Immigrants in Action
Members of the Comité de Inmigrantes en Acción Santa Teresa (the St. Theresa Committee of Immigrants in Action) look solemn this evening. It is Friday, 5:00 PM, in the basement of St. Theresa's Church. The basement boasts a distinctly cafeteria-like atmosphere: fluorescent lights, linoleum floors, folding chairs, bare walls, and long institutional tables. Appropriate, a church volunteer later informs me, as the room also functions as a soup kitchen for homeless and low-income families.
Outside, red late afternoon sunlight diffuses through the air and low-bellied cars cruise the streets, bursting with hip-hop beats. But neither the music nor the sun can penetrate the brick church walls. Inside it is quiet, except for the buzzing of blue-white lights.
The sparseness of the large space makes the Comité look small. There are ten members present this evening, huddled around one table near the entrance. They straggle in during the first half hour of the meeting, nodding hellos, hanging jackets, pulling up chairs.
Juan García, the Comité leader, has positioned himself at the head of the table. Beside his chair rests a bulging black briefcase and spread out before him are folders, binders, pamphlets, papers, all in neat stacks. The words Puerto Rico promenade merrily across his T-shirt, the "e" and the "r" interrupted by the ever-present gold locket that hangs around his neck. It is splayed open, as usual, la Virgen Maria holily presiding over the Comité.
García started the Comité in 1999, with the support of St. Theresa's, a Catholic church on the West side of Providence, Rhode Island. The church secured him a paid position as an organizador comunitario - a community organizer. The Comité's most immediate mission is simply stated: to assure permanent residency for the 6-9 million some-odd undocumented immigrants in the United States.
García, himself a documented Guatemalan immigrant, collaborates with the Latin American community in Providence and the surrounding areas to raise awareness about the most recent immigration policies and proposals and to encourage the people to organizarse. Organize themselves. As the Comité is part of the National Coalition for Dignity and Amnesty, a nation-wide network of similar groups, García also keeps tabs on events and advancements in other parts of the country.
The size of the Comité is forever fluctuating: at the moment, it includes about ten members, documented and undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Central America.
Hip-Hop became characterized by an aggressive tone marked by graphic descriptions of the harshness and diversity of inner-city life. Primarily a medium of popular entertainment, hip-hop also conveys the more serious voices of youth in the black community. Though the approaches of rappers became more varied in the latter half of the 1980s, message hip-hop remained a viable form for addressing the problems faced by the black community and means to solve those problems. The voices of "message" hip...
Mario T. Garcia is currently a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The majority, if not all, of his works had to do with Chicanos related topics in different areas. Thanks to his research through his career, he had gain experience and m...
The Latino community is a very varied community each with its own unique past and circumstances. In the book Harvest of Empire by Juan Gonzalez the readers can learn and appreciate some of the experiences and history that the different Latino groups had. This book does this with a special emphasis on immigration trends. These points of emphasis of the book are explained thoroughly in the identification of the key points, the explanation of the intersection of race, ethnicity, and class, in addition to the overall evaluation of the book.
Gonzalez, Juan. Harvest of Empire a History of Latinos in America. New York: Penguin Putnam Inc, 2000.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of immigrants, legal and illegal, from around the world, come to the United States. These immigrants come because they want a chance at a better life; others are refugees, escaping persecution and civil wars in their home country. Many people believe the United States is the best place to go. There is more freedom, protection, and benefits, which seems like a good deal to immigrants. But the large number of immigration is affecting the current citizens of the United States. Taxpayers are forced to pay for the welfare and schooling for many of these immigrants, some who are illegal aliens. Some citizens believe that immigration can be hazardous to the environment. Others blame crime, poverty, and overpopulation on immigration. About sixty-eight million immigrants have been added to the United States since 1970, and it is estimated that 130 million people will be added over the next fifty years. The government has tried somewhat to restrict immigration but the laws are still too lenient. Nearly every other advanced country in the world is moving quickly towards stabilized population or has already achieved it. The United States is moving towards it very slowly. This country would have to reduce immigration down to 255,000 a year to do this (Beck 1). If nothing is done to stabilize the immigration to this country, what will become of population in the next decade? The population will continue to grow even faster - not due to births, but to massive immigration to this country. Immigration can become a serious problem to this country if the government does not produce stricter laws.
It is a day in the summer of 1974 on the block of 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, Bronx, NY. The grass is blazing, the air is fresh, and the kids are shrieking with joy. This is where it happened. DJ Kool Herc popped in his new record playing smooth rhythms of jazz and blues with the integration of Jamaican sound creating a new genre that would soon sweep the nation. He called it Hip-Hop. Some would call it “black noise”, but to urban African Americans it was music they could own; music they could learn to appreciate and adore. As they faced afflictions like racism, oppression, drugs, and much more, they used this new found hip- hop to express their thoughts and feelings. Today, we try to understand where this passion and substance in rap has escaped; if it was left to wither in the blazing grass, or blow away in the fresh air. Today, we try to understand what is hip hop, and why it’s becoming the “black noise” we once denied it to be. Ever since rap officially emerged in the 1970s, critics had a negative reaction; even when rap had meaning and substance and consisted of people telling their stories. Now that rap has become more contemptuous, critics have began to question what rap is really about. It is clear themes have changed: But at what point? And how? Furthermore, how has this impacted blacks and their image, who dominate the rap industry. Conclusively, while themes in mid 20th century rap have been known to revolve around aspects like politics and unity, currently rap has underwent a dramatic change now producing themes that promote violence, among many other things, and has ultimately painted a negative image of African Americans.
The United States cannot afford to lose the economic gains that come from immigrant labor. The economy would be suffering a greater loss if it weren’t for immigrants and their labor contributions, especially during the 2008 U.S. recession. The U.S. economy would most likely worsen if it weren’t for the strong labor force immigrants have provided this country. Despite the mostly negative views native-born Americans have towards immigrants and the economy, their strong representation in the labor forces continues today. Immigrants aren’t taking “American” jobs, they are taking the jobs that Americans don’t want (Delener & Ventilato, 2008). Immigrants contribute to various aspects of the economy, including brining valuable skills to their jobs, contributing to the cost of living through taxes, and the lacked use of welfare, healthcare, and social security when compared to native-born Americans, showing that the United States cannot afford to lose the contribution immigrants bring into the economy.
Food insecurity is an issue faced by millions of Americans every day, and the biggest group affected by this is working families with children. Food insecurity is so big that the United States government has now recognized it and provided a definition for it. The United States government has defined food insecurity as “a household level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food” (USDA.gov). Food banks and anti-hunger advocates agree that some of the causes of food insecurity are stagnant wages, increase in housing costs, unemployment, and inflation of the cost of food. These factors have caused food banks to see a change in the groups of people needing assistance. Doug O’Brien, director of public policy and research at Chicago-based Second Harvest says “’we’ve seen a real shift in who we serve. A decade ago, it was almost always homeless, single men and chronic substance abusers. Now we have children and working families at soup kitchens’” (Koch). These families that are feeling the effects of food insecurity will not be only ones affected by it, but all of America. Studies have shown that there is a link between food security, performance in the classroom, and obesity. If this issue is not faced head on, America will have a generation of children not fully prepared for the workforce and high health insurance rates due to obesity health issues.
Some people argue that if stricter DUI laws existed, it will only have a negative financial effect on cities instead of stopping drunk driving. In the article, “At Issue: Drunk Driving”, the author explains how drunk driving remains an issue and what the effect of stricter DUI laws would have on social drinking in cities. The article states how people feel about tougher laws on social drinking: “Others feel that the current legal limit is adequate and stricter laws would penalize social drinking instead of actual drunk drivers” (ProQuest Staff). The author claims that if the government passed stricter DUI laws, they would not stop drunk driving more than they would hurt the city financially. However, the safety of the people inside the city should remain the priority over money. In the same article, the writer states that the safety of people in cities is being threatened. The writer gives statistical evidence that drunk driving has a direct effect on traffic death: “The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 40% of total traffic deaths in the United States are due to drun...
Hip Hop a grass movement started in 1974 in the South Bronx in New York City. Created to end gang violence, a voice for the underrepresented minority. Rap music is critical to understanding the hip hop generation’s gender crisis, a crisis between sexes that allows African American males to blatantly disrespect African American women for the sake of the culture. The consistent referencing of African American women as ‘bitches’ and ‘hos’ and the hyper sexualization of their bodies is harmful to the African American community. These images instill that it is alright to represent black women in this nature, and harmful to the young girls who are intaking all these negative images. Harmful to both the perspective of young men and women Hip-Hop is like a pillar in the African American culture. It represents how each generation views themselves in this society and how they internalized these narratives. In this essay I will summarize the main arguments in Chapter 7 of Gender talk , discuss the creation and deconstruction on views
Thompson, W, & Bynum, J. (1991). Juvenile delinquency. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
The National Council of La Raza, the Largest National Organization in the United States. www.ncm.org
Through the history and trends of Latin American immigration, one can begin to understand the impact of immigration on American society. Latin American countries have not always been the leading countries of origin for immigrants to the United States; however, with the Immigration and Nationality Act, they surpassed European countries’ immigration and rose to the top (1). Subsequently, a number of Hispanics ca...
In Total Chaos, Jeff Chang references Harry Allen, a hip hop critic and self-proclaimed hip hop activist. Harry Allen compares the hip hop movement to the Big Bang and poses this complex question: “whether hip-hop is, in fact a closed universe-bound to recollapse, ultimately, in a fireball akin to its birth-or an open one, destined to expand forever, until it is cold, dark, and dead” (9). An often heard phase, “hip hop is dead,” refers to the high occurrence of gangster rap in mainstream hip hop. Today’s hip hop regularly features black youths posturing as rich thugs and indulging in expensive merchandise. The “hip hop is dead” perspective is based on the belief that hip hop was destined to become the model of youth resistance and social change. However, its political ambitions have yet to emerge, thus giving rise to hip hops’ criticisms. This essay will examine the past and present of hip hop in o...
The cultural theory helps expand the knowledge of “hip hop” as an idea and influence on society. Mark Anthony Neal discusses the development of the understanding of hip hop by dissecting the layers and complexities of the culture, “Hip-hop music and culture emerged as a narrative and stylistic distillation of African-American youth sensibilities in the late 1970s,” within What the Music Said (Woldu 18). Urban history is a large, yet vital characteristic throughout the study of hip hop and its progression; Russell Potter shows how critical the representation of black musical expression and the “history of vernacular speech” is for the hip hop community in his book, Spectacular Vernaculars (Woldu 19). As decades pass and the hip hop scene expands, the history of this culture becomes influenced by more historical movements and creations. However, that is not the only historical significance that runs deep within the hip hop culture. The history and influence of the black feminist movement within the hip hop scene became a demanding characteristic in the development of the hip hop culture. As the gender divide became an evident aspect through the hip hop generation, women, especially female rappers,