The El Segundo: A Short 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.

Growing up in an area with a large Mexican community I never really understood how much my culture means to me. I grew up with the stories my dad and grandfather would tell me about my ancestors. My people were the raiders from the hills of Mexico City and that we were a family of warriors. I never held much weight to the warrior part of my grandfather’s stories but I did know that my great grandfather was a fighter. He left Mexico and rode the train up to Denton Texas and sold tamales on the square his entire life. He fought to give my grandfather a better life here. I don’t talk about my dad’s side of the family much, in this day in age being seen as white has more advantages than being seen as Mexican. This thought changed as I came to

Through the voice of Palo Alto, a mesquite tree, Elena Zamora O’Shea relates the story of one Spanish-Mexican family’s history, spanning over two hundred years, in South Texas, the area encompassing between the Nueces and the Rio Grande. As the narration of the Garcia’s family history progresses through the different generations, becoming more Mexican-American, or Tejano, peoples and things indigenous gradually grow faint. In her account of South Texas history, Elena devalues the importance and impact of Indians, placing a greater precedence on the Spanish settlers.

El Norte was released in 1983 and set in the middle of Guatemalan civil war. It was directed by Gregory Nava and produced by Anna Thomas. The major theme of this movie is the struggle of young siblings to find a better life in another country as immigrants. The movie is divided into three parts: when the two siblings, Enrique and Rosa flee from their homeland because of a raged war, their attempts to cross Mexico illegally, and arrived in the United States of America, where most people think it’s a “promised land”. The main point of this movie is not the end, but the journey itself. Immigration is one of the most heated and controversial issues until now. By watching this movie, we can see the different perspective from the immigrants.

Don’t Eat the Bear: A Spanish adventurer named Gaspar De Portola in 1769 passed through a region what is now Santa Barbara. In the near by sand dunes he found a lake where he crossed passed with an “oso flaco”, a skinny bear. They were dying of hunger and ate the skinny bear not knowing it was poisoned.

In “El Norte”, Gregory Nava states that Guatemala was dark place to live there, and that the people were pick out food with their hands. There was a lot of people working and becoming slaves for picking out the food. Another thing about El Norte is that the brother named Enrique and the sister named Rosa. Enrique was worry about his father for leaving dinner he said to Enrique “The rich came to this village from other parts looking for good land, no one fights over band land”, meaning that people only come to a rich place because the environment good, eating healthier food and they have technology. Once Arturo left enquire to meet with his worker friends, the military people can to find them, Arturo was extremely closed to escape instead the military shot. Enquire hear the gunshot and saw his father head hanging up on the tree, when enquire saw his father hanging up on the tree he was angry sad and want to kill the military people which he did three time. When they were having the funeral for Arturo everybody in the village was praying for him and other men that got killed. Everybody was dressing the same clothes and the music was sounding beautiful when Rosa was singing. The military can back to find enquire for killing them, once they were searching the place military people took his family while they Rosa and enquire were hiding inside the canyon. When enquire and Rosa find each other they both want to get out of Guatemala and head to the “North.” They both were wearing white clothes maybe representing their culture, religious or maybe their she was tired wearing the same clothes and when they left Guatemala the music was back. Enrique and Rosa are on a quest to get out of the ethnic and political repressed Guatemala and attempt to escape to the North where they can live the “American dream.” Will Enrique and Rosa live the “American dream” once they escape to the North? Can an illegal immigrant achieve the “American dream?” To answer these questions the audience you figure out what depend on the viewers.

suggests, “...for the man trampled the calmly over the child’s body and left her screaming on the

"Los Vendidos," directed by Luis Valdez, is a remarkable play that looks into the historical struggles, stereotypes and challenges of Mexican Americans in a unique fashion. Rather than tell the history of Mexican Americans through documentaries and actual footage, the play conveys its message about the true history of Mexican Americans in the United States through both subtle and blatant techniques.

haunted Chris. Although Chris was not crazy, his beliefs and ideals were blown out of proportion.

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.

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.

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

The faceless men appears in both oscar and beli dreams. It happened right before something bad is going to happen. It’s a curse on the family which informed them something wrong that’s going to happen. Its also horrible because its like they know their death is something close or nearby with is a supernatural causes, at this point it seems like fuku is a new world that takes over people family. tons of Trujillo's victims have remained nameless. Fuku messed with oscar whole family.lives through a long prison term, but emerges as a shell of his former life. Oscar is a fat regular Dominican boy who a ladies men. As he gets older he becomes a nerd and starts to get hard for him to find his perfect female.

By the time fourth period rolled around, a quiet rage had settled deep in his belly, hot and bitter. It scorched the inside of his throat and laced his words with a venom that had even Ricky backing away and second-guessing himself.

The serious talk talk. He could handle the somewhat (read: really) awkward casual stuff—as long as it was brief and occasional. But this was different. He didn't know what to say, or what to do to fix the problem.