In “I am Joaquin”, women are represented minimal, unspecific, and stereotypical. The term coined by Gonzales was not inclusive to women. A lack of women’s acknowledgment engagement with the Chicano Movement is present in Gonzales poem. In these lines “I shed the tears of anguish as I see my children disappear” Gonzales gives the impression of stereotypical women (I am Joaquin) . An image of a mother stereotype is depicted instead of an image of women contributing and involved in the movement through activism and organizations. Women such as Dolores Huerta played a vital role in the evolvement of the Chicano Movement however, the Chicano Social Identity is not inclusive to women because women are defined by men. Dolores Huerta was an important farmworker organizer within the farmworker struggles. …show more content…
Huerta directed and publicized the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC) national boycotts. She was also able to successfully do the negotiating and lobbying for the UFWOC in Sacramento and Washington, DC. Furthermore, Vargas explains that Huerta’s activism helped “bring about a 70 percent increase in wages for farmworkers, health care benefits, disability insurance, and pension plans” (313) Maylei Blackwell, an associate professor asserts that during the Chicano Movement women’s marginalization occurred when women were not seen as real political subjects, but as auxiliary members (65). In addition, Blackwell explains that women were relegated supporting roles, and had their ideas dismissed during meeting, marginalizing them in the political and decision-making process
The strike was the final straw of years of racial build up, poor pay, and poor conditions towards Filipino American grape workers. From 1965 to 1970, Huerta and Chavez worked together to highlight the poor conditions that 5,000 migrant farm workers were dealing with in a series of non-violent marches, speeches, and rallies. There was no significant response for the first two years, where strikers began to loose faith and turned their impatience to anger. Huerta, with the help of Chavez, took on a different tactic towards the boycott and began to spread the strike nationally. Huerta encouraged and helped farmers travel across the United States and Canada, spreading the news on what was really happening and asking for more
While working on the farms they would be sprayed with pesticides. The farm owners did not care at all for these people, only for their crops. They would work long hours without rest and little to no access to water or restrooms. All the workers would share drinking water by passing around a can and everyone would drink from there. Women had it more difficult because restrooms were not available, “it would be embarrassing, extremely humiliating,” as union co-founder, Dolores Huerta, described it in the video. This mistreatment kept going for years, some workers even said that it felt like slavery. In 1962 the National Farm Workers Association was created in Delano California to protest against all the farm owners that took advantage of the migrant workers. The founder of this association was a farmer named Cesar Chavez. He gathered farmers of all cultures to launch a strike that would hopefully undo all of these injustices that the workers had to go through. The farmers began their strike walking and yelling “Huelga” on the roads alongside the farms. This strike lasted two years but
Blackwell was able to conduct with the pioneering Chicana activist and theorist Anna NietoGomez, along with the members of Las Hijas de Cuauhtémoc. She talks about the families of Anna NietoGomez, Corinne Sanchez, and also Sylvia Castillo; and what brought them to activism. She uses Foucault’s archaeology of knowledge to help understand the ways in which the Chicanas have been omitted from the social histories of the Chicano and women’s movements.
"Dolores Huerta: Si Se Puede / Women's Leadership in America History." Dolores Huerta: Si Se
In 1938, the Chavez family lost their farm due to the Great Depression. They were forced to relocate to California and become migrant workers. Chavez was distressed by the poor treatment that migrant farmworkers endured on a daily basis. His powerful religious convictions, dedication to change, and a skill at non violent organizing cultivated the establishment of the United Farmworkers (UFW). It was also referred to as “La Causa” by supporters and eventually became a vital movement for self-determination in the lives of California's farmworkers. The astounding nationwide lettuce and grape boycotts along with public support revealed the atrocities of California agribusiness and resulted in the first union hiring halls and collective bargaining for migrant workers. The details of the childhood of Cesar Chavez and how they would later shape his actions are a vital aspect of this book and the establishment of the farm workers movement.
...n, Gonzalez states his identity; "I am Aztec Prince and Christian Christ." This combination of culture is the basis of his poem, which can be found at http://www.pbs.org/chicano/joaquin.html, and is representative of the heritage of Mexican Americans. The concept of Aztlan is explained in Chicano!, and the mural ‘Corazon de Aztlan,’ found in Chicano Park (http://chicanopark.org/murals/north/n8.html ), reinforces the importance of this image in the lives of Chicanos. The myth of Aztlan symbolizes centuries of culture and struggles of Mexican Americans who went through incredibly difficult times throughout history, but never lost hope and always stayed strong, determined to one day be treated equally as citizens of the United States of America.
The video “La Raza de Colorado: El Movimiento” and the exhibit “El Movimiento” at UNC’s Michener Library chronicle the struggles and triumphs of Mexican Americans in Weld County and throughout the state of Colorado. Visitors of the exhibit can see different graphics and pictures posted on the walls depicting many of the important events such as the protests against Kitayama farms in the 1960’s which aimed at improving working conditions and pay, especially for women. Not only were farm workers being exploited, but factory workers lacked appropriate conditions as well, to help with this, several groups such as United Farm Workers, Brown Berets and Black Panthers organized a united front in order to launch strikes and boycotts against offending farms, factories and businesses which oppressed and exploited minority workers. Another source of dissent was the Vietnam war. Minority groups felt that White America was waging a war against colored
Living in Los Angeles there are social issues such as race, gender, and geography that are still intact from the past. The main one of the social issues that we are still suffering from and living with is the representations of gender in Los Angeles. Gender representations in The Revolt of the Cockroach People by Oscar Zeta Acosta which he discusses about women figure highly but hardly acknowledge them in the midst of a “semi-autobiographical account” of the Chicano Power movement. According to Acosta, women are just the concubines, mourners, and supporters to their men. Acosta barely talks about the powerful women who had worked very hard behind the prospect to promote the case and those that are point out are only described in sexualized
Reyna Grande 's novel, Across a Hundred Mountains, focuses on the dynamic of the development and rethinking of the concept of a traditional Latino patriarchal family built up around male dominance. In low income and uneducated cultures, there are set of roles that throughout time have been passed by from generation to generation. These gender roles most often consist of the men being the breadwinner for the family. While the women stay home to cook, clean, and raise the children. Women are treated as possessions with limited rights and resources. Throughout the novel, Grandes challenges gender roles in the story of a young woman named Juana who, despite all adversity, fights stereotypes and is able to rewrite her own ending.
Torres, Hector Avalos. 2007. Conversations with Contemporary Chicana and Chicano Writers. U.S.: University of New Mexico press, 315-324.
The struggle to find a place inside an un-welcoming America has forced the Latino to recreate one. The Latino feels out of place, torn from the womb inside of America's reality because she would rather use it than know it (Paz 226-227). In response, the Mexican women planted the seeds of home inside the corral*. These tended and potted plants became her burrow of solace and place of acceptance. In the comfort of the suns slices and underneath the orange scents, the women were free. Still the questions pounded in the rhythm of street side whispers. The outside stare thundered in pulses, you are different it said. Instead of listening she tried to instill within her children the pride of language, song, and culture. Her roots weave soul into the stubborn soil and strength grew with each blossom of the fig tree (Goldsmith).
Armando Rendon in his landmark 1970 wrote the book I am a Chicano. This book is about how activist in the Chicano movement pointed to an empty monolog of the word Chicano. Chicano means an activist. Chicanos describes themselves it was a form of self-affirmation; it reflected the consciousness that their experiences. Chicanos means, nations, histories, and cultures. This book talks about how Mexican American also used the term of Chicano to describe them, and usually in a lighthearted way, or as a term of endearment. In a text it talks how Chicanos haven’t forgotten their Mexican origins, and how they become a unique community. The book talks about how Mexican American community’s long-suffering history of racism and discrimination, disenfranchisement, and economic exploitation in the United States. The
1. Dolores Huerta was a member of Community Service Organization (“CSO”), a grass roots organization. The CSO confronted segregation and police brutality, led voter registration drives, pushed for improved public services and fought to enact new legislation. Dolores Huerta wanted to form an organization that fought of the interests of the farm workers. While continuing to work at CSO Dolores Huerta founded and organized the Agricultural Workers Association in 1960. Dolores Huerta was key in organizing citizenship requirements removed from pension, and public assistance programs. She also was instrumental in passage of legislation allowing voters the right to vote in Spanish, and the right of individuals to take the driver’s license examination in their native language. Dolores Huerta moved on to working with Cesar Chavez. Dolores was the main person at National Farm Workers Association (“NFWA”) who negotiated with employers and organized boycotts, strikes, demonstrations and marches for the farm workers.
Writing in the 20th century was great deal harder for a Chicano then it was for a typical American at this time. Although that did not stop this author, Sandra Cisneros. One of her famous novels, Woman Hollering Creek was a prime example of how a combined culture: Mexican-Americans, could show their pride and identity in this century. In conjunction, gave the opportunity for women to speak their voice and forever change the culture of Latino/a markets. Not only did it express identity/gender roles of women and relationships, but using these relationships to combine the cultures of Mexican and American into a hybrid breed. This novel, should have been a view-point for the future to show that there is more to life than just gender and race. Concluding this, the articles that helps define this is “The Latino/a Canon and the Emergence of Post-Sixties Literature” and “What is called Heaven”.
The contrast between the Mexican world versus the Anglo world has led Anzaldua to a new form of self and consciousness in which she calls the “New Mestiza” (one that recognizes and understands her duality of race). Anzaldua lives in a constant place of duality where she is on the opposite end of a border that is home to those that are considered “the queer, the troublesome, the mongrel and the mulato” (25). It is the inevitable and grueling clash of two very distinct cultures that produces the fear of the “unknown”; ultimately resulting in alienation and social hierarchy. Anzaldua, as an undocumented woman, is at the bottom of the hierarchy. Not only is she a woman that is openly queer, she is also carrying the burden of being “undocumented”. Women of the borderlands are forced to carry two degrading labels: their gender that makes them seem nothing more than a body and their “legal” status in this world. Many of these women only have two options due to their lack of English speaking abilities: either leave their homeland – or submit themselves to the constant objectification and oppression. According to Anzaldua, Mestizo culture was created by men because many of its traditions encourage women to become “subservient to males” (39). Although Coatlicue is a powerful Aztec figure, in a male-dominated society, she was still seen