Anthropology essay final
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Paper2MicrosoftWord.docxLiao 2
Dear Jenny,
In this submission, I am trying to debunk my myth 2 which mainly focuses on the truth that Latinos aren’t the fact that hindered the US’s economics.
For draft submissions 2, 3, and final submission: In my last draft I identified that Latin Americans are heterogenetic people. Given the feedback I received on that draft, I make the clear title line to group my ideas into three large subtle because this is a way to make my paper organized.
For this submission I concentrated most of my efforts on debunking the myth of Latino immigrants are just regarded as coming to the US to take advantage of the US advanced economic system, because they were actually making economic and political development to the US, make transnational culture communication between the US and Latin America, and other reasons to be considered.
What I struggled with most was still the paraphrasing problem. If I was given more time, I would work on perfecting my sentence structure and paraphrase resources into a better sentence rather than merely didn’t count for plagiarism but didn’t deliver a full central idea of what I’m talking.
I think the strongest parts of this submission are the first two pieces of evidence I found which clearly states evidence against the myth.
A question I have for you is “is that ok if my third evidence looks like this way rather than like my first two pieces of evidence which clearly and positively stated the fact against my myth? I want to use it as a transition and give side fact (some Latinos immigrants are refugees) to approve the evidence is wrong.”
Sincerely,
Dishan Liao
It is widely known that the United State is a country which possesses a number of nations and races immigrated from many other countries and regions around the world, and Latino immigrants are one of the most important components. However, a common myth about Latino immigration is that all the immigrants from Latin America are just regarded as coming to the United State to take advantage of the US advanced economic system. In my personal viewpoint, I do not completely agree with this myth and I will discuss and explain it from three aspects with evidences and data from the course materials in the rest of the essay. Finally, a strong conclusion containing not only the main points addressed, but also some deeper thinking on this topic based on my personal experiences will be presented.
By 1998 the United States possessed over 25 million immigrants in total where over 50 percent are from Latin America (Suárez-Orozco, 2000, p. 1), which means Latino immigrants has become the largest part of American immigration since the end of the last century. Admittedly, most of Latino immigrants, especially Mexican immigrants who suffered from famine and poverty entered the United States to seek economic opportunities and better life in the early stage of the 20th century. For example, the US’s great demand for labor in the agricultural, transportation, and construction offered plenty of job opportunities for Mexican immigrants between 1900 and 1929 (Gutierrez, 2004, p. 44). However, I do not think that all of Latino immigrants just came to the United States to take advantage of its wonderful economic environment, because I believe some of them also have made great contributions to the development of the US’s economy, politics, and culture or just entered this country for some other purposes.
Latinos have contributed to economic and political developments of the U.S.
Transnational culture communication between the U.S. and Latin America
It is claimed that Latino immigrants have been establishing new transnationally culture framework between Latin America and the U.S, which are beneficial for both areas. In recent years, the development of new information technologies produces a more massive contacts of people, information, and culture between the United States and countries of Latino immigrants than before (Suárez-Orozco, 2000, p. 10), which means immigrants play an important role in culture communication and trade between two regions. Furthermore, the continuous migratory flow from Latino countries protects social practices, culture identity between two countries. For example, in certain areas of the Southwest of the US, Latino immigration is generating Spanish-speaking mass media producing new market dynamics, and new cultural identities, which is also beneficial to the richness and diversity of American culture (Suárez-Orozco, 2000, p. 10). In this regard, recent study has claimed the concept of “social remittances” that offer a distinct form of social communication between migrants living in the United State and those who remain at home and contribute to hybrid cultures (Lima, 2010, p. 5). On the other hand, forms of expressive culture including arts, film, music, and literature have greatly impacted by Latino immigration in the history of American culture (Gutierrez, 2004, p. 355). Therefore, it is undoubted that immigrants has made great contributions to cultural communication and fusion which is a crucial step in the process of globalization. The evidences above indicated that Latino immigrants not only bring new vitality to American culture, but also promote contacts of people, information, and culture between these two regions.
Other reasons for Latino immigration
Last but not least, some survey reports show that there is a small part of Latino immigrants entering the United State for reasons other than economy, such as wars and political factors. In fact, before the 1860s, Cuban immigrates in the United States who were almost white and professional merchants conducted business and were generally rich citizens (García, 2004, p. 145). However, a larger number of Cuban immigration happened during the final decades of the nineteenth century due to the Ten Years’ War where the major industry and society of Cuban were nearly destroyed (García, 2004, p. 146). As a result, Political turmoil and high unemployment pushed thousands of Cubans of all races and social classes to the United States. In addition, Some Cuban also came as political exiles, because they victimized by the gangsterismo so prevalent in Cuban politics after 1930 (García, 2004, p. 147). Apart from Cuban immigrates, many other Central American immigrates (over two-thirds of them), including those from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, also entered the United States to flee violence, persecution and wars in their own homelands during the 1980s (Chinchilla & Hamilton, 2004, p. 188).
In summary, although I agree that a huge number of Latino immigrants who entered the United State from the beginning of the last century certainly took advantage of US’s good economic resources and environment, and thus benefited a lot from that, I would argue that 1) The large number of Latino immigration also contributed to the promotion of US’s economy with its great labor and exerted a non-negligible influence on US’s political situation. In addition, 2) in recent years, new Latino immigrants have been establishing new transnationally cultural bridge between Latin America and the U.S, which not only promotes the development of U.S’s culture, but also facilitates the massive contacts of people, information, and culture between these two regions. Finally, 3) it is reported that a small part of Latino immigrants entered the United State because of other factors or reasons other than economy. For instance, a huge number of Cuban immigration happened due to the Ten Years’ War (1868–1878), political turmoil and political exiles. As far as I am concerned, it is unwise to observe a thing or phenomenon only from one specific angle, otherwise we may be blinded or fooled. Likewise, the interaction between Latino immigrants and the United States that possesses a mass number of immigrants is complicated, thus it is appropriate to analysis this issue more comprehensively.
References
Aparicio, F. R. (2004). U.S. Latino Expressive Cultures. In D. G. Gutiérrez (Ed.), The Columbia History Of Latinos In The United States Since 1960 (pp. 355-390). New York: Columbia University Press.
Chinchilla, N. S. & Hamilton, N. (2004) Central American Immigrants: Diverse Populations, Changing Communities. In D. G. Gutiérrez (Ed.), The Columbia History Of Latinos In The United States Since 1960 (pp. 187-228). New York: Columbia University Press.
Desipio, L. (2004). The Pressures of Perpetual Promise: Latinos and Politics, 1960–2003. In D. G. Gutiérrez (Ed.), The Columbia History Of Latinos In The United States Since 1960 (pp. 421-466). New York: Columbia University Press.
Gutiérrez, D. G. (2004). Introduction. Demography and the Shifting Boundaries of “Community”: Reflections on “U.S. Latinos” and the Evolution of Latino Studies. In D. G. Gutiérrez (Ed.), The Columbia History Of Latinos In The United States Since 1960 (pp. 1-42). New York: Columbia University Press.
Gutiérrez, D. G. (2004). Globalization, Labor Migration, and the Demographic Revolution: Ethnic Mexicans in the Late Twentieth Century. In D. G. Gutiérrez (Ed.), The Columbia History Of Latinos In The United States Since 1960 (pp. 43-86). New York: Columbia University Press.
García, M. C. (2004). Exiles, Immigrants, and Transnationals: The Cuban Communities of the United States. In D. G. Gutiérrez (Ed.), The Columbia History Of Latinos In The United States Since 1960 (pp. 146-187). New York: Columbia University Press.
Lima, A. (2010). Transnationalism: A New Mode of Immigrant Integration. The Mauricio Gastón Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy. University of Massachusetts Boston.
Suárez-Orozco, M. M. (2000). Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Assimilation But Were Afraid To Ask. In S. R. Graubard (Ed.), The End of Tolerance: Engaging Cultural Differences (pp. 1-30). Boston: The MIT Press.
