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TRANSCRIPT
SECONDARY RESOURCES FOR
CELEBRATING HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH
“Getting Involved: Our Families, Our Community, Our Nation”
September 15 – October 15, 2008
Curriculum and Instruction, Social Sciences
Miami-Dade County Public Schools
THE SCHOOL BOARD OF MIAMI‐DADE COUNTY, FLORIDA
Mr. Agustin J. Barrera, Chair
Ms. Perla Tabares Hantman, Vice Chair
Mr. Renier Diaz de la Portilla
Ms. Evelyn Langlieb Greer
Dr. Wilbert “Tee” Holloway
Dr. Martin Karp
Ms. Ana Rivas Logan
Dr. Marta Pérez
Dr. Solomon C. Stinson
Ms. Angelique Gayle Student Advisor
Dr. Rudolph F. Crew
Superintendent of Schools
Ms. Antoinette Dunbar Assistant Superintendent Curriculum and Instruction
Ms. Milagros R. Fornell Assistant Superintendent
Secondary Curriculum and Instruction
Mr. John R. Doyle Administrative Director
Curriculum and Instruction, Social Sciences
CONTENTS
Legislative History of Hispanic Heritage Month
List of Local Museums
Latin American and Latino Studies Reader (With special thanks to the University of Florida’s Center for Latin American Studies)
Hispanic Heritage Activities
Internet Resource Sheet
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY OF
HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH
PUBLIC LAW 90‐498, Approved September 17, 1968, 90th Congress
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that the President is hereby authorized and requested to issue annually a proclamation designating the week including September 15 and 16 as “National Hispanic Heritage Week” and calling upon the people of the United States, especially the educational community, to observe such week with appropriate ceremonies and activities.
PROCLAMATION 4310, September 4, 1974 – Partial text
(Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, Gerald R. Ford, 1974, U.S. Government printing office)
Now, THEREFORE, I GERALD R. FORD, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the week beginning September 10, 1974, and ending September 16, 1974, as National Hispanic Heritage Week. I call upon all the people of the United States, especially the education community and those organizations concerned with the protection of human rights, to observe that week with appropriate ceremonies and activities.
PUBLIC LAW 100‐402, Approved August 17, 1988, 100th Congress
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatitives of the United States of American in Congress assembled,
Section 1. AUTHORIZE THE DESIGNATION OF THE NATIONAL HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH.
The joint resolution entitled “Joint resolution authorizing the President to proclaim annually the week including September 15 and 16" and inserting “31‐day period beginning September 15 and ending on October 15";
by striking “Week” and inserting “Month”; and
by striking “week” and inserting “month”.
Section 2. EFFECTIVE DATE.
The amendments made by section 1 shall take effect on January 1 of the first year beginning after the date of the enactment of this Act.
Museums
• The Art Museum at Florida International University
University Park, PC110, Miami, FL. 33139 – (305) 348‐2890
http://thefrost.fiu.edu/
Oscar B. Cintas Fellowship Foundation Collection.
The permanent collection is comprised of works of artists of Cuban descent who have received Cintas Fellowships. This collection includes over 189 objects.
• Cuban Museum of Arts & Culture
1300 SW 12th Avenue, Miami, FL. 33129 – (305) 858‐8006
A small museum with a permanent collection of work by Cuban artists. It also hosts a number of traveling Cuban exhibitions throughout the year.
• Historical Museum of South Florida
101 West Flagler Street, Miami, FL. 33130 – (305) 375‐1492
www.historical‐museum.org
• Miami Art Museum
101 West Flagler Street, Miami, FL. 33130 – (305) 375‐3000
www.miamiartmuseum.org
Looking at international art from the perspective of the Americas, the Miami Art Museum’s exhibition program brings together different cultural traditions as a reflection of South Florida’s community and Miami’s unique location at the gateway of the America’s. It has created the largest art education program in Miami‐Dade County.
Florida Hispanic Heritage Timetable
1492 The Spaniards land on an island called San Salvador ‐ either present‐day Watling Island or Samana Cay in the eastern Bahamas.
Columbus and his crews land on the northeastern shore of Cuba.
1493 On his second voyage, Columbus discovers the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
1494 After establishing Isabela on La Española (Hispaniola), the first permanent European settlement in the New World, Columbus sets sail and encounters Jamaica.
1508 Juan Ponce de León sails in a small caravel for Puerto Rico, where he establishes friendly relations with the native chieftain, Agueibana, who presents him with gold.
1509 Ponce de León is appointed governor of Puerto Rico.
1510 Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar departs with more than 300 men to conquer Cuba, and lands at Puerto Escondido. Arawak chieftain Hatuey leads several deadly raids against the Spanish, but the Spanish defeat their resistance.
1511 Velázquez is commissioned governor of Cuba. That same year the Cuban Indians are subjected to the encomienda system, in which each Spaniard is given land and Native American slaves to work it.
1512 The Jeronymite Fathers in La Española decide to save the decimated Arawak population by gathering them into missions. Soon, missions spread like wildfire throughout the Spanish Empire.
1513 Juan Ponce de León lands on the shores of Florida, exploring most of the coastal regions and some of the interior. At the time, there were an estimated 100,000 Native Americans living there.
1514 Ponce de León is granted a patent, empowering him to colonize the island of Bimini and the island of Florida.
Diego Velázquez becomes a virtual feudal lord of Cuba, and establishes what are to become Cuba's two largest cities, Santiago and Havana. He also directs the explorations of the Mexican Gulf.
1518 Hernán Cortés sets out from Cuba to explore the mainland of Mexico in order to confirm reports of the existence of large, native civilizations in the interior.
1519 Alonso Alvarez de Pineda claims Texas for Spain.
Hernán Cortés lands on the coast of Veracruz, Mexico.
1520 Explorer Alvarez de Pineda settles the question of Florida's geography: He proves it is not an island, but part of a vast continent.
Under the leadership of Cuitlahuac, the Aztecs force the Spaniards out of Veracruz, just a year after the Spaniards had come into the city. The Spaniards called this La noche triste (The Sad Night). Aztec chief Moctezuma was stoned to death by his own people during this debacle.
1520s Continuing their maritime adventures, the Spanish explorers cruise along the northern shore of the Gulf of Mexico, seeing Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas, and also sailing up the Atlantic coast to the Carolinas.
1521 Cortés and his fellow Spaniards level the Aztec empire's city of Tenochtitlán, and begin building Mexico City on the same site.
1524 King Charles establishes the Council of the Indies, designed to oversee the administration of the colonies of the New World.
1536 In Mexico City rumors were that Cabeza de Vaca and his companions had discovered cities laden with gold and silver in the American Southwest, reviving the legend of the Seven Cities, which dated from the Moorish invasion of the Iberian Peninsula.
1537 Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca returns to Spain and spends some three years writing La relación, an account of his wanderings in the North American continent. Published in 1542, La relación is a document of inestimable value because of the many first descriptions about the flora, fauna, and inhabitants of what was to become part of the United States.
1539 From Havana, Cuba, Hernando de Soto sets sail for Florida and begins exploring the present‐day U.S. Southeast.
1540 There are an estimated 66 Pueblo villages in the area of New Mexico, growing such crops as corn, beans, squash, and cotton.
1541 Coronado sets out to reach Quivira‐thought to be the legendary Cities of Gold‐near present‐day Great Bend, Kansas.
1542 The New Laws are proclaimed, designed to end Spain's feudal encomienda.
Juan Rodríguez de Cabrillo, a Portuguese sailor commissioned by the viceroy to sail north of Mexico's west coast in search of treasures, enters what he describes as an excellent port‐present‐day San Diego, California.
1564 Spanish missionaries introduce grapes to California.
1565 Saint Augustine, Florida, the earliest settlement in North America, is founded. It remains a possession of Spain until 1819.
1573 The Franciscan order arrives in Florida to establish missions, which a century later would extend along the east coast of North America, from Saint Augustine, Florida, to North Carolina and westward to present‐day Tallahassee.
1580s Diseases have all but wiped out the Indians of Puerto Rico.
1590 Juan de Fuca navigates his ships to the northern coast of the current state of Washington.
1598 Portuguese sailor Juan de Oñate begins the colonization of New Mexico and introduces livestock breeding to the American Southwest.
1610 Santa Fe, New Mexico is founded.
1680 A Pueblo Indian named Popé leads a rebellion that forces the Spaniards and Christianized Indians out of northern New Mexico southward toward El Paso, Texas.
The first royal mercedes (land grants) are granted to Spaniards in the fertile valleys of Monclova, in northern Mexico, just south of the present border.
1690 The first permanent Spanish settlement in Texas, San Francisco de los Tejas, near the Nueces River, is established.
1691 Texas is made a separate Spanish province with Don Domingo de Terán as its governor.
Jesuit missionary Eusebio Kino makes the first inroads into Arizona. By 1700, Kino establishes a mission at San Xavier del Bac, near present‐day Tucson; he later establishes other missions in Arizona: Nuestra Señora de los Dolores, Santa Gertrudis de Saric, San José de Imuris, Nuestra Señora de los Remedios, and San Cayetano de Tumacácori.
1693 The Spanish Crown orders the abandonment of its new province, Texas, because of fear of Indian uprisings.
Concerns about possible French encroachment prompt the Spaniards to reoccupy Texas in 1716 by establishing a series of missions, serving to both ward off the French and convert the natives to Catholicism. Of these missions, San Antonio, founded in 1718, is the most important and most prosperous.
1717 English and French slave trading companies secure permission to bring African slaves into Spanish lands in the Americas.
The San Antonio de Béjar and de Valero churches are built where the city of San Antonio is located today.
1738 The first free black community in what became the mainland United States was established at Fort Mose in Spanish Florida.
1760 Captain Blas Maria de la Garza Falcón obtains a grant to 975,000 acres of land in Texas. In time, this ranch will become the King Ranch, the largest cattle ranch in the United States. Large‐scale ranching in Texas has begun.
In the peace treaty after the Seven Years' War (1756‐1763), France cedes claims to American holdings. Britain gains Canada and all of the French territories east of the Mississippi, and also receives Florida from Spain. France gives Louisiana and its lands west of the Mississippi to Spain to keep them out of British hands. Overnight, New Spain's territory expands dramatically.
1766 King Charles III expels the Jesuits from the Spanish Empire. With the Jesuits gone, the Franciscans become the primary missionaries in Spanish America.
The presidio of San Francisco is founded, becoming Spain's northernmost frontier outpost.
1769 Franciscan missionary Junípero de Serra establishes the first mission of Alta California in what would become San Diego. Serra eventually founded ten missions, traveled more than 10,000 miles, and converted close to 6,800 natives.
1770‐
1790 At least 50,000 African slaves are brought to Cuba to work in sugar production.
1774 Pedro de Garcés, a Spanish Franciscan missionary, founds the first overland route to California.
1776 Anglo‐Americans declare their independence from England. The thirteen former British colonies come to be known as the United States of America in 1781.
1783 Spain regains Florida.
1790s‐
1820s Hispanic settlements begin to thrive in Pimería Alta (California). At one point as many as 1,000 Hispanics live in the Santa Cruz Valley.
1798 The Alien Act of 1798 grants the U.S. president the authority to expel any alien deemed dangerous. Opposed by President Thomas Jefferson, the Alien Act expires under its own terms in 1800.
The Naturalization Act of 1798 raises the number of years, from 5 to 14, an immigrant has to live in the United States before becoming eligible for citizenship.
1801 Large, sprawling haciendas with huge herds of cattle and sheep characterize the economy and society of northeast New Spain.
1803 A powerful France under Napoleon Bonaparte acquires from Spain the Louisiana Territory, which was ceded during the Seven Years' War in the previous century. Napoleon, vying for dominance in Europe and in need of quick revenue, sells the vast territory to the United States, thus expanding the borders of the infant nation to connect directly with New Spain.
1804 To the consternation of Spain, President Thomas Jefferson funds the historical expedition of Lewis and Clark. Spain is obviously worried that the exploration is a prelude to the settlement of the territory by Anglos.
1810 In Mexico, Father Miguel Hidalgo y Castilla leads a grass roots movement for independence from Spain. He and his followers set up a government and take several cities, but are defeated by the royalists in Mexico City. Hidalgo is executed, but the Spanish hold on Mexico is weakened.
With the insurrection of Father Miguel Hidalgo y Castilla, the Spaniards withdraw their troops from the frontier presidios.
An insurrection breaks out in Texas, fighting against Spanish control. Royalists crush the rebellion.
Father José María Morelos y Pavón declares Mexico's independence from Spain once again. A constitution is drafted and proclaimed in 1814, but royalists again defeat the new government.
José Matías Delgado, a priest, gives the first call for Central American independence from Spain in San Salvador.
1817‐
1824 Simón Bolívar leads an army of revolutionaries, winning victory over the Spanish in new Granada (now Colombia) in 1819, in Venezuela in 1821, and in Quito (now in Ecuador) in 1822. Proclaiming the birth of the Republic of Gran Colombia, which included present‐day Venezuela, Ecuador, and Colombia, Bolívar becomes president.
Andrew Jackson leads a U.S. military force into Florida, capturing two Spanish forts.
1820 Anglo‐American frontiersman Stephen Long leads a revolt against the Spanish in Texas, but because of his ties to the United States, his rebellion threatens to open Texas to American control. Spain finally enters into deliberations with Moses Austin, a Catholic from Missouri, to settle Anglo‐Catholic families in Texas.
Mexico acquires its independence from Spain, when liberals, Freemasons, and conservative Creoles (Spanish Americans) unite to support Creole Agustín de Iturbide. Itubide and his army take Mexico City in September. Independent Mexico at this time includes settlements in California, southern Arizona, south Texas, southern Colorado, and most of New Mexico. Soon after Mexico gains independence, Anglo‐American settlers begin to move into the Mexican territories of the present‐day U.S. Southwest, especially Texas.
1821 The sun sets on Spanish Florida when the peninsula is purchased by the United States for $5 million.
1823 Erasmo Seguín, a delegate to the national congress from Texas, persuades a willing U.S. Congress to pass a colonization act designed to bring even more Anglo settlers to Texas. Between 1824 and 1830, thousands of Anglo families enter east Texas, acquiring hundreds of thousands of free acres and buying land much cheaper than they could have in the United States. By 1830, Texas has 18,000 Anglo inhabitants and their African slaves, who number more than 2,000.
1823 Fray Junípero de Serra's death does not stop missionary activity in California. His fellow Franciscans establish another 12 missions. The famous mission trail of California includes the missions
• San Diego de Alcalá (1769) • San Carlos de Monterey (1770)
• San Antonio de Padua (1771) • San Gabriel Arcángel (1771) • San Luis Obispo de Tolosa (1772) • San Francisco de Asís (1776) • San Juan Capistrano (1776) • Santa Clara de Asís (1777) • San Buenaventura (1782) • Santa Bárbara (1786) • La Purísima Concepción (1787) • Santa Cruz (1791) • San José de Guadalupe (1797) • San Juan Bautista (1797) • San Miguel Arcángel (1797) • San Fernando Rey (1797) • San Luis Rey (1798) • Santa Inés (1804) • San Rafael Arcángel (1817) • San Francisco Solano (1823).
1829 Slavery in Mexico is abolished by the new republican government that emerges after independence.
1836 Anglo‐Texans resist the military rule of Antonio López de Santa Anna, dictator of Mexico. Santa Anna leads a large army north to San Antonio, Texas, and surrounds the Texans at the Alamo mission. Eventually the Mexican army kills all the resisters. Six weeks later Anglo‐Texan forces defeat the Mexican forces and declare the Republic of Texas independent of Mexico.
The Texas constitution stipulates that all residents living in Texas at the time of the rebellion will acquire all the rights of citizens of the new republic, but if they had been disloyal, these rights are forfeited. Numerically superior Anglos force Mexicans off their property, and many cross the border to Mexico.
1840 To meet the wage‐labor demands, 125,000 Chinese are brought to Cuba between 1840 and 1870 to work as cane cutters, build railroads in rural areas, and serve as domestics in the cities. Also, the influx of European immigrants, primarily from Spain, increases during that period. Newly arrived Spaniards become concentrated in the retail trades and operate small general stores called bodegas.
1845 Texas is officially annexed to the United States. This angers the Mexican government and a conflict arises over the official border between Texas and Mexico.
1846 The United States invades Mexico under the banner of Manifest Destiny. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends the Mexican War that same year. Under the treaty, half the land area of Mexico, including Texas, California, most of Arizona and New Mexico, and parts of Colorado, Utah, and Nevada, is ceded to the United States. The treaty gives Mexican nationals one year to choose U.S. or Mexican citizenship. Approximately 75,000 Hispanic people choose to remain in the United States and become citizens by conquest.
1848 The gold rush lures a flood of Anglo settlers to California, which becomes a state in 1850. Settlement in Arizona and New Mexico occurs at a slower pace, and they both become states in 1912.
1850 The Foreign Miners Tax, which levies a charge for anyone who is not a U.S. citizen, is enacted.
1851 After the United States took over California in 1846, the biggest issue for Californios (Hispanic Californians) is land ownership. These former Mexican citizens have to prove what land they owned before the takeover, especially because newly arriving Anglos want the land. Therefore Congress passes the California Land Act to help Californios prove their claims. Many Californios, however, lose their land.
1853 General Santa Anna returns to power as president of Mexico and, through the Gadsden Treaty, sells to the United States the region from Yuma (Arizona) along the Gila River to the Mesilla Valley (New Mexico).
1855 Vagrancy laws and so‐called "greaser laws" prohibiting bear‐baiting, bullfights, and cockfights are passed, clearly aimed at prohibiting the presence and customs of Californios. ("Greaser" was a negative term Anglos used for their Hispanic neighbors.)
Anglo businessmen attempt to run Mexican teamsters (wagon‐drivers) out of south Texas, violating the guarantees offered by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
1859 Cigar factories are built in Florida, Louisiana, and New York to make genuine Cuban cigars. Many working‐class Cubans follow the industry to jobs in the United States.
1862 The Homestead Act is passed in Congress, allowing squatters in the West to settle and claim vacant lands, often those owned by Mexicans.
Spanish troops stationed in Puerto Rico mutiny, and are executed by the colonial governor.
1868 Cubans leave for Europe and the United States in sizable numbers during Cuba's first major attempt at independence from Spain.
The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is adopted, declaring all people of Hispanic origin born in the United States to be U.S. citizens.
A decree in Puerto Rico frees all children born of slaves after this date. In 1870, all slaves who are state property are freed, as are various other classes of slaves.
El Grito de Lares, the shout for Puerto Rican independence, takes place, but disorganized insurrectionists are easily defeated by the Spanish.
Cuban rebels led by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes declare independence at Yara, in the eastern portion of the island.
1870 The Spanish government frees the slaves it owns in Cuba and Puerto Rico.
1872 Puerto Rican representatives in Spain win equal civil rights for the colony.
1873 Slavery is finally abolished in Puerto Rico.
1875 The U.S. Supreme Court in Henderson v. Mayor of New York rules that power to regulate immigration is held solely by the federal government.
The Ten Years' War, a series of unsuccessful Spanish attempts to evict rebels from the eastern half of Cuba, comes to an end with the signing of the Pact of El Zajón. The document promises amnesty for the insurgents and home rule, and provides freedom for the slaves that fought on the side of the rebels.
1879 A Cuban independence movement is forcefully put down by Spanish forces.
1880s In Cuba, slavery is abolished by Spain in a gradual program that takes eight years. The influx of new European immigrants has made Cuba more heterogeneous, leading to the social diversity that is still apparent today.
Mexican immigration to the United States is stimulated by the advent of the railroad.
1892 The Partido Revolucionario Cubano is created to organize the Cuban and Puerto Rican independence movement.
1894 The Alianza Hispano Americana is founded in Tucson, Arizona, and quickly spreads throughout the Southwest.
1895 José Martí and his Cuban Revolutionary Party (PRC) open the final battle for independence.
1896 A Revolutionary Junta is formed in New York to lead the Puerto Rican independence movement.
1897 Spain grants Cuba and Puerto Rico autonomy and home rule.
1898 The USS Maine mysteriously explodes in Havana Harbor. On April 28, President William McKinley declares war against Spain.
The U.S. military invades San Juan in pursuit of Spaniards, and is welcomed by the cheering crowds, longing for independence.
Spain signs the Treaty of Paris, transferring Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines to the United States.
The Foraker Act establishes a civilian government in Puerto Rico under U.S. dominance. The law allows for islanders to elect their own House of Representatives, but does not allow Puerto Rico a vote in Washington.
1901 Under the Platt Amendment, the United States limits Cuban independence. Cuba cannot sign treaties with other countries or borrow money unless it is agreeable to the United States. The United States also reserves the right to build a naval base on Cuba. With these limitations written into the Cuban constitution in 1901, the United States turns the government of Cuba over to the Cuban people.
1901 The Federación Libre de los Trabajadores (Workers Labor Federation) or FLT becomes affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, which breaks from its policy of excluding non‐whites.
1902 The Reclamation Act is passed, dispossessing many Hispanic Americans of their land.
Cuba declares its independence from the United States.
1910 The Mexican Revolution begins, with hundreds of thousands of people fleeing north from Mexico and settling in the Southwest.
1911 In Mexico, the long dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz comes to an end when he is forced to resign in a revolt led by Francisco Madero.
1912 Brutality against Mexican Americans in the Southwest territories is commonplace. Lynchings and murders of Mexican Americans in California and Texas result in a formal protest in 1912 by the Mexican ambassador of the mistreatment.
1917 During World War I, "temporary" Mexican farm workers, railroad laborers, and miners are permitted to enter the United States to work.
The Jones Act is passed, extending U.S. citizenship to all Puerto Ricans and creating two Puerto Rican houses of legislature whose representatives are elected by the people. English is decreed the official language of Puerto Rico.
Congress passes the Immigration Act of 1917, imposing a literacy requirement on all immigrants aimed at curbing the influx from southern and eastern Europe, but ultimately inhibiting immigration from Mexico.
The Selective Service Act becomes law, obligating non‐citizen Mexicans in the United States to register with their local draft boards, even though they are not eligible for the draft.
1921 Limits on the number of immigrants allowed to enter the United States during a single year are imposed for the first time in the country's history.
As the first of two national origin quota acts designed to curtail immigration from eastern and southern Europe and Asia is passed, Mexico and Puerto Rico become major sources of workers.
A depression in Mexico causes severe destitution among Mexicans.
1925 The Border Patrol is created by Congress.
1926 Rioting Puerto Ricans in Harlem are attacked by non‐Hispanics as the number of Puerto Ricans becomes larger in Manhattan neighborhoods. By 1930 they number 53,000.
With the onset of the Great Depression, Mexican immigration to the United States virtually ceases and return migration increases sharply.
The League of United Latin American Citizens is founded in Texas by frustrated Mexican Americans who find that opportunities for them in the United States are limited.
1930 The United States controls 44 percent of the cultivated land in Puerto Rico; U.S. capitalists control 60 percent of the banks and public services, and all of the maritime lines. In the period between 1930 and 1934, approximately 20 percent of the Puerto Ricans living in the United States will return to the island.
1930s‐
1940s Many Mexican workers are displaced by the dominant southern whites and blacks of the migrant agricultural labor force.
1933 The Roosevelt Administration reverses the policy of English as the official language in Puerto Rico.
Mexican farm workers in the Central Valley, California cotton industry go on strike, supported by several groups of independent Mexican union organizers and radicals.
Cuban dictator Gerardo Machado is overthrown.
Fulgencio Batista leads a barracks revolt to overthrow Cuban provisional President Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada, becoming the dictator of the Cuban provisional government.
1934 The Platt Amendment is annulled.
1938 Young Mexican and Mexican American pecan shellers strike in San Antonio.
1940 The independent union Confederación de Trabajadores Generales is formed and soon replaces the Federación Libre de los Trabajadores (FLT) as the major labor organization in Puerto Rico.
Fulgencio Batista is elected president of Cuba.
1940s‐
1950s Unionization among Hispanic workers increases rapidly, as Hispanic workers and union sympathizers struggle for reform.
1941 The Fair Employment Practices Act is passed, eliminating discrimination in employment.
Hispanics throughout the United States enthusiastically respond to the war effort as the country enters World War II.
1943 Prompted by the labor shortage of World War II, the U.S. government makes an agreement with the Mexican government to supply temporary workers, known as braceros, for American agricultural work.
The so‐called "Zoot Suit" riots take place in southern California. Some elements of the California press had been portraying Mexican Americans as unwelcome foreigners. Bands of hundreds of sailors, marines, and soldiers in southern California range the Hispanic neighborhoods, looking for Mexican American young men in zoot suits. When they find them, the soldiers beat them and tear their suits off of them.
1944 Fulgencio Batista retires as president of Cuba.
Operation Bootstrap, a program initiated by the Puerto Rican government to meet U.S. labor demands of World War II and encourage industrialization on the island, stimulates a major wave of migration of workers to the United States.
1946 The first Puerto Rican governor, Jesús T. Piñero, is appointed by President Harry Truman.
1947 More than 20 airlines provide service between San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Miami, and San Juan and New York.
The American G.I. Forum, a new civil rights organization, is founded by Mexican American veterans in response to a Three Rivers, Texas, funeral home's denial to bury a Mexican American soldier killed in the Pacific during World War II.
1950 The U.S. Congress upgrades Puerto Rico's political status from protectorate to commonwealth.
1950s Throughout the early 1960s, segregation is abolished in Texas, Arizona, and other regions, largely through the efforts of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and the Alianza Hispano Americana.
Immigration from Mexico doubles from 5.9 percent to 11.9 percent, and in the 1960s rises to 13.3 percent of the total number of immigrants to the United States.
1950s‐
1960s Black workers continue to be the most numerous migrants along the eastern seaboard states, while Mexican and Mexican‐American workers soon dominate the migrant paths between Texas and the Great Lakes, the Rocky Mountain region, and the area from California to the Pacific Northwest.
1951 The Bracero Program is formalized as the Mexican Farm Labor Supply Program and the Mexican Labor Agreement, and will bring an annual average of 350,000 Mexican workers to the United States until its end in 1964.
1952 Fulgencio Batista seizes power of Cuba again, this time as dictator, taking Cuba to new lows of repression and corruption.
1954 In the landmark case of Hernandez v. Texas, the nation's highest court acknowledges that Hispanic Americans are not being treated as "whites." The Supreme Court recognizes Hispanics as a separate class of people suffering profound discrimination, paving the way for Hispanic Americans to use legal means to attack all types of discrimination throughout the United States. It is also the first U.S. Supreme Court case to be argued and briefed by Mexican American attorneys.
1954‐
1958 Operation Wetback, a government effort to locate and deport undocumented workers, results in the deportation of 3.8 million persons of Mexican descent. Only a small fraction of that amount are
allowed deportation hearings. Thousands of U.S. citizens of Mexican descent are also arrested and detained.
1955 In the early 1950s, Hispanic Americans had begun to buy time on local television stations for Spanish‐language programs. New York, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, and Harlingen, Texas, have extensive Hispanic programming. The first Spanish‐language television station in the United States is San Antonio's KCOR‐TV in San Antonio.
1959 The Cuban Revolution succeeds in overthrowing the repressive regime of Batista; Fidel Castro takes power and establishes a communist regime, becoming the island’s ruthless dictator. Cuban Americans immigration to the United States increases sharply after this date. Large‐scale Cuban immigration to the United States occurs much more quickly than that from either Puerto Rico or Mexico, with more than one million Cubans entering the country since 1959.
Most of the two million Puerto Ricans who have trekked to the U.S. mainland in this century are World War II or postwar‐era entries. Unlike the immigrant experience of Mexicans, or Cubans before 1959, the majority of Puerto Rican immigrants entered the United States with little or no red tape.
1960s A third phase of labor migration to the United States begins when the established patterns of movement from Mexico and Puerto Rico to the United States are modified, and migration from other countries increases. The Bracero Program ends in 1964, and, after a brief decline in immigration, workers from Mexico increasingly arrive to work under the auspices of the H‐2 Program of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, as well as for family unification purposes, or as undocumented workers.
Young Mexican Americans throughout the United States become caught up in the struggle for civil rights and seek to create a new identity for themselves. These efforts become known as the Chicano Movement. The movement sparks a renaissance in the arts among Mexican Americans. Many Chicano artists call attention to inequalities faced by Mexican Americans, developing new styles of art that eventually gain acceptance in mainstream literary and art scenes.
1961 Aspira (Aspire) is founded to promote the education of Hispanic youth by raising public and private sector funds. Aspira acquires a national following, serving Puerto Ricans wherever they live in large numbers.
Anti‐Communist Cuban exiles who are trained and armed by the United States, attempt a foray to liberate Cuba from Castro’s communist regime. The Bay of Pigs invasion failed. Many observers throughout the world criticize President John F. Kennedy's administration for this attempt.
1962 The United Farm Workers Organizing Committee in California, begun as an independent organization, is led by César Chávez. In 1965 it organizes its successful Delano grape strike and first national boycott. It becomes part of the AFL‐CIO in 1966. Today the union is known as the United Farmworkers of America.
Congress enacts the first comprehensive civil rights law since the post‐Civil War Reconstruction period when it passes the Civil Rights Act of 1964. One result of the act is the establishment of
affirmative action programs. Title VII of the Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender, creed, race, or ethnic background, "to achieve equality of employment opportunities and remove barriers that have operated in the past." Discrimination is prohibited in advertising, recruitment, hiring, job classification, promotion, discharge, wages and salaries, and other terms and conditions of employment. Title VII also establishes the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) as a monitoring device to prevent job discrimination.
The United States blocks a Soviet plan to establish missile bases in Cuba. Soviet Premier Khrushchev agrees to withdraw the missiles with the proviso that the United States declare publicly that it will not invade Cuba.
1964 The Organization of American States (OAS) meets in Washington, D.C., voting to cut diplomatic and commercial relations with Cuba and to impose restrictions on travel there.
The Economic Opportunity Act (EOA) is the centerpiece of President Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty. The EOA also creates the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) to administer a number of programs on behalf of the nation's poor. These include the Job Corps, the Community Action Program (CAP), and the Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA).
1965 The end of the bracero program forces many Mexicans to return to Mexico. They settle near the U.S. border. To provide jobs for them, the Mexican and U.S. governments begin border industrialization programs, allowing foreign corporations to build and operate assembly plants on the border. These plants, known as maquiladoras, multiply rapidly, transforming the border region. The maquiladors attract companies because they provide cheap labor close to American markets. They employ hundreds of thousands of Mexicans in assembly work, but often in poor working conditions.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is passed, aimed at African American enfranchisement in the South. Obstacles to registration and voting are faced by all minorities, but the act's potential as a tool for Hispanic Americans is not fully realized for nearly a decade.
For the first time, the United States enacts a law placing a cap on immigration from the Western Hemisphere, becoming effective in 1968.
Fidel Castro announces that Cubans can leave the island nation if they have relatives in the United States. He stipulates, however, that Cubans already in Florida have to come and get their relatives. Nautical crafts of all types systematically leave Miami, returning laden with anxious Cubans eager to rejoin their families on the mainland.
A major revision of immigration law results when Congress amends the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. The national origin quota system is abolished.
1966 A program is initiated to airlift Cubans to the United States. More than 250,000 Cubans are airlifted to the United States before the program is halted by Castro in 1973. About 10 percent of the island's population immigrates to the United States between 1966 and 1973.
1968 Chicano student organizations spring up throughout the nation, as do barrio groups such as the Brown Berets. Thousands of young Chicanos pledge their loyalty and time to such groups as the United Farmworkers Organizing Committee, which, under César Chávez, has been a great inspiration for Chicanos throughout the nation. An offshoot of both the farm worker and the student movements, is La Raza Unida party in Texas, an organization formed in 1968 to obtain control of community governments where Chicanos are the majority.
1969 After the establishment of the Central American Common Market in the 1960s leads to economic proved conditions in the region, the border war between Honduras and El Salvador brings its collapse and a rapid decline of economic conditions in Central America.
1970 Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) Commissioner Leonard Chapman claims that there are as many as 12 million undocumented workers in the country. Other observers most commonly place the number in the range of 3.5 million to 5 million people.
At this time 82 percent of the Hispanic population of the nation lives in nine states, with the proportion rising to 86 percent in 1990. The largest Hispanic populations are in California, Texas, and New York, and to a lesser degree Florida, Illinois, and New Jersey.
A Chicano Moratorium is announced in a protest against the Vietnam War organized in Los Angeles. More than 20,000 Chicanos and supporters draw attention to the disproportionately high number of Chicano casualties in that war. Conflicts erupt between police and demonstrators. Journalist Rubén Salazar, not involved in the struggle, is accidentally killed by police.
The struggle over affirmative action continues when opponents coin the term "reverse discrimination," suggesting that white males are victims of discrimination as a result of affirmative action on behalf of women, blacks, Hispanics, and other under‐represented groups.
The amendments constituting the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1970 add a provision that is designed to guard against inventive new barriers to political participation. It requires federal approval of all changes in voting procedures in certain jurisdictions, primarily southern states. This act prevents minority votes from being diluted in gerrymandered districts or through at‐large elections.
1970s‐early 1980s
The rise in politically motivated violence in Central America spurs a massive increase in undocumented immigration to the United States.
1971 La Raza Unida Party wins the city elections in Crystal City, Texas.
1972 Ramona Acosta Bañuelos becomes the first Hispanic treasurer of the United States.
1973 The right of the Puerto Rican people to decide their own future as a nation is approved by the United Nations. In 1978, the United Nations recognizes Puerto Rico as a territory of the United States.
An employment discrimination case, Espinoza v. Farah Manufacturing Company, argues discrimination toward an employee, Espinoza, on the basis of his citizenship status under the Civil Rights Act. However, the Supreme Court holds that there is nothing in Title VII, the equal employment opportunities provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, that makes it illegal to discriminate on the basis of citizenship or alienage.
The Labor Council of Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) forms to promote the interests of Hispanics within organized labor.
1974 Congress passes the Equal Educational Opportunity Act to create equality in public schools by making bilingual education available to Hispanic youth. According to the framers of the act, equal education means more than equal facilities and equal access to teachers. Students who have trouble with the English language must be given programs to help them learn English.
1975 The Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1975 extend the provisions of the original Voting Rights Act of 1965 and makes permanent the national ban on literacy tests. Critical for Hispanic Americans, the amendments make bilingual ballots a requirement in certain areas.
1977 The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) apprehends more than one million undocumented workers each year.
A group of young Cuban exiles called the Antonio Maceo Brigade travels to Cuba to participate in service work and to achieve a degree of rapprochement with the Cuban government.
1978 The median income of Hispanic families below the poverty level falls from $7,238 in 1978 to $6,557 in 1987, controlling for inflation.
1978‐
1988 Hispanic female participation in the work force more than doubles, from 1.7 million to 3.6 million. In 1988, 56.6 percent of Hispanic women are in the work force, compared with 66.2 percent of white women and 63.8 percent of blacks.
The proportion of Hispanic children living in poverty rises more than 45 percent. By 1989, 38 percent of Hispanic children are living in poverty.
1979 Political upheaval and civil wars in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala contribute to large migrations of refugees to the United States.
1980s Japanese industrialists take advantage of the maquiladoras by sending greater amounts of raw materials to Mexico where they are finished and shipped duty‐free to the United States.
The rates of immigration approach the levels of the early 1900s: legal immigration during the first decade of the century reached 8.8 million, while during the 1980s, 6.3 million immigrants are granted permanent residence. The immigrants are overwhelmingly young and in search of employment, and Hispanic immigrants continue to account for more than 40 percent of the total.
Programs to apprehend undocumented immigrants are implemented, and reports of violations of civil rights are reported.
1980 Fidel Castro, reacting to negative worldwide press, announces that anyone who wants to leave Cuba should go to the Peruvian embassy there. Ten thousand Cubans descend upon the embassy grounds and receive exit visas. Cuban Americans in Florida organize a fleet of boats to pick up the Cuban exiles at Mariel Harbor. The Mariel Boatlift continues from April through September. By year end, more than 125,000 "Marielitos" migrate to the United States.
The Refugee Act of 1980 removes the ideological definition of refugee as one who flees from a Communist regime, thus allowing thousands to enter the United States as refugees.
1980‐
1988 The Reagan administration maintains that affirmative action programs entail quotas, constituting a form of reverse discrimination.
The number of Hispanics in the work force increases by 48 percent, representing 20 percent of U.S. employment growth.
1986 After more than a decade of debate, Congress enacts The Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), creating a process through which illegal aliens could become legal immigrants by giving legal status to applicants who had been in the United States illegally since January 1, 1982.
1987 At this time, 70.1 percent of Hispanic female‐headed households with children are living in poverty.
1988 President Ronald Reagan appoints the first Hispanic Secretary of Education: Lauro F. Cavazos.
1989 Median family income for white families is $35,210; for blacks, $20,210; and for Hispanics, $23,450. Per capita income is $14,060 for whites, $8,750 for blacks, and $8,390 for Hispanics.
Immigration from the Americas rises from 44.3 percent in 1964 to 61.4 percent. Of the major countries, Mexico accounts for 37.1 percent of total documented immigration to the United States, the next highest number of immigrants being from El Salvador, 5.3 percent.
1990 President George Bush appoints the first woman and first Hispanic surgeon general of the United States: Antonia C. Novello.
1991 The proposed North American Free Trade Agreement between Mexico, the United States, and Canada expands even further the maquiladora concept, offering potentially greater tax abatements for U.S. businesses.
Despite the U.S. Congress' refusal to consider the statehood of Puerto Rico, a referendum is held on the island, clearly showing that the population is in favor of statehood.
Unemployment among Hispanics in the United States reaches 10.3 percent, roughly double the rate for whites.
President George Bush signs the Cuban Democracy Act, also known as the Torricelli Bill, which bans trade with Cuba by U.S. subsidiary companies in third countries and prohibits ships docking in U.S. ports if they have visited Cuba. The Torricelli Bill is heavily backed by Cuban Americans, and Bush makes a point of signing it in Miami. Upon passage of the Cuban Democracy Act, the United States is condemned by the United Nations General Assembly for maintaining its 30‐year embargo of Cuba; the vote is 59 to 3, with 71 countries abstaining. Even most of the United States' allies either vote to end the embargo or they abstain.
1993 President Bill Clinton names Federico Peña to the position of Secretary of Transportation; he is the first Hispanic to hold that post.
President Bill Clinton names Henry Cisneros to the cabinet position of Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD); he is the first Hispanic to hold that post.
President Bill Clinton appoints Norma Cantú, the former director of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, to the position of Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, Department of Education. The president also appoints 25 Hispanics to positions that need confirmation by the Senate.
1994 The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) takes effect to eliminate all tariffs between trading partners Canada, Mexico, and the United States within fifteen years from this date. Regarding Mexico and the United States, on this date 53.8 percent of U.S. imports from Mexico become duty free, while 31 percent of imports from the United States, excluding those imported by maquiladoras, become duty free. NAFTA passage is opposed in the United States by labor unions, which fear the continuing loss of jobs to Mexico, and domestic industries artificially protected by tariffs, such as textiles.
In Mexico, as many as one thousand Mayan guerrillas, baptizing themselves the Zapatista National Liberation Army, take over the important southern city of San Cristobal de las Casas, as well as the towns of Ocosingo, Las Margaritas, and others. This leads to bloody confrontations with and repression by the Mexican Army until a cease‐fire is accepted by both sides on January 12, with an agreement to dialogue on the problems of the Mayas in Chiapas. The Mayas of southern Mexico have suffered poverty and dispossession of their communal lands for years. After a cease‐fire is established, the government and Mayan rebels sign a tentative 32‐point accord on March 2. In the months following the cease‐fire, Mayan farmers seize some 75,000 acres of ranch lands, claiming that the lands had been stolen from them as far back as 1819 Thus, the issue of land remains on the table in the continuing negotiations with the Mayas.
Californians pass Proposition 187 with 59 percent of the vote. The initiative bans undocumented immigrants from receiving public education and public benefits such as welfare and subsidized health care, except in emergency circumstances; makes it a felony to manufacture, distribute, sell, or use false citizenship or residence documents; and requires teachers, doctors, and other city, county, and state officials to report suspected and apparent illegal aliens to the California attorney general and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). Governor Pete Wilson issues an executive order for state officials to begin following the initiative by cutting off government services to undocumented
pregnant women and nursing home patients. On November 9, 1994, eight lawsuits are filed in state and federal courts protesting the measure.
In Los Angeles, California, Federal District Court Judge William Matthew Byrne, Jr., temporarily blocks the enforcement of Proposition 187, stating that it raises serious constitutional questions. Judge Byrne exempts the provisions that increase penalties for manufacturing or using false immigration documents.
1995 A nationwide boycott of ABC‐TV by Hispanic Americans is held in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Houston, San Francisco, and Fresno, in protest of the network's failure to provide Latino themed programming in its 1994 line‐up.
Federal Judge Mariana Pfaelzer rules that Proposition 187 is unconstitutional.
President Bill Clinton is successful in arranging for an international loan‐guarantee package of $53 billion, with $20 million from the United States, to prop up the devalued peso and restore confidence in the Mexican economy, which is in a state of crisis.
1996 Proposition 209, introduced as a ballot initiative, is passed by the California voters. The initiative bars preferential treatment based on race or gender, virtually eliminating affirmative action in state hiring, public contracts, and education. Although challenged in court, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal, and Proposition 209 eventually takes effect in California.
1998 On June 2, California voters pass Proposition 227, which bans bilingual classroom education and English as a second language programs, replacing them with a one‐year intensive English immersion program. A federal judge denies challenges to the proposition in July, and 227 goes into effect in California schools in August.
The U.S. Census Bureau reports a decline in the number of black and Hispanic Americans living in poverty.
African Americans and Hispanic Americans represent 16 percent of voters in the United States, compared to 1994, when the two groups made up 12 percent of U.S. voters.
1999 Hispanic groups join the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in protesting the lack of minority roles in prime‐time shows in the fall line‐up. Studies show that 63 percent of Latinos do not feel that television represents them accurately. Hispanic groups, such as the NCLA, urge viewers to participate in a national brownout of ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC television networks the week of September 12, to coincide with Hispanic Heritage Week. The four major networks all publicly respond to the protest, and a flurry of hiring of minority actors for added‐on roles in fall shows has been noted.
The Clinton administration okays expanded American travel to Cuba, approving direct charter flights from Los Angeles and New York. Tourists are still not allowed to travel to Cuba, but humanitarian‐aid workers (including family members), athletes, scholars, teachers, researchers, journalists, and
government officials make up the estimated 140,000 passengers from the United States to Cuba in 1999.
New York Hispanic leaders criticize Hilary Rodham Clinton, probable Democrat candidate for U.S. Senate. Clinton had proposed that her husband, President Bill Clinton, should withdraw his clemency offer for 16 imprisoned members of the Puerto Rican Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN), which was linked to more than 100 U.S. bombings. U.S. Representative José Serrano states that he withdraws his support for her, voicing the common complaint that Mrs. Clinton did not consult with the Puerto Rican leaders or try to understand the situation before making her statement. Many leaders express the sentiment that the Hispanic community is too significant a vote in New York to be ignored.
2000 Elián González returns to Cuba with his father. On Nov. 25, 1999, 6 year‐old Elián was rescued off the coast of Florida after his mother and ten other people died trying to reach the U.S. from Cuba. For seven months Elián's Cuban‐American relatives fought to keep him in the United States while his father, Juan Miguel, wanted him returned to him in Cuba. When Elián's father flew to the U.S. to retrieve his boy, armed federal agents raided the Miami home of González's relatives and took Elián into federal custody. Immigration officials and a series of court rulings all supported his father's wishes and Juan Miguel and Elián returned to Cuba after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal by the Miami relatives. The Cuban exile community in Miami strongly opposed Elián’s return to Cuba.
California makes César Chávez Day a full, paid holiday for state employees. Texas currently has the holiday on a "volunteer" status and Arizona is working on adding the holiday in the upcoming elections.
Thousands protest the Vieques Agreement. Puerto Ricans are fighting to stop the U.S. Navy from resuming bombing exercises on the island of Vieques. The Puerto Rican government recently agreed to let the U.S. resume training exercises after a civilian security guard was killed in an accidental bombing in April.
Hispanic Web presence grows. Several Spanish‐language Web sites have been launched in 1999 and 2000, including Spanish versions of AOL and Yahoo!. The Spanish company Terra Networks also signed a deal with Lycos to target Hispanic Americans on the Web, while Yupi.com, another Spanish‐language portal, has been making plans to offer stock to the public. To further boost the Hispanic presence on the Internet, Gateway invested $10 million in quepasa.com and Microsoft announced the creation of a new Spanish‐language Web portal in Mexico. Spanish‐language Web sites are expected to grow exponentially over the next few years.
2002 In Salt Lake City, Utah, speedskater Derek Parra becomes the first Mexican American to medal in the Olympics Winter Games, winning the gold and setting a world record of 1:43.95 in the 1500 meter race, as well as setting an American record and winning a silver medal in the 5000 meters race.
Speedskater Jennifer Rodriguez becomes the first Cuban American to compete in the Olympics Winter Games, winning two bronze medals in the ladies' 1000 meter and 1500 meter races.
2003 Hispanics are pronounced the nation's largest minority group —— surpassing blacks —— after new Census figures are released showing the U.S. Hispanic population at 37.1 million as of July 2001.
Cuban‐born Nilo Cruz becomes the first Hispanic playwright to win the Pulitzer for drama for his play Anna in the Tropics, about Cuban Americans working in an Ybor City cigar factory in 1929 Tampa.
2004 President George W. Bush appoints Carlos M. Gutierrez to the position of Secretary of Commerce.
2005 Alberto Gonzales is confirmed as attorney general of the United Sates.
December ‐ The U.S. House of Representatives passes a bill (H.R. 4437) intended to strengthen enforcement of immigration laws and enhance border security. The law would impose criminal penalties on aliens who illegally enter the United States, require employers to verify employment eligibility, and authorize the construction of fences along the U.S.‐Mexico border. Opponents fear that the legislation will result in unfair treatment of immigrants, particularly in communities along the Mexican border, and create new roadblocks to gaining citizenship. The bill is sent to the Senate.
2006 According to the Census Bureau, the number of Hispanic‐owned businesses grew three times faster than the national average for all U.S. businesses.
Thousands of people join rallies in cities across the country to protest proposed immigration reform. The protests, organized by labor, civil rights
Source: http://www.gale.com/free_resources/chh/timeline/1971.htm
Outreach Program
UF Center for
Latin American Studies
Latin American and Latino Studies Reader
Project Manager Mary E. Risner, M.A.
Educational Consultants Jonita Stepp-Greany, Ed.D.
Lydia Navarro, Ph.D.
Editor Jonita Stepp-Greany, Ed.D.
Project Assistants
Jessica Bachay Molly Dondero
2007 Center for Latin American Studies
University of Florida
2
TABLE OF CONTENTS page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.............................................................................................................4
NOTE TO TEACHERS...................................................................................................................5
FLORIDA STATE CURRICULUM STANDARDS BY TEXT ....................................................6
SUPPLEMENTARY RESOURCES .............................................................................................13
SUGGESTED READINGS...........................................................................................................14
PART 1: LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES
1 INDIGENOUS CULTURES OF THE AMERICAS
History Through Aztec Eyes-The Florentine Codex .............................................................15
Issues of Language Use among the Guatemalan-Maya of Southeast Florida..................... 19
Mel Gibson’s Movie Scratches Surface of Mayan History ...................................................22
2 SPANISH MISSIONS IN THE NEW WORLD
The San Antonio Missions and the Spanish Frontier .............................................................25
The Spaniards and the Indians ...............................................................................................28
3 TRADITIONAL LATIN AMERICAN VALUES
On Bullfights and Baseball: An Example of Interaction of Social Institutions ......................31 A Tale of Two Moralities: Conflicts in Family Values ...........................................................34 Ybor City, José Martí and the Spanish-American War ..........................................................37
4 BRAZILIAN MUSIC
Masters of Contemporary Brazilian Song MPB .....................................................................40
3
PART II: LATINO STUDIES
1 PUERTO RICANS IN THE U.S.
In Spanish Harlem ..................................................................................................................43
Migrating to a New Land........................................................................................................46
2 MEXICANS IN THE U.S.
A Tale of Two Moralities: The Transition from Rural to Urban Life.....................................48
A Personal History of California............................................................................................50
3 CUBANS IN THE U.S.
The History of Ybor City.........................................................................................................53
Ybor City’s Cigar Workers .....................................................................................................56
Crossing the Straits.................................................................................................................59 Transforming a City................................................................................................................62
4 CIVIL RIGHTS ISSUES
The Second Burial of Félix Longoria .....................................................................................65
The Zoot-Suit Riots .................................................................................................................68
The Story of César Chávez .....................................................................................................70
ANSWER KEY .............................................................................................................................76
BIBLIOGRAPHY/CREDITS........................................................................................................79
4
Acknowledgements We are grateful to numerous individuals who contributed to this project. Our sincere thanks go to Dr. Jonita Stepp-Greany, an educational consultant, for selecting numerous texts, matching them to the Florida Standards and creating comprehension exercises. We also thank Dr. Lydia Navarro for her assistance in identifying selected texts and writing activities for them. In addition, we express our appreciation to the authors and publishers who granted permission to include their texts in this collection. Finally, thanks are due to Jessica Bachay, a Center for Latin American Studies Graduate Assistant, for her diligent work throughout the duration of the project and to Molly Dondero, also a Center Graduate Assistant, for her help in putting the final publication together.
Outreach Program Center for Latin American Studies University of Florida
5
Note to Teachers
The primary goal of this publication is to help Florida teachers integrate area studies into their courses as they prepare students for the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT). The publication is composed of 20 texts on Latin American and Latino studies themes that address the Florida State Curriculum Standards for Social Studies and Foreign Language. A guide matching each reading to the appropriate state standard(s) is included at the front of the publication for instructors to use in preparing lesson plans. Each reading presented in the publication is followed by questions formatted in the style of the FCAT. An answer key for the multiple choice questions is located at the end of the publication. Suggestions for supplementary resources that complement the readings, available through the Center for Latin American Studies, are also provided. The project was funded by the University of Florida Center for Latin American Studies, with partial support from a U.S. Department of Education Title VI National Resource Center grant. The publication is available on CD, as well as online at the UF Center for Latin American Studies’ website: http://www.latam.ufl.edu/outreach/index.html.
6
Florida State Curriculum Standards by Text
History Through Aztec Eyes-The Florentine Codex
Theme: Interpretation of History and the Arrival of the Spanish in Mexico
SS.A.1.4.1 understand how ideas and beliefs, decisions, and chance events have been used in the process of writing and interpreting history. SS.B.2.4.2 understand past and present trends in human migration and cultural interaction and their impact on physical and human systems. SS.B.2.4.6 understand the relationship between resources and the exploration, colonization, and settlement of different regions of the world.
FL.B.1.4.3 identifies and discusses various aspects of the target culture. Issues of Language Use Among the Guatemalan-Maya of Southeast Florida
Theme: Mayan Immigration to the U.S., Mayan History
SS.B.2.4.2 understand past and present trends in human migration and cultural interaction and their impact on physical and human systems. SS.B.2.4.6 understand the relationship between resources and the exploration, colonization, and settlement of different regions of the world. SS.A.5.4.2 understand the social and cultural impact of immigrant groups and individuals on American society after 1880. FL.B.1.3.3 identifies and discusses various aspects of the target culture (e.g. social and political institutions and laws).
Mel Gibson's Movie Scratches Surface of Mayan History
Theme: Mayan History, U.S. and World Trade Relationships with Mayan Communities SS.A.1.4.1 understand how ideas and beliefs, decisions, and chance events
have been used in the process of writing and interpreting history. SS.A.1.4.3 evaluate conflicting sources and materials in the interpretation
of a historical event or episode. SS.B.2.4.2 understand past and present trends in human migration and cultural interaction and their impact on physical and human systems. SS.B.2.4.6 understand the relationship between resources and the exploration, colonization, and settlement of different regions of the world. SS.A.5.4.2 understand the social and cultural impact of immigrant groups and individuals on American society after 1880.
FL.B. 1.4.3 identifies and discusses various aspects of the target culture. FL.D.2.4.2 recognizes different world views as presented in the media.
FL.D.2.4.4 recognizes the contributions of other parallel cultures to the target culture.
7
On Bullfights and Baseball: An Example of Interaction of Social Institutions
Theme: Family Structures and Social Interaction
SS.A.5.4.2 understand the social and cultural impact of immigrant groups and individuals on American society after 1880. SS.B.2.4.2 understand past and present trends in human migration and cultural interaction and their impact on physical and human systems. FL.B.1.4.2 identifies and discusses various patterns of behavior or interaction and the values and mindsets typical of youth in the target culture. FL.B.1.4.3 identifies and discusses various aspects of the target culture (e.g., social and political institutions and laws.) FL.D.2.4.3 demonstrates knowledge and understanding of the similarities and differences between his or her own culture and the target culture as represented in the media and/or literature.
A Tale of Two Moralities: Conflicts in Family Values
Theme: Latin American Values, Individualism vs. Collectivism
SS.B.2.4.2 understand past and present trends in human migration and cultural interaction and their impact on physical and human systems. SS.A.5.4.2 understand the social and cultural impact of immigrant groups and individuals on American society after 1880. FL.B.1.4.3 identifies and discusses various aspects of the target culture (e.g., social and political institutions and laws.)
Ybor City, José Martí and the Spanish-American War
Theme: Cuban National Hero, Cuban Independence from Spain
SS.B.2.4.2 understand past and present trends in human migration and cultural interaction and their impact on physical and human systems. SS. A. 5.4.2 understand the social and cultural impact of immigrant groups and individuals on American society after 1880. FL.B.1.4.3 identifies and discusses various aspects of the target culture (e.g., social and political institutions and laws.) FL.B 1.4.4 identifies and discusses target language writers and their works and assesses their influence not only on the products of his or her own culture, but also on other world cultures.
8
Masters of Contemporary Brazilian Song MPB
Theme: History of Brazilian Music, Contributions of Brazilian Culture
SS.A.1.4.1 understand how ideas and beliefs, decisions, and chance events have been used in the process of writing and interpreting history. SS.B.2.4.2 understand past and present trends in human migration and cultural interaction and their impact on physical and human systems. SS.A.5.4.2 understand the social and cultural impact of immigrant groups and individuals on American society after 1880.
FL.B. 1.4.3 identifies and discusses various aspects of the target culture FL.D.2.4.4 recognizes the contributions of other parallel cultures to the target culture.
The San Antonio Missions and the Spanish Frontier
Theme: The Impact of Religion, Settlement of the New World
SS.B.2.4.2 understand past and present trends in human migration and cultural interaction and their impact on physical and human systems. SS.B.2.4.6 understand the relationship between resources and the exploration, colonization, and settlement of different regions of the world. SS.A.5.4.2 understand the social and cultural impact of immigrant groups and individuals on American society after 1880.
FL.B. 1.4.3 identifies and discusses various aspects of the target culture FL.D.2.4.4 recognizes the contributions of other parallel cultures to the target culture.
The Spaniards and the Indians
Theme: Encounter of Two Cultures, Settlement of the New World
SS.B.2.4.2 understand past and present trends in human migration and cultural interaction and their impact on physical and human systems. SS.B.2.4.6 understand the relationship between resources and the exploration, colonization, and settlement of different regions of the world. SS.A.5.4.2 understand the social and cultural impact of immigrant groups and individuals on American society after 1880.
FL.B.1.4.3 identifies and discusses various aspects of the target culture FL.D.2.4.4 recognizes the contributions of other parallel cultures to the target culture.
9
In Spanish Harlem
Theme: History of Puerto Rican Immigration SS.B.2.4.2 understand past and present trends in human migration and
cultural interaction and their impact on physical and human systems. SS.B.2.4.6 understand the relationship between resources and the exploration, colonization, and settlement of different regions of the world. SS.A.5.4.2 understand the social and cultural impact of immigrant groups and individuals on American society after 1880. FL.B.1.4.3 identifies and discusses artistic expressions and forms of the target culture. FL.B 1.4.4 identifies and discusses target language writers and their works and assesses their influence not only on the products of his or her own culture, but also on other world cultures.
Migrating to a New Land
Theme: History of Puerto Rican Immigration, Puerto Ricans in the U.S. SS.B.2.4.2 understand past and present trends in human migration and
cultural interaction and their impact on physical and human systems. SS.B.2.4.6 understand the relationship between resources and the exploration, colonization, and settlement of different regions of the world. SS.A.5.4.2 understand the social and cultural impact of immigrant groups and individuals on American society after 1880. FL.B.1.33 identifies and discusses various aspects of the target culture (e.g. social and political institutions and laws).
A Tale of Two Moralities: The Transition from Rural to Urban Life
Theme: History of Mexican Immigration, Mexican Family Values, Economic Patterns
SS.B.2.4.2 understand past and present trends in human migration and cultural interaction and their impact on physical and human systems. SS.B.2.4.6 understand the relationship between resources and the exploration, colonization, and settlement of different regions of the world. SS.B.2.4.2 understand past and present trends in human migration and cultural interaction and their impact on physical and human systems. FL.B.1.4.3 identifies and discusses various aspects of the target culture (e.g., social and political institutions and laws).
10
A Personal History of California
Theme: Discovering One's Personal Heritage
SS.A.1.4.1 understand how ideas and beliefs, decisions, and chance events have been used in the process of writing and interpreting history. SS.B.2.4.2 understand past and present trends in human migration and cultural interaction and their impact on physical and human systems. SS.A.5.4.2 understand the social and cultural impact of immigrant groups and individuals on American society after 1880.
Ybor City’s Cigar Workers
Theme: Cuban Immigrants in Tampa
SS.B.2.4.2 understand past and present trends in human migration and cultural interaction and their impact on physical and human systems. SS.B.2.4.6 understand the relationship between resources and the exploration, colonization, and settlement of different regions of the world. SS.A.5.4.2 understand the social and cultural impact of immigrant groups and individuals on American society after 1880. FL.B.1.33 identifies and discusses various aspects of the target culture (e.g. social and political institutions and laws).
Crossing the Straits
Theme: History of Cuban Immigration, Contributions of Cuban Culture SS.B.2.4.2 understand past and present trends in human migration and
cultural interaction and their impact on physical and human systems. SS.B.2.4.6 understand the relationship between resources and the exploration, colonization, and settlement of different regions of the world. SS.A.5.4.2 understand the social and cultural impact of immigrant groups and individuals on American society after 1880. FL.B.1.33 identifies and discusses various aspects of the target culture (e.g. social and political institutions and laws). FL.B.1.4.5 identifies and discusses target language writers and their works and assesses their influence not only on the products of his or her own culture, but also on other world cultures.
11
The History of Ybor City
Theme: Cuban Heritage in the Tampa Area
SS.B.2.4.2 understand past and present trends in human migration and cultural interaction and their impact on physical and human systems. SS.B.2.4.6 understand the relationship between resources and the exploration, colonization, and settlement of different regions of the world. SS.A.5.4.2 understand the social and cultural impact of immigrant groups and individuals on American society after 1880 FL.B.1.33 identifies and discusses various aspects of the target culture (e.g. social and political institutions and laws).
Transforming a City
Theme: Cubans in Florida, Contributions of Cuban Culture
SS.B.2.4.2 understand past and present trends in human migration and cultural interaction and their impact on physical and human systems. SS.A.5.4.2 understand the social and cultural impact of immigrant groups and individuals on American society after 1880. SS.B.1.4.4 understand how cultural and technological characteristics can link or divide regions. FL.B.1.4.5 identifies and discusses artistic expressions and forms of the target culture.
The Second Burial of Félix Longoria
Theme: Hispanics in the U.S. Military SS.B.2.4.2 understand past and present trends in human migration and
cultural interaction and their impact on physical and human systems. SS.A.5.4.2 understand the social and cultural impact of immigrant groups and individuals on American society after 1880 FL.B.1.33 identifies and discusses various aspects of the target culture (e.g. social and political institutions and laws).
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The Zoot-Suit Riots
Theme: Civil Rights Issues in the Southwest
SS.B.2.4.2 understand past and present trends in human migration and cultural interaction and their impact on physical and human systems. SS.B.2.4.6 understand the relationship between resources and the exploration, colonization, and settlement of different regions of the world. SS.A.5.4.2 understand the social and cultural impact of immigrant groups and individuals on American society after 1880. FL.B.1.33 identifies and discusses various aspects of the target culture (e.g. social and political institutions and laws).
The Story of César Chávez
Theme: History of Hispanic Labor Movements
SS.B.2.4.2 understand past and present trends in human migration and
cultural interaction and their impact on physical and human systems. SS.B.2.4.6 understand the relationship between resources and the exploration, colonization, and settlement of different regions of the world. SS.A.5.4.2 understand the social and cultural impact of immigrant groups and individuals on American society after 1880. FL.B.1.33 identifies and discusses various aspects of the target culture (e.g. social and political institutions and laws). FL.B.1.4.5 identifies and discusses target language writers and their works and assesses their influence not only on the products of his or her own culture, but also on other world cultures.
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Supplementary Resources Available from the Outreach Library at the UF Center for Latin American Studies
For lending procedures, please visit: http://www.latam.ufl.edu/outreach/outreachlib.html.
Indigenous Cultures of the Americas Videos: Ancient Civilizations: The Aztecs; Conquistadors: Battle of the Gods;
Maya in Exile; Maya Fiesta; Ancient Civilizations: The Maya; Popul Vuh: The Creation
Myth of the Maya; Nati: A Mayan Teenager
Games: Maya
Traditional Latin American Values Videos: Remember the Alamo; The U.S. Mexican War; Escuela para todos; La fiesta
quinceñera; Americas 8: Builders of Images: Writers, Artists, and Popular Culture;
Wetback: The Undocumented Documentary; Crucible of Empire: The Spanish-American
War
Brazilian Music Videos: The Spirit of Samba; The Roots of Rhythm; Carmen Miranda: Bananas is My
Business; Black Orpheus
Puerto Ricans in the U.S. Videos: Puerto Rico: History and Culture; Salsa!; ¿Sí o no? Puerto Rico and the
Statehood Question; Americas 10: Latin American and Caribbean Peoples in the U.S.
Mexicans in the U.S. Videos: Global Cities: Immigration; The Ties that Bind: Stories Behind the Immigration
Controversy
Cubans in the U.S. Videos: Balseros; Cuba: The Children of Fidel; Ana Mendieta: Fuego de Tierra;
La eterna voz de Celia Cruz; Americas 10: Latin American and Caribbean Peoples in the
U.S., Fidel
Civil Rights Issues Videos: Zoot Suit; The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez; The Hunt for Pancho Villa; Chulas
Fronteras; Chicano!: History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement; Power,
Politics, and Latinos
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Suggested Readings
Burns, E. Bradford and Julie A. Charlip. Latin America : A Concise Interpretive History. Eighth Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007. Chasteen, John. Born in Blood and Fire: A Concise History of Latin America. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2006. Darder, Antonia and Rodolfo D. Torres, eds. The Latino Studies Reader: Culture,
Economy, and Society. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1998. Keen, Benjamin and Keith Haynes. A History of Latin America. Sixth Ed. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2000. Martin, Cheryl E. and Mark Wasserman. Latin America and Its People. New York: Pearson Longman, 2005. Skidmore, Thomas E. and Peter H. Smith. Modern Latin America. Sixth Ed.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. Winn, Peter. The Americas: The Changing Face of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Third Ed. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2006.
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History Through Aztec Eyes: The Florentine Codex
To Bernal Díaz, the conquest of the Aztecs was "a wonderful story." The Aztec account of the invasion was not as cheerful. During the 1550s, Fray Bernandino de Sahagún, compiled his General History of the Things of New Spain, known as The
Florentine Codex, which contains a history of the conquest written by Aztecs. According to Sahagún, the book’s authors were “prominent elders … who were present in the war” when Mexico was conquered. Written in the repetitive style of the Aztec oratory, the Florentine Codex describes Moctezuma’s first news of Europeans, the Spanish lust for gold, and the smallpox epidemic that decimated the native population. With no immunity to European diseases, the Aztecs were defeated more by germs than by guns.
Moctezuma enjoyed no sleep, no food. No one spoke to him. Whatsoever he did, it was as if he were in torment. Often times it was as if he sighed, became weak, felt weak. No longer did he enjoy what tasted good, what gave one contentment, what gladdened one. Wherefore he said “What will now befall us? Who indeed stands [in command]? Alas, until now, I. In great torment is my heart; as if it were washed in chilled water it, indeed burns, it smarts.” … And when he had so heard what the messengers reported, he was terrified, he was astounded….
Especially did it cause him to faint away when he heard how the gun, at [the Spaniards'] command, discharged [the shot]; how it resounded as if it thundered when it went off. It indeed bereft one of strength; it shut off one’s ears. And when it discharged, something like a round pebble came forth from within. Fire went showering forth; sparks went blazing forth. And the smoke smelled very foul; it had a fetid odor which verily wounded the head. And when [the shot] struck a mountain, it was as if it were destroyed, dissolved. And a tree was pulverized; it was as if it vanished; it was as if someone blew it away.
All iron was their war array. In iron they clothed themselves. With iron they covered their heads. Iron were their swords. Iron were their crossbows. Iron were their shields. Iron were their lances. And those which bore them upon their heads, their deer [horses], were as tall as roof terraces. And their bodies were everywhere covered; only their faces appeared. They were very white; they had chalky faces; they had yellow hair, though the hair of some was black. Long were their beards; they also were yellow. They were yellow-bearded. [The Negroes’ hair] was kinky, it was curly… And when Moctezuma so heard, he was much terrified. It was as if he fainted away. His heart saddened; his heart failed him…
[Moctezuma] only awaited [the Spaniards]; he made himself resolute; he put forth great effort; he quieted, he controlled his heart; he submitted himself entirely to whatsoever he was to see, at which he was to marvel… And when [the Spaniards] were well settled, they thereupon inquired of Moctezuma as to all the city’s treasure – the devices, the shields. Much did they importune him; with great zeal they sought gold… And when they reached the storehouse… thereupon were brought forth all the brilliant things; the quetzal feather head fan, the devices, the shields, the golden discs, the devils’ necklaces, the golden nose crescents, the golden leg bands, the golden arm bands, the golden forehead bands. Thereupon
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was detached the gold which was on the shields and which was on all the devices. And as all the gold was detached, at once they ignited, they set fire to applied fore to all the various precious things [which remained]. And the gold the Spaniards formed into separate bars … And the Spaniards walked everywhere; they went everywhere taking to pieces the hiding places, storehouses, storage places. They took all, all that they saw to be good….
…[There came to be a prevalent a great sickness, a plague. It was in Tepeilhuitl that it originated, that there spread over the people a great destruction of men. Some it indeed covered [with pustules]; they were spread everywhere; on one’s face, on one’s head, on one’s breast, etc. There was indeed perishing; many indeed died of it. No longer could they walk; they only lay in their abodes, in their beds. No longer could they move, no longer could they bestir themselves, no longer could they raise themselves, no longer could they stretch themselves out on their sides, no longer could they stretch themselves out face down, no longer could they stretch out on their backs. And they were bestirred themselves, much did they cry out. There was much perishing. Like a covering, covering-like, were the pustules. Indeed many people died of them, and many just died of hunger. There was death from hunger; there was no one to take care of another, there was no one to attend to another.
European diseases decimated the Native American populations, making the
expanded European settlement possible. Some historians have noted that America was not a virgin land, but a widowed one. 1. Which of the following descriptions best represents this reading?
a. It's an account of the blessing that was bestowed upon the indigenous population of Mexico with the arrival of the Spaniards to Mexico.
b. It’s a history of the arrival of the Spaniards from the Spaniards' perspective.
c. It's an account of the arrival of the Spaniards from the Aztecs’ perspective. d. It's an account of the devastating effect the Spanish invasion had upon the
Aztec population. 2. According to the passage, which of the following statements characterized
Moctezuma? a. He possessed a keen awareness of the dangers of the Spanish arrival. b. He was a cowardly leader who would not confront his enemies.
c. He was ignorant of the tactics and ammunition of the Spaniards. d. He was a weak and fearful man in his old age.
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3. In this excerpt, what is the purpose of the author’s description of how Moctezuma
felt?
a. To show that Moctezuma was reluctant to fight the Spaniards. b. To indicate Moctezuma’s concern for the fate of his people. c. To demonstrate how powerless he was before the Spanish conquistadors. d. To depict Moctezuma’s unwillingness to defend his people because he
was too sick to do so. 4. Which of the following statements can be said of the Spanish invasion of Mexico?
a. The treasures of the Aztecs were preserved for later generations. b. Spanish conquistadors were only interested in the land they conquered. c. Spanish conquistadors treated the Aztecs with much respect and venerated
their leader Moctezuma. d. Many Aztec treasures were destroyed in the looting of their storehouses
and temples. 5. The Florentine Codex was:
a. The table of commandments of the Aztec Indians. b. The formula the Spaniards had to cure smallpox. c. The narrative of the Spanish rules for the New Spain. d. The collection of events as told by the elders of the Aztec Empire.
6. According to this passage, how did the Bernal Diaz account of the Spaniards'
arrival in Mexico differ from that of Fray Bernardino Sahagún?
a. It contained fewer entertaining details. b. It was more modern and factual. c. It was a happier account. d. It had more description of people.
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7. What facts in this selection support the author’s view that the Spanish invasion brought about the destruction of the Aztec Empire in the times of Moctezuma?
8. What facts in the Aztec’s narrative support the accounts of the deadly illness
brought about by the Spanish conquistadors? 9. According to the Florentine codex, what aspects of the Europeans' arrival caused
sadness and concern for Moctezuma. Why?
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Issues of Language Use among the Guatemalan-Maya of Southeast Florida
The Maya, an advanced culture with a strong written, oral, and religious history, were noted architects, artisans, and mathematicians for over six hundred years throughout modern-day Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Belize. However, the Spanish conquest was particularly brutal to the Mayan civilization. Within a century after the Spaniards’ arrival, the native Maya lost fifty to ninety-five percent of their population (Arias & Arrianza, 1998; Wellmeier, 1998). In spite of this loss, the Maya, primarily in Central America and specifically in Guatemala, presently survive with their history, beliefs, and over twenty Mayan languages. Today, forty-three percent of the population of Guatemala speaks a Mayan language (World Factbook, 2003).
Unfortunately, the late twentieth century was a time of war, resistance, and expulsion for the Maya. During the complicated and violent four-decade civil war, thousands of Guatemalan-Maya were murdered…Possibly over a million Maya were assassinated or forcibly relocated – many from Western Guatemala. This “Mayan Diaspora” led to today’s reality in which between 200,000 and 300,000 Maya live in the United States as both legal and illegal refugees (Wellmeier, 1998). The 2000 Census lists 28,000 Guatemalans living in Florida…
Historically, Indiantown, Florida, bordering Lake Okeechobee in Central Florida, was little more than a crossroads connecting the center of the state with Stuart, Florida. However, Indiantown is known in Guatemala as a place of refuge for the Maya, with at least 15,000 Mayan refugees now residing in this community (Wellmeier, 1998). Indiantown hosts annual festivals and functions as a Mayan ceremonial center with many residents wearing traditional clothes and freely speaking Q’anjob’al, K’iché, Chuj, Jakalteco, and Awaketecko in the streets (Burns, 1993). Indiantown remains a growing community for the Guatemalan-Maya, but the Maya have [also] begun locating in more coastal areas of Southeast Florida. Seeking higher pay and full-time non-seasonal work, many newer arriving Guatemalans to Florida have settled in the coastal communities of Stuart, Jupiter, and Lake Worth (Petit, 2004).
…In Florida, the Mayan-speaking residents typically reside in linguistically mixed communities, where even fellow Maya speak different Mayan languages. [However, in a recent study, a researcher ] observed that all residents used Spanish as the preferred method of communication among themselves…[W]ithout the linguistically cohesive communities found in Guatemala, even social incentives to speak specific Mayan languages do not appear to be strong…Results from the study seem to predict eventual intergenerational Mayan language loss among the Guatemalan-Maya of coastal Southeast Florida.
Guatemalan-Maya immigrant communities are often threatened with survival needs, which are primary concerns. Such needs often supplant efforts to organize events celebrating native culture. However, recently there have been well-received efforts…[for the] promotion of native Guatemalan culture and traditions. Corn-Maya, Inc. in Jupiter helped co-sponsor the Fiesta Maya 2003 and continues to lobby for a local community center (Brannock, 2003). At the Escuelita Maya after-school programs in Lake Worth and Boynton Beach, children receive both academic help and lessons in Mayan art, dance, and culture, as well as, Q’anjobal instruction (Driscoll, 2004)…These activities, and
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other potential efforts, such as church services in native languages or communal celebration of native holidays, legitimize Mayan heritage, including language use and maintenance (Peñalosa, 1985). Without loyalty to their heritage, traditions, and languages, the Guatemalan-Maya face the potential reality of Mayan language loss …[in] these Southeast Florida communities… [T]he results, specifically to youth, of language and culture loss [include] negative academic and cognitive effects, as well as possible familial alienation (Riegelhaupt, Carrasco & Brandt, 2003). To avoid ..[these] effects, efforts to support Mayan culture and language among the Guatemalan-Maya of Florida should be encouraged and promoted.
1. What is the main idea of this article?
a. The Mayans once had a greatly developed civilization in Central America. b. Mayans living in Florida face potential language and culture loss.
c. Many Mayans have become U.S. immigrants in the late 20th century. d. Many Mayans were brutalized during years of civil war in Guatemala.
2. According to information in the article, which of the following statements
characterizes the historical civilization of the Maya? a. It was a war-like culture that engaged frequently in violence. b. It was a primitive civilization when the Europeans arrived. c. It was a well-developed culture strong in academic and artistic expression. d. It was a culture whose people did not survive the Spanish invasion. 3. Which of the following countries does not represent a historical center of Mayan
culture? a. Panama b. Belize c. Honduras d. El Salvador 4. Where have many Mayans settled in the U.S.? a. Central and southeast Florida b. Northern and eastern Florida c. The town of Stuart, Florida d. The Panhandle of Florida 5. What do the words K'iché, Chuj and Jakalteco represent? a. Traditional ceremonies celebrated by the Maya b. Ceremonial garments worn by the Mayan elders c. Special Mayan dances performed at festivals d. Several of the 20 languages spoken by Mayan groups
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6. What efforts are being made to help Mayan groups maintain their culture? Why are such efforts threatened? Why should they be encouraged?
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Mel Gibson's Movie Scratches Surface of Mayan History
Mel Gibson received initial praise from film critics for having cast unknown
Native American actors in his most recent film epic, Apocalypto. Gibson has chosen to focus on perhaps the lowest moment of Maya history, a time of internal political chaos before the Spanish invasion. Missing from the film are any high moments of more than 1,000 years of ancient Maya civilization with advanced agronomy, medicine, astronomy, calendrics and trade. Through agricultural experimentation, the ancient Maya gave the world many domesticated crops including corn, tomatoes, cacao, avocados. The Maya also invented one of the world's earliest writing systems and invented the concept of "zero" hundreds of years before Europeans, along with other examples of highly advanced mathematics. …[A]t their peak, some Meso-American cities were larger than London at the time. The Spanish invasion brought this all to a grinding halt.
The film ignores well-known historical evidence about the second Maya "apocalypse." Within a century of the Spanish invasion, about 90 percent of Meso-American peoples perished as the result of pandemic European diseases, massacres, forcible resettlement and political executions of their leaders. Not only did the Spanish slaughter the Maya, but they also destroyed their intellectual traditions by burning thousands of Maya books.
Somehow, the Maya people recovered from this onslaught. Over 6 million Maya are alive today, speaking some 29 distinct languages across Southern Mexico and Central America and even the U.S. as a result of emigration.
In Guatemala, the Maya people now constitute a majority of the country's population, despite a third "apocalypse" of genocide. Three decades of civil war in Guatemala left an estimated 200,000 people dead or "disappeared," 200,000 children orphaned, 1 million internally displaced, and 50,000 international refugees... Still the Maya endure.
But another apocalypse looms before them, as international institutions try to fix what they paint as the economic "backwardness" of the Maya region. Since NAFTA's implementation in 1994, more than 1.5 million Mexican farmers, many of them Maya, have lost their livelihoods as a result of corn dumping by highly subsidized U.S. agribusiness cartels.
The further reduction of Mexican corn tariffs from 27 percent next month to 0 percent in 2008 will serve a final blow to the Mexican countryside. CAFTA will have similar impacts on the Central American corn market. Maya farmers displaced by both these trade agreements will likely join the steady flow of illegal Mexican immigration to the United States.
Meanwhile, in the small country of Belize, the Inter-American Development Bank has encouraged the government to reorganize its land tenure system to emphasize private leases. In response, Mayans are filing a claim before the Belize Supreme Court this month to demand customary rights to the communal lands they have farmed for generations. Unfortunately, the recent discovery of oil in Belize will probably dash Maya hopes to gain land tenure.
Across the border in Guatemala, a similar titling project financed by the World Bank is fueling land speculation in the Maya lowlands. Narco-traffickers, cattle ranchers and African palm planters are buying or simply seizing Maya properties.
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The Puebla to Panama Plan, ostensibly an economic development program for Mexico and Central America, will plunder Maya lands through the construction of highways, factories, electrical grids and hydroelectric dams.
While the Maya people have shown continued resilience over centuries of conquest, these … threats to their lands and livelihoods may prove their final "apocalypto."
1. What is the author's main contention in this article? a. Mel Gibson's film, Apocalypto, focuses on the second Mayan apocalypse. b. The Mayans are about to suffer a fourth devastating apocalypse. c. Current efforts of the international community will assist the Mayans. d. The Mayan history is accurate and well-told in the film, Apocalypto. 2. Which of the following statements characterizes the third Mayan apocalypse?
a. It occurred as a result of violence, death and destruction during the Spanish invasion.
b. It represented an early moment of internal political chaos and confusion before the Spanish invasion.
c. It involved the disappearance, death or displacement of thousands of Mayans due to civil war.
d. It will occur in the future as a result of the discovery of oil in the country of Belize.
3. According to the author, a project financed by the World Bank is having what
effect in Guatemala?
a. It is causing Mayans to demand their rights to communal land as a result of land reorganization.
b. It is helping to construct highways, factories, electrical grids and dams for Mayan use.
c. It is enabling drug traffickers, ranchers and foreign planters to buy or seize Mayan properties.
d. It is reimbursing the Mayans for the loss of land that occurred to them during civil war.
4. What efforts have international institutions made to "fix" the economic woes of
Mayan regions? a. They have passed trade agreements and funded private projects. b. They have sent volunteers to assist the Maya in rebuilding. c. They have subsidized the farm products of the Maya. d. They have released a film about the Mayan apocalypse.
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5. What are the various ways in which Mayan culture has contributed to world
knowledge? How did the Spanish invasion affect this culture? 6. How has the passing of agreements like NAFTA (North American Free Trade
Agreement) and CAFTA (Central American Free trade Agreement) affected the Maya? What other international efforts are affecting them? How?
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The San Antonio Missions and the Spanish Frontier
Spain's expulsion of the Moors and its decision to support Columbus's voyage of
discovery, both of which took place the same year, opened a new world of possibilities. In the Americas, Spain soon began to use its soldiers to extend its domain, find wealth, and spread the Catholic faith.
After Cortes's conquest of Mexico in 1519, the Spanish moved north in search of further riches and potential converts. Though they failed to find gold and silver as they had farther south, in present-day Arizona and New Mexico they established missions to work with peaceable American Indians and presidios (forts) to control hostile ones. In the late 1600s the French, already in Canada, explored the Mississippi River to the point where it emptied into the Gulf of Mexico. This expansion posed a threat to Spain's territory and Spain responded by extending its settlements into what is now Texas, thereby creating a buffer between the wealth of Mexico and French Louisiana.
The Spanish established themselves in Texas by using the same system they had established in Arizona and New Mexico. Through missions, presidios, and an adjoining civilian community (a villa), missionaries and soldiers Christianized and Hispanicized the native population. The Spanish hoped that with the help of these now-loyal Indians a relatively small number of men would be needed to defend the empire's frontier. Though created to observe and control French colonies in the Mississippi Valley and central Gulf coast, these operations later opposed other rivals. Between 1763 and 1776, the main challenge came from the English and their Indian allies; after 1776, from the United States and the Comanches.
One base for Spanish missionary and military operations in Texas developed around San Antonio. Two missions and a presidio were established in the San Antonio River valley between 1718 and 1720, and the Spanish added three new missions in the valley in 1731. A single presidio protected the five missions, which were closely grouped for two important reasons. First, the fields required irrigation and a system could only be set up along the valley's upper ten miles. Second, the threat of attack from northern Indians was constant, and the missions needed to be near the presidio and each other for mutual protection.
The missions were important to agricultural production. Each had a ranch for raising the sheep, goats, and cattle that supplied necessities like meat, wool, milk, cheese, and leather. The entire cattle industry, from ranching to the driving of cattle across long distances to markets, was developed in Mexico during the two centuries prior to the establishment of San Antonio. Spanish ranching as it was practiced in Texas formed the basis for the American cattle industry, which drew many of its original cattle from the mission herds. The Spanish also brought to the San Antonio valley a specialized method of farming that used irrigation. This system, which was extended by later settlers, was the foundation of the San Antonio economy for more than a century; portions of mission-built irrigation systems are still in use today in San Antonio and other parts of Texas.
The mission contributed to the economy in other ways. It established necessary industries such as weaving, iron working, and carpentry; these were important to the maintenance of the entire military and political structure of the eastern portion of the Spanish American frontier. Mission-trained artisans and workers provided a principal
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source of labor and finished goods in a region at the far end of a long and expensive supply line reaching up from the south.
Today the San Antonio missions are among the few relatively intact examples of the colonial missions in the Southwest. They contribute to the general architectural record of this era as well as offer examples of building styles from every period of the missions' history… 1. Which of the following is not a way in which Spain used its soldiers in the New
World? a. To extend its territory b. To find wealth and gold c. To spread Catholicism to others d. To create manufacturing colonies
2. How did Spain respond when the French expanded their territory to Louisiana?
a. Spain built several presidios on the Mississippi Valley to protect their territory
b. The Spaniards invaded French Louisiana c. The Spaniards enlisted the help of the local tribes to run the French out of
Louisiana d. Spain extended its settlements into what is now Texas to create a buffer
between Mexico and Louisiana 3. Which group did not pose a threat to the Spaniards in the late 1700s?
a. The Mexicans b. The United States c. The Comanches d. The English
4. How do the San Antonio missions contribute to our cultural knowledge today? a. They contain old books and records that teach us mission history. b. They show intact examples of various mission architectural styles. c. They contain statues that teach us about well-known priests and soldiers. d. They still produce many agricultural products we use today.
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5. Why did the Spanish establish missions in Texas? Why were they located so closely together?
6. How did the mission system contribute to the economy and to agricultural
production? What are some of the products that came from the missions?
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The Spaniards and the Indians
A mission brought together two distinct groups of people. The missionaries came
from Spain via training schools in Mexico and were Franciscans, an order of priests who had taken a vow of poverty in order to devote themselves to learning, brotherhood with all living creatures, and spreading the word of God.
In Texas the Franciscans mainly encountered bands of hunter-gatherers called Coahuiltecos or Coahuiltecans (kwa-weel-tekens). These bands ranged through what is now the Mexican state of Coahuila into South Texas. They moved from one traditional campsite to another, following the seasons and herds of migrating animals. Since the environment in which they lived was often difficult, mainly because of a lack of rainfall, the Coahuiltecans lived precariously because they rarely had a sure food supply. Though they sometimes warred against one another, all faced threats from more formidable adversaries such as the Apache and, later, the Comanche. These tribes had become mobile raiders by taking advantage of the herds of wild horses that had developed from runaways from Spanish settlements.
…These hunter-gatherers were willing to become part of the mission system for a number of reasons. The irrigation system promised a more stable supply of food than they normally enjoyed. Diseases brought by Europeans had depleted their numbers, making the Coahuiltecans even more vulnerable to their now-mobile enemies. The presidio, however, offered much greater protection.
Though routines did vary, the missions shared a number of practices. The missionaries, along with lay helpers and usually no more than two soldiers and their families, instructed the natives in the Catholic faith and in the elements of Spanish peasant society. The Indians learned various trades, including carpentry, masonry, blacksmithing, and weaving; they also did a great deal of agricultural work.
Since mission society lasted more than 100 years, no single description can cover the entire experience. It is possible, though, to depict some of its most important elements. Religion was the most important factor in shaping the day. At dawn the church bells rang, calling the people to morning prayer, which was followed by religious instruction. At noontime the bells tolled again to assemble everyone for more prayer, and in the evening there was another service and more instruction.
What happened the rest of the day varied from person to person. Many of the men were led to the fields or to military drills by a missionary or a soldier, while others remained in the compound to work in one of the shops weaving, candle making, woodworking, or engaging in other crafts. Women and older girls often made pottery or baskets, though others prepared food or caught fish in the nearby river. Children spent their days in a number of ways: helping the adults, gathering under a tree for Spanish lessons, playing games with each other. At noontime, everyone came together to eat the day's largest meal, which was followed by the rest period known as a siesta. They remained inside for the hottest part of the day, then returned to their duties until early evening. They would have a light meal before the last service of the day, then enjoy some relaxation. Some would spend the evening dancing and singing, while others played games. The native population reacted to the mission system in a number of ways. Some of them participated fully, mixing their traditions with those of Spain to create a new
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Hispanicized and Christianized culture. The Spanish then called them “gente de raza”, or …people like the Spaniards themselves. Other Indians moved in and out of the missions, choosing to return to more familiar surroundings during a season when the natural environment was rich with food. Some Indians refused to join at all, continuing to live in their traditional ways.
In the 1790s, the missions began to change. At that time secularization--turning the settlements into civil rather than religious communities--began. The Spanish government withdrew its financial support and ordered mission lands and livestock to be divided among the mission Indians who had been converted to Christianity. Only one of the San Antonio missions, Mission San Antonio de Valero (now known as the Alamo) was fully secularized. The other four, which are now part of the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park, were only partially secularized. Here the populations elected their community officials, but missionaries remained to act as parish priests. In 1824, after Mexico achieved independence from Spain, the remaining missions were fully secularized and all missionaries left the area. Though the buildings then fell into decline, in the 1930s restoration began. Today the four missions within the park serve as parish churches, and all five San Antonio missions are open to the public. 1. Who were the Franciscans?
a. A group of French explorers b. A battalion of French soldiers c. An order of priests d. A colony of French settlers
2. Who did not pose a threat to the Coahuiltecans?
a. Other Coahuiltecans b. The Mexicans c. The Apache d. The Comanche
3. To what did “gente de raza” refer, as it was used by the Spaniards?
a. A disease brought by the Europeans that depleted the Coahuiltecan population
b. A prayer ceremony practiced regularly at the missions c. A lost art that had been practiced in the missions d. The natives who participated fully in the missions
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4. What features of the Coahuiltecans’ way of life made them interested in participating in mission life?
5. Describe the daily routine of men, women and children in the missions. 6. Explain the prayer and religious routines of the missions.
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On Bullfights and Baseball: An Example of Interaction of Social Institutions The passive-aggressive component of the Mexican modal personality can be traced to the dominant and harshly punitive role of the father and to the general authoritarian nature of the Mexican culture. The passive-aggressiveness is perpetuated in the macho pattern of the Mexican male and the "martyr" pattern of the Mexican female. Any acting out of the resultant hostility to authority must be carried out in spheres safely distant from that authority's immediate control. The bullfight is seen to depict, symbolically, the power of the father, the subtle demands of the mother and the fear of the child. Unlike the family situation, the awesome authority does not prevail, but rather is dominated and destroyed through the courage and daring of the matador. He, however, acting for spectator, must accomplish this hostile act in a framework of "respect" for authority, and with a studied passiveness in and control of movement. By contrast, the "intellectualization" component of the Anglo modal personality can be traced to the superficial ethic of "equality" among family members and to the general intellectualized nature of highly urbanized societies. The attempt to mute authority by a pseudo-philosophy of togetherness, when authority is in fact assumed by the father, the mother and by the society, engenders a vagueness in role definition, confusion in behavioral expectations and an intellectualization of the resultant conflict. Hostility toward this intangible yet frustrating authority figure is expressed by the individual in a manner as abstract and as ritualized as its causative factors. The national sport of baseball is set in a framework of equality. Hostility toward authority takes the symbolic form of competition and desire to win, and is smothered under a covering of rules, regulations and player rituals. Guided by the authority of umpires (who are sufficiently impersonal to be challenged with relative impunity) and protected in the safety of numbers as a member of a team, the players sytematically alternate roles, allowing each to have an equal opportunity to "be aggressive."… Since 1920, the bullfight has gradually been modified to accentuate domination rather than the kill. Paralleling this, the position of the father in the Mexican family has, with gradual urbanization, come more closely in line with that of the "advanced" Western model. He is less threatening, less fearsome, and can be dominated to a degree sufficient to reduce the importance of his symbolic destruction. Baseball, since 1920, has similarly undergone significant changes. With the increasing bureaucratization of Anglo society, and with the increasing emphasis upon "equality" and impersonality in the family, have come the more complex bureaucratization and the more elaborate ritualization of baseball. The family and the institutionalized recreation form known as the national sport mutually reflect, as they appear in Mexico, the cultural centrality of death, dominance, "personal" relationships, respect for and fear and hatred of authority and the defense systems of the passive-aggressive character structure. In the Anglo culture, these two institutions [of family and institutionalized recreation] mutually reflect the cultural importance of equality, impersonality, and the defense mechanism of intellectualization…
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1. Which of the following statements characterizes the behavior of fathers in Mexican families, according to this author?
a. They intellectualize their relationships with their children. b. They are martyrs for their wives, sons and daughters. c. They view their children almost as equals in the family. d. They are authoritarian in their approach to child rearing. 2. What is the main thesis of this article? a. The sports of Mexico and the U.S. reflect larger values in the two cultures. b. Women and children have different roles in U.S. and Mexican societies.
c. There is a vagueness in family role definitions in U.S. city centers. d. Values in Mexico and the U.S. have become more liberal in recent years. 3. Which of the following statements is supported by details in the article? a. In Mexico, there is no resistance to the father's authority. b. In the U.S., there is true equality among all family members. c. In Mexico, opposition to the father's authority must be made indirectly. d. In the U.S., family members have well-defined roles and behavior. 4. To what does the author attribute the changes in roles among family members in
both Mexico and the U.S. in the last 80 years? a. More education for women and children b. Watching sports together as a family unit c. Increasing urbanization in both countries d. The strength of the women's rights movement 5. Which statement represents the author's view concerning the philosophies of
"togetherness" and "equality" in the U.S. family?
a. They are intellectualized values that do not reflect the true nature of authority in the society.
b. They are genuine values that contribute greatly to American culture and ideals.
c. They are values that help young people to assume responsible roles within the society.
d. They are values that help ease hostility and that should be adopted by families in Mexico.
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6. What are the cultural values of Mexico and of the U.S. that are symbolized by bullfighting and baseball? How does each sport display these values? Why have the sports changed over the years?
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A Tale of Two Moralities: Conflicts in Family Values …California was even more astonishing than Acapulco had been when she [Manuela] first left the village, but now she had more time to explore this new world. She learned English in a short time and…started forays into the American universe, in ever-wider circles from her employers' house. She even took bus trips to Hollywood and San Francisco. For the first time in her life she slept in a room all by herself. And, despite her regular payments for Roberto's keep [in Acapulco], she started to save money and put it in a bank account. Most important, she started to think about her life in new ways, systematically. "What will become of you when you go back?" asked the American woman one day. Manuela did not know then, but she started to think. Carmelita, the Cuban girl, discussed the matter with her many times…Eventually, one project won out over all the alternatives: Manuela would return to go to commercial school, to become a bilingual secretary. She even started a typing course in California. But she would not return to Acapulco. She knew that, to succeed, she would have to remove herself from the family there. She would go to Mexico City, first alone, and then she would send for Roberto. …The choice before Manuela now is sharp and crystal-clear: She must return to Mexico--because she wants to, because of Roberto, and because the American authorities would send her back there sooner or later anyway. She can then return to the welcoming bosom of the family system, surrender her savings, and return to her previous way of life. Or she can carry through her plan in the face of family opposition. The choice is not only between two courses of action, but between two moralities. The first course is dictated by the morality of collective solidarity, the second by the morality of personal autonomy and advancement. Each morality condemns the other--as uncaring selfishness in the former case, as irresponsible disregard of her own potential and the welfare of her son in the latter. Poor Manuela's conscience is divided; by now she is capable of feeling its pangs either way. She is in America, not in Mexico, and the new morality gets more support from her immediate surroundings. Carmelita is all for the plan and so are most of the Spanish-speaking girls with whom Manuela has been going out. Only one, another Mexican, expressed doubt: "I don't know. Your grandfather is ill, and your uncle helped you a lot in the past. Can you just forget them? I think that one must always help one's relatives." Manuela once talked about the matter with the American woman. "Nonsense," said the latter, "you should go ahead with your plan. You owe it to yourself and to your son." So this is what Manuela intends to do, very soon now. But she is not at ease with the decision… Each decision, as dictated by the respective morality, has predictable consequences. If Manuela follows the old morality, she will, in all likelihood, never raise herself or her son above the level she achieved in Acapulco--not quite at the bottom of the social scale, but not very far above it. If, on the other hand, she decides in accordance with the new morality (new for her, that is), she has at least a chance of making it up one important step on that scale. Her son will benefit from this, but probably no other of her relatives will. To take that step she must, literally, hack off all those hands that that would hold her back. It is a grim choice indeed.
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1. What is the main issue discussed in this article? a. The financial difficulty of adjusting to new life in the U.S. b. The delight a new immigrant finds in the American way of life. c. The conflict of values an immigrant experiences in adjusting to the U.S. d. The freedoms that Americans possess to travel and better themselves. 2. Based on Manuela's story, which of the following statements may be inferred
about Mexican immigrants?
a. Many Mexican immigrants send money home to help other family members.
b. Mexican immigrants easily adopt the American way of life. c. Most immigrants do not like American customs. d. All immigrants profit from the U.S. educational system.
3. Besides Roberto, what is the other reason that Manuela feels she must go back to
Mexico? a. Her family has demanded that she move back. b. A good job as a bilingual secretary awaits her in Acapulco. c. An excellent commercial school is available in Acapulco. d. She believes the U.S. authorities will send her back eventually. 4. Which statement describes the attitude of most of Manuela’s Spanish-speaking
friends in the U.S.? a. They still believe in the values of Mexican village life. b. They have begun to assimilate U.S. values.
c. They have resisted adopting U.S. values. d. They fiercely believe in the extended family system.
5. Which of the following statements is implied in the article? a. Mexican families value family solidarity over personal fulfillment. b. Mexican families are too suffocating and controlling. c. U.S. families are divided in their feelings about each other. d. Manuela and her friends are selfish in their views about life.
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6. What two courses of action and moral choices are faced by Manuela and immigrants like her?
7. What are the values of each culture that dictate these two moralities? What
dilemmas does each choice create?
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Ybor City, José Martí, and the Spanish–American War
It has been said that the revolutionary activities that took place in Ybor City [located in Tampa, FL] in the late 1880s and the 1890s caused the Spanish-American War of 1898. Although that may be an exaggeration, the immigrant Cuban population in the city was deeply involved in Cuba's efforts to free itself from Spain.
Resenting their Spanish rulers who had become increasingly harsh, the Cuban people began sporadic rebellions as early as the 1860s. Some of the people who immigrated to Ybor City in the late 1880s were in exile because of their participation in such activities. Because of their proximity to Cuba, Ybor City and Key West became major centers for those who pushed for Cuba's independence. The lectors in the cigar factories often read from revolutionary newspapers and the cigar factory workers supported the revolution with cash donations.
Into this receptive climate came the great revolutionary known as the "George Washington of Cuba." José Martí, born in Cuba in 1853, was a teacher and a writer who advocated the overthrow of the Spanish who controlled his native land. He was exiled twice–in 1871 and again in 1879. From 1881 to 1895, Martí lived in New York City where he spent most of his time writing poetry, essays, and newspaper articles in support of Cuban freedom.
Martí often made long visits to Ybor City. On November 26 and 27, 1891, he delivered two speeches there—Con Todos Y Para Todos ("With All and For All"), and Los Pinos Nuevos ("The New Growth")—which outlined the goals of the United Cuban Revolutionary Party. Both speeches were reproduced in newspapers and journals in the United States and Cuba and inflamed Cuban desire for independence. In 1893 Martí delivered the speech that many feel led directly to war. More than 10,000 Cubans jammed into a small outdoor area in front of the V.M. Ybor Cigar Factory, punctuating Martí's speech with cries of "Cuba Libre!" (Free Cuba!) Following that rousing evening, workers from all the factories pledged to give one day's pay a week to the revolutionary fund. Hundreds of cigar makers and other workers formed infantry companies to begin preparing themselves for battle. From the revolutionary fund they bought a few rifles and some ammunition, as well as many machetes–a weapon with a sharp blade that is a cross between a sword and an axe. Martí returned to Cuba with a small army of these men and led the insurrection of 1895. Martí and many members of his Ybor City army died in a skirmish. Their deaths further inflamed public opinion against Spain.
Newspapers across the country emblazoned Martí's efforts in huge headlines and detailed stories. His death brought more pressure for full-scale revolution with help from the United States. When the U.S. declared war against Spain in 1898, American troops passed through the port of Tampa on their way to Cuba, and many Cuban immigrants were part of that army. Martí was still so revered as a great Cuban freedom fighter many years later that when Fidel Castro imposed a dictatorship on Cuba in 1958, the U.S. government named its shortwave radio broadcasts to Cuba "Radio Martí."
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1. Why did Ybor City and Key West become major centers for immigrants who were pushing for Cuba’s independence from Spain?
a. It was the home of José Martí, who was the leader of the revolutionary
movement. b. The supply of riffles, ammunition, and machetes was plentiful in Ybor
City as well as in Key West. c. Both locations were relatively close to Cuba. d. The U.S. government gave incentives for migration into the area.
2. Which of José Martí’s speeches is said to have led directly to war?
a. With All and For All b. Free Cuba c. The New Growth d. My Country
3. Which of the following is not a way in which the cigar workers contributed to the
cause of "Cuba Libre"? a. They donated money to the cause. b. They formed infantry companies. c. They built a fort to protect Ybor City. d. They participated in the invasion of Cuba.
4. The U.S. Government shortwave broadcasts to Cuba are called:
a. Cuba libre b. Radio Martí c. Transmission Ybor City d. Para todos
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5. How many descriptors can you provide to identify or characterize José Martí? Why was he considered to be a martyr to the cause of Cuba’s freedom?
6. How did Martí’s work in Ybor City help the Cuban revolutionary cause? 7. Why was it logical that American troops embarked for Cuba from Tampa,
Florida?
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The Masters of Contemporary Brazilian Song MPB
In Brazil the 1960s witnessed great diversification and creativity in the realm of
song. After the rise of the internationally known style of Bossa Nova in the early years of the decade, the acronym MPB (música popular brasileira or popular Brazilian music) came into use to designate new varieties of urban popular music. During this period many performing songwriters with exceptional musical and poetic talents appeared on the artistic scene. As a result, popular music gained new status and dignity among the Brazilian arts. Song came to be recognized as one of the nation's richest and most significant cultural manifestations. Composers and performers were involved in sociopolitical mobilization and actively participated in intellectual debate about the paths of the creative arts. Important relationships developed among songwriters, filmmakers, the literary vanguard, and members of the art music community. Expansion of the recording and broadcasting industries, songwriters' competitions, festivals of popular music, critical attention and a discriminating public, all encouraged thoughtful and innovative musical composition. With the emergence of lyrically inspired popular composers and the participation of accomplished poets in songwriting, texts began to exhibit unprecedented expressive quality. Literary critics began to discuss song texts as an important branch of poetic expression. Certain songwriters came to be considered not just as "poets of popular music" but as the best young Brazilian poets. They were likened to the ancient troubadors who blended words and melodies in compositions for performance. Terms such as "modern Brazilian popular music," "cultured urban popular music" and "erudite popular music" were used to draw attention to this new musical consciousness and sophistication.
Many composers, performers and poet-musicians who contributed to the making of MPB in the sixties continued to develop musical concepts through the seventies and into the eighties. The most influential, representative and consistently inspired of these artists are songwriters Chico Buarque, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, and Milton Nascimento. João Bosco and Aldir Blanc, who joined forces in the early seventies, represent the most distinctive composer-lyricist team in MPB…When it came into common usage in the late sixties, the acronym MPB was used to designate original composition rooted in or derived from Brazilian traditions, usually with acoustic instrumentation. In this sense, MPB was distinguished from international pop music and rock and roll, in the early sixties' style of groups such as the Beatles, which used electric instrumentation. The original distinction became blurred in the seventies, as composers began to assimilate and adapt international trends more regularly. MPB is now frequently used to refer to the music of artists who made their marks in the late sixties; the acronym also differentiates the work of those songwriters from the production of the eighties' generation, which is clearly dominated by the rock sound…
…There is considerable variety in the approaches of these different songwriters, as well as thematic and musical diversity within the individual repertories. Their work involves the rethinking and refinement of national musical legacy, investigation and reformulation of regional heritage, and assimilation and adaptation of foreign models. Compositions range from stylizations of simple folk tunes to avant-garde sound collages. Song is used to address social issues, to voice protest of authoritarian control, to make aesthetic statements, and to explore philosophical and spiritual themes. The music of
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Chico Buarque, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Milton Nascimento, and João Bosco-Aldir Blanc reflects broad cultural trends and embodies both the continuity and the diversification of Brazilian popular music…
1. What does MPB (música popular brasileira) represent, according to the author?
a. The rise and popularity of the Bossa Nova b. Various kinds of urban popular music c. A form of Brazilian rock and roll d. Music with electric instrumentation
2. When MPB first came into popular usage, what were its defining characteristics? a. Original Brazilian compositions with acoustic instruments b. A blend of Brazilian and international popular music c. Music influence by the Beatles and other vocal groups d. Non-lyrical songs and melodies from folk groups 3. What is the author's assertion regarding the songs of later música popular
brasileira? a. They show little thematic and musical diversity or variation. b. They address primarily aesthetic and personal spiritual themes. c. They include adaptations of regional, national and foreign models. d. They are limited to lyrical and simple folk tunes. 4. Which of these teams represent a songwriter and lyricist pair that came into MPB
in the 70's? a. João Bosco and Aldir Blanc b. Chico Buarque and Milton Nascimento c. Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil d. Gilberto Gil and Milton Nascimento
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5. What were some of the effects of early MPB during the 60's and early 70's? How
did it emerge and grow to affect the culture? 6. What characteristics does MPB embody as it is viewed from a more recent
vantage point? What themes are addressed? How have these themes and characteristics affected the music scene in Brazil?
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In Spanish Harlem
The first great generation of Puerto Rican migrants established communities in cities throughout the country, including Chicago, Philadelphia, and Newark, as well as in mid-Atlantic farm villages and the mill towns of New England. However, since the 1930s, the capital of Puerto Rican culture in the mainland U.S. has been New York City. Despite its great distance from the Caribbean, New York had long been the landing point of seagoing Puerto Ricans, and the airborne newcomers followed suit. The new migrants settled in great numbers in Northeast Manhattan, in a neighborhood that soon became known as Spanish Harlem. Although many had been farm workers in Puerto Rico, they know found themselves working in a wide variety of jobs, staffing the hospitals, the hotels, the garment factories, and the police departments of their new hometown, and they soon became a significant force in the city’s political and cultural life.
The migration to the 50 states slowed in the 1960s and 70s, as an urban recession led to fewer jobs in U.S. cities, and many of the first generation returned to Puerto Rico. At the same time, many migrants struggled with poverty, unemployment, and racial discrimination in their new home. Darker-skinned Puerto Ricans often found themselves excluded from jobs, education, and housing, and were frequently attacked by non-Puerto Rican street gangs. Meanwhile, for most Puerto Ricans the language barrier sometimes made it difficult to find well-paying work or to navigate government agencies or other English-speaking institutions.
As a second generation was born into the mainland Puerto Rican community, new political movements were born as well. Puerto Ricans organized to campaign for greater civil rights, for equal access to education and employment, and for changes in the status of Puerto Rico. In a 1951 referendum, the Puerto Rican population had voted overwhelmingly to become a U.S. commonwealth, rather than remain a colony. Many groups, however, continued to call for full independence, and later in the decade militant nationalists fired on the U.S. House of Representatives and attempted to assassinate President Harry Truman. Political organizations also sprang up to agitate for social reform and greater economic aid to the island, which continued to struggle economically. At the same time, cultural organizations such as the Nuyorican Poets urged Puerto Ricans on the mainland to become more aware of their heritage, and produced poems and songs that examined many of the harshest aspects of the migrant experience.
At the beginning of the 21st century, the Puerto Rican community has established solid roots in the U.S. mainland. Although the first generation of migrants faced great obstacles, their labors helped build institutions that now benefit their successors, including churches, community centers, schools, businesses, and political organizations. Today, Puerto Ricans serve New York in the city, state, and federal governments; in 1992, New Yorker Nydia Velázquez became the first woman of Puerto Rican descent to be elected to the U.S. Congress. The Puerto Rican Day parade has become the largest parade for any national or ethnic group in the city. Nationally, performers such as Rita Moreno, Raul Julia, and Tito Puente have become familiar faces to millions of Americans, and writers such as Edwin Torres, Nicolasa Mohr, and Judith Ortiz Cofer have made their mark on the nation’s literary scene. The Hall of Fame baseball player Robert Clemente, who passed away in 1972, is still revered throughout North America, as much for his philanthropy as for his skill in the outfield.
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Today, almost as many people of Puerto Rican descent can be found in the 50 states as on the island itself. Meanwhile, the nature of the community continues to change. More professionals and high-tech workers are arriving on the mainland than ever before, and the fastest-growing Puerto Rican enclave is not in New York City, but in Orlando, Florida. It seems clear that, after more than a century as part of the United States, the Puerto Rican community will continue as a growing, dynamic, and surprising part of American life for decades to come.
1. To what does the name Spanish Harlem refer?
a. Puerto Rican settlements in Chicago, Philadelphia and Newark b. A mill town in New England where Puerto Ricans settled and worked c. A collection of mid-Atlantic farm villages where Hispanics settled d. The capital of Puerto Rican culture in Manhattan, New York
2. What is the current status of Puerto Rico? a. A member of the U. S. Commonwealth b. One of the 50 states of the U.S. c. A closely-located colony of the U.S. c. An independent sovereign country 3. The first generation of Puerto Rican immigrants in the U.S. were responsible for
what? a. Assassinating President Harry Truman in Congress b. Providing labor for building various institutions c. Establishing the Hall of Fame for baseball d. Creating much of the violence in New York City 4. What is the fastest-growing center of Puerto Rican population in the U.S. in the
21st century? a. Newark b. Orlando c. New York City d. Chicago
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5. What were the various issues faced by Puerto Rican immigrants over the years? How did they deal with these issues? How did an urban recession affect immigration in the 60's and 70's?
6. What are the various ways in which Puerto Rican immigrants have contributed to
U.S. culture? What fields or professions are represented? Who are some famous Puerto Ricans associated with each of these professions?
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Migrating to a New Land The story of the Puerto Rican people is unique in the history of U.S. immigration,
just as Puerto Rico occupies a distinctive—and sometimes confusing—position in the nation’s civic fabric. Puerto Rico has been a possession of the U.S. for more than a century, but it has never been a state. Its people have been U.S. citizens since 1917, but they have no vote in Congress. As citizens, the people of Puerto Rico can move throughout the 50 states just as any other Americans can—legally, this is considered internal migration, not immigration. However, in moving to the mainland, Puerto Ricans leave a homeland with its own distinct identity and culture, and the transition can involve many of the same cultural conflicts and emotional adjustments that most immigrants face. Some writers have suggested that the Puerto Rican migration experience can be seen as an internal immigration—as the experience of a people who move within their own country, but whose new home lies well outside of their emotional home territory.
At first, few Puerto Ricans came to the continental U.S. at all. Although the U.S. tried to promote Puerto Rico as a glamorous tourist destination, in the early 20th century the island suffered a severe economic depression. Poverty was rife, and few of the island’s residents could afford the long boat journey to the mainland. In 1910, there were fewer than 2,000 Puerto Ricans in the continental U.S., mostly in small enclaves in New York City, and twenty years later there were only 40,000 more. After the end of the Second World War, however, Puerto Rican migration exploded. In 1945, there had been 13,000 Puerto Ricans in New York City; in 1946 there were more than 50,000. Over the next decade, more than 25,000 Puerto Ricans would come to the continental U.S. each year, peaking in 1953, when more than 69,000 came. By 1955, nearly 700,000 Puerto Ricans had arrived. By the mid-1960s, more than a million had.
There were a number of reasons for this sudden influx. The continuing depression in Puerto Rico made many Puerto Ricans eager for a fresh start, and U.S. factory owners and employment agencies had begun recruiting heavily on the island. In addition, the postwar years saw the return home of thousands of Puerto Rican war veterans, whose service in the U.S. military had shown them the world. But perhaps the most significant cause was the sudden availability of affordable air travel. After centuries of immigration by boat, the Puerto Rican migration became the first great airborne migration in U.S. history. 1. According to the article, what is the status of Puerto Rico in relation to the U.S.?
a. It became a state in 1917, so its people enjoy full rights as citizens of the U.S.
b. It is a sovereign Hispanic country in which people elect their representation.
c. It is a territory of the U.S with full representation in Congress. d. It is a possession of the U.S. and its people are legally U.S. citizens.
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2. Which of the following statements is true concerning Puerto Ricans who migrate? a. They strongly identify with U.S. culture and find it easy to adapt. b. They have finally found an emotional home in the U.S. c. They experience many conflicts due to differences in U.S. culture. d. They take an active role in combating poverty in Puerto Rico. 3. What event was responsible for a large sudden increase in Puerto Rican
population in New York City? a. The Great Depression b. The end of World War II c. The increase in boat travel d. The promotion of tourism 4. Which statement represents the story of Puerto Rican immigration most
accurately? a. It has continued to increase and spread over time. b. It is decreasing due to better conditions in Puerto Rico. c. It is the experience of a people who dislike their own country. d. It is the saga of the first great boat migration in U.S. history. 5. Why is the story of Puerto Rican people unique in the history of immigration?
What reasons are stated for the influx of Puerto Ricans since 1945?
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A Tale of Two Moralities: The Transition from Rural to Urban Life A Mexican campesino, when he migrates, normally follows an itinerary taken before him by relatives and compadres. When he arrives, the latter provide an often intricate network of contacts that are indispensable for his adjustment to the new situation. They will often provide initial housing, they can give information and advice, and perhaps most important, they serve as an informal labor exchange. Such a network awaited Manuela in Acapulco. In addition to the aunt with whom she was staying, there were two more aunts and an uncle with their respective families, including some twelve cousins of all ages. This family system, of course, was transposed to the city from the village, but it took on a quite different character in the new context. Freed from the oppressive constraints of village life, the system…was more benign. Manuela experienced it as such. Several of her cousins took turns taking care of little Roberto when Manuela started to work. Her aunt's "fiancé" (a somewhat euphemistic term), who was head clerk in the linen supply department of the hotel, found Manuela a job in his department. The uncle, through a compadre who was head waiter in another hotel, helped her get a job there as a waitress… Manuela now had a fairly steady cash income, modest to be sure, but enough to keep going. This does not mean, however, that she could keep all of it for herself and her child. The family system operated as a social insurance agency as well as a labor exchange, and there was never a shortage of claimants. An aunt required an operation. An older cousin set up business as a mechanic and needed some capital to start off. Another cousin was arrested and a substantial mordida was required to bribe his way out of jail. And then there were always new calamities back in the village, requiring emergency transfers of money back there. Not least among them was the chronic calamity of grandfather's kidney ailment, which consumed large quantities of family funds in expensive and generally futile medical treatments. Sometimes, at the hotel, Manuela babysat for tourists with children. It was thus that she met the couple from California. They stayed in Acapulco for a whole month, and soon Manuela took care of their little girl almost daily. When they left, the woman asked Manuela whether she wanted a job as a maid in the States. "Yes," replied Manuela at once, without thinking. The arrangements were made quickly. Roberto was put up with a cousin. Uncle Pepe, through two trusted intermediaries, arranged for Manuela to cross the border illegally. Within a month she arrived at the couple's address in California. Word Key: campesino- peasant compadres- friend, buddy mordida- kickback
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1. According to the article, what system provides essential support for a Mexican migrant?
a. The social service system run by the local government b. A network of services provided by the Catholic Church c. Services provided by insurance agencies for social issues d. A network of extended family that performs numerous services
2. Which statement describes the family system that Manuel encountered in
Acapulco?
a. It is freer and kinder than the system she encountered in village life. b. It is the same system as she experienced in the village. c. It is almost non-existent by comparison to the strong village system. d. It is more oppressive and demanding than village family life. 3. Which of the following best explains how the family unit operates as a social
insurance agency?
a. No services are required in return for family kindness and favors. b. Earned income is donated to meet needs in the extended family. c. The family offers counseling and advice to new arrivals. d. The family takes turns taking care of loved ones. 4. The article indicates that migration patterns and settlements are highly dependent
upon what factor? a. People moving from large cities to small villages b. Bribing someone to get to a destination and get settled c. Routes traveled or places settled by family members previously d. Finding a job with benefits in a large corporation 5. What factors influenced Manuela to migrate from a Mexican village to a city and
then to the U.S.? What social and cultural values does she bring with her to U.S. culture?
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A Personal History of California …We hear a lot these days about increased immigration of Mexicans into
California, and about Latinos gaining in population and in status. There is often concern expressed, by the present "majority", about these trends. The images we often see are of desperate people struggling to come to this land of opportunity and wealth to create a better life for their families and their descendants. We hear of the debate over bilingual education. How few of us are alive to remember that this was once the opposite situation, that until 1846, California, and much of the west, was part of Latin America, and it was Americans that were unwelcome foreigners. The language of colonial California was, in fact, Spanish, and California’s Constitution, just last year celebrating it’s 150th anniversary, was written (in Monterey) in both Spanish and English.
You see, I am a descendant of one of the families that came to California in 1776. My grandmother on my mother’s side is Velma Lucille Bernal. We are the descendants of Juan Francisco Bernal, and Josefa de Soto, who came to California with their children on the Juan Bautista de Anza expedition of 1775/1776 from Sinaloa, Mexico. The members of the de Anza expedition came to "Alta" California at the command of King Carlos III of Spain in search of a better life for their families and their descendants. At the time when the British colonies on the east coast were just declaring independence, California had already been settled by a different kind of pioneer. They came when the California territory, or "department" as it was called, was the possession of Spain.
In 1824, after three centuries of Spanish exploration, military conquests, and colonial activity, Mexico declared its independence, and the department of California became part of a new Latin American Republic (Mexico). The settlers of the de Anza expedition, called Pobladores, included family names such as Castro, Pico, Peralta, Lara, Galindo, Sanchez, Moraga, Arrellano, Bernal, Mesa, Tapia just to name a few. These families became the "Dons and Doñas", ranch owners of immense tracts of land during California’s Mexican period. Due to tensions over Texas, a war broke out in 1846 between the U.S. and Mexico. In July of 1846, American marines, under the command of Commodore Sloat, annexed California from Mexico. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hildalgo ended the war, but nine days before the treaty was signed, gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill near Sacramento. Shortly, tens of thousands of American immigrants poured into California during the "Gold Rush" in search of better life for their families and their descendants.
The names I uncovered during my search for a more personal view of history took on a significance that became more apparent as the story unfolded. After visiting the Contra Costa and Moraga Historical Societies, and meeting one of many distant Californian cousins, it was suggested that I could be a descendant of the grandson of Juan Francisco Bernal, Juan Bernal, of the Rancho Laguna de los Palos Colorados near Moraga, California. Thanks to people who value the past, records had painstakingly been saved over the years that allow one to reconstruct it. As I went through these records, I found entries that directly linked Juan’s son, Nicolas Bernal, with the children of the next generation that included Dionosio Bernal, my grandmother’s father. I also found entries for Dionosio’s mother, Maria Encarnación Andrea Sibrian. The many times my grandmother had shown me Maria Encarnación’s picture we were unaware that she was the daughter of none other than Rose Marie Pacheco. This is the same Pacheco family
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for which Pacheco Pass is named. I also found records that showed that Juan Francisco’s son, Apolonario Bernal, and his wife Teodora Peralta, once found an American immigrant named John Gilroy at the beach in Monterey. Apolonario and Teodora found John Gilroy dying, and brought him to the Peralta's San Antonio Ranch, where they nursed him back to health. This was the man to which the town of Gilroy was later named, an event that would not have taken place had events taken a less compassionate turn. More disturbing were the other records of Nicolas and his father, Juan Bernal. Juan Bernal may never have lived on his land. He died in 1847 while in his 40s, and was blind in his later years. His son, Nicolas, born in 1833, and his brothers, were raised by his mother and a stepfather, Ramon Higuera. Remember this name later, Higuera.
…Propagating through the generations, a thread can start to be woven into a tapestry that begins to connect how our family’s history is linked to that which is told, and often untold, in the history books. But history is not just about books. It is about understanding the reasons why things have turned out the way they have, and for finding directions that time and events seem to be flowing. Many consider the pursuit of such things the work of the idle, but I believe that there may be a higher force at work. Over ten years ago, long before I discovered the names in the story of our personal view of history, my cousin, Deanna Bernal, married a Higuera. Without prior knowledge of the past, there is yet again a Bernal-Higuera union. Another cousin, who until recently had not been told the story of the Bernals, has a son who is now over eight years old. At the last minute after the child was born, the proud parents gave the son the name Nicolas. The parents don’t know why they gave the son the name that they did; they claim that it "came out of the air.” So what was the name that my grandmother and her siblings never knew? It was Nicolas. This was the key to linking our families records with the historical accounts of the Bernal family who came to California in search of a better life for their children and their descendants.
…My grandmother, Velma Bernal, was born December 13, 1901 in the century that has just passed. She too passed away before the answers to these questions were fully answered, but her death in December of 1998 launched me into a quest to take up her search described above. She died not knowing the history that is kept from many books, and many minds of the people who have come to California since those early days. Now a new rush is underway in California. With the dawn of the information age and the race to connect the world via the internet, the "Silicon Rush" brings families to California in search of a way to turn this element into gold. These new families, like the generations before them, come to California in search of a better life for their families and their descendants. How will history record the lives and accomplishments of these immigrants?… 1. What does this excerpt strongly imply about the settlement of California?
a. Mexican immigration represents a new phenomenon in California. b. Mexicans have historically contributed to California's economy and
population. c. Mexicans view California as a land of opportunity. d. Anglos have maintained their historic majority status in California.
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2. What finding was crucial in showing that the narrator of these accounts is linked
to a family who had settled in California in 1776?
a. Records kept by historical societies b. Court records in California c. An old family testament d. Old records kept at St. Mary’s College
3. The author expresses a concern about which of the following?
a. How recent immigrants' history will be recorded b. The war between Americans and Mexicans c. The lack of history about California immigration d. Court trials about illegal immigrants
4. According to this reading, what historical factors contributed to the early
development of California? 5. What legacy is the narrator trying to convey to others for their search of family
history?
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The History of Ybor City
Ybor City, a section of the large metropolitan area of Tampa, Florida, owes its beginning to three Spaniards who came to the "New World" in the 19th century: Gavino Gutierrez, Vicente Martinez Ybor, and Ignacio Haya. Ybor immigrated to Cuba in 1832, at the age of 14. He worked as a clerk in a grocery store, then as a cigar salesman, and in 1853 he started his own cigar factory in Havana. Labor unrest, the high tariff on Cuban cigars, and the start of the Cuban Revolution in 1868 caused Ybor to move his plant and his workers to Key West, Florida. While his business there was successful, labor problems and the lack of a good fresh water supply and a transportation system for distributing his products led him to consider moving his business to a new location.
Gavino Gutierrez came to the United States from Spain in 1868. He settled in New York City, but he traveled often–to Cuba, to Key West, and to the small town of Tampa, Florida, searching for exotic fruits such as mangoes and guavas. During a visit to Key West in 1884, he convinced Ybor and Ignacio Haya, a cigar factory owner from New York who was visiting Ybor, to travel to Tampa to investigate its potential for cigar manufacturing. That same year Henry Bradley Plant, a businessman from Connecticut, had completed a rail line into Tampa and was in the process of improving the port facility for his shipping lines. These methods of transportation would make it easy to import tobacco from Cuba as well as distribute finished products. Tampa also offered the warm, humid climate necessary for cigar manufacturing, and a freshwater well.
After visiting Tampa in 1885, both Haya and Ybor decided to build cigar factories in the area. Gutierrez surveyed an area two miles from Tampa, even drawing up a map to show where streets might run. Ybor purchased 40 acres of land and began to construct a factory. He continued to manufacture cigars in Key West as well, until a fire destroyed his factory there in 1886. Afterwards, Ybor spent all of his time on his operations in the Tampa area. At age 68, Ybor began developing a company town "with the hope of providing a good living and working environment so that cigar workers would have fewer grievances against owners." There had been Spanish and Cuban fishermen in the Tampa region before Spain ceded Florida to the United States in 1819, but the city had grown slowly. As late as 1880, the population was only about 700. In 1887 when the city of Tampa incorporated Ybor City into the municipality, the population increased to more than 3,000. By 1890 the population of Tampa was about 5,500. Most residents made their living from cigar making, while the occupations of many other workers revolved around the cigar trade. For example, some workers made the attractive wooden cigar boxes in which the hand-rolled cigars were shipped and which, in most American homes, came to be used for holding keepsakes. Other workers made cigar bands, pieces of paper around each cigar denoting its brand, which once were collected by children all over the country. Ybor City developed as a multiethnic community where English was a second language for many of its citizens. Cubans made up the largest group. About 15 percent of them were African Cubans. Next were the Spaniards, who came in large numbers after 1890. Together these two groups dominated the cigar industry and set the cultural tone for the community. Ybor City also attracted Italians, mostly Sicilians, who had first come to work in the sugar cane fields in Louisiana. Some Italians worked in the cigar industry, but many operated restaurants and small businesses or farmed for a living. Most became
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bilingual in Italian and Spanish. Other immigrants included Germans, Romanian Jews, and a small number of Chinese. The Germans contributed to the cigar industry through their superb cigar box art. The lithographs incorporated into their cover designs were considered the best in the world. Romanian Jews and Chinese immigrants worked mainly in retail businesses and in service trades.
Ybor City eventually out-produced Havana as a manufacturing center of quality cigars. Both Ybor and Haya offered plant sites and other incentives to lure other major cigar factory owners away from Cuba and Key West. There were also hundreds of small cigar making shops. By 1900 Tampa's Ybor City had become known as the "Cigar Capital of the World."…
Ybor City continued to grow and prosper through the 1920s and into the 1930s. Several factors soon converged to bring about hard times, however. Cigarette consumption began to grow, a major depression struck the nation, and improved machinery for rolling cigars began to produce a product comparable in workmanship to the hand-rolled variety. At first, these machine-produced cigars could find little market because the hand-rolled "Havana" type cigar had such a good reputation. Then the producers of the machine-made cigars launched a notorious "spit" campaign. In their advertisements they falsely claimed that human saliva played a major role in the production of hand-manufactured cigars.
The combined effect of the "spit campaign," the Great Depression, and the growing popularity of cigarettes finally changed Ybor City. Large factories either mechanized or went out of business. As machines took over for people, many of Ybor City's residents moved elsewhere in Tampa to find work. Between 1930 and 1940, some Cubans left the city and returned to their homeland. In the 1960s Ybor City was split apart by an urban renewal project. Seventy acres of the old city were leveled, including several hundred houses, one mutual aid society building, and a fire station. An interstate highway took up part of the leveled ground, but the rest was never redeveloped because federal funds and private investments did not materialize. This destruction did have one positive effect, however. Years later, it prompted a number of civic organizations to band together to preserve what remained of the city's historic buildings and ethnic heritage. 1. Why did Vicente Martinez Ybor leave Cuba to start a cigar factory in Key West,
Florida?
a. Labor unrest b. High tariffs on Cuban cigars c. The start of the Cuban Revolution d. All of the above
2. What event caused the population of Tampa to increase significantly in 1887?
a. A rail line into Tampa was completed for transporting cigars. b. The city of Tampa incorporated Ybor City into its municipality. c. The Tampa bay port facilities were improved considerably. d. A freshwater well was established to aid residents.
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3. Which of the following is NOT a factor that caused a decline in Ybor City’s
cigar-making industry?
a. Cigar rolling became a mechanized process b. Cigarette consumption increased c. Citizens became increasingly aware of the health risks associated with
cigar smoking d. The Great Depression
4. How was Gavino Gutierrez influential in establishing Ybor City? 5. What impact did the cigar industry have on the growth of Tampa? How did
various immigrants contribute to the industry and to the development of Ybor City as a multiethnic community?
6. What occurred in Ybor city in the 1960s? What positive outcome came from this
event?
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Ybor City's Cigar Workers
The men and women of Ybor City [in Tampa, FL] who made the hand-rolled
cigars earned good wages for the times and had a certain amount of control over their work day. Because they were paid by the number of cigars they turned out each day rather than by the hour, they set their own rate of production. These cigar workers were artisans, and the goal for both the factory owner and the individual worker was to produce perfect handcrafted cigars. The first step in cigar manufacturing was to age the filler, binder, and tobacco wrapper under controlled climate conditions. Then they were prepared for blending with different tobacco types to control the flavor. Next, workers called "strippers" selected and stripped from the tobacco plant the leaves to carry to the cigar makers. From a supply of leaves beside him, a cigar maker picked up several filler leaves of tobacco, laying them one by one on the palm of the hand until he could tell by the weight that he had enough for the cigar. Each of the filler leaves had to be pointed in just the right direction so that the cigar would burn evenly and hold its ash properly. The filler was then wrapped with a binder to form a "bunch". Then the wrapper leaf was placed on a wood board and trimmed, the bunch placed on top of it, and the cigar was rolled in one smooth, flowing motion. The wrapper was sealed with a dab of gum “tragacant”, the sap of a tree grown in Iran. The worker then trimmed the finished cigar with his blade (a thin wedge-shaped steel knife), and it was ready for seasoning (or storage) for up to three years before it was considered aged enough to be sold. Workers called "pickers" sorted the finished cigars according to color, size, and shade to ensure that all cigars in a box would look roughly the same. Packers then took the sorted cigars, placed a paper ring on each one and put them in the boxes that were then ready to be shipped and sold. Each worker in the factories' large workrooms contributed about 25 cents per week for the services of lectors (readers). A lector sat on a platform above the workers and in a loud, clear voice, read through several daily newspapers, often commenting on their contents. He also might read aloud from Spanish poets, or from the works of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, author of novels, plays, and tales. Cervantes' Don Quixote has long been one of the world's best loved books (perhaps better known now from the musical, Man of La Mancha). Because they listened to the reader for several hours a day, the workers probably were better informed than most Americans of the time. These readers were talented, well-paid men who commented on the news with wit or irony and who used their voices to indicate different characters in the poems and novels they read. After work hours, most cigar workers took advantage of Ybor City's mutual aid societies. Different ethnic groups founded these social and cultural organizations to help members adapt to a new land while retaining their ethnic traditions. Mutual aid society members could gather at their clubhouse to socialize over dominoes or cards, attend a performance or dance, or participate in a variety of other recreational activities. However, these societies provided more than entertainment. For a small fee collected weekly from their members, clubs contracted with doctors and hospitals to provide medical care. The societies also operated pharmacies and provided burial services for their members. The Spanish-speaking population founded four of these clubs. Italian and German immigrants each established a club as well.
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El Centro Español, founded in 1891, was the first mutual aid society in Ybor City. To join, applicants had to be either Spaniards by birth or loyal to Spain. Members paid 25 cents a week to enjoy social privileges as well as death and injury benefits. In 1975 the club still had some 2,000 members who used its restaurant and coffee shop, and attended movies during the week and live performances on weekends. El Centro Español has been vacant, however, since the mid-1980s. Three of Ybor City's mutual aid society clubhouses, El Centro Asturiano, El Circulo Cubano, and L'Unione ltaliana, have remained in continuous use since they were constructed in the first quarter of the 20th century. By providing everyday services such as recreation and medical care, Ybor City's mutual aid societies successfully helped immigrant residents maintain their ethnic identity while adapting to life in a new country. 1. What was the role of the “lectors” in Ybor City’s cigar factories?
a. Indicate the orders that needed to be filled each day by the cigar makers b. Read directions aloud to the cigar makers on how to make different types of cigars c. Read current events and literary works to the cigar makers while they
worked d. Supervise the workers' quantity of production
2. Which of the following was not a job characteristic enjoyed by the cigar workers? a. The opportunity to be artistic on the job b. Good pay for the era in which they worked c. Insurance benefits for retirement d. The opportunity to learn ideas while on the job
3. Which of the following is not a service that mutual aid societies provided to its members?
a. Compensation for injury b. Entertainment c. Medical care d. Burial services
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4. Do you think that the life of immigrants in Ybor City was better or worse than that of most immigrants in America during the same time period? Why?
5. What varied purposes did mutual aid societies serve in Ybor City? Why were
these important to the immigrants? 6. What aspects of the cigar worker's life allowed him/her to work in a more
professional manner than many other factory workers? What decision-making powers did he/she have over the job?
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Crossing the Straits
Cuban immigration to the U.S. began in an era of peaceful coexistence between the two nations. In the latter part of the 19th century, workers moved freely between Florida and the island, and the trade in sugar, coffee, and tobacco was lucrative. Cigar companies soon began relocating from Cuba to avoid tariffs and trade regulations, and Cubans came by the thousands to work in the factories. Soon the towns of Key West and Ybor City were the capitals of a tobacco-scented empire, and also became the centers of new Cuban enclaves. Even as these communities grew, Cuban workers continued to shuttle across the Straits of Florida as work allowed. At the beginning of the 20th century, between 50,000 and 100,000 Cubans moved between Havana, Tampa, and Key West every year. At the same time, some Cubans fled political persecution, including José Martí, the father of Cuban independence, who worked as a writer in New York City while organizing his liberation forces. After the Spanish-American War and through the early 20th century, the U.S. maintained a high level of interest in Cuban affairs, and U.S. businesses increased their investments in Cuban enterprises. Meanwhile, as the Cuban government adopted increasingly repressive policies, opposition leaders continued to seek refuge in the U.S. In the 1950s, the harsh regime of Fulgencio Batista brought political resistance to a boiling point, and the number of refugees swelled When Fidel Castro led his revolutionary army into Havana in January of 1959, he ushered in a new era in Cuban life. He also launched a new era of mass emigration from his country to the United States. In the decades that followed, more than one million Cubans would make their way to the U.S., and thousands more would try and fail. Once the new Cuban government allied itself with the Soviet Union, the U.S. and Cuba became open enemies, and prospective emigrants were at the mercy of international politics. Through the years, as relations between the countries improved or deteriorated, the door of emigration would be opened and closed again and again. As a result, Cubans arrived in the U.S. in several distinct phases, each of which had a distinctly different reception. The first Cubans to flee were the wealthiest—affluent professionals and members of the Batista regime who feared reprisals from the new government. More than 200,000 of these “golden exiles” had left Cuba for the U.S. by 1962, when air flights between the two countries were suspended. Between 1965 and 1973, a few flights resumed from Varadero beach in Cuba, and 300,000 more Cubans, who became known as Varaderos, seized the opportunity to emigrate. Many of the Cubans of these first waves felt that it was only a matter of time before the new government was overthrown, and planned to wait in the U.S. for their opportunity to return. The immigrants of these first two phases were welcomed in the U.S. with open arms. It was the peak of the Cold War, and immigrants from Cuba were viewed by many in the U.S. as refugees from a dictatorial regime. The U.S. government opened a Cuban Refugee Center in Miami, and offered medical and financial aid to new arrivals. In 1966 Congress passed the Cuban American Adjustment Act, which allowed any Cuban who had lived in the U.S. for a year to become a permanent resident—a privilege that has never been offered to any other immigrant group.
The next major group of immigrants received a very different welcome. In 1980, under international pressure, the Cuban government opened the port city of Mariel to any
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Cuban who wanted to leave for the United States. The Cuban-American community mobilized to help, and within days, a massive flotilla of private yachts, merchant ships, and fishing boats arrived in Mariel to bring Cubans to Florida. In the six months the port remained open, more than 125,000 Cubans were delivered to the U.S. These immigrants, known as the Marielitos, were much less affluent than previous generations had been, however, and a few thousand had been incarcerated while in Cuba. As a result, many Marielitos were stigmatized in the U.S. as undesirable elements, and thousands were confined in temporary shelters and federal prisons—some for years.
Many Cubans took even greater risks in their attempts to leave their country. In the 1980s and 1990s, tens of thousands of hopeful emigrants attempted to flee by sea, chancing death by drowning, exposure, or shark attacks to make the 90-mile crossing. Many thousands rode only on flimsy, dangerous, homemade vessels, including inner tubes, converted cars, and cheap plywood rafts, or balsas. Hundreds of the balseros died on the journey, and both governments came under global pressure to stop the flotillas. By the end of the 90s, the two countries agreed that U.S. would return any boats to Cuba. At the beginning of the 21st century, very few Cuban emigrants successfully reached the United States. Only a major shift in relations between the two countries will result in any more substantial Cuban immigration in the future.
1. Where were the first centers of Cuban immigrants in the U. S. located? a. New York City b. Tampa c. Miami d. Jacksonville 2. For what reason did the first Cubans come to the U.S.?
a. To work in the garment industry b. To flee from repression under the dictator Batista c. To escape persecution under Fidel Castro d. To work in the cigar industry 3. Which of the following statements represents the relationship between the U.S.
and Cuba prior to 1959? a. The U.S. refused to grant asylum to Cuban political refugees. b. The U.S. maintained political and business interests in Cuba. c. There was little interaction or traffic between Florida and Cuba. d. The U.S. would return any refugees that were in boats to Cuba.
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4. To what may the various waves of Cuban immigration to the U.S. be attributed? a. Frequently changing conditions between the U.S. and Fidel Castro b. The various stages of success of the Cuban Revolution c. The repression of Cuban people by the Soviet Union d. The poverty and lack of educational opportunity on the island 5. What was the attitude of U.S. society toward the first two waves of Cuban
immigrants? a. They were viewed with distrust and stigmatized as undesirable. b. They were welcomed as political refugees of a dictatorship. c. They were refused medical and financial aid for their conditions. d. They were treated with indifference since they weren't permanent. 6. Who made up the three great waves of Cuban immigration, and when did each
wave take place? How was each group received? Why was each group received in the manner that it was?
7. What kinds of risks have Cuban immigrants taken over the years? What is the
current agreement between the U.S. and Cuba in regard to immigration, and what is predicted for the future?
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Transforming a City
When they finally arrived in the U.S., Cuban immigrants transformed it in lasting
and unprecedented ways. Many Cubans, especially among the earliest groups of immigrants, at first only expected to stay in the U.S. for a short while before the new government was overthrown. With the passing of time, however, some Cuban Americans came to face the possibility that they would not be returning home in the near future, and went about building a new life in their new home. For the vast majority of Cuban immigrants, that new home was in Florida. Although some Cubans moved to other parts of the U.S., including Chicago, Los Angeles, and New Jersey, most stayed in Florida, and most settled in the large, southernmost city in the state—Miami. In 1960, the Hispanic population of Miami was 50,000; in 1980, it was 580,000. The new Miamians formed a very close and cohesive community, and they quickly began founding businesses, banks, and Cuban-American institutions, as well as finding jobs for later arrivals. By 1970, 50% of Miami hotel staff members were Cuban American, and in 1980 half of all Miami-area construction companies were Cuban-owned. Cuban immigrants soon gained a reputation for success, in part because of the relative affluence of the first, “golden,” generation. However, most Cuban immigrants faced the same struggles as all other immigrant groups. The arrival of the Marielitos in the 1980s led to a backlash from non-Cuban Miamians, as well as by some more established Cuban Americans. Even the most successful Cubans had to overcome language discrimination and religious intolerance in their time in the U.S.
Today, Miami is not only the capital of Cuban America—it has become a major capital of the Latin American world. Much of the city is bilingual in practice if not by law, boasting major Spanish-language newspapers, television and radio stations, as well as studios that create movies and TV programs for Spanish speakers worldwide. Caribbean and South American nations do business with Cuban American banks and businesses, and Spanish-speaking tourists can feel culturally at home on the streets of Miami. Every year the Calle Ocho festival brings hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world into the streets of the traditional Cuban quarter for a celebration of Cuban heritage.
In the nation overall, Cuban Americans have made a significant impact both politically and culturally. In Florida especially, Cuban immigrants and their descendents have become known for their political activism, whether fighting for better working conditions for farm workers or advocating political change in Cuba. In 1985 Xavier Suárez became the first Cuban American to be elected mayor of Miami, and three years later Ileana Ros-Lehtinen was elected to the U.S. Congress. Cuban artists have also had a profound influence on U.S. culture, as musicians like Celia Cruz and Chano Pozo have brought Cuban dances, from the rumba to the mambo to the conga, onto North America dance floors. One Cuban American bandleader, Desi Arnaz, went on to become the first Latin American to found a television studio, and with his production of “I Love Lucy” helped define the situation comedy as we know it today. Meanwhile, writers such as Cristina Garcia, Reinaldo Arenas, and Oscar Hijuelos have become critical and popular favorites, exploring the richness and complexity of the Cuban American experience as it moves into the next century.
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1. According to this article, which of the following statements represents the Cuban
immigrant experience?
a. Most Cuban immigrants integrated themselves very quickly into jobs and businesses in Miami.
b. Cuban immigrants did not experience the same discrimination that other immigrant groups experienced.
c. Most Cuban immigrants settled in Chicago, Los Angeles and New Jersey when they arrived.
d. Early Cuban immigrants settled in quickly because they expected to stay in the U.S. permanently.
2. Which group of immigrants faced opposition from both Cubans and non-Cubans
when they arrived? a. The "golden generation" b. Hispanics from South America c. The Marielitos d. Puerto Ricans 3. What is the event that attracts people from all over the world to celebrate Cuban
heritage? a. Miami's annual Latin American dance contest b. The Latin American Music Awards c. The Cuba Libre Fiesta d. The Calle Ocho Festival 4. Which of the following is not a Cuban dance? a. Mambo b. Tango c. Rumba d. Conga
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5. How does Miami fit its labels of "the capital of Cuban America" and "the capital of the Latin American world"? What characteristics promote these labels? Why are people from the Caribbean and South America drawn to Miami?
6. Explain how Cuban Americans have contributed to American culture. In what
fields have they made contributions? Identify at least one famous Cuban-American from each field.
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The Second Burial of Félix Longoria
Under the “shoot first” rule of the Texas rangers, hatred toward Tejanos took a dramatic and deadly form. For the thousands of Mexican Americans who avoided Ranger bullets, the prejudice of Anglos was a quiet, routine fact of life. ‘No Mexicans’ declared signs in shop windows. Tejano tax supported ‘White Only’ swimming pools. Job discrimination closed the doors of economic opportunity. In many Texas counties, Tejano children attended separate, inferior schools. As the Longoria family of Three Rivers discovered, the barriers confronting Mexican Americans extended even beyond death.
For the first 10 years of its existence, Three Rivers had one cemetery. Anglo and Mexican residents buried their dead in the same ground. After a while, this “togetherness” began to make some of the Anglos uncomfortable. They felt that the cemetery should more closely resemble the rest of Three Rivers, with its Anglo neighborhoods and separate “Mexican Town.” In 1924, a committee of Anglos told Guadalupe Longoria that the time had come to establish a graveyard for his people. A new area was set aside next to the old one, and someone strung up a length of barbed wire in between. At the age of five, Guadalupe’s son Félix was too young to understand the cemetery matter, but as he grew older he learned about the other boundaries that defined his world. It was not until he joined the army in 1945 that Felix experienced the full equality of citizenship. Unlike their African American counterparts, Mexican American servicemen were not segregated from the majority.
On June 16, 1945, while scouting for enemy positions in a jungle of the Philippines, Félix Longoria was struck by a Japanese sniper’s bullet and killed instantly. His comrades buried him in a military cemetery on Luzon Island. Less than three months later, Japan surrendered and the war was over. Back in Texas and across the Southwest, Mexican American veterans returned to their old walks of life with a new sense of both ethnic and national pride. But they quickly discovered that the old obstacles remained. In March 1948, a group of Mexican Americans in Corpus Christi established the American GI Forum to monitor and advocate the equal distribution of veterans’ benefits.
Later that same year, military authorities notified Beatrice Longoria that her husband’s body was being transported home for reburial. She arranged to have his wake held at the local mortuary rather than in her own living room, as was the Mexican custom.
While Félix’s remains were en route, the owner of the Rice Funeral Home told Beatrice that she would have to change her plans. The establishment could not provide its chapel service for the Longorias after all, he said, “because the whites would not like it.” At her sister’s urging, Beatrice sent word of this matter to Dr. Hector Garcia, founder of the GI Forum, who contacted local, state and federal officials. Newspapers across the country picked up the story. During a protest meeting of Three Rivers, a courier delivered a telegram from U.S. Sen. Lyndon Johnson of Texas, which read in part: “I have today made arrangements to have Félix Longoria reburied with full military honors in Arlington National cemetery… where the honored dead of our nation’s wars rest.”
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The funeral took place on Feb. 16, 1949, as a grey drizzle shrouded the gentle slopes of Arlington. Félix’s whole family was there. Sen. Johnson and his wife came to pay their respects. Mexican diplomats brought flowers in tribute from their country.
For some Texas Anglos, the military funeral of Félix Longoria opened a wound rather than healed one. In the national headlines, Three Rivers had been disgraced. A committee appointed by the state legislature held hearings at Three Rivers on the discrimination charges. Witnesses testified for both sides, but the atmosphere was decidedly anti-Mexican. Anglo observers openly used ethnic slurs. The Longoria family, Dr. Garcia and others received anonymous death threats by mail and phone.
The committee initially concluded that no racial discrimination had occurred against Beatrice Longoria, but members later called the report into question and it was withdrawn. The Félix Longoria case brought the American GI Forum to national prominence. The group would eventually become the nation’s largest organization of Mexican Americans. 1. According to this article, which of the following can be stated of the relationships
between Anglos and Tejanos during the 1940s? a. Both ethnic groups shared an amiable relationship. b. In spite of initial confrontations, both sides joined their efforts to build a
better community. c. Racial barriers continued to affect the relationship between these two
ethnic groups to this day. d. It does not matter because this community no longer exists.
2. What event lead to the disclosure of the way Mexican Americans were treated in
Three Rivers?
a. Signs that “only whites” could use the swimming pools b. Drafting of Mexicans to World War II c. Félix Longoria's burial in a military cemetery d. Refusal to allow Félix’s wife to use the funeral home for the wake
3. According to the excerpt, which statement is true of Three Rivers County, Texas?
a. The community shared a balance of racial power. b. The community never had racial conflicts. c. The community had many discriminatory practices. d. The community overcame many racial barriers.
4. According to this article, the Texas Rangers were known for what behavior?
a. Being law abiding citizens b. Treating everyone the same c. Enforcing the law fairly d. Exhibiting prejudice toward Mexicans
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5. What facts from the article, indicate the racial discrimination suffered by the
Mexican people in Three Rivers, Texas? 6. According to the article, in what sense is it true that, while the victims of
intolerance change, intolerance remains the same? 7. How did the Washington burial of Félix Longoria open, rather than heal, a wound
in the town of Three Rivers?
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The Zoot-Suit Riots
World War II is often credited with pulling the country together. As their compatriots defended democracy abroad, however, some Americans met hostile forces on the home front. Los Angeles in the 1940s was swamped with GIs. The entertainment capital drew thousands of servicemen on leave from nearby bases and training centers. As is today, the civilian population of L.A. then included a large Mexican American or Chicano minority. Many of the Anglo servicemen in town came from areas where there weren’t a lot of Chicanos…
…A Chicano teenage fashion trend called the zoot-suit modeled on flashy mobster attire- had been widely ridiculed in the Anglo press. Visiting servicemen joined in harassing the strutting and posing “zoot-suiters.” In the spring and summer of 1943, tension between GIs and young Mexican American males turned violent. In Oakland and Venice, California, sailors and marines “raided” Chicanos gatherings and attacked the zoot-suiters, stripping them of their clothes.
On June 3 in Los Angeles, a reported dispute over Chicanos set off a military riot. For five straight nights, Anglos in uniform stormed the streets. They dragged zoot-suiters out of bars and nabbed them in movie theaters by turning the lights on. What started as an assault on Mexican Americans quickly expanded to include Blacks and Filipinos. Each night, police officers waited until the GIs had left and then swooped in to arrest the victims of the violence. Fearing mutiny, military officials declared the downtown district off limits to military personnel.
The measure restored order, but real peace would be harder to achieve. In a national newspaper column, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt blamed the riots on “longstanding discrimination against the Mexicans in the Southwest”. A rebuttal by The Los Angeles Times ended with the statement “We like Mexicans and think they like us.” This wording makes clear that, as far as official, Los Angeles was concerned, Mexican Americans were still “them.”
1. What irony was suggested in The Los Angeles Times' editorial about Mexican
Americans?
a. There were several different attitudes towards the Mexican Americans in Los Angeles.
b. The problems in Los Angeles against the Mexican Americans were non-existent.
c. Los Angeles had discriminatory practices against the Mexican Americans. d. In rebutting discrimination, a clear distinction of alienation was expressed.
2. What spurred the problems in Los Angeles against the zoot-suiters? a. Police officials did not like the fashion trend.
b. Zoot-suiters were gang members and liked to stir-up problems. c. The servicemen had returned from the war and were angry. d. Local newspapers ridiculed the fashion trend of the Chicano youth.
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3. Why did Eleanor Roosevelt comment about the incidents in Los Angeles?
a. She had a sympathetic view toward minority populations. b. The discriminatory practices had led to violent protests. c. She wanted to blame the police officials for their hostility. e. It affected the servicemen stationed in the area.
4. What was the most serious consequence of the racial intolerance in Los Angeles? a. Tension between Anglos and Mexicans resulted in violence.
b. The Anglo press had to rescind discriminatory statements. c. The servicemen were banded from the city for some time. d. Zoot-suiters were prohibited from wearing their distinctive clothing.
5. What facts from the article, indicate the racial discrimination suffered by the
Zoot-suiters in Los Angeles? 6. What facts from the excerpt support the fact that a clear distinction of
alienation existed among Los Angeles officials and the Mexican population? 7. According to the article, in what sense is it untrue that World War II pulled the
country together?
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The Story of César Chávez
The Beginning
The story of César Estrada Chávez begins near Yuma, Arizona. César was born on March 31, 1927. He was named after his grandfather, Cesario. Regrettably, the story of César Estrada Chávez also ends near Yuma, Arizona. He passed away on April 23, 1993, in San Luis, a small village near Yuma, Arizona.
He learned about justice, or rather, injustice early in his life…The small adobe home where César was born was swindled from them by dishonest Anglos. César's father agreed to clear eighty acres of land and in exchange he would receive the deed to forty acres of land that adjoined the home. The agreement was broken and the land sold to a man named Justus Jackson. César's dad went to a lawyer who advised him to borrow money and buy the land. Later when César's father could not pay the interest on the loan the lawyer bought back the land and sold it to the original owner. César learned a lesson about injustice that he would never forget. Later, he would say, “The love for justice that is in us is not only the best part of our being but it is also the most true to our nature.”
In 1938 he and his family moved to California. He lived in La Colonia Barrio in Oxnard for a short period, returning to Arizona several months later. They returned to California in June 1939 and this time settled in San Jose. They lived in the barrio called “Sal Si Puedes” ("Get Out If You Can"). César thought the only way to get out of the circle of poverty was to work his way up and send the kids to college. He and his family worked in the fields of California from Brawley to Oxnard, Atascadero, Gonzales, King City, Salinas, McFarland, Delano, Wasco, Selma, Kingsburg, and Mendota.
…While his childhood school education was not the best, later in life, education was his passion. The walls of his office in La Paz (United Farm Worker Headquarters) are lined with hundreds of books ranging from philosophy, economics, cooperatives, and unions, to biographies on Gandhi and the Kennedys. He believed that, "The end of all education should surely be service to others," a belief that he practiced until his untimely death.
In 1944 he joined the Navy at the age of seventeen. He served two years and, in addition to discrimination, he experienced strict regimentation. In 1948 César married Helen Fabela. They honeymooned in California by visiting all the California Missions from Sonoma to San Diego (again the influence of education). They settled in Delano and started their family. First Fernando, then Sylvia, then Linda, and five more children were to follow. César returned to San Jose where he met and was influenced by Father Donald McDonnell. They talked about farm workers and strikes. César began reading about St. Francis and Gandhi and nonviolence. After Father McDonnell came another very influential person, Fred Ross. César became an organizer for Ross' organization, the Community Service Organization, CSO. His first task was voter registration.
The United Farm Workers is Born
In 1962 César founded the National Farm Workers Association, later to become the United Farm Workers--the UFW. He was joined by Dolores Huerta and the union was born. …
For a long time in 1962, there were very few union dues paying members. By 1970 the UFW got grape growers to accept union contracts and had effectively organized
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most of that industry, at one point in time claiming 50,000 dues paying members. The reason was César Chavez's tireless leadership and nonviolent tactics that included the Delano grape strike, his fasts that focused national attention on farm workers problems, and the 340-mile march from Delano to Sacramento in 1966. The farm workers and supporters carried banners with the black eagle with HUELGA (strike) and VIVA LA CAUSA (Long live our cause). The marchers wanted the state government to pass laws, which would permit farm workers to organize into a union and allow collective bargaining agreements. César made people aware of the struggles of farm workers for better pay and safer working conditions. He succeeded through nonviolent tactics (boycotts, pickets, and strikes). César Chávez and the union sought recognition of the importance and dignity of all farm workers. It was the beginning of La Causa, a cause that was supported by organized labor, religious groups, minorities, and students. César Chávez had the foresight to train his union workers and then to send many of them into the cities where they were to use the boycott and picket as their weapon.
César was willing to sacrifice his own life so that the union would continue and that violence was not used. César fasted many times. In 1968 César went on a water only, 25 day fast. He repeated the fast in 1972 for 24 days, and again in 1988, this time for 36 days. What motivated him to do this? He said, "Farm workers everywhere are angry and worried that we cannot win without violence. We have proved it before through persistence, hard work, faith and willingness to sacrifice. We can win and keep our own self-respect and build a great union that will secure the spirit of all people if we do it through a rededication and recommitment to the struggle for justice through nonviolence…"
The Death of César Chávez
César Estrada Chávez died peacefully in his sleep on April 23, 1993 near Yuma, Arizona, a short distance from the small family farm in the Gila River Valley where he was born more than 66 years before.
The founder and president of the United Farm Workers of America…was in Yuma helping UFW attorneys defend the union against a lawsuit brought by Bruce Church Inc., a giant Salinas, California based lettuce and vegetable producer. Church demanded that the farm workers pay millions of dollars in damages resulting from a UFW boycott of its lettuce during the 1980's. Rather than bring the legal action in a state where the boycott actually took place, such as California or New York, Church "shopped around" for a friendly court in conservative, agri-business dominated Arizona, where there had been no boycott activity." César gave his last ounce of strength defending the farm workers in this case," stated his successor, UFW President Arturo Rodriguez, who was with him in Arizona during the trial. He died standing up for their First Amendment right to speak out for themselves. He believed in his heart that the farm workers were right in boycotting Bruce Church Inc. lettuce during the l980's and he was determined to prove that in court." (When the second multimillion dollar judgment for Church was later thrown out by an appeal's court, the company signed a UFW contract in May 1996.)
After the trial recessed at about 3 p.m. on Thursday, April 22, César spent part of the afternoon driving through Latino neighborhoods in Yuma that he knew as a child. Many Chávezes still live in the area. He arrived about 6 p.m. in San Luis, Arizona about 20 miles from Yuma, at the modest concrete block home of Dofla Maria Hau, a former
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farm worker and longtime friend…César ate dinner at around 9 p.m. and presided over a brief meeting to review the day's events…He talked to his colleagues about taking care of themselves--a recent recurring theme with César because he was well aware of the long hours required from him and other union officers and staff. Still, he was in good spirits despite being exhausted after prolonged questioning on the witness stand. He complained about feeling some weakness when doing his evening exercises [and] went to bed at about 10 or 10:30 p.m. A union staff member said he later saw a reading light shining from César's room. The light was still on at 6 a.m. the next morning. That was not seen as unusual. César usually woke up in the early hours of the morning well before dawn to read, write or meditate. When he had not come out by 9 a.m., his colleagues entered his bedroom [and] found that César had died apparently, according to authorities, at night in his sleep…
The Last March with César Chávez
On April 29, 1993, César Estrada Chávez was honored in death by those he led in life. More than 50,000 mourners came to honor the charismatic labor leader at the site of his first public fast in 1968 and his last in 1988, the United Farm Workers Delano Field Office at "Forty Acres." It was the largest funeral of any labor leader in the history of the U.S. They came in caravans from Florida to California to pay respect to a man whose strength was in his simplicity. Farm workers, family members, friends and union staff took turns standing vigil over the plain pine coffin which held the body of César Chávez. Among the honor guard were many celebrities who had supported Chávez throughout his years of struggle to better the lot of farm workers throughout America. Many of the mourners had marched side by side with Chávez during his tumultuous years in the vineyards and farms of America. For the last time, they came to march by the side of the man who had taught them to stand up for their rights, through nonviolent protest and collective bargaining. Cardinal Roger M. Mahoney, who celebrated the funeral mass, called Chávez "a special prophet for the worlds' farm workers"…
Final Resting Place/Final Recognition
The body of César Chávez was taken to La Paz, the UFW's California headquarters, by his family and UFW leadership. He was laid to rest near a bed of roses, in front of his office.
On August 8, 1994, at a White House ceremony, Helen Chávez, César's widow, accepted the Medal of Freedom for her late husband from President Clinton. In the citation accompanying America's highest civilian honor which was awarded posthumously, the President lauded Chávez for having "faced formidable, often violent opposition with dignity and nonviolence.
And he was victorious. César Chávez left our world better than he found it, and his legacy inspires us still. "He was for his own people a Moses figure," the President declared. "The farm workers who labored in the fields and yearned for respect and self-sufficiency pinned their hopes on this remarkable man who, with faith and discipline, soft spoken humility and amazing inner strength, led a very courageous life"
The citation accompanying the award noted how Chávez was a farm worker from childhood who "possessed a deep personal understanding of the plight of migrant workers, and he labored all his years to lift their lives." During his lifetime, Chávez never
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earned more than $5,000 a year. The late Senator Robert Kennedy called him "one of the heroic figures of our time." Chávez 's successor, UFW President Arturo Rodriguez, thanked the president on behalf of the United Farm Workers and said, "Every day in California and in other states where farm workers are organizing, César Chávez lives in their hearts. César lives wherever Americans he inspired work nonviolently for social change." 1. Chávez was greatly influenced by a number of individuals and/or their writings,
which of these was not one of them?
a. Father McDonnell b. Fred Ross c. Mahatma Gandhi d. Che Guevara
2. It can be inferred from this article that César Chávez was which of the following? a. A lawyer who defended the United Farm Workers b. A farm worker who encouraged violent protest c. A humble man who dedicated himself to fighting injustice d. A famous Mexican-American who founded the AFL-CIO 3. What was the principal contribution of César Chávez to American society?
a. Organizing a union that forced American growers to accept contracts and collective bargaining
b. Meeting with state government workers for personal recognition c. Getting union members to pay dues for benefits d. Encouraging famous people to fast in sympathy for his cause
4. According to the article, techniques used by Chávez and his followers to promote
better pay and working conditions included all but which one of the following?
a. Boycotts b. Pickets c. Lawsuits d. Strikes
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5. What does the statement "César gave his last ounce of strength defending the farm workers" mean?
a. César died of a stroke during a day-long protest march in Arizona while he
was fasting. b. César was targeted by enemies when a strike against Bruce Church, Inc.
grew violent. c. César collapsed when the judge ordered farmworkers to pay damages to a
lettuce producer. d. César spent an exhausting last day in court defending the UFW's right to a
boycott in California. 6. Explain how Chávez’s early life shaped his view of the struggle faced by farm
workers. 7. According to this reading, what were the contributing factors that shaped
Chávez’s approach to activism?
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8. The narrative discusses the concept of “La Causa”. Explain its origin and its impact on the improving the working conditions of farm workers.
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Answer Key History Through Aztec Eyes- The Florentine Codex
1. C 2. A 3. C 4. D 5. D 6. C
Issues of Language Use among Guatemalan-Maya of Southeast Florida
1. B 2. C 3. A 4. A 5. D
Mel Gibson's Movie Scratches Surface of Mayan History
1. B 2. C 3. C 4. A
The San Antonio Missions and the Spanish Frontier
1. D 2. D 3. A 4. B
The Spaniards and the Indians
1. C 2. B 3. D
On Bullfights and Baseball: An Example of Interaction of Social Institutions
1. D 2. A 3. C 4. C 5. A
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A Tale of Two Moralities: Conflicts in Family Values
1. C 2. A 3. D 4. B 5. A
Ybor City, José Martí, and the Spanish–American War
1. C 2. B 3. C 4. B
The Masters of Contemporary Brazilian Song MPB
1. B 2. A 3. C 4. A In Spanish Harlem
1. D 2. A 3. B 4. B
Migrating to a New Land
1. D 2. C 3. B 4. A
A Tale of Two Moralities: The Transition from Rural to Urban Life
1. D 2. A 3. B 4. C
A Personal History of California
1. C 2. A 3. C
The History of Ybor City
1. D 2. B 3. C
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Ybor City’s Cigar Workers
1. C 2. C 3. D
Crossing the Straits
1. B 2. D 3. B 4. A 5. B
Transforming a City
1. A 2. C 3. D 4. B
The Second Burial of Felix Longoria
1. C 2. D 3. C 4. D
The Zoot-Suit Riots
1. D 2. D 3. B 4. A
The Story of Cesar Chavez
1. D 2. C 3. A 4. C 5. D
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Bibliography/Credits
PART I: Latin American Studies
1. Indigenous Cultures of the Americas History Through Aztec Eyes—The Florentine Codex Fray Bernardino de Sahagun. Florentine Codex: General History of New Spain. Trans.
Arthur J.O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble. Santa Fe, NM and Salt Lake City, UT: School of American Research and University of Utah, 1975. Book 12: 17-20, 26, 47-8, 83. Reprinted by permission of the University of Utah Press.
Issues of Language Use among Guatemalan-Maya in Florida Gladwin, R.F. “Issues of Language Use among the Guatemalan-Maya of Southeast
Florida.” Florida Foreign Language Journal, 2(1), (2004). Pp. 8-15. Reprinted by permission of author.
Mel Gibson’s Movie Scratches Surface of Mayan History Stepp, R. & Grandia, L. “Mel Gibson's Movie Scratches Surface of Mayan History.” The
Times-Union. 26 December 2006: p. B-11. Reprinted by permission of authors. 2. Spanish Missions in the New World
The San Antonio Missions and the Spanish Frontier “The San Antonio Missions and the Spanish Frontier.” Teaching with Historic Places. < http://www.cr.nps.gov/NR/TWHP/wwwlps/lessons/2sanantonio/2facts1.htm > 17 Nov. 2006. Reprinted by permission of Teaching with Historic Places.
The Spaniards and the Indians “The Spaniards and the Indians.” Teaching with Historic Places. < http://www.cr.nps.gov/NR/TWHP/wwwlps/lessons/2sanantonio/2facts2.htm > 17 Nov. 2006. Reprinted by permission of Teaching with Historic Places. 3. Traditional Latin American Values On Bullfights and Baseball Zurcher, L. “On Bullfights and Baseball: An Example of Interaction of Social
Institutions.” International Journal of Comparative Sociology, Vol. 8, (1967). pp. 99-117. Reprinted by permission of McGraw-Hill Education.
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A Tale of Two Moralities: Conflicts in Family Values Berger, P. Pyramids of Sacrifice: Political Ethics and Social Change.
New York, NY: Basic Books, Inc., Publishers, 1974. Reprinted by permission of Basic Books, a member of Perseus Books Group.
Ybor City, José Martí, and the Spanish–American War “Ybor City, José Martí, and the Spanish–American War.” Teaching with Historic Places. <http://www.cr.nps.gov/NR/TWHP/wwwlps/lessons/51ybor/51facts3.htm> 17 Nov. 2006. Reprinted by permission of Teaching with Historic Places. 4. Brazilian Music The Masters of Contemporary Brazilian Song MPB Perrone, Charles A. Masters of Contemporary Brazilian Song MPB 1965-1985. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1989. Reprinted by permission of the University of Texas Press.
PART 2: Latino Studies
1. Puerto Ricans in the U.S. In Spanish Harlem “In Spanish Harlem.” Immigration…Puerto Rican/Cuban. 22 April 2004.
<http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/alt/cuban4.html> 8 Jan. 2007. Reprinted by permission of Library of Congress Educational Staff. Migrating to a New Land “Migrating to a New Land.” Immigration…Puerto Rican/Cuban. 22 April 2004. Library
of Congress. <http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/alt/cuban3.html> 17 Nov. 2006. Reprinted by permission of Library of Congress Educational Staff.
2. Mexicans in the U.S. A Tale of Two Moralities: The Transition from Rural to Urban Life Berger, P. Pyramids of Sacrifice: Political Ethics and Social Change.
New York, NY: Basic Books, Inc., Publishers, 1974. Reprinted by permission of Basic Books, a member of Perseus Books Group.
A Personal History of California Smestad, Dr. Greg Bernal-Mendoza. A Personal History of California. August 2000.
<http://www.somosprimos.com/spaug.htm#California>. Revised version used by permission of author.
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3. Cubans in the U.S. The History of Ybor City “The History of Ybor City.” Teaching with Historic Places. <http://www.cr.nps.gov/NR/TWHP/wwwlps/lessons/51ybor/51facts1.htm> 17 Nov. 2006. Reprinted by permission of Teaching with Historic Places.
Ybor City’s Cigar Workers “The History of Ybor City.” Teaching with Historic Places. < http://www.cr.nps.gov/NR/TWHP/wwwlps/lessons/51ybor/51facts2.htm > 17 Nov. 2006. Reprinted by permission of Teaching with Historic Places.
Crossing The Straits “Crossing the Straits.” Immigration…Puerto Rican/Cuban. 22 April 2004. Library of
Congress. <http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/alt/cuban5.html> 17 Nov. 2006. Reprinted by permission of Library of Congress Educational Staff.
Transforming a City “Transforming a City.” Immigration…Puerto Rican/Cuban. 22 April 2004. Library of
Congress. <http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/alt/cuban6.html> 17 Nov. 2006. Reprinted by permission of Library of Congress Educational Staff.
4. Civil Rights Issues The Second Burial of Felix Longoria Carnes, Jim. Us and Them: A History of Intolerance in America. Montgomery, AL:
Southern Poverty Law Center/Teaching Tolerance, 1995. Reprinted by permission of Southern Poverty Law Center. For reproductions, visit http://www.tolerance.org.
The Zoot-Suit Riots Carnes, Jim. Us and Them: A History of Intolerance in America. Montgomery, AL: Southern Poverty Law Center/Teaching Tolerance, 1995. Reprinted by permission of Southern Poverty Law Center. For reproductions, visit http://www.tolerance.org.
The Story of Cesar Chavez From Contemporary Hispanic Biography by Thomson Gale, 2003. Reprinted with the permission of The Gale Group.
Hispanic Heritage Activities