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    Kayla Rivera analyzes how transnationalism and cultural diffusion impact identity for Central Americans. When they immigrate to places like the U.S. to escape colonization, they often have to abandon their cultural practices and identities to conform to expectations in their new home. This can cause a loss of cultural traditions and pride in their identity. Edgar from High-Risk Homosexual struggled with accepting his sexuality due to pressure to conform to traditional gender norms. Cultural traditions are deeply important to maintaining Central American identities across generations, yet transnational migration often forces people to obscure their true identities out of fear of racism and deportation. Overall, transnationalism both enables cultural sharing but also threatens the loss of identity for immigrant communities.

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    Kayla Rivera analyzes how transnationalism and cultural diffusion impact identity for Central Americans. When they immigrate to places like the U.S. to escape colonization, they often have to abandon their cultural practices and identities to conform to expectations in their new home. This can cause a loss of cultural traditions and pride in their identity. Edgar from High-Risk Homosexual struggled with accepting his sexuality due to pressure to conform to traditional gender norms. Cultural traditions are deeply important to maintaining Central American identities across generations, yet transnational migration often forces people to obscure their true identities out of fear of racism and deportation. Overall, transnationalism both enables cultural sharing but also threatens the loss of identity for immigrant communities.

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    Kayla Rivera analyzes how transnationalism and cultural diffusion impact identity for Central Americans. When they immigrate to places like the U.S. to escape colonization, they often have to abandon their cultural practices and identities to conform to expectations in their new home. This can cause a loss of cultural traditions and pride in their identity. Edgar from High-Risk Homosexual struggled with accepting his sexuality due to pressure to conform to traditional gender norms. Cultural traditions are deeply important to maintaining Central American identities across generations, yet transnational migration often forces people to obscure their true identities out of fear of racism and deportation. Overall, transnationalism both enables cultural sharing but also threatens the loss of identity for immigrant communities.

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    Kayla Rivera analyzes how transnationalism and cultural diffusion impact identity for Central Americans. When they immigrate to places like the U.S. to escape colonization, they often have to abandon their cultural practices and identities to conform to expectations in their new home. This can cause a loss of cultural traditions and pride in their identity. Edgar from High-Risk Homosexual struggled with accepting his sexuality due to pressure to conform to traditional gender norms. Cultural traditions are deeply important to maintaining Central American identities across generations, yet transnational migration often forces people to obscure their true identities out of fear of racism and deportation. Overall, transnationalism both enables cultural sharing but also threatens the loss of identity for immigrant communities.

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    Rivera 1

    Kayla Rivera

    Professor Encinias

    CAS 115

    28 October 2023

    The Global Impact of Transnationalism Led by Identity

    Have you ever noticed how diverse many people's cultures and identities are and how
    everybody is different in so many ways yet so alike? Cultural diffusion in the world's economy is
    enabled by transnationalism within Central American communities. They share their traditions,
    beliefs, and values, which are also part of their identities, and this is something that Edgar from
    High-Risk Homosexual struggled with. Transnationalism has positive effects like sharing one
    another's culture, but it also has negative effects, like the lost identities of the Central Americans
    who have to immigrate. There have been many accounts of Central Americans who have had to
    leave their motherland because they were being colonized. When they would leave, they would
    go to places like the U.S. and have to change everything they knew and do things the American
    way.

    A large number of Central Americans lose their identities when leaving their motherland
    and coming to America and conforming to the American dream, thus leaving their own identity
    behind them. In the article Expressions of Maya Identity and Culture in Los Angeles by
    Giovanni Batz, the author states, “Maya migration and settlement in Los Angeles is examined to
    determine discrimination and anti-immigrant environments that influence some Maya to
    conserve or relinquish their identity” on the first page as an introduction to the loss of identity
    within their culture. Many Central Americans, in this case, Mayas, had difficulty being able to
    take pride in their own identity. They always had to worry about deportation, racism, and not
    being accepted into the country by its natives, so to avoid this, they would pretend to be the more
    acceptable race, Mexican. Many Central Americans had to ditch what they’ve known all their
    lives to conform to Mexican traditions, this of which is implied in the text, which states,
    “Identity is constructed through culture and through the daily practices of people.” Whenever a
    white American would see a Central American, they would automatically assume they were
    Mexican, and so many Central Americans had to change their identity in different ways other
    than race, but also sexuality, as shown in Edgar Gomez’s book.

    Edgar from High-Risk Homosexual by Edgar Gomez struggled with not having the
    confidence to accept his identity without pretending to be the man everyone else wanted him to
    be because it was seen as traditional. "I was just like her. Her face. Her shade. Her baby. That
    was the problem,” stated on page 32, implies there’s an issue with his resemblance and
    similarities to his mother, which refers to his feminine gay side. Being raised by his mother and
    picking up on her feminine traits, the family wanted to change him and roughen him up to a
    more traditionally acceptable male persona. The men in Edgar's family thought that being gay
    was wrong and being a stereotypical man was right. Edgar's father stated on page 20, “Raise him
    Rivera 2

    right,” when referring to his potential feminine ways as the wrong way to raise a boy. Situations
    when his family would try and change him into the man they wanted him to be rather than
    accepting him for who he is are what contributed to Edgar's insecurities about himself and
    confining his true self to the world. Culture is a part of why they wanted Edgar to be the
    stereotypical man of their race, and this happens not only in his family but in other cultures as
    well.

    Cultural traditions play a large part in Central American identities. “Parents stressed the
    importance of raising their children to understand the importance of being Salvadoran,
    Guatemalan, or American and revealed culturally and linguistically to understand their
    histories,” stated on page 7 of the article “Visibly Hidden Language Culture and Identity of
    Central Americans in Los Angeles.” This exemplifies how the Central Americans want to
    decolonize their historical roots and assure that their traditions will be carried on. Also stated in
    that article on page 8 is, “Blurring of identities that occur in part from the fear of being “found
    out” because of the lack of legal status meant “passing as a Mexican” in order to avoid
    deportation back to Central America.” This speaks to the topic of Mayan people having to leave
    their own culture and identity behind to survive by pretending to be Mexican. Racialization was
    seen in this situation because white Americans saw all Hispanic and Latino people as the same
    thing; they also saw Guatemalans, Salavadorians, and other Central American ethnicities as
    Mexican just because they all spoke the language of Spanish. Language is something that is part
    of transnationalism and identity; it’s something brought from land to land through the connection
    of people.

    Transnationalism allows us to communicate and connect with different cultural and


    economic countries, which is why many choose to move to places for a better chance of success
    or their resources. This was shown in Central American Identities by Cortez Carranza, starting
    on page 4, “Panama became a major international travel route and brought modernization and a
    global capitalist economy to Central America." The Panama Canal is one of the world's biggest
    trading routes and is considered transnationalism because it’s an exchange of resources between
    many different countries. This isn’t the only example of how we connect and change through
    transnationalism, as stated on page 251. “Research has identified a primarily suburban settlement
    pattern spanning the northern portion of the metro area with regards to Latin American
    immigrants to the Atlanta area.” Many Central Americans and Latin Americans travel and adapt
    to the lifestyle of the country they move to. The motherland of Indigenous or Hispanic people
    holds their identity and culture, and when they leave, traveling to other people’s motherland,
    they pick up on their culture and way of life and sometimes have to forcefully leave their own
    behind.

    Identity is a man-made construct and is something you choose to identify with or by, and
    transnationalism plays a large part in what you identify as. “Identity is not as permanent as we
    might imagine from examples of our own lives,” stated 3 of Central American Identities by
    Cortez Carranza. As shown by the given examples throughout the essay, identity is something
    about you that changes as you change. The construct of individualism vs. community prevents
    people from actually being who they want to be because they’re being controlled, colonized, and
    having to accept the new persona. Central Americans must decolonize the New South, find their
    true selves, and be who they want to be in the free spirit without worrying about being
    discriminated against or beaten down for their identity. Everybody is different in their own way
    Rivera 3

    and is bound by their own thoughts, opinions, and beliefs. Transnationalism is what grants
    people the opportunity to gain another perspective on things and share culture and traditions as
    one.

    Works Cited

    Batz, Giovanni. Expressions of Maya Identity and Culture in Los Angeles. 2010.

    Cortez, Beatriz, and Douglas Carranza Mena. Introduction to Central American Studies.

    Dubuque, Ia, Kendall Hunt PublLavadenz, Magaly.

    Visibly Hidden Language Culture and Identity in Los Angeles. Lavadenz, 2008. Accessed 28

    Gomez, Edgar. High-Risk Homosexual : A Memoir. Counterpoint Press, 2022.

    Oct. 2023. publ‌ishing Company, 2015.

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