Cover Letter:

My audience for my Language/Literacy Narrative are people who have immigrant parents and don’t feel like they have connections to their family culture or language. For a long time I struggled with identity because as a Mexican-Polish woman I felt that I couldn’t fit into either category. However, I always felt more in tune with my Polish side because my mom made it a very strong influence on my childhood. From the language to the food to the holidays, I was actively aware of my Polish heritage. In my younger years the primary language I spoke was Polish. When moving to NYC the strong Polish community I once had was now no longer prevalent. In my narrative I used a strong ethos to engage the audience to my writing emotionally. There were moments of vulnerability, strength, pride, etc. All these emotions worked to serve my connection with the audience. The most meaningful insight I’ve learned from this phase was the connection between language and identity. Being able to reflect on my relationship with my language allowed me to take pride in the obstacles I’ve overcome. It also helped me to connect with my Polish roots. This assignment proved to help me embrace the different parts of me; the parts I used to be ashamed of I realized are very common problems many 1st generation kids face. Through writing this narrative, context was a concept I had to keep in mind. I needed the audience to be immersed in my story and place themselves in my shoes. Including details such as the architecture in Poland and the scent my Babcia carries helped with the fluidity and guiding of my story. I knew that writing a personal narrative meant getting down to the fine details. To connect with my audience I needed to give them honesty and also a sense of pride in coming from different cultures. I wanted to cast strength and beauty on the people that related to my story. One goal I feel I accomplished from the course learning outcomes was seeing the influence that our attitude can have towards linguistic empowerment or oppression. From both my story and the others I heard in the class, I realized that when we are put through division and erasure of our mother tongue it can succumb us to feelings of stress and misplacement. Whereas when we have a supportive community that helps us embrace our diversity it can make us feel proud and empowered of our many voices. To sum up, this narrative allowed me to view the power language holds on to our identities, and the importance it has in our childhood as well as future endeavors.