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Foreigners In Their Own Land Reflection

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In this paper I will discuss my reaction to researching cultures that are different than my own. For this experience, I visited The Arkansas Arts Center where there is currently an exhibit titled "Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art". This exhibit includes a six week film series that focuses on the history of Latino Americans. I attended the first film on Sunday, October 18, 2015. The film was titled "Foreigners in their Own Land, 1565-1880". After the film, there was also a community discussion with Dr. Kristin Dutcher Mann, UALR associate professor of history and social studies. Discussion "Foreigners in their Own Land, 1565-1880" is a documentary that concentrates on the Latino American portion of the American story. The documentary …show more content…

To the cry of "REMEMBER THE ALAMO," Seguin assembled a troop of Tejanos and joined Sam Houston's Army of The Republic of Texas at The Battle of San Jacinto. The Mexican army was taken by surprise and the battle was over within 18 minutes. Santa Anna surrendered, handing over Texas to Houston's Army of The Republic of Texas. Juan Seguin was named military commander of West Texas, elected Senator of the new republic, and later Mayor of San Antonio. In the midst of this, Seguin felt torn between his allegiance to The Republic of Texas and his loyalty to his own …show more content…

Every party of volunteers in route to San Antonio declared that they wanted to kill Juan Seguin. Seguin's Anglo allies sold him out. They did not protect him when he needed protection. In 1842, Seguin had no choice but to give up the mayoral position in San Antonio and leave Texas, abandoning all that he had fought for. The survivor of El Alamo retired to Mexico, where he died, forgotten, in 1890. Eighty years later, Seguin’s remains were brought to Texas and buried with honors. In his memoir, Seguin called himself "a foreigner in my own land" and spoke for tens of thousands of Latinos, now second-class citizens in a land that had once been

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Seguín 's company in October 1835 and participated in the taking of the squares on the north side of the city during the siege of Bexar, December 5–9, 1835. He served until the capitulation of Gen. Martín Perfecto de Cos on December 10, 1835. Though not much is known about Gregorio Esparza, he is a hero who risked his life for Texas. Gregorio Esparza though a Mexican, on the arrival of Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna in February 1836, was advised by John William Smith to take refuge with his family in the Alamo because they had been very good and loyal people to the Americans.

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In her book, From Out of the Shadows, Viki L. Ruiz argues the contributions to history that was made by farm workers, activists, leaders, volunteers, feminists, flappers, and Mexican women. She explores the lives of the innovative and brave immigrant women, their goals and choices they make, and how they helped develop the Latino American community. While their stories were kept in the shadows, Ruiz used documented investigations and interviews to expose the accounts of these ‘invisible’ women, the communities they created, and the struggles they faced in hostile environments. The narrative and heartfelt approach used by Ruiz give the reader the evidence to understand as well as the details to identify or empathize with.

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560 Words | 3 Pages

In December 1835 a group of Texans captured the fort. But on February 23 a Mexican force with 4,000 men began the fight. The Texans only had around 200 men so they knew how this was going to end. Although they knew they would die they stayed there a fought for 13 days. Even though the Texans knew they would lose the still fought and they fought hard.

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969 Words | 4 Pages

“The fighting in Bexar raged with a house-to-house assault unlike anything the Mexican army had before experienced” (Lee, n.d.). General Cos’ surrendered from the Alamo on December 9, 1835 with 200 of his men dead and many more wounded. The Mexican surrender and the siege of the Alamo brought immediate retaliation from Santa Anna. He quickly assembled a force of 8,000 men and pushed mercilessly towards Texas. He was determined to crush all opposition and teach the Texans a lesson (Lee,

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The 64-year old investigative reporter spent over eight years writing his remarkable book, Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America, which was published in 1999. In his early life, Gonzalez was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico and was raised in East Harlem and Brooklyn. As a journalist, and before that as a Puerto Rican community activist who helped found and direct two national organizations, the Young Lords in the 1960’s, and the National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights in the late 1970’s, Juan Gonzalez has spent decades living in and reporting on scores of Latino communities throughout the United States and Latin America, devouring in the process every study or account of the Latino experience he could find (Gonzalez, XXII). With the many historians that have conducted research in the recent decades, Juan realized that by connecting the past to the present and by crossing academic disciplines, he could touch on more than one Latino group while still making the entire process comprehensible to both Latinos and

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960 Words | 4 Pages

On 23 February 1836, the Mexican force led by Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna began an artillery attack at the Alamo. The attack last for 13 days and on the morning of 6 March the Mexican force breached the wall and overpowered the outnumbered resistance (History.com, 2010). Although it took 13 days, the inevitable happened and the Gen. Santa Anna’s forces killing nearly every fighter in the fortress destroyed the Alamo. It has been reported that the Mexican force later executed the few Texan troops that survived (Hickman,

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By the time his men arrived--after many set backs and delays--it was too late. With his temper burning hotter than an afternoon in the desert, the general set off to settle his score with the Mexican army: for his comrades at the Alamo, for his family back home, and most importantly, so that Texas would never forget the Alamo. When the general and his army spotted Santa Anna, he gave the order not to shoot but instead cried, “Remember the Alamo!” and charged the enemy head on. Houston took his revenge upon the Mexicans in this counter-attack. He took his force of 900 versus Santa Anna's 1400 and killed over 630 Mexicans with only nine Texan casualties in the entire charge.

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Sam Houston was constantly sending out runners for reconnaissance reports on the position of the Mexican army and how many men were in the camp. He knew the land and what area’s to avoid because of flooding. Retreating when the Mexican army got near was Sam’s way of using time on his side. Sam knew it was just a matter of time before he would be forced to fight the Mexican army.

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938 Words | 4 Pages

The immigrants entering the United States throughout its history have always had a profound effect on American culture. However, the identity of immigrant groups has been fundamentally challenged and shaped as they attempt to integrate into U.S. society. The influx of Mexicans into the United States has become a controversial political issue that necessitates a comprehensive understanding of their cultural themes and sense of identity. The film Mi Familia (or My Family) covers the journey and experiences of one Mexican-American (or “Chicano”) family from Mexico as they start a new life in the United States. Throughout the course of the film, the same essential conflicts and themes that epitomize Chicano identity in other works of literature

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164 Words | 1 Pages

He help defend the Alamo William Travis- He helped defend the Alamo, and wrote a famous letter calling for reinforcement and at the bottom where it says Victory or Death James Fannin- Him and his 300 men (they were reinforcements) were captured and shot at Goliad even though he surrendered. Before James Fannin was shot, he asked for 3 things: he asked for his personal possessions to be sent to his family, to be shot in his

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Mexican General- Antonio López de Santa Anna lived in Xalapa and was born on February 21, 1794 and died on June 21, 1876. Antonio Lopez was an important person in the Battle of the Alamo because he was the general who led the Mexicans to battle. He was also the President of Mexico and the General of the Mexican army. While Antonio Lopez’s army was marching down to Texas they started getting scarce on many of their supplies, such as food they also lacked on cattle and wagons.

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1414 Words | 6 Pages

Many stories embody the cultural aspects of Mexican-Americans and their struggles with living in a discriminatory society. Stories like With

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1045 Words | 5 Pages

Cofer addresses the cultural barriers and challenges that Latinos experience through emotional appeal, anecdotal imagery, parallelism and the use of effective periodic sentences. In her article, Cofer assesses the difficult cultural hurdles of Latin Americans with emotional appeal. She provides insight on her cultural barriers by first conveying the way she had to dress and her struggle, as it shows in this piece of text, “That morning I had organized… which to base my decision” (Cofer 5). This poignancy works to stress an agonizing feeling of uncertainty and restraint towards the author.

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At that time, only about 75,000 Mexican citizens lived north of the Rio Grande. As a result, U.S. forces led by Stephen W. Kearny and Robert F. Stockton were able to conquer those lands. Taylor advancing, and captured Monterrey in September. With the losses adding up, Mexico turned to old standby General Antonio López de Santa Anna, the strongman who had been living in exile in Cuba. Santa Anna convinced Polk that, if allowed to return to Mexico, he would end the war on terms positive to the United States.

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718 Words | 3 Pages

“American History” is a short story written by Judith Ortiz Cofer in 1993. She was born in Hormigueros, Puerto Rico, in 1952 but then moved to United States when she was three years old. Her story narrates the experience of a fourteen-year-old Puerto Rican girl named Elena that lived with her family in New Jersey in the early 1960s, when racism and segregation were strongly present in America. This story’s main theme is ethnic racism since some of the characters demonstrate racist thoughts, dialogues and actions against Latin people, in this case towards Elena and her family. The author’s main purpose of writing this story was to criticize the xenophobic behaviours against Latin immigrants and to show how these innocent people can get affected

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