Example Of Essay On Leave Your Name At The Border By Manuel Munoz

One of the oldest traditions of the human intellect is naming objects, actions, characteristics, abstract phenomena and relations. This custom of the real world’s linguistic enforcement contributed to creating all the languages, which mankind operates today and operated in the past. Logically, proper names have become a characteristic trait in these languages, people, countries and even continents. Each of what was mentioned has its celebrated and recognizable representatives as a result of development of history, culture, and religion.
In Leave Your Name at the Border, Manuel Munoz chooses the issue of proper names to address the questions of identity and assimilation. Proper names differ from nation to nation, and their pronunciation may differ from region to region. They often derive from very peculiar circumstances a people or even a tribe has gone through. Eventually, names represent countries and believes, acquiring rather a symbolic meaning of our identity. Thus, we can assume where the person comes from of what is his or her religion, simply when hearing their name. Considering how powerful and characteristic our proper names are, Manuel Munoz’s choice of this perspective is intriguing and specific in its vast background.
With modern world becoming more multiculturally oriented, non-English names still suffer and are being changed for some reason. They are altered, shortened, their pronunciation becomes subordinate to the English manner of speaking. At a glance, we could assume that is done for convenience, so as not to clutter our utterance with something complicated, unusual or simply not Englishly smooth. Behind these claims, we will notice how with names smoothening comes multiculturalism smoothening or even identity obliteration. Thus, with world swirling faster and faster in various cultures, with some of them striving for domination and some retreating from the multicultural battlefield, our names become inferior to what is dominant. Even without it being primary intention, out identity suffers from this tendency.
Our name is surrounded by a myriad of cultural and identity issues. A child’s name may be a name of one of the older relatives or friends, thus a name passes through generations, becoming a traditonal one. It may be a historic name, deriving from religion (Maria, Muhammad, Abraham etc.) more often that we assume. In the past, it could have been the name of a king, a queen, a famous warrior or artist. The cultural reasons for name’s popularity are numerous, covering historic influences, geographical migrations or national interactions.
All in all, our names influence how we are seen. If a man is called Ricky, his image is culturally shifted from Ricardo he is. For an English speaker, “Ricky” triggers usual images, making the man more familiar and thus instinctively more approachable person, whereas “Ricardo” would be unfamiliar and thus somewhat reserved. The associations and attitudes differ, thus the whole image of person’s identity is manipulated. Moreover, it can also apply to now standard English names. A woman may be called Gabrielle at work, shaping an official and kind of strict attitude, whereas “Gaby” her friends use is more of a relaxed and warm address. The evidence show that name modifications do shift how others see us and how we see ourselves. Be it on a cultural or social level, we meet such examples every day. Though at first it might be done for convenience, the results are much deeper. These modifications influence binds with our ethnicity, religion or nationality. We must always adhere to personal preferences of the person we address, so not to abuse or violate their background.