El Proletariado de Aztlán” is a beautiful piece of artwork by Emigdio Vasquez that beautifully blends the past, the present, and the future. A panoramic photo that interlinks different eras and demonstrates the progress of Latinos throughout the ages. This mural is a paradox, demonstrating both subjugation and resistance. This mural shows the dignity in the everyday lives of Latinos; within their eyes, you can see their pride, passion, and hope. This mural portrays the repercussions of colonization on lives of Latinos. European conquest became the gateway that allowed colonialism and Eurocentric thought to enter and be used to subjugate the people of the Americas. The effects of Eurocentric ideology remains ingrained within the descendants …show more content…
This mural stands as a passageway between the past and the present. It is often said that history is written by the winners. The Spanish Conquest of the Americas was justified by Spanish as “holy intervention”, done to save the souls of the indigenous people of the Americas. History depicted our ancestors as irrational, barbaric savages. The colonists self-proclaimed as saviors, however, in reality, they themselves were the true savages. They did not speak about the atrocities they committed nor of the beauty of the indigenous people. “El Proletariado de Aztlán” incorporates the image of an Aztec warrior. The mural serves as a mirror allowing one to see things from a true …show more content…
The manipulation of indigenous people has become the foundation of capitalism, the benefit for a few elites at the cost of many people., and creating a capitalist structure of labor, resource and product control. Within “Coloniality of Power and Eurocentrism in Latin America” Quijano uses the slave system and encomienda system to strengthen the argument the forced domination of indigenous people is a construct used by the privileged white population to justify the abuse of labor of the minorities to maximize their profits. They treated the indigenous population as inferior, ingraining into their minds that they are second class and did not deserve the same rights as their white counterparts.” The racial classification of the population and the early association of the new racial identities of the colonized with the forms of control of unpaid, unwaged labor developed among the Europeans the singular perception that paid labor was the whites’ privilege.”(Quijano 539). Racial classification has been established as a social construct that classifies and drowns the brown population into internalizing racism. Laura M. Padilla in “Race, Racism and the Law” expresses internalizing racism as a barrier to break the molds of “winners and losers,” , the Eurocentric ideology of race classification “ Those at the receiving end of
In the book ”Queer Aztlan: The Re-formation of Chicano Tribe” written by Cherrie Moraga, she mentioned the Mexican border. The American army captures the Mexican capital in 1847, and the Mexican border was created in 1848 in order to let the Mexicans away their homeland which is lost at Mexican-American War. Moraga thinks there is a border between male and female, the male using the female but don’t give them help. Moraga also mentioned, “In a queer Aztlan, there would be no freaks, no others to point one’s finger at” (Moraga 235). This was talk about the fictional border.
In Sueños Americanos: Barrio Youth Negotiating Social and Cultural Identities, Julio Cammarota studies Latina/o youth who live in El Pueblo, and talks about how Proposition 187, the anti-immigrant law, is affecting Latina/o youth in California (Cammarota, 2008, p. 3). In this book review, I will write about the two main points the author is trying to get across. The two main points I will be writing about are how Proposition 187 is affecting the Latina/o community, and about how Latina/o youth are copping in the El Pueblo barrio. Afterward I write about the two main points the author is trying to get across, I will write a brief description of the author and write about the author’s strengths and weaknesses.
...n, Gonzalez states his identity; "I am Aztec Prince and Christian Christ." This combination of culture is the basis of his poem, which can be found at http://www.pbs.org/chicano/joaquin.html, and is representative of the heritage of Mexican Americans. The concept of Aztlan is explained in Chicano!, and the mural ‘Corazon de Aztlan,’ found in Chicano Park (http://chicanopark.org/murals/north/n8.html ), reinforces the importance of this image in the lives of Chicanos. The myth of Aztlan symbolizes centuries of culture and struggles of Mexican Americans who went through incredibly difficult times throughout history, but never lost hope and always stayed strong, determined to one day be treated equally as citizens of the United States of America.
Harvest of the Empire is a valuable tool to gaining a better understanding of Latinos. This book helps people understand how varied Latino’s in the United States are. The author also helped give insight as to how Americans reacts to differences within itself. It does this by giving a description of the struggles that every Latino immigrant faced entering the United States. These points of emphasis of the book were explained thoroughly in the identification of the key points, the explanation of the intersection of race, ethnicity, and class, in addition to the overall evaluation of the book.
In El Plan de Santa Barbara, we are provided with a brief description of what “racial structure” has created for the Chicano community.Those who are privileged, “Anglo-American community,” have determined our future, a future where we are meant to stay in the lower class of society. In the Manifesto of EPDSB, it states “due to the racist structure of this society… self-determination of our community is now the only acceptable mandate for social and political action”(EPDSB 9). This “racist structure” stated in El Plan de Santa Barbara is traced all the way back to our ancestors during the Spanish invasion and through the Chicano movement we have been able to fight back against this “racist structure.”
Being so naïve about the country I came from being influenced by the way other people look at Mexico made me ashamed of who I was. Even taking it as far as dreading the color of my skin and despising the blood that ran through my veins. Not knowing of course that blood and the way I am and look is what ties me to my ancestors and my future family. Now, having the ability to block out the unnecessary opinions of outsiders and finally having the courage to love myself and my roots; I’m able to fill my own head with information. Learning from how people in Mexico treated the land like a part a part of themselves, I decided that I’m as important as the seasonal fruits, as intricate as el mole, sweet life the pineapple, and as bright and persuading as the sunflower. For the first time everything I see and am is as beautiful as it should be.
In this installment of Harvest of Empire, we reach the third and final chapter named La Cosecha which shows the impact of Latinos in politics. Though, the two previous sections were interesting due to learning history and the history of Gonzalez himself, in this section we learn of the triumphs and downfalls of communities that were aren’t made aware of in modern textbooks or in classrooms. In Chapter 10, we are knowledgeable that the Latino vote has not only increased by sky-rocketed from the years 1976 to 2008. The revolution has been in the works since post World War II although it’s not commonly known as other legacies throughout the United States. As the years later progressed, the United States saw the rise of major radical groups such
In chapter seven, Menchaca discusses how after the Mexican Independence of 1821, land laws and regulations were instituted in the Southwest by the new Mexican government. The Mexican Government issued the General Colonization law of 1824 that stated that all heads of households in the Southwest who were citizens/or immigrants to Mexico were eligible to claim land. This new legislation was very different from the earlier Spanish government. With the instruction of this new law, no racial group was to be favored in the amount of land they acquired or received. The main goal of the law was to undo the effects of the Spanish land grant system, which favored Whites and military officials. As many people acquired land, many Indian villages became
Atzlán is a significant symbol in the art, folklore, music, poetry, dance, sculpture, theatre. It represents cultural identity, values, activism, history and the struggle for parity. In Chicano Poetics, Alfred Arteaga writes, “Atzlán aims at the homeland, at the nation as people, as state. It offers an interwoven history and myth if presence. It provides the principle of definition in the present and dines an idealized state in the future. As such it functions as the national myth” Atzlán is often used as a literary device that signifies the territory seized unjustly by the United States from Mexico. Latinos function as a diasporic population in regard to Atzlán. Their homeland has been appropriated by the “gringo” and, by extension, so has their national
In this groundbreaking book, Matthew Restall debunks many of the standard explanations for the success of the Spanish conquest of American societies in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. As promised in the book's title, he discusses what he judges to be key misconceptions about the conquest and its context, identifying the distortions that often characterize depictions of indigenous societies and cultures and linking them to implicit assumptions about European superiority that are equally commonplace.
Before entering into the main body of his writing, Allen describes to readers the nature of the “semicolony”, domestic colonialism, and neocolonialism ideas to which he refers to throughout the bulk of his book. Priming the reader for his coming argument, Allen introduces these concepts and how they fit into the white imperialist regime, and how the very nature of this system is designed to exploit the native population (in this case, transplanted native population). He also describes the “illusion” of black political influence, and the ineffectiveness (or for the purposes of the white power structure, extreme effectiveness) of a black “elite”, composed of middle and upper class black Americans.
In schools, students are being taught wrong information. “Our gods were vanquished after the fall of Tenochtitlan as were our traditions. Our warriors and nobles were eradicated, our children starved and our women ravished by the white conquerors and their allies.” (157). In books across America, the Spaniards were said to be good people, but the way that Huitzitzilin described what happened, shows the complete opposite of how the Spaniards actually were.
In the US it is very common to still hear of the poor way African Americans were treated in the early part of this nations History. We hear stories of black slaves working 18 hour days picking cotton and the trauma of slaves being beaten for disobeying their masters. For many African American families, it seems, that was the way of life not long ago. While it is very important to realize what these African Americans went through, I think it is often forgotten that indigenous people of Latin America were exploited in similar ways but through different Labor Systems.
...ricans accept from financial, psychological, political and communal exploitation at the hands of strong Whites in this homeland. As an conclusion of this exploitation, very dark persons generally are put into positions where the ascribe of a lawless person proceed is often glimpsed as the most creative tenacity to their problems. Most Caucasians, whereas, will expected not ever recognize the predicament in which most very dark find themselves. Thieved from our homeland and then compelled to work under the saddest situation imaginable. African American not paid any money and kept in slavery of distinct types and newest tendencies up to this very day. Very dark individuals have been under the unchanging order of whites since approaching into this homeland. Today, white America’s most productive means of keeping that order is through the lawless person fairness scheme.
In 1910, the first social upheaval of the 20th century was unleashed in Mexico. Known as the Mexican Revolution, its historical importance and impact inspired an abundance of internationally renowned South American authors. Mariano Azuela is one of these, whose novel, "The Underdogs" is often described as a classic of modern Hispanic literature. Having served as a doctor under Pancho Villa, a revolutionary leader of the era, Azuela's experience in the Revolution provides The Underdogs with incomparable authenticity of the political and social tendencies of the era between 1910 and 1920. The Underdogs recounts the living conditions of the Mexican peasants, the corruption of the government troops, and the revolutionary zeal behind the inspiring causes of the revolution. In vivid detail and honest truth, Azuela reveals the actuality of the extent of turmoil that plagued Mexico and its people during the revolution. However, before one can acknowledge The Underdogs as a reflection of the Mexican Revolution one must have an understanding the political state of Mexico prior to the Revolution and the presidents who reigned during it.