...were home to thousands of Mexican immigrants who’d come to the United Sates in hopes of better lives for their children. The chavalitos, or children, of these people were first generation American and were Chicanos, that is, American children born of full-blooded Mexican parents. I always considered myself a Chicana; I never called myself Mexican or American. To me, this was normal because I had never been around people who were different. When I left my hometown, I realized that most people outside of the Mexican-American community did not fully understand what it meant to be a Chicano or had no idea what the word meant. The word Chicano traces back to the pre-Columbian era, when Mexico was still Meshico. It stems from Meshicano, an ancient Nahuatl word used by the Aztecs meaning “native.” The natives referred to themselves as Meshicanos, and even Shicanos, thus giving birth to the term “Chicano”. The term made its appearance in America, and was used to identify children born on American soil of Mexican descent. Our forefathers came to America seeking better lives and new opportunities for their children. With them, they brought their culture: music, food, customs and traditions. The combination of this with mainstream American culture is where we Chicanos get our way of life. An example of this is Spanglish, our own language. Spanglish is a combination of Spanish and English words interchanged in sentences, the continuous switching from one language to other...
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...From the roads in Texas to the urban life in Los Angeles the Chicano movement can be seen. El Movimiento most commonly known as the Chicano Movement had originally started in the late 1840s, shortly after the U.S-Mexican war, but didn’t fully kick-off till the 1960s. The Chicano Movement had various leaders the most commonly known being César Chávez, Dr. Hector P. Garcia, and Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzáles. It was also followed by Student and youth organizations from California to Texas. Another major part of this movement was Chicano art that was nourished by their pride in their culture and heritage. Although the Chicano Movement was mostly centered toward the Mexican-American community the ideas they were striving for, broke ethnic boundaries. Cesar Chavez is best known for being a Latin-American civil rights activist. Chavez started his activism in 1952 when he became an organizer for the Community Service Organization (CSO), he traveled throughout California giving speeches in which supported worker’s rights and encouraged Mexican-Americans to register and vote. When he left CSO he co-founded what is now known as UFW. He along with Dolores Huerta co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), later changed to United Farm Workers (UFW), in 1962. The NFWA first boycott...
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...Carlos Nicolas Flores from El Paso is a successful man that has achieved many awards as a writer. He is currently an English Professor at Laredo Community College. For a fact, I am honored and humbled to have been enrolled in his class, since my writing skills has improved positively. In addition, he is the director of the “Treatre Chicano de Laredo” which in simpler terms is the Laredo Little Theatre. The person that jumpstarted (lit the fire to) his whole interest in the world of writing was his high school friend, John Stevenson. His friend advised to “read Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. “The book was a life-changing experience,” he mentioned. According to him, “I don’t understand how I could write about Latin America...
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...United States have gone through so much and many things have changed drastically. Chicanos in the United States do not get enough OR should I say sufficient recognition for all the things they have OR their impact. As of now, there are only two days of recognition for Latinos, which are Cinco De Mayo, Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta Day, and Mexican Independence Day. Cinco De Mayo is celebrated on May 5th every year. Cinco De Mayo is celebrated to commemorate/honor/acknowledge Mexico’s success/win over the Second French Empire at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. Ignacio Zaragoza was the Mexican general at the time and he is the one that led Mexico to the victory. Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta were two major activists who helped...
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...Tame a Wild Tongue Gloria Anzaldua was born in 1942 in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. At age eleven. she began working in the fields as a migrant worker and then on her family's land after the death of her father. Working her way through school, she eventually became a schoolteacher and then an academic, speaking and writing about feminis t, lesbian, and Chicana issues and about autobiography. She is best known for This Bridge CalJed My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color ( 1981), which she edited with Cherrie Moraga, and BorderlandsfLa Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987). Anzaldua died in 2004. "How to Tame a Wild Tongue" is from BorderlandsfLa Frontera. In it, Anzaldua is concerned with many kinds of borders - between nations, cultures, classes, genders, languages. When she writes, "So, if you want to really hurt me, talk badly about my language" (par. 27), Anzaldua is arguing for the ways in which identity is intertwined with the way we speak and for the ways in which people can be made to feel ashamed of their own tongues. Keeping hers wild - ignoring the closing of linguistic borders - is Anzaldua's way of asserting her identity. "We're going to have to control your tongue," the dentist says, pulling out all the metal from my mouth. Silver bits plop and tinkle into the basin. My mouth is a motherlode.· The dentist is cleaning out my roots. I get a whiff of the stench when I gasp. "I can't cap that tooth yet, you're still draining," he says. "We're going to have...
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...A culture is created by a group of people who share the same beliefs and values. Whether it is a new group of people or an existing group, a culture is shaped by people uniting and sticking together toward a common objective. Some examples of cultures are Asian, African, Italian, Middle Eastern, and Hawaiian cultures each with its own customs, traditions, and practices that are shaped by historical and social factors. In shaping a culture, history plays a huge role in the traditions and heritage that are passed down for generations. Giving thought to Mexican American culture Zoot Suits, farm workers, and many other movements have helped shape what we know as Mexican American culture today. To fully understand the Mexican-American culture, we...
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...Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México University of California Institute for Mexico and the United States Review: The Third Generation: Reflections on Recent Chicano Historiography Author(s): David G. Gutiérrez Source: Mexican Studies / Estudios Mexicanos, Vol. 5, No. 2 (Summer, 1989), pp. 281-296 Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the University of California Institute for Mexico and the United States and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1052091 . Accessed: 01/05/2011 16:00 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucal. . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive....
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...William Shakespeare once said, "Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon." In American media the same can be said for the Latino culture. In the eyes of the media, some are born Latino, some become Latino, while others have Latino thrust upon them. Latinos in the media include, politicians, actors, activists and criminals. The vast majority of these individuals create their own personification. Their media image is formed by the causes they support, the roles they play and the words they speak. In this regard, these individuals are either "born Latino" or "achieve Latino". In contrast, athletes are often judged before they ever speak to the media. Our perception is formed based on how these individuals are portrayed or personified by the media. For this reason, it can be said that athletes have "Latino thrust upon them". Of all the major sports, Latinos have had the greatest impact on major league baseball. Today nearly 25% of the players in the major leagues were born in Latin America (Berry, 1). As such baseball provides a unique perspective on Latinos in the media. Players rarely provide insight into their personalities rather our perception is based upon what the media wants us to believe. In this regard, baseball media artifacts enable us to see how differently Latinos were personified in the media over time. In the end it will become apparent that while their growth and achievement on the field has escalated, media perceptions have...
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...The Mexican- American History May 22, 2014 History 1. The first picture caught my eye was Pedro Infante was a famous Mexican actor during the golden age of Mexican cinema. I consider Pedro an important contributor to society because he brought a whole new meaning to the movie making of Mexico Pedro mostly played the role of a Mexican Rancher but worked out for him very well because he soon became one of the best actors of his time along with Jorge Negrete and Maria Felix. 2. María Félix was a Mexican film star whose extraordinary beauty and force of personality made her a living myth to Mexicans and a symbol of glamour and sophistication to fans throughout the world. Her entire period, she reigned as the supreme goddess of Spanish language in cinema. She became so powerful that she exerted great influence over fashion and as actor in Mexico and other few countries. 3. Mexican American joins the military during World War II for a better opportunity for their life. One was to improve their low socioeconomic status as lack of jobs opportunities. Other to improve their education and manhood. The Mexican American saw to enjoy the military was the only alternative opportunity to enjoy the military to be the only way to succeed in life. 4. Guy L. Gaba ldon was important during the World War II he was a Mexican- American soldier served in the Pacific, his main mark was in the battle of Saipan he fought with the Japanese soldier. The knowledge he used...
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...NAME HERE] Feb 18, 2009 Since 1970, United States of America has seen a considerable amount of immigration because of economic chaos and civil wars in Latin American countries. The fight between the government of El Salvador and leftist guerrillas in 1980 brought about 500,000 immigrants to United States. They settled primarily in California, Florida, Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C. The civil war in Nicaragua in the year 1980 drove an estimated 800,000 Nicaraguan immigrants to the United States Mexican Americans are the most prevalent Hispanic group within the United States. Their history can be dated to four centuries within America, contrasting in different regions. In States like California, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada have great amounts of Mexican Americans. (Mexican Americans, 2007). Most of Mexican Americans residing in the United states converse in their own native language. Spanish is usually the solitary language that they use .But english is the universally unrestricted language in the general community. As many generations have passed, a new verbal communication has emerged, called Spanglish, which is a blend of both Spanish and American. America has always been harsh on Mexican Americans. Mexican Americans had a hard time elevating their financial and social status in this country, as they were judged by the color of their skin. The Chicano Movement changed the lives of Mexican Americans’ in the United States...
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...35.3 million Hispanics live in the United States. This number comprises 12.5% of the overall population rendering the Latino community the largest minority in the United States. The Mexican community is not only the largest Hispanic group but also the fastest growing: from 1990 to 2000, the Mexican population grew 52.9% increasing from 13.5 million to 20.6 million (U.S. Department of Commerce News, 2001). The influx of Mexican immigrants coupled with the expansion of their community within the United States has created an unparalleled situation of language contact. Language is synonymous with identity (cf. Granger, 2004, and works cited within). To the extent that this is true, Spanish is synonymous with being Mexican and by extension, Chicano. With the advent of amnesty programs such as Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), which naturalized millions of Mexican migrants, what was once a temporal migratory population has become increasingly permanent (Durand et al., 1999). In an effort to conserve Mexican traditions and identity, the struggle to preserve the mother tongue while at the same time acculturate to mainstream Americana has resulted in a variant of Spanglish that has received little attention. This paper will examine the variant of Spanglish seen in the greater Los Angeles area and liken it to the bi-national identity under which these Mexican Americans thrive. Keywords: spanglish, latino, immigration, ethnic minority, language contact, identity Affiliations ...
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...Hispanic-Americans make up a large ethnic group in the United States. Many Americans believe Hispanics are much the same and group them together (panethnicity) but, in fact, the groups are very diverse. Hispanics come from a variety of different cultures and include Mexican-Americans, Puerto Rican-Americans, Cuban-Americans, and Central Americans. Each of these groups vary in their customs, religious beliefs, political views, family views, and other conventions that make them similar in some ways, and very different in others (Franklin, 2009). This paper will discuss the various cultures of Mexican-Americans, Puerto Rican-Americans, Cuban-Americans, and Venezuelan-Americans in America. Mexican-Americans As a result of the Mexican-American war, about 80,000 Mexicans resided in the United States due to the accumulation of New Mexico and California. Even though many returned to Mexico, the majority stayed in the United States and gained their citizenship after two years (Englekirk and Martin, 2009). Since then, Mexican immigration to the United States has grown significantly and for various reasons. Today, Mexican-Americans make up about two thirds of the Hispanic population in the United States (Schaefer, 2006). The first indigenous Mexican people were various Indians such as Mixtec, Aztec, Mayan, Olmec, Toltec, Zapotec, and Teotihuacan who assimilated with Spaniards after Spain invaded Mexico. Mexican families were typically male dominated but close-knit due to respect...
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...considered to by unity, variety, harmony, balance, rhythm, and emphasis. REVIEW ALL QUIZZES AND POWERPOINTS Vocabulary 1. Heritage: what we have inherited from a specific sociocultural group’s history and utilize in our lives 2. Personal cultural identity: aspects include: age, gender and sexuality, social and economic class, exceptionality, geographic location, religion, political status, language, ethnicity, and racial designation. Influenced heavily by the surrounding culture. The individual’s role in these groups depends on the individual’s power and acts of discrimination. There is no such thing as African American culture, Jewish culture, or Native American culture. Key Concepts: Understand why we can only have a partial/temporal understanding of a cultural group. Understand and be familiar with the concept of personal cultural identity. 3. Indigenismo: a Latin American idea and movement pressing for a greater social and political role for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, and the revindication of indigenous rights and including compensation for past wrongdoings of the colonial and republican states. “the search for indigenous roots.” 4. Los Tres Grandes: They all share the common art form of Mural painting; they are Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros. “Los Tres Grandes” came to prominence during the cultural revival in Mexico stemming from the Mexican Revolution. The presidency of General Alvaro Obregon, who was...
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...celebrated in the United States rather than Mexico, this historical day is losing the meaning behind it due to it becoming a day for half off margaritas or in general a day to drink. Restaurants and bars use this holiday to make business. In the United States people wear sombreros, mustaches, panchos, and have an alcoholic drink in one hand. Claiming that it is fine because that what all mexicans do is drink, creating a stereotype and offending the culture of the Mexican people."As a community we are tough and committed, and we believe that we can prevail," said Robert Con Davis-Undiano, a professor of Chicano studies at the University of Oklahoma in Norman.That was the attitude of the ragtag Mexican troops who faced and defeated the French in Puebla," has changed to," from community self-determination to a drinking holiday for many people.(Lovgren, National geographic). Dia de Los Muertos November 1st and 2nd are days the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is a holiday that started in Mexico, but has now spread out in Latin America. Mexico has Aztec deep in its roots even after a hundreds of years and this celebration is no exemption. When the Spaniards conquered Mexico they pushed many of their beliefs onto the indigenous people which included their religion, Catholicism. By having strong influence by the Spaniards the indigenous people slowly converted, but that did not stop the indigenous people from mixing their forefathers traditions/customs with what was adopted from...
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...Simon Adelle UCOR 102 Paper 3 Professor Marcum Making It in A Man’s World April 29, 2013 “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros exposes the life of the main character, Esperanza, for one year as she struggles with trying to find her place in America as a Chicana young girl while also coming of age. The novel starts the day Esperanza and her family of six move into a house on Mango Street, and immediately she expresses her antipathy for not only the house, but also for the area in which they move into and the people around who judge them because of their ethnicity. The story is not told in the traditional format of a continuous story divided into chapters, but rather Cisneros uses forty-four vignettes to allow for the reader to fully understand why Esperanza has the struggles that she has. Along with Cisneros’ illustrating Esperanza’s looking for her identity through images of Esperanza’s thoughts and female obedience, symbolism of violence, legs, the Statue for Liberty, and Nenny, and diction of Spanish words, not using quotation marks, and a maturing tone, she also uses these them to permeate Esperanza’s desperation to leave Mango Street throughout the whole novel. Cisneros’ use of vignettes highlights important moments in Esperanza’s life that emphasize how she develops over the course of a year. Cisneros uses the brevity of the vignettes to enhance the imagery to give the most vivid image through her limited amount of words for...
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