Mario T. Garcia In Bridging Cultures

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In 1948 people who had been living in the Southwest, became foreigners in their own homeland. They were given citizenship, but the treaty should have clarified this would be a second-class kind of citizenship. Article VIIII guaranteed the free enjoyment of an American citizen, but the Mexicans, now Chicanos, faced oppression and a new identity (Class notes, 1-15-17). This identity was not yet the Chicano one celebrated now, but a white one forced upon them. Mario T. Garcia in, Bridging Cultures: An Introduction to Chicano/Latino Studies refers to Mexicans living in the territory as a “conquered generation” (6). They did not receive the privileges that come with being white, but instead the conqueror has the means to strip the people of their