So Mexicans Are Taking Jobs From Americans By Jimmy Santiago Baca Summary

The topic of immigrants has been debated for centuries, and has been an even larger topic for discussion since the attack on the two towers in 2001. Many people contemplate whether immigrants are a reason to be scared, not; and if so, then why? If one finds themselves asking this conflicting question, Jeremy Adam Smith’s article, Our Fear of Immigrants, provides an answer. Relying on research from psychologists and sociologists, Smith gives sufficient evidence for why immigrants bring such intense feelings of both hatred and compassion, and recommends a way to increase empathy toward them.

1. Selena 's father says it is difficult to be a Mexican-American.  Why does he say that?

Even more frequently, his use of “undocumented” immigrants rather than “illegal” immigrants. Simply by calling himself and others “undocumented,” it provides a positive impression for the reader. This is a stark contrast to news and society, both of which refer to them as “illegal” immigrants. Referring to

For example, “In a society marked by class and racial-ethnic segregation, appeals to either class or race had the potential to mobilize the Mexican American community, but other identities were also important,” (264). Perhaps Montejano cannot help but include his opinion in his book because he was however, part of the movement as a child and grew up in and around the poor, working-class. He says in his book he said he lived down the block from the Menchaca Courts and as adolescents he and his siblings had a few run in with rock throwing and insults from the pachucos (6). He could not sympathize on the side of the “gringos” since he did face the adversities of living in the west side of town. Also, his primary accounts are for the most part from the side of the Chicano’s who endured the challenges and how they felt during the movement. If it wasn’t biased, then he would have included an equal number of primary sources from the Anglo’s point of view of the Chicano movement but he

In George J. Sanchez’s, Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture, and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles 1900-1945, Sanchez brings forth a new understanding of Mexican-American culture through the presentation of how the culture made substantial adaptations under limited economic and social mobility (Sanchez 13). Unlike other historians who studies the variations of Mexican American cultural identity from a national prospective , Sanchez creatively selects Los Angeles as his site of research because, not only is the city home to the largest Mexican population in the United States, but also because Latinos play a profound role in shaping the city’s culture. Growing up in an immigrant family himself, Sanchez undoubtedly has many personal

In “Illegal Alien” Pat Mora writes about the problem of the difficulty people have communicating when they are of different backgrounds. For years now people have been judged by their skin color, their race, or where the originally come from. In “Illegal Alien” Pat Mora gives us a good example of this as the character in her poem goes through this trial of being from both the Mexican and the American cultures. Pat Mora indicates her difficulties that she is going through being born into two different cultures.

Such as: “English con sal y limón, English thick as mango juice, English poured from a clay jug,” (lines 11-13). She compares English with mango juice, giving us a impression of the juice being poured. At the beginning of the poem she uses simile when she says, “English as American as Benito Juarez.” (line 2). She compares English to Benito Juarez. Benito Juarez was a Mexican politician and statesman of the late nineteenth century. He was president from 1858-1872. He was a native of Zapotec descent, who did not speak Spanish until he was a teenager. With this, I can conclude that Valdes used him as an example since he was he was not American or Mexican and he had to learn to speak Spanish.

The United States is set apart from other countries in that we have a unique economic, political, and spiritual system from the rest of the world. This also poses a unique problem to our society: Since we possess desirable aspects as a country, we have to deal with the issue of immigration. Legal immigration is a great benefit to our society, and if we can control and harness immigration, it will better our country for years to come. While illegal immigration is an enormous problem that needs to be solved, legal immigration is a great asset to our economy and American society as a whole.

     The author of Mexican Lives, Judith Adler Hellman, grapples with the United States’ economic relationship with their neighbors to the south, Mexico. It also considers, through many interviews, the affairs of one nation. It is a work held to high esteem by many critics, who view this work as an essential part in truly understanding and capturing Mexico’s history. In Mexican Lives, Hellman presents us with a cast from all walks of life. This enables a reader to get more than one perspective, which tends to be bias. It also gives a more inclusive view of the nation of Mexico as a whole. Dealing with rebel activity, free trade, assassinations and their transition into the modern age, it justly

The author starts by explaining Baca’s background he tells the audience the difficult circumstances that were Baca’s life. All circumstances considered into his young adulthood Baca could hardly read nor write and truly had no desire to learn; Which makes it even more spectacular that he found poetry. His interest began at twenty-one when Baca was in prison, sentenced to possibly five to ten years. A couple years passed and a church program had extended a relationship via a letter they sent, they targeted prisoners without families. Unbeknownst Baca learned through steady communication with the church how to read and write. The writing gave him something to do and in a sense a purpose. Shortly into their connection, the man from the church introduced to a friend who was a poet. After this moment Baca’s life would never be the same. “I believe something in my brain or

Isaac Campos wrote this book in order to provide a background history of Mexico’s use of marijuana and the effect it had in Mexican society. He displays marijuana’s extent both, socially and politically. He scripted his book to carry the reader from the arrival of cannabis (would later be referred to as marijuana) in Mexico through the substance’s prohibition in 1920. With this book, he attempts to “decipher the psychoactive riddle of cannabis in nineteenth and early twentieth century Mexico” (p.8). The “psychoactive riddle” is the way the drug, set, and setting are imposed on the resulting influence of marijuana. Home Grown is significant in understanding the War on Drugs and the impact marijuana has had on society in North America. It provided history of notable events due to the production and prohibition of the drug ranging from its introduction until the 1920s when it was banned. Campos argued that the negative stereotypes of marijuana, often thought to have originated in the United States, actually originated in Mexico as a way to control the use of the drug. Citizens of Mexico related the drug to causing the users to go mad, hence the reason of the term “Reefer Madness.”

The poem begins explaining to the reader the story of a Mexican American as he worked in an industrial factory at some point in his life. “In the factory I worked, in the fleck of rubber, under a press of an oven yellow with flame.” (Lines 1-3) Soto uses visual imagery to describe the color of

In 1910, the first social upheaval of the 20th century was unleashed in Mexico. Known as the Mexican Revolution, its historical importance and impact inspired an abundance of internationally renowned South American authors. Mariano Azuela is one of these, whose novel, "The Underdogs" is often described as a classic of modern Hispanic literature. Having served as a doctor under Pancho Villa, a revolutionary leader of the era, Azuela's experience in the Revolution provides The Underdogs with incomparable authenticity of the political and social tendencies of the era between 1910 and 1920. The Underdogs recounts the living conditions of the Mexican peasants, the

Baca later discuses how the Mexican workers are portrayed on the news saying: “a tongue paddles through flashing waves/ of light bulbs, of cameramen, rasping/ ‘they’re taking our jobs away.’” (15-17) Here imagery and symbolism has a strong impact on the reader. This stanza symbolizes the older generations and their opinions on the misconception that Mexicans are taking away jobs. The use of the word “rasping” suggest that the person talking is older and trying to catch his breath while talking. In modern day society, media plays a huge part on peoples day-to-day life. The media is able to portray a person, or groups of people in various ways to make the audience either empathize for them, or feel apathetic towards them. Baca suggest that instead of the media portraying these Mexicans as robbers stealing “our” jobs, that they tell the brutal truth.

Francisco X. Alarcon received inspiration for his writing from his background as a Mexican American and the era of the sixties where the Black Arts Movement was at its height and Latin American poets were growing and learning from different poetic styles (Kirszner, & Mandell, 2012). Furthermore, the inspiration for the poem “Mexican” Is Not a Noun was based on protest by cannery workers and students from UC Santa Cruz where fifty-three of them were arrested on October 27, 1985. The key component of “Mexican” Is Not a Noun or the concrete word is Mexican which is a general word because it refers to an entire class or group. From the five lines of the sonnet Alarcon is making it clear that Mexicans are not referred to as nouns or adjective in