El Tonto Del Barrio Story

The bright colors caught my eye and the image reminded me a little of my hometown. Where I come from there's a large range of ethnicity and when I saw this lithograph it brought back old memories. Of when, I guess you can call them thugs, would drive up and down the streets of Dumas in there decked out lowriders thinking they were the coolest thing since sliced bread. In my opinion I always thought low riders were absurd and that they were a mark down to the cars real stature. Luis Jimenez's lithographs show a true style in which some people portray beauty with there cars.

At work, Ramon and the other Chicano miners are forced to take on the most dangerous jobs while working alone, while white miners were allowed to work in pairs, doing some of the less life-threatening jobs. The Chicanos become indebted to the company through high prices, as the only stores in the town are those owned by the company. Ramon and Esperanza, along with the other community members fight against verbal abuse and discriminatory practices in the working and living conditions they encounter on a daily basis.

When we think about society there is often a stark contrast between the controversy projected in our media about the issues that our society faces and the mellow, safe view we have of our own smaller, more tangible ‘local’ society. This leads us to believe that our way of life is protected and our rights secured by that concept of society that has been fabricated and built upon during the course of our short lives. However, what if society were not what we perceive it to be, and the government chose to exercise its power in an oppressive manner? As a society we would like to think that we ourselves are above such cruelty, yet as The Lonely Crossing of Juan Cabrera recounts the state of Cuba in the 1990’s so must we remember that all societies and governments view the individual differently as opposed to the whole. Each group has unique expectations that are enforced upon the individual goes beyond those expectations. The individual can very quickly find their rose glasses view of their society cracking before their very eyes as the reality of taking such a rise comes into view.

In contrast many people criticized Pancho Villa as being a bandolero, a thief, a killer, and overall criminal. A man who began his career as an outlaw and bandit, became a symbol of the revolution to Mexican peasants during and after his death. Despite documented evidence of his cruelty and unreasonable disregard for human life in the way he sacked innocent people from their food and killed indiscriminately in his raids throughout the revolution, Pancho Villa was popular amongst the poor, as he was known to share stolen goods amongst the poor who suffered from Porfirio Diaz’s

The push west was not always as glorified as many 1950s western movies would portray. Rather, there were complicated politics that often led to the disenfranchisement of the native peoples who lived on the lands the Americans were essentially squatting on. There are a number of stylistic elements embedded within Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton's 1885 work that lead credence to this theme. Using realism and naturalism to show how the social environment of an oppressed people will forever hinder their character development, Amparo Ruiz de Burton exposes the greed and lack of concern in American policy for the native people it was essentially stealing land from.

Pancho Villa was one of the few young men who understood his peoples’ suffering and acted upon his beliefs. He joined a team of bandits who effectively raided the rich and distributed the wealth amongst the poor and deprived. Surviving off of crime, Villa was portrayed as a hero, who stood for equality. Pancho argued, “The grandes have enjoyed what prosperity there has been. The government’s new land laws must allow them to own their own lands, and, above all else, own the profits.” (Ander). Peasants who were willing to risk their lives against the Mexican government joined Pancho Villa and his cause. His followers placed their faith in this intelligent guerilla warrior, and fought alongside him. Although he was seen as merciless, Pancho Villa could not afford to show leniency toward traitors under his command or rivals.

La Amistad movie is a movie from the year 1997 and it is directed by the famous director, “Steven Spielberg”. This famous director has made a lot famous movies like for example the famous movie of “Jurassic Park” or “E.T”. Amistad is the word for “friendship” in Spanish. In this movie four different languages are spoken. English, Spanish, Portuguese and Mende. Mende is the language that the African slaves speak in. This movie is a little recreation of a true story about slave revolt on a small Spanish schooner in 1839. This revolt caused a series of trials beginning in the lower parts of Connecticut. This case not only marks a milestone for Abolitionists in their fight against slavery but it also questioned the natural laws of our Constitution.

Immigration involves moving from our home country to a whole new one in order to start over and have a better life and or future. In Esperanza Rising, Esperanza Just lost her dad and her dad’s step brothers/her uncles burn her house down they decided they have to leave Mexico and become an immigrant.They moved to California and she has to work because her mamma becomes sick, so she needs the money to pay her mammas hospital bills, so she goes to work in migrant worker and her job was to eyeing the potatoes. Although Esperanza faced many challenges as an immigrant, her hardest challenge were not being able to chores because someone else also did it for her, and when esperanza had to go to work in the fields to take care of mamma.

Joan Didion 's article “Notes From A Native Daughter” and Ernesto Galarza 's piece “Barrio Boy” both talk a lot about how life was like in Sacramento while they were growing up. In Ernesto Galarza 's article, he writes about living in lower Sacramento and Didion 's essay, talks about life in a different area of Sacramento, California. Ernesto Galarza 's Sacramento is filled with a lot of Mexicans and other Latin American people living in a particular area of the city. Barrio Boy 's Sacramento took place in around the 1910s-1920s which was the early 20th century. Joan Didion 's Sacramento was at a later time, which was 1940s-1950s and was also a time when World War II took place. Since these stories both take place in Sacramento,

Pancho Villa redistributed the wealth gained from his illegal activities. He often took the money from the rich and gave it to the poor. These deeds led him to be known as a modern day Mexican Robin Hood.

Recognize Nieves? No? Okay, how about Zacatecas? Still not ringing a bell? Okay, okay, Mexico? Yeah, I knew you’d know that one. Nieves, Zacatecas is within the Mexico borders. A humble place where I was born. Several circumstances started evolving where I was raised. And just like any other parents, mine got concerned which later resulted of us relocating to a safer environment. A place where death would visit frequently wasn’t a good place for a 1 year old kid. A town where the word trust was unknown. Leading to my parents decision of following the american dream.

What drives people to undertake missions? For example, Ernesto wanted to learn english, go to school, and not give up so Ernesto came to America to go to school, learn english, and not give up. Annie Johnson did not give up and Annie made her own business and without this business Annie would not have money and would not be able to handle her childrens. Monica had more responsibilities to do because Monica wanted a little brother. Individuals are driven to undertake missions because for example one of the motivation of the first story was to learn english and go to school and be successful, another motivation was to make money to support a family, and the last motivation was that someone wanted a little brother.

Oscar Romero is one of the most popular and unique Archbishops in Latin America due to his devotion and relationship with the poor. Romero was one of the first to speak out on behalf of the poor and fought for human rights and for the victims during El Salvador's bloody civil war. Romero's birth name is Oscar Arnulfo y Galdamez and he was born on August 15, 1917 in Ciudad Barrios, a small mountain village in El Salvador. He is the son of Guadalupe de Jesus and Santos Romero. As a result of his deep passion for learning, Romero receive an education until he was twelve years old.

Romero at this point really liked the old man and he trusted him. Romero for the first time in a long time completely let his guard

Romero made a really important decision when he decided to help out the poor because he now became an enemy against the government. Romero grew immensely throughout the entire movie, his love for the people and his conscience (soul, ego) grew as well. Our notes tell us that love requires work it is not just a feeling you have. Romero did a lot work to find his love; he also made a lot of sacrifices. Some of the sacrifices that Romero made were, going into the church when it was taken over by the military Romero still went in knowing that he may be killed, but I think the biggest sacrifice that Romero gave his people was that he gave up his life so that maybe someday they could be free. This resembles Jesus very much, because Jesus gave up his life so that all of our sins would be taken away. Romero is a very brave man for doing this, I don’t know many people who would give their lives up so others could be free this is a very non-selfish act. In my opinion there should be more people like this on the earth because there are so many problems that the world has to deal with in this day of age. I think that Oscar Anglo Romero y Glades was a great man for dieing for something that he truly believed in. Romero may have hesitated for a while on what to do, but in the long run what he did to help out the country of El Salvador was a major impact for the government to change. I wish there were more people