Following the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the territory of northern Mexico became the burgeoning American South West. Nuevomexicanos, residents of the area of New Mexico, were attempting to dissuade Anglo perceptions that they were still loyal to the Mexico. What emerged was the idea of “hispanidad”, Spanishness, seeing as Spain is a white European country and being white was paramount to gaining political and social status in America at the time. Nuevomexicanos felt being of Spanish descent would shift white perceptions and remove them from their link to Mexican heritage. What emerged from this culture of hispanidad, was a rigid caste system that aimed to use bloodlines to prove Nuevomexicanos were descended from Spanish colonizers. Their goal was to “conjure up an entire history of conquest and settlement with which Americans could identify and that they could even admire.” (pg. 9)…
Crèvecoeur’s Letters from an American Farmer described America as a melting pot of Europeans. Like Crèvecoeur, many white Americans excluded blacks from their conception of the American people. Crèvecoeur’s idea that the United States was a nation of individuals that are melted into one is accurate to a certain extent. The United States, at the time, was truly diverse and filled with inhabitants of all parts of Europe. Those same individuals practiced a variety of beliefs and cultural practices that has aided in the efforts of shaped the nation into what it is today. However, when Crèvecoeur’s goes on to comment on how the Americans left behind “ancient prejudices” to receive new ones, I truly believe that his remarks are exaggerated. If the inhabitants of the United States had truly abandoned their old beliefs slavery would have been abolished as soon as the Declaration of Independence was…
Race Migrations: Latinos and the Cultural Transformation of Race is a novel written by Wendy Roth, explaining how immigration from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic to the United States has impacted the changing cultural conceptions of race. In her study of immigration, she explores the societies of those who chose either to leave or remain in their home countries. The results from this study allowed her to understand and explain how migrants adopt an American idea about race without abandoning their earlier ideas of race. In other words, Roth explains how racial schemas are developed and transferred across borders, creating the possibility for schemas to be learned without an individual leaving his/her home country. Also, she uses this study to answer how Hispanics/Latinos integrate into the United States and where they fit into its racial structure. Overall, Roth’s study shows how racial classification and stratification are ideas…
Delgado, Richard and Jean Stefancic. 2012. Critical Race Theory: An Introduction. Second Edition. New York University Press.…
It has always been a topic of much discussion throughout history: race. Nevertheless, Nicholas Kristof brings a new approach and opinion to an old topic. In this article, his tone, perfect integration of assertion and authority, and the acknowledgement of the opposing perspective ultimately led to a convincing argument.…
Theme: Motivated by economic and technological developments in European society, Portuguese and Spanish explorers encountered and then conquered much of the Americas and their Indian inhabitants. This “collision of worlds” deeply affected all the Atlantic societies—Europe, the Americas, and Africa—as the effects of disease, conquest, slavery, and intermarriage began to create a truly “new world” in Latin America, including the borderlands of Florida, New Mexico, and California, all of which later became part of the United States.…
Suárez-Orozco, Marcelo and Mariela M. Páez. Latinos: Remaking America. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1997.…
Jo-Ann pilardi argues that immigration has been treated differently since then. She argues that Immigration should be treated equally because they have important role in expanding the American economy by cheap labor for fill Americans demands. The article, written by a professor emerita of philosophy in 2006, mentions the situation about immigrations…
Although I had previously noticed some racial undertones in Mexican culture, I never fully questioned the root of this discrimination. It was far too easy for me to overlook racism in Mexican culture- when racism in America was far more visible. In class, we watched part of a documentary called, “The Black Grandma in the Closet,” from the series Black in Latin America. In the first portion of the film, Professor Gates mentions how Mexico unintentionally transpired “a policy of whitening” through the removal of racial categories. Noting the 1925 publication of Jose Vasconcelos’ essay “The Cosmic Race,” Professor Gates explains how Vasconcelos’ attempt to unite the people of Mexico by establishing one great mixed race ultimately diminished black identity. This revelation was made personal when the Port of Veracruz was stated to be the most widely used port to carry black slaves to Mexico. I say this because half of my family lives in Veracruz and my father spent the majority of his young adult life…
The year is 1776. In an act of defiance of the oppressive rule of the powerful nation of Great Britain, the political leaders of the British-American colonies sign into existence the United States of America. Even before this inception of the United States, North America had been seen as a place where one could move to start a new life and reap the full rewards for one’s work. These opportunities combined with the new United States government founded on the ideals of freedom and equity have attracted countless families from all over the world, making the United States truly a country of immigrants. Immigrants from European nations coming to America both assimilated and helped to shape the culture of the nation. Others, either immigrants or those forced to come to the United States, were marked with distinguishable differences from the European majority. The Africans and Asians are examples of some of these minorities, but, in my belief, one of the groups that has had the most unique struggle to become part of the ‘great melting pot’ of America is the Latino culture. For many different reasons Latin Americans have struggled to assimilate with the American culture for hundreds of years.…
Rodriguez faces a few tensions in his personal experience such as being a "scholarship boy" as oppose to a well rounded student and and his life at home compared to a more friendly home environment. Rodriguez says that "I was a very good student, I was a also a very bad student. I was a scholarship boy, a certain kind of scholarship boy. Always successful, I was always unconfident. Exhilarated by my progress. Sad. I became the prized student - anxious and eager to learn. Too eager, too anxious - an imitative and unoriginal pupil." ( Rodrigues #283 ) Rodriguez describes himself here as imitating his teachers too much and being a perfect student instead of thinking for himself and taking in the knowledge he is given by his teachers and analyzing it and putting it to use. He is unoriginal and and uninteresting compared to a student who can use their knowledge in their own way and gets more involved. The other tension Rodriguez faces his the tension he has with his family, mostly his mother and father. At home his mother and father both support and encourage what he is doing very much but they didn't like the fact that he would always be in his room and the fact that the only thing he was involved with was school. "He permits himself embarrassment at their lack of education." (Rodriguez #286) This quote shows that Rodriguez's amount of knowledge of the english language and other subjects he had compared to his parents and therefore he was somewhat embarrassed by them and it created a tough home environment to live in because he didn't communicate much with his parents. This contrasts the home environment where their is a strong relationship between the family and their is communication.…
The article continues to appreciate all the achievements that were made by immigrants. The speech also praises the Asian-born kids in advanced high school math and science classes and their superior work ethic should be an example for all of us to follow. Other than academics, the article portrays a sense proudness in the contributions that immigrants make in small business and tough jobs, and many of this people show a huge appreciation for freedom that according to the article it makes you proud of being an American. The author arguments, that we no longer struggle to end the divisions between blacks and whites, because now we are trying tackle an ethnic diversity in our nation, and the idea that we are one people has changed.…
Discrimination in the past came in many forms but it started with systemic discrimination. In the early 1900s the Anglo-Saxon ideology was at a high. In the segregation of Mexican student’s article, the author shows how these ideologies affected Mexican American in California. Even though Californian had equality law for Mexican Americans, they were still discriminated against. “Mexicans were only…
America is a mélange of people and culture. However, this mixture is critical to the foundations of America. Only a meager handful of people actually stops to ponder these factors to society. Of that handful, “A Quilt of a Country”, by Anna Quindlen, and “The Immigrant Contribution”, by John F. Kennedy, are essays prepared to convey these attributes to society. Their writings are of an identical nature, but written in two distinct manners. Both of these authors wrote essays about American identity and diversity. America is a country of diversity, with people working together to shape America as a whole. Both Quindlen and Kennedy state this point, but they have differences and similarities in which they explain it.…
What if we lived in a world where there were no races? What if people were not discriminated against because of the color of their skin or because they are different from what we see as acceptable? This is what Kwame Anthony Appiah tries to examine in his essay “Race, Culture, Identity: Misunderstood Connections.” Appiah tries to point out that “American social distinctions cannot be understood in terms of the concept of race.” (102) That America is made up of so many different races that no race is the more superior or in other cases inferior to one another. America is defined by its cultural diversity; it is what makes America the nation that it is. It is the reason that we as Americans have freedoms other people don’t have. It is also one of the reasons we are one of the most powerful nations in the world. The concept of cultural diversity in America defines us and makes us the nation we are today.…