Why does our history matter? Our history matters because we should listen to the voices who are still hurting from tragic past for the truth can be set free. Human behavior is repetitive, by not learning the history that has happened in the past then in my opinion I think we will just do the same things they did. In this essay, there will be three main points on what they went through such as trials, lynching, and LAND.
The first trails in the southwest was not only exotic for Mexicans or Pueblo Indians but to the whole United States. The aftermath of these trails made more trials like the Easter hangings of 1847 and even sixteen more executions. The trails had relevant benchmarks like the legal system between Spanish Mexican that had predated the occupation of America. Another benchmark was how would these trails look elsewhere in the United States in the past.
Like today in the present individuals with felonies get two stages which is the indictment and the judge decides if guilty or not guilty. Despite the number of trails in 1847 treason it was a waking call for the individuals in the winter of 1847. The majority of Mexican juries refused more convictions in the treason even though they were wanting to convict who were apart of the murder of Bent. According to Laura Gomez, “Instead of largely ignoring these events, we should embrace them as part of the complicated, messy history of the southwest”(Gomez).
127 our experts are availableright now
Another devastating event that happened was Lynching. The reason for why lynching happened was for reasons like acting snobby, cheating, practicing religious beliefs and not wanting to leave the land. Anglos mentality was the reason so much lynching happened to Mexicans. Either Mexicans were acting to Mexican and speaking too loudly that it lead to their lynching. Mexican women who were considered lower class was also lynched because they would resist Anglos advances which was sexual offenses.
Mexican youths were also targeted if they showed themselves as too proudly and openly. I question myself why did these young individuals get attack just by showing their true colors and being who they are. The lynching number of African Americans were more higher than Mexican American. African American total number of lynching was around 5,000 and for the Mexican Americans the total was surprisingly smaller. Lynching was crucial that Mexican government and U.S. consul made complaints.
According to Dunbar Ortiz, “Free land was the magnet that attracted European settlers”(Dunbar-Ortiz). The Columbus Myth was a system where individuals seen themselves as part of the colonization. Colonizers basically went into a land to rob and murdered the individuals that were part of the colonization. Settler Colonialism is together with genocide convention. Genocide convention was any of the five acts committed to destroy in a whole or part of a national, ethical, racial, religious group.
It includes killing, causing illness or harm to the group, and interfering with the group’s way of life. Multiculturalism became post civil rights movement of US revisionism. North American people did not fit in as multiculturalism but instead were transforming into an oppressed group. Multicultural was emphasized as contributors of individuals whose country seemed greatness. In the end premises of multiculturalism had unresolved fundamental issues of Indigenous land, treaty, and sovereignty.
In conclusion, the events that happened in the past were terrifying and compulsive. The executions of men in Santa Fe, the lynching that Mexican Americans and African Americans had gone through and genocide/ land theft. Learning about what the individuals before us went through shows us that history does matter and if we do not learn about the past and hear the voices that went through these tragic events then history will repeat itself.
