The life of the national minority has always been a constant struggle for rights and liberties that they deserved. It is a hard ordeal to live in a country where you feel your native land, yet feel that there is a drop of somebody else in your blood. And it is even harder to understand that you need special treatment and not to get it from the people around, who consider you as a stranger here.
Such is the life of the Spanish immigrants in the US. Called Hispanics, they have a culture of their own that at times does not coincide with the American one and the customs that have nothing in common with it.
They are trying to preserve this culture and not get cornered by the influence from the western civilization that is bordering their patch of land. In fact, they don’t have enough rights even for that patch.
All the questions of why’s and whose are not that easy to answer. Still there is no use taking examples of the US and building the Great Wall to get separated from the people who don’t look and think like the rest of us. Perhaps, we should just try and understand their ways and their customs.
What the Latin Americans differ from the Native Americans is that they tent to treat their culture like something that is slowly slipping through their fingers, and they are trying to hold the rest of it as tight as they can. That is well understood, for the Latin American culture is slowly being consumed by the one of the US. However, such relations with their culture have been established among Latin Americans long before the US took over world culture and economics.
It all began with the colonies in North America and the Englishmen trying to save the lands that were escaping their power.
It went on as the people who came from where the two cultures mixed streamed to the United States. What were they chasing? Whom were they running from? You will know the answers soon.
It is very important to realize that the influence of Great Britain and further on of the US has been immense. Agricultural society as they are, they have been pushed towards something they have never experienced before (Gonzalez 142)
The question is whether the people living in such an environment can be free enough to make their own choices, to build their families and to make their lives go the way they want to. Can they? That is what we shall consider now.
Colonialism has set its roots not only in the society system, but also deep inside people’s minds and souls. They take the way the other “ordinary” people treat them as the common measure and get accustomed to it very soon. The hardest thing to bear about it is that only a few can find the strength to oppose the disrespect they face and fight the injustice. At times you just have to grind and bear it, but these are not the most reasonable ways if looking to the future position.
The people enslaved by the changes in the society have a lot to think of. First, is their contribution to the culture and the state of the country they are living in of no use? They literally are making it to see the place they are living in better and now you see what they get. This is the point at which the so-called “racialization”. And, moreover, it was driven against the bourgeois people that pushed the Latin Americans right to the abyss. This is the point at which reality turned crueler than it could be. It was depicted perfectly in Memories of Underdevelopment:
“Although it may destroy me, this revolution is my revenge against the stupid Cuban bourgeoisie”.
It is hard to realize, but the hopes are broken and there is no other way to go but to fight tooth and nail. Have you ever seen a wolf caught in a trap? It will bite your hand off even if you try to help it.
It is absolutely amazing that the total disappointment and the upset spirits, the broken hopes and shattered dreams are expressed in a single phrase said by the lead, Sergio:
“The American was right. Words devour words and they live you in the clouds.”
Sergio feels that the underdevelopment makes the people broke both in terms of money and their ideas, spirit and hopes. They get a one-way ticket to a crash.
The wheel of fortune never turns its maximum on those not part of this society. And then it comes the right time to pray for God to save the outcast.
However, the resistance the Latin Americans showed was something completely new to the government. How come the people who are living in the place they cannot literally call home struggle for their piece of this Promised Land? That was unbelievable.
It is very important to point out that the Latin Americans applied no rude force to achieve their goal. They have never been bloodthirsty. The weapon they were using was their culture and their ways of living a life.
The encouragement they got after they have tried claiming for their rights was the very feedback needed for a decisive step. The World War I that got them to move to the land of wishes coming true devastated them completely, but they still had the spirit that kept them going on. The industrial revolution that seized the Anglo-world did not touch them either, and all they were left to was their identity. They preserved it pretty well, taking into account that even a state in the North America was called New Mexico. Now that was some progress to mark. It highlighted the needs and troubles of the Latin Americans in the USA, and the native dwellers of the US finally realized there was another nationality they were living next to.
There are some other facts to ponder, and now I would like to drive your attention to a remarkable phrase,
“The isolation of the Spanish colonists led to the development of the unique folk culture in Santa Fe and northern New Mexico”.
Now please pay attention to the fact that the Hispanics wee originally isolated form the rest of the Americans, and it took certain time for them to get closer to their northern neighbors and come to terms with them.
The cultural importance of the Hispanics was immense, their artworks building a new fundament for American art.
Still the Hispanics remained the outcast for long.
Finally, it was time to break the spell. the Hispanics started their struggle. Those were the Resistance times.
However, the Latin American enriched the American culture and they had all rights to claim it a part of their own. They opposed those who denied their right to live in this land and have a life of their own. And the changes their resistance brought them to were rather unexpected by both parties.
To start with, the historic impact of their struggle was that they were finally recognized by the world leading countries and considered a separate nationality, not the hybrid of the Spanish and American relations. One of the most important goals was finally achieved, and the problems they were left with seemed rather easy to solve next to this one.
The aftereffect grew slowly but still it was stunning. No one could ever think that the consolidation of the states was possible and that the foes would ever manage to come to some terms. But the peace treaty was signed; the people started taking the Latin Americans as a regular part of the society. They were no longer the outcasts, and it seemed unbelievable that such different nations would finally come together.
Still there were some points which separated the two cultures in such a way that they could not mix together. First of all, that was the original and unique world picture of the Latin Americans that was foreign to the northern population. Second, these were the ways they took to confirm their moral and cultural sovereignty from the US.
It seems as though the Latin Americans were a “case study” that led people to the thought of the specific ethnic groups to be treated in the proper way so that they could feel a part of this country, too.
It is quite peculiar that the colonial history written since the times it had started is represented in English only. That is, as the dominating culture, it could not admit even the existence of the Hispanic version of what had happened between the natives and the Hispanics. New Mexico was still on its way to build up decent relations with the people who lived there.
I would also like to emphasize that the resistance shown by the Latin Americans was much more of a cultural one than the one connected with cruel opposition and battles. They found a peaceful way to show that they are humans as well. That was a breakthrough for the European civilized world which was rather keen on proving its rights forcefully.
Now I would like you to concentrate on the certain events that took place during colonialism and the resistance.
It is no secret that the tragedies of the colonialism were uncountable and the people who survived it were doomed to remember this nightmare for their entire life.
The turning point for their lives was the fact that they managed to get the Taft-Hartley Act work for them, too, and finally get the rights and freedoms that all the people working in the US had. It was a major achievement, described in the film directed by Herbert J. Bieberman, and the Latin Americans could finally breath if not the full chest, but still more freely than they used to before. Their rights and their freedoms preserved, they now could think of a more comfortable life, if the word “comfortable” could suit the people who had just escaped the blazing fire of Gehenna.
However, I would rather say that it was a certain stage for them to pass, because they were still to face some difficulties that would either break them, or make them stronger.
Despite the numerous hypotheses concerning why the colonialism took place and why the aftereffects it had caused were that huge to both the colonialists and the people whom they tried to get under their control, it was clear that as the phenomenon it was breathing its last.
Still it does not mean that today there are no traces left for people to remember of it.
The striking violence of the people who do not want to tackle the relationships with the strangers is immense and frightening. At times it makes me wonder if the people living next to the Latin Americans ever wanted for the colonialism to rest I peace, or they thought their new neighbors their enemies, or – or they didn’t think of either. the latter is the most frightening idea. The thing is that one can be kind, or violent, or rude, but that is natural and therefore acceptable. But when it comes to being indifferent, the very trouble starts. I hate to be banal, but that is the root of all evil. As long as you think and search for arguments for your position, you are ready to live and let live. But as you lose the grip on your ideas and it is deprived of any interest for you to watch the action going on and to take part in it, you may surely think yourself a living corpse.
So that is the question that I keep asking myself. Were the Americans caring about the nations living together with them? Did they notice them? Or was it a kind of “oh-look-here-goes-the-weirdo” thing that you would forget as soon as the weirdo leaves the place?
This concern about the neighboring nation was a very unexpected and pleasant surprise.
The wheel of morality is the one that must spin the entire lifetime. As long as it does, you live. When it stops, you die, not physically, not even morally, but – emotionally. You feel like a house with no people in it. Terrible, isn’t it?
However, knowing the fiery spirit of the Americans, I am sure to know that they would feel anything but the indifference to friendly and unhappy strangers. It is a matter of national psychology.
It is a well-known fact that the colonies had several problems with self-representation, and that these very problems drove the people to stand up against the rules they were imposed.
The very mood of the colonialism was brilliantly depicted in Herbert Biberman’s film Salt of the Earth. Please, take a look at the quote: “This is our home. The house is not ours. But the flowers… the flowers are ours.” The sentence sounds like a cry from the deep inside, from the times when the Latin Americans knew where they belong and that they would be accepted here.
At times, the cruelty of the superior state can exceed the one of the revolting people it is trying to get into submission. Note the phrase said by Colonel Mathew in The Battle of Algiers:
“There are 80,000 Arabs in the Kasbah. Are they all against us? We know they’re not. In reality, it’s only a small minority that dominates with terror and violence. This minority is our adversary and we must isolate and destroy it.”
This is the way the conquistadors think, and there is no way out for the people of the ethnical minority who don’t even have the opportunity to oppose the forces they have to face. Indeed, this is a terrible fate.
It is also unbelievable how many human lives the colonialism and the resistance cost. Despite the fact that the Latin Americans are rather peaceful nation, even they driven mad can do wild things to get free. The colonialism will always remain a scar on the face of the history – at least, the history of the US and Great Britain.
On the one hand, it is rather easy to accuse the people who act like barbarians making mutinies, but I think the answer to this reproach could be the dialogue between the journalist and an Arabian leader Ben M’Hidi:
“Journalist: M. Ben M’Hidi, don’t you think it’s a bit cowardly to use women’s baskets and handbags to carry explosive devices that kill so many innocent people?
Ben M’Hidi: And doesn’t it seem to you even more cowardly to drop napalm bombs on defenseless villages, so that there are a thousand times more innocent victims? Of course, if we had your airplanes it would be a lot easier for us. Give us your bombers, and you can have our baskets.”
At this point, we cannot judge them. “He that is without sin among you, let Him first cast a stone.”
Yet there are chances that time, the greatest healer, can do a miracle and take care of the people suffering through these rough times. In due time, they will forget it and stay united as they are now, close friends to the neighbors they are bordering with and the greatest contributors to their culture and their traditions. Time will tell.
Works Cited
Gonzalez Juan. Harvest of Empire. New York, NY: Penguin Books. 2001. Print.
Memories of Underdevelopment. Tomás Gutiérrez Alea. 1968. Film Salt of the Earth. Dir. Herbert J. Biberman.
The Battle of Algiers. Dir. Gillo Pontecorvo.1966. Film.