Latin America Myth And Reality Summary

Cities and towns in Latin America capture the remnants of the past. They hold stories of the people that once inhabited such places and give a sense of lastingness. In chapter 6 of “The Riddle of Latin America,” Lane describes cities having divisions called “barrios” that were distinctively characterized by a mixture of people that advocated the colonial city life. There was a mixture of indigenous people who were of lower class and African Americans who were the slaves of the elitist (113). The epitome of colonial city transcended “a civilized life” filled with educational units, theaters, buildings for legal systems, and, monumental churches religious causalities.

Drugs and violence are universal. Although not all drugs cause violence some drugs like alcohol, methamphetamine, and crack cocaine do and can have horrible results. Some of the behavior that these drugs can cause are: domestic violence, sexual assault, homicides, and property crimes. Although horrible things do happen people still use them and crimes like these happen too much. This is a social issue because people see this as a norm. This shouldn't be a norm and people need to start realizing that.

Cuban Americans are sometimes stereotyped as mostly being anti-Castro militants or extremists and have been described in some media reports, including newspaper editorials, as “crazies” for their aggressive protests. They were also labeled as overly emotional and hyper-violent criminals. Unlike other Latinos, they still have their images of being lazy, submissive, and

Stereotypes are uneducated opinions towards a certain group, most commonly used within races, skin colors, and cultures. Stereotypes are usually from a majority group towards a minority group. Most of us do not think about it much but, Stereotypes are in our everyday lives, and everyone has taken part of a stereotype, either they have been the one stereotyping or they have been the victim of a stereotype and has been stereotyped. Throughout my life, I have heard a lot of stereotypes towards my kind, and more than likely it is always a negative stereotype. Some stereotypes through time die-off but as they die-off, new stereotypes flood or society. I am a minority, I am Mexican-American and classify myself and embrace myself as one. The stereotype that I have experienced the most is that all Mexicans are unintelligent delinquents. The stereotype of Mexicans being unintelligent and lazy was influenced by the media. Media sources in our lives skew the way we judge people. This stereotype may be taken lightly by everyone who iterates it but what is not taken into account is the effect this stereotype has in the community for those of us that are Mexican. It has a negative impact on my community, I noticed that the negative effect of this stereotype starts by influencing a couple of individuals and then expands to the community as a whole. The stereotype that Mexicans are these unintelligent delinquents gets planted in our heads at a young age and that affects the way some of

Being Latino has many different definitions depending on who you ask. If you ask a Cuban, you

Besides boys reacting differently than what I expected, appearances on what boys are supposed to look like affected my views when I was younger. Watching novellas with my mother I used to looking at latino men who were tall and ripped, as I got older I started to notice that not all Mexican males were not buff and over six foot, and not all women wear tight dresses showing off a lot of cleavage. To rephrase it I do not want to say that latinos are not attractive, it's just I feel uncomfortable when people say that latinos are only attractive on tv. I feel that the stereotype of novella actors have imprinted an idea what latinos are supposed to look like, I constantly here that latinos are super sexy and good in bed, as if we are only good

Outside in the world one will find many stereotypes, and those stereotypes will be based on the bad people of a minority race and those who are good will have to suffer because of it. In the poems by chinese immigrants in angel island. The immigrants were just trying to get into the United states and they were put into jail. In jail they wrote poems and from those poems one can see what they felt. In one of the poems it said, “ In prison we are victimized as if we were guilty. Given no opportunity to explain, it was very brutal” (chinese immigrants 22). This is showing how the immigrants felt inside of the prisons. They felt victimized and were given no chance to explain. They had it very hard inside of the prisons. In the quote it says we

“He’s a young Latino what is he doing in this neighborhood? he must be lost, he has to be poor.” that’s just one of the stereotypes I hear often. “Hispanic people are poor” When in fact most Hispanics are well off. Yet repeatedly I have heard that stereotype in movies, songs, shows, and school. I have been through this many times as I have lived up through 19 years of existence. Its something that I have gotten accustomed too.

Have you ever had a loved one deported? Thousands of Central Latin American families have been deported. These families have crossed over for a new start, hoping to pursuit a better life for their children. Last year the Immigration and Custom Enforcements got a hold of 72,000 deportations of parents who claimed to have U.S born children. I do not believe people should be deported because it causes families to be separated, kids grow up without their parents, and it causes emotional distress for everyone.

First, in Roberta Astroff’s “Spanish gold: Stereotypes, Ideology, and the Construction of a U.S. Latino Market” from the Howard Journal of Communications (1988), she argues that stereotypes are ideological in that they "naturalize" social constructs. She illustrates that, “Stereotypes obscure the social nature of group characteristics by implying that they are natural, biological, or some similar reified condition. Such naturalization focuses attention not on the social system that has constructed that hierarchy, but on the supposedly innate characteristics of the groups themselves. The successes and failures of ethnic, racial, and class groups, for example, are attributed to genetics and "national culture," the latter also seen as innate rather than socially constructed.” (Astroff, p. 155, 1988) This connects to the idea that Guerrero’s representation of the Latino community does have a larger implications, for his portrayal may cause a perception that the downfall of a Latino’s success lies with their biological traits due to race. It makes

Hispanics or Latinos are persons residing in the US who descended from a Spanish speaking country of Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula. The population listed in the US under the term "Hispanic or Latino" is very significant; 17% of the total population in the U.S, so its presence in the mass media is notorious and important. Further Hispanic or Latino ethnic group are the second fastest growing in the entire US population, behind Asians. According to the demographic projections of the Census Bureau, in 2060 the Latino population will reach 31% of the US population.

Things appear different after five hundred years, yet it does not take much examination to realize that everything is the same. We focus on the minute changes, but these major themes of power, history, and the struggle for the control of knowledge are eternal and transcend the everyday. De las Casas wrote to a king to try to prevent a tragedy that he could not. Today the Latin America people face similar fates to their ancestors five hundred years prior. While the outcome is not as bloody, the loss is just as grave. Western knowledge seeks to destroy the last remaining semblances of the vast groupings that make up the term “Latin American culture.” It is not an active action in appearance, but the passive grouping into the West’s categories of race and culture has subtle motives of destruction. People are no longer ruled by kings, they guide themselves under the burdensome weight of Western knowledge and ideas. The existence of options, choices beyond growth and development, establish awareness that there is a way out of this evil. Latin American people were not born in the West, but are continually defined and judged by the system. Under such forces, it appears that the only two choices are to assimilate or bear the burden of being considered inferior. Decolonial thinking provides new pathways that lead to a new age for Latin America, providing the people recognize these pathways and are willing to take the steps to follow

Latin America has a long and complex history. From the early 1500s to 1888 there have been many political changes (foreign control, political ideology, slavery) and some continuities (central control), but the changes have had a greater effect because independent nations were able to establish themselves and form their own governments. Globally, the European Industrial Revolution was taking place which allowed for a political advantage because the new technologies could give the European governments stronger control over their colonies.

The second’s week reading the “All that trouble down there” by James Dunkerley tells how the US media represented Central America during the conflict times these countries faced. Most of the history of Central America were told by US journalist. Since, most Americans didn’t know what was happening in Central America and the Caribbean. When the US films show the border, it represents it as a margin, a ___ of civilization. This representation was being seen for a very long time, and there is a belief that Latin America is not or can be as good as the United States.

Non Americans may misunderstand Americans and who they truly are. Americans may be stereotyped as obese, non-educated Americans but any American would strongly disagree. Those same non Americans may categorize all Americans by the way they look and dismiss anybody who looks different. An American can be anybody who chooses to become one and it doesn’t require anything that is impossible to accomplish. Now of course to be legally qualified as an American citizen one must have been born in America or been naturalized. But in general there is no barrier to entry. The same American who was born in America or the person who immigrated to the United States will have to pay their fair share of taxes and participate in their communities like what an