Economic Industry of Los Angeles and Mexicans Workers
To begin, In Latino Metropolis, Victor Valle and Rodolfo Torres suggest that the Latino population is a vital group to the political economy of Los Angeles. The Los Angeles economy was constructed through the manual labor of largely Latino immigrants, which the city today still heavily depends on (Valle and Torres, 2000, 15-16). In their chapter, Economic Geography of Latino Los Angeles, Valle and Torres argue that Latino immigrants working in the labor workforce in the Southeast Los Angeles area (cities such Vernon, Maywood, Bell, etc.) are often discriminated and often depicted by the media, anti-immigrant leaders, and sympathizers as victims and villains (Valle and Torres, 2000,
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For instances, in 1946 various Latinos and African Americans experienced tough conditions working in a steel company named Bethlehem Steel. Both Latinos and African Americans were trapped in the dirtiest, most dangerous and lowest paying positions. For example, many were either placed in the pits of the furnace, bolt shop, or wire mill. These jobs were lower paying and offered less or no incentive pay. Jobs located near the furnace were very dirty, dangerous, and not desired by Anglo workers. So, there was a sort of work discrimination towards minority workers (Donahoe, 2005, 90-91).
My father has worked in steel mill company in Vernon and can often relate to this type of discrimination. My father came to the US in the 1970s and worked in various small jobs such as working in a car wash, washing dishes in a restaurant, and various other small jobs. It was not until 1978, he began working in a steel mill company in Vernon. My father was undocumented at the time and was hired to work there part time. My father told me how hard it was to work in a steel factory. His coworkers who were Anglo in the company would discriminate against him, even Mexican Americans, often made him feel uncomfortable because he was Mexican and undocumented. He states, “They use to harass me verbally and say “hey you
Juan Gonzalez uses Chapter 12: “Speak Spanish, You’re in America!: El Huracán over Language and Culture” of his novel Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America to introduce a truly polarizing argument that has plagued the Latino community in the United States of America. Gonzalez is quick to point out that English is the common language in this country, though he is quicker to note that it should not necessarily be so. This author is so incredibly biased in this chapter that it is nearly impossible to disagree with his opinion without feeling like one is completely shutting out the entire Latino community. However, speaking as a member of this community, perhaps it is this unique insight that allows for not only a contending opinion, but also the framework to make the opinion relevant. Gonzalez makes brash claims with little supporting evidence and relies heavily on argumenta ad passiones to manipulate the reader’s emotions instead of focusing on rationalism and sound judgment. Quite possibly, it was the abundance of this logical fallacy that made it difficult to sympathize with his argument; though, it lays the basis for this chapter analysis.
Despite Hispanics owning land dating back to the 1500s, hey are wrongfully snubbed by white settlers. Courts would refuse to recognize the Hispanics claims, and masses migrated to barrios, or Hispanic ghettos. They were created by lively communities who were determined to keep tradition strong. “The country was full of lawless and desperate men, who bore the name of Americans but failed to support the honor and dignity of that title.” (“The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta” page 233 American Studies.) The Americans were desperate to continue finding ways to earn money, and the article argues they do not deserve the title they have. For that reason, they’re wreaking havoc on other cultures and other properties and other people. The Hispanics were unfortunately crowded into barrios as they attempt to keep their tradition high. However, it is tragic how these people lost what was once theirs, because the Americans wanted to get their hands on anything that would help push the agenda of the American dream. Segwaying into individual stories of oppression is Joaquin Murieta. He was a rather interesting character from the province of Sonora in Mexico. What is rather odd is the difference from when he was growing up, and fast-forwarding to him residing in California, as he was known to be generous and mild, not “evil” and “barbaric.” Following the Mexican War was
Racially constituted labor was commonly seen during the early 20th century. Because of the implementation of labor disparity between races, “capricious restrictions that made economic parity with whites virtually impossible” (Sides, 2006). Although there have been attempts at labor equality, racial groups were oppressed and marginalized by white hierarchy. Deliberately assigning specific races to lower labor markets resulted in hindered work mobility for all minorities.
Next a case relating to employment difficulties during the Black Civil rights movement was Griggs v. Duke Power Company in the year 1971. The ruling on this case by the Supreme Court was that Duke Power Company was « discriminating against black employees, » because their qualification for employment did « not pertain to applicants ' ability to perform the job,» but rather was influenced by other factors such as race, and therefore they were not hiring people in certain racial
Does it matter what we are called: Latino or Hispanic? Does it change who we are as people? To an extent, most people do not know the difference between either. Typically, people group both terms as one singular item. However, Hispanic and Latino racial classifications are more than a broad category for people from Spanish-speaking countries. The words connote and represent a history of colonial terminology that based its success on the failures of innocent, historically peaceful, cultural groups. Hispanic and Latino terminology are political and economic in every sense. This paper will show that colonial leanings to control and govern people’s lives have yet to culminate, even though the era of imperialism ended a century ago. The United States, although far from its heyday as the singular house of power, still manages to achieve control and influence over the imperialized minds of groups of people, specifically Hispanics and Latinos.
Gonzales develops his thesis by asserting that Latin American immigration and Latino presence in the United States are
Labor and Legality: An Ethnography of a Mexican Immigrant Network, by Ruth Gomberg-Munoz, is a book that explains the difficulty of Mexican immigrant lifestyles, which has gained the attention across the country especially since Donald Trumps’ recent statements against these people, as illegal civilians come from Mexico to work in America. Gomberg-Munoz tries to give us an understanding of the life of these people. Gomberg-Munoz’s thesis is that immigrant workers work endlessly to improve their life by finding employment here in America. Gomberg-Munoz claims that due to these people being “undocumented” or “illegal” it created many struggles in their daily lives, which limits opportunities to achieve the “American Dream” that we previously discussed. During this review I will look through a number chapters, discussing some of Gomberg-Munoz’s points and getting further into them.
Dr. Jason Richwine discusses the Latino’s absorption and integration into the American culture. He compares the Latino nation with other countries’ immigrants that has rose out of poverty, while the Hispanics have not been rising up out of the lower class after several generations have passed. Richwine mentions that American prejudice might be influencing the Hispanic immigrants not striving. For example, he states, that “popular explanations from the
Throughout the 20th century, Los Angeles emerged as a place of multiculturalist struggles. One of these struggles, was that of the Mexican population, which is what the book Mi Raza Primero focuses on. In Mi Raza Primero by Ernesto Chavez, Chavez successfully argues how the collapse of the Chicano movement resulted from the failure to identify the multi-faceted and dynamic/heterogeneous nature of the ethnic Mexican community. He argues how this failure resulted in a movement that shared a strong sense of cultural nationalism, yet differed in tactics and goals. Chavez uses the examination of La Raza Unida Party and Brown Beret recruitment literature to help support his argument. Specifically, Chavez focuses on the voting data from the late
The 1965-1980 the Mexican Americans, were over the discrimination and the poor life conditions. They looked to find a new way of living from building a Chicano identity. The Pride and Prejudice action stated through a few farm workers named Ceasar Chavez and Dolores Huerta who protested on Sacramento for fair pay and justified working conditions. The level headed discussion over undocumented outsiders erupts, with a backfire that in the long run incorporates calls for fixed fringes, English-just laws and endeavors to mark undocumented workers as a deplete on open assets. All the while, the Latino impact is blasting in
Employment challenges and economic disparities amongst Hispanics in the United States has been an ongoing battle, social policies along with institutions continue to perpetuate poverty among Latinos’ and African Americans. According to Liu (2011), Labor market segmentation by race/ethnicity, gender, and national origin has been recognized as a prominent feature of urban labor markets in immigrant gateway cities across the United States. A direct example of this would be when Cubans’ immigrated to Miami in the 1960’s, at first, they were welcomed by the Americans with open arms until they realized they could be in competition for employment as the Cubans were not leaving to go back home. This created many issues especially when it came to welfare,
A diverse minority group of Latino and Spanish-speaking peoples has played an important part of what it means to be American and what it means to be a citizen in the United States today. Moving into the future, in order to analyze the trajectory that this group is in, we must first understand the group’s history in the United States and in territories that would become the United States. In addition, we must look at the origins of the most recent wave of Latino immigration in order to understand their current effect on American society and the intersection between both minority and majority groups. Finally, we get to the apex of this investigation: what lies in the future for Latino Americans in the United States? Although Latino
In Linda Chavez’s, “Hispanics and the American Dream” she starts by showing the growth of Hispanics in America and how they are depicted. She sees them as a valuable part of society that is steadily climbing to new heights on the socioeconomic ladder, yet the population perceives them to be the lower end and will likely remain that way. She goes on to prove this assumption by the way Hispanics are shown in the media, which states that poor and Hispanic goes hand in hand when thought of. What is failed to be seen is that most Hispanics are steadily in the middle class, but this varies within the group just as it does with all races. The analysts take into consideration the immigrants who have just entered America, legal or illegal, which in turn causes the balance to shift towards the poor side of the spectrum. Our overall perception of Hispanics plays a role in their place in society.
Latino Crossings: Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and the Politics of Race and Citizenship is a book based on ethnographic research that details the racism and hostility that Mexicans and Puerto Ricans have found in relation to other ethnic groups. The book examines the perceptions and constructions of differences both culturally and biologically between Mexicans and Puerto Ricans, as groups, and how it operates within a larger social framework of racialized inequalities of power and opportunity in the space of Chicago. The objective of the book is to not only highlight the boundaries that divide these two groups and how they have been constructed over time but to see if they could possibly find common ground in order for both communities to overcome these disparities that help separate them and in turn help them forge a common identity and find a political space beneficial for both.
Even though political participation of Latinos nationwide remains low, high concentrations of Latinos still are able to wield power and influence areas that affect Latinos like economic, educational, and social discrimination and exclusion, which, ironically, affect assimilation rates in the first place. The current events in California and other Latino majority areas of the country are but a small preview of the Latino political clout that is to