Taking a Look at Latino Literature

The Arizona Desert is a place that is very dangerous and has claimed the lives of many people. In the book, A Devils Highway, it takes us through the real story of 26 men and their journey through this hell.  Many of the men did not survive the journey, and all of them were crossing to make a living or to go find a job so they can make money.  This has been seen many work done by Latinos, such as The Guardians and Bless Me Ultima. Hispanics are forced to go to many lengths in order to supply for their family. I can never remember anybody in my family have to going to such extremes to make money for food and shelter.  Not only is the travel dangerous but, they are forced to leave their family.

After the discussion in class about our own history I went home to ask my parents about our history. My mother told me that she herself hardly knew anything. Her dad came from lower Indiana and her mother from upper Michigan. They met and moved to Cassopolis but, other than that she didn’t know.  This has got me curious and though I don’t know much I plan on looking to better find our history. They have given names of some relatives who have looked into our family history who I can get a hold of and talk to. To me this is important because all of us came from somewhere and it’s important to remember that when we are judging Latinos so harshly.

I believe it’s important to study Latino Literature and learn from the cultural. One thing I would like to see would be more Latino literature in schools. We read a lot of white male authors and now teachers are began assigning female authors. But Latinos are becoming a proud group who are becoming a big part of our country and I think we need to recognize the accomplishments made by Latinos. 

9500 Liberty

9500 Liberty is a powerful movie that drew much emotion from me as I watched the film. Here was a town that had so much hatred towards one specific minority group, Latinos, so they passed a rule to expel them from the town. As I sat there watching the movie, I felt myself start hating these white people whom where causing the suppression upon the Latino group. When DB and I began discussing the film, I told him how I felt ashamed that I myself was white. The white people created and enslave thousands of African slaves and now here we are again suppressing a minority group. How can people be so hatful towards human beings? Here are people who just want to make a living and support for their families. They were not here committing crimes and driving drunk as some of the people in the film complained about. At least not anymore than the white people were doing. How can people so deliberately excuse the crimes of their own race, while blaming the Latinos for committing such crimes?

As I watched the 9500 Liberty and discussed the problems going on throughout the film, I began thinking about the language barrier.  Many white Americans complained about Latinos not knowing English. In many countries there are two main languages. Our sister to the north, Canada shares two dominant languages, English and French. They are not bitter about this issue; instead they embrace it and have students learn French in school.  Why can’t Americans be this open to another language? As we discussed further in class, we saw the older generation having the majority of issues with Latinos. The younger generation was not experiencing the same issues. Even though this may be a morbid thought I’m going to ask it anyway. As the older generation dies off and we become the grandparents, do you think America will have a different view on Latinos and immigration issues?  My thinking is yes because the younger generation has grown up with Latinos and has also learned Spanish in school. Our grandparents maybe scared of change, but this is a change that we have been experiencing throughout our life.