The Latino Reader Summary

History has been told through the stories that are found in The Latino Reader. The stories explain how the indigenous civilizations that were present when the conquistadores invaded their lands were affected as they transitioned from one government to another. Along with the changes of government, there were also a change in religion, currency, language and customs. The indigenous tribes that had once inhabited the lands uninterrupted, were now prisoners of a new invading civilization. Confusion would arise as the indigenous people attempt to assimilate, never completely gaining a sense of belonging. From contact to the creation of borders, these events are what trigger the phenomenon known as the “Chicano experience”.
As immigrants set voyage

to the inhabited continent of the west known now as North America, there are many different accounts from different people in literature, each offering a different point of view of how their experiences were during the first moments of contact. However, the focus will be directed to the count of Cabeza de Vaca, who tells his story through his journey along the Gulf Coast from Florida to Mexico City. The Account gives a point of view that shows signs of sympathy towards the indigenous people, a feeling that was not usually expressed by the Spaniards. As Cabeza de Vaca, a devoted Christian and soldier of the Spanish Crown, is exchanged from tribe to tribe he learns to appreciate the smaller things in his new routine of life. As Cabeza de Vaca continues his journey along the coast, he explains how his “fame spread throughout the area, and all the Indians who heard about it came looking for [him] to that [he] could cure them and bless their children” (Cabeza de Vaca, 14). Although he may have saved many indigenous people through his journey, he was still just an object of the tribe, and his knowledge of healing was exploited. To the Indians, Cabeza de Vaca was not their equal, he was different, and he would not be accepted by the tribes as one of their own.
Cabeza de Vaca was a devoted Christian and soldier of the Spanish Crown, during his voyage with the Indians he is a captive, a prisoner of the Indians who is traded for other goods among the tribes that barter for him.

It is because of his cunningness that he can make the Indians believe that he is gifted enough to cure them by motioning a cross above the body of the ill and wounded. Cabeza de Vaca faces a drastic change of living style after becoming stranded on shore due to a bad storm. He is now tossed from a world of comfort to a world of struggle where his diet consists of food that is most likely not found in his home land, and at one point he explains that they walked around naked with the rest of the tribesman. Exposure to the sun greatly affects the lighter skin of the Spanish and he says, “since we were not used to this, we shed our skin twice a year like serpents” (Cabeza de Vaca, 16). We can only imagine how great it must have felt for him to return to his homeland after being captive for all those years. Although Cabeza de Vaca is not a Chicano, he was able to get a sense of the Chicano Experience as he was traded among the tribes and never being able to settle some roots as the tribes never stayed in one place for too long. A couple centuries later a man named William Darrell, would travel to the west coast, to proclaim the land that the indigenous people had once lived

in.
Just as the Indians once traveled from the East Coast to the West Coast, William Darrell, a successful squatter is making his voyage farther into the west coast of California to claim the most valuable plots of land.

After the war between the United States and Mexico is over, the Treaty of Hidalgo is signed. The purpose of the treaty was to protect the Mexican people that were still inhabiting the land in which the United States were now new owners of. However, the treaty was not honored, and some key points that were meant to protect the people were left out. Although many Spanish Mexicans such as Don Mariano were wealthy ranch owners, their lands were now in dispute because their land grants were issued by a foreign government that was no longer in control of the area. As new settlers migrate to the new land, the court systems offer no protection to the once land owners. This story tells how to borders are now redefined, and although the Mexicans that inhabited the lands in the States of California, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, etc. were to become automatic U.S. citizens, they would not receive the same treatment or benefits that an Anglo American could thrive from. Wealthy Ranch owners such as Don Mariano were exposed to the “Chicano Experience” because they were tossed into a new world with new regulations that they were not accustomed to. Don Mariano explains to Josefa, “In the matter of our land, we have to wait for the attorney general, at Washington, to decide”

(Ruiz de Burton, 92). This illustrates how their fate is now in the hands of a government that is not set in their favor, even though they are now U.S. citizens as well.
Through the stories found in The Latino Reader, we can catch a glimpse of how the world was changing as the Mexican people were transitioning from one government to another. As a Chicano, I was able to redefine and explain what, I, a first-generation Chicano, have experienced as a U.S. citizen. Like the stories of these people who must transition from one world to another, I sometimes find myself being challenged by the different persona that I must portray depending on the different setting that I may be in. The Chicano experience has been present since the earliest moments from the first point of contact to when the cultural and physical borders were redefined by a new government. It is something that we may all be prone to experience, given the right circumstances.