Variant Identities of 20th Century Latinos
Oxnard, about fifty miles north of Los Angeles, is one of many in California’s expansive agricultural regions. A small town, ideally situated on a coastal plane, providing the perfect balance of soil, and moisture from the Pacific Ocean. Great conditions for the strawberry. The desirable low growing fruit is not the easiest to harvest though, requiring arduous labor under the intense Southern California sun. On any given late-spring afternoon, you’ll will find a handful of hooded workers, stooped and picking basketfuls of the sweet berry. As you may have guessed, most of these workers are immigrants. This is the common perception of Latinos in California, along with the landscaper, the housekeeper, …show more content…
The profound legacy of racism, poverty, and inequality, as Winn points as “a burden that the region’s one hundred million people of African descent still bear today (Winn, 293). Haitians embraced their African lineage, seeing as a source of national pride. And while being one of the most impoverished countries in Latin America, it’s culture is based founded on a solid identiy. The dramatic differences between the nations of Haiti and the Dominican Republic validate that race is a social construct of race. Ideologies that are a “complex consciousness of color” blurring the line between blackness and whiteness also pointing out that “color correlates with class and culture shapes their meaning” (Winn …show more content…
For women it’s to embrace the virtues of la Virgen, “prescribed dependence, subordination, selfless devotion to the family bodily modesty and shame, acceptance of surveillance restricted spatial mobility, and premarital virginity” (Hondagneu-Sotelo 285). Cultural mandates of gender relations generate external conflicts between men and women, and internal conflicts on a woman’s psychological state. Countries such as Chile and Argentina saw feminist movements that improved gender relations in politics and a redefinition of family. In Guatemala, unifying different classes of women, especially the indigenous women, propel women equality forward. “The Indian women who have a clear political vision and participate in the leadership of the organization are realizing this. We’re seeing change, revolution, taking power, but this isn’t the profound change within society,” says Rigoberta Menchu (Menchu, 260). Hondagneu-Sotelo further states that “the interaction of massive population movements from Latin America to the United States and the concomitant demographic revolution that has resulted in what is arguably a significantly more open gendered society in the United States” (Hondagneu-Sotelo,
Oxnard, about fifty miles north of Los Angeles, is one of many in California’s expansive agricultural regions. A small town, ideally situated on a coastal plane, providing the perfect balance of soil, and moisture from the Pacific Ocean. Great conditions for the strawberry. The desirable low growing fruit is not the easiest to harvest though, requiring arduous labor under the intense Southern California sun. On any given late-spring afternoon, you’ll will find a handful of hooded workers, stooped and picking basketfuls of the sweet berry. As you may have guessed, most of these workers are immigrants. This is the common perception of Latinos in California, along with the landscaper, the housekeeper, …show more content…
The profound legacy of racism, poverty, and inequality, as Winn points as “a burden that the region’s one hundred million people of African descent still bear today (Winn, 293). Haitians embraced their African lineage, seeing as a source of national pride. And while being one of the most impoverished countries in Latin America, it’s culture is based founded on a solid identiy. The dramatic differences between the nations of Haiti and the Dominican Republic validate that race is a social construct of race. Ideologies that are a “complex consciousness of color” blurring the line between blackness and whiteness also pointing out that “color correlates with class and culture shapes their meaning” (Winn …show more content…
For women it’s to embrace the virtues of la Virgen, “prescribed dependence, subordination, selfless devotion to the family bodily modesty and shame, acceptance of surveillance restricted spatial mobility, and premarital virginity” (Hondagneu-Sotelo 285). Cultural mandates of gender relations generate external conflicts between men and women, and internal conflicts on a woman’s psychological state. Countries such as Chile and Argentina saw feminist movements that improved gender relations in politics and a redefinition of family. In Guatemala, unifying different classes of women, especially the indigenous women, propel women equality forward. “The Indian women who have a clear political vision and participate in the leadership of the organization are realizing this. We’re seeing change, revolution, taking power, but this isn’t the profound change within society,” says Rigoberta Menchu (Menchu, 260). Hondagneu-Sotelo further states that “the interaction of massive population movements from Latin America to the United States and the concomitant demographic revolution that has resulted in what is arguably a significantly more open gendered society in the United States” (Hondagneu-Sotelo,