Throughout America’s long history and in today’s day in age, you can see the many injustices toward the Mexican American population and other ethnic backgrounds. The United States is best known for housing many immigrants throughout the world since the 1800s. Those of Mexican descents experience ethnic and racial discrimination on a daily basis but those are only some of the injustices they go through. I do believe that Mexican Americans should be compensated for the past injustices that they have had to endure. Many of their generations have suffered enough, and our society is beginning to embrace their accomplishments of overcoming those harsh obstacles. One thing many Mexican-Americans can agree on is that their history of suffering should be acknowledged, especially the injustices their ancestors had gone through to make it to where they are now. It would only make sense to compensate in some way those who have been a victim of those suffered. Many immigrants have been killed, tortured, exploited, even enslaved, and there were no reparations to them or their ancestors. Getting compensation for the struggles that they have had to endure isn’t necessarily going to happen overnight sadly. We as a community need to show that we recognize that they are people too and that we realize that they were taken for granted. They should be recognized for what hard workers they are, and for the good they have done for this great nation.
They were systematically abused, and many of the native Mexicans had lost their territories and lost a majority of their land to the United States. After the Mexican American war, most of the Mexicans living in the United States at the time became U.S. citizens. The Treaty of Guadalupe reassured the Mexican Americans their property rights and safety. But the new territories outside of the U.S. did not have that type of protection. By the end of the 19th century, many Mexican Americans were deprived of their land and were living in a dangerous area that was an unprotected region. The gold rush, caused many Californios to be moved out because of the large amounts of Anglo moving into the area. According to the Horsman and Barrera text, “The shortage of capital often forced the claimants to pay their lawyer entirely in land. The high-legal fees and other cost led many landowners to borrow money at high interest rates so that even if they won their case they frequently had to sell their land to meet their debt” (Horsman and Barrera 20). In today’s society, we are lucky to be living in a region rich in racial and ethnic diversity. We can learn from one another but to do so we must understand each other to a certain extent. One way that Mexican Americans could be compensated would be talking about what struggles they went through and to not erase the history that the Mexican Americans worked so hard to overcome. When looking back on past reading by Peter Stearns he makes a point of how history teaches by example it is a phrase that describes the use of studying the past. You shouldn’t just study only the important or certifiable people, but study the great men and women of history who successfully worked through problems and also of more regular people who teach lessons in bravery, diligence, or constructive protest. Our culture has taught us to be proud of who we are, and those who came before us. By teaching Mexican history to others they will learn what the causes of their struggles were so that we don’t make the same mistake and repeat our past.
We can improve our society if we include other people’s point of views, and learn from their experiences. Maybe there could have been an avoidable conflict between the U.S. and Mexico. Reimbursing Mexican American culture is one way to compensate Mexican Americans today for past injustices. After the Mexican American war, many families have been torn apart and experienced the aftermath of the war. The violence and misbehavior that people experienced were not only Anglos taking away their land or a taking away their way of life but also an effort to take away their language. This war was not only about land but it was also about violence, racism, and slavery. The war brought many tragedies and deaths to Mexico, there were many civilian and military deaths the war also left thousands of orphans and widows. Even my family was affected by the prejudice Mexican Americans had to face in the 1840s. When, my grandparents moved to the U.S. they only taught my mom English, because it was frowned upon to speak any other language than English. Since then times have changed rapidly, speaking another language is nothing to be ashamed of but to be proud of. But for my family and I we don’t speak Spanish we are Mexican American but it’s a struggle to come to terms with my identity.
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Growing up now it’s been harder for many who don’t speak Spanish to live comfortably, many jobs require workers to be bilingual it’s also hard to participate in conversations with others and it’s hard to keep a conversation going. Not being bilingual has made it hard for me to identify as Mexican American I always get lectured at for not knowing how to speak Spanish. That’s why it should be encouraged to learn about where you come from and embrace your culture and be proud of where you come from. Think of all the motivational young Mexican American children will be inspired to become a leader or activist to fight for Mexican Americans past injustices. Mexican Americans have gone through racism, violence, and death and even today they are experiencing prejudice against them because of their ethnicity. History is slowly repeating itself as we can see today more and more people acting out more prejudice in public towards others. It is time for a change of how the world is viewed it should be viewed as a nation united together. Mexican Americans should be compensated for their past injustices by honoring and learning about their culture.
