Preview

Mexican Lives

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1269 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Mexican Lives
Mexican Lives

The author of Mexican Lives, Judith Adler Hellman, grapples with the United States ' economic relationship with their neighbors to the south, Mexico. It also considers, through many interviews, the affairs of one nation. It is a work held to high esteem by many critics, who view this work as an essential part in truly understanding and capturing Mexico 's history. In Mexican Lives, Hellman presents us with a cast from all walks of life. This enables a reader to get more than one perspective, which tends to be bias. It also gives a more inclusive view of the nation of Mexico as a whole. Dealing with rebel activity, free trade, assassinations and their transition into the modern age, it justly captures a Mexico in its true light.
All walks of life are presented, from prevailing businessmen of white-collar status, to those of the working class and labor industry, as well as individuals who deal in the black market of smuggling illegal immigrants across the border into the U.S. Hellman 's work explores the subject of Mexico 's economic situation in the 1990s. NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) closely tied the United States and Mexico during this period, as well as similar policies such as GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) that were also created. These issues pertaining to economic policies between the two nations, Mexico and the United States are seen highlighted throughout her work.
Hellman opens with three individuals at three different times. The reader is first introduced to Lupe Gonzalez at 3 A.M., whose story is a harsh reality for many. She lives in the vecindad of San Miguel Iztacalco where "eighteen families in eighteen single-room dwellings share a single water tap in the courtyard…" (pg.15) This is the daily life for many other Mexican families, as well as families from all over Latin America. She lives in a single room home with six children and her second husband. The reason for the set time is due to a schedule



Cited: Judith A. Hellman: Mexican Lives.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    In this paper, I will be summarizing the following chapters: Chapter 3: "A Legacy of Hate: The Conquest of Mexico’s Northwest”; Chapter 4: “Remember the Alamo: The Colonization of Texas”; and Chapter 5: “Freedom in a Cage: The Colonization of New Mexico. All three chapters are from the book, “Occupied America, A History of Chicanos” by Rodolfo F. Acuna. In chapter three, Acuna explains the causes of the war between Mexico and North America. In chapter four, Acuna explains the colonization of Texas and how Mexicans migrated from Mexico to Texas. In chapter five, Acuna explains the colonization of New Mexico and the economic changes that the people had to go through.…

    • 1328 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Los De Abajo Analysis

    • 509 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In “Los de Abajo”, Anzuela provides a powerful description of the revolutionary movement but also, the extreme poverty for the majority of Mexico. Following a part of Demetrio Mancias’ journey, the author explores issues like literacy, community health, substandard housing, machismo and gender roles. One repetitive topic is how much the men in Demetrio’s group really understood about the Revolution, and how the ideologies behind a bigger movement can be reduce to their minimum expression depending…

    • 509 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ronald Takaki examines the struggles Mexicans faced in obtaining equal rights in his book, A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. According to Takaki, the American people and government affected Mexican lifestyles through encroachment on their rights, starting just before the Mexican-American War. Takaki posits that “political restrictions” made it difficult for Mexicans to secure their “rights as citizens” and maintain their “rights as landowners” (167). Takaki explains that Mexicans encountered monumental change in solidifying rights in terms of treatment as citizens and property ownership.…

    • 386 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    What Is Urrea's Purpose

    • 221 Words
    • 1 Page

    The egregious fiscal state of the country of Mexico is an issue that directly correlates to the substantial amounts of immigration into the United States. Urrea illustrates the poor economic standing of the people of Veracruz, Mexico when he states, “Prices kept rising and all families…were able to afford less and less”(44). Urrea describes the monetary conditions that the inhabitants of Mexico must face throughout the novel, and with this, he ultimately emphasizes the figurative border between their way of living and the way of life in the United States. The discernible idea of an economic frontier plays an important role in Urrea’s purpose in writing the novel. Embellishing the idea of a financial border facilitates Urrea’s purpose because…

    • 221 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nafta

    • 4045 Words
    • 17 Pages

    Bibliography: Cameron, Maxwell and Tomlin, Brian; The Making of NAFTA, How the Deal was Done;…

    • 4045 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Laura, a Mexican immigrant and student in Rose’s remedial English class, has a completely different frame of reference than California born UCLA students she finds herself in class with. She remembers in detail how her father made a meager living as a “food vendor” in Tijuana. The types of food, the smells and the other items he sold are cannot be forgotten by Laura. She emigrated, with her parents, to the United States at the age of six (Rose 1). These memories keep her connected to Mexico.…

    • 1076 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “Women in Colonial Mexico” Julia Tuñón Pablos analyzes the life of women in colonial Mexico after the Spanish conquest. She specifically analyzes how the Spanish conquest impacted the Spaniard, African and Indigenous Mexican women and their loss of power and authority.…

    • 453 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Us Mexico Capitalism

    • 1894 Words
    • 8 Pages

    A major theme of this course has been how the U.S. operates as an Capitalist power. One of the factors that makes the United States an Capitalist power is the displacement and marginalization of people for economic gain. The uprooting of people has been occurring throughout the duration of American relations with Mexico. From the early 20th century with railroads and mines to post NAFTA, a cycle of displacement has become embedded into U.S.-Mexico relations. Throughout the readings of the class and the short documentaries we’ve watched, it is apparent that the Mexican American community has been a chief source of the expansion of America.…

    • 1894 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Raat, W. Dirk, and Michael M. Brescia. Mexico and the United States : Ambivalent Vistas (4th Edition). Athens, GA, USA: University of Georgia Press, 2010.…

    • 2117 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    This book is written in a quick, quick witted, volatile changeable style. Rodriguez tries to expel of the tensions in his life and life in America. He parallels or relates the views of young and old, catholic and protestant, communalism and individualism, cynicism and optimism and the past and future in his own life. When Rodriguez goes to Mexico, he feels unwelcome. To me, he seems to feel that he is overeducated and superior to his peers in Mexico. A lot of Rodriguez’s opinions have come from his father’s view of the world. His father viewed it as a sad place, whereas when Richard was young, he viewed it as a fiesta. However,…

    • 665 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Some Americans, if not most, have not remained with many hurtful practices from Revolutionary times, and have taken the foundation of the government to create a global power. Although this is true for Americans, unfortunately it is not for Mexicans, for the country itself has not seen its fullest potential being carried out thoroughly in the many years it has had to recover. Ethically hazardous practices are also prevalent today in Mexico, such as political theft due to law enforcement loopholes or even contract killing. In the time compared, these two countries and their wars have definitely had their fair share of distinctions, yet one must remember that, in a philosophical perspective “all that is unique, has something to offer to the…

    • 768 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Us-Mexico War

    • 938 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Historians understand that all history is interpretation, and as Professor Weber states, “we understand the past only in imperfect ways.” We use facts to create these interpretations and thus see that many truths constitute the past, rather than one single truth. In the war between Mexico and the United States, Americans have known and cared so little, even though this war created their country’s future shape, and adversely, it diminished the land belonging previously to the Mexican people. This great loss caused an “inferiority complex” for Mexico, one that could arguably still be there today.…

    • 938 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Ib History Paper 3 Guide

    • 5024 Words
    • 21 Pages

    * Madero: Came to power through the overthrowing of Diaz- Popular for his book, Presidential Succession of 1910. Sought democracy, gained presidency through popular vote. His 15 months in office were followed by resistance political disaster, non-cooperation, and disunity between his followers and eventually Huerta. (His supposedly appointed commander of the government forces who conspired with the rebels for Madero’s fall)…

    • 5024 Words
    • 21 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    My Life with the Wave

    • 707 Words
    • 3 Pages

    devoted to the real world and it produces an astonishing image of a whole nation, truer…

    • 707 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Ever since the United States implemented the War on Drugs campaign in the mid-twentieth century, the campaign has radically changed the political and economic relationships between the United States and Mexico. The United States gained significant advantages in its economic endeavors due the creation of the North American Trading Agreement (NAFTA) and the illegalization of several drugs such as marijuana, methamphetamines and cocaine. However, the War on Drugs campaign has affected the agricultural economy of Northern Mexico and thus replaced the legal agricultural economy into an illegal drug-trading economy. Shaylih Muehlmann’s When I Wear My Alligator Boots, is an ethnography based on the everyday lives of men and women affiliated with…

    • 184 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays