In 1959, the Vietnam War severed to prove that not only had the Mexican American generation had failed to accomplish equality for Mexicans, but also failed to get the Anglos to view the actions in 1836 as an injustice as they began to parallel the expansion in their takeover of the Vietnamese. As a result of this failure, a new generation of Mexican activists, Chicanos, decided to take a new approach towards striving for equality; one that was based on achieving political justice for their own unique culture hoping Anglos would be forced to recognize their equal citizenship and that of other minorities. Yet despite these noble implications, many insisted that the fight for racial equality took precedence over that of gender. Thus, feeling wronged Mexican women began their form of activist pride and named themselves Chicanas. One such Chicana was Bernice Zamora, who ruthlessly critiqued the Chicano movement in her poem “Notes from a Chicana Co-ed” as unjust form of sexism that would ultimately hinder the any effort towards racial equality in the future, and as such women should push f...
This is critical for the readers to know the show the bias, injustice, and premeditated ignorance of the United States educational system. It also demonstrates that Chicano Studies is not important regardless of the Hispanic population in this supposed “free” country. It seems as if the Chicano Studies was made only to fail by keeping it under funded and understaffed. By doing so, it has an affect on keeping away good scholars to maintain the historical development of Hispanics in the United States as well as its own history.
Juliana Barr’s book, Peace Came in the Form of a Women: Indians and Spaniards in the Texas Borderlands. Dr. Barr, professor of history at Duke University-specializes in women’s role in American history. Peace Came in the Form of A Women, is an examination on the role of gender and kinship in the Texas territory during the colonial period. An important part of her book is Spanish settlers and slavery in their relationship with Natives in the region. Even though her book clearly places political, economic, and military power in the hands of Natives in the Texas borderland, her book details Spanish attempts to wrestle that power away from indigenous people through forced captivity of native women. For example, Dr, Barr wrote, “In varying diplomatic strategies, women were sometimes pawns, sometimes agents.” To put it another way, women were an important part of Apache, Wichita, and Comanche culture and Spanish settlers attempted to exploit
This book was published in 1981 with an immense elaboration of media hype. This is a story of a young Mexican American who felt disgusted of being pointed out as a minority and was unhappy with affirmative action programs although he had gained advantages from them. He acknowledged the gap that was created between him and his parents as the penalty immigrants ought to pay to develop and grow into American culture. And he confessed that he got bewildered to see other Hispanic teachers and students determined to preserve their ethnicity and traditions by asking for such issues to be dealt with as departments of Chicano studies and minority literature classes. A lot of critics criticized him as a defector of his heritage, but there are a few who believed him to be a sober vote in opposition to the political intemperance of the 1960s and 1970s.
The La Raza Unida Party began in the 1960’s as a social movement in the small South Texas town of Crystal City. Although Mexican Americans made up the majority of the population at 85% they had very little clout within the political landscape, which was dominated by Anglos. The Mexican Americans experienced no political representation and many were denied the right to vote because they didn’t speak or read English and many could not afford the poll taxes. The discrimination experienced by the Mexican Americans in this small town was comparable to the discrimination of African Americans in the Deep South, yet the brave Mexican’s in Crystal City, Texas chose to band together to generate change, awareness, and hope in creating new perspectives with respect to politics.
The story “Woman Hollering Creek" by Sandra Cisneros describes the lives of Mexicans in a Chicago neighborhood. She depicts the life that women endure as Latino wives through her portrayal of the protagonist, Cleofilas. For Cisneros being a Mexican-American has given her a chance to see life from two different cultures. In addition, Cisneros has written the story from a woman’s perspective, illustrating the types of conflicts many women face as Latino wives. This unique paradigm allows the reader to examine the events and characters using a feminist critical perspective.
Armando Rendon in his landmark 1970 wrote the book I am a Chicano. This book is about how activist in the Chicano movement pointed to an empty monolog of the word Chicano. Chicano means an activist. Chicanos describes themselves it was a form of self-affirmation; it reflected the consciousness that their experiences. Chicanos means, nations, histories, and cultures. This book talks about how Mexican American also used the term of Chicano to describe them, and usually in a lighthearted way, or as a term of endearment. In a text it talks how Chicanos haven’t forgotten their Mexican origins, and how they become a unique community. The book talks about how Mexican American community’s long-suffering history of racism and discrimination, disenfranchisement, and economic exploitation in the United States. The
Fernandez, Lilia. "Introduction to U.S. Latino/Latina History." History 324. The Ohio State University. Jennings Hall 0040, Columbus, OH, USA. Address.
In American history, civil rights movements have played a major role for many ethnics in the United States and have shape American society to what it is today. The impact of civil rights movements is tremendous and to an extent, they accomplish the objectives that the groups of people set out to achieve. The Mexican-American Civil Rights Movement, more commonly known as the Chicano Movement or El Movimiento, was one of the many movements in the United States that set out to obtain equality for Mexican-Americans (Herrera). At first, the movement had a weak start but eventually the movement gained momentum around the 1960’s (Herrera). Mexican-Americans, also known as Chicanos, began to organize in order to eliminate the social barriers that prevented them from progressing in American society (Bloom 47). Throughout the years of the Chicano Movement, Mexican-Americans had a “desire to integrate into the mainstream culture while preserving their own identity” (Bloom 47). The Chicano Civil Rights Movement was a progressive era when Mexican-Americans had goals that they wanted to accomplish and sought reform in order to be accepted as a part of the United States.
In the United States, women fought not only against the patriarchy, but against racism and xenophobia. While in Mexico, women were prepared to take up arms and defend their country, despite the fact that they were unable to vote.
...wler-Salamini and Mary Kay Vaughan, eds Creating Spaces, Shaping Transitions: Women of the Mexican Countryside, 1850-1990 Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1994.
As long as civilizations have been around, there has always been a group of oppressed people; today the crucial problem facing America happens to be the discrimination and oppression of Mexican immigrants. “Mexican Americans constitute the oldest Hispanic-origin population in the United States.”(57 Falcon) Today the population of Mexican’s in the United States is said to be about 10.9%, that’s about 34 million people according to the US Census Bureau in 2012. With this many people in the United States being of Mexican descent or origin, one would think that discrimination wouldn’t be a problem, however though the issue of Mexican immigrant oppression and discrimination has never been a more prevalent problem in the United States before now. As the need for resolve grows stronger with each movement and march, the examination of why these people are being discriminated against and oppressed becomes more crucial and important. Oppression and Anti-discrimination organizations such as the Freedom Socialist Organization believe that the problem of discrimination began when America conquered Mexican l...
Torres, Hector Avalos. 2007. Conversations with Contemporary Chicana and Chicano Writers. U.S.: University of New Mexico press, 315-324.
Moraga, Cherrie. “Queer Aztlan: the Reformation of Chicano Tribe,” in The Color of Privilege 1996, ed Aida Hurtado. Ann Arbor: University Michigan Press, 1996.
The Chicano Movement was a time that pressed forth for the equal opportunity of the Latino community and proved to America that Mexican Americans were a force to be reckoned with. In the documentary Latino Americans – Episode 5: Prejudice and Pride, it centralizes on the success of the oppressed community through significant leaders in that period. Union activists César Chavez, along with Dolores Huerta, playwright Luis Valdez, teacher Sal Castro, US Congressman Herman Ballido, and political activist José Ángel Gutiérrez all contributed to egalitarianism of Latinos across the nation. This documentary reflects on the importance of equal prospects within the workplace, the academic setting, and the social and political features in society.
The contrast between the Mexican world versus the Anglo world has led Anzaldua to a new form of self and consciousness in which she calls the “New Mestiza” (one that recognizes and understands her duality of race). Anzaldua lives in a constant place of duality where she is on the opposite end of a border that is home to those that are considered “the queer, the troublesome, the mongrel and the mulato” (25). It is the inevitable and grueling clash of two very distinct cultures that produces the fear of the “unknown”; ultimately resulting in alienation and social hierarchy. Anzaldua, as an undocumented woman, is at the bottom of the hierarchy. Not only is she a woman that is openly queer, she is also carrying the burden of being “undocumented”. Women of the borderlands are forced to carry two degrading labels: their gender that makes them seem nothing more than a body and their “legal” status in this world. Many of these women only have two options due to their lack of English speaking abilities: either leave their homeland – or submit themselves to the constant objectification and oppression. According to Anzaldua, Mestizo culture was created by men because many of its traditions encourage women to become “subservient to males” (39). Although Coatlicue is a powerful Aztec figure, in a male-dominated society, she was still seen