Today Puerto Ricans make up about 2.8 million of the population in America. Versus the island of Puerto Rico itself making up 3.8 million The authors parents came to America with one of the first big waves in 1946. His parents Juan and Florinda arrived at the airport from San Juan. In 1932 his grandfather who was an engineer died of pneumonia. Which consequently spiraled his family into poverty. His grandmother then after sold the family’s home and moved into a shack. Which by the way was the worst side of town. She then got hired as a coffee bean picker in the fields. But she had to give away her children to family and friends so that they might not face starvation. It was a hard decision but she couldn’t …show more content…
They are the earliest settlers on U.S. soil and the largest new arrivals. Mexican Americans today and face many of the same problems Puerto Ricans Faced. Being native born, immigrants, pioneers and aliens. Escandon is responsible for converting thousands of Indians he called this the Nuevo Santander. After years of taking over land and converting the native Indians. A war broke out over Nueces Strip. This was instigated by President Polk which started the Mexican war. Later on the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo relinquished the Strip to the United States. Time passed and little by little Mexican Americans where cheated from there land and riches. Which caused more tension and resulted in many being lynched and robbed. This created more wars. For example, when Cortina killed the marshal and other whites for beating the drunken Mexican. For two decades he launched many raids against the …show more content…
The biggest one that I took from the reading was that Everyone has faced racial tensions, segregation and abuse. I feel that the purpose was to remind everyone that every Latino has roots that faced oppression. And this was a great reminder to me that the Latino community has to ban together and assimilate as one. A big question that comes to mind after reading this is why is it that the Latino community can be so divided at times. You would think that after hundreds of years of oppression we would see eye to eye on things. But it’s because were so divided that change is coming so slow for our