Annotated Bibliography: Illumexico

Braving a new world, punishing barbaric people, spreading the influence of your king and gaining riches. These are just a few things that Juan De Onate writes in his letter published in For the Record, “Letter from New Mexico”. Juan is writing to a rich and powerful Lord in hopes that he will grant him help and protection that he needs badly. Everything in Juan letter is influenced by his knowledge that if he is going to succeed that he needs more money and help, and he uses his experiences and how strong his morality is to convince this Lord to give him more money.

“Refiguring Aztlan” means that there is more meaning to Aztlan than just a homeland. It was used as a concept to improve cultural and social issues. It was also used to recover land. It also meant that there were no borders. Aztlan was used to unite the community, but it was also used to separate. It was a concept used as an identity. Some of the issues I read on Chapter 10 on Vigil were that U.S. citizens whine about Mexicans taking away their jobs, but Americans don’t even have jobs similar to what Mexicans have to do for a living. Mexicans are paid very low wages, and have jobs as gardeners, janitors, senior- care workers, day laborers, etc. Americans don’t have those types of jobs, so I don’t see how Mexicans are taking away their jobs.

The Incas and the Aztecs Before the Spanish and Portuguese "discovered" the New World, there

Have you ever heard the legend about La Llorona known as “The Weeping Women”?Do you hear that? Do you hear that crying noise? People say that if you hear her cry expect death! La Llorona is real, even though people say she is she is an urban legend. There has been sightings of her in many places.

     The Aztecs were an American Indian people who ruled a mighty empire in Mexico from the 1400's to the 1500's. The Aztecs had one of the most advanced civilizations in the Americas and built cities as large as any in Europe at that time. They also practiced a remarkable religion that affected every part of their lives and featured human sacrifice. The Aztecs built towering temples, created huge sculptures, and held impressive ceremonies all for the purpose of worshipping their gods. The Spaniards destroyed their magnificent empire in the year 1521, but the Aztecs left a lasting mark on Mexican life and culture .

Aztec culture, also known as Mexica culture, was a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521, during the time in which a triple alliance of the Mexica, Texcoca and Tepaneca tribes established the Aztec empire. The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica from the 14th to the 16th centuries. The Aztec have also referred to themselves as the Meshika or Mehika.

After the Mexican War had ended, a Democratic congressman from PA, David Wilmot, gave a provocative speech to the House that endorsed the annexation of Texas as a slave state on August 8 of 1846. Because Mexico now forbade slavery, Wilmot declared that if any new territory were to be acquired from Mexico, there should be no slavery or involuntary servitude there. His Proviso sparked new political conflict and debate over the extension of slavery and tested the Missouri Compromise that had protected both slave states and free states and not permitting it in newly admitted states. With newly acquired territory from the Mexican War, the national debate continued and in 1846, the House of Representatives passed the Wilmot Proviso but it did not pass through the Senate. President Polk decided that the debate over slavery had nothing to do with the war in Mexico and dismissed the proviso as mischievous and foolish”. Furthermore, the president convinced Wilmot to withhold his amendment from any bill in relation with the annexation of Mexican territories. Although his proviso did not pass, his idea kept appearing in Congress years after. People who opposed his Proviso wrote a thesis to counter the proviso such as John C. Calhoun. Calhoun declared that slavery should be allowed in the Mexican territory because per the Fifth Amendment, people were granted life, liberty and property; slaves were property. Thus the topic of slavery played a prominent role in dividing

The Mexican Corridos of 1910-1930 not only depict the lives of certain foreigners living in Mexico and in the United States during this time, but also illustrate what their experiences were like in such locations. While several individuals criticized the life in Mexico, and others criticized the life in the United States, the one thing that remained constant in almost all corridos was the fact that the criticism of Mexico was mainly aimed at the overall poverty of the country, while criticism of life in the United States focused mostly on the well-being and class of Americans themselves and not so much on the country’s financial status.

1.     The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo-  signed on February 2, 1848, ended the Mexican-American War in favor of the United States.  This treaty added about 500,000 square miles to the U.S territory.  This was also like a treaty to peace because it ended the American Mexican War.  The war was caused by Mexico refusing to say that Texas was independent and it was now part of the United States.

When the Spaniards under Hernan Cortez gazed upon the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán in Mexico in 1519, the scene before them amazed them. There, in the middle of a wide lake was a shimmering city with bright white walls of vast buildings sitting on an island in the middle of a large lake with causeways linked to it. The astonishment of those first Spanish visitors soon turned to horror when they saw the vast scale of ritual sacrifices made by the Aztecs.

The Aztecs are really interesting people that were alive back from 1400 - 1600 AD. They lived very different than us, because we don’t no human sacrifices because we don’t believe in any of the gods (due to science)This paper will show how the Aztecs lived, including their empire, Government and Agriculture.

The yellow field with the red Zia symbol in the middle are the colors of the Spanish flag. Spanish explorers first discovered this territory in 1540. New Mexico is one of the most beautiful states with its timeless traditions and mesmerizing scenery.

Should the US have all of Texas and California or should we not have them? The US went to war with Mexico in 1846. In this war the US wanted to have the Manifest Destiny come true, so the US fought over land which is now called Texas. After the war had been fought over Texas, the US had a little later had attempted to take more land. In which, they were successful and now we call the land they fought for part of California. The US was right for going to war with Mexico for three reasons, Manifest Destiny, there was a vote on it, and Mexico attacked first.

Richard Rodriguez’s use of irony in his essay “Blaxicans and other Reinvented Americans” supports his main claim that assimilation occurs naturally by exaggerating his ideas to the point that they sound fallacious. In turn, this causes his point to vibrant, stronger and more reasonable. During his interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation, a woman asked Rodriguez if he was “in favor” of assimilation. Rodriguez replied, “One doesn’t get up in the morning, as an immigrant child in America and think to oneself,”“How much of an American shall I become today?’... “One doesn’t walk down the street and decide to be 40 percent Mexican and 60 percent American” (Lines 146-148).

A maquiladora is a manufacturing plant based in Mexico where foreign companies import materials and equipment, on a duty free and tariff free basis, for the purposes of processing, manufacturing, or assembling goods which are then exported to other countries. The idea behind these maquiladoras promises a prosperous Mexican society. On paper, it really does seem like NAFTA is living up to expectations; creation of more jobs and a much less unemployment rate. On the surface, there seems to be nothing wrong with what’s going on in Mexico in terms of employment. Everyone has jobs and everyone is getting paid for these jobs, so what’s the issue? Despite all of this, the degrading and terrible working conditions imposed upon the maquiladora workers