Mexican Americans Immigrants
I acquired information about generational family and I observed that they have experienced life between places. My grandfather was an immigrant into the United States and that why most members of my family were born in the United States. From my research, I found out that Mexican migrated into the United States to seek an economic opportunity. Most of the Mexicans were of low-skilled and unauthorized workers, from the observation of the social class of my paternal and maternal grandparents. This is why most of them had to migrate into the United States to seek a better life for the families. Specifically, this paper aims to explore the challenges that Mexican Americans went through while living in the United States.
The Mexican Americans experienced lower levels of education as compared to the non-Hispanics. Most of the Mexican immigrants experienced relatively low education in the United States (Ortiz et al. 45). For instance, both my grandparents and parents have as general education development except for my case where I have been a high school graduate and now am in the first-year college. This gap has been persistent and has continued to the fourth generation of the Mexican Americans. Therefore, according to Vilma and Telles, Mexicans experienced disadvantageous education because they were treated as a stigmatized racial group rather than a low human capital group.
Mexicans have been racially discriminated throughout the history of the United States. They have a mixed racial characteristic that is, ranging from light to dark skin colour and eye with many having brown and mestizo middle (Ortiz et al. 48). For instance, I have experienced discrimination at school were my friends refuse to play with me because am dirty. This is the first time I felt that probably am different from the rest. Gender discrimination is also a major issue among Mexican children in schools. I was once a victim of this when I was denied to play with some toys, which were restricted to a certain gender. Consequently, this is the first time I became aware of my gender.
The racial inequality among Mexicans also contributed to most of them being low and middles classes individuals. This is because most of them were excluded from economic and social integration like the African Americans (Ortiz et al. 50-55). For instance, from the observation of my grandparents and parents lives, they were either middle or low-class status. This has remained persistent in the next generation since I am a middle-class individual. At the middle school level, I felt discriminated when my fellow students talked about college. This is the first time I became aware that we are not the same and probably the rest of the students have better lives because they could afford a college education. Altogether, Mexicans have been discriminated in the labour industry and that is why most of them have average lives.
Additionally, my cultural practices can be summarized as, religious, language and race. My family origin race in Hispanic/Latin and also our religious belief is catholic (Steinhauer). This is continuous from the generation of my grandparents. Also, both maternal and paternal grandparents spoke in the Spanish language except for my parents and myself. This is due to the introduction of public schools for Mexicans and hence most of them were able to access school. Introduction of affordable schools among Mexicans has enhanced most of them to be enlightened. This is why most of them in contemporary society can now fit in the modern job industry.
In conclusion, Mexican immigration into the United States as a result of most of them seeking an economic opportunity. Most of them wanted to provide a better life for their families. For instance, this is reflected in the lives of my grandparents. However, Mexicans immigrants were treated as a racial stigmatized group instead of a disadvantageous group. They were racially discriminated in both education and job opportunities and hence that is why most of them are middle-class individuals. Consequently, the civil rights movement advocated by them was able to end racial discrimination and school segregation. However, there are some Mexican in the United States that are still discriminated in schools and job industry.
Works Cited
Ortiz, Vilma, and Edward Telles. “Racial identity and racial treatment of Mexican Americans.” Race and social problems 4.1 (2012): 41-56.
Steinhauer, Jason, and J. Young. “The History of Mexican Immigration to the US in the Early 20th Century.” The Library of Congress. 2015.