In-Depth

While the Lations/Hispanic/Mexican-Americans were affected by the community they live in in the U.S. their kids never ceased to stop celebrating their old celebrations. The children continuously without any hesitation they continued being a big part of their family traditions. The culture itself makes them unique and united with any other Latinos/Hispanics/Mexican-American. As their children enter into American schools, they are exposed to new traditions and traits from Americans, therefore they will end up questioning their own beliefs and ways. Only thing I don't understand is that how are each children different from their parents' personalities? Why are they still considered minorities when they populate a great deal in America? How did their culture entirely affect America and what did we accept as a 'norm'? These questions are still lingering throughout my research, bits and bits are being answered. While they had populated America they did eventually affect us as a whole in a positive way. We are accepting their language on American products for them to read it and we're learning Spanish in our own schools. If we're accepting all of these things, why is it still difficult for them to live in our society as an equal? The studies show that if we were able to combine all the wealth and population, the Hispanic American would be the third largest and wealthiest in the Latin American history.

Discrimination

In Depth:
The article I read was Chicano/a Movement. As I kept reading I got my basic questiones answered, what were the Latino/Mexican-Americans most affected in? Education, Labor and Residential were the main three I found while reading this article. I learned that schools would segregate or not let in Mexican Americans/Latinos in just because of the race/ethnicity. What it still leaves to answer is what did they see the children as for just being a Latino/Mexican? What began these stereotypes of Mexican-Americans/Latinos and why did it powerfully affect the education? The segregation was shown in the 1890's before Plessy vs. Ferguson and what comes to my mind is have there been changes in segregation between that and 1960's? How did time affect the views of Latinos and were there any changes? I also learned the difference of income for Latino/Mexican workers and how that was affected by residential segregation. This was part of the movement because they mention the need of improving the communities and labor. What I understand from the article is one part of how the Latino/Mexicans were treating in labor: low income and treatment in residential areas: poor conditions. What I would like to understand and find out more is similar to finding the stereotypes and the views that cause the segregation. Could it be because of the different language? If so did the contractors take that in advantage to pay them less and not give them a proper contract (if there needed to be one)?

given that undocumented workers are living illegally in the US, should they receive rights?

Primary:    California introduced a bill to their state legislature in the mid 1990s to try and reduce the rights and welfare opportunities to illegal immigrants. This bill, named Proposition 187, was a highly controversial bill that received national attention. However, having rights as a human, regardless of status, is unalienable. According to our Declaration Of Independence, having civil rights is unalienable, regardless of status. Henceforth, the Supreme Court ruled the Proposition was illegal and unconstitutional. In California, one of the largest latino populations in the world, illegals come to work, not to receive benefits, but to earn a decent wage. Having the bill in place doesn't make sense, all it would do is hurt the state. Does restricting the use of immunizations to illegal children make sense, when diseases don't care who they live with. Having this bill, and restricting rights, won't stop the flow of illegal immigration. People come from all over Mexico in order to find a better life and risk everything doing so. They enter an entirely different culture and lifestyle with a new language present...they leave their family home and take a lot risks doing so. These men and women have a lot of guts, and these guts are stronger than any law. Denying immigrants help and welfare is not the answer to stop immigration, it is just a way to be cruel and unconstitutional.

Why did certain changes occur?

Entry Level:

As I was reading about Hispanic/Latinos/Mexican-Americans, I've noticed that they still continue to carry over their religious views and their connections while being in America. Although, as I read further in-depth on the articles that I ran across, they are considered 'Chicanos' because they live in America. They aren't as consider to be a full Latino/Hispanic because they live in America, they are considered a little lower than those who live in their original country. The children are certainly impacted by the community around them, they typically speak both English and Spanish fluently but it depends where they live in how well they speak/pronounce. Reason for being viewed a little different than from those who live in their own country would be because the Chicanos have been influenced by American views and have their culture a little mixed with theirs. They also tend to struggle with their religious views with other Christian views that they've encountered. Lastly, I found that in each Chicano's family their children have different attitudes therefore, they can't be pictured as just the 'same' personality. These changes occurred because of the American influence in school, religions and massive diversity.

education and labor

In Depth:
I read a section in the book Battleground Immigration about the education of children who are or parents were immigrants. Because education is fundamentally related to the ability to get work, I questioned how Hispanics compared to their non-hispanic peers, and what was the root of these differences. Many Hispanic children, specifically immigrant ones, do not speak english, are illiterate, score far below average test scores, and overall cannot keep up in school. A few problems are listed that may be the cause for this huge problem. Firstly, these children fall behind in class because they cannot understand their teachers. The child speaks spanish, the teacher english, and together they cannot communicate affectively. Another problem is that they often move around between schools, states, even between the US and Mexico, too frequently to attain proper education. While this second issue is a bit more complex, as parents decide where to live, a solution is defiantly possible for the english/ spanish barrier, and many efforts are being and have been made to address the problems.

Primary:
Should illegal immigrants have the same opportunity for education, and how should schools go about teaching them?
In 1982, Plyer v. Doe entered the supreme court. The law being questioned regarded if illegal immigrants should be allowed a public education. The court decided that they should for a number of reasons  First, that it was not their fault they illegally immigrated, rather their parents', and so they do not deserve punishment. Their education does not harm anyone else, but it incredibly beneficial both to their future and the countries. They need an education to succeed, and if they succeed they may end up helping the country in ways unknown. After this, schools continued to  face the challenge of what to do with these children. Many of the kids couldn't speak english, so traditional classrooms did not teach them very much. Long before this trial even started, the idea of bilingual education started. A program in San Antonio was one of the first to deploy this idea, where the dropout rate for Hispanics reached 75% in some places. The kids were typically seen as failures, but this school gave them the opportunity to gain an education and learn english as well, which would help them in the long run.

Were there any groups that focused on increasing the amount of hispanic voters?

In order to do some more focused research on my sub-topic, Latinos and politics, I read a primary source, a newspaper that described a group that tried to increased the amount of hispanic voters. I thought this was an interesting addition to my research becasue I had focused on how the hispanics, latinos and Mexican-americans immigrated to the US, and how they were viewed in certain circumnstanes and so this article would show the affect of the cummulation of this history regarding hispanics and their voting. It would also reveal certain groups that would try to help the voting of hispanics.

In this newspaper from 1979, it described an organization called the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project (SVREP) that was devoted to trying to increase the amount of hispanic voters in southern states such as Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, California and Colorado. Part of their inspiration was the lack of hispanic voters in years before. This newspaper mentioned that in 1976 38% of eligible hispanic voters actually voted in the election. Considering in the same year 54% of the eligible US population voted, this number is very low. I wondered, why? If the hispanics, latinos and Mexican-americans are eligible to vote, why aren't as many voting? Is it a lack of appealing candidates? Further research needs to be done about more voting patterns of hispanics and certain elections that they have been a huge part of to understand their effects politcally speaking.

I thought it was interesting that William Velasquez, one of the leaders of SVREP, said that the reason for this lack of hispanic voters was that there were political boundaries that kept the percentage of hispanic voters low. What were these political boundaries? Who enforced them? How did they start? Were they ever abolished? If so, how? Does this have anything to do with discrimination against hispanics? Further research needs to be done to find answers to these questions.

Primary: Why did the Spanish language get integrated into schools in the United States?

While researching more about this question, I came upon some articles from that period when Spanish was integrated into schools. In a newspaper article titled, Bilingual classes aid Mexican-Americans, Armando Rodriguez, chief of the Mexican-American Affairs Unit in the U.S. Office of Education explained "Bilingual education, means teaching the child educational concepts in all phases of the curriculum in his mother tongue while he is learning English." This was significant to my question since it explained how they don't want to teach Spanish as well as English in schools but rather help students learn English by explaining to them in Spanish. I think this is very important since it actually helps the students understand what they are learning rather then just spiting out information to them which they have to memorize but can't learn. This article also explains the main three reasons why bilingual schooling is important. First is so spanish students don't dropout. Second is so they don't fail the curriculum. Third is so they can hire more teachers which can properly communicate with the students. I find these important in the future of the country. 
In another article titled, How to Tame a Wild Tongue, the Gloria Anzaldua talks about her childhood and how she was punished for speaking in Spanish. She explains how, " I remember being sent to the corner of the classroom for "talking back" to the Anglo teacher when all I was trying to do was tell her how to pronounce my name. "If you want to be American, speak 'American'. If you don't like it, go back to Mexico where you belong." I found this shocking how she got in trouble for being herself. This is a good example of why schools needed to be integrated with Spanish, so discrimination like this doesn't happen.