Los Intersticios by Evelyn Alsultany - Essay Example

The researcher states that his cultural background is varied. He knows what it means to be “in between,” as Evelyn Alsultany describes. Sometimes living in the U.S. means that your cultural background—or the cultural identity you grew up with—taking a backseat to your life as an American as one lives out one’s life in the “one nation under God, with liberty and justice for all.” Yet, the author can’t help but feel that this is largely a byproduct of the idea that when one is in America, one should do things the American way—especially speak English.

The author’s parents’ backgrounds are both somewhat similar. They came from humble backgrounds (not poor, but not rich either)—and they worked their hardest to try to give the researcher and his family the best upbringing they could. Of course, there is a sort of in-betweenness on that level, or interstitial, as the term “middle-class” suggests. As a male in society, the author realizes how much gender influences peoples’ decisions. In America, as numbers of males get employed, females being unemployed is at even higher numbers.

When women’ salaries suffer, children suffer. For many people in the U.S., being in-between jobs is also at a point which is devastating the economy. The researcher also realizes that sexual orientation is a hot-button issue for many people, including Republican candidates for the 2012 presidency. Michele Bachmann’s husband runs an organization that tries to ‘pray the gay away.’. itive stance on this issue, many people who live alternative lifestyles are being kept out at the margins of society because their way of living is just different than many other people.

As a relatively young person, I realize that there is a lot of age discrimination, or ageism, floating about. This means that fewer and fewer older people have opportunities to get jobs and make a living for themselves as less and less people can afford to retire at the retirement age which is now 67. Discrimination against people due to their age is very common, and should be stopped. Just because someone is younger doesn’t necessarily mean they will do the job better. My status as a student puts me at the bottom of the food chain, in many cases.

Students aren’t considered productive units of the economy, so—in that sense—what that means is that we aren’t moving forward, except to possibly move ahead in the sense that we are learning things that will help us in our everyday lives. The feeling of being “in between” is as common as the first day of school and entering the lunchroom cafeteria not knowing with whom one is going to sit. Being in that interstitial space is, however, what we can all relate to as human beings. Whether it be someone who is from a different background, age, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and so on and so forth—it is important to realize that this time of being “in between” can be utilized to the advantage of the person who feels that he or she is in an interstitial space.

Being “in between,” in some ways, is a role that people may take on because they can be a mediator in those spaces of awkwardness and unduly difficult times. Instead of treating it as a stigma, interstitial space can be used to augment other peoples’