Sara Widmark's Paper

Sara's paper is about Oscar Zeta Acosta and his path towards assimilation. She talks about Acosta's focus on his skin, how he stands in front of the mirror looking at himself, and especially how how he refers to himself as a Brown Buffalo. Sara explains Acosta's thoughts of not belonging by using Simmel's "The Stranger". She says that Simmel describes a stranger as sometimes being someone you know and feel close to, but cannot quite describe. Acosta's feelings about being Mexican and being American, but never both are a central focus in his book and in Sara's paper. She methodically includes quotes from Acosta and does not summarize their meaning, but explains what the quotes have to do with Acosta's assimilation and with Simmel's piece of work.

If I could expand the paper I would focus on the moments of self-reflection by Acosta, because those moments fit well with Simmel's idea of being a stranger to yourself. Acosta often remarks about not belonging and not fitting in with anyone, and Sara does a good job of pointing out those more public moments, but I think the personal moments would also be interesting.