Fernando gomez

11/01/16
ENGL 242B
Huerta

Honoring Who We Are

Imagen been in a classroom, the only differences between you the other students is

that your cultural background is different. that small fact could have a big impact in your

life in a school system , such as teacher looking at you different, also it could give you a

direct pass to have an inferior education than does that are perceived as the dominant

group. In Tara Yosso article whose culture has capital ?A critical race theory

discussions of community wealth she states the importance and the need to honor the

various form cultural capital in classroom. She argues how cultural capital gives

students different skills , assets , talents and experiences.she explains how students of

color often learn through their everyday life , they are often pass down the knowledge

carry by their parents. Reading yosso text, Was like a challenge imposed on me , the

challenge was to look in the mirror, and realize what knowledge and talents were

obtained by me through cultural capital. There were three cultural capitals that stand to

me, which i found them to be very important to form the person that i am today. Also

help me understand how important these capitals were in a college classroom. For

example i chose linguistic capital ,aspirational, and resistant capital . i believe the

importance of those capitals in college classroom, is that helps students develop their

own way to demonstrate understanding in a classroom, also helps students to have

different perspective which in a long term helps us have an open minded society .
One of the main capitals that i chose was linguistic capital, In her article yosse

describes it as the intellectual and social skills attained through communication

experiences in more than one language and/or style

She also explains how students may have been engaged in storytelling tradition, that

often may include listening to and recounting oral histories. Growing up , storytelling

was a big part of my childhood, often it was use by my parents as a way to make sense

of how the world works, another example of how linguistic capital gave me skills were

dichos (proverbs) which are often used in the mexican culture, the complexity of dichos

are very sophisticated and colorful, often they are design to make you think and get

your own meaning out of them. Linguistic capital , in my opinion is one of the major

capital, if teacher realize what kind of skills students obtain through these capital, they

could help students expand their critical thinking, also help students develop their skills

to be able to play with words , created art and to be able to express themselves through

poems. What i believe i brought to a classroom setting was , my ability to understand

and retell what i learn in a classroom .

Another major capital, that Yosso mentions in her text , that i believe is important

would be Resistant Capital. In her text Yosso refers to resistant capital as those

knowledge and skills fostered through oppositional behavior that challenges inequality .
She also explains how transformative resistant capital includes the knowledge of the

structures of racism and motivation to work to transform such oppressive structures.

When reading her text, i felt related to her writing, Because in my family i have persons

that have teach me through motivation to always stand up for what is right. When i was

10 years old one my uncle , a former teacher , he invited me to a trip to mexico , his

goal was for me to experience and learned how a passionate person looks like, it also

taught me how a group of people come together could accomplish anything, it gave me

sense of what was to belong to a group of people fighting for a cause, a sense of

community. Also in my family i have an uncle that for me he is an ideal revolutionary, he

has been part of a former group call zapatistas in the southern part of mexico, he helps

them organize their school system . By been close to him i gotten a sense of how to

organized people, how to earn trust of people and one major thing is how to

communicate the same message to different group of people , what i mean by that is ,

you can't talk with fancy words to a community of farmers and less educated person

because they will not get your message. I believe these skill would be effective , in a

college classroom because it could help with the factor of motivation and determination

because they would want to get educated to get out in their communities to improve

them. Also comes the factor of understanding of how different structure work , with such

skill will be easier to find solutions to our social-cultural problems.

 The last but not least cultural capital , that i believe is important to honor in a college

classroom is aspirational capital, yosso refers to this capital as dreams and aspiration

pass down to the students by their parents she quotes Gandara these stories nurture a

culture of possibility as they represent the creation of a history that would break the links

between parents current occupational status and their children's future academic

attainment. In my personal experience this capital is very important in a classroom

setting, because it shows students to be resilience , to overcome any obstacle that

stands in their way to look solution. I was taught since i was little that everything has a

solution but death itself, that has always encourage me to always look for solutions for

my problems because i know there's an answer for everything , aspirational capital is a

great way to overcome obstacle that we may face, which is influenced by family

dreams. For example my mom , her aspiration for my future is to become a strong

person and man of dreams and goals, which has help me set goals and hopes of who to

become, aspiration helps students in a college classroom to seek for their courage

within themselves.

After reading yosso text, i came to a conclusion that there was , A big gap in our

schools, which was creating by teachers believing some students are inferior to others ,

due to their culture background, instead of looking and embracing diversity as an

improvement to our community. Also she shows how much students of color talent is
disregarded, because they don't follow the typical way of learning as whites do. If many

of the students skill would be seem as they are , maybe our education system would be

differently and would embrace an open and diverse community , which would break

through barriers of prejudice, and it would created more opportunities for people from

different cultural backgrounds. The importance to honor the skills and talent, that we as

students have, is about empowering students giving them the courage to believe in

themselves that they are capable. Accepting and embracing those skills will open up

many doors for future leader of our community, that will proudly use their skill and their

knowledge, with absolute purpose of improving our communities.