Barefoot Heart is a distinctively told personal account of the life of Elva Trevino Hart’s childhood and growing up in a family of migrant workers. Her story brings to life the day-to-day experiences of people confronting the impediments of working within the fields. She also accounts for the environment that her family was raised in because it was habitually antagonistic to those who had little education and spoke another dialect.
Assimilation itself brings its own issues, as their original culture is nearly diminished and the quality of some family relationships is compromised, consequences that are not inescapable but are or maybe an arrangement of choices made along the way. Barefoot Heart is additionally the story of how Elva overcame the impediments of this background and found her genuine abilities and, within the process, found herself. Contrary to popular belief, there are some individuals who believe that Elva and her family are not American. This brings back to the question that we previously discussed at the beginning of the semester, “Who is an American?”.
One of the characterizing analogies of the United States has been that our nation is a ‘melting pot’ of immigrants from around the world. This powerful ideal coexists beside an anti-immigration view that has remained all through our nation’s history. Various new populaces have come to America all throughout the hundreds of years: A few came in journey for a more affluent life; a few came trying to find assurance from devout, ethnic, or political abuse. Others were brought over the Atlantic against their will.
Moreover, some Americans’ predecessors were here for some time before the primary Europeans arrived. Regardless of these distinctions in origin, we as a whole ponder the idea of what being a ‘nation of immigrants’ involves, as every incoming group has contributed its respective legacy and culture to American society. Today, those diversities are celebrated not only in our foods, but our arts, our sciences, our businesses, our politics, and our faiths. But we too also cherish the notion of a shared American identity that rises above our individual differences. At some point, individuals see these two alternate points of view as a source of friction, yet others see these as the center of America’s incredible strength.
Elva Trevino Hart’s collection of memoirs may be a culminate illustration of this because it is an expressive and surprisingly influencing journal takes us through her childhood as she was the daughter of Mexican workers who worked as migrant laborers to nourish their six children. In 1953, when she was only three at the time, they moved from Texas to work within the fields of Minnesota and Wisconsin for the primary time, only to discover that in arrange to comply with the child labor law they had to leave the Elva and her 11-year-old sister to board in a nearby Catholic school, where they pined for the rest of the family.
Elva is able to recollect other years when the entire family would participate in the backbreaking field labor, which was driven relentlessly by her father who she referred to as Apa. He was committed to gain sufficient cash to permit all his children to graduate from high school as he kept pushing and pushing them to be nothing but great. Apa not only accomplished his objective but was able to save up approximately $2000 so that Elva can enter college, a step that eventually led to her earning a master’s degree. So for some individuals to say that Elva and her family aren’t Americans can just be passed off as an ignorant and not well thought out statement. It is a complete and utter disregard for Elva and her family and the adversity/discrimination they had endured.
Elva and her family represent the true qualities of being an American. They are the embodiment of never giving and hard work. Just like America’s history, Elva’s upcoming wasn’t so pretty. Her parents simply wanted to pave a better future for their children and came here to do so. Their whole family worked through excruciating conditions and some days went without speaking to each other as they were mentally and physically drained out by the gut-wrenching labor.
Elva herself said, “this family never talked. Hard work, sadness, and silence”. Even so, her mother would get up almost each and every evening to cook supper. Elva says her mother was regularly strained to the breaking point—this would at least once result in a very vivid described nervous breakdown. That to me is the true definition of self-sacrifice and the American Dream as her family stayed resilient through everything even though at times it felt like it was hurting her family. That resilience is what helped Elva literally go from rags to riches.
Elva’s story and experiences are essential to this nation’s history as that is what was makes us who we are today. Stories of diverse upbringings are what keeps us running and not only that but it gives hope to those dealing with similar situations. Her experiences also help shape what it means to be American since America is made up of a vast majority of diverse people and cultures. Her story serves as a blueprint for any other immigrant that comes to America in search of a better life. Elva overcomes a childhood of poverty and hardship to get a bachelor’s degree in theoretical mathematics and also a master’s degree in computer science/engineering from one of the most prestigious universities, Stanford. Her story is about the benefits and sacrifices and of assimilation and achievement.
