Homework 4: “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant” by Jose Antonio Vargas
Read “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant” by Jose Antonio Vargas as write a response to the questions below.
GENRE:
INTENDED AUDIENCE:
PURPOSE:
- What did you think of this text? Explain!
- What is it mostly about? Write a 2-4 sentence summary. Be specific. Refer to the text itself. Use quotes even!
- What is the genre of the text? What is the tone?
- How do Antonio Vargas’s experiences influence his literacy development (reading, writing, speaking) and the development of his identity? Be specific. For example, how does an experience impact the way he speaks or his experience in school or at work?
- Why do you think Antonio Vargas wrote this article? Who do you think is the intended audience?
- What challenges did Antonio Vargas face? How did he overcome those challenges?
- What experiences and/or people affected Antonio Vargas the most? Explain.
1) This text was very interesting. I like the way everything is explained and how Jose’s story and journey was overall.
2) The story is mostly about his upbringing and how he grew up being an immigrant for most of his life. Also the struggles that he had to go through and missing out on opportunities due to the fact he wasn’t a resident.
3) I would say that the genre of the book is an autobiography. The tone would be self-reflective due to the fact that he would go in depth of how he felt during the time.
4) Vargas’s experiences influenced his literary writing and speaking because he thought that working extra hard would get him a reward. Also he wanted to speak the same way as in the way other people would speak so they wouldn’t detect that he wasn’t from there.
5) I think Antonio wrote this article to tell his story and to let people know that they are not alone. The intended audience would be people that were in the same position as him which are immigrants.
6) The challenges Vargas faced were that it was hard for him to get a job anywhere, also whenever he had school and work trips he couldn’t go due to the fact he wasn’t a resident so therefore he had to lie to them.
7) The experiences that affected him the most were that he would live in constant fear of being discovered and the consequences being severe.
I enjoyed “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant” by Jose Antonio Vargas because it was really interesting being able to read a piece that I could relate to not only being an immigrant, but by being Filipino as well. The struggles that he faced and certain situations like not being able to feel like you truly belong stuck to me. There wasn’t a part in the reading where I wasn’t interested.
This writing piece is about the challenges and fears Vargas had to face being an undocumented immigrant growing up in America. Regardless of these hardships, Vargas didn’t use any of them as an excuse and persevered through these hardships and wanted to prove himself. “I’ve also talked to family and friends about my situation and am working with legal counsel to review my options. I don’t know what the consequences will be of telling my story.” While Vargas was able to accomplish many things through his hard work, this quote goes to show how much of an effect being undocumented has on simple acts that many of us take for granted.
I believe that “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant” by Jose Antonio Vargas is a personal narrative with a tense tone. Vargas tells us a personal story that shows how it helped shape him as an individual while also keeping us wondering what will happen next because of the circumstance he’s in of being undocumented in America.
Being undocumented, Vargas believed that by working hard and if he achieved enough, he would be ‘rewarded with citizenship’ because he felt like he could ‘earn it’. With this mindset, he practiced speaking, reading and writing “like an American” and was eventually introduced to Journalism. Through this, Vargas worked his way up to his profession, regardless of the hardships he had faced.
I believe Antonio Vargas wrote this article to showcase his hardships of being undocumented. Through these hardships, Vargas became close with certain people in his life whom he trusted with his ‘problem’. He looked up to them for guidance and they helped him through difficulties he faced over the years. I believe he intended to write this for those going through the same difficulties he was facing and to let them know that they aren’t alone. A lot of people do and are going through the exact same situation and there are good people who can guide and give them support along the way.
The challenges Vargas had to face was being undocumented and not being able to stay in America legally. Vargas lived in fear daily for not having the proper credentials. Though he worked hard to achieve many accomplishments in his life, he was held back in certain situations due to fear of his status being discovered and being deported. He wasn’t able to obtain a driver’s license and even needed to turn down an internship he worked hard to be in the position for, due to the lack of these credentials.
Vargas looked up to his mentors Rich Fisher and Pat Hyland throughout the hardships he faced growing up. Over the years, both Fisher and Hyland tried to help any way they could to help Vargas succeed in life. They were trusted with Vargas’ problem and because of them, Vargas had guidance to let him know he wasn’t going through his hardships alone.
1 – The text is relatively interesting, and I didn’t mind reading it. The author portrays his growth and interest over time.
2 – The author tells his story of his immigrant life in the United States. His growth overall with language, experiences, and more really got him going. This includes when he moved to the United States, and up until 18 years after he had moved, around 2009. He had his fair share of issues that he had to overcome, yet there were still some good in his life.
3 – The genre of this text is an autobiography since Jose writes this text in relation to himself, it all relates to him and what he did. The tone of this text is in a serious tone.
4 – Antonio Vargas’ experiences influenced his literacy development by having worked a lot on his skills to get it right to himself. He wanted to expose himself to the opportunities he could have.
5 – Antonio wrote this article with the intent to motivate people to push through hardships, given his circumstances and such. He wanted others to not have limits and just keep going. The intended audience are the ones that are going through the same circumstances of being an immigrant.
6 – Some challenges that Antonio had faced included getting a job due to anxiety coming from the issues of not being documented, not being able to get a driver’s license, and missed out on trips with friends.
7 – Experiences that had affected Antonio the most included instances such as when he had to turn down an internship because of fear of insufficient information, and in general anxiety of finding jobs. He did not want to get in trouble with the law, which he thought would end up with him being deported.
1. To be honest, I like “My Life as an undocumented Immigrant” by Jose Antonio Vargas because a lot of people could relate to this story.
2. “My Life as an undocumented Immigrant” by Jose Antonio Vargas is about Jose Antonio Vargas mother wanting a better life for her son, so she sent him to his grandparents house, where they lived in America. Jose Antonio Vargas faced a lot of challenges when he lived in America. One of the challenges Jose Antonio Vargas faced was the language. “Though I learned English in the Philippines, I wanted to lose my accent. During high school, I spent hours at a time watching television (especially “Frasier,” “Home Improvement” and reruns of “The Golden Girls”) and movies (from “Goodfellas” to “Anne of Green Gables”), pausing the VHS to try to copy how various characters enunciated their words.”
3. The genre of the text is autobiography and narrative because Jose is telling us about his life and giving us a timeline of events in his life.
4. Jose Antonio Vargas experience influences his literacy development in school. Jose got introduced to journalism. “At the local library, I read magazines, books and newspapers — anything to learn how to write better. Kathy Dewar, my high-school English teacher, introduced me to journalism. From the moment I wrote my first article for the student paper, I convinced myself that having my name in print — writing in English, interviewing Americans — validated my presence here.”
5. I think Jose Antonio Vargas wrote this article to tell his stories and to show people who have been through it to be okay. and the intended audience is Undocumented immigrants.
6. The challenge that Jose Antonio Vargas faced was the ways he spoke, and he overcame that challenge by watching television. For example, he watched “GoodFallas”
7. Jose Antonio Vargas was living in fear because he was Undocumented undocumented immigrant in America, and he was scared to get caught and sent back home to the Philippines.
I think this text was interesting because it emphasized the struggle of Jose Antonio coming in to the country as an illegal immigrant, something that captivated me within this text is his journey of not only concealing his secret but trying hard to be embraced and accepted into the country as he said “I convinced myself all would be O.K. if I lived up to the qualities of a “citizen”: hard work, self-reliance, love of my country.”
This text is about Jose Vargas’s struggle as an illegal immigrant residing in the United States. it expounds over him concealing his background and also expounds on him persisting into working hard and becoming successful so that he would eventually be granted citizenship.
I think the genre is a narrative genre, the author is writing a story about his life as an undocumented immigrant living in the United States. A tone of this text may be anxious, Jose constantly states how anxious he was throughout this text by hiding his background and also even when he achieved his success as the deadline was soon approaching, he mentioned he was scared to live in a lie for another set of years.
His experience influenced his reading because when he initially arrived it was difficult for him to articulate and pronounce English and found it hard to distinguish slang English and English, but as he persisted and kept reading and writing it refined his skills.
I think Antonio Vargas wrote this article because he wanted to express his guilt in somewhere where he found respite and something he had passion for which was writing. He wrote this to face the fact of his life and not live in fear and not to live in a lie where he had to conceal himself for approval. his intended audience are undocumented immigrants who may be vulnerable and anxious in their circumstances and conceals themselves and think they might have to prove their worth for them to be embraced.
A challenge the author has faced was not being able to speak English fluently, he states that he had a passion for language but he couldn’t distinguish English and American slang and it was challenging for him to properly pronounce words. What he did to overcome those obstacles was by dedicate by watching hours of films and imitate the way those actors would pronounce those words to develop his speaking skills.
I think the experience that affected him the most was his coming to the united states because that was the pivot of his story, this lead to him concealing his background and feeling anxious despite being a successful writer his migration also led to him being under the impression that in order to be embraced in the country he was residing in he has to prove his worth, his migration caused him to be anxious despite being successful and feel guilty for living a lie for years and eventually caused him to disclose his secret of being an undocumented immigrant.
1) I really liked this text because this story about a Filipino boy who is undocumented and struggles with that throughout his life and career. This text moved me because I also know close people in my life who goes through that. I know how it feels to have one thing stop you from doing anything you want. I feel like it’s so unfair how undocumented people are treated. This story shows what many people who are undocumented go through.
2) This story is about a Filipino boy named Jose Antonio Vargas who came to the U.S when he was 12 and learning about America and worked really hard to master the language of english to find out he is undocumented. This affected him because he had to lie a lot, couldn’t apply for financial aid, struggled to apply for jobs. Him being undocumented was a overall frustration that he had to face.
3) The genre of this text is an autobiography because the narrator of this story is speaking about his life how he had to deal with the struggles of being undocumented. The tone of this story is a serious tone because he goes in depth on how he struggles and significant challenges he had to face to constantly be on top of himself so he wouldn’t get caught.
4) Antonio Vargas’s experiences influence his literacy development because he learned to grow to love his new home in America and the American culture that he grew a passion of learning english. In the text it says “I discovered a passion for language, though it was hard to learn the difference between formal English and American slang. One of my early memories is of a freckled kid in middle school asking me, “What’s up?” I replied, “The sky,” and he and a couple of other kids laughed. I won the eighth-grade spelling bee by memorizing words I couldn’t properly pronounce. (The winning word was “indefatigable.”)”. This evidence showed that he really worked hard for what he wanted and even though he learned english in his home country he wanted to get rid of the accent. His experiences moving to America really showed he’s committed to become fully American by learning everything in the American english language and it foreshadows the struggle and frustration of being undocumented. The experiences he goes through feels unjustifiable.
5) Antonio wrote this article to show the reality of what immigrants who are undocumented go through. He shows how hard it is especially when he grew up in America undocumented and know english, educated, have full potential to have an amazing career but is restricted because he’s undocumented. He’s showing the harsh reality of how undocumented children are treated. The intended audience are the people who also go through the same being undocumented and that they aren’t alone. There are 11 million people in the U.S that go through this.
6) The challenges he had to face was realizing the truth like for example he finds out his green card is fake by trying to take a drivers license test and the D.M.V office lady telling him it’s fake and to never come back again. It’s devastating to realize as a teen growing up finally realizing he can’t do certain things because he’s undocumented. He also couldn’t apply for financial aid , he was also gay and his grandparents were disappointed because he had to marry a women in order to get papers and plus he was raised in a catholic household so it was unacceptable. He also was rejected for a job because he didn’t have proper papers.
7) The experiences that affected him the most was trying to get hold of a job but always in a state of panic because of him not having proper paper work and him being frustrated and exhausted of lying. He just was peace with his life.
1) I really liked this text because this story about a Filipino boy who is undocumented and struggles with that throughout his life and career. This text moved me because I also know close people in my life who goes through that. I know how it feels to have one thing stop you from doing anything you want. I feel like it’s so unfair how undocumented people are treated. This story shows what many people who are undocumented go through.
2) This story is about a Filipino boy named Jose Antonio Vargas who came to the U.S when he was 12 and learning about America and worked really hard to master the language of english to find out he is undocumented. This affected him because he had to lie a lot, couldn’t apply for financial aid, struggled to apply for jobs. Him being undocumented was a overall frustration that he had to face.
3) The genre of this text is an autobiography because the narrator of this story is speaking about his life how he had to deal with the struggles of being undocumented. The tone of this story is a serious tone because he goes in depth on how he struggles and significant challenges he had to face to constantly be on top of himself so he wouldn’t get caught.
4) Antonio Vargas’s experiences influence his literacy development because he learned to grow to love his new home in America and the American culture that he grew a passion of learning english. In the text it says “I discovered a passion for language, though it was hard to learn the difference between formal English and American slang. One of my early memories is of a freckled kid in middle school asking me, “What’s up?” I replied, “The sky,” and he and a couple of other kids laughed. I won the eighth-grade spelling bee by memorizing words I couldn’t properly pronounce. (The winning word was “indefatigable.”)”. This evidence showed that he really worked hard for what he wanted and even though he learned english in his home country he wanted to get rid of the accent. His experiences moving to America really showed he’s committed to become fully American by learning everything in the American english language and it foreshadows the struggle and frustration of being undocumented. The experiences he goes through feels unjustifiable.
5) Antonio wrote this article to show the reality of what immigrants who are undocumented go through. He shows how hard it is especially when he grew up in America undocumented and know english, educated, have full potential to have an amazing career but is restricted because he’s undocumented. He’s showing the harsh reality of how undocumented children are treated. The intended audience are the people who also go through the same being undocumented and that they aren’t alone. There are 11 million people in the U.S that go through this.
6) The challenges he had to face was realizing the truth like for example he finds out his green card is fake by trying to take a drivers license test and the D.M.V office lady telling him it’s fake and to never come back again. It’s devastating to realize as a teen growing up finally realizing he can’t do certain things because he’s undocumented. He also couldn’t apply for financial aid , he was also gay and his grandparents were disappointed because he had to marry a women in order to get papers and plus he was raised in a catholic household so it was unacceptable. He also was rejected for a job because he didn’t have proper papers.
7) The experiences that affected him the most was trying to get hold of a job but always in a state of panic because of him not having proper paper work and him being frustrated and exhausted of lying. He just was peace with his life.
1) the article “my life as undocumented immigrant” by José Antonio was a very eye opening story. He told us his journey coming to the United States and what what went through and what challenges he had to face.
2) Jose explains that he arrived to the United States with undocumented papers and lived with fear whiling living in the United States when his parents sent him. He had undocumented papers and he needed to learn fluent English. He went through a lot of challenges through his journey as an undocumented immigrant.
3) the genre of this text was narrative because it shows jose POV of being a undocumted immigrant. He tells us his steps through his journey.
4) Antonio went to school and watched television to influence his speaking and writing. The reason he did this daily because since he was living in fear he was afraid if he didn’t speak fluent English others would find it suspicious that he was an undocumented immigrant.
5) Antonio wrote this article to show us his journey as an undocumented immigrant. He tells us what he feared and challenges he had to go through, but he wants to tell us no matter what to keep yourself pushing and dont let anything stop you. The article goes for undocumented immigrants
6) some challenges Antonio went through was not being able to get some jobs, traveling with his school and learning english. The reason why he wasn’t able to get some jobs or travel with his friends was because he didn’t have documents to prove his identity. The way he learned English was by watching television at home.
7) an experience that had affected Antonio was coming to the United States because he knew it was risky to come here undocumented and his parents still sent him. When he arrived here he lived with fear growing up. So instead of coming to america feeling less worried, being able to work and have fun, he was worried and scared and always had the thought of being caught.
the text was too long I used Audio to listen to it lol, it wasn’t that bad because I can learned something important from that story which made it valid in my eye. The story was about a Pilipino boy who was granted the right to pretend to be a US citizen with so many restrictions and downsides, but looking at the upside it was a great play by his family. The genre of this text would be a Biography, because he is explaining his life experience and many more problems he faced. Vargas was excellent in academics no paper stopped him from growing his education but when it came time to become a full Citizen and actually live the American dream he became fully restricted, how he thought, actions he took, the way he dealt with things became restricted do to his family telling him that all of his documents was fake. Vargas wrote this article to simply putting problems that can occur in the outside world although he provided a solution the audience can analyze wrong and the right from the article and if someone plans to used the method of false document to try and accomplish anything according to his text it is a very restricting life to live. Vargas faced with anti immigrant hate and overcame the problem by focusing in education and making a name for himself being publish in New York Times. The experienced of believing you where Legal resident for America and suddenly find out out your family has lied to you and finding out you where not legal and all of your papers are fake is heart breaking and devastating is what change Vargas the most.
1- I enjoy this piece because it shows how Vargas struggled with his immigration and I know people that can relate to this issue and would honestly enjoy this aswell.
2- This piece is about the struggles and issues Vargas had to deal with because he was an undocumented immigrant. All though he lived in fear and these issues were overwhelming for Vargas, he used them as fuel to overachieve and overcome these obstacles. He eventually got his citizenship.
3- The genre of this text is an Personal Narrative. This is because of the story telling about a specific issue in Vargas’ life that only he was able to shed perspective on.
4- Vargas believed that working hard would help him earn his citizenship. He also wished that he could speak the same level of English as his peers. With his ideologies in mind, he worked hard to also practice reading and writing which lead to him being introduced to journalism.
5- I think Vargas wrote this piece to show his experience as an undocumented immigrant so others can understand his upcoming. His intended audience was definitely for other immigrants whether they have achieved citizenship or not.
6- He didn’t have residency and he couldn’t get a job.
7- He knew it was dangerous to live there and he lived in constant fear of being discovered by the government and being possibly deported.
I thought this text was very interesting as my parents are immigrants and most of my aunts and uncles are too, so hearing Jose’s story so well written and in depth gave me a snippet of what some of my family went through to get to the United States. The text is mostly about Jose’s adolescents and his heartbreaking discovery that he is an immigrant with no proper paperwork and having to change his life and constantly look over his shoulders. Jose had to live his life on the sidelines whilst his career was taking off, he had to find that balance of being great but not drawing too much attention that could possibly ruin his life and career and be sent back to a country where he is unfamiliar with. Joses audience when writing this was everyone, people that related to his struggles and also people that never dealt with such things because it gave them a glimpse of how he had to grow up and carry himself whilst trying to be the best version of himself following his passion, writing. Some challenges Jose had was the constant fear of someone finding out his true status and not being able to travel for work or to even see his mother and siblings. the experience that affected Jose the most was not being able to get a learners permit because that’s when he came to the realization that his whole world could come crashing down at any given moment and that’s also when he started living in fear.
1 I found this text very interesting because it goes into detail and really summarizes every immigrant’s life
2 The text is mostly about Jose’s about his upbringing and his life as an immigrant and how he was able to navigate life in America While being undocumented
3 This text is a personal narrative because he’s explaining everything he went through in his life and telling a story
4 His experiences influenced his literacy development because he didn’t want to sound less American or sound different so he could avoid people asking him where he was from
5 I think he wrote this article for other immigrants like him so they know they are not alone in feeling how they feel.
6 some challenges he faced was not getting a job and missing out on trips because he was undocumented
7 i would say his entire life in America affected him the most because he was constantly living in fear and was held back because he didn’t have the resources to achieve his dream