Communicating in between two cultures: Autoethnographic and self-reflexive negotiations of my Mexican-American identity

In this two-part critical analysis, I explore my experiences in negotiating my cultural identity as a Mexican American throughout my life and observe how space within a Mexican market can affirm my cultural identity. First, in Stuck in the Middle, I autoethnographically take the reader through the struggles I experienced in navigating my cultural identity by utilizing a cultural lens of Mexican American “otherness” (Gonzalez, 1989, 1990) and the borderlands of identity (Anzaldúa, 1999) throughout my narratives. I reflect and share personal accounts of feeling inclusion and exclusion as a Mexican American. Second, in Spending Time In El Mercado, I utilize focused ethnography consisting of participant observation and self-reflexivity as research tools to explore how the space within a Mexican store helps affirm my cultural identity as a Mexican American. By observing the space itself as well as the products, customers, and my own experiences, this work sheds light on the ways that spaces around us can elicit ways of connecting with one’s culture and in cultural negotiations of identity.

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