el norte!

In the early nineteenth century, many Mexicans saw the Americas as flowing rivers full of opportunity and riches. During this time period rebels were flowing throughout their beloved country of Mexico. So naturally, they began to migrate toward the Americas in search of better job opportunities. However, what they would later learn was that they were inferior, or dominated and seen as strictly blue-collar workers. Anglos began to see them as tools for their industry, or cheap farm equipment. They were as said to be born agriculturalist, and able to bend and kneel through the day unlike the Anglos who were not built to work. They began to bring the families into the Americas, rather then just the husband sending money back home to his family. One would think this is a noble thing to do, but on the contrary they were just doing this for selfish reason such as it would make the Mexicans happier therefore more work would come of them. Or, they also did this for the reasoning of if they saw the Mexicans were happy, then they would feel better about themselves. The dominant society promised the families that they would educate their children, which kept the parents full of hope for a better life for their young. On the other hand, the schools provided had very little education, and more of an environment to teach the children obedience, and told them this was all they needed to get through life because they would be working in the fields. The Mexicans were looked down upon as not only farm equipment, but as more began to come to the USA, they were looked at more toward farm animals. For example, in the text on page 325 it states that the Mexicans are trash, and they have no standard of living, we herd them like pigs. This was stated because the pay of a Chicano was two dollars or 1.75 for each 100 pounds of cotton, which was ridiculous. To get this one hundred pounds Chicanos would pick cotton as a family to put bread on their table at the end of the week.
While reading through this section of Takaki, the part that stunned me the most was when they were discussing the working conditions of the mothers/ wives. The wives of the Chicanos were expected to also work in the fields with the husbands with all the children. They would baby-sit or walk around carrying the child while picking their crops to survive off. Not only did they have to do the hard labor during the day, but at night the wives back then were also expected to cook dinner, put the kids to bed, and tidy up the things in which they had. I have grown the greatest respect for these women because today, I could never imagine going through what they did back then. Also what surprised me was the lack of education the children were put through. I could never imagine being told that the only thing I needed in life was to obey my dominant group.
In conclusion, this section of Takaki opened my eyes to the other minorities of the early nineteen hundreds. It covered a lot in one chapter of the struggles and hardships of the Mexicans. The land of opportunity wasn’t as opportune as it was made to be in my history class. I just wish I would have learned some of this before, because before now I only learned of the African Americans and the Civil War. There is obviously a lot more to the history of the USA then in our small text in elementary and high school.