Melting Pot?

Is American more of a melting pot or a compartmentalized plastic plate? According to the article The Nation: Mexican-Americans; Forging a New Vision of America’s Melting Pot written by Gregory Rodriguez, this country is far from a melting pot. Multiculturalism is “the ideology that promotes the coexistence of separate but equal cultures” (Rodriguez 9). The idea of a melting pot is combining cultures equally and blending them to make one delicious culture, not keeping them “separate but equal” (9). Even though Mexican- Americans are constantly trying to intertwine with the White-American culture, this country has kept them separate, and tried to make them (well the legal ones anyway) equal.

As much as some people hate to admit it, America is not a melting pot. Many cultures have come together in this nation, but for the most part, each different culture in the United States has remained separate while trying to be equal to the dominant White-American culture. The novel The Tortilla Curtain by TC Boyle is about the coexistence of Mexican-Americans and White-Americans near the Topanga Canyon in California. The book is written in an interesting style in which each chapter is solely about the Mexican-Americans or the White-Americans. The chapters alternate focus from the Mexican American life and the White-American life. The two stories are not intertwined into one, just like how America is not combining cultures into one melting pot. The Mexican-Americans, although they depend on the gringos, resent them while the White-Americans, although they employ the Mexicans, show hatred towards them. The two strong groups are too proud to combine their efforts into one melting pot to make for an even stronger recipe.

Who is preventing this country from becoming a true melting pot though? Is it the dominant White-Americans or the minority Mexican-Americans? America has made strides to integrate other cultures into the White-American culture, so why is it not happening with the Mexicans? The issue of illegal immigrants influences this dilemma. Illegals do not pay taxes, the white taxpayers get pissed off and so on. The issues trickle down to one final conclusion: America is a divided plate, not a melting pot.

Works Cited 

Rodriguez, Gregory. "The Nation: Mexican-Americans; Forging a New Vision of 
     America's Melting Pot." The New York Times [New York] 11 Feb. 2001: Section 
     4 Page 1. NYTimes.com. 11 Feb. 2001. The New York Times Company. 16 Mar. 
     2009 .