In Douglas Monroy’s essay “The Creation and Re-creation of California Society,” the thesis is that studying history of California is not just about changes in state’s political concerns but is more about relation with human existence. First, he talks about land and liberty and how Californians settled at the landscape. Second, Douglas explains about the life in present day California. Last, he talks about Californios and Indios. Douglas Monroy’s purpose in writing this essay is to inform readers of how California and the inhabitants were in the 1800s by showing detailed life style.
The author provides a couple of interesting evidences about land and liberty in California. The first thing that I found interesting is a story about Governor Echeandia and his administration. He arrived in California and formed study groups back in 1825. This actually got some young men involved and excited about the ideas of liberty and equality. An ironic fact is that male children born to original settlers and presidial soldiers maintained control over the concerns in California, which in today’s society is hard to believe.
The life on the Ranchos was perhaps the most interesting out of all, because of how one family took care of Sonoma area, Mariano Vallejo, which husbanded twenty-five thousand cows, twenty-four thousand sheep and two thousand horses. It is unbelievable to a present day Californian like me. There was one sentence that actually surprised me. I thought that boys were more impo...
Tommy Douglas was a remarkable Canadian whose contributions have helped to shape our nation. During his forty two years in politics, Tommy Douglas proved himself to be an outstanding Canadian leader. He is largely responsible for our central banking, old age pensions, unemployment insurance, and our universal medicare. Though he never became Prime Minister, he is highly regarded by the general public. Tommy Douglas was one of the greatest Canadians that ever lived.
When Spaniards colonized California, they invaded the native Indians with foreign worldviews, weapons, and diseases. The distinct regional culture that resulted from this union in turn found itself invaded by Anglo-Americans with their peculiar social, legal, and economic ideals. Claiming that differences among these cultures could not be reconciled, Douglas Monroy traces the historical interaction among them in Thrown Among Strangers: The Making of Mexican Culture in Frontier California. Beginning with the missions and ending in the late 1800s, he employs relations of production and labor demands as a framework to explain the domination of some groups and the decay of others and concludes with the notion that ?California would have been, and would be today, a different place indeed if people had done more of their own work.?(276) While this supposition may be true, its economic determinism undermines other important factors on which he eloquently elaborates, such as religion and law. Ironically, in his description of native Californian culture, Monroy becomes victim of the same creation of the ?other? for which he chastises Spanish and Anglo cultures. His unconvincing arguments about Indian life and his reductive adherence to labor analysis ultimately detract from his work; however, he successfully provokes the reader to explore the complexities and contradictions of a particular historical era.
Through visiting La Plaza De Culturas Y Artes, I have learned a lot more interesting, yet, surprising new information about the Chicano history in California. For example, in the 1910’s and on the high immigration of Mexicans and other Chicanos, into coal mines and farms by major corporations, made California one of the richest states in the US. I also learned that most of California 's economy was heavily reliant on immigrants. Immigrants were the preferred worker for major corporations because they didn 't have American rights and were given the harder jobs for less pay.
Career Cruising is an informational website and available at participating schools, public libraries, and employment agencies across North America. This program is intended to direct individuals towards appropriate career choices based on specific criteria, such as education, training and previous experience. Individuals can find this information database self-directed, user friendly and rewarding while presenting a variety of options to meet their personal needs. Not only does it offer assistance for the perspective individual in career development, but also on SAT/ACT preparation, online study guides, interview strategies and seminars by promoting growth and effective career opportunities.
California in search for a brighter, economic future. The name Joad and the exodus to
California represents is not as easy to attain as they once thought. The characters in The Day of the
The exposition starts with a very detailed introduction of Salinas Valley. John Steinbeck writes, “It is a long narrow swale between two ranges of mountains, and the Salinas River winds and twists up the center until it falls at last into Monterey Bay.” (10) This shows that Steinbeck really
Memory was given to man for some wise purpose. The past is…the mirror in which we may discern the dim outlines of the future and by which we may make them more symmetrical – Fredrick Douglas. Fredrick Douglas’s autobiography is a first- hand account of his transformation from a former slave into one of the most important civil rights activists of the Reconstruction era. His fluid, descriptive narrative on his life as a slave, helped sway the crowds into the emancipation of all slaves. His battle for civil rights help usher in a new breathe into the civil rights movement of his era. What is it about this autobiography that makes you feel disgust about slavery? We will dive into some of the details to find this very reason.
... As I Saw It: First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849-1900” website at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cbhtml/cbhome.html. Search by keyword using the title of the appropriate book for the search.
By the second half of the nineteenth century, many people rushed to California including Anglo. It can be said that California was entering an era of “Anglo hegemony”. In this paper, I intend to discuss the reason why they traveled to California, their encounters, their remarkable success as well as the role of sex and gender in helping these newcomers assume control of California.
Steltzer, Ulli, “The New Americans: Immigrant Life in Southern California.” Kiniry and Rose 346-347. Print.
Additionally, this essay would be a good read for those interested in the topic of sexuality, gender and culture or anyone studying anthropology. This essay contributes to understanding aspects of California history that is not primarily discussed. The reader gets and insight on two different cultures, and the effects of them merging together -- in this case, the cultures of the Spaniards and Indians. I believe that this article supports Competing Visions as the text also discusses how “the object of the missions was to convert the natives to Christianity as well as to Hispanicize them…” and both touch upon the topic of the rapes of
The conflict between European Americans and Mexicans was a struggle between Mexican rancheros and Anglo capitalists who bitterly contested control of the state’s best farm lands. Guided by Protestant values and a commitment to white supremacy, these free-labor advocates sought to rapidly undermine the society Mexicans had created in California (73). By the late 1860s the Mexican ranchero class was no longer the dominant economic force in the country. Once the Spanish race obtained the land by conquest, it secured it from all the people that showed little appreciation for its worth (90) (and soon constructed an anachronistic status designation were race became the key organizing principle)
How does California seem to modern America? Violent. Crowded. Filled with bad people. People who live in cities and have lost touch with the earth. These people are portrayed in John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath as Californians. Yet, people from the Midwest flocked to California seeking prosperity and opportunity. Their land had been taken by the banks and turned into cotton fields. They were left homeless and desperate. These people sought to work in the fields where they could eat a peach or sit under a tree to relax.
Los Angeles is unique in that it captures the essence of a multi-ecological setting bringing the ocean, the skyscraper, and the happiest place on earth under one rooftop. Its deep-rooted culture engulfs the city’s character and overwhelms the spirit of L.A. Los Angeles has encompassed the circle of the Mexican pueblo that began in 1848 and has returned over two hundred fifty years later. Hordes of “land hungry Anglo-Europeans” began to migrate to Los Angeles from various parts of Europe. They viciously took land from the inhabited Mexicans by fraud, force, and imposing ridiculous property taxes. Although Mexican rancheros fought gallantly for their land, they could not afford to pay the property taxes and as a result lost a vast part of their holdings. The Mexican ranchero lifestyle gradually vanished as new settlers took over. As the Anglo-whites became the majority in Los Angeles, they also became the major influence on the development of the city and its capitalist structure.