Finally, a significant number of Mexican children cross the international border from Mexicali to Calexico, California daily for school. “A few blocks east of the border crossing, in clear view of the fenced barricade that separates Mexico and the United States, is the Calexico Mission School, a four-hundred-student private school associated with the Seventh Day Adventist Church” (Amaral, 2004) “Approximately 85 percent of students in this K-12 school are from Mexicali; they cross the border daily from Mexico to the United States and back again” (Collins, 2014). In mid-afternoon, dozens of students, some walking alone and some in groups can be seen approaching the border crossing. Also, some mothers, grandmothers, aunts or neighbors approach the border crossing with one or more younger children in tow. …show more content…
For instance, schools in California require proof of residency, but proof may misrepresent realities. As a result, classes in Calexico public schools are, as one school official said, “overpopulated, meaning large class sizes and crowded classrooms are the norm” (Campus, 2013). Also, with the passage of proposition 227 in California that bans bilingual education throughout the state, has caused serious issues for not only Mexican migrant students but other immigrants. In addition, if a public school violates Proposition 227, it will lose state funding. As a result, several teachers from Calexico Unified School District have seen the horrible effects of the passing of Proposition 227. From their observation of children “they noticed that limited-English students fell quite a bit behind just during the first 30 days into the new curriculum” (Collins, 2014). In other words, Mexican migrant students and other immigrants within a month were robbed of productive schoolwork and quality
In Subtractive Schooling: US-Mexican Youth and the Politics of Caring, Angela Valenzuela investigates immigrant and Mexican American experiences in education. Valenzuela mentions differences in high schools between U.S born youth and immigrants such as how immigrants she interviewed seemed to achieve in school as they feel privileged to achieve secondary education. However, she found that her study provided evidence of student failure due to schools subtracting resources from these youths. Both are plagued by stereotypes of lacking intellectual and linguistic traits along with the fear of losing their culture. As a Mexican American with many family members who immigrated to the U.S to pursue a higher education, I have experience with Valenzuela’s
The basic want for many individuals is to have a better life. Regardless of our socioeconomic status, family background, ethnicity, and so on; we are all trying to improve upon at least one facet of our current situation, in some aspect. Yet, some of toughs who live in the United States take for granted the vast opportunities presented to them. The extreme obliviousness of these individuals, gives them negative biases about immigrants, especially the numerous that cross illegally. In Crossing Arizona, it opens your eyes to the struggles of those crossing the border. Told from both sides, those effected by the illegal immigrants and the illegal immigrants themselves, you can see where the many problems lie. When watching this movie, I was appalled
Martinez, Oscar. Border People: Life and Society in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands. (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1994), 232.
I would like the critics of immigration to think of the coyotes while you read this paper. The coyote has the easiest job pertaining to illegal immigration. They are paid well and once they have done there job, they can go on there way with a fat wallet and no worries. The immigrants who pay these people their loot of cash that they most likely saved for who knows how long, are now the new victims of these coyotes. These illegal immigrants now must find shelter and jobs to start their new lives in the United States. I would like to show both stories of these two types of people on different paths. The coyote that transports the immigrants across the border and the immigrant who now has to start a new life from scratch.
Imagine seeing 10,000 of your classmates walking out of your school because they wanted a better education - a better way of life. In the 1960s’ Chicano students were being “pushed out”(Esparza) of school or being pushed towards vocational programs. East L.A was home to schools were “one out of every four Chicano’s completed high school”(Esparza). Instructors and the school board alike did not have an interest in helping Chicanos finish school to become someone other than a laborer and was expected of them to keep being a laborer. In “Taking Back the Schools”, Sal Castro a high school counselor claims, “I think the bottom line is the lack of concern of the teachers towards the kids and whether the kids were really getting an education or not...the reality set in that the teachers weren’t really concern for the kids.”(Esparza).
In 2006, “President George Bush passed the Secure Fence Act where every mile of Yuma’s border with Mexico contained a fence or vehicle barrier” (Jeunesse, 2015). While this had a positive impact for Yuma with reducing the amount of illegal immigrant crossing and smuggling. Many challenges for the Hispanic arose as well. Not only is it the hours of waiting to cross the border and death of those that try to jump the fence that don’t make it but, the impact this has made on the separation of families and society in the united states. Now it is harder for immigrants to get transported to get over the border but to get a job itself in the United states. Those that are legal citizens in Yuma county there are several cases of separation of families that still live in Mexico because they are considered illegal immigrants. Traveling to one another has been a lot more complicated than it was years ago. Many will feel isolated from the other cultures of the world because of the
Imagine this, living in a very small town, smaller than Kachina Village, with only one store where you could make and receive phone calls, there are no public phones, no residential phone lines, no electricity and no running water. The roads are not paved until you get to the main road where people travel the most. The next town is about thirty minutes away, and there is only one bus that comes to this small town once a week, so people can go shopping and do other things. In this small town there are hardly any vehicles, people either walk, bike, or ride donkeys. There are hardly any jobs and so the only thing you can do is to leave for another place and look for a job to support your family. If someone told you that there was a place where people had many opportunities to find work and make better money, would you go? This small town I am describing is a place called La Huertilla in a state called Oaxaca in Mexico; it is the place where my son Mauricio’s grandparents live.
Undocumented students are becoming a growing outrage in the United States. It has been a constant battle amongst the students, the schools, and the Government. According to collegeboard.com, statistics shows that 65,000 undocumented students graduate from U.S. high schools each year (collegeboard.com).After graduating high school they face legal and financial barriers to higher education. This paper will address the importance of this growing outrage and discuss the following that corresponds to it.
She describes it as “subtractive schooling,” a process in which students are left vulnerable to academic failure due to structural forces that impose on their ethnic identities and cultural backgrounds. The author explains that immigrants go through a dis-identification process, which seeks to Americanize them inadvertently forces minority status upon them. The division comes when their own ethnic identity of what it means to be Mexican to them is compromised. A prime example of this the use of linguistics and cultural practices. In the subtractive schooling process, all things Mexican or tied to the students’ identity is purposely diluted as is the use of the Spanish language. The concept of Mexicanidad becomes blurry as many Mexican/Mexican-American’s consider speaking Spanish as synonymous to what being Mexican is. In the subtractive schooling process, students are expected to know and speak English fluency, on the other hand in order to be considered truly Mexican they must also speak Spanish fluently. Many 2nd generational immigrants don’t fair as well as 1st generation because of the lack of bilingualism and biculturalism, skills that make the 1st generation more successful than the
Ruben Martinez was fascinated with the tragedy of three brothers who were killed when the truck carrying them and 23 other undocumented migrants across the Mexico – United States border turned over in a high-speed chase with the U.S. Border Patrol. “Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail” is a story about crossing and life in the United States.
Mexican immigration in the early 1900's was a huge issue that impacted the United States. States in areas such as urban population, employment and many other areas. The mass number of Mexican immigrants that migrated to the United States from Mexico were at nearly half million. between the years of 1920 and 1929. Mexicans left their native land and moved to the United States not only to achieve financial prosperity, but to get out of the chaotic environment that Mexico was in at the time due to the Mexican revolution which began in 1910.
The two articles cover two important topics: immigrants and education. To start off, I would like to briefly summarize the articles for you. The news articles are about how many school districts are deciding not to enforce President Trump’s executive orders. Instead, they are making it clear that all children have the right to an education; many campuses declared themselves as a ‘sanctuary’
The Mexican-American border barriers were originally built as part of a three-pronged approach to diminish illicit contraband, drug smuggling, and illegal immigrants. This operation would curtail drug transport routes from Central America. Three headquarters were established along the Unites States border: operation gatekeeper in California, Operation Hold-the-Line in Texas, and Operation Safeguard in Arizona. These strategically placed headquarters have done an outstanding job securing our borders the past decade, however with drug smuggling on the rise, they require much more support from the government. Regrettably, adversaries of the barriers claim that they are more of a political gambit to instigate foreign affairs and a complete waste of taxpayers’ money. These opponents see the United States-Mexico barrier as an unsuccessful deterrent to illegal immigrants and unwanted drugs that ultimately and inaptly endangers the security and wellbeing of immigrants seeking refuge in the States.
I once had a conversation with a lively nun named Sister Ann, who looked me in the eye and told me, “Learning is about living with your cup half-full. The experiences you share with others fill it, but sometimes you have to let go of some of yourself to have room for it all.” For me, border crossing is this form of kinetic learning. It’s the kind of process that leaves bruises, memories, and dirt under your nails. Personally, I have been able to define border crossing more clearly as I have learned to rock climb. Both border crossing and rock climbing approach challenges holistically and horizontally. Perhaps the principles shared by rock climbing and border crossing provide a solution to the problem I see in education today: a system that trains its students to be so success-driven that we have forgotten to exist flexibly in our own learning processes.
America, a country built on immigration dating back to the early 1600s Mayflower voyage, continues to thrive as a melting pot full of various cultures and ethnicities. In the past, many immigrants came to America due to the offered freedoms and equality, yet today, many naturalized citizens suffer with injustices, including with educational practices. The use of bilingual education, which teaches students in both English and their native language, has become a controversial topic. In 1968, the Bilingual Education Act, which recognized and offered education to students who were lacking English, was passed, yet the topic still seems questionable to some. Bilingual education provides a variety of beneficial attributes to help foreigners by improving their lives as native speakers, with education benefits, health benefits, and future opportunities.