I Am Joaquin Summary

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On 1821, after attaining Independence from Spain, Mexico became conflicted with the U.S. A dispute over the boundary separating Mexico and the newly annexed Republic Texas was the main issue that drove Mexico and the United States to engage in a two-year long war from 1846-1848 (Vargas 79). The Mexican American War resulted in the defeat of Mexico and the loss of Mexico’s northern territories. The Treaty of Guadalupe was later negotiated which guaranteed Mexican the full rights of U.S. citizenship and the inviolable protection of their property rights. However, the United States failed to honor this latter part of the agreement by omitting Article 10 allowing the U.S. government to deny the explicit legitimacy of all Mexican land grants, creating …show more content…

Gonzales was able to give Chicanos a collective voice by uniting them under a single title to address and correct systemic injustices that affected their communities. “I Am Joaquin” brought about a new consciousness, unified, and propelled people to action during the Chicano Movement. In week one, Romero, introduced the three defining characteristics of the Traditional Chicana/o Social Identity, Cultural Pride, Consciousness, and Commitment to Activism. Cultural pride is having pride in Mexican culture, history and acknowledging mestizaje, or the process of mixture of Spanish and indigenous cultures. Consciousness is having an awareness that Chicanos/Latinos are and have been unfairly treated in a discriminatory manner and commitment to bringing social change. Commitment to activism is having a lifestyle of social activism and advocacy on behalf of Chicano/Latino community through education, law, politics, and medicine (Romero, 9/30/15). Despite the poem being a fundamental piece of the Chicano Movement, the movement recounts a vast majority of male expression of Chicano activism, history and culture. Gonzales failed to recognize roughly half the Mexican-American population. The representation of women was limited, the poem failed to address the issues of women in the movement, and neglected the pivotal role of women and Chicanas

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