Outline for my topic:
Cultural citizenship refers to how individuals and groups are excluded from society based on cultural identity and ethnicity. This exclusion is particularly prevalent in America, and many individuals struggle to know where they belong. Many just think it is black vs white, but they forget about Hispanics. The first group of Hispanics in the U.S. was Mexicans. After the Mexican-American war, the U.S. gained 55 percent of Mexico’s territory, today known as the states of Nevada, Texas, Arizona, Utah, Kansas, Wyoming, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and California. As a result, Mexican people still lived in these states, and the U.S. government gave them a choice to stay or leave. If they stayed, they would be granted U.S. citizenship. However, being succeeded in a nation did not give the Mexican people living in this country full rights as the other white citizens. Instead, they were treated as second-class citizens.
First Body: Legal and institutional discrimination in schools and workplaces
Being treated as second class citizens limited the rights of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans. See the inclusion of a new group of people into the American society made it a controversial policy for these Angelo citizens living in America. As a result many politicians made certain policies work against Mexicans overtime as Blacks, Mexicans, and Asians in these southern parts of the U.S. were now considered the minority. Starting of with the education system in states like Texas, California, and Arizona. Since these were areas with a huge population of the Meexicans it was seem like a threat to provide them with an education. Especifically in California in the early 20th century yes Mexican American students attended schools but that later change. For example, “Santa Ana’s school board also manipulated districts to separate European from Mexican American students. In 1920, three of the city’s fourteen school districts exceeded 90 percent of Mexican enrollment, while fewer Spanish-surnamed students appeared on the rolls of the other eleven. Since districting is rarely 100 percent successful, the Santa Ana board responded to complaints from the parents of European American children stranded in the Mexican school districts by allowing them to attend all-white schools in other districts.” (Torres-Rouff 107).
“The historic California Agricultural Labor Relations Act (ALRA) passed in June 1975. For the first time, farmworkers in the United States were granted the rights of industrial and service workers. Employers could not legally fire employees for union activity, and now workers, rather than growers, would decide on union representation.” (Acuna, 1998).
Another Supreme Court case was San Antonio v. Rodriguez. “In this case, the district court found in favor of the Latino student plaintiffs who had been disadvantaged by underfunded schools. That court found wealth was a suspect class and education was a fundamental right.” (Browne-Marshall, 2013).
Second Body: Language and cultural practices
“The passage of California Propositions 187, 209 and the Unz Initiative—which contested the provision of health and education to undocumented immigrants and ended affirmative action and bilingual education, respectively—are all indicators of increased social tensions and conflict over the racial heterogeneity and declining white population in California” (Zavella 1997).
Third Body: Representation in media and public discourse
“Ayers stated that Chicanos were Indians, hence Orientals, and as such had an utter disregard for life. The report further alleged that Chicanos were cruel, for they descended from the Aztecs who supposedly sacrificed 30,000 victims a day!” (Acuna 1988).
Conclusion/Solutions:
Cultural citizenship is being used to exclude certain groups in America based on cultural identity and ethnicity through the perpetuation of stereotypes. By denying them access to resources and opportunities gives an unfair disadvantage to Mexican communities. Addressing an issue like this requires a concerted effort to challenge stereotypes, breaking many barriers since this nation began. You cannot take people’s freedom and expect them always to be second-class citizens and not try to progress as a community. We have learned that throughout history when minorities support each other, they can easily make a significant impact on these discriminatory politics and ideologies in society.
References to use:
Randy S. (2008). Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, The UFW, and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century. Berkeley, Los Angeles. University of California Press, pp.13 50.
Acuña, R. (1998). “Early Chicano Activism: Zoot Suits, Sleepy Lagoon, and the Road to Delano. The Latino Condition: A Critical Reader. 2nd edition. New York: New York University Press, pp. 309–320.
Torres-Rouff, D. (2012). Becoming Mexican: Segregated Schools and Social Scientist in Southern California, 1913-1946. Southern California Quarterly, 94(1), pp. 91-127.
Serna, E. (2016). “You Can Ban Chicano Books, But They Still Pop Up!”: Activism, Public Discourse, and Decolonial Curriculums in Los Angeles. Whitewashing American education: The new culture wars in ethnic studies, 1, 133-156.
