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Recommended: Valdez’s Los Vendidos
For centuries, the Mexican-American experience has been one of adversity and endurance. The plight of these native peoples has been ignored and many times erased from the American conscience. They have struggled for acknowledgment, they have fought for equality and they have gone to battle for respect. Luis Valdez’s play, Los Vendidos, is just one of many contributions to this effort. A powerfully moving play, Los Vendidos, or the "sell-outs", is a piece created to gain acknowledgement, heighten awareness and to create a sense of camaraderie amongst the people fighting in the Chicano Movement of the late 1960’s and 70’s. Created by a population that had been victimized, beaten and driven to the ground by the powerful grip of American society, this work is just one example the artistic medium of expression used by the participants of the Chicano Movement. This play addresses numerous issues regarding the Mexican-American experience and the attempts to "Americanize" a population that was prevented from assimilating into American culture and society. However, some of the issues presented that I found to be most intriguing were the portrayal of both women and war veterans in addition to the overall Anglo-American reaction to the Mexican-American people.
Set in a barren storefront the sales man, Senor Sancho introduces the audience to his "used Mexican lot". Within the store, roughly a dozen models are stationed, immortalized in their eras. These models are the embodiment of the stereotypes that American society has imposed on the Mexican-Americans for the last several centuries. As Ms. Jimenez peruses the store in search of an appropriate Mexican-American to take to the governor’s luncheon, she critiques and rejects each model pres...
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...e way in which Mexican-Americans have been treated in this country is certainly less then humane. Yet their progress and success is notable. Today, although work still needs to be done, the Mexican-Americans have made America hear their voices; they have claimed some of the power that they had always deserved, and they are using it to make that needed difference. Change is always possible but in this case, it was far from easy.
Bibliography
Chicano!: history of the Mexican American civil rights movement / produced by National
Latino Communications Center and Galán Productions, Inc., in cooperation with KCET, Los Angeles.
Ruiz, Jose Luis.
Los Vendidos: produced by Luis Valdez
Vargas, Zaragosa. Major Problems in Mexican American History. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1999.
http://www.utexas.edu/ftp/student/subtex/.web/Groups/crossborder/emma.html
Literary magazines were not remotely interested in publishing Gilb’s stories, which focus primarily on the professional and personal struggles of working-class Mexican Americans. But his unapologetic stories about working-class Mexican Americans have made him a voice of his people (Reid130). Gilb’s short stories are set vividly in cites of the desert Southwest and usually feature a Hispanic protagonist who is good-hearted but often irresponsible and is forever one pink slip or automotive breakdown away from disaster (Reid130).
Sandra Cisneros’s “Never Marry a Mexican” introduces readers to Clemencia. Cisneros eludes Clemencia as a woman who appears proud of her Mexican heritage, yet knows not how the slanderous phrase “Never marry a Mexican” uttered from her well-meaning mother’s trusty lips about Clemencia’s own Mexican father negatively foreshadows her seedy life and gloomy world perspective later down her destructive journey of adulthood.
In this short story Sandra uncover the tension between Mexican heritage and demands of the American culture. Cleofilas life consisted of never ending chorus, no good brothers, and a complaining father. She is so excited when the day come for her to become married so she can move away from her town where she grew up, were there isn’t much to do except accompany the aunts and godmothers to the house of one or the other to play cards. She was excited to be far away, all she could think about was to have a lovely house and to wear outfits like the women on the tele. Her picture of the ideal Mexican wife soon became a nightmare when she finally arrived to Texas, where she
To say that immigrants in America have experienced discrimination would be an understatement. Ever since the country formed, they have been seen as inferior, such as African-Americans that were unwillingly brought to the 13 colonies in the 17th century with the intention to be used as slaves. However, post-1965, immigrants, mainly from Central and South America, came here by choice. Many came with their families, fleeing from their native land’s poverty; these immigrants were in search of new opportunities, and more importantly, a new life. They faced abuse and Cesar Chavez fought to help bring equality to minorities.
... to exist in our days, needs to be changed more if we ever want to achieve a true progression in our economy and society where not only the rich get the biggest piece of the pie. After researching a little and analyzing numbers and statistics from the past and present, fifty-one years have done two basic things to the harvesters of shame, their wages have improved a little bit and the ethnicity of the workers has changed from poor whites and blacks to poor Hispanics, bringing new factors into play such as the pros and cons that hiring immigrant workers bring to companies. Even though, these potential improvements appear to be substantial and beneficial shifting the views many workers and farmers had in the past, not all people receive the same treatments and benefits some companies share, thousands of immigrant workers have become the new mute slaves of America.
In the novel The Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen did many courageous things to help Peeta and try and keep both of them alive as long as possible. By doing so Peeta and her won the Hunger Games. She saved Prim from going into the Games and saved Peeta from dying during
Montoya, Margret E. "Masks and Identify," and "Masks and Resistance," in The Latino/a Condition: A Critical Reader New York: New York University Press, 1998.
The corrido has been identified as having distinctive characteristics that make up its theme and plot. First, the corrido has a “context of hostile relations between Anglos and Mexicans along the border and the establishment of a scenic structure, geographical locale, and opposing social forces” (Mendoza 146). The corrido’s hero “is a hard-working, peace-loving Mexican, who, when goaded by Anglos, outrages into violence, causing him to defend his rights and those of others of his community against the rinches, the Rangers” (Saldívar). This hero “is quickly introduced in legendary proportions and defiant stature” and many people must die before the hero reaches his triumphant, but tragic, demise (Mendoza 146). The Anglos in the corrido, meanwhile, are not one-dimensional villains but “complex figures who contain positive as well as negative qualities” (Mendoza 146). These distinctive traits of a corrido – setting, conflict, and characterization, among others – ...
Haymitch contributed immensely to Katniss’ survival in the games by getting her wealthy sponsors, to send and provide what she needed, like food or medicine, during the games. “You have good sponsors she says longingly” (201).” Without Haymitch’s hard work and effort to get Katniss good sponsors, the gifts would not have been as helpful, or even sent to her, and Katniss would not have made it to where she did in the games. Another example of Katniss depending on Haymitch was how Haymitch sent messages to Katniss in the games. Haymitch sent vague, almost coded, messages to Katniss, and Katniss used her prior knowledge of Haymitch to understand what he was trying to say. “Maybe he is sending me a message. Then I know, there is only one reason Haymitch is withholding water from me. Because he knows I’ve almost found it” (169).This means that, from her time being mentored by Haymitch, Katniss was able to understand why Haymitch gave her a canteen but no water. Katniss’ dependence on Haymitch worked well for her during the games because she was able to keep her mind thinking and alert, and was able to get resources that she needed. Without being able to think like Haymitch, Katniss would have failed at surviving during the games, because she wouldn’t have been able to understand the hints and find necessary
Norma Elia Cantu’s novel “Canícula: Imágenes de una Niñez Fronteriza” (“Canícula: Snapshots of a Girlhood en la Frontera”), which chronicles of the forthcoming of age of a chicana on the U.S.- Mexico border in the town of Laredo and Nuevo Laredo in the 1940s-60s. Norma Elia Cantú brings together narrative and the images from the family album to tell the story of her family. It blends authentic snapshots with recreated memoirs from 1880 to 1950 in the town between Monterrey, Mexico, and San Antonio, Texas. Narratives present ethnographic information concerning the nationally distributed mass media in the border region. Also they study controversial discourse that challenges the manner in which the border and its populations have been portrayed in the U.S. and Mexico. The canícula in the title symbolizes “The dog days of 1993,” an intense part of summer when the cotton is harvested in South Texas. The canícula also represents summer and fall; also important seasons and concepts of that bridge between child and adulthood. She describes imaginative autobioethnography life growing up on ...
The author of this short story, Sandra Cisneros used this myth to make herself different from other American writers. She used ideas from things and stories she heard growing up as a Mexican-American woman, living in a house full of boys that got all of the attention (Mathias). Cisneros also grew up in the 19...
Cofer, Judith Ortiz. "The Myth of the Latina Woman." Bullock, Richard, Maureen Daly Goggin and Francine Weinburg. The Norton Field Guide to Writing. Ed. Marilyn Moller. 3rd. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2013. 806-812. Print.
The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria, an essay written by Judith Ortiz Cofer, discusses the racial stereotypes Cofer struggles with as a Latin woman who travels across America. Throughout her life, Cofer discusses her interactions with people who falsely misjudge her as a Latin woman. Additionally, Cofer mentions other Hispanic women she has met in her life, who also suffer with racial assumptions. Although several people would disagree with Cofer and claim that she is taking racial remarks too seriously, racial stereotyping is a significant issue that should not be overlooked in our society. People should not base someone’s worth by their outward appearance or their ethnic background.
They attempt to implement responsible sourcing within their supply chains, raise awareness of both water conservation and help to preserve natural capital. To do this they promote global transparency, and voice their engagement in climate policy. Nestlé’s labor practices consistently address human rights impacts in their operations and supply chains. Additionally, Nestle works towards enhancing the gender equality in the developed global offices. One example of Nestlé’s influence on their sourcing practices can be seen in Nigeria where infrastructure was few and far between and traditional delivery methods could not be achieved due to safety reasons to compensate nestle set their purchasing prices high as well as creating a multitude of small ware houses rather than the typical individual large ware house. They also adjusted their marketing scheme rather than posting to various forms of media as they would do in a developed country, they instead hired local singers and dancers to travel to different villages advertising the Nestle products in a way that would appeal to the different