Essay Blacks and Latinos in America

David G Gutiérrez’s Walls and Mirrors: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the Politics of Ethnicity discuss the deep and complex understudied relationship between Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants. This relationship was a natural consequence of the mass illegal immigration from Mexico to the United States that had constantly been increasing the population of “ethnic Mexicans” and along with it brought tensions between those who were Americans of Mexican descent and had been living here for generations and those who had freshly arrived to the United States and as such did whatever they had to do to make a living.

During that time many facts of data were detected of the many of Mexicans population in the California, Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico area. In Mexico, there was many violence that drove many people to move to American. Above all many of the companies of farmers gave jobs to them. Despite the poor wages, housing, and uncontrollable weather they pull through to send money to mothers and other family members money that needed it the most. In August of the 1930s, a Secretary of State from Mexico went undercover to see the daily lives of this workers. The report explains how there were happy because of their faith and hard work to help themselves plus family members move forward. The education process explains how the parents were to blame for not helping their child to succeed in school. Since of them knowing that due to their poor living state many went to work in order to help the family. On top of that, they were criticized by the American people since hate was upon them. The two cultures tried to mix in together but never worked. When the deported started and Mexican- American moved back to Mexico the American people saw the amounted that affected them. A few stayed in American but lived a tough lifestyle. Now there are many stories that are express in everyday life in music or told by elders who explain their parent's point of view on the

The first two chapters of the book set the foundation for the reader to understand the project that was conducted by Telles and Ortiz. Chapter one provided a brief overview of the entire book and provided an explanation of how the research idea began and why it was carried out. Chapter two continues to review important theories regarding race, assimilation, and ethnicity. In this chapter assimilation is defined in a scholarly manner and the authors shares with the reader the different factors that many argue affects how Mexican Americans assimilate. Some of the major factors are believed to be structural assimilation, contact with other groups, ethnic identity, and political attitudes.

The personal essay titled “The Space In-Between” by Santiago Quintana details the struggles he dealt with while trying to figure out his identity as a member of both the Mexican and American cultures. Even though Santiago was born and raised in Mexico, he was often questioned about his ethnicity because his physical appearance did not align with that of a “true Mexican.” Instead of having brown skin, black hair, and brown eyes, he has white skin, light brown hair, and blue eyes. Since Santiago looked so different, he was singled out, bullied, and treated as if he were a foreigner in his own country. The difficulties he faced clearly had numerous negative effects on him emotionally, however, there was an unexpected and overwhelmingly positive

and Mexico. In particular, you recall how past Americans were “locked into the fiction of white superiority” to the point that they felt justified in stealing Mexican land and how Mexicans reacted to this injustice with violence (Anzaldua, 7). Gloria, how are you able to bridge the gap between two societies that are hostile towards each other and towards you, someone who exists within the limits of both cultures? Do your experiences within the boundaries of both cultures give you a special understanding of them that a person who exists in just one culture or the other

She discusses how Mexicans identify themselves; since there are many different ways to identify culture, they make up several different cultures (Indian, Black, and Mexican). By the end she talks about the fight that Mexicans put up to stand up for their culture and their identity.

In The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, a little girl from a Latino heritage is given birth to. Not literally, but in the sense of characterization. Esperanza is a fictional character made up by Cisneros to bring about sensitive, alert, and rich literature. She is the protagonist in the novel and is used to depict a female’s life growing up in the Latino section of Chicago. Cisneros creates the illusion that Esperanza is a real human being to communicate the struggles of growing up as a Latina immigrant in a modern world, by giving her a name, elaborating her thoughts and feelings, and illustrating her growth as a person through major events.

It's difficult growing up in America as a person of color. It's especially hard for caucasians to truly understand the struggles that people of color must face in their everyday lives. But Sandra Cisneros' The House on Mango Street teaches us just that. The House on Mango Street is the story of a young Latina girl named Esperanza, living in Chicago during the 1960's with her poor family. It's Esperanza's daily struggles that shape her into the person she is.

Although she does not use written Spanish in The house on Mango Street, her characters are Mexican and represent the culture in their lifestyles, views, and upbringing. The story depicts the coming of age of a girl named Esperanza, who is searching for stability and a place for herself in the world. Cisneros explores the life of a Mexican girl and the things that shaped her morality and sense of

In the book, Sanchez, (1995) focuses on ethnic studies and how prior to World War II, Mexican Americans had formed a unique identity that was not oriented toward Mexico but America, their new home. Despite facing unequal opportunity in social and economic spheres, immigrants nevertheless proceeded to build cohesive communities and strove to adapt their cultural identity to the American way. Mexican immigrants were beset by pressures from America to assimilate to the American way while facing more pressure from Mexico to remain loyal. In response, however, Mexican immigrants found the middle ground where they remained Mexican while being American citizens. In the analysis, the book alludes to cultural identity as stipulated by Stuart Hall where cultural identity is regarded as becoming and being.

(pg. 99) American public schools were another way to try and Americanize the Mexican Immigrants. In 1915 California passed the Home Teacher Act which allowed teachers to go into the homes of immigrants and to teach adults and children such things as the English language. Which essentially was as Sánchez puts it, “the most potent weapon used to imbue the foreigner with American values”. (pg. 100) Later the Home Teacher Act would be integrated into public schools after WWI. There were also other things besides American progressives that were shaping the Mexican immigrants identity in America, and these included new religions and pop culture/consumerism.

This articles discusses the difference between assimilation and “dissimilation” of Mexican immigrants over time and where they are located, and sub sequentially prove that assimilation does occur with in the Mexican group. The authors are able to support this through their gathering educational data from Mexican- origin individuals and later generation immigrants. Their findings showed that as the generations went on, the Mexican individuals proceeded to mimic white members. The authors sub-claim that some immigrants pull away from the norm by reverse assimilating, known as “dissimilation.” The author supports this idea with the work from Yinger (1981), that covered the resurgence of Native American pride after years of assimilation. The authors

The formation of segregated barrios and the development of a wealth of community-provided services showed that Mexican-Americans were not content to be marginalized by the United States. Instead, they were embracing an empowering new sense of self-determination and referring to themselves as “Mexicanos or as members of a larger, pan-Hispanic community of La Raza.” At this time La Raza referenced individuals of the Mexican “race”, whether they were in Mexico or in the United States, and was particularly important in the United States, where race was more important than citizenship. In the late 19th and early 20th century United States, race was determined by purity of blood, and there were only two races—white and black. White meant the individual had “pure blood” (European blood); black meant that the individual’s blood included indigenous or African influences. Being white meant being able to exercise one’s constitutional rights and being treated as a normal member of society’s dominant group. Being black meant that, regardless of whether he or she was a citizen, the individual would face discrimination similar to that which I described earlier. When the Spanish conquerors mixed with the people of Latin America, forming the mestizo, or mixed race, population that now composes most of the region, they removed themselves from a “white” classification in the United States. Thus, by engaging with the concept of La Raza, which connotes a mestizo race and population, Mexican-Americans rejected the binary nature of race in the United States and embraced what made them different—their indigenous-mixed blood and the cultural heritage that accompanied it. While the abuse directed towards Mexican-Americans may have

Yes I do feel that the efforts to gain equal rights and right for traditionally excluded people are still incomplete. Society is still suffering from the after effects of slavery. Although, we as a society are looked at as all human beings with the same life value, it is not that simple. The efforts for everyone to be equal has made a tremendous improvement it still has not made enough to say that we are all equal in society. The African American community and Hispanic community are very inferior to the Caucasian community. Society has made it very clear about how they feel about the African American and Hispanic community. The media, television, education are very stereotypical on the “inferior” communities. The media has depicted African Americans as ghetto, uneducated, Drug lords, crack victims and classless.

This piece incorporates a unique blend of both English and Spanish. This interesting and different approach serves a very specific purpose. It is done in order to show white readers what it is like for non-English speakers to live in America. The discomfort and awkwardness that readers feel as they struggle to pronounce and understand these words, mimics the experience of non-English speakers living in America. “Con el destierro y el exilio fuimos desuñados, destroncados, destripados- we were jerked out by the roots, truncated, disemboweled, dispossessed and separated from our identity and our history” (Anzaldúa 45). Sentences like these are implemented in the text to alienate the reader, just like Mexicans in America feel alienated by the language and culture that is so unlike their own. Reading this short essay is not enough to capture the culture shock experienced by those who cross the border, but it subjects the reader to one aspect of the difficult transition. The use of Spanish also serves another purpose. The vast majority of white audience members are unable to understand the Spanish that Anzaldúa utilizes. This illustrates the white audience’s inability to conceptualize the adversity that these people have endured. However, members of the Mexican-American community that have undergone the process of assimilation, can comprehend the combination of English and Spanish, the same way they are able to