In David Lida’s journalistic chronicles of Mexico City, he divulges a wealth of information to the reader through a number of sources and in a variety of ways. Lida paints the picture of Mexico City for the reader using anecdotal evidence, statistical data, and knowledge gathered from his own research of Mexican history and other published works that complement his work. And ultimately, his goal is to let us all in on what the city that he calls home is all about.
The way that Lida breaks his work down eases the reader into the world of Mexico City, with all of its nuances and subtexts, little by little. The format that he chose for the chapter arrangement works particularly well. By interspersing very short stories of his various experiences in taxicabs and tequilas and colorful characters, with longer, more technically informative chapters written in a tone of journalist at work, Lida unfolds his analysis of Mexico City in a non-linear manner. In fact, it is quite the opposite. In his book, there is no beginning or end, only now, what was, and what might soon-to-be. By using this ...
One can draw many parallels from Garcia’s book; at the end of Reconstruction in the United States, many African-Americans, left the South, as home rule, and Jim Crow became part of it many, left for the north, especially Chicago. Thus, making El Paso somewhat of a Chicago for the Mexicans –as many Mexicans were fleeing the many deplorable conditions of a México under the rule of Dictator Porfirio Díaz, an era that came to be known as ...
8. Meyer, Michael C., et al. The Course of Mexican History, 7th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Weber, David J. Foreigners in Their Native Land: The Historical Roots of Mexican Americans. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1973.
In Michelle's paper she recaps the history of Mexicans in the United States that was not completely dealt with in either the website or the movie. Michelle points out that the Latin@s history is essential to understanding the Mexicans experience. She also wrote of the Mexican's el movemiento and how the website and movie brought about different accounts of this momentous event.
Dellacioppa, Kara Zugman. The Bridge Called Zapatismo: building alternative political cultures in Mexico City, Los Angeles, and Beyond. Lexington Books, 2009.
The history of political instability in Mexico and its need for revolution is very complex and dates back to the colonization of Mexico by the Spaniards in the 1500s. However, many aspects of the social situation of Mexico when the Revolution broke out can be attributed to the thirty-year dictatorship of President Porfrio Diaz, prior to 1911. The Revolution began in November of 1910 in an effort to overthrow the Diaz dictatorship. Under the Diaz presidency, a small minority of people, primarily relatives and friends, were in ...
Martinez, Oscar. Border People: Life and Society in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands. (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1994), 232.
In this sense, the film tests the resiliency of good human nature. The modern world is becoming increasingly set in its extremes, as the lifestyle of the poor vastly contrasts that of the wealthy. The implementation of NAFTA reflects this movement toward separation, despite the fact that it was intended to boost trade between regions and create more prosperity on both sides of the United States-Mexico border. The Mexican elites saw it as their salvation. Others saw it as “ a death sentence.” The Chiapas region itself exemplifies this gap, as well. The region was split between the relatively prosperous west, which was fertile and characterized by commercial development, and the poor, subsistence-oriented east. It was not by accident that the Zapatista movement began in Chiapas as the struggle between ranchers, landowners, and subsistence farmers was intensified by NAFTA.
De Cordoba, José & Lunhow, David. “The Perilous State of Mexico.” The Wall Street Journal. Dow
Mexican American history began in the16th century under Spanish colonialism. The Spanish had a goal of conquest and colonization. Evidently, that goal was successfully accomplished because when the Spanish first arrived in 1492 Mexico’s population was fourteen million, but by the end of the 16th century it had drastically declined to one million. Numbers decreased because of the cruel treatment, forced labor, and disease brought by the Spanish. The Spanish eventually controlled most of the territory in the Southwest and over three hundred towns had been established for the purpose of control and conversion. The Spanish imposed conditions on the natives of Mexico that would belittle them. They aimed to convert them in order to make them re...
In conclusion, for many, Mexico is simply a country on a map. Even becoming a place that they wish to keep from and forget. For others like me, however; it was a place that hasn’t only reconnected me with my culture, but a home where I had the good fortune of reuniting me with my loved ones. Also, having had helped me come to terms with myself, my trip allowed me to find myself and recover what I had left
La Botz, Dan. Democracy in Mexico: Peasant Rebellion and Political Reform. Boston, South End Press, 1995
The themes explored in the novel illustrate a life of a peasant in Mexico during the post-revolution, important themes in the story are: lack of a father’s role model, death and revenge. Additionally, the author Juan Rulfo became an orphan after he lost
Los Angeles is unique in that it captures the essence of a multi-ecological setting bringing the ocean, the skyscraper, and the happiest place on earth under one rooftop. Its deep-rooted culture engulfs the city’s character and overwhelms the spirit of L.A. Los Angeles has encompassed the circle of the Mexican pueblo that began in 1848 and has returned over two hundred fifty years later. Hordes of “land hungry Anglo-Europeans” began to migrate to Los Angeles from various parts of Europe. They viciously took land from the inhabited Mexicans by fraud, force, and imposing ridiculous property taxes. Although Mexican rancheros fought gallantly for their land, they could not afford to pay the property taxes and as a result lost a vast part of their holdings. The Mexican ranchero lifestyle gradually vanished as new settlers took over. As the Anglo-whites became the majority in Los Angeles, they also became the major influence on the development of the city and its capitalist structure.
Life in Mexico was, before the Revolution, defined by the figure of the patron that held all of power in a certain area. Juan Preciado, who was born in an urban city outside of Comala, “came to Comala because [he] had been told that [his] father, a man named Pedro Paramo lived there” (1). He initially was unaware of the general dislike that his father was subjected to in that area of Mexico. Pedro was regarded as “[l]iving bile” (1) by the people that still inhabited Comala, a classification that Juan did not expect. This reveals that it was not known by those outside of the patron’s dominion of the cruel abuse that they levied upon their people. Pedro Paramo held...