DIY History | Transcribe | Campus Culture | Ernest Rodriguez' "Impressions," 1960s-1980s | ""Mexican American History and Culture"" Page 1

Transcribe
Translate

Ernest Rodriguez' "Impressions," 1960s-1980s

""Mexican American History and Culture"" Page 1

Mexican American History and Culture

Mexican Americans or people of Mexican descent in the United States, otherwise called Latin Americans, Spanish Americans, Hispanos, Latinos, and Chicano are derogatorily referred to by white racists as Spics, beaners, wet-backs and dirty Mexican greasers. What we Chicanos have to understand is that in the eyes of most Anglos regardless of our economic status or so-called social status we are all dirty Mexican greasers. This is the bitter bill [sic] of reality that every American of Mexican descent or Mexican American must swallow before he becomes a Chicano.

As far as being native to the territory now known as the United States, the Mexican or Chicano (which is nothing more that [sic] a derivation of Mejicano) settled in the Southwestern United States long before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. Mexicans during the colonial period were granted land grants by the Spanish crown in the southwest prior to 1600. These early settlers of the southwest lived in peace with the Navajo and Pueblo Indians and intermarried with them. Both of these groups of people fought together against the Apache Indian [sic?] when they reigned supreme and against the Anglos who pushed westward learned and adopted the mining and irrigation techniques of the Mexican and learned from the Mexican vaquero how to raise cattle and sheep. In fact the American cowboy learned all of his riding skills, branding of catttle and the use of the lasso (which by the way is a Spanish word) from the Mexican vaquero.

Saving...

Mexican American History and Culture Mexican Americans or people of Mexican descent in the United States, otherwise called Latin Americans, Spanish Americans, Hispanos, Latinos, and Chicano are derogatorily referred to by white racists as Spics, beaners, wet-backs and dirty Mexican greasers. What we Chicanos have to understand is that in the eyes of most Anglos regardless of our economic status or so-called social status we are all dirty Mexican greasers. This is the bitter bill [sic] of reality that every American of Mexican descent or Mexican American must swallow before he becomes a Chicano. As far as being native to the territory now known as the United States, the Mexican or Chicano (which is nothing more that [sic] a derivation of Mejicano) settled in the Southwestern United States long before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. Mexicans during the colonial period were granted land grants by the Spanish crown in the southwest prior to 1600. These early settlers of the southwest lived in peace with the Navajo and Pueblo Indians and intermarried with them. Both of these groups of people fought together against the Apache Indian [sic?] when they reigned supreme and against the Anglos who pushed westward learned and adopted the mining and irrigation techniques of the Mexican and learned from the Mexican vaquero how to raise cattle and sheep. In fact the American cowboy learned all of his riding skills, branding of catttle and the use of the lasso (which by the way is a Spanish word) from the Mexican vaquero.