Recovering History, Constructing Race: the Indian, Black, and White Roots of Mexican Americans Recovering Aztlan : Racial Formation Through a Shared History (1) Traditionally history of the Americas and American population has been taught in a direction heading west from Europe to the California frontier. In Recovering History, Constructing Race, Martha Mencahca locates the origins of the history of the Americas in a floral pattern where migration from Asia, Europe, and Africa both voluntary and forced converge magnetically in Mexico then spreads out again to the north and northeast. By creating this patters she complicates the idea of race, history, and nationality. The term Mexican, which today refers to a specific nationality in Central America, is instead used as a shared historic and cultural identity of a people who spread from Mexico across the southwest United States. To create this shared identity Menchaca carefully constructs the Mexican race from prehistoric records to current battles for Civil Rights. What emerges is a story in which Anglo-Americans become the illegal immigrants crossing the border into Texas and mestizo Mexicans can earn an upgrade in class distinction through heroic military acts. In short what emerges is a sometimes upside down always creative reinvention of history and the creation of the Mexican "race (?)". Mexicans, as constructed by Menchaca, are a predominantly mestizo population whose mixed ancestry she traces to early Latin American civilizations. In 200 BC the largest city in the Americas, Teotihuacán, was founded. Teotihuacán would one day be the site of Mexico City, and by 650 AD there were between 120,000 and 250,000 inhabitants. (2) Groups that inhabited the region fro... ... middle of paper ... ...e, history, and blood. The specific commingling that emerges, however, has common roots in its very diversity. Throughout her tale Menchaca's allegiance is clearly to her race, and while the bias comes through, the history she traces is never the less compelling. The strongest achievement of this book is that it fundamentally shifts the gaze of its reader by reifying race and celebrating its complexity. Notes 1. Aztlan is the quasimythylogical homeland of the Chichimec people who were expelled by their god and traveled south to found civilizations in Mexico. It is theoretically located in present day New Mexico. 2. Martha Menchaca, Recovering History, Constructing Race: the Indian, Black, and White Roots of Mexican Americans (Texas: University of Texas Press, 2001), 29. 3. Menchaca, 47. 4. Menchaca, 50. 5. Menchaca, 199.
Did the five-generation family known as the Grayson’s chronicled in detail by Claudio Saunt in his non-fiction book, Black, White, and Indian: Race and the Unmaking of an American deny their common origins to conform to “America’s racial hierarchy?” Furthermore, use “America’s racial hierarchy as a survival strategy?” I do not agree with Saunt’s argument whole-heartedly. I refute that the Grayson family members used free will and made conscious choices regarding the direction of their family and personal lives. In my opinion, their cultural surroundings significantly shaped their survival strategy and not racial hierarchy. Thus, I will discuss the commonality of siblings Katy Grayson and William Grayson social norms growing up, the sibling’s first childbearing experiences, and the sibling’s political experience with issues such as chattel slavery versus kinship slavery.
Killer Kane does loves his son Max because he is protective and cares about his son’s feelings. Max’s dad Killer Kane which was nicknamed Killer Kane after he killed his wife, talked his way out of jail for murder. He had a restraining order that said he could not come within a mile of Max’s house. When we first meet Killer Kane he is kidnapping Max in the “down under” where he sleeps. He uses this as a way to show Max that he was thinking of him and wanted to see him. He says “I came back.” “Like I promised,” (Philbrick page, 100) This shows that Killer Kane cared that his son Max did not have a father figure and came back even though he could get arrested right when he got out of jail. If Killer Kane did not care or love Max he wouldn’t have bothered to come back to see Max especially if it meant he had to go back in jail when he just got out. Killer Kane cared enough about Max’s feelings because he put Max before himself and only thought about what was right for Max like a loving father would do. In addition, when Max was in the basement tied up by Killer Kane and Loretta tries to untie him, Killer Kane gets furious. He does not know how to control himself when he is angry, but he does do something about the situation. Killer Kane sternly says “I’ll teach you to put your dirty ha...
The English immigrants are given a brief introduction as the first ethnic group to settle in America. The group has defined the culture and society throughout centuries of American history. The African Americans are viewed as a minority group that were introduced into the country as slaves. The author depicts the struggle endured by African Americans with special emphasis on the Civil War and the Civil Rights movement. The entry of Asian Americans evoked suspicion from other ethnic groups that started with the settlement of the Chinese. The Asian community faced several challenges such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and the mistreatment of Americans of Japanese origin during World War II. The Chicanos were the largest group of Hispanic peoples to settle in the United States. They were perceived as a minority group. Initially they were inhabitants of Mexico, but after the Westward expansion found themselves being foreigners in their native land (...
The focus of analysis will consist of Southern Chicago Mexicans and the way by which they established themselves as important features of US civilization. Within the late 1910s and early 1920s the first major waves of Mexican immigrants ventured into the Southside of Chicago. Members of the community overcame the discrimination against them while organizing themselves in way that introduced Mexican pride and community building across their
Weber, David J. Foreigners in Their Native Land: The Historical Roots of Mexican Americans. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1973.
Gonzalez, Juan. Harvest of Empire a History of Latinos in America. New York: Penguin Putnam Inc, 2000.
Growing up in a marginalized minority is a difficult task because there are a lot of differences between cultures. In the Mexican American culture, family is crucial, this is where one comes when one needs someone to talk to. In my experience, I had was raised being stuck in the middle of two different cultures I had to know what my identity was through, family, school, and through my travels.
In American history, civil rights movements have played a major role for many ethnics in the United States and have shape American society to what it is today. The impact of civil rights movements is tremendous and to an extent, they accomplish the objectives that the groups of people set out to achieve. The Mexican-American Civil Rights Movement, more commonly known as the Chicano Movement or El Movimiento, was one of the many movements in the United States that set out to obtain equality for Mexican-Americans (Herrera). At first, the movement had a weak start but eventually the movement gained momentum around the 1960’s (Herrera). Mexican-Americans, also known as Chicanos, began to organize in order to eliminate the social barriers that prevented them from progressing in American society (Bloom 47). Throughout the years of the Chicano Movement, Mexican-Americans had a “desire to integrate into the mainstream culture while preserving their own identity” (Bloom 47). The Chicano Civil Rights Movement was a progressive era when Mexican-Americans had goals that they wanted to accomplish and sought reform in order to be accepted as a part of the United States.
It is said that the cause of the catastrophic stock market crash known as the great depression was due mostly to uncontrolled political and industrial systems otherwise known as capitalism. However, the timeline leading up to the Great Depression proves that many other factors played a role in the stock market crash that occurred in the decade of the 1930's. So lets take a look at rather four, factors contributing to the great depression that we will further discuss in the following paragraphs. Four of the main causes that led up to the great depression were unequal distribution of wealth, uncontrolled political and industrial systems, high tariffs and war debts.
As long as civilizations have been around, there has always been a group of oppressed people; today the crucial problem facing America happens to be the discrimination and oppression of Mexican immigrants. “Mexican Americans constitute the oldest Hispanic-origin population in the United States.”(57 Falcon) Today the population of Mexican’s in the United States is said to be about 10.9%, that’s about 34 million people according to the US Census Bureau in 2012. With this many people in the United States being of Mexican descent or origin, one would think that discrimination wouldn’t be a problem, however though the issue of Mexican immigrant oppression and discrimination has never been a more prevalent problem in the United States before now. As the need for resolve grows stronger with each movement and march, the examination of why these people are being discriminated against and oppressed becomes more crucial and important. Oppression and Anti-discrimination organizations such as the Freedom Socialist Organization believe that the problem of discrimination began when America conquered Mexican l...
Explanation- This article gives examples of how indigenous people used to live before the colonization of Christopher Columbus. After the appearance of Christopher Columbus in Mexico different ethnic groups were distributed amongst different states along with their different languages. In the state of Oaxaca there around sixteen different ethnic groups which the Mixtecs and the Zapotecs are the two main ethnos who have continued to expand amongst the territory. During the Spanish conquest the Mixtec and the Zapotecs’ religion was mostly based on belief in the vital force that animated all living things, meaning that they worshiped the land and the creator. Throughout this day there are still indigenous people who believe and practice their ideology, and the “modernized” are set to practice Catholicism.
When relating the history of her grandmother, Meema, for example, the author first depicts Meema’s sisters as “yellow” and Meema’s grandfather and his family as “white.” When the two families meet, the author has few words for their interactions, stating that their only form of recognition was “nodding at [them] as they met.” The lack of acknowledgment the narrator depicts in this scene, particularly between those of differing skin pigmentations, would indicate a racial divide permeating the society in which
She successfully describes the “New Mestiza” by first analyzing herself, her dialect, and the U.S. country, and then discusses how there are psychologic boundaries on Chicanos through the symbolism she uses when she talks about physical borderlands. She claims the original inhabitants of what is now the U.S., were in fact the ancient Indian ancestors of Chicanos and Anglos were the ones who illegally migrated to the lands long before they started making assumptions that Chicanos were aliens of the country. She then descriptively states how the Mexican-American War had resulted in Americans taking their land and turned them from domestic owners to foreigners overnight: Anzaldúa (1987,1999) declares, “In 1846, the U.S. incited Mexico to war. U.S. troops invaded and occupied Mexico, forcing her to give up almost half of her nation, what is now Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and California” (p. 29). Consequently, in the nineteenth century, powerful landowners partnered with U.S. colonizing companies dispossessed millions of Indians from their land, many leaving to Mexico for terrorism that Anglos
“It’s gorgeous here” she says. She twists her bottom lip between her thumb and forefinger waiting for a
“Some young Japanese women are now having dentists artificially enlarge their incisors so as to achieve a look associated with a small mouth crowded with teeth . . .” (Wade). This new trend, by the name of yaeba, has caused peaked curiosity as to why someone would want purposely crooked teeth. In America, this trend could be seen as unusual consid...