Carlos Fuentes portrays one of the main characters in his novel, The Crystal Frontier, as a man who spends his whole existence hating on the American way of life and eventually begins to bite the hand that feeds him, both figuratively and literally speaking. Dionisio becomes what he initially hates. He has a fervent addiction for American TV infomercials and eating fast food—all while ridiculing the American way of life, specifically, seeing as Fuentes infuses Dionisio into the novel as a chef, the American cuisine. We may then relate the way Dionisio views American and Mexican cuisines to Anderson’s claim that the nation “is an imagined political community—and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign”. While Dionisio has a preconceived …show more content…
One would claim that Dionisio is simply a prideful individual. Fuentes claims that Dionisio, himself, said “he wasn’t anti-Yankee in this matter or in any other, even though every child born in Mexico knew that in the nineteenth century the gringos had stripped us of half our territory” (57). The trouble with Fuentes’ claim is the inherent implication that all Mexicans hold some type of resentment toward their northern neighbor, and that Dionisio is not the exclusion to the rule. He implies that the anti-United States resentment runs deep through the veins of the Mexican consciousness. Dionisio referred to the United States as the “United States of Amnesia”, as a country who ignored the plights and needs of the Mexican people (57). This notion of anti-American sentiment is bolstered by Gloria in Borderlands, for “The Battle of the Alamo… became the symbol for the cowardly and villainous character of the Mexicans. It became (and still is) a symbol that legitimized the white imperialist takeover (28). The modern day Mexicans view the Americans as the invaders who aggressed into Texas, and that the political community which had existed was consumed by America. This parallels the notion that American incessant need for abundance, in every regard, is causing the withering of the Mexican
Starting with the first chapter, Deverell examines the racial and ethnic violence that took place in the wake of American defeat. In no more than thirty years or so, ethnic relations had appeased and the Mexican people were outnumbered quickly (as well as economically marginalized and politically disenfranchised), as the second chapter discloses. The author examines a variety of topics to further his case but the most compelling and captivating sections of the book come into the third, fourth and fifth chapters. The third chapter focuses its attention
This book by Otis A. Singletary deals with different aspects of the Mexican war. It is a compelling description and concise history of the first successful offensive war in United States military history. The work examines two countries that were unprepared for war. The political intrigues and quarrels in appointing the military commanders, as well as the military operations of the war, are presented and analyzed in detail. The author also analyzes the role that the Mexican War played in bringing on the U.S. Civil War.
The film gives today’s viewers a historical perspective on how the use of ethnic stereotypes reinforced Griffins theme of nationalism. As stated by Dr.Keeling, this film came about a time of war when there was a need to rally and a need to belong. Griffin used his film Martyrs of the Alamo as an outlet to promote the need for nationalism in the United States. Griffin focuses on creating this feeling of fear when Americans and Mexicans interact in certain scenes. Through out the film this reoccurring theme of fear is seen in many of the battle scenes. One of the most striking scenes is during the battle between the Mexican soldiers and the Americans in the Alamo. Throughout the shot we see both sides rushing toward each other firing their weapons and there is a cloudiness from the dust. As this fight is going on we see a little blonde and blue e...
The author of Mexican Lives, Judith Adler Hellman, grapples with the United States’ economic relationship with their neighbors to the south, Mexico. It also considers, through many interviews, the affairs of one nation. It is a work held to high esteem by many critics, who view this work as an essential part in truly understanding and capturing Mexico’s history. In Mexican Lives, Hellman presents us with a cast from all walks of life. This enables a reader to get more than one perspective, which tends to be bias. It also gives a more inclusive view of the nation of Mexico as a whole. Dealing with rebel activity, free trade, assassinations and their transition into the modern age, it justly captures a Mexico in its true light.
8. Meyer, Michael C., et al. The Course of Mexican History, 7th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
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.
In his essay "Selena’s Good Buy: Texas Mexicans, History, and Selena Meet Transnational Capitalism,” Coronado (2001) argues that Selena embodies displaced desires that need to be situated in their historical content. By looking at how Texans and marketers reacted to Selena’s death, Coronado was able to show us how Selena’s death can be looked at form a psychoanalytic lens. The working class’ obsession with Selena can be seen as a fetish of sorts. A fetish is caused by trauma and can be applied socially to a irritable social construct. In other words, Selena could be a social fetish; the Latinx working class abruptly lost someone who was representing them in mainstream media, leading to the trauma. In this theory, Selena is no longer seen as a person who contributed hugely to the rise of colored people in mainstream media, but as
Rosales, F. Arturo. Lecture 2/14 Film The US-Mexican War Prelude. Weber, David J. - "The 'Path of the World'" Foreigners in Their Native Land: The Historical Roots of Mexican Americans.
Bauer, K. Jack. “Mexican War,” Handbook of Texas Online, last modified June 15, 2010, accessed May 2, 2014, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qdm02
The first of these primal scenes takes place in DeLillo's first book, Americana (Osteen 413). In a particular part of this novel, DeLillo describes the invention of America as the invention of the television (Osteen 413). One of his characters even describes it as having "came over on the Mayflower," which Letricchia interprets as meaning not television itself came over, but the desire for a "universal third-person" (Osteen 414). Letricchia argues that television offers to modern Americans today what the Pilgrims' ships offered to immigrants on the old days: something to dream about (Osteen 414). Even DeLillo writes that "To consume in America is not to buy; it is to dream," which, according to Letricchia is to say "that it is not the consummation of desire but the foreplay of desire that is TV advertising's object" (Osteen 414). Which is to say, it is not the advertisements job to make you buy something, only to make you want to buy it, a point I find to be not only accurate, but somewhat disturbing as well.
First, Gonzales uses character—Tony Marin and protagonist who is also a round character, to promote theme of how a sense of racist superiority exists among white Anglo Texans at The Alamo memorial. Because the character is round he displays characteristic of inner conflict. In the story we can note that his inner conflict wont leave him satisfied with the current history, therefore he goes on a quest to find answers for his book. As a result, the protagonist find him self at conflict with Texans. His interest can be illustrated as Gonzalo writes, “As a writer, he had always been interested in how the history of Texas was written and portrayed and how Chicanos, Mexicans and Native Americans had been left out of the picture”(84). In the previous quote, it is evident that Tony has a great interest in the events that have occurred at the famous Alamo Battle. As a writer, he is seeking to expand his information in order to ...
One can draw many parallels from Garcia’s book; at the end of Reconstruction in the United States, many African-Americans, left the South, as home rule, and Jim Crow became part of it many, left for the north, especially Chicago. Thus, making El Paso somewhat of a Chicago for the Mexicans –as many Mexicans were fleeing the many deplorable conditions of a México under the rule of Dictator Porfirio Díaz, an era that came to be known as ...
After three hundred years of suffering and oppression by the Spanish crown, and inspired by the fire of revolution sweeping over the world in places such as United States and France, the Mexican population finally decided that they could endure no more, it was time for a change! In this essay I put together some of the various factors of Spanish colonialism that led to the Mexican independence. These factors were the socio political conditions of nueva españa, the enlightment era, as well as various leaders
The downfall of the Aztec Empire was a major building block of the Spanish colonial empire in the Americas. Spain’s empire would stretch all the way into North America from the Southwest United States all the way up the Pacific Coast. The unfortunate side effect of this was the elimination of many nations of indigenous people. The three major themes shown in this conquest really give deeper look into the anatomy of this important historical event. Without context on the extent of native assistance given to Cortez in his fight with the Aztecs, a reader would be grossly uniformed. The Spanish conquest was closer to a civil war than an actual conquest. Until reading detailed personal accounts of the fighting it is difficult to judge the deadly effectiveness of the Spaniards technological superiority. Without it is difficult to imagine 500 conquistadors holding thousands of native warriors at bay. Once the greed of Cortez and greed in general of the Europeans one understands that if it wasn’t Cortez if would have just been a different man at a different time. Unfortunately fame and prosperity seem to always win over cares about fellow human beings
To fully understand Fast Food Nation, the reader must recognize the audience the novel is directed towards, and also the purpose of it. Eric Schlosser’s intention in writing this piece of literature was to inform America of how large the fast food industry truly is, larger than most people can fathom. Schlosser explains that he has “written this book out of a belief that people should know what lies behind the s...