Melting pot

"That focal point or fulcrum, that juncture where the mestiza stands, is where phenomena tend to collide. It is where the possibility of uniting all that is separate occurs. This assembly is not one where severed or separated pieces merely come together. Nor is it a balancing of opposing powers. In attempting to work out a synthesis, the self has added a third element which is greater than the sum of its severed parts. That third element is a new consciousness—a mestiza consciousness."

"They'd like to think I have melted in the pot. But I haven't. We haven't."

"The main emphasis was now shifted from "culture" to "civilization." This change was deplorable but almost necessary. Culture is personal and something rooted; civilization on the other hand is "international," interchangeable, and ambulant. There could be no melting pot, no Americanization on the basis of a new synthesis of Slovakian peasant dresses, Sicilian songs and Swedish folk dances. Only the jalopy, the overall, the ice-cream soda and the corner drugstore could serve as common denominators. In order to denationalize and to renationalize the "Bohunk," American society at large had to make its change from the emphasis on culture to the acclamation of depersonalized, collective, and common civilization. It was self-sacrifice for the native and often torture for the newcomer."