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American and mexican culture essay
Essay on Chicano Art
American and mexican culture essay
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One of the most significant and creative events which took place during the years of emerging Chicanismo was the renaming of the Southwestern United States as Aztlan, to signify the name of the spiritual homeland of the Chicano people. After the Aztecs journeyed south from Aztl‡n to eventually found the city of Tenochtitlan and develop a powerful empire, culture and civilization, the legacy of Aztlan was kept alive in their narratives, manuscripts and oral traditions. Mexican culture has always informed Chicano art, but it is the American experience that truly gave birth to this distinct genre. The Aztecs migrated from a mythical homeland called Aztlán, and many Chicanos see the Southwestern U.S. as Aztlán, leading to the popular slogan, "We didn't cross the border - the border crossed us!" The social and ethnic body of the United States are damaged by wounds, …show more content…
As a result, many embraced the anti-war movement. Montoya's clear appeal for solidarity with the Vietnamese people was shared by many Chicano artists. At the turn of the century, the American economic infrastructure was rapidly developing and attracting thousands of Mexican nationals to the booming railroad, mining, and agricultural industries. Mexicans filled a vital economic void in the United States. Mexicans helped build the United States through hard work and never been fully repaid or recognized for it, yet they are continuously deported and criminalized despite protections in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which is also ignored by both the United States and Mexico when it comes to addressing the humans rights of Mexicans and Chicanos in this country. This work of art is demonstrating the political side and bringing awareness about the suffering Chicanos have been faced
Cheech Marin, a comedian actor and activist, said, “You have to want to be Chicano to be Chicano.” What Cheech Marin means by this is that being Chicano is something Chicanos feel and think instead of letting others give them that title. Before there were Aztecs and Chicanos there were the Mexica. The Mexica were natives who migrated all through out what is now known as Mexico. They each spread to different parts of the land. Most ended up in what is now present day Mexico City. Those Mexica later became the Aztecs. The Aztecs had a myth of how the earth and all living things were created. In the myth the Aztec sun god and the goddess of Earth both created all living things. Hence, making all Aztecs royalty. The city was then destroyed by the Spanish conquistadores. Although the Spaniards won the Aztecs didn’t go down without a fight.
What exactly does Aztlan mean? There are various definitions, such as the ancestral homeland of the Aztec people and their descendants or everyone’s individual Aztlan which is ones’ personal sanctuary. A place one creates in their own image consisting of features that show what kind of person they are, while at the same time still recognizing their ethnic culture. We all have this place though not everyone’s is the same. Your hobbies, interests, the way you dress all make up this special place. Without it, we would be metaphorically lost. For example, in the essay “Refiguring Aztlan”, it says, “Through Aztlan we come to better understand psychological time, regional make up, and evolution. Without any one of these ingredients, we would be contempo-rary displaced nomads, suffering the diaspora in our own land, and at the mercy of other social forces. Aztlan allows us to come full circle with our communal background as well as maintain ourselves as
...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.
Weber, David J. Foreigners in Their Native Land: The Historical Roots of Mexican Americans. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1973.
Oles, James, and Karen Cordero. South of the Border: Mexico in the American Imagination, 1914-1947. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993. Print.
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
The portrait of Mexican Americans is layered in shades of ambivalence. Aside from the fact there is evidence that they can not really be classified as a migratory culture in that the land where they tend to migrate once belonged to Mexico, they can also lay an earlier claim to the land as Native Americans. The Spanish Europeans who settled in the area that became Mexico evolved as the dominant culture over the oral culture of the Native Americans. Nevertheless, there is evidence of ambivalence among the Native Americans to the dominant culture of the Spanish in what is arguably one of the Mexico's basic texts, the story of the Miraculous Apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe in 1531. The Virgin of Guadalupe does not fit the usual model of the Virgin as she appears to believers, the biggest change being her native appearance. She is of the dominant culture's religion, and yet she is not. Her appearance is one of only eight worldwide that have found acceptance by the Catholic Church (Apparition 48). Moreover, she is a symbol of the native culture as well and has reverence in the eyes of both Mexicans and Mexican Americans that remains evident to date.
The Chicano Movement, like many other civil rights movements, gained motivation from the everyday struggles that the people had to endure in the United States due to society. Mexican-Americans, like many other ethnicities, were viewed as an inferior group compared to white Americans. Mexican-Americans sought to make a change with the Chicano Movement and “the energy generated by the movement focused national attention on the needs of Mexican-Americans” (Bloom 65). The Mexican-American Movement had four main issues that it aimed to resolve and they ranged from “restoration of la...
The increase and changing demography in the United State today, with the disparities in the health status of people from different cultural backgrounds has been a challenge for health care professionals to consider cultural diversity as a priority. It is impossible for nurses and other healthcare professionals to learn and understand theses diversity in culture, but using other approaches like an interpreter is very helpful for both nurses and patients. In this paper of a culturally appropriate care planning, I will be discussing on the Hispanic American culture because, I had come across a lot of them in my career as a nurse. The Hispanic are very diverse in terms of communication and communities and include countries like Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, South and Central America, and some of them speak and write English very well, some speaks but can’t write while some can’t communicate in English at all but Spanish.
I was born in Mexico and raised in beautiful San Diego since the age of four. Coming to the United States at a very young age I had to face many challenges that have shaped me to the person that I am today. I consider myself a Chicana woman who has overcome the obstacles to get were I am know. Being raised in a Mexcian household has thought me to embrace my culture and its roots. The Spanish and native blood that is with in me remind me of many Americans today. The reason I consider my self Chicana is because of the similar background that I shared with many Americans today. Living in the U.S. I have learned to adapt and embraced the American culture so much so that it came a point of life were I struggled to find my own identity. Taking
Of these 31.8 million are Mexican origin. Despite the large presence as Rodolfo Jacobo, professor and Department chair, Multicultural Studies at Palomar College recounts in his article Chicano Cultural Space: It’s Roots, “there exist a vast lack of knowledge of the political, economic and cultural significance of the Chicano cultural nationalism” (Jacobo 4). In the search of acceptance Mexican decedents had look and still looking for spaces that they could encounter a sense of home, but through the entire search Mexican Americans find themselves in a territory and a society that denies and discredit their experience and contribution. However, through all the different situations and experiences that Mexican Americans had faced and still face help them to take a step forward, and become leaders of the communities in order to speak out and proclaim their
Crouch, Ned. Mexicans & Americans : Cracking The Cultural Code. NB Publishing, Inc., 2004. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 21 Nov. 2011.
After three hundred years of suffering and oppression by the Spanish crown, and inspired by the fire of revolution sweeping over the world in places such as United States and France, the Mexican population finally decided that they could endure no more, it was time for a change! In this essay I put together some of the various factors of Spanish colonialism that led to the Mexican independence. These factors were the socio political conditions of nueva españa, the enlightment era, as well as various leaders
What is culture? Many people ask themselves this question every day. The more you think about it the more confusing it is. Sometimes you start leaning to a culture and then people tell you you’re wrong or they make you feel like a different person because of your culture. I go through this almost every day. Because of the way I was raised I love Mexican rodeo but I was born and raised in Joliet. This can be very difficult trying to understand culture. I live in this huge mix of culture. Culture is personal. People can have many cultures especially in America and because of globalization. Cultural identity is not one or the other, it is not Mexican or American. Cultural identity is an individual relevant thing.
The Chicano history is a history of transformation based on conquest and struggle under a racial hierarchy. The Anglo-Americans’ intentions of creation of this racial foundation and segregating culture was to justify their act of assigning socio-economic functions to Mexican-Americans, limiting them to a cycle of exploitation and poverty. The meaning behind the contradiction of double aims was identified in El Plan de Santa Barbara’s manifesto and Menchaca’s Recovering History, which emphasized the neglect and distortion of Mexican-American history as a political act by Anglo-Americans to generate a negative, inferior image of these minorities, in comparison to their progressive “American” culture. This ultimately kept the two cultures unreconciled,