Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Reading Response 2
Gloria Anzaldua has introduced me to some appalling revelations. Unfortunately, I feel that what she has written about in “The Homeland: Aztlan” is merely another example of how the United States truly lives up to its nickname of an “international police power”. It is sickening to see how power-hungry the United States has been over the course of history. As Anzaldua states, not only did we kick the Native Americans off of their land, we committed the same atrocity towards the Mexicans as well. In my opinion, the only explanations for such acts of selfishness are ignorance, an unquenchable thirst for power, and the belief that inferiority amongst humans exists. Don’t get me wrong; in many ways, I am very proud to be an American and I believe that many of the ideals of which this nation strives upon are admirable. It is unquestionable, however, that certain chapters of the history of the United States give the United States a dark reputation. Gloria Anzaldua defines a border as being “indistinct”. In this case, I feel that borders symbolize a line of equality that the United States has placed between Americans and Mexicans. I could be wrong, but that is my take on the topic. It is always sad to read about situations like this.
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Heh, I understand what you mean by "international police force". We Americans like to stick our noses into other countries affairs just because we feel it is just to do so. I agree that some of the things our country does is for the best of interests, such as the current situation in Haiti, but colonialism, as described by Anzaldua, is just wrong. Some things just cant be justified regardless of the situation and this was the case. You cannot ethically justify waging war with a country just because you want their land. Thats simply ludicrous.
ReplyDeletelooking back at history and connecting it to present day, it's amazing how everything played out to be. they were the natives, we kicked them out, not they're trying to come back to THEIR land, and we enforce power on them. i feel that Analdua does capture this horrifying situation and that it is sad to red about the hardship towards Mexicans.
ReplyDeleteMost of the time when I was reading about Anzaldua's story, I only felt sorry. It is interesting that you had brought up the other side of the story of how the Americans took over Mexican's land for power and land. I do not know much about the history of what the America has done, but I agree that taking over other people's land is horrible. I actually imagined myself as one of the person in Anzaldua's story, seeing all the land being taken over by others. I feel the same way about being an american, but I do not like what the Americans have done in the past.
ReplyDeleteAnzaldua's story was incredibly touching for me. I could picture myself in her shoes, just wondering, "what did I do wrong? Why am I fenced in like an animal?" Yeah, America did make mistakes in the past. They uprooted a mexican culture and turned them into aliens. I understand how reading this excerpt was a transition into the next essay which is all about our "place" or a "place." Very Very descriptive.
ReplyDeleteWhen i read Anzaldua's story, it hits very close to home. Not only because of my ancestry, also the theme for this piece of text is borders. The exact same border that Anzaldua speaks about is that same border my parents had to cross. I really never talked to my parents about their experience in terms of the "border," but after reading "The Homeland Aztlan" i can only imagine.
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