Mexican-Americans have been labeled socially in America numerous times and each one hasn’t been much different than the previous. With this being said, Mexicans in America have had difficulties trying to establish themselves into American society while either assimilating into the Anglo-Saxon culture or defying the Anglo-Saxons’ by enforcing their own. Regardless they were heavily faced with discrimination among the Euro-Americans throughout the course of Post Mexican-American War and up until the Great Depression.
During the Mexican-American War time period there was many questions hovering over the Americans heads on how they will bring about a new race, called the Mexicans, and their impact on American society in the West. While fifty-years later in the future, the Mexican people are still of concern in America as the Great Depression wreaks havoc on America’s economy and society. After the Mexican-American War, the Americans began to colonize the West, bringing in the second colonization or double colonization of the land where two different groups of people occupy the same region forcibly. …show more content…
With double colonization this “resulted in a situation in which everyone...jockeyed for a position...in [a] multiracial terrain” (Ch 2. Gomez. 48.) and thus came the division of social classes all based on race. Where Mexicans were “granted federal citizenship by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo” (Gomez, Ch. 2. 64), but even though they were U.S citizens they weren’t socially accepted as whites. They were the “legal definition of...‘white’” (Ch. 3 Gomez. 83), but were actually portrayed as “drunks”,“semi-civilized”, and “lazy” group of people who weren’t capable of contributing much in the American society. There are instances where Mexican-Americans gave into the Euro-Americans society and tried to achieve a higher status by becoming elites, however their “claim to whiteness was both weak and conditional” (Ch. 3, Gomez. 87) and were stuck as “inferiors” to the Euro-Americans and so the struggle continued nearly eighty years later. It was a time of despair for the United States and its economy as it drastically declined. At the time Americans had no one else to blame, but the Mexicans during the Great Depression. There were many things happening socially for the Mexican people as their statuses began to change, yet stay the same compared to eighty years earlier. The Great Depression was a burden for all Americans and it was believed that “Mexican immigrants were taking the lion’s share of public relief” (All That… Kropp. 35) and because of that they were deported many, of which who were citizens of the United States. Mexicans were now targets and personally I found it somewhat …show more content…
In the case of Olvera Street, Mexicans were seen as a form of entertainment rather than equals. In fact it was as if they were being pitied in some cases, rather than hated. Christine Sterling , one of the founders of Olvera Street, has asserted that “[Olvera Street] reduced the public relief burden” (Our Spanish…, Kropp. 45), that Mexicans were to be blamed of. Mexican-Americans were beginning to realize their potential and the effects they had in the community and began to take advantage of it - retaliation. Retaliation of the people who used them for entertainment and aesthetics, and turned it against them with murals and fiestas that expressed how they felt politically and socially. Which I’ll actually discuss this topic more in depth and the use of public space in the next
During the Mexican-American War time period there was many questions hovering over the Americans heads on how they will bring about a new race, called the Mexicans, and their impact on American society in the West. While fifty-years later in the future, the Mexican people are still of concern in America as the Great Depression wreaks havoc on America’s economy and society. After the Mexican-American War, the Americans began to colonize the West, bringing in the second colonization or double colonization of the land where two different groups of people occupy the same region forcibly. …show more content…
With double colonization this “resulted in a situation in which everyone...jockeyed for a position...in [a] multiracial terrain” (Ch 2. Gomez. 48.) and thus came the division of social classes all based on race. Where Mexicans were “granted federal citizenship by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo” (Gomez, Ch. 2. 64), but even though they were U.S citizens they weren’t socially accepted as whites. They were the “legal definition of...‘white’” (Ch. 3 Gomez. 83), but were actually portrayed as “drunks”,“semi-civilized”, and “lazy” group of people who weren’t capable of contributing much in the American society. There are instances where Mexican-Americans gave into the Euro-Americans society and tried to achieve a higher status by becoming elites, however their “claim to whiteness was both weak and conditional” (Ch. 3, Gomez. 87) and were stuck as “inferiors” to the Euro-Americans and so the struggle continued nearly eighty years later. It was a time of despair for the United States and its economy as it drastically declined. At the time Americans had no one else to blame, but the Mexicans during the Great Depression. There were many things happening socially for the Mexican people as their statuses began to change, yet stay the same compared to eighty years earlier. The Great Depression was a burden for all Americans and it was believed that “Mexican immigrants were taking the lion’s share of public relief” (All That… Kropp. 35) and because of that they were deported many, of which who were citizens of the United States. Mexicans were now targets and personally I found it somewhat …show more content…
In the case of Olvera Street, Mexicans were seen as a form of entertainment rather than equals. In fact it was as if they were being pitied in some cases, rather than hated. Christine Sterling , one of the founders of Olvera Street, has asserted that “[Olvera Street] reduced the public relief burden” (Our Spanish…, Kropp. 45), that Mexicans were to be blamed of. Mexican-Americans were beginning to realize their potential and the effects they had in the community and began to take advantage of it - retaliation. Retaliation of the people who used them for entertainment and aesthetics, and turned it against them with murals and fiestas that expressed how they felt politically and socially. Which I’ll actually discuss this topic more in depth and the use of public space in the next