Las Papas Essay

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.

Ever since fourth grade, one of my best friends have been Taylor Elam. Over the years that we’ve been friends we’ve had some jokes. My mom loves Mexican food; Taylor used to not like mexican food very much. Whenever our families would go out to eat, my mom would suggest something mexican. Whenever mexican was suggested by my mom, Taylor would respond “of course Hope wants mexican,” and whenever someone would ask where we were going to eat Taylor would say, “Hope wants mexican!” which we would always laugh about.

In her novel La Linea, Ann Jaramillo tells the story of fifteen-year-old Miguel, who leaves his home in Mexico to illegally cross the US-Mexican border. He leaves for California, where his parents and two of his sisters have lived for the past seven years. His parents left first, in order to make money for their children to cross la linea later. Miguel and his younger sister Elena thus live with their grandmother on a rancho in the small Mexican village San Jacinto. On his fifteenth birthday, Miguel receives the letter he has waited for his entire life. A letter from his father tells him to go see Don Clemente, a rich and successful immigrant smuggler. Don Clemente provides Miguel with

I’m an American grown up with Mexican roots; with all their traditions, religious beliefs, holidays, and foods. I come from a small town of south Texas, called The Rio Grande Valley, where I live with my average size family. I’ve grown up with my family facing hardships, and flaws yet united always. As time has gone by I’ve come to learn that everything around me has shaped me to be the young lady I am today, and I’m grateful for that.

I am going to tell you about a famous, yet kinda eerie celebration that takes place in mexico. This is a tradition celebrated by the Mexican Natives, most Mexican Americans (including myself) don’t even acknowledge this day, unless they happen to be visiting mexico at the time of this event.

As previously mentioned, the maquiladoras emerged in the northern border regions of Mexico, and subsequently began to move inwards towards the interior spreading to almost every state in the country. Among the scholars who trace the origins of the maquiladoras, the vast majority locate the city of Tijuana as the first to establish a maquila plant at the time the Mexican government launched the Border Industrialization Program. During the program’s early years, only a select few U.S. companies sought to take advantage of the zones’ cheaper rate of production by relocating at least a portion of their production process to Tijuana’s maquila (Cooney, 2001, p.68; Billes, 2003, pp. 520-521;

Cinco de Mayo means the fifth of May. It is not an independence day for Mexico like most unknowledgeable people think. Mexican Independence Day is celebrated on the 15th of September. Mexico declared independence from Spain on the 24th of August 1821. Cinco de Mayo is not an American holiday either. Mexico and the United States savor this holiday because it is the day where Mexican peasants/ commoners defeated the French and Mexican traitor army that double them in size in Puebla, Mexico one hundred miles away from Mexico city on the 5th of May, 1862.

The 1959 novel, Pocho, by José Antonio Villarreal is an insightful cultural exposition told primarily from the vantage point of Richard Rubio, the coming-of-age son of immigrant Mexican parents who eventually settle in Santa Clara, California, after many seasons of migrant farm work. Although fiction, the story likely mirrors some of the experiences of the author who was born to migrant laborers in Los Angeles in 1924 and was himself a "pocho" - a child of the depression era Mexican-American transition. ("I am a Pocho," he said, "and we speak like this because here in California we make Castilian words out of English words." p 165)

In this essay, I will discuss the history of tamales; their origin and reason for existence. I will review the traditional tamale and its construction as well as introduce the ever-growing market of new and improved types of tamales. I will entwine different perspectives and narratives of personal encounters with tamales, their production, and how it has come to affect their personal lives in relation to race, gender and family or community roles. Finally I will discuss the differences and similarities in tamales in my native state of New Mexico, and in my new home state of Colorado, and I will introduce tamales from and around the world in Spanish speaking countries, including a focus on such ethnicities as Mexican and Native Americans. I hope to prove that tamales are more than just good food; they belong to a people who work diligently for the sake of their family and their heritage.

When thinking of New York City, more often than not, the first things one visualizes is the beautiful skyline, the bright lights, and Times Square. But without a second glance, one might miss one of the important things about the city. New York is the most heavily Dominican populated city in the United States. It’s ironic that the first non-native American to migrate to and reside on what is today New York City, was from Santo Domingo, the capital city of the Dominican Republic. Throughout history, Dominicans have migrated to the US in search of economic opportunity. This is the factor that influences nearly every immigrant group that migrates to the US in history. In the early 1900s, The United States and the Dominican Republic had a very close diplomatic relationship, to the point where the President considered annexation. At one point, the United States completely controlled the Sugar industry, one of the country’s most profitable markets.

A gang is an organized group with a recognized leader whose activities are either criminal or, at the very least, threatening to the community. (Walker, 2011) Throughout history there have been some infamous gangs that have gotten media attention and others that have gone under the radar. One of the more underground gang structures are prison gangs. The Nuestra Familia may not be in the news as much anymore compared to other gangs, but they are nothing to be taken lightly. Prison gangs have been around since the late 20th century and only seem to be getting stronger if nothing is going to be done to prevent them. Gangs in prison have members in and out of prison. One of the more popular gangs that has been gaining steam recently is

On Sundays after Mass- every single Sunday, Latinos gathered on parks to play soccer and have carne asada something that is very traditional in Mexican families my family could be an example of that. These parks were built with the money taken from the Japanese which speaking of now a day’s use these complexes too and this is where the two cultures met.

Mark Danner, an editor for the New York Times magazine, recounts in The Massacre at El Mozote a horrific crime against humanity committed by a branch of the Salvadorian army. He gives multiple points of views and cites numerous eye witnesses to try and piece together something that has been tucked away by the government at the time. In December, of 1981, news reports were leaked to major newspapers in the united states about an atrocity committed and a total massacre of a hamlet in El Salvador, known as El Mozote, or the Thicket. At first, the account was of over a thousand civilians, women men and children with no guerrilla affiliation were massacred. Danner pieces together the testimonies of the survivors, and interviews with

enemies would be left to rot, but in his own reality, he is doing the only

To introduce this product to Mexico, the intention will be to craft meals that are traditional Mexican cuisine and reasonably low in cost. It will be important to use ingredients from local farmers to develop relationships within the country and to provide the service and product at the best price to build a customer base. This product seemed logical for the Mexican market when observing family eating tendencies in the culture. As a collectivist culture, Mexican families are likely to have meals together and cook at home. This product caters to this aspect and allows families to enjoy each other while making the task of cooking and planning simpler. (The Hofstede Centre, n.d.)