Dear, Transfer Student
Welcome to the University of California, we are excited that you choose to join our school. We are eager to meet you. Your arrival on campus is approaching quickly, so we wanted to take some time and share you some important information about the city of Los Angeles which is the back drop of our campus. Campus life is not just limited to the institution, but is highly immersed within the fabric and culture of the city in Los Angeles. It is our goal that this information will allow you to feel comfortable at your new home away from home.
We would encourage you to attend new student orientation during the first week you arrive on campus. Orientation allows you meet other incoming students and faculty. You will be assigned a tour guide who will take you and a group on a full campus tour. We will also be there to answer any further questions you may have.
As a declared Public Policy student you have the unique opportunity to study within a new thriving “Latino Metropolis” within Los Angeles. By 2050, there should be more Latinos than all other minorities combi...
The Latino Generation: Voices of the New America is a book written by Mario T. Garcia. This book tells the individual life stories of individual Latino Americans all attending the same class at University of California, Santa Barbra. The book discloses stories and events told by 13 students each who narrate from first person and give us a brief description of their life. The book is composed of 13 sections with an additional introduction and conclusion (Garcia, Kindle). Within this reflection I will describe the key points within this book and compare the stories within this book not only to each other, but also to additional stories of Latino Americans and how Garcia’s book rids the general public of misconception of Latinos.
Both the early-exiters and college-goers share these environmental realities, often times living in unsafe neighborhoods, dealing with multiple relocations, cramped living conditions, and overworked parents. The spatial segregation that perpetuates these realities is executed on class lines, where predominantly immigrant neighborhoods generally have more poverty, and as a result have a higher-crime rate. Gonzales explains how this process is cyclical, poorer people have a higher propensity to resort to criminal activity, subsequently the crime rate is higher, this makes less wealthy people want to live in predominantly Latina/o communities, keeping property values low. If the K-12 education largely bases its funding off of property taxes, Latina/os are more likely to receive a subpar education - thus the masquerade of education as the “great equalizer” comes plummeting down, both the college-goers and the early-exiters are subject to systemic failures. Furthermore, the groups not only share similar economic/financial constraints but they both are partially paralyzed by a sense of paranoia, of fear about the consequences of their undocumented status and the status of their family
Harvest of the Empire is a valuable tool to gaining a better understanding of Latinos. This book helps people understand how varied Latino’s in the United States are. The author also helped give insight as to how Americans reacts to differences within itself. It does this by giving a description of the struggles that every Latino immigrant faced entering the United States. These points of emphasis of the book were 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.
Since the 1960’s, Latino communities have experienced the implicit and explicit effects of racism through various social institutio...
A diverse minority group of Latino and Spanish-speaking peoples has played an important part of what it means to be American and what it means to be a citizen in the United States today. Moving into the future, in order to analyze the trajectory that this group is in, we must first understand the group’s history in the United States and in territories that would become the United States. In addition, we must look at the origins of the most recent wave of Latino immigration in order to understand their current effect on American society and the intersection between both minority and majority groups. Finally, we get to the apex of this investigation: what lies in the future for Latino Americans in the United States? Although Latino Americans have been portrayed by the majority American culture as a lazy, thieving, and dirty people, their presence in the United States has immensely contributed to it’s development socially, economically, and politically, and their continued presence seems integral to the future of an America that is fast arriving at an age-related demographics problem that threatens our continued prosperity and the solvency of the Social Security system.
Eleanor Roosevelt said, “the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” That statement holds strong for immigrants in America. Equal access to opportunities allows immigrants to achieve the American dream. Their success correlates with America’s success because of the contributions immigrants provide to America. Unfortunately, the current immigration policy in America denies many immigrants the American dream. It is crucial to understand the historical context of immigration in America. Initially, most immigrants were from Europe and were not restricted by any immigration laws. Now, most immigrants come from Latin America but are restricted to severe immigration laws. The Latino/a community is one of the most severely affected groups because the current immigration system disproportionally affects Latino/as. Recognizing how the experience of Latino/a immigrants have been both similar and different in the past from other immigrant groups and dispelling common misconceptions about Latino/as today bring an awareness how Latino/as are affected.
In this report, we will explore the Hispanic culture in the United States and try to prove how important it is to target this community due to the rapid growth of population. Since the Hispanic community has never been considered a viable target, we tend to research this group and prove how influential this group is.
In this installment of Harvest of Empire, we reach the third and final chapter named La Cosecha which shows the impact of Latinos in politics. Though, the two previous sections were interesting due to learning history and the history of Gonzalez himself, in this section we learn of the triumphs and downfalls of communities that were aren’t made aware of in modern textbooks or in classrooms. In Chapter 10, we are knowledgeable that the Latino vote has not only increased by sky-rocketed from the years 1976 to 2008. The revolution has been in the works since post World War II although it’s not commonly known as other legacies throughout the United States. As the years later progressed, the United States saw the rise of major radical groups such
“Where Latinos live greatly depends on when they came to the United States and one their economic class (Rodolfo Acuna 6).” The Latino community is rapidly becoming the most populated minority group within the United States. Latino is a diverse term for Spanish-speaking population often referring to Hispanic or Latino origin. A vast amount of Americans have Hispanic backgrounds among the United States population. The varied Latino cultures planted inside the United States society, population, and government now play a big part in the day to day life of the nation. The United States Latino community is beneficial as it provides a rich cultural diversity, contribute to the nation’s education and form profound influences within the society.
He provides us a with a depth overview of a three-year study of 40 minority youths, 30 of whom were previously arrested. The study was done in Oakland, California. Rios give us a clear overview inner city young Latino and African American. Rios emphasize on the difficult lives of these young men, who are faced with policies in their schools, communities, and policing. Importantly, he gives us a clear understanding
Despite having to battle discrimination and poor neighborhoods, second and third generation Mexican-Americans have made a great strife to overcome large obstacles. Mexican-Americans are finally gaining representation in city government representing the 9.6 million Mexican residents of Los Angeles. White politicians can no longer ignore Mexicans in Los Angeles, as former mayor Richard Riordan saw in the elections of 1997, in which his re-election was largely in part to the high turnout of Mexican voters in his favor. Although Capitalism still exists in the greater Los Angeles, its influence is not as great as it was fifty years ago. Los Angeles continues to serve as the breeding grounds for new cultures, ideologies, and alternative lifestyles. The pursuit of the American Dream becomes a reality for most immigrants in LA. LA is a great place to live, party, and be from. I knew little about the history of Los Angeles prior to this course, but now I am well prepared to answer the question of, “What makes Los Angeles, Los Angeles?”
Two years ago, I was writing my letter of intent for my application to the Master of Public Administration (MPA) with a concentration in Healthcare Administration revealing my failures, and most significantly, that I lost my passion and didn’t know where to start. I also conceded that I was relatively unaware of the field of Public Administration (PA). Little did I know, examining PA theories would enable me to connect the final dots in the big picture of my life, where I came from, who I’d come to be, what choices I’d made, the relationships I nurtured, and my dreams and desires for the future. Although confidence came slowly and awkwardly, I discovered my desire to contribute to the advancement of public health policies. I am writing to express my interest in continuing to the Doctoral program in the School of Public Administration at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO). I am absolutely interested in the commitment to the advancement of knowledge, and confident my experience in higher education and academic research will contribute to my successful completion of the Ph.D. program, in the specialization area of public policy.
Public Administration, as a field, had always captivated me right from my undergraduate days. I believe my curiosity for this field comes from my family. Both my father and my uncle were politicians. During my early days, I used to go to my father’s office where I had a great chance to observe different kinds of people with various jobs and interests. This was the first time I learned how mutual interests bring people together. When I understood how public relations work naturally, it forced me strongly to study and comprehend the complex theory of politics. After finishing high school, I made up my mind to pursue a career in Political Science. For this reason, I was enrolled to Istanbul Bilgi University’s Political Science program. After having completed my Bachelor’s Degree, I decided to excel in this field by completing a Master’s degree.
So far, I’ve done well here at the university. I enjoy all of my classes and look forward to them as well. My biggest challenge in the week that I’ve been at UCF has been navigating the considerably bigger campus. I’m sure the more I explore the campus, the more comfortable I will become with navigating it. Once I learn the lay out of the campus I’ll be able to locate the various campus resources, the main feature of UCF that I’m looking forward too. I would like to utilize the various campus resources, like the writing lab and the S.A.R.C to better myself as a