Villanueva

          When I was three years old I recall attending some sort of party with my parents.  At this party an annonymous person revealed a bloody knife.  My parents, having seen it, took my hands and ran quickly away.  I also remember from around this time our move to a new house on Bartlett Street in Brooklyn.  There was no furniture yet but my father, Mrs. Ashell and I were all in the new place.  I recognized the fact that we had improved from living in the storefront flat.  I also can evoke a memory in which I walked from Bartlett Street to John Lee's hand laundry alone.  I was still very young, perhaps four years old.  I waited for all of the lights to turn green before crossing streets and was very careful.  No adult passerby asked me where my parents were. 

          It all comes down to how the immigrant or minority arrived to be living in the host country.  Some races are very easily assimilated into the dominate culture because they elected themselves to go and live there.  My family decided freely to live in America.  Our assimilation should be a little easier than if we had been part of a conquered peoples. 

          The second part of the exercise was harder than I imagined it would be when reading the assignment.  It's hard to put a personal spin on an academically written subject when you're not really putting your own personality into it but rather the author's. 
          I really enjoyed hearing his views as a child.  Villanueva mentions how he saw his family as more American than some immigrants even though they were wealthier than his family.  It's interesting how this conclusion is made through a child's mind and a very good point for Villanueva to make.