"El Norte"

The basic overview of Takaki Chapter 12 is that people from south of the border were not treated the same as those who already live in America. They moved away from their country because the conditions were not favorable, and expected to come to America with a new hope. Yet, instead of greeting the newcomers with love, and assuming our position as the “melting pot” we exploited the Mexican Americans and paid them less money than they would pay Americans, to do the same jobs that Americans would do.

A big push on the immigration started with the civil war. The fact that there was a civil war is enough cause for someone to move. But not only was there a war, the way brought starvation to the people, and they needed a place to flee. One of the closest places was “Los Estados Unidos”, Spanish for “the United States”, was known to be prosperous and wonderful. Once they arrived there, it wasn’t as great as they had pictured. Even before the civil war, immagrants had started to come over, because America is a land of great opportunity. The only problem is that people were coming over to be unemployed, or to receive jobs that were not the best. The inner city organizations that provided jobs would expand, and deflate their job offers, stringing the people along with hope. Another factor dealing with why people lost jobs had to do with the fact that many immigrants were coming over from Mexico on the railroad. Takaki says that every week 5 or 6 trians full of Mexicans were coming to America, that amount of workers is an insane amount, especially because they all needed jobs, and to partake in the land of opportunity. The Mecican population was so great that they covered about 75% of all the construction labor forces in the state of California.

One thing to keep in mind is that the time period was between the 1900’s and the 1930’s. The fact that it was in this time, meant that the great depression not only affected the Americans, if affected all the immigrants as well. During this time, the Americans did not forget that the Mexicans were from Mexico, and quickly did a very unethical thing. They would kick Mexicans out of work, because they were Mexican, and give the jobs to those who could not support themselves.

Because of the way that Mexicans and Latino Americans are treated in general it is easy to see our history did not smile upon them in their time of need. I’m sad to say that this is America, and that this has not been the first representation of racial injustice, and I believe it won’t be the last.