Chicano 10A UCLA

Chicana/o Studies

study of the history and culture of Mexican origin people in the US

Social construction

the process by which a concept or practice is created and maintained by participants who collectively agree that it exists

Census

the official count of a population conducted every ten years

Poem: "Juan Valdez"

Written by Colombian author Carlos Andres Gomez, recounting his encounter with a woman who did not think he was Latino because of his light skin and green eyes

U.S. Central American

A term used to describe the people originating from Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, and Costa Rica (7 countries in total)

Intervention

Used to describe the intervention of the United States in Central America

Precolonial Mesoamerica

Region with distinct people, cultures, and governments before the arrival of the Spaniards and spanish colonization.

Spanish Colonization

militarized exploration for the purpose of glory, god, and gold in present day Mexico

Mexican-American War (1846-1848)

This resulted in Mexico losing large parts of its territory in the north.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848)

Treaty that ended the Mexican War, granting the U.S. control of Texas, New Mexico, and CA

Frontier Thesis 1893

The move of Anglos to the west after independence from Europe
Idea that moving to the west meant a return to "primitive conditions"
Frontier: "meeting point between savagery and civilization"

Manifest Destiny

1800s belief that Americans had the right to spread across the continent.

Conquest

Forcefully allocating land by creating border lines

Double colonization

colonization by two countries that impose their racial hierarchy, social order, and laws of white supremacy ideologies. Racial groups who inhabited these regions had to navigate two different racial regimes

Spanish Casta system

Spanish social hierarchy based on how European you were. Peninsulas at top, followed by Creoles (Sp parents, born in the New World), Mestizos and Mulattos (mixed races), and at the bottom were Native Americans, Black Slaves, and Zambos

Mestizaje

A person of mixed origin (mestizo) usually involving natives (spanish and indigenous decent). Believed to be the cosmic race b/c they were mixed and thus encompassed all humanity.

Tongva

ancient indigenous group in LA

Spanish Fantasy Past

-The romanticized view of the Spanish history that shaped LA.
-Ignores Mexican past and present by neatly hiding it behind this view of Spanish history.
-Happy view of LA's past, ignores the bloody wars and more current racism and ethnic segregation by painting it as an exotic and distant time of happiness.

Tricultural Harmony

White elites in New Mexico were trying to convince people to come to New Mexico by saying that there was no tension between Whites, Mexicans, and Indians.
Used to try to get New Mexico to be admitted as a state
Erased source of tension between Pueblo Indians, Mexican Americans and Euro-Americans

Olvera Street

Embodied the Spanish Fantasy Past

Christine Sterling

"Mother of Olvera Street"
She wanted to build a "Mexican amusement park" to bring tourists to California, specifically Los Angeles
She made sure Olvera Street was built to look old, and employees could only do pre-industrial work to keep the look

Mayan Revival

Wide fascination with the Mayan and Aztec monuments that influenced modern architecture
Frank Lloyd Wright
Used Mayan inspiration for architecture
More often about effect than history-- functioned very differently that what they would have been used for historically

Pio Pico

The last Mexican governor of California Afro-Latino man who was cheated out of his land possession by American lawyers and businessmen

City-empire

LA sees itself as a city-empire. The transformation of Los Angeles from a small community to a global city-empire through the exploitation of labor and extraction of resources in Mexico. Transfer of wealth, as angelinos invested more money in Mexico than an areas in the United States

America tropical

932 mural created by David Alfaro Siqueiros in Los Angeles, California It was painted over soon after its completion on Olvera Street in El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument of Downtown Los Angeles.

Racial Scripts

Allows us to see how different racial projects operate at the same time, affecting different groups simultaneously

Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

law that suspended Chinese immigration into America.

Mexican revolution

(1910-1920 CE) Fought over a period of almost 10 years form 1910; resulted in ouster of Porfirio Diaz from power; opposition forces led by Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata.

The Immigration Act of 1924

Federal law limiting the number of immigrants that could be admitted from any country to 2% of the amount of people from that country who were already living in the U.S. as of the census of 1890.

Box Bill

The idea that quotas should also be placed on Mexico, in addition to the quotas already placed on Europe and Asia. Many bills circulated and there was a huge debate, but it was ultimately unsuccessful.

Repatriation

process by which Mexican Americans were encouraged, or forced, by local, state, and federal officials to return to Mexico during the 1930s

Border patrol

The US forms the border patrol in 1924 originally as a response to Chinese immigrants attempting to enter the US through the Mexican border
Both during and after the Mexican Revolution, however, the border patrol shifts it's attention to Mexican immigrants trying to enter the US
Policing Mexicans was seemingly easier and cheaper to accomplish compared to the detention of Chinese immigrants since it was much easier to send Mexicans back to Mexico than to send Chinese immigrants to China

Birthright citizenship

Under the 14th Amendment, anyone born in the U.S. is automatically a U.S. citizen.

"Likely to become a public charge"

Expanded phrase by the 1891 Immigration Act. Prohibited entry to any "convict, lunatic, idiot, or any person unable to take care of him/herself without becoming a public charge". "If any alien [does this they] shall be returned [to their countryside

The Zoot Suit and The Zoot Suit Riots

a series of conflicts that occurred in June 1943 in Los Angeles between U.S. servicemen and Mexican American youths

"Operation Wetback"

A government program to roundup and deport as many as one million illegal Mexican migrant workers in the United States. More of an effort to control Mexican undocumented immigration. "Pancho the Wetback" had "become to Uncle Sam somewhat of a headache, socially and economically, and an international problem". Statement reflected how Americans thought of undocumented Mexicans in the mid 1950s. Never reached their goal because funding ran out in a few months

Bracero Program

Plan that brought laborers from Mexico to work on American farms

Mexican American Movement

Despite deportations under both Hoover and FDR, any Mexican Americans benefited from the New Deal, and generally held Roosevelt and the Democratic Party in high regard. In California, this youth-focused organization received assistance from liberal New Dealers.

Chicana/o Studies LEC+Sign.

Lecture focuses on a broad understanding of history and culture
Looks at the influence of Chicanos on US history and Los Angeles history
Both are studies of Chicanas/os and their experience in the US
Significance to the study of Chicano history: Different theories on how to study Chicana/os (like pre-classic, classic, or post-classic)
Peñalosa Toward an Operational Definition of the Mexican American- suggests we should learn about Mexicans by asking "to what extent," helps explore different dimensions of Mexican Americans
Ex. differences in beliefs of Mexican Americans by generation (like before and after the revolution) or regional difference like texans vs. californians
The categorization of Mexicans as a race is not necessarily bad as it does lead to some form of progress in terms of "racial pride," though the negative consequences - discrimination, racism, and threat - of this categorization still hold.
Gomez (Manifest Destinies: The Making of the Mexican Race) - reminds readers that Mexicans are not a "new" group but have been in the US since 1848
How one interprets Chicana/o studies influences the type of research conducted
Perhaps a variety of interpretation of Chicana/o studies is good because it allows for more research

Social construction LEC+Sign.

Gomez, Manifest Destinies Intro Outlines the instability of race in its labeling of Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the 18th and 20th century
In Mexico, who they considered white was a social construction
Mexican Americans were recognized as legally white, but not socially
Made a power dynamic
Can be used for violence and unrest
Significance to the study of Chicano history: allows for the study of racialization in the American southwest in terms of the change from White to Mexican back to white due to congressional bills and treaties (Guadalupe Hidalgo) passing. Also can be seen in the use of race as an exclusionary means to restrict immigration from Asian countries.
Ex: In Class professor Carpio brought up Ta-nehisi Coates who speaks of what you check on your census form is a product of social context. It is why someone who looks like Coates could be black in America and colored somewhere else. It is why our concept of race doesn't translate to a place like Brazil. Black is a concept that is contextually part of the American experience, but in other places like Brazil, black would have a completely different meaning than it would in the U.S.

Census LEC+Sign.

suggests that census results changed over time based on definitions of race (1850, 1930, 1940, 1970, 2000, 2010).
Mexicans classified as White after Treaty of GH, Great Depression, WWII
2000- new definitions of Spanish/Hispanic/Latino
Not always accurate measures of the population
Significance to Chicano History: Gomez, 55 (Manifest Destinies: The Making of the Mexican Race) - only classified as "Spanish" despite mixed race
Census does not always accurately describe statistics on race or race in general
But...does indicate the old interpretations of race and how they have changed over time. It portrays the fluidity of racial categorization, how it can change based on historical events, and social pressures.
Outlines the change in race categorization over time through the racial categorization of persons of Latin descent, and the complicated and sometimes confusing descriptions used by the United States census bureau added to the possible mislabeling of persons due to the lack of inclusivity in options.
Further on, a by product of the census allows for the determination to see the various crossovers in a race that the Chicano community has.

Poem: "Juan Valdez" LEC+Sign.

Watched this video in lecture and talked about how the color of one's skin really identifies (in the 20th century) your "race." Assumptions about light skinned people= white, darker skinned people= POC. In reality there's many factors to consider about identity as a Latino other than skin color.
Significance to Chicano history: This poem challenges the stereotypes surrounding race (perhaps even colorism), highlighting the segregation in a society based on phenotype. Also, addresses the stigmatization of what a Chicanx person is supposed to look like, restricting the reality of diversity that exists in the community.

U.S. Central American LEC+Sign.

U.S Central Americans (Intro) Alvarado explains that using this term rather than hyphenated national identities emphasizes the shared histories, cultures, and struggles of Central American diasporic communities in the United States
Significance to Chicano history: Pushing against previous ways of describing this group of people. The lack of the hyphenation solidifies the experiences of these individuals.

Intervention LEC+Sign.

used in lecture to describe the categorization of race as a social construct following the American intervention in the 1970s following the red scare against communism. Coming from the overthrow of "unwanted government forces" in Central America.
Significance to class: relationship to the establishment of distinguished races in the 1970s US through the American census. Was also a cause for Central american immigrants to the US.

Precolonial Mesoamerica LEC+Sign.

Professor Carpio discussed the significance of the Post Classic period in her second lecture of week one. She noted that the Azteca society was marked by much hierarchy with a clear disparity between nobility and commoners. In addition, commoners had access to resources as they were located in centralized cities . Moreover, there still remained a predominant artistic spirit in the region from the Olmeca and Mayan era which reflected an existing culture.
Significance: This is significant in understanding Chicana/o studies as it allows us to comprehend the history of Chicana/o studies as possibly originating from Mesoamerica. More specifically, due to the centralized distribution of power, there existed many complex cultural traditions and attitudes within the region, which can often be traced to the origin of a race, which in this case would be a latinx one.

Spanish Colonization LEC+Sign.

Lecture- debate over whether Spanish colonization marks the start of Chicana/o studies
Gómez, Manifest Destinies intro- colonization influenced Mexico's demographics before US colonization, caused conflict with US racial order
Significance to class: destroyed Central American and Indigenous cultures, shaped what Chicana/o culture is today. Some people start here for examining Chicano/a/x studies because this is the context point where we have the Mestizo, duality of the colonized and colonizers.

Mexican American War LEC+Sign.

Gomez, Manifest Destinies Chapter 1 Detailed in lecture as one of the originating points to the beginning of Chicano History. Territorial impacts included the U.S. doubled in size, redistribution of mineral resources, securing of a port to the Pacific, etc. as discussed in Caprio's lecture.
Significance to Chicanx Studies: Can be seen as one of the originating points for the beginnings of Chicano history. Is the beginning of the American colonization of the southwest that led to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo LEC+Sign.

Gomez- Introduction he speaks of Mexicans only obtaining federal citizenship, which held a second class citizenship because their rights were limited by Congress who refused to admit New Mexico as a state due to its majority Mexican and Indian population
Mexicans given option to leave Mexico within the next year, stay and retain Mexican citizenship, or become US citizen by taking white racial status to acquire land and government benefits
Significance to Chicanx Studies: Treaty told a lot of lies
Legally gave mexicans the classification of white in race
Allowed them to become citizens but were still treated badly
Mass dispossession of Mexicans: given legal white status, but land was still taken from them, example Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo

Frontier thesis LEC+Sign.

Manifest Destiny Painting Carpio, Lecture 4
Significance to class: The Native people were seen as a common danger, Anglos became united (Us vs. Them)
Anglos believed they would evolve the Native civilizations to a "higher stage"
This thesis became fused into a new American race, one that was "more in tune with manhood"

Manifest Destiny LEC+Sign.

Gomez Manifest Destinies Ch1 Was, in lecture, cited as one of the reasons the US went to War with Mexico, as the US wanted to bring civilization across the continent
Many Americans view this as a positive period in history, which added Oregon, Texas, Mexican Cession, California to U.S
What it really was - "a set of ideas that relied on racism to justify a war of aggression against Mexico"
Molina:
Manifest Destiny was used as a justification of westward expansion, and it was based on the ideology that the indigenous people needed saving spiritually, culturally, and economically (white savior complex)
Significance to class:
Is cited as one of the main catalysts for the US Mexico war, and was the birth of the phrase (with the passing of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo) "we didn't cross the border the border crossed us"
It fueled american imperialism and expansion west and south in Mexico

Conquest LEC+Sign.

Gomez states "the American conquest of Mexico from a different vantage point, with the aim of situating the subsequent formation of Mexican Americans as a racial group" Manifest Destinies, Laura Gomez Chapter 1
Significance to class: Conquest has had a huge impact on the fluidity of Mexican identity. It has been argued as a race or as an ethnicity, which in the long run also impacts Chicano culture and history.

Double colonization LEC+Sign.

Manifest Destinies Intro Gomez argues that double colonization was grounded by racism <EXPLAIN>Colonizers believed that they were unfit to govern themselves.
Significance to class: Double colonization has, in the past been a reason for the unity Mexico had prior to its revolution, due to the need for the people of Mexico to have a central unity. (this was the unity of mestizo). Also can be seen in the establishment in difference between being fully Mexican and being Mexican American/ Chicano.

Spanish Casta system LEC+Sign.

New Mexican hierarchy (pg 51):
Spaniards
Indian/Spanish
Indians who left to Spanish speaking settlements
Indians (pueblo)-- interacted with the others
Other Indians -- resisted Spanish domination
Indian/black mestizos were at the very bottom
Can change casts based on phenotype, wealth, whether or not you assimilated into Spanish culture
Even though the Spanish Casta system is gone, it left residue in the Americas. It created racial inequality on the basis of skin color. (COLORISM) A race-based inequality built around the mixes of Spaniards, Indians, and Africans. It was also based on action and achievement, where one could literally change their 'race' in the casta system by owning more land or taking on high positions. Especially true in LA, because there wasn't many high Euro. ancestry there.

Mestizaje LEC+Sign.

all humanity.
Text/Lecture: Gomez Manifest Destinies
Gomez 86-87: mentions how mestizos were colonizers during first colonization but natives during second colonization
Ex. working into whiteness
Significance to class: Mexican Americans' claim to whiteness had been weakened due to their mixed background, which was nonwhite dominated→ so they tried to distance themselves from Pueblos, other Indians, and Black people
Addressed in lecture 01/29/2020

Tongva LEC+Sign.

Lecture 3
Significance to class: They the OG people of LA we need to recognize them. The most powerful indigenous people to inhabit southern california. There was a rapid collapse o the Tongva population because of high death rates caused by diseases brought in by the Spanish explorations. Those 11 families that came from 'New Spain' went to LA for the potential of something better (i.e moving up the social order; those who were of high nobelity would not want to migrate if they have it good) and created an interchange between the Tongva people. The spanish outpost that was established in this region consisted of multiracial families that identified as mostly non-spaniard...

Spanish Fantasy Past LEC+Sign.

Phoebe Kropp "Citizens of the Past? Olvera Street and the Construction of Race and Memory in 1930s Los Angeles"
Pg.36: "Local boost/ers employed these romantic fictions to sell the region to tourists and potential immigrants... This Spanish fantasy past, however invented, became a widely popular marker of regional identity for Anglos"
Significance to class: exhibits the inner racism that was forced upon Mexican and Mexican Americans with the animalization of their culture. They were essentially put on display as zoos so anglo americans could see them for a day and not have to worry about the inner socio-economic issues they had.

Tricultural Harmony LEC+Sign.

Gomez, Chapter 2
Significance to Chicano studies:
Tricultural harmony embraces 3 tenets
1 - cultural difference instead of race
2 - harmony that was thought to displace the longstanding history of intergroup conflict
3 - group-based inequality rooted in cultural difference, not race

Olvera Street LEC+Sign.

Created by Christine Sterling and Harry Chandler (Publisher of Los Angeles Times) as a tourist attraction that embodied a fantasized Mexican culture rooted in the past
Puesteros forced to wear colorful costumes while selling "traditional" Mexican ware; señoritas with roses in their hair; constant fiestas
It can be used to examine the different identities being affected during this time. Mexicans were looked at as people of the past who were idolized for their culture while at the same time being treated as second class citizens.

Christine Sterling LEC+Sign.

Text/Lecture: She pitched to the white elites about her ideas of a Spanish Fantasy Past.
Kropp- Sterling and Chandler made Mexicans on Olvera street look like "happy poor people," prevented political protests, suggested Mexicans were "remainders of a bygone era" instead of living
Significance to Chicano studies: It is not an accurate description of Mexican people.
Creates stereotypes of Mexicans as party people and industrial laborers
Goes back to the idea of the Anglo savior, "helping Mexicans" while profiting from the culture.

Mayan Revival LEC+Sign.

Shown images of the architecture and the different styles included into buildings. Yet none of the art showed its appreciation towards the culture
Frank Lloyd Wright
Used Mayan inspiration for architecture
More often about effect than history-- functioned very differently that what they would have been used for historically
Ex. Mayan Theater in DTLA
Significance to Chicano studies: An example of cultural appropriation→ many Euro 1Americans appropriated and capitalized on this culture without giving the proper credit

Pio Pico LEC+Sign.

Lectured by Carpio, Same fate tied to mexican landowners who experienced dispossession
Significance to Chicano studies: An example of the extreme class and racial fluidity experienced by afro latinos.

City-empire LEC+Sign.

Refer to Kim reading for evidence - Griffith Park and Bradbury Building built and funded by resources extracted from Mexico
Significance to Chicano studies: Shows that although America is no longer colonizing and taking away territories, they still are expanding their power commercially to become a super power at the expense of Mexico.
Also shows how City boosters relied on Mexicans for development but didn't want them to be part of American society.

America tropical LEC+Sign.

In the Kropp reading, "Citizens of the past?" (
Significance to Chicano studies: This is important to Chicano/a studies as Siqueiros' painting brought attention to the unspoken truths/ realities of Mexican American conquest and colonization. For the longest time Anglos had been selling this Spanish fantasy that depicted Mexicans and their journey here as this beautiful and peaceful aspect when in reality it was filled with death, torture, exploitation due as a result of the conquest of Indian civilization, exploitation, of Mexican labor, and possible communist revolts. Siqueiros painting reminded everyone of the true history of Mexicans and their experiences they had to endure.

Racial scripts LEC+Sign.

Chinese immigrants received health checks on angel island and that also happened Mexican on border.
Molina Intro
Racial scripts have shown the longevity of social constructs. They also show connections between different cultures/racial groups. Brings them together through history of oppression.

Chinese exclusion act LEC+Sign.

Molina Chapter 3 Those in California couldn't bring their families into the U.S.
Significance: Foundation for immigration policy towards Mexicans

Mexican revolution LEC+Sign.

Professor Carpio mentioned during lecture to explain that it was one of the two causes for increased Mexican immigration to the U.S. That president of Mexico focused on industrialization more than rural elite farmers which helped start the Mexican Revolution.
Molina chapter 1Increased Mexican migration to the U.S. → Mexican immigrants went past the border of the U.S. because of the railroads → shifted the attention away from Chinese immigrants

The Immigration Act of 1924 LEC+Sign.

It "ushered a new immigration regime" as mentioned by Molina because it deemed Mexicans to be "criminals" and whites as the superior race.

Box Bill LEC+Sign.

Molina's reading- Ch.1 states that Racial scripts served as shorthand to swiftly link Mexicans to other races that were already deemed problematic.
By linking Mexicans to Blacks, he suggested that if Mexicans were afforded the opportunity to become a permanent population, they would develop into yet another labor problem, thus requiring the establishment of systems of social control just as the South had done with the creation of Jim Crow laws beginning in the 1890s. By connecting Mexicans to Blacks and Indians, he indicated that Mexicans too were racially inferior to whites.
Anglos linked Mexicans to other undesirable racial groups to garner support for the Box Bill.

Repatriation LEC+Sign.

Voluntary - some preferred to return to mexico
Others were coerced (language barriers), while some were pressured
Did not know it was not necessary
Immigration raids
In places where mexican populations would generally meet
Also made population feel unsafe
Medical reasons

Border patrol LEC+Sign.

Lecture 1/29
Enforced racial scripts on all minority groups since it changed from Chinese immigrants to Mexican immigrants since they were easier to send back.

Birthright citizenship LEC+Sign.

Molina Ch. 2
It has been a continuous debate that Mexicans and other POC do not deserve Birthright citizenship, this leads to anchor babies and a bigger immigration population from other countries. This led to women losing citizenship if they married a foreign man. They wanted to get rid of the 14th amendment in order to make it easier to remove immigrants and their future generations

"Likely to become a public charge" LEC+Sign.

Molina Chapter 4. Because Mexicans would visit Mexico and return to the United States frequently, they were accused of having a "dangerous contagious disease". Created a near-continuous potential for deportation.
Began the stereotype of Mexicans as "diseased" Racmerged with the long reach of the designation of "likely to become a public charge". This clause was meant to prevent immigrants from spreading disease or becoming too ill to work and thus becoming public charges.
Mexican women would need charity because they're poor and have lots of kids.

Zoot Suit & Zoot suit riot 1943 LEC+Sign.

Week 5- Zoot Suiters were targeted by US sailors and beaten. The Zoot suiters were young Mexican males, the pachucas were sent to a reform school. It really held up to the idea that Mexicans were here to take American money and not pay their taxes. They were lazy and only here for leisure, they did not support the country. Chicanos were not wanted because they were seen as not supporting America.

Luisa Moreno LEC+Sign.

Week 5- Lead a movement with her female garment workers. Women were huge in the Chicano Movement. Her work lead her to hunted down by the American Government but these racializations did not stay rooted in one place, they were incorporated into a racial script of Mexicans as biologically distant

"Operation Wetback" LEC+Sign.

Lecture Week 5- Rio Grande Crosser. USA solidified racial systems by calling their operation something racist and implicating that everyone not of a fair skin color or "white" was a "wetback."

Bracero Program LEC+Sign.

Lecture week 5 - Provided Mexicans with opportunities to earn higher wages, travel to new places, and enjoy leisure's lives, but also increased tensions with Mexican-Americans engaged in the war front during WWII.
4.6M contracts and targeted family men in hopes that they would return. Women became heads of the house and this leads to a strong female movement. Empowerment.

Mexican American Movement LEC+Sign.

Lecture 2/3/20
Mexican Americans were at odds with Mexican Immigrants and there was a divide between the west (Mexicans) and the East (Puerto Ricans). It caused a strain on the movement since collaborations were a bit off.