Latino Reformation

Throughout post World War II America, many different immigration groups were facing discrimination and harsh consequences and one of the most apparent racial groups undergoing this was the Latinos. After the U.S.-Mexican war ended in 1848, the U.S. claimed territory in the Southwest that had belonged to Mexico. The U.S.-Mexico border was built and all Spanish-speakers were removed from their native land and were being harshly discriminated against due to stereotypical and racist views that arose from these conflicts. With the rise of the civil rights movements in the 1960’s, many Spanish-speaking immigrants, coming from Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Central America, given the name, Latinos, began to immigrate to the U.S. in search for what some believed was their piece of America, to establish better, opportunistic lives (Guisepi, p. 1). Latinos were racialized as the uneducated, unskillful, “illegal aliens” who could not speak any English. Many began working on farms to strive to make a living, where they were exploited and treated harshly, and others were denied the opportunities that they thought America would give them. I argue that as immigration rates increased, Americans were threatened as jobs were being taken, educational opportunities were sought, and Latinos began to be racialized as unskillful and inferior. After many years, battles, and debates, societies views of Latinos had placed them very lowly in the racial order in the U.S. However, Latinos have worked hard to overcome the racial discrimination, attain higher political positions, and be respected by the American society so that their racial order in the U.S. has reformed. Throughout the years, the term “Latino”, in many people’s perspectives, implied that this individual was non-white and lower class. This is the exact mentality that began to shape the meaning and reality of race in the United States. In different parts of the U.S., immigrants began to make an effort to come into the country,

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