Reference no: EM133731543
Assignment:
Strum, Philippa. Mendez v. Westminster: School Desegregation and Mexican-American Rights. Kansas Univ. Press, 2010.
Both books for this assignment, Mendez v. Westminster: School Desegregation and Mexican-American Rights deal with the place of Mexican immigrants and Mexican-Americans in American society, particularly in Southern California, in the 1940s. While much of Anglo society racialized those of Mexican descent, in the eyes of the law Mexicans and Mexcan-Americans were classified as "white."
This assignment asks you to reflect on the ways that those of Mexican descent were affected by this racialization and the ways in which they and their allies fought to attain equal status in society and particularly in the law, within the context of Southern California.
1) What marked Mexicans and Mexican-Americans as a separately defined group in the eyes of Anglos? In what ways did Mexicans/Mexican-Americans resist this separate definition? Did Mexicans/Mexican-Americans themselves seek to be seen as a separately defined group, and if so how, why, and to what ends? In responding to these questions, detail the circumstances (around the 1930s-40s and prior to this time) found in California (or Southern California) that affected how Anglos viewed Mexicans/Mexican-Americans, and how Mexicans/Mexican-Americans viewed themselves.
2) How was the law/legal system/criminal justice system used by some Anglos in California to treat Mexicans and Mexican-Americans as less than full members of society or as second-class citizens, particularly with regard to the case/time period detailed in your book? Who treated Mexicans and Mexican-Americans as less than? What appeared to motivate these people?
3) How were Mexicans and Mexican-Americans, and their allies from other groups, ultimately able to use the law/legal system/criminal justice system to gain equal rights, with regard to the case/time period detailed in your book? Who did they hire to represent them? What legal arguments/strategies did they use?
4) Were Anglos ultimately successful in using the law/legal system/criminal justice system to racialize Mexicans and Mexican-Americans and to treat them as less than full members of American and Californian society at the time? How did longer-term changes in law, society, and circumstances in Southern California impact the efforts of those of Mexican descent (U.S. citizens and non-citizens) to be treated as full members of American society?