How Did Spanish Culture Influence Mexican Culture

The Aztecs were a very religious group who were disciplined and independent. They were powerful warriors that conquered and raided neighbouring cities. The Aztec were educated and formed defense alliances, but this could not help the Aztec’s society as they were all killed off by the Spanish. This conflict and defeat of the Aztecs was unavoidable. It was unavoidable because of the Spanish’s obsession with gold, god, glory. Gold might have been the biggest cause of the Aztec empire's collapse. At the time of the conquest gold meant power and wealth. This meant the Spanish knew in order to get more gold they needed to expand. Secondly god, god was another big reason why, the Aztec empire had collapsed. The Spaniards and Islam were also in conflict,

For a majority of cultures in the world, change is inevitable. The influences that lead to change occur along the cultural borders of the given culture. According to Pérez-Torres (211), cultural borders are the differences unique to a culture vis-à-vis other cultures. Cultural changes can occur when other cultures influence a given culture or when it resists the interchange with another culture and instead change emanates from within. The latter explains the changes in the Mexican American cultural identity. The Mexican-American culture has undergone a lot of changes over time. Through the studies by Anzaldúa (530) and Menchaca (45), it can be seen how the culture has changed from ‘Chicano’ to ‘Chicana/o’ and finally to ‘Xicanx.’ Resistance

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

Assimilation means to adapt into a new culture and become a part of them. “People of different backgrounds and beliefs undergo assimilation when, through living together, they come to see themselves as part of a larger community.” The reason why you see assimilation often in Chicano/a Literature is because many Mexicans try to blend into the American culture. Many Chicanos write stories about what they have lived through the years or stories they have heard from their love ones growing up. Some have had first-hand experience of assimilating into the American culture by trying to blend in and become accepted that they start to lose or deny a part of their identities. In the story of “Aria”, by Richard Rodriguez, being Mexican American was a challenge for him in which he struggled with having two identities. Since he spoke Spanish in an American society,

It’s not a coincidence that every year on the second Monday of October, students have a day off from school. That day is used to commemorate Christopher Columbus’s arrival to the Americas. Christopher Columbus and many other explores departed from Europe seeking to discover new land. This time in history became know as the Age of Exploration. Historians debate whether the Age of Exploration is as great as it is said to be. There were several downsides to the Age of Exploration. This time period in history should clearly be remembered, but not celebrated due diseases that traveled and killed millions, and the unfair treatment of native peoples.

These differences were also smaller details under the larger ideas of barbarianism, new cultures, and the even bigger idea of inhumanity. The Spanish saw the Native Americans as slaves because they showed to be hard laborers and gave into the Spanish power. The Native Americans had a natural knack for manual tasks, so much that most Spaniards compared them to insects because both insects and Native Americans could do certain tasks that normal humans, such as high class Spaniards, could not. The Spaniards would never do such work as they believed that work was meant for slaves. When the Spanish took over the Aztec capital city, Sepúlveda remarks of how the Native Americans were “oppressed and fearful at the beginning.” The Native Americans were seen as weak willed, for they barely resisted the conquest of their homes. If the Native Americans showed no incentive of retaliating and were better at manual work, it seemed natural to the Spanish that they be enslaved. The Native Americans, on the other hand, saw the Spanish in a different light as well as they watched many Spaniards become obsessed with gold. The Spanish were given Gold as gifts and went crazy just holding it and lusting for more, like savage monkeys. The Spanish, by nature, couldn’t help but become greedy monsters for gold, because in Europe riches were equivalent to power. They could care less about how the Native Americans acquired the gold; all that mattered was that they had it, and the Spanish could take it. These differences in detail are just fragments of the overall beliefs both groups shared, which were barbarianism and inhumanity. Therefore these differences are far less significant than the

‘Lo Mexicano’ is a phrase-turned-concept in 20th century Mexican philosophy. The term literally translates to “the Mexican,” however, it is also used to superficially describe the identity of the Mexican individual. The notion came about after the revolution; the phrase was meant to emphasize and unite Mexico as an independent people. Today, the phrase is understood as an all encompassing term for “mexicanness,” or that which makes someone a true mexican.

Selena Quintanilla’s father once said, “We have to be more Mexican than the Mexicans and more American than the Americans.” In today’s society, many have encountered the challenge of not being able to be who they really are because they fear not being accepted by others, more specifically their culture. But, what happens when an individual is part of two worlds that have just as many rules? Gloria E. Anzaldúa was a Mexican-American writer and poet who made a major contribution to the fields of cultural, feminist, and queer theory. Anzaldúa identifies as a Chicana and speaks different variations of Spanish, some of which she exhibits in her works. In her short story “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, she centers on the struggles of self-identity that

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.

The Spaniards made a big impact in the Americas. They killed many Incas,Tainos, and Aztecs. These populations lost many including their emperors. On the Spaniard 's side they had power by killing Atahualpa and Montezuma they could create colonies and take riched back to their country. The Spaniards weren 't the only ones to look for riches in the New World. Portugal conquered big parts of Central and South

The American Dream differs from person to person. Every dream consists of striving towards success for a better future. In The Tortilla Curtain, T.C Boyle delves into what the American Dream is to the middle class American family, the Mossbacher’s, and to the illegal immigrant family, the Rincon’s. Throughout the story, it becomes apparent that that the ability for the poverty-stricken Rincon family to achieve their dream is unrealistic. The American Dream is presented to be close to unobtainable to those who need it the most through the use of the coyote, the Arroyo Blanco community, and Cándido’s luck.

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. Both readings claim that Hispanics are here to stay, but with opposing views on how this affects society.

When the Spanish conquered Mexico, they tried to impose old world techniques and spices onto the Mexicans. Spain began to introduce new foods into Mexican cuisine, such as wheat, meats, and olive oil. Spain was able to take techniques from mexican cuisine and blend it into their own. Native americans were also looked as like lower class people. Higher social groups like the europeans were trying to convert Native Americans to act and become civilized. Civilized meaning participating in traditions that the Spanish did. By introducing these new traditions on to the people of Mexico they slowly gained popularity and brought different people together. For example Spaniards created a different society to protect indigenous people, they slowly started to

During 1942-1964 many Mexican immigrants were “given” the “opportunity” to enter the United States in order to labor and help the United States economic industry. For many immigrants the bordering country was seen as an exceptional place that offered great opportunities but at the same time many family difficulties. The Bracero Program during the 20th century for many Mexicans was seen as an exceptional deal that offered immigrants and infinite amount of opportunities to succeed; however, in Ejemplar y sin igual we realize that the Bracero Program in reality was not the “exceptional program” everyone thought. In Ejemplar y sin igual, Elizabeth Rosas mentions that “an entire generation of children experienced uniquely difficult childhoods because

In May of 1943, the FBI issued a nationwide search of draft dodgers which allowed them to find 638 fugitives who were trying to escape the draft. This left hundreds of servicemen were on the attack in Los Angeles for a particular group of people who were known as zoot-suiters, or Mexican-American people who were easily identified by their excessive forms of dress. The zoot-suiters were not only outcasts by their choice of dress, but also due to the fact they were recent immigrants who were pushed from their former home in Southern California to their new home in the urban areas of Los Angeles due to the Depression back in the late 1930s. These young Mexican-Americans were the new minority in town, and were deprived of jobs and resources which