These are the issues and topics I feel we should discuss and debate: 1. The thesis of the book makes no sense. According to Blyth, he mentions that his work focuses on the violence between the relations and the exchange of border communities (4). He says the violence between the Chiricahua and the Janos, but it is not explicit what makes the Janos different from the Hispanic communities where the Chiricahua carried out acts of war. If the issue is violence, then it eliminates peace and neutrality as valid strategies that motivate transculturation. 2. The author uses sexually explicit passages from the Coyote tales. I think the details of the tales are unnecessary to make an argument and this makes the book unsuitable for the reader. On page 54, Blyth mentions one story of Coyote where Coyote wanted to make love to a beautiful woman, but he could not make love to her because she had teeth in her vagina (if you read this part then you already know how it ends). I understand that these are the tales of Coyote, but I think it is unnecessary to use so many sexually details. I cannot deny that reading this caused me to laugh for more than two days. 3. The author repeats words many times. In the last paragraph of page seven …show more content…
I did not understand what I read. I am not sure if it was a history book or a book about the issues on the border of U.S.-Mexico. In my point of view, the conclusion was terrible. I think the end has nothing to do with this thesis (I did not understand his argument either). Blyth talked about the natives who were located in the Southwest, and then he ends with a conclusion about the problems of the borders today. Now I understand why in the preface he made a disclaimer where he cites Title 5, Code of Federal regulations. I agree when at the end of the book he mentions "we will find communities of violence in Borderlands yesterday, today and tomorrow ', but it is impossible to compare today 's violence with the violence committed two hundred years
The first main idea from the reading was redefining what it means to be Latino in America. This is a main idea
Overall the book is very thorough, asking the tough questions (Is Jim Crow alive and well in America?) and trying to find a common solution. The main focus of the book is to provide a broad range of subjects involving race and to go in depth with each to outline the problem and the solution. There is extensive legal research throughout the book to back up the authors’ claims. The best aspect of the book is that is gives both perspectives behind every issue so that the readers can make the decision for
Agreeing with Flores and Minor, Martinez believes Halamlainen’s advanced research allows the monograph to stand out. Two common weaknesses that the reviewers share involve the structure of the text. The reviewers agree that the contradictions Halamlainen makes towards the citations used in the text leads the reader to question the validity of the progression of the monograph’s arguments. Lastly, another flaw that Flores and Minor highlight is the writing style of the text. Minor states that the text is “dry”, which he believes may turn many readers away from the book.
As far as inconsistencies, the way this book was wrote, they are expected based on whether the research was done from the Texans, Mexicans, or the observer standpoint. It also seems difficult to separate the myth from the truth at times. The primary sources used are found in the Texas State Library in Austin, Benson Latin American Collection and the Baker Center for American History at the University of Texas in Austin, the DRT Library in San Antonio and many more.
It raises the question of how the Spanish viewed the natives: as people standing in the way of their gold, or fascinating and interesting people with rich culture and
Within each book, it questions the message of “culture and gender” (Louelí, “An Interpretive Assessment of Chicano Literature and Criticism”). Clearly, positive figures influenced how the Chicano community acted then and now. Rudolfo Anaya and other Chicano writers
The Mexican War was a big moment for the United states. Manifest Destiny gave America a feeling of power over land and that hype for expansion, which happened to time with the conflict between Mexico and Texas, this gave path to the war that many people think we do not talk enough about. From the book I learned that it is always interesting to look for different point of views of an event, and also that we
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).
In Rachel St. John’s book, “Line in the Sand: A History of the Western U.S.-Mexico Border,” the author offers up “a history of how and why the border changed” (St. John 1). This is her central thesis that she presents, providing evidence and historical context concerning the border and its changes over the course of the late 1800s to the mid-1900s. In seven chapters plus and introduction providing more general information and a conclusion that brings the U.S.-Mexico border situation into the present day, Rachel St. John’s focus is both periodical and geographical. St. John moves across both space and time in her book, looking at how region and era affected the border situation and how these effects differed in significance. St. John takes
For this book review, I am going to be talking about David Montejano’s book entitled Quixote’s Soldiers, A local history of the Chicano Movement, 1966-1981. The author’s purpose is very well explained and it is not hard to understand. The author clearly tries to explain different ideologies, individuals and organizations located in one of the Southwest’s major cities, San Antonio, Texas, during the late 1960s and early 190s. All these varieties mentioned above made possible that a movement was created called Chicano Movement, a group that David Montejano provides a deeply understanding and description of the movement during the reading of the book. Since, the city was governed by a tough Anglosocial elite that was firmly convinced in the way
“Aztlan, Cibola and Frontier New Spain” is a chapter in Between the Conquests written by John R. Chavez. In this chapter Chavez states how Chicano and other indigenous American ancestors had migrated and how the migration help form an important part of the Chicanos image of themselves as a natives of the south. “The Racial Politics behind the Settlement of New Mexico” is the second chapter by Martha Menchaca.
For this week I decided to write a summary of chapter 11: Anglo-Saxons and Mexicans. The new political ideologies were created between 1830 to the 1840s. These new ideas were influenced by pride and obvious racism. These beliefs inspired the idea that American Anglo-Saxons were the dominant force and that they should be the ones to shape the destiny of others. The idea of the American Anglo-Saxon race was influenced by the American Mexican war.
The reader learn certain information based on Beah’s first person point of view. Next, he highlighted facts about his life that could not be left out of his story. He implied emotion through his diction he chose to write with. My response the book was incredible satisfaction that Beah was able to escape the horrific war and migrate to another country where he would be safe from the dangers of Sierra
Octavio Paz, a Mexican poet and essayist, is one of the many philosophers with a written piece regarding his understanding of Lo Mexicano. Paz’s “Sons of La Malinche” was first published in the Labyrinth of Solitude in 1950 and is a rather grim interpretation of the Mexican character, however, it captures the crisis of identity that Mexico was burdened with after the conquest. Paz uses the Spanish term “chingar,” (when literally translated means “to screw, to violate”) and its associated phrases to understand the conquest and the effect
In the poem “To live in the Borderlands means you”, the borderlands become a place of change, such as changing from just one culture or race into a diverse culture or race and not-belonging. (Singh, A., & Schmidt, P. 2000). The poem describes how the author’s own background ethnicity people, mixicanas, identifies people like her, chicanas, as “split or mixture that means to betray your word and they deny “Anlo inside you.” (Anzaldua, F. 1987). The poem describes that the borderland is a place of contradiction, such as of home not being a home.