looking at Puerto Ricans and Caribbeans from diasporic communities who return to the islands. In the second edition of The Latino Threat, anthropologist Leo R. Chavez first examines the history of US myths about Latinos as “illegal aliens” and then focuses on contemporary iterations of such narratives in a variety of settings. Transnational Crossroads, edited by Camilla Fojas and Rudy P. Guevarra Jr., reminds us of the entanglement of Latin Americans immigrating to the United States with Asian and Pacific Islanders, principally in California and Hawaii. Susan Eva Eckstein’s sociological study The Immigrant Divideposits two contrasting cohorts of Cuban émigrés—”Exiles” and “New Cubans.” And in Showdown in the Sonoran Desert, journalist Ananda Rose tries to focus in a fair and balanced...

The Role of Identity Integration in Enhancing Creativity Among Mixed‐Race Individuals

AbstractIdentity integration among bicultural individuals refers to the perception that their two cultural identities are compatible. Previous research has shown that identity integration is likely to lead to enhanced creativity. However, this research was conducted among first‐ and second‐generation immigrants, but not among mixed‐race individuals. The current research examined identity integration and creativity among mixed‐race individuals. We also explored the role of integrated identity experiences at home. We found that identity integration was related to increases in creativity; and this was partly mediated via integrated identity experiences at home. Our findings suggest that positive bicultural experiences at home may create a context for the individual to integrate their biracial identities; and this is ultimately beneficial for creativity.

The Malleability of Bicultural Identity Integration (BII)

Bicultural Identity Integration (BII), or biculturals’ perceived compatibility between their two cultural identities, has been found to predict a variety of psychological processes and behavioral outcomes. However, it is not clear why biculturals differ in their levels of BII. We suggest that the valence of bicultural experiences influences BII. Furthermore, we predict that biculturals’ level of BII can be changed momentarily by recalling valenced bicultural experiences. An experimental study manipulating recall of positive or negative bicultural experiences found that recalling positive bicultural experiences increased BII, whereas recalling negative bicultural experiences decreased BII. However, recalling experiences irrelevant to bicultural experiences did not change BII. Theoretical and practical implications of the malleability of BII are discussed.

Living in Two Languages: The Challenges to English in Contemporary American Literature

Recognizing the importance of English in (re)negotiating culture and identity in U.S. society, numerous contemporary American authors have explored the issue of cultural and linguistic competence and performance in their writing. Supported with examples from literary texts by Sandra Cisneros, Julia Alvarez, Junot Díaz, Amy Tan, and Kiran Desai, this paper discusses the complex role of the English language in the characters’ struggle for economic and emotional survival. Frequently based on the authors’ own family background and bicultural experiences, the selected literary texts offer a realistic representation of the life lived by predominantly working-class immigrants and how they cope with the adoption and use of a new language in order to overcome language barriers, racist attitudes and social exclusion. Such an analysis ultimately highlights how a new literary thematic focus on living in two languages has affected English Studies.

Effects of mono‐ and bicultural experiences on auditory perception

The auditory system functions in the context of everyday life and the cultural environment in which we live. Although cultural-invariant, universal principles certainly contribute to sound processing, cultural factors play a role as well. In this review paper, we discuss two potential sources of cultural influence on auditory perception. We term the first type bottom-up, and use it to refer to the way that increased exposure to particular kinds of sound could shape our auditory and auditory-neural responses. The second type we term top-down, and use it to refer to the way our cultural upbringing broadly shapes how we think, which may in turn have an impact on how we perceive the world. An important consideration regarding cultural influences is that many individuals grow up with exposure to environmental stimulations of more than one culture. In our discussion, we will consider both mono- and bicultural experiences.

Maintaining faith in agency under immutable constraints: Cognitive consequences of believing in negotiable fate

Negotiable fate refers to the idea that one can negotiate with fate for control, and that people can exercise personal agency within the limits that fate has determined. Research on negotiable fate has found greater prevalence of related beliefs in Southeast Asia, East Asia, and Eastern Europe than in Western Europe and English-speaking countries. The present research extends previous findings by exploring the cognitive consequences of the belief in negotiable fate. It was hypothesized that this belief enables individuals to maintain faith in the potency of their personal actions and to remain optimistic in their goal pursuits despite the immutable constraints. The belief in negotiable fate was predicted to (a) facilitate sense-making of surprising outcomes; (b) increase persistence in goal pursuits despite early unfavorable outcomes; and (c) increase risky choices when individuals have confidence in their luck. Using multiple methods (e.g., crosscultural comparisons, culture priming, experimental induction of fate beliefs), we found supporting evidence for our hypotheses in three studies. Furthermore, as expected, the cognitive effects of negotiable fate are observed only in cultural contexts where the fate belief is relatively prevalent. Implications of these findings are discussed in relation to the intersubjective approach to understanding the influence of culture on cognitive processes (e.g., Chiu, Gelfand, Yamagishi, Shteynberg, & Wan, 2010), the sociocultural foundations that foster the development of a belief in negotiable fate, and an alternative perspective for understanding the nature of agency in contexts where constraints are severe. Future research avenues are also discussed.

Exploring Bicultural Experiences: Responding to a Chinese American Young Adult Novel

Reading and responding to ethnic literature that is reflective of one’s own experiences often has significant value for the younger members of the parallel cultures. This paper reports the results of the responses of young adult and adult Asian and Asian American readers to a Chinese American young adult novel set in the 1920’s. The findings suggest that (1) cultural background played a major role in reader response, (2) cross-cultural reading responses revealed readers’ ethnic identity development, especially when dealing with between-world situations, and (3) Chinese Americans continue to experience racial discrimination today. Implications for educators include the importance of critical literacy and the inclusion of multiethnic literature in the K-12 curriculum.

"Cold/Hot, English/Spanish": The Puerto Rican American Divide in Judith Ortiz Cofer's "Silent Dancing"

On more than one occasion Rican American writer Judith Ortiz Cofer has been questioned about her use of standard American English to express the bicultural experiences of the immigrant Ricans featured in her poetry and prose fiction. The suggestion that her linguistic selection renders suspect her ethnic identity as well as the authenticity of her literary accounts is never far from the surface of such inquiries. Ortiz Cofer's response, however, has been consistently unapologetic. In a recent interview conducted by Rafael Ocasio, she speaks forcefully about the varied and ever changing character of the Rican experience (Infinite Variety 735), asserting, want my work to be recognized as coming out of the Rican tradition, even though it (734). An earlier interview reports her theorizing even more plainly on the subject: There is not just one reality to being a Rican writer. I am putting together a different view (Ocasio, Puerto Rican Literature 45). Ortiz Cofer's response is significant not only because it rejects facile definitions of cultural identity, definitions based almost exclusively on linguistic proficiency, but more importantly, because it challenges writers and scholars to adopt a more nuanced approach in their investigation of Latin peoples. As Eliana Ortega and Nancy Saporta Sternbach argue in their essay on contemporary Latina literature, it is incumbent upon those in the field of Latin American studies to consider more carefully the ways in which race, class, gender, linguistic affinity, and other social and material circumstances contribute to a more complex, more diversified account of what it means to be a person of Latin origin (7-8). Such is the defining issue at stake not only in Ortiz Cofer's status as an English-dominant Latina writer, (1) but a defining issue at stake in much of her work as well, most notably in her cross-genre autobiography entitled Silent Dancing: A Partial Remembrance of a Rican Childhood. In addition to being a text that affirms the cultural ethos of an author who sounds from her Spanish-speaking contemporaries, Silent Dancing breaks ground in Latino/a literature by speaking specifically about the bicultural experience of Rican Americans, and by demonstrating the way in which this experience is fundamentally distinct from that found in Chicano/a literature. The purpose of this paper is to chart the nature and source of these differences. In particular, I borrow from Gloria Anzaldua's theories of border identity to argue that the cultural reality encountered by the characters in Silent Dancing is neither random nor monolithically shared, but one that is shaped instead by the unique physical reality that divides these characters from their homeland. Unlike the US Texas-Mexican border which functions prominently in the formation of what Anzaldua calls the new mestiza of Mexican Americans, the Rican American border is not a land formation, and hence it has an entirely different psychic impact on those who traverse it. This notion is one of the most compelling insights of Ortiz Cofer's work. Silent Dancing thus not only troubles the indiscriminate application of Anzaldua's mestiza consciousness to all border culture Latino/as, but, in a much broader sense, it troubles the conclusions of any cultural analysis that would deny the infinite variety of the Latino/a experience. As complex as Silent Dancing is in its alternating combination of poetry and creative nonfiction essay, (2) the story itself is simple: Ortiz Cofer narrates the events of her childhood in a series of chronologically-ordered vignettes that detail her experience as a young girl shuttled back and forth between her grandmother's casa in a small Rican village and her family's American home in Paterson, New Jersey. Ortiz Cofer's father works in the Navy shipyards of Brooklyn Yard, a job that requires him to take leave of his family for months at a time. …