In America, there is a term we use to define the U.S. population, which is, "The Melting pot." The integration of lifestyles, cultures, and beliefs in this metaphorical melting pot, has been simmering since the early 1500's. Spanish settlers migrated to new "worlds" determined to claim land promised to them by the Crown of Spain. Although, consequently, the natives had not realized that their way of life and all that it entails, would become among the first ingredients in the "pot" of U.S. history. Despite integration beginning with the emigrant settlers, they considered indigenous natives to be savage, second-class citizens on their own soil. In comparison to the superior standards of Spanish customs, protecting these very ideologies of superiority against the Native Americans happened peacefully, or by forcefully. The natives were simply out-matched in arms, against Anglo Americans, which is why the legacy of Hispanidad remains disparaged and vague. Therefore, whitewashed accounts of U.S. history must be revised to include Latino contributions, factors, and influences on the development of the United States of America, and not just ethnically. …show more content…
One such example is the city of San Antonio, named for Saint Anthony de Padua. Ironically, he is considered the patron saint of lost things which is exactly what befell the natives of this land. Devastatingly, the loss of land, people, and dignity suffered by the Natives Americans could now pray to this Saint brought before them by the foreign settlers. However, an "economic revolution"1 emerged as the European plants and animals successfully acclimated to their new home. Furthermore, some key factors also helped in shaping the history of Mexican
The purpose of this excerpt is to recognize that Latinos as other cultures have been here from the beginning; United Stated was from forever a multicultural nation. However framers have tried to keep old concepts about
Differences between cultures are not something new. Many of us can still see it in our daily lives. Four hundred years ago two very distinctly different cultures clashed in what we call the American Southwest. The Spanish presence brought new ideas, new culture, and new way of life to the new found Americas much to the demise of the already settled native tribes. Already having controlled much of Mexico and South America, problems were rising in the outskirts of New Spain. Secular and religious authorities were in conflict and the ever growing animosity of its aboriginal tribe made it difficult to maintain Spanish control. Though, for four generations the Spaniards had begun to feel successful in their endeavors of
In chapter one Conquerors and Victims: The Image of America Forms (1500-1800) Gonzalez talks about the impact upon the arrival of the Europeans to America. This arrival was categorized as “the greatest and most important event in the history of human kind”. Spain and England were two countries that had a big impact on our modern world and transplanted their cultures around the territories they took over. Both countries created their empires in which they established on their identities and viewpoint of their language and social customs. Upon their arrival the native population was outnumbered, many of which live around Mexico’s Valley and others populate the Central Andes region and Rio Grande.
Gutiérrez’s analysis spans almost a century worth of history between Mexican Americans and Mexicans and how their relationship developed. Throughout his discussion he argues that the root of the conflict between these two groups long existed. He argues that “although most Mexican Americans retained their Mexican cultural orientations and maintained strong affinities to Mexico,” factors of American assimilation and essentially ideals of nativism
Foreigner in their own land, as “Latino Americans” individuals faced many challenges that test their fate in faith, home and identity of family. As war divide and conquer part of land and that advocacy of political independence of a formation of the United States. Latino Americans outline main points in part of the race and racism in America being language, majority’ and ‘minority’ stratification that alter and expand the differences that expand in culture, race, and religion classes. Thus, construction of territory that outline the bordering disputes of the Republic of Texas with Mexico wars begins with the struggle over Southwestern territories that once belonged to Spain through the establishment of building Catholic Missions. With the defeat
In America today, we are faced with several different minority groups arriving to the United States. The most common of all minority groups are the Hispanics. America is known for their language being English, but as the year's approach, that language has faded and a new face in English language has taken over, it's called Spanish. We as the people of America have become controversial over this major change, and due to that major bilingualism and political movements that have occurred from the government to the education departments. In this paper, I am going to talk about the four most common Hispanic groups in our country today and the political, social, linguistic, economic, religious, and familial conventions and/or statuses that they
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.
The Latino/a experience within the racial system in America was similar to that of Indian immigrants from Asia. In the early 1800s, Indians were granted free access to immigrate to America and naturalize as American citizens because they were perceived as whites. However, as social tensions between Indian and Anglo men began competing for jobs, housing, and women, Members of Congress racialized Indians. They justified that Indian men were no longer privileged to be white because Indians left Europe and traveled backwards to the East, making them inferior (Aoki, and Takeda). These examples of racialization are important to understand how Latino/as have been unwanted in the job
Hispanic heritage is an important concept that surrounds my entire life. I have lived in Puerto Rico during my whole childhood. This culture has been important in my life because it helps define who I am and how I view the world. Both of my biological parents are Dominican, but I lived with my mother and step-dad in Puerto Rico. It was not until I moved to the United States that I began to become more aware of different ethnic groups. The United States has been called the “melting pot” society. Newcomers to this country were expected to adapt their “old world” values and culture to fit the values and lifestyles of the “new world” (An Overview of Diversity Awareness, n.d.).
Currently within the United States one of the fastest growing minority population (Schwartz & Scott, 2012) is the Latinos. In 2010 Census Bureau Brief ( Ennis, Rois-Vargas, & Albert, 2011) it stated how an estimated 15 million Latino individuals were living within the United States, which is approximately about 16% of the entire U.S. population. There is one big problem with addressing the Latino population, and that is the family patterns are either misrepresented or not properly understood, due to the label of Hispanic and Latinos being placed together. These two groups may share the same spoken language of Spanish and have similar cultural ancestry but the diversity among Hispanic and Latinos (Schwartz & Scott, 2012) make generalizations about their lifestyles difficult. The term Hispanic came to be used in the 1970’s by government officials (cdc.gov, 2011) in trying to provide a diverse label on this population that had connections to speaking Spanish and the Spanish culture. Latino became more of a termed to be used when distinguishing between Mexican (Hispanics) and Latinos who descendants from Latin America such as Cuba and Puerto Rico.
In the eyes of American, the Latino immigrants are challenging the "Core countries" of leadership, culture and solidarity since they always consider as the barbarians who show no willingness to integrate into the American culture by abandoning their own culture or learning. Moreover, they always show no passion to learn the English. With the linguistically distinction, unique political values and cultural difference, the Latino easily shows the contradiction and conflict to the uniqueness of
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
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
The United States of America is considered a melting pot of heritages and nationalities from all around the world. There is no official language, and no one culture all citizens abide by. Despite the fact that everyone in this country is different from one another, there is still a constant uniform citizen that has a more favorable position. This citizen is white, English-speaking, and somehow always in the front of the public sphere. In the recent years, there has been an increasingly dominant Latino presence in America. Their strength in numbers challenges there being a poster American citizen, and that that citizen will remain white. When working to assimilate to America’s “culture,” Lations seem to believe that there is one America, within which people speak a singular language and experience one culture. The pressure to assimilate stems from the white citizens of the country feeling threatened when there is a new culture and language, which they do not understand. As a result they feel personally threatened by the people who can speak both Spanish and English, and their response response involves marginalization and the obvious exclusion of Latino groups in the United States. There is a phenomenon, cultural citizenship, where Latinos perform their cultural practices to stretch their identity into the states, and practice their right to be authentic members of their community.
Huntington explains that a lot of the founding principles of the United States, such as freedom from oppression, and the formulation of the government were based on the majority cultures, which were white Europeans. Following the creation of the country, millions of people have flocked from the four corners of the globe in order to live in a nation of freedom and understanding (Huntington 1). It is thus the white originator culture which has allowed the United States to become a melting pot. However, Huntington proclaims that this unique identity is being threatened by the large amounts of Hispanic people who are becoming a part of the United States. Without assimilation into the larger culture, the ever-increasing number of Hispanics will likely become so numerous as to divide