The Movement And Class Lines

“Mexican Americans had to appeal to whites in power. In an era where cultural pluralism was nonexistent ad English-only rules and assimilation were stated policy, national citizenship was the basis for radical justice” (p.147). Definition of “La Raza” fortified unity across the Americas, and some activist to hold the promise of a Latino world union. Within these chapters, social class and origin become impediment factors in arranging a united Mexican front against discrimination. The author discusses the formation of LULAC at length in effort to dismiss scholar’s allegations that LULAC as exclusive and only established to address middle-class Mexican American male benefits. Even though Orozco defense is quite unclear against these accusations, it is apparent that the expansion of all of these organizations were often severely divided by class and origin. Actually, in chapter five and six simply underline that LULAC wanted an organization that combined both Mexican and American ideals but did not want members who fought Americanization. Unfortunately, the alliances of the groups of this era were destroyed, what lead to their end were the important social status differences resulting from achieved wealth and citizenship. The

You can see how Maria’s El Salvador is empty of people, full only of romantic ideas. Jose Luis’s image of El Salvador, in contrast, totally invokes manufactured weapons; violence. Maria’s “self-projection elides Jose Luis’s difference” and illustrates “how easy it is for the North American characters, including the big-hearted María, to consume a sensationalized, romanticized, or demonized version of the Salvadoran or Chicana in their midst” (Lomas 2006, 361). Marta Caminero-Santangelo writes: “The main thrust of the narrative of Mother Tongue ... continually ... destabilize[s] the grounds for ... a fantasy of connectedness by emphasizing the ways in which [Maria’s] experience as a Mexican American and José Luis’s experiences as a Salvadoran have created fundamentally different subjects” (Caminero-Santangelo 2001, 198). Similarly, Dalia Kandiyoti points out how Maria’s interactions with José Luis present her false assumptions concerning the supposed “seamlessness of the Latino-Latin American connection” (Kandiyoti 2004, 422). So the continual misinterpretations of José Luis and who he really is and has been through on Maria’s part really show how very far away her experiences as a middle-class, U.S.-born Chicana are from those of her Salvadoran lover. This tension and resistance continues throughout their relationship.

I relate each component with a historical event in Puerto Rican politics and also consider how through this historic mobilization Puerto Ricans have gained entitlement to more power, equality, representation, consciousness from other ethnic groups, and to some degree, social change. I focus on the Puerto Ricans’ migration to Connecticut, their development of ethnic awareness and power awareness, their realization of common interests, their competing ethnic projects, and the brokered representation they have endured as detailed in Jose Cruz’s book, Identity and Power: Puerto Rican Politics and the Challenge of Ethnicity. Finally, I examine an important point that Cruz only touched upon briefly, which is the idea of cultural citizenship in the Puerto Rican community. This added point helps us to fully understand the role identity politics played in Puerto Ricans’ lives.

Montejano’s book on the local history of the Chicano movement zeros in on the city of San Antonio, Texas as well as its surrounding cities. The city itself was severely segregated by Anglo elites at the top

This project’s purpose is to record a people who have lived through the promises and outcomes of the Bolivarian Revolution, an idea that captured Venezuela’s spirit and spread across 16 Latin America nations as the Pink Tide. The poor and working class will be a fundamental component of this story as I investigate the role the revolution has played in shaping the lives of this perpetually overlooked group of people. Simultaneously, the nature of these issues will create a portal into the world of Venezuelan heritage, traditions, and political and civic culture. What I write will be the reality of the situation; the interpretation will be left up to the reader.

Edited by several scholars such as Gabriella F. Arredondo, Aída Hurtado, Norma Klahn, Olga Nájera-Ramírez, and Patricia Zanella, this book in particular highlights the development of Chicana identities in the twentieth century by showing “how Chicana feminist writings move discourse beyond binaries and toward intersectionality and hybridity” (Arredondo e.al. 2). What is interesting is how the feminist scholars in this book used different epistemologies and methods in capturing the experiences of the Chicanas which include oral histories, poetry, theatrical performance, painting, dance, music and social science survey. Some of the contributors also combine “analytical tools and cross disciplinary boundaries” (5). The approaches used are very unique as they enables to unravel the Chicana experiences thoroughly and disrupt “the notion of Chicana identity as monolithic and homogeneous” (6). Also, the format of the book which presents articles and then the responses by another activist or scholars offers a very distinct way of presenting critical and provocative analysis. Such format allows the editors to “reaffirm the tensions and creativity of individual and group consciousness that underlie Chicana feminism and scholarship” (Salas 122). From this edited volume, I choose three articles along with their responses. Those articles are Cartohistografía: Continente de una voz/Cartohistography: One Voice’s Continent by Elba Rosario Sánchez (response: Translating Herstory: A Reading

During the late sixties and early seventies, a Mexican - American movement was taking place in the United States, The Chicano movement. This movement takes place because of the Mexican American society 's suppression in the country. Indeed, during the years, 1966 to 1981 was a period where the Mexican American society was looking for equality and justice from the Government of the United States. In fact, they will start to organize their own communities, where the Government will accept their new ideas. David Montejano, “a historian and sociologist, and Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley,” wrote about that movement that helps the Mexican - American society being part of the United States. One of his books is Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas, 1836-1986, where he describes the relation that the Anglo and the Mexican American people have in those years. In the same way, he wrote Quixote’s Soldiers: A local history of the Chicano Movement, 1966 - 1981, where he describes the Chicano movement as a way of helping the Mexican American community. By describing the Chicano Movement and the political changes made in San Antonio, Montejano relates the problems of equality and justice, the organization created at that time, and the consequences of this movement.

Louise Pubols, Fathers of the Pueblo: Patriarchy and Power in Mexican California, 1800-1880, article concentrated on the de la Guerra family from Santa Barbara, California. Pubols expresses to her audience that she wants to depict Mexicans from California Mexico in a different style from the usual. Pubols starts off by giving the reader a simple description of the way the California Mexican is usually presented. Typically, Californian Mexicans have little to no agency; they lose all their land and belongings and are lost to history. Pubols uses the de la Guerra family to show that California Mexicans not only had agency but also played a large part in society. Pubols second argument was that patriarchal language was being used to describe the de la Guerra’s family governance within their community.

Throughout the 20th century, Los Angeles emerged as a place of multiculturalist struggles. One of these struggles, was that of the Mexican population, which is what the book Mi Raza Primero focuses on. In Mi Raza Primero by Ernesto Chavez, Chavez successfully argues how the collapse of the Chicano movement resulted from the failure to identify the multi-faceted and dynamic/heterogeneous nature of the ethnic Mexican community. He argues how this failure resulted in a movement that shared a strong sense of cultural nationalism, yet differed in tactics and goals. Chavez uses the examination of La Raza Unida Party and Brown Beret recruitment literature to help support his argument. Specifically, Chavez focuses on the voting data from the late

The assigned readings offered an interesting and complex view of some of the diverse groups of people who were marginalized in California during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The primary sources shared detailed information on how Mexicans, Filipinos, and White Americas experienced hostility and inequality in California. In Resistance, Radicalism, and Repression on the Oxnard Plain, Frank Barajas discusses how beet sugar growers on the Oxnard Plain cut the wages of Mexican laborers working in their fields. This ignited an uproar and began a strike movement among the betaberleros (sugar beet workers), who felt it was an injustice to lower wages and face discrimination just because they were minorities (Barajaos, 29-51). As commotion was occurring within the Oxnard Plain of California, conflict between the residents of the agricultural community of Watsonville and the Filipino farm labor community emerged. Many Watsonville residents showed a strong anti-Filipino sentiment, as well as social and sexual stereotyping of Filipinos (Witt, 293). This tension between Watsonville residents and Filipinos sparked the Watsonville Riot of 1930 (Witt, 299-300).

Anzaldua identifies as a part of an emerging new mestiza consciousness and community, which strives to move beyond simple dualistic thinking and endeavors to “act and not react” This important contradiction lies at the heart of Anzaldua’s analysis. “From this racial, ideological, cultural, and biological cross-pollicization, an ‘alien’ consciousness is presently in the making — a new mestiza consciousness, una conciencia de mujer. It is a consciousness of the Borderlands.” (Anzaldua, 1987, 420). Anzaldua’s proposition of the new consciousness mediates social relations, revolutionary social change, and its wider relevance to feminist theory through discussions of the Borderlands and its implications for ‘identity.’

After many years Gualinto hesitantly returns to his hometown where he is believed to bring knowledge and glory as the “defender of the Mexicotexan’s rights”; his childhood friends and people of the community have a great surprise coming to them. (292) Furthermore, life outside of Jonesville had transformed Gualinto into a true American who now looked down upon all Mexicans. Throughout the years the expectation that Gualinto would become a great defender of all Mexicans never died in Jonesville, yet the likelihood of this occurring did perish within Gualinto who had now blocked his anger for justice for his people; perhaps, Gualinto found it too difficult to overcome the obstacles that kept coming at him due to his Mexican descent. Additionally,

"Class Consciousness Matters" by David Moberg and "A Nation of Grinders" by David Brooks both chronicle views on social mobility. “Class Consciousness Matters” argues that the idea of a self-made man is a myth. The article also articulates the point that the social class in which one comes from has lasting effects on the possibility of one’s social mobility. On the contrary, “A Nation of Grinders” argues that the social class in which one comes from has no impact on one’s future success but rather; one’s morals, worth ethic, and education determine one’s social mobility. I will examine the definitions of class and success as well as beliefs provided by each author.

“Open Veins of Latin America” by Eduardo Galeano primarily focuses on historical events following the “discovery” and colonization of Latin America. This book however, unlike many others has very distinct and contrasting ideas. In his historical piece, Galeano incorporates many peculiar ideas that have since caused controversy following the publishing of the book in the year 1973. As we examine the cover, the subtitle (“Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent”) gives us an antecedent of our authors viewpoint on the subject and what’s to come later in the book. Without a doubt, one of the major themes and the books main purpose is to clarify the events that took place in Latin America involving the pillage of land and natural resources by foreigners. In his “Seven Years Later” segment of the book, Galeano claims that he wanted to uncover lies and things that have been hidden in the history books. Galeano also wants to uncover the social, economic, and political disparity that Latin American indigenous people were/are facing compared to and as a direct result of foreigners who were/are benefitting and prospering from Latin American land and people.

Ernst Renan’s concept of nation is about a proposal that urges people to come together in order to have consciousness about the process of building a nation and to forget about the differences in geography, language, race, and religion. He insists on telling that a nation is composed of people’s collaboration and agreements to stay together and be governed by mutual approval because they shared a common past. Based on this concept, we can say that Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales were trying to build a nation by using history to unify the nation and to challenge the notion of geography and in the case of Morales the language and race.