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.
The fact that these Anglo men do not even want to take a glance at the Mexican women because they are not important shows their real position in the eyes of those who actually had a voice. Another example of a negative stereotype regarding the Mexican worker is that it is in their biological nature to not understand the fundamentals of learning how to read and write. For instance when Jose was speaking with Don Santiago, their was a inference of not being capable of learning. For instance the narrative states, “Not that Jose thought of it as a privilege, his simple mind recoiling at the very thought of penetrating its mysteries “(175). The author’s remind the reader that peons were simple-minded humans who
In order to write this book, the author clearly uses different manuscripts and papers that helped him to explain and show the situation of this social movement. He also uses and gets information from people that were living those situations, for instance in Chapter one, he mentions a note from Journalist Ruiz Ibañez: “Contrary to the common belief that those groups are composed of “punks” and hoodlums….”1. Related to him, he is an American historian and sociology that obtained his sociology and political science degrees in the University of Texas at Austin and Yale University, as well. Currently, he is a professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley and he is president of the Center for Latino Policy Research. He wrote not only Quixote’s Soldiers but also, Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas, 1836-1986.
In effect of African-Americans fighting for their civil rights, Mexican-Americans formed La Raza Unida when they saw that, “even the most disillusioned Mexican-American begin to dream large dreams again” (372). The civil rights movement for African-Americans helped opened the eyes of Mexican-Americans, and they soon realized that there was a disadvantaged minority. At this time period, they faced “the same level economically, but substantially below educationally” compared to African-Americans (372). “Mexican-Americans is not too much better off than the Negro” (372). After world war two, many Mexican-Americans wanted to be acknowledged for their sacrifice for serving their country.
Latina/os living in the United States are viewed only as a source of cheap labor. White Americans would go as far and call them “ignorant Mexicans” or “young Mexicans, with very few brains, if any”(Lytle Hernández, 2017: Kindle Locations 2816-2818). The only reason western industries advocated for Mexicans to continue crossing into the United States after the 1924 National Origins Act, an act that blatantly excluded immigration from anywhere except western Europe with a list of quotas, was because their labor was cheap, something industries loved taken advantage of. Although Anglo-Americans preached for a white-dominated society, whenever it came to who would be building this “Aryan” society they would gladly hire Latina/os, taking advantage of their poor situation to load their pockets. Sometimes, hiring wasn’t even needed if convict labor could be used.
The first of two essay questions focuses on Leo Chavez’s book , “The Latino Threat”. The questions and statements that will be answered include “ What is the Latino threat?, ‘How does he define citizenship?” ,“Identify and discuss two examples of the Latino threat” and “ Identify one policy recommendation and discuss whether you think it is achievable”. Leo Chavez’s book focuses on the guise of Latinos threatening the American way of life. He defines this as “The Latino Threat” , He states that the Latino threat narrative positions Latinos as not sharing similarities with any previous migrant groups into the U.S. and that they are unwilling and incapable of integrating and becoming part of the national community (Chavez,3).
Chavez examines the assumptions made by the media and the public by drawing in sources like magazine articles and illustrations to provide the audience with exactly how these accusations are made and shared with the public. Chavez questions what it means and what it takes to be considered an American citizen and how Latinos, particularly Mexicans, have many things stacked up against. There are no doubts that the number of undocumented immigrants has steadily increased each year. Leo R. Chavez argues that because of the rise in the numbers, it makes it easier for the media to assume that undocumented immigrants, particularly Mexicans, are a threat to our nation through an invasion. Chavez’s idea of a Mexican reconquest is developed through something he calls the Quebec model.
After watching the movie “A Class Apart: A Mexican American Civil Rights Story”, I realized that I didn’t know much about how Mexico lost part of their land to the United States and about how hard life used to be for Mexican Americans compared to now. I learned about how Mexican Americans were treated in the United States. The movie was mainly about how Mexican Americans were discriminated and they were treated as inferior people. They were not seen as actual “Americans”, but as a second class, calling them names like “shiftless, lazy, dumb, etc.” Another important thing I learned is who was Gus García and what he did for Mexican Americans.
Some advocated for limited Mexican immigration into the United States since they realized that they would make it difficult for them to integrate into white society because Mexicans were typically seen as “poor, dark-skinned, and did not speak English.” This shows how Mexican officials helped shape the way migration was handled as well as how they contributed to the racial subordination they faced in the United
Samuel Huntington’s article The Hispanic Challenge argues that Hispanics, specifically Mexicans, are not true American citizens. According to Huntington, Americans are people who believe in the American creed. However, he believes this creed is being threatened. For some time now, large influxes of Hispanic immigrants have been coming to the US and have brought their own culture with them. The writer of Speaking in Tongues, Gloria Anzaldua, believes that Hispanics have the right to hold onto their culture in America.
The first main idea from the reading was redefining what it means to be Latino in America. This is a main idea
“The common denominator all Latinos have is that we want some respect. That 's what we 're all fighting for” - Cristina Saralegui. Judith Ortiz Cofer published the article, “The Myth of the Latin Woman,” where she expresses her anger towards stereotypes, inequality, and degradation of Latin Americans. Cofer explains the origins of these perceived views and proceeds to empower Latin American women to champion over them. Cofer establishes her credibility as a Latin American woman with personal anecdotes that emphasize her frustration of the unfair depiction of Latinos in society.
“The virtual personas of Latino immigrants (represented as a threat to the nation) make the authority that has accumulated for real immigrants in their role as workers and consumers vanish” (Chavez 47). In the public eye Latinos are depicted as noncompliant and dangerous citizens and noncitizens of the United States. “The virtual lives of ‘Mexicans,’ ‘Chicanos,’ ‘illegal aliens,’ and ‘immigrants’ become abstractions and representations that stand in the place of real lives” (Chavez 47). It is depressing to understand that the majority of the United States strictly sees Latinos as these distorted images. At the end of the day each individual’s life matters, we all need to become more compassionate for one another.
People should not judge one another and feel so surprised if they see a individual who does not look anything like a Latino and should not criticizes that person. There are wide, diverse experiences in competition with the stereotypical images. So people are constantly judged by these images. Every Latino is unique in their own way and should not have to explain to a person why they do not look like a Latino because may come in all shapes, colors, and sizes. Society should realize that not every race will look identical because of the parents genetics which can have a big changes in how the Latino may look.
Racism has always been the “elephant in the room”: everyone knows it’s there but no one really seems to acknowledge its. It has been affecting Latinos for a very long time now and it is something that people are still trying to fight against today. Latinos have been stereotyped, hated against, and treated badly simply for being of a different race. It seems like the discrimination against them can be seen everywhere. Many had hoped that by now racism would have stopped being a problem but the fact is that it 's still a relevant issue that affects millions of Latinos.
