Magical Urbanism discussion

Ch.7 The Third Boarder

2009-04-14T07:27:00.000-07:00

I decided to choose this audio clip because in the chapter, Davis disscussed how there are many innocent civilized, hardworking hispanics and Latinos who are being racialy profiled against. They are also being searched and property being seized without the correct or even legall permission. I think this is wrong because you can not just look at someone and assume they are evil. This is a big problem which happens often and needs to have somthing done about it.

Ch.4 "Cuantos Mas" Bush Speaks on boarder crossing

2009-04-14T07:15:00.000-07:00

I chose this clip because i thought that president Bush could have came up with a more effective way to figure out theh problem of illegal immigration. Many think he is no type of man for the job but while other Americans disagreed with him, he still went through with his plans that in the book seemed to make things even worse. This chapter discussed much about the money,drug, and illegal alien flow which passes the boarder mostly among tijuana so i thought picking a clip on Bush would best relate to that.

Ch. 6 Tropicalizing cold urban space

2009-04-14T01:16:00.000-07:00

I choose this picture to show how it is common for the Mexican culture to have homes that are full of color. In chapter 6 it mentions how many of the Latinos who lived in America (downtown LA ) painted their homes in very bright colors and many Americans "Gringos" were much opposed to the idea and made it difficult for latinos to express their culture.

Chapter 14 Disabling Spanish

2009-04-13T23:30:00.000-07:00

The Project Dropout blog relates to the struggle of immigrant children punished for speaking Spanish in school and forced to speak English and take all English classes when they are learning the new language. Chapter 14 talks about making English being the only language in the US. Knowing more than two languages is a great skill to have but how is it easier for this children if they are not being help. Spanish is part of any latinos culture and way of expression and depriving our language is taking a part of us away.

Chapt. 8 The Devil's Rancho

2009-04-13T22:49:00.000-07:00

A blog titled Immigrant bashing isn't just rhetoric, it's real talks about the bashing that goes on with Hispanic immigrants. Most people bash Hispanic immigrants because they are timid and are very sure they will not contact the authorities reporting the bashing. And because the bashing is done by rich, Caucasian people, they get let off the hook. However if Hispanic people were bashing a Caucasian person, they'd be taken to court immediately. It's a double standard.

Chapt. 14 Disabling Spanish

2009-04-13T22:42:00.000-07:00

This video titled "Barack Obama: Your Children Should Learn To Speak Spanish" is a video that was taped during our current President, Barack Obama's, campaign trail. In the video, Obama talks about how important it is for not only our immigrants to learn English, but for our citizens to learn Spanish and other languages. Yes we are in America however there are people with different cultures here.

Chapter 8: The Devil's Rancho

2009-04-13T22:21:00.000-07:00

I find this video related to the chapter 8 which Davis provided some examples of how white people discriminate Mexicans. Mexicans were gaining less or even no respect if they were illegal immigrates. They did not have any protections from government. It is a shame on Americans to discriminate minority groups. I think all humans are born with equally and should be treated same way.

American History X part 5/13 --AUDIO IN ENGLISH--

2009-04-13T22:18:00.001-07:00

This part of American History X gives an introduction to how some white people think and feel about the illegal immigrants being here in this country and acting really violent racial attacks. This relates to chapert 8 The Devils Ranch because in the chapter illegal immigrants were working as flower growers in very harsh conditions and paid at minimum wage of $5.50. These immigrants lived in shacks in the McGonigle Canyon in order to send money homes to their wives and childeren back in Mexico. These canyon was only down the hill of the luxury homes of Carmel Valley. Some white teenagers decided to attack these innocent immigrants and Andres Roman Diaz was killed and others were badly beaten. This clip of the movie American History X is a great example to how immigrants and people of different back grounds are discriminated and beaten.

Chapter 14: Disabling Spanish

2009-04-13T21:48:00.000-07:00

I found this website which is talking about results of the Proposition 227 which had been brought up by Ron Unz after 10 years. Davis also mentioned in the chapter 14. The news provided two different results. Some people thought it worked proper and others thought this proposition should be abolished. I think the Proposition 227 was improper because it does not help the immigrates children to learn English, therefore the Latino and other ethnic students were confused even more about Engilsh. As Davis said the Proposition 227 was also a cause which increasing the dropout rate in ethnic groups.

Chapter 7: The Third Border

2009-04-13T21:01:00.000-07:00

The chapter mention that over the last fifteen years, more than a hundred people have been killed, including whole families mowed down while running hand-in-hand. So the California's state transportation agency created the "pedestrian accident zone" in the late 1980s. This picture shocked me when I actually found it. I never believe that such a road sign like this would ever exist. It is really insulting for the immigrates. The signs like this are actually making fun of immigrates which I think is so wrong!

Chapter 7: The Third Border

2009-04-13T20:51:00.000-07:00

I found this news on MSNBC related to the chapter 7 which Davis mention about the illegal border crossing problem that was hundreds of people was killed when they tried to cross the highway. The government had to create "pedestrian accident zone” sign to notice drivers slow down to avoid hitting people who were trying to crossing border to find the land of opportunities in the United States.

Chapt. 7 The Third Border

2009-04-13T20:44:00.000-07:00

Chapter seven talked about the infamous "immigrants crossing" signs which are placed within the route that leads to the Mexican border. These signs were placed because hundreds of people were being killed when they tried to cross the highway. Since the placement of these helpful signs, the numbers in deaths occurring on the highway have dropped. The picture I provided is a picture of the signs. This relates to chapter seven because it gives readers a visual. The image was found through Flickr.

Chapter 13: Education Ground Zero

2009-04-13T20:14:00.000-07:00

I found this chart relates to the chapter 13 which Davis talked about the educational status of Latino and other ethnic group which is the Latino and Hispanic students has the highest dropout rate in the United States. Davis explained the reasons why so many Latinos students drop out high school was because their parents wanted their children to get job as soon as possible and many uncertified and inexperienced teachers were hired in those schools which the Hispanic and Latino students were majority. I think another reason which increased Latino student drop out from high school is the Proposition 227 which designed by Ron Unz. Due to the barrier of language problem, Latino and Hispanic students are hard to understand the textbooks if the textbooks are written in English only.

Chapter 14: Disabling Spanish

2009-04-13T19:53:00.001-07:00

I found this video on Youtube which related to the Chapter 14 that Davis metioned the Proposition 227 which designed by Ron Unz created a barrier for immigrated children to get high academic standard in the school. The video depicted how Proposition 227 was created and how it affected the minority students just as good as the examples which Davis provided. I think it is so wrong that Ron Unz created the idea of “English for the Children” because he only noticed the result of bilingual education which is failure. Ron Unz neglected the causes for this result which schools that offered bilingual education were hiring uncertified teachers to educate students. “The elimination of bilingual education will only increase the number of Latino students at risk, and virtually ensure ‘English for the Children.’ It was about re-institutionalizing discrimination and legalizing the deprivation the knowledge and educational opportunity” (Davis 149).

Chapter 13 Education Ground Zero

2009-04-13T13:45:00.000-07:00

I found this image in an article that talks about the high school drop out rate of Latinos. This relates to chapter 13 because Davis writes about the drop out rate and how its mainly in high school but Latinos are more likely to drop out of college as well. In the picture, the phrase "Leaving Children Behind" is written on it, I believe that Latinos are left behind in school, mainly in being dedicated to graduate and succeed. Davis is right when he says that many schools lack programs for bilinguals and teacher dedication, because it is known that the minorities get a lack of education in public schools.

Chapter 7. The Third Border

2009-04-13T13:00:00.000-07:00

I found this blog that related to chapter 7 because it talks about the famous immigrant crossing road sign. This road sign was made to warn drivers about immigrants running across the intersection. It was intended to prevent deaths amongst the many immigrants who are trying to hide from the checkpoints. This road sign was made after the San Clemente checkpoint was becoming a huge problem that Caltrans created the first "pedestrian accident zone." However, this simple caution road sign caused other meanings to it as well. It is used as immigrant pride and also to make fun of immigrants. For example in the comedy show, by Carlos Mencia, he makes fun of this road sign. The first time I saw it, I thought it was a joke, but then I found out that it is actually a real sign once i saw it with my own eyes.

Chapter 13: Education

2009-04-12T23:37:00.000-07:00

This article explains the different education statistics of Latino's. As Dropout rates increase to 22% in teens 16-19 years old.

chapter 7: The third border

2009-04-12T23:30:00.000-07:00

I found this blog/ website. It is from abc news. It is about how the battle at the borders continue to go on. I thought it would be a good thing to share because it shows what is going on today and it has videos on the border patrol. Abc news covers " battle at the border" at almost every daily news. Jim dolan is the one who announces on the border news.

Chapter 14: Disabling spanish

2009-04-12T23:11:00.001-07:00

This video is important because it shows what it talks about in the chapter. It shows how the government wants to teach english only, and not spanish. They want to do this in order to " bring immigrant children into the mainstream". ( Davis 143) This video is important because it shows how people are fighting back. And the clip shows when they announced prop 227.

Chaper 13 Education Ground Zero

2009-04-12T22:51:00.000-07:00

I found this blog that to relates ch. 13 because it talks about the issue on the drop out rate. The blog explains that after the NO Child Left Behind Act caused more drop outs in high schools.

Chapter 9 Fabricating the Brown Peril

2009-04-12T22:07:00.000-07:00

This blog shined a light in the racism that the prop 187 was passed back in 1994. The chapter 9: Fabricating the " Brown Peril" dealt with the inequalities that Latinos face. They are targeted by the police, other people, and the government. yet this blog gave me some hope that will one day change the blog states that"47 percent of Californians said they think illegal immigration is good for the state while 45 percent think it is bad. According to the article, this is an increase from twenty years ago when only 19 percent viewed it as favorable!" it gives me hope for California because the chapter dealt with the racism Latinos faced from the government and from other people. The chapter highlighted the inequalities that immigrants face in everyday life. So the poll showed that only 47 percent favored immigrant and that's a leap from 19 but there are still many inequalities Latinos must face.

Chapter 1: spicing the city

2009-04-12T22:06:00.000-07:00

This picture connects to the chapter because the chapter talks about how latinos are becoming the biggest population in major cities. In cities like New York, Los Angeles, Houston, and San Diego. A decade ago latinos were the minorities, but soon they will become the majority. In this picture there are a group of latinos. This shows and represents that Latinos are becoming more and more. "And that the White population will become a minority by the year 2050".

Chapter 14: Disabling Spanish

2009-04-12T21:46:00.000-07:00

This video relates to the chapter, Disabling Spanish, because the guy expresses his ideas on the Spanish language. He believes that without the language, the person cannot really consider themselves Latinos, because that is your culture. I agree with him, because it is true. My old Chicano Studies teacher once said that once the language is dead, the culture is dead. If the language is not learned at home and the kids cannot learn it in school, eventually our culture will keep suffering from those who cannot speak Spanish without turning it into Spanglish.

Chap 5 Tropicalizing cold urban space

2009-04-12T21:22:00.000-07:00

Davis writes how there are Latino communities because it was set up that way. Latino home buyers are pushed in a certain direction, especially to communities that home sales are low or are in bad neighborhoods. They paint a nice portrait to convince Latinos to buying a home, but they get stuck with a bad piece of art, they either can't pay, the neighborhood is terrible, or they are unsatisfied.

The following video is announcing a home information fair for Latino home buyers. Pay attention to the house, the size and the attributes, they are very pleasing. Here we see already a direction in which Latinos are convinced they have a great chance to buy a beautiful, but in reality it's just an opportunity to make money out of it.

Chapter 16: Broken Rainbows

2009-04-12T21:06:00.000-07:00

This blog, Natural Allies? Addressing Brown-Black Racism, relates to the sixteenth chapter because it talks about the racial tensions that have come about in places where Latinos are the majority over African-Americans. Also, it talks about the mutual distrust these communities feel and how that has brought more tension. I have been living in south Los Angeles (near Inglewood, Watts, and Huntington Park) for a couple of years and my neighbors are mostly African-American and Mexicans. I have yet to have any problems with anyone, yet my older brother has been mugged twice by a group of young African-American males...

Chap 1 Spicing the City

2009-04-12T20:55:00.000-07:00

The first chapter of the book, opens up the discussion of Latinos becoming a majority in the near future. It points out the major cities with the biggest Latino concentration; being, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, San Antonio, and Houston. From what I understand in the chapter is that there is no stopping the population of Latinos in the U.S. There are many figures that show how the U.S. will soon have a Latino majority. "Latinos will supply two-thirds of the U.S. population growth "(7).

The following report shows that Latino population is on the rise and the different areas it impacts, such as school and politics.

The following picture shows Latinos with Obama posters in spanish, "Si se puede." It depicts the need for Latinos votes in the Presidential election because of the big population.

Chapter 13 Ground Zero

2009-04-12T20:46:00.001-07:00

this video relates to chapter 13 on the number of high school dropouts. In chapter 13 it focuses on the increasing of Latino students dropping out of high school because of the bilingual barrier and the low expectation of the teacher for these students

Chapter 1

2009-04-12T20:03:00.000-07:00

I posted this video because it shows a census that white americans are not going to be the majority anymore. That minorities such as hispanics are going to double if not triple by 2042. I thought this relates to the chapter due to the diversity we live in. Some examples are restaurants almost anywhere, the people that work in the back are not people of the kind of restuarant it is. I went to a Thai, Indian & Chinese restuarant and they all had hispanics working in the back. As we might not see it, minority population is growing.

Buscando America

2009-04-12T19:59:00.000-07:00

This blog is related to chapter 2 because the US can not figure out what is its ethnicity. Why because the United State is very divest and in the article it dicussed that people who are latinos identify themselves as Americans because what kinds of foods they eat. Small percent of people identify as Latino.

Who Will Feed the Dragon?

2009-04-12T19:58:00.000-07:00

I found this blog. It relates to chapter 15 because it takls about Lations potential power in the then upcoming presidential election.

Chapter 12

2009-04-12T19:49:00.000-07:00

This picture obviously states what the problem is, addresses issues of immigrants in America and illegal people. This is a bumper sticker and it caught my attention, so i had to find it and thought id share it.

Disabling Spanish

2009-04-12T19:23:00.001-07:00

I think it is a dump idea if they American government demands us to speak a certain language because dont we have "freedom." This is not a big of an issue the big issue is all the money the government spent nearly $8 billion abusing children. Instead of helping out the school system the government is damaging it.

Cuantos Mas?

2009-04-12T19:23:00.000-07:00

The video shows you a big sign right there "cuantos mas." Its not only chapter 4 that touches on this topic. Chapter 7 talks about San Clemente checkpoint that over 100 people have died in the last 15 years running across the freeway. That's a serious question. Cuantos Mas? I think it has to do with the whole "out of sight, out of mind" until people are educated nothing is ever going to change.

Chapter 7: The Third Border

2009-04-12T18:34:00.000-07:00

When I visit San Diego I take the 15 freeway all the way there and every time i pass through Temecula or sometimes San Clemente it seems that there is no one at the border patrol stations. The times where I have driven through the stations, the officers literally look at a car for two seconds and then have them pass.

Chapter 6: Tropicalizing Cold UrbanSpace

2009-04-12T17:58:00.000-07:00

This chapter made me think of Chicano Park in San Diego beneath the San Diego-Coronado Bridge in what is know as Logan Heights.

Tropicalizing Cold Urban Space

2009-04-12T17:48:00.001-07:00

This photo relates to this chapter because it shows how suburban areas target to the stereotype of the "perfect white American" family. Another type of a "third border" that remind Latinos that they are not welcomed and/or not good enough to buy the house.

Chapter 9: Fabricating the "Brown Peril"

2009-04-12T17:48:00.000-07:00

The concepts in this chapter that stuck out to me the most were about the new "brown peril" in orange county. Growing up near orange county and having many friends from there it was interesting to learn that "the new "brown peril" became the moral equivalent of he obsolete red menace." Here is a cartoon blog titled Beware of the Brown Peril! Its four pages long.

Chapter 5 Tropical Cold Urban Space

2009-04-12T16:08:00.001-07:00

This video relates to chapter 5 when it says about the Latino "micro-entrepreneurship" which is a one-person company that has a scalable business. That means no professional services; a one-person services company as a freelancer. Los Angeles and other cities have an influx of street vendors who sale paletas, tamales, and fruits. The street vendors are harassed by the police and by criminals. Yet they are out there in the street rain or shine trying to make a dollar it is admirable. They are hard working people. They came to the US with dreams of a better life but the inequalities and struggles because of their citizenship make them choose a life of selling goods in the street.

chapter 15 who will feed the dragon

2009-04-12T15:24:00.000-07:00

I found this blog (Obama and the Latino vote) in the LA Times web page posted by Swati Pandey when former candidate Obama was running for presidency. I found this blog to be connected to chapter 15 in a few similar ways, one of them being that the Latino vote is important to candidates running for presidency. In chapter 15 Mike Davis mentions that not all legal Latinos vote when eligible. Within the blog, Swati Pandey mentions how the Latino vote is important to the candidates, for they are a big majority of the U.S. As a Latino myself, i know that i will always take the opportunity to vote and hopefully help improve our nation.

Chapter 8: The Devil's Rancho

2009-04-12T14:56:00.000-07:00

The bloq Is Discrimination Against Latinos Getting More Costly? talks about how someone can be writing a review about something, like sports in this case, and be racist about it.

Chapter 9 "Fabricating The "Brown Peril"

2009-04-12T14:38:00.000-07:00

People & Events: The Zoot Suit Riots of 1943

Citizens of early 1940s Los Angeles lived in an atmosphere of tension that ultimately exploded in the Zoot Suit Riots. But what caused the unrest?

Census information tells part of the story. In the decades leading up to the rioting, Los Angeles experienced an unprecedented population explosion. Along with Midwesterners who flocked to Los Angeles, thousands of Mexican refugees fleeing the Mexican Revolution made their way there. So too did landless white laborers escaping the Dust Bowl of the drought-plagued Southern Plains, and African Americans seeking more opportunity than they'd found in the South.

The coming of war in 1941 further complicated the city's social dynamics. White men went off to fight in a segregated military, and women and people of color filled the jobs in the defense industry previously reserved for white males. Rather than embrace such events as social advances, many whites accepted the changing social realities only as the lesser of two evils -- the greater being German and Japanese militarism. While wartime conditions reconfigured gender and racial boundaries, segregation was emphatically reinforced in other areas. Civilian and military leaders in Los Angeles all too easily saw cultural and racial difference among Japanese Americans as subversion and betrayal, and actively supported the forced relocation of Japanese Americans into camps set up in the rural West.

Many Angelenos saw themselves on the frontline of the battle with Japan and felt vulnerable to a West Coast attack. Civilian patrols were established throughout the city and Los Angeles beaches were fortified with anti-aircraft guns. Southern California also served as a key military location with bases located in and between San Diego and Los Angeles. Consequently, up to 50,000 servicemen could be found in L.A. on any given weekend.

Independent of these social tensions, young people were growing fascinated with jazz. It was a musical, cultural, and even ideological expression that was far removed from the Hit Parade music commonly played on mainstream radio. Jazz music and dance were sensual, expressive, joyous, and raucous. Jazz musicians openly defied segregation by mixing on and off the stage, and jazz enthusiasts also mixed on and off the dance floor.

The zoot suit was one part of the jazz world that visually defied the norms of segregation. Unwritten rules demanded that people of color remain unseen and unheard in public spaces, but the zoot suit, with broad shoulders, narrow waist, and ballooned pants, was loud and bold. Zoot-suited young men (and some young women) held themselves upright and walked with a confident swagger that seemed to flow from the very fashion itself. As the Sleepy Lagoon murder trial of 1942, involving mostly Mexican American young men, proved, this particular demographic, zoot-suited or not, came to be singled out and associated with criminality and gangsterism by Los Angeles authorities. In a time of war, when social boundaries were rapidly changing, questions of allegiance and conformity became invested with particular significance. Many Angelenos objected to the zoot suiters -- including, incidentally, older generations of Mexican Americans, whose communities were traditional, conservative, and self-contained. Critics saw Mexican American youths as cultural rebels and delinquents who openly defied cherished American values and customs.

Tensions between servicemen and civilians were on the rise as thousands of military men on leave poured into Los Angeles, seeing the city as a playground for booze, women, and fights. While many civilians tolerated them because of the war effort, others did not. Particularly in the segregated, ethnic enclaves of Los Angeles, unruly servicemen met stiff opposition from young men and women who refused to defer to the presumed prerogatives of white privilege. While white military men and civilian youth of all colors clashed in the streets, confrontations occurred most frequently between white servicemen and Mexican Americans, because they were the largest minority group in Los Angeles.

Drunken military men on their way back to base after a night of carousing were often "rolled" by civilian minority youth hoping to teach them proper respect. With equal animosity the sailors would often insult Mexican Americans as they traveled through their neighborhood. In the barrios, rumors spread about sailors searching out Mexican American girls. On the military bases, stories circulated about the violent reprisals suffered by sailors who dared to date Mexican American females. Sailors complained bitterly about their wives or girlfriends being subjected to the sexual taunts of young Mexican Americans. The tension continued to escalate until a street fight between sailors and Mexican American boys sparked more than a week of fighting in June of 1943 known as the Zoot Suit Riots.

On the evening of Monday, May 30, 1943 about a dozen sailors and soldiers were walking on a downtown street. After spotting a group of young Mexican American women on the opposite side of the street, the sailors and soldiers changed direction and headed their way. Between the military men and the young women stood a group of young men in zoot suits. As the two groups passed each other, Sailor Joe Dacy Coleman, fearing he was about to be attacked, grabbed the arm of one of the zoot-suited young men. Coleman's move proved to be a big mistake. Coleman was almost immediately struck on the head from behind and fell to the ground, unconscious. Other young civilians pounced on the sailors with rocks, bottles and fists. After the ferocious attack, the sailors managed to escape and carry Coleman to the safety of the Naval Armory. "The fracas lasted little more than a few minutes, but the shock reverberated for days," wrote historian Eduardo Pagán, "The details of the fight grew larger and more distorted in each re-telling of the story." It wasn't long before sailors organized a retaliatory strike against zoot-suiters.

About fifty sailors left the Armory on the night of Thursday, June 3, armed with makeshift weapons. The attack on Seaman Coleman was still fresh in their minds and rumors of new attacks were swirling through the base. Their first stop was the nearby neighborhood of Alpine Street -- scene of many previous confrontations. Unable to find any zoot-suiters at Alpine, they proceeded toward downtown and stopped at the Carmen Theater. After turning on the house lights, the sailors roamed the aisles looking for zoot-suiters. The first victims of the zoot suit riots -- 12 and 13-year-old boys -- were guilty of little more than being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Ignoring the protests of the patrons, the sailors tore the suits off their bodies and beat and clubbed the boys. The remains of their suits were then set ablaze.

As the mob of sailors moved on, reports began to reach the Armory's watch commander. Executive Officer Lieutenant Charles Bacon was sent to investigate. After failing to find any evidence of wrongdoing at numerous spots, Bacon came upon the Shore Patrol marching a group of sixty men to the Central Police Station, where they were to be placed in jail. Bacon assumed control of the situation and saw to it that no charges were recorded by the Shore Patrol.

As the second night of rioting began, Mexican American young men drove back and forth in front of the Armory, hurling epithets at the guards. Later that night sailors once again headed out in search of trouble. When the sailors could not find enough zoot-suiters, they decided to take the fight into the Mexican American neighborhoods of East Los Angeles and Boyle Heights. It was a new twist on the violence: instead of focusing their attacks in areas where sailors and civilian youth had clashed, the sailors moved into the Mexican American neighborhoods. Thus their retaliatory strike became an assault on the Mexican American community itself. The sailors cruised the barrio, storming into bars, cafes and theaters.

Los Angeles police were unwilling to step in and protect civilians. One policeman was quoted after the riots as saying: "You can say that the cops had a 'hands-off' policy during the riots. Well, we represented public opinion. Many of us were in the First World War, and we're not going to pick on kids in the service."

The violence continued during subsequent nights, enveloping even those who had no connection to jazz or the zoot suit. When a group of Mexican musicians exited the Aztec Recording Company after a recording session, they too were attacked. The musicians were all adults, and none of them wore a zoot suit. Military commander Clarence Flogg reported that there were "hundreds of servicemen prowling downtown Los Angeles mostly on foot -- disorderly -- apparently on the prowl for Mexicans." The Navy reported that "Groups vary in size from 10 - 150 men and scatter immediately when Shore Patrol approaches. Men found carrying hammock cues [clubs], belts, knives and tire irons..."

Although groups of armed servicemen roamed the streets attacking civilians, the military seemed more concerned with regaining control over their men than with the violence they were committing. Leery of the negative press that would result from mass arrests, Admiral Bagley, the commanding officer, appealed to his sailors' "common sense."

Mexican American kids organized and fought back. Rudy Leyvas and his friends set traps for the sailors and civilians who were pursuing them, using decoys to lure their attackers in to a trap. "And they let out a cry: There they are! There they are! And they came in. As they came in, once they got all the way in, we all came out Š I, myself, had a bat. And I used it."

The worst violence occurred on Monday, June 7. One Los Angeles paper printed a guide on how to "de-zoot" a zoot suiter: "Grab a zooter. Take off his pants and frock coat and tear them up or burn them." That night a crowd of 5,000 civilians gathered downtown. By this time the mob was no longer made up of only sailors from the Armory. Soldiers, Marines, and sailors from other installations as far away as Las Vegas eagerly joined in the assaults. Part of the mob headed south for the predominately African American section of Watts and another group headed east for Mexican American East Los Angeles.

Al Waxman, editor of the Eastside Journal, a small Jewish newspaper, witnessed the chaos. He describes a "mass of humanity locked in violent struggle, arms swinging, legs kicking, shrieking with anger." The police were arresting dozens of young Mexican Americans. "Why am I being arrested?" one of them asked. The response was a savage clubbing with a nightstick. Although the boy fell to the sidewalk unconscious, he was kicked in the face by police.

By Tuesday morning the rioting was finally under a measure of control. Senior military officials declared Los Angeles off limits to all sailors, soldiers and Marines. The Shore Patrol gave orders to arrest disorderly personnel. The following day the city council adopted a resolution that banned the wearing of zoot suits on Los Angeles streets, punishable by a thirty-day jail term.

As the riots subsided, the governor ordered the creation of a citizens' committee. Its charge was to investigate and determine the cause of the riots. In 1943 the committee issued its report; it determined racism to be a central cause of the riots. At the same time, Mayor Fletcher Bowron came to his own conclusion. The riots, he said, were caused by juvenile delinquents and by white Southerners. Racial prejudice was not a factor.

This article that I found in a website entitled "American Experience-Zoot Suiters" it talks about the riots that occurred in 1943. In the chapter Davis was also discussing about the riots in Los Angeles in 1943. Situations like this occure all the time with a Latino environment. United States is once again a unfair contry. Davis brought up a similar case, but this accured in 1995, a white surpremisist got away from mudering one 16 years old boy and wounding the other. Cases like this need to be regulated and fair.

Chapter 4: Cuatos Mas?

2009-04-12T14:36:00.000-07:00

This video talks bout the drug wars that are going on. This chapter really reminds me of it and how iniccent people are being victims.

Chapter 7: The Third Border

2009-04-12T14:23:00.000-07:00

This was brought about in the chapter and after i read it, it never left my mind. I choose to put this picture for this chapter because this is like a third border for the latinos that are trying to get across.

Chapter 10: Transnational Suburbs

2009-04-12T13:54:00.000-07:00

The Chapter deals with mass Migration. Which is where one group of people leave there hometown to move to the United States they tend to stay together. Immigrants tend to build employment niches in particular communities or workplaces to which they recruit paisanos from their home clan, village or region. The niches and networks overtime become a "social capital" for sending money to their old communities. Zacatecas has become the Mexican state most completely dependent upon the export of its labor. More than half of the Zacatecas population is north of the border over 2 million mostly in Los Angeles. Zacatecas is dependent of the people that live in the US to come back and spend the money they have made. They use a beauty contest, the annual competition for the crown of Senorita Zacatecas. In Los Angeles the fiestas of the 49 hometown clubs that compromise the Federacion de clubes Zacatecanos come together to crown the beauty queen. It brings people residing in Mexico and the US together. The dependency of American dollars is obvious but the way the Mexican state brings its people together is astonishing.

Chapter 13-Education Ground Zero

2009-04-12T11:14:00.000-07:00

The link below shows an article on California's dropout rates among Latino and black students and how the increasing number is being expected. Chapter 13 is about the high number of dropouts among Latino high schools students and how the numbers keep on increasing. Many Latinos lack a high school diploma even though they know that all good jobs demand at least 14 years of school. In the article it is mentioned that the students' "laziness" contributes to the dropout rates. In chapter 13, however, it is stated that the high number of dropouts is caused by the "lack of bilingual and English as a Secondary Language programs, the concentration of Hispanics in high-poverty schools, lack of teacher preparation, and low expectations for Hispanic students among teachers, administrators and society as a whole"(133).

http://www.latinalista.net/palabrafinal/2008/07/californias_high_dropout_rates_of_latino.html

Chapter #8 :THE DEVIL'S RANCHO

2009-04-12T00:18:00.000-07:00

The link showed an article related to the race against Mexican. Some white kids beat a 25-year-old Mexican to dies.

The article related to chapter 8 that the race against Mexican immigrants is country around. Just because they are Mexican immigrants, they got beat up for no reason. We are all human beings that born equally and should not be spilt to difference. Law enforcement should protect Mexican immigrants even they are illegal. Davis also mentioned in his article that some illegal Mexican workers attacked by white teenagers for no reason. It is sort of discrimination against Mexican immigrants.

Chapter 12: Disabling Spanish

2009-04-12T00:12:00.000-07:00

I chose this picture for Chapter 12 because I feel its speaking to the Hispanic audience for "overpopulating the US" and for illegal immigration. By saying America is full, the shirt expresses that those who are here illegally should not be here.

Chapter 16: Broken Rainbows

2009-04-11T23:59:00.000-07:00

This video shows racism between African Americans and Mexicans. This is a race riot that took place in my hometown Inglewood, CA in 1990 on Cinco De Mayo. Black students walked out of the Cinco De Mayo assembly due to the Mexicans ditching their Black History assembly in February that year.

Race riots continued in Inglewood until about 2006. I have witnessed many in my years. The racism between Blacks and Latinos had grown into a major problem and is continuing to be very troublesome.

Chapter 8: The Devil's Rancho

2009-04-11T23:53:00.000-07:00

The link below is a Yahoo Answers question posted by a Persian American simply asking why rich white people discriminate against Mexicans. I felt this relates to the chapter simply because she had to ask why people are racist against them. There is no definite reason. Chapter 8 spoke of how Mexicans were maimed and killed simply for being Mexican. It's unfair. There are a few replies agreeing with the girl that there's really no reason for the racism because they are just people like everyone else.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080109144426AAMJPoo

Chapter 7- The Third Border

2009-04-11T23:40:00.002-07:00

This video reminded me of Chapter 7 because it is mentioned that Arcadia had been one of the towns that had not allowed Mexican workers to live near the city. This chapter also mentions how Arcadia restricted Wilderness Park to Spanish-speaking people in the early 1990s. The mayor had stated: "The park has been overrun by these people" (74). This video concentrates on a park in Springfield which became part of the hostile immigration debate.

Chapter 7 Fabricating The "Brown Peril"

2009-04-11T23:40:00.001-07:00

This video is from 1994. Pete Wilson was the governor of California and he was a supporter of Proposition 187 which would have eliminated all services for illegal immigrants. There was an incident that occurred before this proposition that some how legitimized the proposition in the eyes of its supporters. There was an altercation between a group of mexican teens and a group of white teens. In the end one of the white kids was killed and his image was used to convince Californians that Latinos were criminals.

Chapter 1: Spicing the City

2009-04-11T22:40:00.000-07:00

I believe its chapter one that states that one of the examples of Latino growth is the city of Las Vegas. I went to Vegas this spring break and after reading the chapter I wanted to see how true Davis' facts are. It turns out that the majority of the employees of the places I went were latinos. This is a shot of The Strip but outside Las Vegas Blvd there is an other world that we cant see by night. There are new communities being built with spanish names. There are now swap meets in downtown Las Vegas on Bonanza and immigration offices.

Chapter 7: The Third Border

2009-04-11T21:49:00.001-07:00

In this chapter David talk about INS checkpoints in California and how they are the hated by Latinos. He comments that INS checkpoints are "blatant instances of racial profiling as federal policy". He is saying that the checkpoints are a way for the government to show racism but without the government looking bad. The video above is part one of a video blog on a immigrant checkpoint. Where border patrol can be seen racial profiling not necessarily on the director but on the people around him.

Chapter 14: Disabling Spanish

2009-04-11T19:41:00.000-07:00

This Blog best describes the chapter because it explains how people are trying to "kill" spanish in schools. It explains one of the laws that they passed to do this which is Prop. 227. Prop 227 is a law that requires immigrant students to transfer into structured English immersion for a maximum of a year then transfer into regular English-only classrooms.

Chapter 16: Broken Rainbows

2009-04-11T19:00:00.000-07:00

This chapter is about how the tension between blacks and Latinos have escalated overtime. This video shows how the tension is today. It has gotten to the point that they don't care who they kill as long as it is a black or Latino.

Chapter 1: Spicing the City

2009-04-11T17:17:00.000-07:00

I found a blog that reminded me of Chapter 1 Spicing the City because it talks about how McCain blames immigrants for his loss. It reminded me of this chapter because Latinos are becoming the majority in the United States. The blog talks about how Mc Cain blames Democrats and Obama for his defeat. I think he blames immigrants because Obama comes from an immigrant backgroud and because most immigrant latinos become Democrats when they become citizens. I got this blog from http://mediamatters.org/items/200811020002.

Chapter 2: Buscando America

2009-04-11T16:13:00.000-07:00

This picture reminded me of Chapter 2 Buscando America because it shows the Virgin of Guadalupe. The chapter says, "And few cross-cultural trends are as impressive as the recent flocking of ohter Latin American Catholics and even Anglo New-Agers to the cult of Mexico's Virgin of Guadalupe... as she has made her way al otro lado." Mike Davis is saying that since there are a lot of Mexicans in the United States our culture is becoming part of the United States. People in the United States are begining to live by Mexican cultures, or cultures are being mixed with American cultures and American cultures are being mixed with Mexican cultures. i found this picture at http://www.justpeace.org/guadalupe.htg/flores.jpg.

Chapter 4: Cuantos Mas

2009-04-11T16:06:00.001-07:00

This video is called " 07.19.07 - Mexican Drug War Spills Over Into US." I think this video relates to Chapter 4 Cuantos Mas because this chapter talks about the drug war. "With help from the pentagon, surveillance of key border sectors has been automated with seismic sensors that pick up the tiny 'earthquakes' of immigrants' footsteps," stated Mike Davis. When I read this I was shocked because it is really amazing how they could now track illegal aliens. It was unbelievable to me that they could track drug smugglers. This video reminded me of the drug smugglers coming to the United States from the Mexican border. This video is from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIscirFz49k.

Chapter 17: Uprising of the Million

2009-04-11T15:14:00.000-07:00

I feel this blog shows much of what chapter 17 talks about. How Latinos are going through labor strikes, they happen to use an example of "justice for janitors." In this blog it actually happens to be about janitors going on strike and showing images as well. This chapter surprised me a lot because if janitors have to be going on strike because their jobs are being taken away, what about those part-time jobs that many of us students have?

Chapter 9- Fabricating the "Brown Peril"

2009-04-11T14:00:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of the 1994 protest of Proposition 187. Proposition 187 recommended that the children of illegal immigrants be expelled from schools. The proposition would also deny prenatal care for mothers. This protest was also mentioned in Chapter 1- "Spicing the City". 75,000 Latino students marched out of their high schools to protest in California. This protest was the largest protest led by students in California's history, but had been ignored by the majority of the media.

I found the picture on:

http://www.journalofamericanhistory.org/projects/mexico/prop187.html

Chapter 3 Siamese Twins

2009-04-11T13:47:00.001-07:00

I found this video on youtube and it relates to chapter 3 because it is talking about maquiladoras. This video shows maquilas in Nogales Mexico and it contains interviews about workers and people who know about them. It explains how maquilas were suppose to be a good thing because it provided jobs; however, as time past by the people began seeing that they were not so good, they were paid low wages and they had very little to no benefits. These maquilas do not help Mexico's economy because it pays low wages and it definitely does not help the environment. The maquilas industrialization has caused many raw sewage by the border. Mike Davis wrote examples such as how the Tijuana River daily discharges 12 million gallons of raw sewage on the San Diego side of the border.

Ch.7: The Third Border

2009-04-11T12:52:00.000-07:00

i found this website that speaks about the Mexican Border Crossing Records and i think it relates well to this chapter, you can see it here

CH.11: Falling Down

2009-04-11T12:31:00.001-07:00

This relates to Ch.11 because it shows one of the low paying jobs that immigrants have came to be known by. Through out the years latinos have declined in societey greatly because they are hired for the lowest paying jobs which decreases them in the social class as well.

Chapter 2 Buscando America

2009-04-11T12:20:00.000-07:00

This picture relates to chapter 2 Buscando America because it gives the idea and concept of the chapter of the huge debate going on today of the terms Hispanic and Latino to identify people with indigenous roots. The census is still struggling to create a category that can successfully capture all the Latin cultural roots. The huge debate is about which term does capture the heritage and culture roots and how these terms are also very offensive to use to identify all people with indigenous backgrounds. The terms Hispanic defines people from Spain who speak Spanish and Latino means Latin in Spanish. I considered my self Chicana because I was born here but have parents who where born in Mexico and still practice the culture and heritage from Mexico that my parents have shown us. I also practice the culture form here where I was born so I have both cultures in me that I'm very proud to have. When the census comes and asks me what race I'm i will say Chicana

Chapter 12 The Puerto Rican Tragedy

2009-04-11T10:48:00.000-07:00

I found this video in http://www.youtube.com/. This video is about the poverty in America. This video relates to the chapter. Davis in the chapter talks about the poverty and unemployment that the Puerto Rican went through. He gives statistics of the poverty differnce between whites, African Americas, and Puerto Ricans.

Chapter 14: Disabling Spanish

2009-04-10T20:08:00.000-07:00

I recently read this blog that provides some interesting incites on how the Spanish language and bilingualism should be recognized in most schools of the United States. The blog writer also follows Mike Davis's suggestion in this chapter to promote a bilingual education. A Latino student should not considered handicapped simply because he or she has Spanish as their first language. I do agree with the writer that the introduction of the program ESL, or English as a second language, does tend to slightly hinder their comprehension of their native language in favor of teaching English, but at the same time also teaches them a new language that can help cope with living in the United States. Rather than focus on teaching students one language, why not broaden their education by teaching every student from kindergarten to high school a bilingual education. I agree with the blog writer when she says that it is easier to learn a second language at a young age than it is at an older age because our minds are more adept and we are more proficient to learning a new things when we are young. For that reason alone, it is best to expand on bilingualism in the U.S. as an alternative to teaching a different language rather than take away a child's native language.

chapter 8 The devil's rancho

2009-04-10T19:56:00.001-07:00

This video explores the heartbreaking story of a Mexican man who was killed for being Mexican. Like this story, chapter 8 explores similar stories that resulted in death. Mexicans are being lied to and killed for their race. Some of the stories explored in chapter 8 have terrible reasons for their killings, one killer said that it would be "cool to shoot beaners". Towards the end of this video, a woman states that this killer will most likely receive a slap in the hand instead of receiving years in prison. Ironically, if a Mexican man was caught for killing a white man, the punishment would be much bigger than a white man killing a Mexican. Even more heartbreaking, illegal immigrants who are brutally beaten choose not to go to the police because they risk the chance of being deported.

Chapter 1: Spicing the City

2009-04-10T19:26:00.000-07:00

This video is a report from CNN on how the Latino population is growing in cities all over the United States. In other words, the largest minority in this country is Latino. The video relates to Chapter 1 of the book because the chapter talks about "Latinization" of the United States as well. Many scholars predict that Latino population will pass the White population in several years.

Chapter 14: Disabling Spanish

2009-04-10T19:25:00.001-07:00

I found this article from a blog in a page called projectdropout.org. The article talks about how the drop-out rate of most schools in Boston is increasing thanks to the English-only education offered. The article relates to Chapter 14 in the book because they both talk about the inefficiency of English-only education in the United States. After reading the article, I decided to read the comments. I was surprised of how many people actually think that English-only education is the best. What they do not see is that a bilingual education would bring many advantaged to the children of the United States.

Chapter 2: Buscando America

2009-04-10T19:18:00.001-07:00

This video from youtube.com shows an immigrant stating his opinion and disdain towards the terms "Hispanic" and "Latino". He finds it discriminating and unfair to only celebrate the European heritage and denying the main roots of Latin American culture. For a certain part of the Spanish-speaking community, the term "Latino" is a form of ethnic pride while to some, the term "Hispanic" is a label that that most Latin Americans find borderline offensive. It is for this reason that he states that there is a form of division and confusion caused by these two terms. It is understandable that most Latin Americans would want to be recognized by their own cultural identity rather than be generalized as something that they are not. He makes a valid point that it is hypocritical of the U.S. government to refer to most undocumented workers as immigrants because in reality, most people of Latin America have been living in this continent long before the U.S. was established. I feel that this video relates to the chapter because it is refreshing to hear someone offer a perspective to the ongoing debate between two terms that should never been created because of political correctness. These terms not only causes racial segregation and tension in the Latin population, it also robs someone's own cultural identity.

Chapter 1: Spicing the City

2009-04-10T12:59:00.000-07:00

This particular image is the latest advertisement campaign in Mexico from Swedish vodka maker Absolut which depicts of what the United States might look in a more "Absolute", or perfect, world. According to surveys done by the U.S. census, the population of the Latino community has been steadily increasing since the mid 90's and is predicted to be on track in becoming the "majority-minority" society in several of the U.S.'s biggest cities. In some U.S. cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, San Diego, Phoenix, and San Antonio, Latinos currently outnumbered Blacks; and surprisingly in Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio, non-Hispanic whites as well. The cause could be linked to the increase in the fertility rate of the Latino community and the migration of undocumented workers living in the U.S. for more work opportunities.

I find this image to be relevant to the chapter because while it might not seriously suggesting that Mexico is going literally take over territory from the U.S., it is not far away from the truth in believing that by 2020, the Latino population is going to nearly double and will become the largest minority of the United States. Most Americans will probably feel insulted and angry after seeing this ad even if the main purpose of the ad was to harmlessly show the national pride in Mexicans and not a national conspiracy. Besides we should not feel threatened of illegal immigrants coming to this country looking for work because, after all isn't this country what most history textbooks have been teaching us all these years in school, the land of opportunity.

chapter 14 Disabling Spanish

2009-04-10T12:27:00.000-07:00

This picture connects to chapter 14 because it demonstrates that Mexicans have to fight to save their bilingual programs. Americans are threaten by Mexicans and don't want them to learn proper English in which they have created propositions like prop. 187 and prop. 227 to slowly diminish bilingual programs . Latino students need to learn English and sadly bilingual education has recently become the target of cynical national crusade. Latino students are in danger of losing their bilingual programs. It saddens me to see that Latinos have to protest in order to keep their only way of learning English safe. Bilingual programs are created to help Latinos and other alien tongues to successfully help them better understand English and take them as far in school as possible. How else are Latinos suppose to comprehend English if their bilingual programs taken away?

chapter #4 CUANTOS MAS?

2009-04-10T01:51:00.000-07:00

The video "attacks on US Border Patrol Agents in San Diego, CA"video I found on www.youtube.com
relates to the chapter #4 saying that more and more illegal immigrants from Mexico are trying to cross the border. Although it is such a dangerous thing to do. The video showed the conflict between U.S. border patrol and immigrants. The death of illegal immigrants caused by crossing border illegally happens often.
In Davis' chapter, he mentioned that"By official estimate, 1450 have died since 1996,including a group of 10 who perished of thirst in the desert east of San Diego in August 1998." Due to more and more border patrol were set up on borders, it is getting harder to cross the border. It will be a continuos issue between Mexico and U.S. border. Because illegal immigrants want to achieve better life in America.

Chapter 3: Siamese Twins

2009-04-10T01:29:00.000-07:00

I found this video on www.youtube.com it is about a student doing a report on maquiladoras. It shows the injustices that the men and women go through. I feel this relates to the chapter because it explains how the maquila economy has major declines and because of many of manufacturing from other countries. For example, Davis states that "In Tijuana where Samsung, Sony, Sanyo dominate the maquila economy..." (pg.32) The Asian countries that own these electronic "maquilas" have made these workers go into a deeper situation, for example Davis says, "...simply took advantage of Mexico’s lower labor costs. As a result, these initial investments did not provide firms in Mexico’s interior with the opportunity for establishing joint ventures or purchasing arrangements.”(pg.29) I feel all this affects the men and women that are involved within this job. The video just shows that and more injustice that they receive.

Chapter 4: Cuantos Mas?

2009-04-10T00:32:00.000-07:00

I found this picture on yahoo which linked me to a Flickr account. The image shows a hand throwing people into this machine, "Maquilas" and how there have been careless murders which end up looking in the way that picture is describing. "Maquilas" is supposed to represent what the women work in. These woman are called "maquiladoras" I feel this image relates to Chapter 4: "Cuanto Mas?." In this chapter Davis spoke about the deaths of immigrants that try to find a way around the Border Patrol concentrations. He states that "1,450 have died since 1996."(pg.41) Not only that but there is inequality for that reason that the patrol may simply pull you over and get your papers checked because "you look mexican and driving with a Chula Vista license plate."(pg.41) Davis also states that "By 1997 as many as 600 murders annually were being attributed by human rights activists to narcotraficantes or their bad cop henchmen."(pg.45) In the image it shows bones in the plate full of blood, i think it related a lot with a case that Davis wrote about. It was an assignment that three men did, sadly their assignment were very dangerous and they were murdered. Davis says, "...veteran investigators had in fact never seen bodies so viciously tortured: skin flayed with pliers, limbs systematically broken, faces battered to a pulp, and skulls crushed. Patino's corpse in particular, "was like a big a bag of ice cubes, every bone broken." (pg.46) Sadly these unsolved murders seem to be a part of a everyday thing, which is something that surprised me. I did not know that any of this stuff was going ans especially did not have a clue of all the deaths that have occurred for so long. I think everyone should be given a chance to want to change their lives and immigrants trying to get ahead are not any different.

Chapter 12: Disabling Spanish

2009-04-10T00:24:00.000-07:00

I found this picture through google. This picture is of a t-shirt with the words "no speaka da spanish" and I felt like this picture connects with chapter 12. In chapter 12, Davis spoke about the idea that some schools wanted to focus on an english-based curriculum rather than a bilingual curriculum. Proposition 227 proposed that schools would only teach in english, and not offer other languages as a class. This proposition rejects the latino culture in our schools and our environment. With that said, I believe this picture connects to chapter 12.

Chapter 9: Falling Down

2009-04-09T23:51:00.000-07:00

I found this blog and it connects with chapter 9 because it defines sweatshops. This blog was written by Holly Sendy, a college student. In this blog, Sendy mentions a reason why immigrant workers continue to work in sweatshops. Sendy states that "in the US, employers threaten that they will call the immigration authorities to report undocumented workers." The workers feel threatened and that is why they continue working there to support their families. I think this blog really defines the working conditions that the people mentioned in chapter 9 had to endure.

Chapter 7 - The Third Border

2009-04-09T23:46:00.000-07:00

This chapter is about the struggle of immigrants coming in to the united states and the three borders the immigrants have to cross. This picture i a sign for the drivers in southern California to know that people cross the freeways and this connects to the chapter cause in the chapter it talks about immigrants dying crossing the freeways

Chapter 7: Fabricating the "Brown Peril"

2009-04-09T23:23:00.000-07:00

This video relates to chapter 7 because it is based on the proposition 187. Davis introduced chapter 7 defining proposition 187. If Proposition 187 passed, then children of undocumented parents would be expelled from school and their mothers would be denied prenatal care. I thought this video connected with this chapter.

Chapter 1 Spicing the City

2009-04-09T23:15:00.000-07:00

This picture is related to chapter 1 Spicing the City from Magical Urbanism because it shows Latinos not being the minority anymore. Latinos in the United States are going to be the majority by 2025. That Latinos in the US surpass anglos and are making the anglos the minority for the first time in history.

Chapter 11: Falling Down

2009-04-09T19:42:00.000-07:00

This chapter is about how Latinos have declined in society because they are pulled into lowest-paid and easily exploited jobs.This picture connects to the chapter because it shows the work Latinos are being pulled into.

Chapter 14: Disabling Spanish

2009-04-09T13:55:00.000-07:00

Hispanic American Village @ Blogspot is The blog companion to the Hispanic American Village, the free community and careers site for Latinos/Latinos, part of the IMDiversity.com Multicultural Villages network. one of the bloggers posted an article on February 15, 2009 about the immortance of being bilingual. Click here and read the article that accompanies this blog. This blog and article deals with the importance of being bilingual. Similar is Chapter 14: Disabling Spanish by Mike Davis, which mentions how Latino children are becoming less interested in learning spanish.

Chapter 1: Spicing the City

2009-04-09T13:45:00.000-07:00

In Chapter 1: Spicing the City, Mike Davis talks about how Latinos are becoming a large population in the United States. Latinos are largely based in California, Texas, New York, Florida, and Illinois. The reason I chose this picture was because many people suggest that Latinos are infact not Americans. If we look back in time, this land belonged to the Mexicans and the Indians long before the white settlers of the new colonies stole the land from them. Now with all the people immigrating to the United States, Americans are trying to keep them out. If this land is a free nation, than why don't we let people stay here?

Cholo

2009-04-09T13:42:00.000-07:00

Chapter 8 "The Devil's Rancho"

2009-04-09T12:51:00.000-07:00

This picture connects with the chapter. Its shows a poster of racism towards the undocumented immigrants. Chapter 8 talks about the abuses that Mexicans go through all because of racism. In the chapter there are many examples of the abuses of the innocent people most who where labor workers.

Chapter 13 Education Ground Zero

2009-04-09T12:25:00.000-07:00

In this chapter Davis talks about the education in Los Angeles Unified District. I found this post and it connects to the chapter because it talks about the quality of the teachers. In the chapter Davis talks about the unfairness of the quality of the teachers in the schools. How the good quality of teachers are sent to the good suburbs .

Chapter 8: The Devil's Rancho

2009-04-09T11:46:00.000-07:00

This video shows a white photographer making racial comments to a Latina fan of Paris Hilton. Being that the latina is a celebrity blogger know as La Coacha from www.chisemetime.com and is know to act the way she does in public (maybe even provoking the photographer to attack her because of her race) does not give the photographer the right to do so. In Chapter 8: The Devil's Rancho, Mike Davis talks about the degrading and racial standards Americans live by this era. As you can see the woman is telling the Latina to go back home, assuming that she is an immigrant due to her accent. With these types of stereotyping people, how can we teach the younger generation to respect others if we don’t?

Chap.2: "Buscando America"

2009-04-08T22:58:00.001-07:00

Mike Davis explains in this chapter the importance of the roots Latinos must have (here in the U.S.). There is a controversy on using "Hispanic" or "Latino." Davis presents the idea that the term "Hispanic" was created by the Spanish and therefore white people have pointed out Latinos as Hispanics, nevertheless "Latino" is the appropriate term to use. Since Latinos are a big group of mixtures of nationalities, there are also diverse races in different cities (21). One important topic that comes up is relating to the youth, or the Latinos that grow up here. Cultures are very mixed here in the U.S., such as Salvadorans and Mexicans, Dominicans and Jews, etc. Some lose their identity with the American Anglo identity, while on the other hand American society picks up roots of Latino identity.

Here in the picture presented, you are able to see how a popular American TV network has created a channel with a Latino influence, MTV TR3S. Obviously the demand for spanglish programs are high, since the channel is still running and becoming more and more popular. The market is high to pleasure Latinos and this is a great example of a white CEO's of MTV (in another aspect, society) becoming influenced by Latino culture.

http://www.fresnobee.com/columnists/rick-bentley/story/1240113.html

Chap.2 "Buscando America"

2009-04-08T22:58:00.000-07:00

Chapter #1 SPICING THE CITY

2009-04-08T22:19:00.000-07:00

In this chapter, Mike Davis mentioned about Latino population has went over the majority white population in some big cities like Los Angeles and New York City.

At page 3, Davis explained "In Chicago Latinos are now 27 percent of the population and hold the balance of power in most city elections". Which means Latinos have enough power to maintain their status balanced in the society. Davis give a sign that Latino will finally become one of the majorities in America.

I found a picture that came from a article called "Whites will be A Minority in America By the 2050!!!"

Chapter 8 "The Devil's Rancho"

2009-04-08T17:36:00.000-07:00

This video connects to the chapter because it shows the discrimination many white supremacist show to the Latino community. Many white supremacist get away on the violence they develop with Latinos. The inequality that America has establish is clearly not fair. These white supremacist ancestors come from a foreign country as well, so we need to be treated with some respect. In the chapter Davis talks about the crimes that white supremacist commit and they do not even go to jail. The white supremacist were asked questions, for instance, why do you do such a crime in killing immigrants?? The answer that they give will be "it will make me feel better" They do not even have a heart.

Chapter 11: Education Ground Zero

2009-04-08T16:39:00.000-07:00

This is a blog I've found:

"A high-profile and lauded dropout-prevention program is falling victim to budget cuts — although top Los Angeles school officials insist that they’ll provide a more effective program in its place.

The precarious Diploma Project is emblematic of the financial crisis slowly working its way across the nation’s second-largest school system as ripples of a statewide budget shortfall touch counselors, teachers and other school employees whose work directly affects children enrolled in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Nearly 9,000 employees — about 10% of the full-time workforce — received notice of a possible layoff this month as the district seeks to cut hundreds of millions of dollars from its nearly $6-billion general fund. But there’s more going on than financial pain."

In chapter 11 Davis talks about the horrifying situation that the Los Angeles Unified School District is in. Old white voters passed proposition 13 and causing a cut of educational funding which also decreased the chances for young Latinos to receive a good high school education. This blog is about another budget cut of school funding and I found it here.

Chapter 4 "Cuantos Mas?"

2009-04-08T15:09:00.000-07:00

This Picture connect to chapter 2 "Cuantos Mas?" because it shows immigrants crossing the US border. This picture connect to the chapter because Mike Davis talks about how many immigrants are being killed crossing the borders. Many Latinos crossing the border go through so many obstacles that sometimes will kill them. The US border patrol, also, tracks them down and send them back were they came from. The reality is that there afre many border partol kill latino immigratns and the media does not know about it. Crossing the border is a dangerous task, and many people argue on how many more death will accure to the poor immigrants, that attend to have a better fullfilling life in the United States. In the chapter it shows a table on the ammount of immigrants dieing crossing the border. There is California, Arizona, and Texas and the total amount of deaths since 1996 is 1,450 deaths. I got this picture on flickr and it shocked me on how many immigrants do many dangerous obtackes just to come to the Unites States. In the chapter, it also talks about not only border \patrol, but as well ranchers, the vigilantes. When Clinton opened the floodgates to Mexicans the vgilantes went with guns to defend their border. They created the "Neighborhood Ranch Watch" and they will have days called "fun in the sun" when they will haunt down immigrants trying to cross the borders and shoot them. These people will set out mines where murders were involved. This Chapter makes me realize that many Latinos cross the border to have a better life, and everyone needs to respect that. The US needs to stop immigrant brutality.

Chapter 4: ¿Cuántos Mas?

2009-04-08T14:11:00.000-07:00

Chapter 4 deals with the border patrol problems that currently exist between the US and Mexico. It talks about the new technology the border patrol (with the consent of the American government) is researching, such as “an electric current that stops a fleeting car, a camera that can see into vehicles for hidden passengers, and a computer that checks commuters by voiceprint.” Even though none of those are currently being used, the border patrol is increasingly more and more aggressive against these immigrants, with excuses such as “The War on Drugs.”All this while NAFTA and free trade pretty much have free reign in the border. Ultimately, immigrants come up with more ingenious, yet fatal ways to get into the country. Thus, the title of the chapter “¿Cuántos Mas?” (How many more?). The image above relates to the chapter, because it is a symbol of those who have died while attempting to cross the border into the US. It is in the Mexican side of the border. This is an image by James Whitlow Delano originally posted on digitaljurnalist.org.

CH.8:The Devils Rancho

2009-04-08T13:22:00.001-07:00

Chapter 8 speaks about racism against immigrants especially Mexicans and how the white community is attacking them in many ways. This video has violent language being expressed by white Americans towards the Mexicans. This is one way people have took it to the extreme to attack the Mexicans and show there hatred toward the Hispanic community. its quiet surprising because i have never seen any of these actions in the community i live in.

2009-04-08T13:03:00.000-07:00

In chapter 3, Davis talks about how cities along the border contribute with each other economically. Davis often refers to these cities as "siamese twins" because of the fact that they are next to each other. Examples of these cities are Tijuana-San Diego, Ciudad Juárez-El Paso, and Matamoros-Brownsville. Maquiladoras, or sweat shops, are often present in these cities, mostly in the Mexican side. In these shops, often owned by foreign companies, workers do long shifts for little pay. Many foreign CEOs decide to establish maquiladoras in countries like Mexico so they will not have to pay workers a lot and to avoid regulations. Mexicans from both sides of the border often work at these maquiladoras in order to make a living. This image shows a maquiladora in Ciudad Juárez.

Chapter 1: Spicing The City

2009-04-07T20:33:00.000-07:00

In the first chapter David explains how the Latino population has passed the white and black population in major cities like Los Angeles, New York, and other major cities in the U.S. David comments on page 3 that, "The Latino fraction of the population of the 100 largest cities was officially 22.5 percent in 2000, but in reality is closer to 25 percent given the significant undercount admitted by the bureau of the Census". He explains that the Latino population is bigger than what certain statistics might say. He also explains that In Chicago Latinos are now 27 percent of the population is Latino and holds the balance of power in most city elections. I found a picture of our current president Barack Obama marching down a Chicago street with a group of Latinos, proving that Latinos do have a high voting power and candidate can very much use that Latino vote.

Chapter 9: Falling Down

2009-04-07T15:27:00.000-07:00

In chapter 9 Davis talks about the breakout of a fire in a New York sweatshop. He describes the catastrophic working conditions for exploited immigrants from Central and South America. On page 93 Davis quotes Robert Smith's study which is about "Ticuanese and other Pueblan immigrants" and how they became the "perfect proletarian, living only to work and send money home." I found the picture I posted on this website. It's a picture from a Los Angeles sweatshop.

Chapter 10: Transnational Suburbs

2009-04-07T10:38:00.000-07:00

The debt crisis began in the mid-1970s when many of the Organizations of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) amassed wealth, and banks were eager to lend billions of dollars. Other developing countries around a world borrowed large sums of money at low, but floating, interest rates. As a result of the irresponsibility of both creditor and debtor governments, the countries did not use the money for productive investment; rather, they spent these new dollars on immediate consumption. Consequently, these countries had no money to repay their loans. Aristocrats controlled the government while the poor had no voice in these loan matters, nor did they benefit from them.

These adjustable interest loans skyrocketed in the early 1980s when the United States attempted to reduce inflation by enforcing stringent monetary policies while, at the same time, it also increased its military spending. The Reagan Administration did all of this while also cutting United States income tax rates. Around the Globe, raw material prices fell sharply, meaning poor countries had even less money to repay their debts. For example, both Brazil and Mexico nearly defaulted on their loans; and, according to international law, there was no option for these poor countries to declare bankruptcy. Commercial banks rescued their own situations and prevented default. However, many developing countries were left in great debt, and as a result, could no longer get loans. With nowhere else to turn, these nations have relied heavily on the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund.

The IMF required structural adjustment programs in these countries. Debtor countries had to agree to impose very strict economic programs on their countries in order to reschedule their debts and/or borrow more money. Put simply, countries had to cut spending to decrease their debt and stabilize their currency. The governments limited their costs by slashing social spending; education, health, social services, etc.., devaluing the national currency via lowering export earnings and increasing import costs, creating strict limits on food subsidies, cutting workers jobs and wages, taking over small subsistence farms for large-scale export crop farming and promoting the privatization of public industries. Most countries have suffered a recession and often depression; and the poorest of the poor are most affected. It is not hard to find evidence showing that the poor, women, children and other groups suffered disproportionately as a result of structural adjustment programs during the 1980s. As Latin America’s economies stagnated, per capita income plummeted, poverty increased, and the already wide gap between the rich and the poor widened further. The debt crisis seriously eroded whatever gains had been made in reducing poverty through improved social welfare measures over the preceding three decades. Poverty is 50 percent in growing; malnutrition is 40 percent in growing; children are increasingly recruited into the drug trade and prostitution; long-term unemployment and its adverse social effects are increasing; the weakening of local communities and networks of mutual support are being destroyed; and the growth of crime and an epidemic of homicides, are but a few of the many dilemmas that this debt crisis has caused.

I believe the debt crisis stemmed from a liquidity squeeze. Consider the role of the official sector in the crisis prevention and management. I maintain that many explanations of the Mexican crisis give insufficient emphasis to financial vulnerabilities, particularly mounting maturity and currency mismatches in public debt and in the banking system that together rendered the Mexican government illiquid and produced not only a currency crisis but a debt crisis. In my view, both host countries and international surveillance exercises need to pay closer attention to such indicators of financial vulnerability. I am also in favor of the IMF publishing its appraisals of country policy, deepening its contacts with private capital markets, and conveying a frank view on appropriate exchange-rate policy to its members.

In August 1982 Mexico announced to the international financial community that it did not have enough external liquidity to fulfill its financial obligations and requested a 90 day rollover of the payments of the principal to prepare toward definite restructuring financial package. Just a few weeks later, the problem spread all throughout Latin America and to other debtor countries. The impact from Mexico’s statement was far-reaching. This created an atmosphere that caused many people to issue dire forecasts, which thankfully were never realized. Most observers believe the petrodollar recycling of the 1970s gave rise to this debt crisis. During that period, the price of oil rose dramatically. As was stated before, oil-exporting countries in the Middle East deposited billions of dollars in profits they received from the price hike in United States and European banks. Commercial banks were eager to make profitable loans to governments and state-owned entities in developing countries, using the dollars flowing from the Middle Eastern countries. Developing countries, particularly in Latin America, were also eager to borrow relatively cheap money from the banks.

Decreased exports and high interest rates in the early 1980s caused debtor countries to default on their foreign loans. The frenzied lending and borrowing came to a halt with the global recession in the early 1980s. The significant drop in debtor country exports, combined with a strong dollar and high global interest rates, depleted foreign exchange reserves that debtor countries relied upon for international financial transactions. Debtor countries consequently began to feel the strain of having to make timely payments on their foreign debt, which became much more expensive to pay off because the loans carried floating interest rates that increased along with global rates. These problems were compounded by massive capital flight of outward transfers of money by private individuals and entities in developing countries.

The prospect of massive defaults posed grave problems for creditor countries, such as the United States. Government regulators discovered that commercial bank creditors, particularly the big U.S. money center banks, had dangerously low levels of capital that could be used to absorb losses resulting from massive loan defaults. Policymakers were also worried that there was no authority or forum that could oversee and orderly resolution of the crisis, such as a global bankruptcy system.

A case-by-case debt restructuring negotiations saved the international financial system from collapse. Yet the principal players in the crisis, mainly governments, banks, the IMF and the World Bank, averted a collapse of the international financial system by resorting to slow and cumbersome approaches. The approach entailed engaging in a series of workouts with hundreds of commercial bank creditors throughout the world via Bank Advisory Committees, which were composed of banks with the greatest exposures to debtor countries. Under this approach, commercial banks agreed: (I) to provide new loans to debtor countries, and (ii) to stretch out external debt payments. In return, debtor countries agreed to abide by IMF and World Bank stabilization and structural adjustment programs intended to correct domestic economic problems that gave rise to the crisis. IMF stabilization programs typically included drastic reductions in government spending in order to reduce fiscal deficits, a tight monetary policy to curb inflation, and steep currency devaluation’s in order to increase exports. World Bank structural adjustment programs focused on longer-term and deeper structural reforms in debtor countries.

Debt fatigue appeared in the mid-1980s. After a few years of repeated restructuring deals, debt fatigue began to appear. New loans to debtor countries plummeted as commercial bank creditors contemplated the possibility that debtor countries were facing insolvency rather than a temporary drop in their ability to pay back the foreign debt.

In October 1985, U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker proposed a strategy, dubbed the Baker plan, which attempted to alleviate the debt fatigue. The plan was designed to renew growth in 15 highly indebted countries through 29 billion dollars in new lending by commercial banks and multilateral institutions in return for structural economic reforms such as privatization of state-owned entities and deregulation of the economy. The strategy failed, however, because the projected financing did not materialize and, to the extent it did, the new lending merely added to debtor countries already crushing debt burden. During this period, Latin American debtor countries were making massive net outward transfers of resources. I will touch upon the Baker plan in greater detail later in my report.

In light of what appeared to be a non-correctable problem, government officials, academics, and private entities began to propose plans that would provide debtor countries with debt relief rather than debt restructuring. In the meantime, various debtor countries suspended debt payments and fell out of compliance with, or otherwise refused to adopt, IMF adjustment programs. This eventually prompted the big creditor banks to admit publicly that many of the loans to debtor countries would not be paid.

The Brady initiative in 1989 focused on debt reduction tragedies. The Brady initiative, announced in March 1989 by U.S. Treasury Secretary Nicholas F. Brady, marked a change in U.S. policy towards the debt crisis. Given the persistently high levels of foreign debt, the initiative shifted the focus of the strategy from increased lending to voluntary, market based debt reduction and debt service reduction in exchange for continued economic reform by debtor countries.

Debtor countries obtained significant debt relief under the Brady initiative through: (I) direct cash buy backs; (ii) exchange of existing debt for discount bonds, which are bonds issued by the debtor countries with a reduced face value but carrying a market rate of interest; (iii) exchange of existing debt for par bonds, which carry the same face value as the old loans but carry a below market interest rate; and (iv), interest rate reduction bonds, which initially carry a below market interest rate that rises eventually to the market rate. Commercial bank creditors that did not wish to participate in a debt or debt service reduction option could choose to give debtor countries new loans or receive bonds created from interest payments owed by debtor countries. Debtor countries sweetened the deals by providing enhancements, such as principal and interest collateral. I will touch upon the Brady initiative in more detail later in a report.

The Brady deal combined with economic reforms and increased flows of capital to debtor countries led some people in the early 1990s to declare that the debt crisis was over. Commercial bank creditors agreed to Brady deals with a good handful of countries, including Argentina, Costa Rica, Mexico, Venezuela, Uruguay and Brazil. In the meantime, Latin American countries implemented substantial economic reforms. In 1991, the region registered capital inflows that exceeded outflows for the first time since the onset of the debt crisis. This led some observers to proclaim that the debt crisis was over for major Latin American debtor countries. As we will see, my report will show that the debt crisis was far from over.

With the resolve and atmosphere that fears of financial collapse can generate, creditor governments and multilateral institutions offered loan guarantees, debt equity swaps and debt rescheduling to countries willing to rapidly privatize, deregulate and open their economies to world trade and investment. After these and other measures were done, the creditors were somewhat off the hook, the crisis was downgraded to a problem and quickly disappeared from view. Once the debt became serviceable again, it was no longer a crisis for the world. It turned out to only be a crisis for the debtors who could not pay and develop at the same time.

When the debt disappeared from the political agenda of creditor countries, it disappeared from the debtor’s agenda as well, illustrating the degree to which the creditors came to define and thus dominate the terms of discussion. Putting the debt on the agenda, would have meant calling the very relationship between the U.S. and Latin America into question. The reluctance to do so may very well reflect the disappearance of an effective radical opposition within Latin America. Back in 1997, in a sign that this reluctance may have been just a temporary break, a group of Latin American parliamentarians gathered some two thousand people together in Caracas, Venezuela with the aim of reinserting the debt in the debate about Latin American development. At the gathering it was quoted that the character of most of our economies, is today determined by debts incurred through the errors and economic misjudgments of our governments, as well as through creditor countries abuse of the conditions of negotiation. The political problem, is that the debt, limits the ability of the indebted governments to make their own decisions.

The combined foreign debt owed by Latin American nations now stands at somewhat over 600 billion, up from 425 billion at the height of the crisis in 1987. It is not only the absolute size that hurts but also the size relative to the ability to pay. The region pays just under 30 percent of its export earnings to service those debts, and owes about 45 percent of its combined gross domestic product to foreign creditors. It is this drain on resources that feeds the growing social dislocation of so much of the continent and eats away at the ability of Latin American countries to make their own decisions at home.

When doing my research for this paper I came across an interesting quote from Congresswoman Ifigenia Martinez of Mexico. She summed up the problem in an interesting way. She said, “to say that a debt is unpayable, is to say that one cannot pay and continue to generate the income necessary to make further payments. This is now the case in Latin America, she asserts to no one’s disagreement, where in 1982, the chief goal of economic policy ceased to be long-term growth, and instead became payment of the debt. What, then, is the real value of the debt? It is that value, she says, that permits a country to grow and continue paying. The debt, proposes the Mexican Deputy, should be adjusted precisely to that real value. If not, the U.S. will continue to be collecting tribute from the South rather than earning a return on its investment”.

For developed country creditor institutions, namely the ones who counted on timely debt service payments for at least a part of their duration, a massive Latin American default, or even a significant interruption of payments, would have constituted a major hardship, and perhaps even called the possibility for the end of the international financial system. For the debtors, servicing the debt has become an insurmountable obstacle to growth and development. Since the eruption of the debt crisis, there is no question that we have avoided a major international financial crisis and that we have gained time and breathing space. But the problem is far from being over. Debt service payments are still too high, and this is hindering the prospects of growth, and with growth and significant forgiveness of debt that has been recently talked about, the possibilities do exist for this crisis to once and for all come to a halt.

http://www.angelfire.com/nj/GregoryRuggiero/latinamericancrisis.html
This blog relates to the debt crisis that appears in chapter 9. The blog and the book explain how the debt crisis of 1980s affected the United States and Latin America. At the same time, both talk about the factors of immigration and how all this problem related to the economic crisis affected many countries. Also, both mention th economic status of the different metropolis. But the main point in both is how this depression affected the countries in deferents ways.

Chapter 9: Fabricating the " Brown Peril."

2009-04-07T09:31:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3x5cFl9Umo

This video is related to Chapter 9: Fabricating the "Brown Peril." The video and the book show the different reactions of the people toward preposition 187. Preposition 187 proposed to expel children of illegal aliens from school and deny prenatal care to their mothers. This preposition caused a lot of controversy among the people in the United States and how the Latino community reacted to it in order to make some changes on this preposition to help the immigrants.