Latinx Studies

For myself, this class started out as just a requirement for my major as a general elective, but the funny thing about life is that things do not always stay the same and that includes how I view things.  I have really come to enjoy Introduction to Latino/a Cultural Studies.  I see this class as a chance to learn about another race or ethnicity that I would not be able to in my other classes.  The only types of history I know is that of the United States because of elementary school, middle school, and high school.  I barely know anything about my own ethnicity's history... Except for the fact that Spain ruled over the Philippines for like 300 years.  US history is taught as a requirement but it was surprising to learn that Latino/a Studies formed through opposition and strife unlike US history.  I feel that it is wrong to just form a study such as a race's history just because of opposition.  I feel that it is a necessity for those that are descendants of that race, ethnicity, and culture.  According to the reader that was assigned for this class, the second generation will only see culture as optional.  It became apparent as to what good a class such as Latino/a Studies can have on students born in the US thanks to "Precious Knowledge."  The students finally felt like they belonged in the school and community and their grades showed significant improvement thanks to those Ethnic Studies classes.  Classes like these also help outsiders become aware of what happened to those people coming into the states and may even help stimulate people to try and help future generations not suffer the same mistakes.  For me this class opened my eyes to the fact that I need to be grateful to my parents that left their homes and came to the US to give their children a better chance at a life.  I finally understand the pains that my dad went through the 10 years he was here without my mom and the pains my mom felt when she left the Philippines to come to the US.  She had to adapt to an environment where she had to do everything herself unlike in the Philippines where there are nannies for the children and the household chores.  My mom used to tell me about how hard it was especially with a 5 year old daughter, which was my sister.  I wish that there were more classes like Latino/a Studies for those of different backgrounds like myself.  This class opened my eyes to the importance of knowing one's history.  I count as one of those second generation children that tend to see culture as "optional", which I hate to admit.  For all the future generations it is important to teach, preserve, and document one's history so that it is never forgotten.

Borderlands La Frontera The New Mestiza by Gloria Anzaldua

What separates all the states from each other?  What separates North America from Mexico below it or Canada above it?  To answer those questions, borders.  But what is a border?  According to Gloria Anzaldua, a border is what defines the places that are safe and unsafe and distinguish us from them.  Borders are not usually a problem but there is only one that is... the border that separates North America from Mexico.  At the time this was written, the "Tortilla Curtain" was 1,950 miles long and divided a pueblo and culture.  Not only was it long and unfair but it kept people from reaching a "place of prosperity", which is the United States.  Sometimes these borders create was is called a borderland, which is made by emotional residue of an unnatural border that is always changing.  What made me angry about people talking about a borderland was who they considered to be living there.  Anzaldua pointed out that the inhabitants of a borderland are the prohibited and forbidden, such as those who are squinted-eyed, perverse, queer, troublesome, mongrel, mulato, half-breed, and half-dead.  Also the "legitimate inhabitants" are those in power and whites, and those who align themselves with whites.  Why is there even a division between those who live in the borderlands?  There should not be at all because people are who they are because that is who they choose to be and everyone else should accept others choices. 
Later on in the text, Anzaldua mentioned what happened to the land that originally belong to those Chicanos and Indian landowners.  The fact that people had their land was taken away without a chance of trying to raise the money to keep it made me extremely angry.  Even Mama Locha was not able to be buried next to her husband because her land was taken and the cemetery was locked and trespassers would be shot.  To me that is just sad that they could not even return to their homeland to be buried with their loved ones.  Lands that have been in their families for long periods of time were just gone.  What happened to those landowners after they were taken was even worse in my eyes.  Her father after became a sharecropper that had to give over 40% of his earnings along with the compensation for his loans.  He even had to watch the land that was taken be turned up by fellow Mexicans just to be made into fields for growing a profit.  To me and most definitely for them just watching that must have been heart wrenching.  At this rate, Mexicans had returned home because of no employment but they quickly learned that they had to chose between staying in Mexico and starving or going up North and living.  The result was that they all traveled North but it was not easy.  Sometimes Border Patrol would take those that they found into the woods and shoot them right there.  Those people give up everything to come to the US and lose their lives looking for a chance of a better life.  Those who even do make it do not a better life but they are still living.  All they wanted to do was try to have a better life or provide a better life for their family why would you kill them?!?
What made me feel worse was the treatment of women who wanted to enter the US and did it through a smuggler.  These women were trying to provide for their families but met difficult times where sometimes she would be starved for days and was not even allowed to go to the bathroom and even worse she was raped or sold into prostitution.  She did all this to get to to the US and suffered just horrifying experiences. What this means is a perfect chance for PTSD.  They achieved what they wanted but at such a horrifying price. I feel that the US should do everything in their power to try and prevent such experiences for those trying to come in. 

Spit and Passion by Cristy C. Road

This graphic novel was about a Cuban American, the author, who did not fit in with the mold of her culture and had identified as a different sexual orientation.  She kept her sexuality a secret for many years and found freedom through music, cartoons, etc. 

Questions for the Author:

1. While you still lived at home and the jokes about gay people occurred, how did you feel? 
2. Did you have any internal conflicts with yourself because of how you identified yourself and the way you were raised?
3. When you revealed your sexual orientation to your parents and family, what was their reaction?  Did they support you?
4. Was there ever a time where revealing your sexuality to a group of friends changed the way they interacted with you?  
5. Was there ever a time where you thought you should not have revealed your sexuality?  Do you still think that way today? 
6. What was it about Green Day that appealed to you so much? 

Conceptualizing the Latina Experience in Care Work

I feel that it is important to understand what exactly care work is because I didn't know what it was when I first read those words.  Care work are live-in positions, such as private household workers, nannies, caregivers, maids, etc.  It is basically positions where someone comes and lives in your house to help with household chores or even child care.
Looking back in United States history, these were unpaid positions during the time of slavery.  It is because of slavery that White women were given certain privileges, such as freedom from house work and cooking, to give them time for other things.  Even after slavery, Black women would still travel North in search of higher paying live-in positions in the domestic service.  Japanese American and Mexican Americans shared the same racialized trajectory as the Black women.  It is a fact that the history of domestic service in the United States followed a racial hierarchical hiring pattern in the labor force.  Those positions in domestic service had no job security of benefits making it easier for people to leave the job when jobs outside domestic service become available.  Due to people leaving the positions, Black women and Mexican immigrants were the majority in the occupation.  With them becoming the majority in the occupation, the employers started to hire people based on racialized preferences.  What does it mean to have racialized preferences?  Employers had preferences for women their imagined were good for cleaning, childcare, and live-in positions.  These preferences were constituted based on the immigrants race and ethnicity. 
What is the problem with these preferences though?  Those that are apart of those races and ethnicities were not able to experience upward mobility.  European immigrant women were the only ones that were able to go through upward mobility to other occupations and leave domestic service.  Because of the preferences some jobs have towards race and ethnicity is in my mind ridiculous.  If a person has the work ethic, knowledge of the job, and the qualifications for the job, then they should be hired regardless of their race or ethnicity.  A person's race should not have any leverage or create a disadvantage to getting a job.  Look at what a person can do, their personality, resume, etc. and not their appearance, race, or ethnicity when hiring for a job.