Latino Americans: Episode 1
Share your reflections on this episode. What specific information do you believe is important to retain? What details will you likely remember one year from now?
Diversity, Intersectionality, Otherness
First-Year Seminar in Critical Inquiry
This episode was so deep and wrought with emotion, especially with the narrative from an orphan with such a different and interesting past. Manifest Destiny was a drive that affected and changed so many Latino lives and because of this, Mexicans were forced to assimilate into California and other places’ cultures in the United States.
I think it’s also really important to show the military leaders who are Latinos and who became heroes but were unable to really integrate into American culture and society because they were not seen as actual Americans. Mexicans were murdered because of racism all across America as “true” Americans sent them off their lands. It’s interesting and unfortunate to me that I’ve never learned so much about the rebellions and strong military leaders that were Latinos and all they achieved. Not only this, but many more things came from Latinos and their culture, although many refused to acknowledge that during this time and I’ve learned almost nothing about any of it.
I think the sort of thing that will stick with me in over a year from now will be the fact that Latinos felt like strangers in their own territories. Their children were sold like cattle to go to places like California. People refuse to acknowledge that St. Augustine was established before Jamestown, and the first European language spoken in America was not English, but Spanish. The Mexican-American War and the Gold Rush are both very important to keep in mind and I think I’ll remember them both a year from now, as they completely shifted the lives of Mexicans as much of its resources and even Mexican lives were now being taken away by Americans.
In the episode Foreigners in Their Own Land it was evident through many different acts that the Latinos in California were treated with no respect and were shown by the Americans that they had no sense of dominance. This is significant because the Americans over ran the Latinos land. Even as the first language spoken on those grounds was Spanish, and the Latino culture had been rooted into the land, Americans made them feel inferior. Something I will definitely remember a year from now is how severe the Americans were with their acts of Violence. Lynching as a sign of dominance over the Latino people is something that should be retained from the video as a physical sign of hate and influence. Not only do the Americans act physically, but also by playing on the emotions of the Latinos by capturing Vallejo. This is significant because the Latino race was so irritated by this action that they refused to be like Americans in any sense of life. One woman went as far as to say the Spanish rejected learning how to speak english just because it was an American trait. It is important to retain the fact that the Spanish were treated like outsiders in a town they had settled in by physical and emotional dangers through vicious acts of the Americans.
This episode, Foreigners in Their Own Land, is very powerful and taught me many new things about American history. The program unfolded the Western states in a new light; it revealed to me the violence and bloodshed that occurred in the Western United States. Once the Europeans started sailing over to America, the corruption eventually began. The Spaniards, wanting to start a Spanish nation in America, unjustly forced Mexican (and many orphan children) to come to California. I think the most important information to retain is the discrimination Mexicans faced when they first migrated to the United States. It’s important to know the oppression they faced, so we may build a more unprejudiced and blissful society. The best thing to do for these people who lived in the dire conditions is to remember their memory and fight for social justice in their honor. I also think that there are very interesting facts to remember; for example, that the first European language to be spoken in the United States was Spanish. It helps to put the immigration problem in America into perspective; it shows that this country has a unique array of cultures.
Also, I thought it was empowering that women were greatly involved with the missions in California and helped keep it running.
In one year from now, the things that’ll stick with me are the revolts the Mexicans started in attempt to bring justice to their people, and the horrors these people have experienced. Especially how the Mexicans did not receive any empathy from the Anglos. Especially, when the Anglos created postcards with pictures of the lynched Mexicans from the Gold Rush. I hope that people today, especially people in political power, can learn from the things the first Mexicans have unfortunately experienced in America.
Watching this episode, I was really intrigued. The only major thing I got out of this was how typical “history-book” information didn’t 100% match up with this video. Normally, people learn of how the Europeans took over land and how they prospered over money and workers. What people never learned was the Latinos side of the story. Their property was taken, land was destroyed, and innocent people were in trouble because of it. The account of the narrative of the girl from the capital of Monterrey gave insight on how the other side of the story was. There was a lot of mental damage involved, but no one talked about it until now. A year from now, I don’t think I’ll remember so much from this other than how Manifest Destiny and the Mexican-American war changed a lot about the history of Mexicans, specifically, and how much damage it caused.
The PBS Latino American episode “Foreigners in their Own Land” primarily focuses on the history of the Mexican-Americans in the United States during the time period where the U.S expanded onto Spanish territory in the South-West and provides a broad introduction into the series. Initially, Mexicans welcomed foreigners from the United States into California while they came to inhabit California for only wealth (Gold Rush) and land ownership (Manifest Destiny). The settlers that came into California transformed it to what they wanted it to be, causing Mexicans to feel threatened with racial discrimination, violence, and hate. I think it is really important to realize how Mexicans were never seen as true Americans, even when serving as military heroes and leaders. Impressively enough, Mexicans, even though faced with such difficulties, were able to later perserve Latino culture while standing in the midst of an era of disposession. Personally, I am surprised at the fact that Latino American history stretches so far back in history and believe that Latino history in the United States has been ignored and put to the side. I think this episode is crucial and important in setting the record straight of Latino history and inform people of what actually occured in the history of not only California but also the South-West. Furthermore, this episode made me feel bad for the Mexican inhabitants of California that while although evident were there first, settlers never took it into consideration. This episode is clearly the story of how Mexicans were treated as “foreigners in their own land.” and how they became second-class citizens at best.