Mexican American Immigrants

Mexican American Immigrants

Mexican American groups came into the United States as an immigrant. They constitute 17% of the U.S population and they are expected to grow since they are the racial group that grows faster than any other ethnic group. The Hispanic identity is defined as complicated and multidimensional since they are well-defined by their country of origin, that is, Dominicans, Cubans and Mexican. Additionally, the Latinos racial group stand out from other Americans. They are also multiracial since some of them can identify themselves as black or white. Most of the Mexican Americans migrated into the United States due to hard economic hardships. Therefore, they were in search of a better life for their families. Notably, this paper aims to explore some of the hardship conditions that the Mexican immigrants experienced on their stay in the United States. Some of these problems include; racial discrimination, public school segregations and lack of equal opportunities.

After doing background research on my family, I found out that my generation, which is Mexican American, has experienced life between places. It started with my grandfather, who was an immigrant in the United States. This is why my generation is Mexican Americans. According to Ortiz and Telles (2012), most of the Mexicans migrated into the United States in search of an economic opportunity. This is because most of them were unauthorized and low-skilled workers. From the background check of my paternal and maternal grandparents, they both were low-skilled. This is the reason as to why they had to migrate into the United States to seek a better life for their families. However, in their stay in the United States, they encountered a lot of unbearable challenges.

The Mexican American experienced educational challenges as compared to the non-Hispanics (Ortiz and Telles 2012). Most of them experience a relative-low education as compared to the White racial group. From the history of my paternal and maternal grandparents, they had a general education development. However, for my case am high school graduate and currently in college. This means that there have been development changes and now Mexicans are allowed to acquire high education level like other racial groups. This educational level gap has been persistent and has continued up to the fourth generation of the Mexican Americans. As Telles and Ortiz (2012) states, most Mexican Americans experienced disadvantageous education, because the whites treated them as a stigmatized group, instead of treating them as a low human capital group.

According to Edward Telles, Mexican have been racially discriminated throughout the history of the United States. Their mixed racial characteristics range from light to dark skin colour and brown eye with mestizo in the middle (Steinhauer 2015). For instance, in my school years, the first time I experienced discrimination, is when I was playing with my friends, where they told me that am dirty. This incident affected me and it is the first time I felt that probably am different from the rest. Moreover, I can state that this is the first time I discovered different racial-ethnic groups. Additionally, gender discrimination has been proved to be an issue among Mexican children in schools. I was also once a victim of this because, at one incident in high school, I was denied a chance to play with some toys that were only restricted to a certain gender. As a result, this is the first time I became aware of my gender. To sum up, the above points prove that Mexicans also go through the challenges of racial and gender discrimination.

Mexican have a history of negative experience in the United States. For instance, the face racial inequality in society, which highly contributes to most of them being low and middle-class individuals. Just like African Americans, Mexicans have always been excluded from economic and social integration (Steinhauer et al., 2015). From the background check of my paternal and maternal grandparents, they were low and middle-class individuals. As a result, this has remained persistent in the next generation because personally, am a middle-class individual. For instance, at one point in middle school level, I felt racially discriminated when my fellow student talked about college. I felt this because I realized that I was not of the same level as my fellow students. Additionally, I felt that probably they had better lives since they could afford a college education. This is because a college education is very expensive and it requires people of a high social class to manage it. To sum up, most of the Mexicans communities have relatively low education and are discriminated in the labour industry, hence, the average lifestyle.

To summarize my cultural practices, my family origin is Hispanic/Latin. My religious belief is catholic, which has been maintained from the first to the fourth generation. The main language that existed in the Mexican first generation was Spanish. They were illiterate and did not know how to speak English. Things changed in the generation of my parents, that is, the introduction of public schools and hence, they could access education and learn the English language. School desegregation and introduction of free public school education have enabled Mexican to access education and become civilized. This has been significant even in the job market since most of them can qualify for white-collar jobs. Altogether, most Mexicans have a Hispanic origin, religious catholic belief and speak in Spanish, especially in the current where they can also speak English.

Am a proud member of the Mexican group because of the huge sacrifice that our first immigrant parents made, which has opened the doors for us. Born in Queens, New York and my parent’s origin from Ecuador, I have reflected with my family, the challenges that we faced as Americans with Hispanic roots. Am proud because I have grown up in a hostile environment, which has shaped me to be strong. However, my parents always wanted me to maintain my Hispanic roots but never to show them to the outside world. They did this for my safety and protect me. As a result, this experience has made me proud Hispanic even though it is being frowned upon other people.

As a Latino, I get to experience both positive and negative experiences (Steinhauer et al., 2015). For instance, one of the advantages is that culture s main strength. Secondly, we believe in scholarships, career options, opportunities and financial support, as big wins. Additionally, Latinos believe that their physical appearance is unique, which makes them beautiful. On the other hand, we experience negative aspects as, people believing that Latinos are in the United States illegally, and are also poor and lazy. Additionally, being racially discriminated has always been our biggest downside because some take it as hatred, prejudice and racism. As a result, such experiences may demoralize individuals. However, above am proud to be Latino because I focus on the positive aspects.

In Conclusion, Mexican migration into the United States was as a result of seeking an economic opportunity. Most of them had low average life and they wanted to provide a better life for their families. However, instead of being treated as a low capital human, most Mexicans were treated as a stigmatized group. Hence, most of them are middle-class individuals due to average education they have and lack of equal opportunities in the job market. Due to the civil right movement that advocated for abolition in racial discrimination and school desegregation, there have been a lot of development changes. For instance, access to education, equal job opportunities and reduced racial discrimination. However, there are still some cases of racial discrimination for Mexicans and African Americans.

References

Edward, T. Mexican Americans and the American Nation: A Response to Professor Huntington. The University of California Regents, Journal of Chicano Studies, 31(2).

Ortiz, V., & Telles, E. (2012). Racial identity and racial treatment of Mexican Americans. Race and social problems, 4(1), 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.