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Essay on Chicanos

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Chicanos

With the advancements in technology today, the process of learning has become easier. Instead of just reading, one can look at video documentaries or web sites to acquire information they need or want. In my Latinos in the U.S. class, we have access to all types of information in our quest to learn about Mexican-American history. By reading Zaragosa Vargas= Problems in Mexican-American History, looking at the Chicano Park web site and viewing part one of the Chicano! video documentary, I have encountered a variety of representations of Mexican-American history. However they are not all of the same quality for the video and web site do not give as much information as the readings in Vargas= book or the class lectures …show more content…

is of better quality than the web site. It talks in great detail of the history that proceeded World War II including the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, the Chicano Youth Conference, and the Chicano Moratorium March showing footage of the actual events. It also talks more about Mexican-American history throughout the United States. Yet, similar to the web site it does not talk about the very beginning of the Mexican-American history.

The history of Mexican-Americans began with the colonization of Mexico by the Spaniards around 1492. At this time, there were approximately eighteen million people living in Mexico as compared to the 250,000 Spaniards that came to the ANew World.@ This is shocking because these 250,000 Spaniards were able to conquer and gain control of Mexico. Many believe this was done because the Spaniards brought disease which killed off the majority of the natives and because the Spaniards were militarily superior. Although this may be true, the Spaniards were smart and knew they would not be able to conquer so many people by themselves. With this being the case, they acted as friends to the natives, joined their communities, learned about their culture, learned the language, and eventually turned the different tribes of natives against each other. Two examples of this include: Cortes, who recruited a native woman to be his slave, impregnated her and had the first Mestizo (half Indian, half Spanish) or Mexican child, and Alvar Nunez

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