Thoughts on Other's Essays

Irelis:
  Irelis' essay was an informative one, I like how she took the material she found and gave it a journalistic approach to it. This style is a refreshing one and made reading the essay an enjoyable expirience. I really liked all the details that she gave to the events and although it can be a repetitive, I found it interesting.

Armando:
  Armando's essay had alot of emotion and I like the opinions he put in the essay but there was some flaws however. The spelling was the biggest thing. I could not really understand some of the words and the wording itself was confusing. But I still think the Armando did a good job and I enjoyed it.

Shae Lynn:
  Shae Lynn's essay and mine have a lot in common, we both talked about assimilation during to that time period and our opinions were the same. Her essay was easy to read and the big font made it even easier as well. I liked it and it was one of my favorite to read.

Carolina:
  Carolina's essay was a very nice and she showed the how miserable was life for those indians during that time. Some of the things she wrote was very profesional and I like how she wrote some of the events, using very understandable detail.

Itze:
  Itze is known for being a good writer and for having an honesty opinion on any subject, and this essay was no different. Not only was she informative, she made her opinion clear with powerful words and expressions. I greatly enjoyed the essay.

Native American Assimilation: A battle between Opinions

   The United States has a history of wanting its visitors to become more like its people.  Italians, Germans, Chinese, and Mexicans immigrants all have the same thing in common when it comes to reaching the U.S. These people can’t help but to change their “traditional” ways and Americanize their lives. Whether or not that is a good thing can be argued; but what happens when the great superpower of the world forces you to become like them? What if they told you that you could die if you don’t give up your home? What if they said that your ways of living and culture which you grew up on is a “savage” way of life?  These words were a daily reference to the Indians and there ways of living, and it was a very real situation during the mid 19^th century and early 20^th century.

  

  Ironically, the first people to demand Assimilation were the people that lived closest to them, the so called: “friends of the Indians.” They apparently were disgusted by the ways the Native Americans would handle things and affairs. For example, the fact that all the Indians shared the same piece of land among other things. So what did these “friends “do? They complained, complained and complained. These people told everyone how much they didn’t like Indian culture and how they should adapt to their own way of life. And what happens when you start saying mean things about someone for a long time? People start to believe it, and this is exactly what happened. People, which may or may have not seen the Indian way of life, started to believe and passed around bad sayings about them. Now this was pretty harmless, until the protestant church got to hear this, that when the true force for assimilation started. Many Protestants believed that changing their religion to Christianity would civilize them, so the missionaries started doing what they do best, change other people’s religion. During this time the Protestant church had a lot influence over the government during this time, mainly because President Grant was a protestant, so it was no surprise that the church got the government involved leading to all the treaties, the  policies and mostly, the rip offs.

   

  Now a mayor argument between many people is that whether or not the Whites really have the rights to force assimilation to the Indians. Some people believe that they were correct in being so forceful by wanting assimilation. Others, however, believe that the Whites were too cruel and had an ethnocentric attitude during this time. Honestly, one can look at both sides of the spectrum and see the reasoning for their opinions but at the same time you can see some faults. I personally believe that the Whites were being unfair, with all these faulty treaties and policies, but that’s just politics. The United States always had a mindset in which any action would see benefits for themselves, no matter how generous it would seem at the time. And I am almost certain that it was the same for the Indians. But that is no excuse for the unacceptable behavior they excised during this time. Besides when go right down to it, the Native American were first and the whites were the immigrants.

   

  Life for the Indians was not a very pleasant one as you can imagine. Most of them were forced to change their ways or die try to life how they thought was the best they could. The worst of these cases was the youth, children growing up in broad schools and not really knowing what was good or bad for them. These children had to cut their hair, because it was usually long, change their names, and basically live life as a white person. But were they treated as such? Of course they were not, they seen as a savage who looks like them, talks like them, but is not really a white person. The worst part of it is that these “hybrid” Indians were seen as traitors to other Indians. So they were respected by neither the people they were trying to hide nor the people they were trying to become. So you can imagine that it was hard for these to accept their life by what it really was and it kind of made me wonder. Were those the real benefits of being assimilated into White American culture?

  
  Although the attempts of assimilation have stopped, the effects are still visible to this very day, years after those times. The Indians are still trapped up in reservations and I believe that the government still owes the Indian a great amount of money. Are the Indians holding a grudge? Are the Whites ripping off the Indians yet again, like they have years before? Who knows? Only time and politics will tell. But until then, it does not seem like much is going to change.

Classmate's Blogs and Reflection

Randy:

  Randy's blog was an eyecatcher from the moment one sees it. With a huge PLAY BALL tittle and the fire background, one was immidietly hooked. A particulary favorite of mine was the was the journal post as life of a German immigrant and their family's life trying to moved into the United States. It's a simple story but with the good amount of details and the reflection given by almost any action gives the story a belivable approach. All and all it was nice to read and pretty enjoyable.


Irelis:

Reading Irelis' post on the Puerto Rican impact on the United States and her family heritage was interesting to read and most importantly, easy to understand. Irelis has a skill with her words that few can compete with, and this blog is a prime example of this. All her post are well written and are expressed well and the intentions behind her posts are crystal clear.

Kathrine

 Katherine's blog was a simple one. Nothing overly complicated and the post was well written. Her post on the immigration today video was a great way the introduce her emotions on the subject and she did it was great style and simplicity that Iappreciate and respect from her.

Itze

  Itze's blog was really interesting and I really like how she put the extra effort in order for her blog to be well received by others and fun to look at. A post I find particulary interesting was her immigraation story and her heritage.Her heritage was something that I always was interested in finding out and reading it made the rest of the blog fun.



  

The Ultimate Melting Pot

 All this talk about immigration made me wonder about MY OWN heritage and where I came from, so I did some research, a few hours and family tress later, this is what I found, it is very interesting.

  First off, I am only going to talking my mother's side of the family and their history because frankly, my father's side just full of "home grown" Puerto Ricans, nothing really interesting. Well from my grandmother's side, everything started with her own mother. That person, whose name was Blanca Brucman was half French from her mother and half German from her father. Ivonne de la Bowne, the french mother died when Blanca was 4 years old, giving birth to her sister, Emilia. Years later, Leocardio Brucman, Blanca's German father remarried a women of the name Odett, who was half Puerto Rican and half French, and when they married, Odett wanted to live in Puerto Rico and thats how thats where Blanca Brucman met Alfredo Font, my great grandfather. Alfredo is not Puerto Rican eighter, he comes from a long line of Venezuelan workers.His father was working at Puerto Rico when, you guessed it, he found love , Carmen Irizarry and never looked back. This was around the mid to late 1800's, that was a very long time ago.


 Now this was only from my grandmother's side of the family, the following is from my grandfather's. Emiglio Buonomo's dad, Angelo, went to Puerto Rico from Italy on a buisiness trip with a friend of his. He only wanted to go to Puerto Rico to have an easier time getting into the United States and buy some land since he aparently liked in here at the time. But, like Alfredo before him, love found a way to his heart and her name was Monserate Morales, a very Puerto Rican woman. They got married stayed in Puerto Rico and developed a huge love for baseball, but that's another story. 

Not Helping The Cause

I recently came across this article on Yahoo! News and I felt like sharing with you guys, here it is:

MEXICO CITY – A U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent was killed and another wounded while driving through northern Mexico Tuesday, in a rare attack on American officials in this country which is fighting powerful drug cartels.

Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said one agent was critically wounded in the attack and died from his injuries. The second agent was shot in the arm and leg and remains in stable condition.

ICE Director John Morton late Tuesday identified the slain agent as Jaime Zapata, who was on assignment from the office in Laredo, Texas, where he served on the Human Smuggling and Trafficking Unit as well as the Border Enforcement Security Task Force. The injured agent was not identified.

"I'm deeply saddened by the news that earlier today, two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) special agents assigned to the ICE Attache office in Mexico City were shot in the line of duty while driving between Mexico City and Monterrey by unknown assailants," she said.

U.S. and Mexican officials said they were working closely together to investigate the shooting and find those responsible. They did not give a motive for the attack.

"Let me be clear: any act of violence against our ICE personnel — or any DHS personnel — is an attack against all those who serve our nation and put their lives at risk for our safety," Napolitano said. "We remain committed in our broader support for Mexico's efforts to combat violence within its borders."

The two agents were driving in the northern state of San Luis Potosi when they were stopped at what may have appeared to be a military checkpoint, said one Mexican official, who could not be named because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the case. Mexican military officials said they have no checkpoints in the area.

After they stopped, someone opened fire on them, the official said.

San Luis Potosi police said gunmen attacked two people a blue Suburban on Highway 57 between Mexico City and Monterrey, near the town of Santa Maria Del Rio, at about 2:30 p.m.

Police said one person was killed and another was flown to a Mexico City hospital, though they couldn't confirm the victims were the ICE agents.

A U.S. law enforcement source who was not authorized to speak on the case said the agent who died was on loan from Laredo, Texas.

Mexican Ambassador to the U.S. Arturo Sarukhan spoke with Morton to express Mexico's condolences, according to a spokesman.

"This is a difficult time for ICE and especially for the families and loved ones of our agents. Our hearts and prayers go out to them. This tragedy is a stark reminder of the risks confronted and the sacrifices made by our men and women every day," Morton said in a statement.

You can read the rest of the article here. 

This is the type of hypocritical actions that makes me question the Mexican's motives on immigration. Now, I am aware that no two people are the same but, if you want to immigrate to the U.S. and prove that Mexicans are not job stealers or a group of delinquents, I do not think that killing U.S. ICE agents is the way to do it. The only thing  you achieve with that is make the Americans question how your people do things in your homeland and wheather if they want some of that in their country, and if that would be a example of Mexican attitude, (which am certain is not) things will only get worse between you and the U.S.  And remember this, the good actions will just be forgotten while the evil actions stay on people's mind for years.

Life in this New World

Dear Elena:                                                                                                     March 12, 1923

  Ciao bella, it has been a few weeks since I first arrived. New York is so grande! You have to see it, my love, the buildings are so tall, they can touch the moon! There is all this music, cars and lights you will believe that you are living inside a star! Although America is beautiful, its people are not. Many of these people are mean, cold and seem to have no hearts. How can someone be so thoughtless to other people?

 I been missing you, I wish you could come here with me and expirience The American Dream with me. I have been living in an apartment in which I share with 3 other people, roomates. I know that you must be thinking that why would I do that, well that is because I want to save as much money as I can so I can go back to Italia and buy you a ticket to America.

  I work as a constrution worker, but I really do not get to build much just get bossed around by the Americans. But I try to stay calm, you know. Try to prove that not all of my people will call the mafia if you insult us, but sometimes it can be tough. But at  least there are many other Italians just like me, trying to work and do the best they can.

  Well that is all for now Elena, I hope that everthing is ok back ar home and I wish you the best of luck in everything you will do and hope to see you here someday, with me.

                                                                                                             With Love:
                                                                                   Angelo Braulio Gonzalo

Italian Immigration History

   Poverty, overpopulation, hunger, and natural disasters were being spread all over Italy. Families of six to ten were living under houses too small for anyone to live properly; and as if that was not bad enough, violence  and iletracy were at an all time high, with 70% of the population not being able to read or write. The 18th century was not a good time to be living in Italy. So many families, usually very poor ones, said that enough is enough and they packed their bags, put whatever they could fill their pockets with, ( most probably something like ten dollars) and they set out to the new world.

  Now this definately does not mean that the Italians had an easy job getting there, oh no, far from it. During this time ( 1875-1975)  America is where everyone wanted to be and the Italians were no exception; so you can imagine that getting there had its complications. Southern Italians would have to take a boat from Sicily if to have chance to get to the United States. So families would ask for tickets or permission slips and hope they could there before the boat leaves them behind. The family would go through the long Atalntic Ocean and pass through a little island of the name Ellis. All immigrants would be interviewed to see if there was anything suspicious about them, and if there was, they would probably be deported back all the way to Italy.

  Once they reached the United States, the Italians would take all different paths of where they choose to live and how they worked. Most though, would stay around the New York area and take jobs that required alot of manual labor, such as construction. Others in California however, would work as wine brewers and farmers. Living Conditions for these people reminded them alot like the life of their home country, in overcrowed apartments and houses, trying to save as much as possible because, believe it or not, most Italians planned on returning to Italy in the near future. Like other immigrants, Italians would build a community around the people of the same background, this where places like Little Italy were born and still exist to this day.

Your Italian family leaving their homeland, with only 24$

           

     To conclude the Italians have been a part of the U.S. for quite some time now (the that discovered the Americas IS Italian) and although they have not had a very strong presence in the history of this country, they are not accounted for. I mean who has NOT watched the Sopranos?