Change of Course Title for His 314k at the University of Texas at Austin
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The History of Latin Americans in the US:
Colonialism, Migration Patters, Race, Ethnicity & Assimilation
I believe the title “The History of the Mexican American People” leaves out so many other people labelled as “Hispanic” in the United States. Moreover, it contradicts the first Mexican American movement of the early 20th Century, where their goal was to show the heterogeneity of the group labelled as “Latino”. The outdated title reflects a time where the Chicano movement of the 1960s and 1970s tried to change the History of the people with Spanish/Latin roots. In order to change the stereotype of the “Mexicans” of the era, history was retold in a “distorting, essentialistic, and exclusionary”[1] way. While this worked to increase cohesiveness within the majority of the group (Mexican Americans) and in a way humanized the image of Chicanos at the time, this no longer holds an effective way to classify Latinos throughout the country.
With people of Mexican American heritage constituting only about 60% of Hispanics in the US, the old title of the course will not seem appealing to all Latinos. The negative effects are later seen when the different Hispanic races separate from each other, forming distinctive groups that want to showcase their own identity and even challenge other groups. Nevertheless, these groups share a similar past (Amerindian, Colonialism and Spanish heritage), a similar language (despite the different accents), similar religion (mostly Roman Catholic), and face the same problems (discrimination for being “Hispanic”, poverty, immigration issues). Therefore, it seems only logical to try to unite them and pay the respect and attention that individual ethnicities (Salvadorian, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Argentinean, etc.) deserve.
I added a sub-title with the main aspects that shape Latin American history in order to add some structure to the course title. The modern day Latino/a can trace his/her origins to what happened during colonial times, what migration patterns their families followed, how they struggled with the idea of race and ethnicity in the US and how it differed from their original countries, and how they have assimilated to the system and even challenged it. Tomбs Almaguer makes it very clear thet “race and race making are absolutely central to our understanding of the Latino/a condition and that our multiraciality is the single most unique feature of the Latino/a experience