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The lives of migrant workers in 1930s America
Lives of migrant workers in america
The lives of migrant workers in 1930s America
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Recommended: The lives of migrant workers in 1930s America
In his book, “…And the Earth Did Not Devour Him,” author Tomás Rivera documents through a fictional non-traditional novel, the life experiences of a child that endured many difficulties, he describes the hope, struggles, and tragedies of the Mexican-American migrant workers in the 40s and 50s, and how they travel from home to work to survive. The book’s focus is in Texas, although other areas are mentioned throughout the United States. Divided into 14 different short stories and 13 vignettes the author records the predicament of the Mexican-American migrant workers in Texas and explains how the migrants had to overcome constant discriminatory actions by the White Americans and endure difficult living situations because of poverty as well as unsatisfactory job …show more content…
As you read you can picture his settings and characters. For the purpose of this book review, the reader will discuss how a migrant community in search of the “American Dream” encounters the “American Nightmare” as described by Tomás Rivera in his novel, “ …And the Earth Did Not Devour Him.” The “American Dream” becomes an “American Nightmare for the boy telling the story and his community because things didn’t go for them as they expect they would. One of the stories, “It’s That It Hurts”, discusses how a young boy who is scared of attending school because of how he is treated differently by the children and adults, gets kicked out of school for fighting and they have no compassion for getting rid of him. The boy is frightened of what he will tell his parents, especially his father, it reads, “What hurt me the most is that now I won’t be able to be a telephone operator like Dad wants me to. You need to finish school for that” (95). When the young boy is kicked out, all he can think of is how his father had high expectations, hopes and dreams for him, so that he wouldn't have to be a field worker. Another story that highlights how the “American Dream” is destroyed for the people of the community is, “…And
The book, “Y no se lo trago la tierra” by Thomas River grasp a point of view of a migrant community, as manifestations of Chicano culture, language, and experience as understood by a first person point of a young male protagonist. The setting of the book takes place of a year during the 1950s and uses a variety of perspectives and voices to follow the boy’s passages into adolescence. As the setting of the book moves from Texas to upper Midwest to the ye...
In a story of identity and empowerment, Juan Felipe Herrera’s poem “Borderbus” revolves around two Honduran women grappling with their fate regarding a detention center in the United States after crawling up the spine of Mexico from Honduras. While one grapples with their survival, fixated on the notion that their identities are the ultimate determinant for their future, the other remains fixated on maintaining their humanity by insisting instead of coming from nothingness they are everything. Herrera’s poem consists entirely of the dialogue between the two women, utilizing diction and imagery to emphasize one’s sense of isolation and empowerment in the face of adversity and what it takes to survive in America.
The push-and-pull factors in Enrique’s yearn for the U.S not only allows him to rediscover himself as an individual in a world of uncertainty, it also eliminates his constant fear of failing as a promising human being; in addition exhibits the undying hope of a desperate man found in hopeful migrants. In Sonia Nazario’s “Enrique’s Journey,” his mother’s trip streamed “emptiness” into the heart of a once comfortable child and left him to “struggle” to hold memories they shared. Enrique’s life after Lourdes’ departure triggered the traumatizing demise of his identity. He threw this broken identity away while facing many obstacles, nevertheless each endea...
Given the choice, would you choose hate or love? Most people easily answer “love”, but their following actions show hate. Fear of difference creates hate, and the difference is easily found in an ethnically divided country. Etel Adnan writes of the Civil War in Lebanon in her novel, Sitt Marie Rose, Tomás Rivera writes of the struggles of Mexican-American migrant workers in …And the Earth Did Not Devour Him, and Zitkala-Sa writes of the mistreatment of Native Americans in American Stories and Old Indian Legends. These three authors speak of social issues in the 20th century caused by direct discrimination and by the following feelings of the minorities in question.
Bladerrama, Francisco E., Raymond Rodriguez. Decade of Betrayal: Mexican Repatriation in the 1930s. Alburquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1995. Galarza, Ernesto. A. Merchants of Labor: The Mexican Bracero Story.
Torres, Hector Avalos. 2007. Conversations with Contemporary Chicana and Chicano Writers. U.S.: University of New Mexico press, 315-324.
As El Paso is transforming, and becoming an industrialized city –there is a surge in labor need, as mining is booming. Many Mexicans start arriving in El Paso in search for a better life, one that would allow them to earn sufficient money, to care for their families, and live a higher standard life than the one they escaped in México. However, as García mentions in the chapter: Class, Race, and Labor, Mexicans would come only to find racism, poverty, and inequality in the work place, as well as, in the city that had promised so much. García does a great job highlighting the issues, which were part of the life of Mexican immigrants in El Paso at the turn of the century, through the early 1900’s.
The American dream, as some may call it, is a cherished idea by those who may lack opportunities. For those in Mexico, it is something that is sure to have crossed their minds sometime in their life. The United States, to foreigners, has been looked at as a sign of opportunity and freedom from oppressive governments or unfortunate living conditions. The Other Side of Immigration takes a look at the Mexican nation and provides thought-provoking interview segments about the people still living in the nation who experience and observe the effects of immigration to the United States.
Reisler, M. 1996. By the Sweat of Their Brow: Mexican Immigrant Labor in the United States, 1900-1940. New York: Greenwood Press.
In The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail, Oscar Martinez comments on the injustices that occur while migrating from Central America. Central Americans are forced to leave their countries in fear of the inevitable consequences. The systematic abuse Central Americans endure while migrating is founded on that fear which results in more repercussions for migrants. The psychological effects of migrating is used by Martinez to give insight on the atrocities that happen in Central America. The corruption involved while migrating in Central America is against human rights and should be brought immediate attention internationally. Martinez uses the experiences of migrants to expose Mexico’s passivity on the subject and to expose readers’ to the hard truths that occur while migrating.
Junot Diaz is a Dominican-American writer whose collection of short stories Drown tells the story of immigrant families in the urban community of New Jersey. His short story “Fiesta, 1980” focuses on Yunior, an adolescent boy from Dominican Republic and his relationship with his father. On the other hand, Piri Thomas was a great Latino writer from Puerto-Rico whose memoir Down These Mean Streets tells his life story as an adolescent residing in Harlem and the challenges he faces outside in the neighborhood and at home with his father. Both Diaz and Thomas in different ways explore the dynamics of father-son relationships in their work. Furthermore, both expose masculinity as a social construct.
The author of this short story, Sandra Cisneros used this myth to make herself different from other American writers. She used ideas from things and stories she heard growing up as a Mexican-American woman, living in a house full of boys that got all of the attention (Mathias). Cisneros also grew up in the 19...
The American Dream provides a uniformed idea of a goal that is seldomly achieved. It includes having a successful job, a healthy family, and happiness achieved through hard work and determination. Those born and raised well with strict parents often attain the American Dream, but those raised with abusive parents that live separately often find the American Dream extremely difficult to achieve. However, this idealistic stereotype can be false. Surprisingly, in the book In Cold Blood by Truman Capote the American Dream poses as a difficulty to maintain and achieve by the Clutter family, Perry Smith, Dick Hickock, and Floyd Wells.
Jimmy Santiago Baca’s poem sends out a powerful message without the use of a strict structure. The modest wording and simple structure helps the writer send his message across. In addition, with the use of imagery, symbolism, diction, and tone, Baca is able to argue and ridicule American stereotypes on Mexican immigrants coming to the country and robbing them of job opportunities. The use of figurative language helps support Baca’s point of view on how the American misconception is irrational and prejudice.
This novel is a great novel to give an example on how reality is to people even the high class. Through the discussion of the passage, poem and scholarly article will show how the path towards the American Dream can turn into a negative or positive outcome in a person’s life.