Assimilation In American Life: A Mexican American Dream

The intended audience for The Book of Unknown Americans are other immigrants, or foreigners living in the United States. The author seems to assume that the reader is not originally from the United States, and is Latino. Adolfo “Fito” Angelino talks about how the United States is popular with the Latinos. “We have all the Spanish supermarkets now, and the school district started those English programs. I know some people here think we’re trying to take over, but we just want to be a part of it.

A thought-provoking source that John H.M Laslett used in researching for his book Shameful Victory is George J. Sanchez’s 1993 book Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture, and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1945. His this book, Sanchez places a platform about Mexican American identity that stretches before World War II. The main argument is that Chicano history does little to explore the development of cultural adaptation. And he seeks to render that. Even through hardship and discrimination, the Mexican American identity evolved.

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).

How Latinos historical experiences relate to other groups in Global Pattern of Intergroup Relations? Throughout history, the Latinos has always been in lower chain in the United States. Mexicans or Latinos come to the U.S to have a better working environment where they get pay well enough to care for their families down in Mexico. In the documentary, “The Bracero Program: Harvest of loneliness”, I saw that the Mexicans who come to the U.S to have a better income does not come very easily, here is when Internal Colonialism come in to play. They are payed very low.

Culture is an essential part of a community’s identity, because it links individuals to a collective bond. The Americas have always contained a vast variety of cultural communities, especially in the United States. The US is known for being one of the most diverse nations in the world, housing hundreds of different cultures. Mexican-Americans display a strong sense of a cultural background, which falls as a subset of the bigger Latino culture that links all Latinos. Oral history is a major aspect on the Mexican culture, which contributes to the truth of how history in the United States actually happened.

I’m the first generation of my family to be Mexican -American, but I have been introduced to the Mexican culture since I was born. I appreciate the difficulties my parents have faced to make me the person that I am today even though I wasn’t born in Mexico my parents have taught me the language and the culture which I’m so proud of being part of. For others being Hispanic is actually being born in any Latin American countries which is not true at all. Being Hispanic is much more than my cultural background it actually describes how much I appreciate my culture and how I get to experience things other people don’t. I fit into the Hispanic community through the experiencing the culture first hand ,participating in traditions and planning to include my culture in my future.

It is a song close to the heart named Mexico Lindo y Querido that is sung by Jorge Negrete. The year he released this song is around the 1930 's. Jorge Negrete was the person to make this song famous although in today 's time people might know it more because of Vicente Fernandez. This song always reminds my parents of when they left home leaving family, friends, and the community they once knew. They had to start there life differently but carried this music with them wherever they go.  

I identify as a Latina. I have always considered myself as a Latina, but throughout time, I believe that I have assimilated more into a white individual because of the privilege that I hold and because I have lived in the US most of my life. I have received mostly negative messages from those who are not from my ethnicity. My peers and I were told we wouldn’t graduate high school and be laborers for the rest of our lives. With the current politics, I believe that this still holds true where some people still hold stereotypes and give oppressing messages to Latinos.

Wealth of an individual, and their health are two contracting factors in America. Usually if an individual has more wealth they are considered to be healthier. However for the Mexican Americans, this contradicting theory seems to disappear. In the film Becoming American, researchers discovered that immigrant Latinos have the best health, even though they are considered one of the poorest, socially marginalized population. Latino’s are also considered to have the best health among one of the wealthiest communities, which enables them to the Latino paradox.

I woke up on an especially cool winter morning and looked over to my mother’s side of the bed. She was not there, I knew that, but I secretly wished she was. I swung my legs off the bedside and rushed to the bathroom to brush my teeth and get myself ready for school. This was a typical morning for me.

When I reached America, I started to remember my childhood. I was the youngest of 4 children. I had a sister and two brothers. We were all crammed into a small hut. We all slept on one blanket on the floors made of cow poop.

Culturally, family is the base of my Hispanic heritage. As a child my mother taught me that family is the most important aspect of life. I remember my abuelita and uncle visiting every Thanksgiving and telling stories about their youth, from my uncle getting lost in Yosemite National Park to my abuelita regularly being dragged by the ear to Mother Superior’s office. When she came to visit, my abuelita would always share the family albums that she had stuffed in her suitcase. With every picture there was both a story and a lesson.

As immigration and relations between races become more influential issues in politics, there have been many opposing views on the treatment of minority groups. Some people believe that diversity and immigration is a threat to original identity while others believe that they are extremely beneficial to society. Writers Samuel P. Huntington in The Hispanic Challenge and Herbert Marcuse in Repressive Tolerance express these differing views regarding these important topics. Huntington takes the ‘threat to identity’ side when explaining how Mexican immigration is extremely different from European immigration. On the other hand, Marcuse takes a different route when explaining the idea of tolerance, claiming that majority groups who oppress the minority