«Punjabi Mexican American Community» - Free Essay Paper

Question One

The Punjabi Mexican American community in Yuba City, California holds a distinct cultural practice that has been inherited due to migration patterns in the Imperial Valley in 1907. In ensuring the adequate growth and development of the Punjabi Mexican American community, the Punjabi men intermarried Mexican women laborers. According to Karen Leonard, the Punjabi Mexican American community did not flourish mainly due to the introduction of more Indian women within the Western community such as the United States of America. As a result, this limited the increased diversification of this particular culture within the population of the West mainly through the art and practice of assimilation.

According to Leonard’s book Making Ethnic Choices, the inability of the Mexican-Punjabi community that had been created in the southern California to overcome the challenges and pressure posed by the future generations actively limited its relevance within the country’s national historic standings. This became possible despite the cultures’ sense of purpose, the innate ability to overcome challenges, and the drive to achieve that helped build their feelings of awareness as well as foster the spread and growth of this particular culture. Further, the introduction of the Luce-Cellar Bill in 1946 provided an opportunity for Indian and Filipino Americans to naturalize and become fortified citizens of the states, in which they existed (Umesh 1). By this, the Punjabi men began to bring their families and more Indian women to the country as they were allowed to own their land. Through this, some Punjabi men began nullifying with Mexican women in a bid to uphold their Indian cultural beliefs and practices actively.

However, it is important to note that the Mexicans and the Punjabis shared a similar rural way of life. That is, the Punjabi men actively chose Mexican women mainly due to their similar cooking style and material cultural practice that was analogous to that of Indian women. Through this, it became increasingly easy for the Punjabi men and Mexican women to exist peacefully as couples. 

As the result of this, the Punjabi men began adopting Spanish names as well as learning the Spanish language in a bid to support their existence within Mexican society effectively. Further, it is important to note that in the relationship between the Punjabi men and the Mexican women, the men were relatively older than the women. However, despite the connection that the two communities had shared, the Punjabi men were believed to take up the Mexican women as wives in a bid to gain access to the Western countries. Similarly, given the cultural and social similarities projected by the Mexican women to that of the Punjabi women, it became easy for both parties to adjust culturally as well as peacefully negotiate their stay together as couples. It also provided an opportunity for the adequate integration of the two cultures, thus leading to the formation of the Punjabi Mexican American culture. Moreover, it should be noted that the accessibility and flexibility of the Mexican women have helped to enhance their ability to undertake the general and active role of an Indian wife to the Punjabi men. The clustering and agricultural practice that was mostly shared by both the Punjabi men and the Mexican women laborers provided them with a mutual and balanced ground, which supported their relationship.

Regardless of this, it should be noted that the Punjabi men limited their cultural transfer to their wives to only food alone, thereby threatening the future sustainability of the Punjabi Mexican American culture.