Katie Quandt Assignment 2A Rhetorical Reflection Section HA-McGough October 4, 2013 Leave Your Name at the Border Ricardo

changes to Ricky, Antonio morphs into Tony, and Esperanza transforms into Hope. These are a few examples of Anglicized names Manuel Muoz gives in his article Leave Your Name at the Border. Name changes by immigrants or foreigners are surprisingly common. Although name changes are normal, they can have an adverse effect on Mexican immigrants identity as Americans. In The New York Times Manuel Muoz successfully argued that very point. In our Convergences textbook the message was successful as well, even though the new audience was different from the intended audience. Leave Your Name at the Border was first published August 1, 2007, in the Opinion section of The New York Times. In 2007 views on immigration were mixed, much as they are today. Some immigrants face discrimination based on their names. This can be exemplified in the job market where its encouraged to use an American-sounding name in order to obtain work (Muoz). This persistent inclination shows that the surrounding context has not changed in the past five years. However, the immediate context of the article has changed from being printed in a newspaper to being printed in a college textbook. When internet users Google The New York Times, they receive almost two trillion results. In comparison, The Washington Post has less than one trillion results. By just looking at these numbers one can see that The New York Times is more popular than The Washington Post and thus has a wider audience. A college textbook has a much smaller audience than a newspaper, especially since not all colleges use the same textbooks. In addition, newspapers and textbooks are written for and read by different age groups. Typically, college textbooks are read by people between the ages of eighteen and twenty-two, whereas, newspapers aim to have the most readers possible. This readership primarily includes people over the age of twenty-two. Thus, the intended audience of Leave Your Name at the Border is different from the unintended audience which consists of college students. As stated earlier, name changes can adversely affect an individual. This was the general argument Muoz was making and is the reason why it is located in the Defining Identities section of the textbook. Specifically, Muozs point was to draw attention to the fact that changing ones name in turn changes ones identity. Name changing not only alters how people see each other, but how they see themselves. Manuel Muozs Leave Your Name at the Border is successful in the context of our college textbook. I think its actually more applicable in its new context. One of the remarkable things about college is that it brings together many different people from many different places. This includes individuals from diverse cultures, many who have names unfamiliar to American students. Additionally, its possible that these same individuals might resort to choosing an American name for the convenience of their peers. I think this article successfully draws

attention to the detrimental effect a name can have on a person. Understanding that effect is essential for college students because they come in contact with so many different people on a regular basis. The medium, audience, and immediate context of Leave Your Name at the Border by Manuel Muoz have changed, but the surrounding circumstances and purpose have remained the same. This makes the piece successful in our textbook.

Work Cited Muoz, Manuel. Leave Your Name at the Border. Convergences: Themes, Texts, and Images for Composition. Ed. Robert Atwan. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2009. 112-117. Print.