Growing up in Colorado, I knew that my family originated from New Mexico but I had not realized the extent of my ancestor’s impact, on my mother’s side, on the development of the state of New Mexico. I remember as a little girl going to my grandparents’ house in Tucumcari, New Mexico and always wondering how they ended up in such a small town but never asked. As I got older I got more curious and therefore I started asking more questions, I then found out that my grandfathers’ family had lived in Tucumcari for a long time and my grandmothers’ family was originally from Silver City. My grandparents met at New Mexico State University and moved back to Tucumcari to help my great-grandparents with the family ranch after my grandfather finished college and they just never …show more content…
When Harvey was 21 years old he left to Colorado for the mining and later joined the Union army at Fort Union, New Mexico. Not long after leaving Ohio, Harvey Howard Whitehill married Harriet Stevens. Harvey Howard Whitehill was one of the founders of Silver City and he was later elected Sheriff. As the Sheriff, Harvey Whitehill was the first to arrest Billy the Kid. Not many know the story but those that do find it amusing. Billy the Kid was arrested by Sheriff Harvey Whitehill for stealing the China-man’s laundry. Billy the kid then escaped the county jail by shimmying up the county jail chimney. Sheriff Harvey Whitehill was attempting to help get Billy back on the right path in life and did not want to keep him in jail long because he had a long life ahead of him but Billy the Kid was destined to be an outlaw and Sheriff Harvey Whitehill’s attempt to get Billy the Kid back on the right track had failed. After being the Sheriff of Silver City for many years, he was elected into the New Mexico Territory Assembly and the Council of the 26th
Ramos, Raul A. Beyond the Alamo: Forging Mexican Ethnicity in San Antonio, 1821-1861. The University of North Carolina Press. 2008.
For centuries, Mexican Americans have dealt with an enormous amount of hardships that date back to their early Aztec roots. The source of many problems in Mexican American history can be traced in the pre-colonial period, before the United States of America was even conceived. Major problems of this era in history not only affected the Aztecs, but also the following generations of Aztec and Mexican descent, and continue to have an impact on their descendents in contemporary American society.
“A Child Called it” is a phenomenal book. After reading Dave Pelzer’s story about the horrors he experienced as a child, I’m glad he had the courage to share his story. As a child, Dave’s alcoholic mother physically, emotionally, and mentally abused him. The author portrays to the reader just how bad his childhood really was by writing about the time his mother stabbed him, the times she would make it sit in a cold bath, the times she would put him in a “gas chamber”, and even about the time she purposefully burned him using the stove. Even though Dave experienced all this traumatic events early in life and had many risk factors that put him at risk for failure, his resiliency and his will to live is what saved him in the end.
Weber, David J. Foreigners in Their Native Land: The Historical Roots of Mexican Americans. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1973.
Mexican American struggles in the United States date back to the Spanish discovery of the New World in 1492. For over five hundred years, Mexicans have endured social injustices and inequalities at the hands of their superiors. The mistreatment of the native people of this land is constantly overlooked for "…the main goals shaping Spanish colonial policy were to maintain and expand political control and to convert Indians to Christianity." (Vargas p.30) With this mindset, the basic nature of relations between the dominant Anglos and the inferior Mexicans was that of suppression, rejection, ignorance and separation as opposed to establishment of ideals that would foster cultural relations and produce the true definition of a "melting pot" society.
In the year 1980, the Ramirez family migrated to the United States led by my grandparent’s Francisco and Ana Ramirez, whom where the first to arrive to the land of opportunities. Their journey was not easy they had to struggle, and fight for their
In the early 1830s, “nearly 125,000 Native Americans lived on millions of acres of land in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, and Florida” . These were areas of land that the American Indian people and their ancestors had occupied and cultivated for generations. However, to many White Americ...
The history of the Mexican American people predates by many years the incorporation of the Southwest into the United States. Native to the Southwest, the Mexican American people have a history marked by the Spanish and then by the Anglo Americans. This early history, perhaps because of the proximity of the southwestern states to the Mexican border, has left a legacy of conflict that is p...
...brief portion of the feelings that accompanied the loss of land for California, New Mexico and Texas. As shown some were passive while others were aggressive. All felt and dealt with similar yet different experiences once America took over half of Mexico’s territory in 1848, after twenty-one months of war between the two nations (Padilla, 14). Whether one was accommodating or resistant to Americans in Mexico’s prior lands, the Mexicanos and Tejanos all felt uprooted, scared and unsure of what the future would hold for them. But one commonality that Juan Bautista Vigil y Alarid, Cleofas M. Jaramillo, Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, Eulalia Perez de Guillen Marine and Juan Nepumuceno Sequin all shared was that they told their stories and because of that the world will forever have the accounts of these people and their heritages told through their own histories.
In the autobiography The Kid Stays in the Picture: A Memorial Life by Evans, Robert, he tells the story in a marvelous and encouraging way. As a Child Robert speaks to parents in a straight, common sense way that avoids the usual moments, and humor that helps his parents recognize their strengths; and rethink their responsibilities, and concentrate on strategies. As life in schools grows steadily more complex, the pressure of rising demands affects the morale and performance of teachers that he had leaders that he looked up to, even in top schools in the country.“The curtains are telling you that this is a manufactured reality”(18) The need to rekindle commitment had never been greater; Robert was never approved for a particular set of school that exhort audiences embrace change. He was motivated to concentrate on the real people had and real organizations for the people. His programs focus on the needs of the students and tries to meet those expectations of the students; he also works with them to make them meet
Mexican American history began in the16th century under Spanish colonialism. The Spanish had a goal of conquest and colonization. Evidently, that goal was successfully accomplished because when the Spanish first arrived in 1492 Mexico’s population was fourteen million, but by the end of the 16th century it had drastically declined to one million. Numbers decreased because of the cruel treatment, forced labor, and disease brought by the Spanish. The Spanish eventually controlled most of the territory in the Southwest and over three hundred towns had been established for the purpose of control and conversion. The Spanish imposed conditions on the natives of Mexico that would belittle them. They aimed to convert them in order to make them re...
“Tracing a single Native American family from the 1780’s through the 1920’s posed a number of challenges,” for Claudio Saunt, author of Black, White, and Indian: Race and the Unmaking of an American Family. (pg. 217) A family tree is comprised of genealogical data that has many branches that take form by twisting, turning, and attempting to accurately represent descendants from the oldest to the youngest. “The Grayson family of the Creek Nation traces its origins to the late 1700’s, when Robert Grierson, a Scotsman, and Sinnugee, a Creek woman, settled down together in what is now north-central Alabama. Today, their descendants number in the thousands and have scores of surnames.” (pg. 3)
Have You ever thought about the people who inhabited this land before it was stolen from them? Do you know who they were besides the false name they are given, the things they’ve accomplished and how they have helped us today? in this paper you will learn about the life and hardship the original Americans have endured for over 300 years.
At the age of two my parents made the long and devastating journey to bring me and my siblings to the United States from Mexico. Wanting a brighter future for us, my parents fought tooth and nail to give us the world they didn’t grow up having. Ever since stepping foot on the U.S soil, going back seemed impossible. The effects of this life-changing move, couldn’t mask the unforeseen disadvantages. Lacking exposure to Mexico’s colorful culture, little to no bonding time with my family from abroad, and the struggle of trying to blend into an environment that was so different, soon began to interfere with my overall identity. Realizing this, my wonderful parents prepared a transformative trip back to my homeland, and back to the past, facing
A question that arises in almost any medium of art, be it music, film or literature, is whether or not the depiction of violence is merely gratuitous or whether it is a legitimate artistic expression. There can be no doubt that Michael Ondaatje's long poem The Collected Works of Billy the Kid is a violent work, but certain factors should be kept in mind before passing it off as an attempt to shock and titillate; certainly, the poem does both of these, but they are not the primary purpose of the work. For one thing, social context needs to be considered; Billy lived in the "Wild West", a time associated with range wars, shoot-outs and great train robberies. The entire legend of Billy the Kid has been built around his criminal activities and notorious reputation; indeed, the more popular this myth becomes, the more people he is accused of having murdered. If anything, it was a cultural fascination with violence that "created" the legend, perhaps even more so than anything the "real" Billy ever did. Michael Ondaatje comments on this phenomenon and actually offers an alternative vision of who Billy the Kid was; perhaps he was not just a blood-thirsty killer but a man who, due to circumstance and human nature, was continually being pushed over the edge. Ondaatje is more concerned with the motivations behind the acts of violence than the acts of violence themselves: "A motive? some reasoning we can give to explain all this violence. Was there a source for all this? yup -" (54). If they shock, it is to shock the readers out of complicity and encourage them to think about the nature of violence and their own capacity for it.