Project

I’m “Being Saxon”, you’re “Being Boyle”

Today everyone has a different opinion regarding the issues of illegal Mexican immigrants. Is anyone right or correct in the beliefs? People generally stereotype illegal immigrants into the people that they see on the news, killers, drug dealers, robbers. Many immigrants are just trying to survive and don’t want to get in anyone’s way. The novel The Tortilla Curtain, by T.C. Boyle, depicts a different side of Mexican illegal immigrants – a side that many white American citizens are not familiar with. The immigrants in the novel don’t want to be grouped in with the violent Mexican immigrants mentioned above, and the white citizens in the book struggle to choose a side on the immigrant issue.

The Tortilla Curtain is written in a different style than most books I have read. Each chapter provides an alternate view of a situation that is plaguing the main characters. T.C. Boyle gives the reader a chance to hear two sides of the story – the viewpoint of a Mexican struggling for survival and his encounters with white American citizens, and the point of view of the white Americans who are reacting to the increasing number of Mexicans on American soil. An example of this would be: one chapter is devoted to Candido’s (the Mexican illegal immigrant) struggle to find a job and he is devastated and in trouble when the labor exchange is shut down. While this is occurring Kyra (a white American Citizens) is annoyed that over 50 Mexicans are waiting on a street corner for work, her efforts end up shutting them down. The reader can see a clear-cut picture of both sides of the story as well as the motives for each character’s actions.

The webquest:
The student will be given a few scenarios and he or she will have to respond as if they were chapters in the book, giving two sides of the story. One view will be in the point of a white American citizen and the second one will be from the view of a Mexican illegal immigrant. The stories can be wither from first person point of view or a third person fictional character. The two scenarios will total 4 or more pages double-spaced (each POV - a page double spaced)…posted to your own blog.

I have a series of articles, blogs, podcasts, and quotes helping you with the project. These sources are to show you how many articles are written about situations dealing with immigration and how people can react or jump to conclusion. Some of these articles are bias, which are to help you become informed how people view these situations. The quotes will also show you how the characters in the book felt, as well as how their opinion was portrayed.

Articles/websites/blogs can be found on my delicious page: delicious.com/fruchtso

To find the podcast: go to itunes, and under the podcast category type in illegal immigrants in the search box. There are two interesting podcasts, #11 (“Illegal immigrants” and the artist WPSU Penn State) and #25 (“American and Mexican border” and the artists is Open University). Enjoy!

Also, go to questia.com (username: phhs#, password: #phhs) and find the article titled, “Illegal immigrants and the labour market,” for more information about Mexicans and the labor market (this may help with scenario #2). There is another interesting article about the debates on illegal immigration in the article titled, “The Immigration Reform Debate.”

Quotes: (in the quotes that mention coyotes, the coyotes are symbols for the Mexicans) – there is a link to all the quotes found on my delicious page.

Pick two of the three scenarios:

Scenario 1: There is an article in the newspaper that discusses an event that involved Mexican illegal immigrants that were members of a gang and killed eight American citizens. They had caused a giant scene and pulled out guns in the middle of a public place. The Mexicans may be linked with powerful drug lords. (events like this can be found on a blog linked to my delicious – “So you want to move to Arizona: Mexican Drug Wars have arrived in Arizona)

Possible POVs (only suggested - can use a different reaction):

American Point of View: They are outraged due to the increasing number of Mexican illegal immigrants in our community. The white American citizens believe that Mexicans have no right to be on their soil, let alone killing innocent Americans and spreading drugs and violence.

Mexican Point of View: The Mexican illegal immigrants are furious with their own people because those Mexicans that are involved in gangs give all Mexicans a bad reputation and put all their lives in danger

Scenario 2: There is an article that says Americans have started a group to protest illegal immigrants in their area, and some hate groups have even starting following immigrants in order to harass them. The protesting groups have shut down the labor market where the Mexicans used to find jobs from.

American POV: Americans are happy. They think the Mexican “problem” will be gone and they will not have to deal with the immigrants anymore.

Mexican POV: The Mexicans are outraged and devastated. Their hopes of succeeding have quickly diminished. The immigrants will no longer be able to even afford the abysmal places they have been staying.

Scenario 3: Respond from both sides (American and Mexican) to the idea that America could not last without Mexican labor workers (illegal, not illegal, or both).