Analysis Of Like Mexicans By Gary Soto

During the last two centuries Mexican migration to the United States have changed the culture and economic values of this nation. Coming from a country where only the rich can strive and the poor struggles to survive. Mexican immigrants risk their lives to come to this country for an opportunity to a better life and to support their families back home. With their journey to this nation they bring their culture and language, involving the American culture in many ways. They come to also face many negative aspects as well. discrimination, labor exploitation and ultimately deportation. But this has not stopped them from coming to the United States in the last two centuries.

How would you discuss the worldviews and value systems of Indigenous peoples prior to European contact/invasion? How did these worldviews impact all aspects of life (science, agriculture, language, spirituality, etc.) for indigenous peoples?

I will be applying the three major sociological perspectives, which include functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism to the experiences of Hispanic Americans. No ethnic group attracts more public attention than the Hispanic people do due to their large numbers, their residential clustering, and bilingual programs and signs associated with them making them a recognizable ethnic group. Hispanic people who live in poverty or the small number involved in gangs, drugs, or other criminal activity get more attention and generate negative stereotypes, but most of them live as members of the middle class.

Growing up, Mexican-Americans in Fresno California, Soto’s Family, were farmers and factory workers. Several quotes from the article, “About Gary Soto,” give information on Soto’s family.  For example, the article quotes, “everyone in his family was a field or factory worker.” (“About”) According to this article, being a Mexican-American family in Fresno California it was almost like Soto’s family were destined to be laborers. They lived

Tanya Barrientos explained her struggle with her identity growing up in her writing “Se Habla Español”. Barrientos describes herself as being “Guatemalan by birth but pure gringa by circumstance” (83). These circumstances began when her family relocated to the United States when she was three years old. Once the family moved to the states, her parents only spoke Spanish between themselves. The children learned to how read, write and speak the English language to fit into society at that time in 1963. (83) Barrientos explained how society shifted and “the nation changed its views on ethnic identity” (85) after she graduated college and it came as a backlash to her because she had isolated herself from the stereotype she constructed in her head. She was insulted to be called Mexican and to her speaking the Spanish language translated into being poor. She had felt superior to Latino waitresses and their maid when she told them that she didn’t speak Spanish. After the shift in society Barrientos wondered where she fit it since the Spanish language was the glue that held the new Latino American community together. Barrientos then set out on a difficult awkward journey to learn the language that others would assume she would already know. She wanted to nurture the seed of pride to be called Mexican that her father planted when her father sent her on a summer trip to Mexico City. Once Barrientos had learned more Spanish and could handle the present, past and future tenses she still

In Sandra Cisneros’ Never Marry a Mexican, Clemencia is a second-generation Chicana who struggles with her identity. She falls in love with Drew, a married Anglo man, and battles with feelings of jealousy and betrayal when he ends the relationship. She has a series of affairs with married men, finding joy in the covert betrayal of their wives. Seeking vengeance for Drew’s betrayal, of the love she believes they had, she takes his teenage son as a lover. The conflict of the story is in Clemencia’s battle with her self-worth as a Mexican-American woman and the desire to feel more powerful through her cruel and vindictive acts. The conflict resolves itself as Clemencia realizes that by harming others, she inadvertently harms herself. In the end, Clemencia begins to see people as “human beings” (Cisneros 83), rather than an ethnicity.

An immigrant that is coming to the United States has the emotion and perception that draws to a country of opportunities; that will live in a country that will be friendly. However, most of the time, immigrant do not know that they are coming to live in a different culture, and because of that, they need to experience and adjustment in many ways, and an adjustment that will help them to do many things with confidence.

In my speech I will explain the social construction of race and the Black/White paradigm, followed by focusing on why and how Mexican Americans fought for the white label during the Civil Rights era, and finally analyzing how this choice affected the relationship between Mexican Americans and African Americans

     The author of Mexican Lives, Judith Adler Hellman, grapples with the United States’ economic relationship with their neighbors to the south, Mexico. It also considers, through many interviews, the affairs of one nation. It is a work held to high esteem by many critics, who view this work as an essential part in truly understanding and capturing Mexico’s history. In Mexican Lives, Hellman presents us with a cast from all walks of life. This enables a reader to get more than one perspective, which tends to be bias. It also gives a more inclusive view of the nation of Mexico as a whole. Dealing with rebel activity, free trade, assassinations and their transition into the modern age, it justly

Starting in the late nineteenth century until the end of World War II, the immigration policy in the United States experienced dramatic changes that altered the pace of immigration. High rates of immigration sparked adverse emotions and encouraged restrictive legislation and numerous bills in Congress advocated the suspension of immigration and the deportation of non-Americans (Wisconsin Historical Society). Mexican American history was shaped by several bills in Congress and efforts to deport all non-Americans from the United States. The United States was home to several Spanish-origin groups, prior to the Declaration of Independence. The term “Mexican American” was a label used to describe a number of Hispanic American groups that

modules gives many examples how strong cultural pasts lead to identity problems in a new society. Also, the module shows us that many Mexicans were not happy with the stereotype formed about their identity. In Between the Lines, we see how Mexicans in America suffer through harsh discrimination, while trying to stay close to their relatives and culture. The letters talk about how Whites did not have concerns with family values or cultural beliefs. Whites based many of their values off succeeding in the economy. Whites in general had no regard for Mexicans as people.

In the Preface of Major Problems in Mexican American History Zaragosa Vargas writes, "Nearly two thirds of Latinos in the United States are of Mexican descent, or Chicanos- a term of self definition that emerged during the 1960's and early 1970s civil rights movement. Chicanos reside mainly in the Southwest, the Pacific Northwest, and the Midwest. Their history begins in the precolonial Spanish era, and they share a rich mestizo cultural heritage of Spanish, Indian, and African origins. The Chicanos' past is underscored by conquest of the present-day American Southwest first by the Spanish and then by the United States following the Mexican American War" (xv). When one thinks of a Chicano one thinks of the Mayans and Aztecs, the conquests,

In “So Mexicans are Taking Jobs from Americans,” Jimmy Santiago Baca defends and shuts down the stereotype of Mexican workers. Many Americans hold resentment towards Mexicans presence in the work force, and believe that they are taking jobs away. However, many Americans don’t realize that these Mexican workers fill jobs that others do not want and are usually paid less than an American would be paid. In the beginning of the poem Baca addresses the American stereotype of Mexicans taking jobs from Americans in a very sarcastic manner. He then continues by telling the truth, that Mexicans are actually not taking jobs. He explains how Mexicans come to America to make a living for their family, which

best for him was very stereotypical. She once again reminds me of my mother in

The United States is called a melting pot because in this one country, cultures and people from all over the world have converged to unify under one flag. Author Samuel Huntington writes in his article "The Hispanic Challenge," that unlike other populations who have changed their identity when immigrating to the United States, many of the Mexican and other Latinos who have come to the country are not assimilating or modifying in order to fit in with the majority culture. Further, he believes that the refusal to do so is more than just a population which is determined to maintain a unique identity, but rather a danger to the foundation of community on which the nation is based.