Thanksgiving family tradition

Every year for Thanksgiving me, my mom, and my aunts make tamales with my grandma the night before. She doesn't have a special recipe since we buy the dough called masa from a store. My grandma makes her special salsa though, which she says her mother taught her to make, a lot of people really like it. My grandma makes a chocolate like dish called mole with chicken to put in the tamales. She learned to make tamales with her mom when she lived in Mexico. My grandma usually always puts mole with chicken, beans and cheese, or cheese and chile in the tamales, but since I learned that I could add my own ingredients in the tamales I've been experimenting every year and my grandma calls it "American tamales." Two years ago I made tamales with pesto, spinach, and feta. This year I'm going to try to make chicken garlic afredo tamales. All my uncles laugh at my creations and say I must not be Mexican if I don't like them the way they are, but I just enjoy experimenting. We also always make tamales before Christmas, which makes it twice a year that we make tamales.

Immigration in an Age of Colonization

1. Since 1986 the continuity of immigration has stayed the same in the United States.  The attitude towards immigration have changed since 1986 and it also shows in the laws and regulations of immigration.
2. In the 2000 census, 10.4% of the population was foreign born.  From looking at the chart on page 410 the percentage of foreign born since 1900 to 2000 has had it's ups and downs.  1910 had the highest percentage of foreign born, whereas 1970 had the lowest at 4.7% foreign born.  The rate of foreign born was more steady and higher in 1820-1924 as shown on table 6.3 on page 125.
3. In the 2000 census the largest numbers of immigrants came from Central America (34.5%) and a quarter from Asian (25.5%) The immigrants settlement patterns showed a heavy concentration in the western states."39.9% of the foreign born had settled in that region which was home to only 20.8% of native-born Americans." (Daniels, 411) Also, some regions had heavy immigration such as, south Florida, much of Texas, Chicago and Idaho.  Most immigrants lived in metropolitan regions.  25.8% of the immigrants during this time where college graduates. 44.9% foreign born Asians had bachelor's degrees.  13.3% of foreign borns in 2000 were below the poverty line.  (pg 413)
4. The data on immigrants lumped together is so misleading because it is a generalization.  Daniels says, "Only when we are able to particularize and focus on individual groups, and on classes within those groups, is it possible to speak with any degree of precision."
5. Daniels says the responsible historian must "try to balance, somehow, these extremes and arrive at a reasonable estimate of immigrant status and expectations." (pg 413)
6. "Nonimmigrant" immigrants are also known as "temporary immigrants" they are persons who enter the United States on various kinds of visas that do not entitle them to apply for permanent resident status and which have expiration dates.  The number of "temporary immigrants" has quickly grown.  In 1965 there were two million and in 1998 thirty million were counted! In 1998 the "nonimmigrants" outnumbered immigrants from 10 to 1.  5.25 million of them came from Japan.
7. The major portion of illegal immigrants were "visitors for business" students, "temporary employees" and parolees.  In 1988 there were 4.4 million visitors who came to the U.S. for business.
8. The longstanding discrimination against Mexican as opposed to the Canadian border crossers because the rules are discriminatory.  Canadians are able to travel for business or pleasure without travel restrictions for six months without a visa.  Mexicans may apply for a border crossing card which only lets them stay for no more than 72 hours and only within 25 miles of the border.  Daniels mentions that there is little ever said about the discrimination against Mexicans as opposed to Canadians.  Personally, I think that Mexicans are more often portrayed as drug smugglers or gang members because of what is heard on the media and little negativity is ever heard or even heard about Canadians.
9. The governments estimates of illegal immigrants is so unreliable because there are limitations on data.  The INS has evidence of lost or missing information.  Reminds me of a quote I once heard, "There are lies, damn lies, and statistics."
10. In Daniel's opinion the vast majority of the 1.8% of the U.S. population that is undocumented are "hardworking, exploited toilers doing necessary jobs and not in any way a threat to the republic as some scaremongers would have us believe." (pg 422) I really personally enjoyed reading that quote because when I think of immigrants I think of the men and women who work behind the scenes at restaurants, hotels, farms, and etc. making money to take care of their families and provide for other family members back home.  This quote really stuck out to me and was very touching to read.

Alabama's HB56 Shows Racism Still Part Of State Culture

Alabama's HB56 Shows Racism Still Part Of State Culture
Keith Rushing | Oct 4, 2011 1:16 PM EDT
HUFFPOST POLITICS
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/keith-rushing/alabamas-immigration-law_b_992801.html


Last week, a federal court's decision allowed parts of a law to go into effect that essentially requires police to racially profile people while criminalizing undocumented migrants for being without immigration documents. The law and the decision upholding it shows that Alabama -- in passing the harshest anti-immigration law in the nation -- is still mired in its racist, segregationist past.
The message Alabama sent to brown people by passing this law -- especially those thought to be migrants -- is a simple one: Get out of Alabama. We don't want your kind here.
I found it interesting that this article is about a racist law that is taking place in Alabama, but it's not towards Black people, but towards "Brown" people implying the migrant Mexican workers.
In the 1950s and early 1960s, Alabama was a place of intense racial hatred. Montgomery, Ala., central to the Civil Rights Movement, is the city where, in 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested after sitting in the whites-only section of a city bus, leading to a massive and ultimately successful boycott of the city's public bus system. A year later, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned segregation on public buses nationwide finding that the Alabama law allowing seating according to skin color was unconstitutional.
A year later the U.S. Supreme Court overturns this unconstitutional law, yet they allow the current one to pass? It's a little confusing to me that this law was even let to pass.  Maybe the Supreme Court works slow, so by next year I might see an article about how unconstitutional this law is.
Despite that success, much of Alabama's white residents were determined to defend their segregated way of life through brutal violence.
In 1961, some 200 white men in Anniston, Ala attacked the Freedom Riders, a racially integrated group of activists on a bus trip through the South. The bus was firebombed and the activists were beaten with pipes and bats.
Alabama is also the state where four little black girls were killed in 1963 in the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church.
After years of people putting their lives on the line and going to jail and the help of federal civil rights legislation, Alabama ended legalized oppression of African Americans that barred them from voting, from attending better resourced all-white schools and from many jobs that had been reserved for whites.
But a cursory look at the state's history shows how Alabama was dragged kicking and screaming into accepting desegregation. It took enormous courage, self-sacrifice and the power of the federal government to force change. But by passing Alabama's harshest anti-immigration law, the state has shown that while Jim Crow laws may not exist anymore, the spirit of Jim Crow, which is defined by white supremacy, is alive and well.
Alabama's H.B. 56 requires police to investigate the immigration status of those pulled over for routine traffic stops, if they have a "reasonable suspicion" that a person is undocumented. It's obvious that police will make these judgments of who to investigate based on appearance, including skin color.
I found it humorous that they put "reasonable suspricion" into quotation.  This implies to me that a racist cop is going to find by any means a reason to pull over a Latino just because he is brown.  It's easier to see the immigration of Latin Americans because they look different from Whites and Blacks, but how about the immigration of the White people in Alabama? Are they trying to "whiten" the state? If they kick out all the immigrants, who will do their jobs? The last sentence explicitly shows how they are racial profiling by pulling people over based on appearance, ridiculous!
The law will also allow undocumented migrants to be held without bond; make it a felony for an undocumented migrant to do business with the state; make it a misdemeanor for an undocumented resident to be without immigration documents; and require elementary and secondary schools to check the immigration status of incoming students.
I think including the children into the law and excluding them out from attending school is horrible! Children at such a young age value school because of their friendships and the excitement of learning new things everyday and this law is clearly saying, "F*** the kids too!" Seriously.  It's horrible that many of these children are going to be in high danger, either left at home by themselves while their parents work or turning to crime, which will only validate law makers in Alabama's decision.  Who will these kids grow up to be in the next few years because of this decision? Are they going to find it harder to learn English and end up working migrant jobs like their parents? or will this law be overturned and the children will go back to school and achieve success in their future?
The enforcement of the nation's immigration law has primarily been a responsibility of the federal government. But by making it a state law to be without immigration papers, undocumented immigrants are subject to a whole range of new state laws and penalties.
By treating someone different based on skin color or appearance, this law, which violates the constitution in my view, institutionalizes inequality. It's clear that white Americans will be given a pass and people who are thought to be immigrants will be forced to prove they have the documentation to reside in the United States legally.
There may be European immigrants who reside in Alabama, but they won't be affected by this because they are "given a pass." This is beyond racist.  Who will Alabama target next? Will they go back to bashing Blacks? Who knows.  I still wonder who they plan on hiring to do migrant work for low wages if these Latino's are forced out.
 Since the majority of migrants come form Latin America, people who are brown-skinned, Latino, or thought to be Latino, will likely bear the brunt of this law.
By making it a felony for an undocumented migrant to do business with the state, which could mean applying for a driver's license or applying for a license to operate a business, Alabama will isolate and ghettoize people who came to the United States to pursue the American Dream and are simply trying to survive.
I find the writers choice of words interesting by using the word, "gettoize." I interpreted that he means the state is taking away from the American Dream and therefore with hardships of finding jobs that will accept immigrants and schools that will accept their children they will lack financial funds and therefore become ghettoized.  Many right now may be living in nice or somewhat nice housing and soon they will not even be able to afford rent.  I think many people will end up living with two or three families in one house just to pay rent and to have a support of people to take care of their children while they are not permitted in schools.  This law seems to only be making a mess, rather than a difference.
And by requiring that schools check the immigration status of students, many migrant parents will avoid sending their children to school out of fear that sending them to school will lead to arrest and deportation. The only reason that Alabama lawmakers would want undocumented migrants to keep their kids out of school is because they don't care about the children's welfare. In all honesty they could only back such laws if they simply want a group of people gone.
This hateful law has already had a horrible effect. Hundreds of children have already reportedly been absent from schools in some Alabama cities.
The anti-immigrant climate was already causing migrant workers to leave the state, the Christian Science Monitor reported last week.
Racism in the United States often increases during tough economic times and is reflected in scapegoating. That's what seems to have happened in Alabama. Passing H.B. 56 allowed lawmakers to claim that they're keeping undocumented migrants from taking jobs that should go to those born in the United States. However the Alabama Farmers Federation indicates that they have not been able to find legal residents to fill the agricultural jobs that must be filled.
The Obama administration is right to have filed an appeal of the federal court decision. And civil rights groups, including the ACLU and Southern Poverty Law Center have asked the federal court to block last week's decision form taking effect, pending their appeal.
Rights Working Group Executive Director Margaret Huang had it right last week when she said: "People of conscience across Alabama and the United States should send the message that the human rights of all people should be respected regardless of their race, nationality, ethnicity, religion or immigration status."
We must all speak out against this law.
This article was a good read and has given me a better perspective of what is going on in Alabama now.  I was startled by all the racist comments I came across in the comments sections.  I noticed that many people made the assumption that by all Latinos being targeted they were all Mexican, which is an incorrect assumption.  I aso seen that many people agreed that the law was a good idea and that all the immigrants need to get out and give jobs back to U.S. citizens, which I found to be meaningless because no American is going to want to work in harsh conditions for low pay no matter how poor they are.  I think it is important for more people to hear about this law and I am surprised that the news had not covered it.  Racism is still silent.

The New Asian Immigrants

• Since WWII and the passage of the 1965 Immigration Act, Asian Americans have benefited most from all the changes than any other group.  Asian Americans were part of a general trend toward a more egalitarian society.  The first positive changed in the law occured in 1943 which shifted the attitudes toward Chinese allies.  Lastly, because they were model minorities their acceptance hastened, hence Blacks and Hispanics who didn't achieve as much as the Asian Americans did. (pg. 350)
• Some characteristics that lead Asian Americans to becoming model minorities are: they were younger than the average American, had fewer children, were less likely to be unemployed or in jail, and more likely to get higher education than the average American.  These are characteristics I believe still hold truth today.  (pg. 351-352)
• The silent Chinese of San Francisco was founded from data that showed conditions in San Francisco's inner-city Chinatown, which was far from model.  In Chinatown the unemployment rate was doubled that of the city average, 2/3 of the living quarters were substandard, and tuberculosis rates were six times that national average.  Still today Chinatown seems to be the same way.  It is a highly populated area, many Chinese immigrants reside there, and have their own businesses there.  When I go to Chinatown I always notice that many of the Asian population don't seem to give in to material things aside from seeing Gucci and LV bags.  I notice that many times grandmas are the caretakers of younger children and they hold them in cloth like carriers and I see that many of the people in Chinatown also hang dry their clothes.  (Just a quick thought) ABC stands for American-born Chinese.  These ABC's tend to be college educated, have middle-class occupations, and live in integrated or somewhat integrated housing outside of the inner-city Chinatown.  I noticed that in San Francisco today many Chinese Americans highly populate the Richmond District and Sunset District, while the other few live around Visitacion Valley and Bayview District.  This is just something I've seen from being in different districts of San Francisco, but I know that the Chinese American community is all around San Francisco and don't just reside in one area.  FOB stands for fresh-off-the-boat recent immigrants, hence many of them arrive on planes.  FOB's are recent immigrants who are poorly edecated and deficient in English.  This group tends to work in low paid service trades, such as laundromats, restaurants, and sweatshops.  When I worked at L&L Hawaiian BBQ in High School the owners were Chinese from Hawaiia, they didn't speak English too well, but hired many Chinese immigrants to work as cooks and paid them only $8 an hour, all of them worked from open to close as well.  (pg. 354-355)
• Three distinct incriments of Filipino immigration are as followed from my understanding: shortly after the annexcation of the Phillipines in 1898 came groups of students, in the 1920s and early 1930s came farm workers who filled the same kind of jobs in Far Western agriculture, and after 1965 educated and upwardly mobile professional, and entrepreneurs Filipino immigrants came.  An interesting immigration fact about the increase of female immigrants is that in 1960 just 37% were female and by 1980 nearly 52% were female.  (pg. 356)
• Filipinos dominate the nurse field and medican personnel fields.  Two-thirds of recent immigrants have been professionals most notably nurses and other medican personnel.  In the 1970s 50 nursing schools in the Phillipines graduated about 2,000 nurses annually.  Atleast 20% of those graduating nurses migrated to the United States where there was a shortage of trained nurses especially those willing to work long and uncomfortable hours that were being demanded by public hospitals, those hospitals provided these newly graduates immediate work.  An interesting though that Daniels brought up was that if all foreign medical personnel were to be removed, medical facilities would not be able to continue.  This question was helpful in giving me a new outlook and explanation on why I have always seen many Filipino nurses in hospitals.  (pg. 359)
• The Koreans who came before the 1965 Immigration Act were almost all of the 800,000 contemporary Korean Americans were either from post-Korean War immigrants or their descendants.  In the 1930s there were fewer than 9,000 with about three quarters in Hawaii.  After the Korean War many Korean women came to the United States as war brides, almost all of them married to non-Asian-American servicemen.  Daniels mentions a unique aspect of early Korean immigrants to be traditionally Buddhist, which were recent converts to Christianity, usually Protestant Christianity.  (pg. 364-365) Other categories of Koreans were Peace Corps volunteers and other American citizens.  (pg. 366)
• A commonality between Indian and Korean immigrants "Like the Asian Indians of Gadar, or various Irish American organizations harking back to the Fenian movement of the post-Civil War era, the Koreans were sometimes violent." (Daniels, 365)
• Vietnamese immigrants differ from other recent Asian immigrants because many of them have been poorly equipped for life in urban society.  Vietnamese immigrats are mostly "push" immigrants rather than "pull" immigrants.  If they had not been refugees most of them would not have qualified for admission.  Vietnamese persons have no long history of immigration to the United States.  As war had become worse, more Vietnamese came to the United States.  In the 1980 census, 245,000 Vietnamese were post-1974 arrivals.  They do not resemble the model minority because they are the more traditional disadvantaged minority group.  They are young, not educated, and poor.  (pg. 368-369)
• The total number of Vietnamese War refugees and their children by 1990 in the United States will exceed 1.25 million.  The nationalities included are: Vietnamese, Laotians, Hmong, and Cambodians. (pg. 368)
• The following are accounts for the differences in the population growth between the Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Indian, Korean, and Vietnamese since 1965: The Chinese were beneficiaries of the general trend toward a more egilitarian society, the 1965 Immigration Act also benefited them, and they were model minorities.  In the years after 1952 there was a heavily female immigration of Japanese.  40,000 of them were female and the majority of them married non-Japanese soldiers and former soldiers.  The immigration of Japanese would have been more heavy if the doors would have opened after the war, but when the 1965 Immigration Act passed few Japanese wanted to emigrate.  The economic motive to emigrate was no longer urgent for most Japanese.  Japanese immigration slowed after 1960.  Whereas the Chinese population in the United States has increased every decade.  In 1960 just 37% were female Filipino immigrants, but the numbers greatly increased after 1980.  It was only until 1946 that Filipino's were aliens ineligible to citizenship.  In 1946 Filipino were made eligible for naturalization and the islands' quota was doubled to one hundred annually.  Filipinos were mostly nonquota immigrants.  In 1963 for example, 3,618 Filipino immigrants were recorded.  (pg. 358) Since 1965 Filipinos have been the largest or second largest nationality immigrating.  From looking at Table 14.2 on pg. 359 the Filipino immigration since 1960 has only been increasing.  In 1960 a total of 181,614 were in the United States and in 1990 there were 1,419,711 Filipinos in the United States.  The Asian Indians differ from the others because most of them came to the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a few thousand of the 600,000 at then end of the 1980s post-World War II immigrants and the vast majority came since 1965.  From looking at the table on page 363 the Asian Indians immigration wasn't as high as the other populations.  In 1970 there were a total of 75,000 in the United States and in 1990 there were 815,447.  Significantly from 1948-1965 most of the Asian Indians entered the United States as nonquota immigrants.  During the 1960s most of the Korean immigrants were women.  The 1965 Immigration Act set off the same kinds of Korean immigration chains as have been seen upon for other groups.  The numbers from 1970 to 1990 are somewhat similar to the Asian Indians.  There were 69,150 Koreans in the United States in 1970 to 798,849 Koreans in 1990.  Lastly, in the 1950s Vietnamese came as students to the United States to escape communism.  In the 1970s there were a little under 10,000 Vietnamese immigrants in the United States.  The numbers of Vietnamese immigration become higher in 1975 when most war refugees began to come. 
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qohGn7vM0c
  An interesting video on The Immigration Act of 1965.
  "Traditionally immigrants have migrated to the major population centers where they join large established immigrant communities, but in recent years many smaller towns and less popular states have been transformed by immigration."
• Touches on how cities have been changed by immigration and the large numbers of different persons of various cultural backgrounds settling in communities, specifically Nebraska.

Chapter 10

I really enjoyed reading chapter 10 and found a few significant parts in the chapter.

The three discreet phases of anti-immigration activity were the first that had caught my attention. The first phase was anti-Catholic which was aimed at Irish Catholic and German Catholic immigrants. The second phase was anti-Asian which was mostly directed to the Chinese. The third phase was anti-all immigrant, which I found most significant. It reminded me of how the US is today about immigration and about middle eastern citizens who fly on planes. Arizona for example is against the illegal immigration of Hispanics, particularly Mexicans and their laws toward them are harsh. On the news recently I seen that a middle eastern American ci

Chapter 7

"Thus the use of prepaid tickets, purchased in America for the use of immigrant, increased sharply."
In the early 1890s it was said that 1 in 3 immigrant tickets were prepaid, then it increased to 2 out of 3.  Prepaid tickets are easier too use which makes sense why so many people chose to use them.  A family member who had already made it to America could easily send home prepaid tickets to get the rest of the family over.

Table 7.1 on page 186 showed that the greater number of emigrants were the Italians coming from Naples.  In 1880-1920 more than 4.1 million Italians entered the U.S., that number is overwhelmingly surprising! I'm glad that people years ago were keeping track of the vast migration and numbers of people entering the U.S. the tables shown make me think about it being an immigration Census somewhat.  I value the importance of the tables and like how they give numbers per ten years, so you can see the increase/decrease.  The Italians more specifically caught my attention because of their great numbers starting from 439 in 1820-30 to 1,109,524 in 1911-20.

When Italians came to America most of them were skilled artisans.  Artisans: Venetian glassblowers, artisans, merchants, actors, musicians, waiters, professional people, businessmen, seamen, and stone cutters.  Italians also were part of providing agriculture products such as silk culture, wine grapes, and olives.  Italians lived all around, but mostly lived in Delaware, New Hampshire, and Louisianna.

The immigrant banker was likely to be an entrepreneur who performed all kinds of services for his clientele and was able to do so in their common language.  The immigrant banker varried from ethnicity.  He would help send money to ones old country, served as a ticket agent, and many times ended up bankrupt.The immigrant bankers helped Italian immigrant farmers. 

"Many Italians, especially in the early years of mass migration, got their jobs through ethnic labor contractors, called pedroni." (Daniels, 196) Arrangements similar to this were also done by others such as the Mexicans and Chinese.  The padrone was a person who often exploited the workers.  A padrone system recruited and brought young Italian and Greek boys to America.  The Italian boys were street musicians and acrobats.  The Greek boys were fruit and candy vendors, and shoeshine boys.  How absurd for the padrones to exploit young boys in such manner, but thankfully they were not used for any sexual activities.  It seemed kind of odd to me that the boys were brought back as fruit and candy vendors, but if you think closely these jobs are still done today mostly by immigrants.  Not many immigrants today are musicians and acrobats.

Sacco and Vanzetti came to symbolize American anarchism.  One was a fish peddler and the other a shoemaker, they were both arrested and convicted for murder in 1920. (Daniels, 201)

Chapter 6: Pioneers of the Century of Immigration: Irish, Germans, and Scandinavians

In the beginning of chapter 6, the distinction between new and old immigrant were stated.
The old immigrant was an individual from the British Isles and northwestern Europe who arrived before the 1880s.  They adjusted and conformed easily.

The new immigrants were individuals from southern and eastern Europe who arrived after the 1880s.  They were of "very different" backgrounds, spoke strange languages, and worshiped strange gods.  None of these new immigrants were Protestant.

They spoke strange languages, worshiped crazy gods, and were of different races.  None of these old immigrants were Protestants.

Having read that none were Protestant made me wonder if because they were not Protestant they were seen as weird and different from others? I'm always fascinated by the choice or words and  language that Daniel uses in the book to describe others.  To see that they worshipped "strange" gods was interesting and having used the word "strange" automatically made me feel that these people were outcasted and immediately seen as different.  No one liked strange back in those days, thankfully today strange is admired, well, sometimes.

A shibboleth is any practice that distinguished one group from another.  Usually it would involve language or religion, which is relevant to the definition of new immigrants.

Tables 6.2, 6.3, and 6.4 indicated that immigration increased significantly.  Tables like these show us different patterns of the types of people who immigrated, though they cannot be 100% authentic because some races were not added.

The decennial figures showed an increase in immigration.  Decennial means recurring every ten years.

It was seen that Irish immigration was less welcomed than that of the German and Scandinavian immigrants, hence their impact was a greater and more positive one.  The Irish had labor competitions with the Black slaves, which was very interesting to me.  They used strategies to climb their way up in the economic ladder, which in the end were costly on the Blacks.  The Irish came to America because of overpopulation and better economic opportunities.

Chapter 4 - Other Europeans in Colonial America

First off I'd like to start with saying how much I enjoyed this chapter so far out of all the other chapters I have read in this text by Daniels.  I enjoyed learning the history of the Europeans and their short descriptive journey, which included their trials and tribulations.

It was surprising to me that German immigrants had to indenture themselves to pay their passage.  I had only been aware of Black slaves who were identured, so it was very surprising to read that many other races including Europeans had gone through the same hardships.  It shows how much history books focus more on the African race when informing the readers in other textbooks about slavery and the slave trade because that's all I can remember from my past history courses.  Some lucky Germans had family waiting for them to pay their fares, others had their own money to pay afterwards, but many unlucky Germans had to indenture themselves for four years; these Germans were called "redemptionist." It was sad to read that many times a husband had to pay/work for his wife if she deceased on the trip to America and indenture himself for more years to pay of her debt as well.  Also, children had to pay for their parents as well if they had deceased on the way to America.  This was very sad to me and surprising that they had made these poor people pay, while still many were taking in the deaths and had hardly any time to grief.

On pg.72 there was a contract that was written out and used for indentured people.  I found it to be very interesting to read, especially the use of language.  I wonder if this contract was used over and over and changed specifically only in the brackets for each individual person.  I would think so, but I am not sure.

I also found it very interesting to read that it was illegal for Blacks to own Whites.  It made me wonder what would the world be today if both Whites and Blacks had owned each other for slavery, how would it have been different today on the terms of racism? Would it still exist?

It had come to my attention that the book had quotes a passage from a slave owner maybe that had insisted than slavery was a positive aspect for German migrators because it helped them learn the language, customs, crafts, and local conditions of the land.  I'm not sure whether this could have actually been a positive thing for these people because it later on stated that later this was not the case, so there could have been cracks and faults in this way of thinking. 

In 1746 I read that immigrants on board the Seaflower had resorted to Cannabalism to stay alive, while 46 passengers died.  This was heartbreaking to read that many had seen a brighter future in America, but little did they know they would either die or be faced to eat another human just to survive.  These people were not brought to America to be slaves, rather they had made the trip but had to be indentured to pay for their transportation. 

After reading all of chapter 4 it made me wonder, would you say that each race and one time was exploited in America in some way or another? Each specific race in chapter four had faced hardships either on their way to or in America.  

"The question of survival - and of who or what survives - is a matter to which we shall return more than once.  Although the notion of a metling pot is a myth, some groups did in fact, melt, and all groups, even those who persisted the longest, changed over time through contract with the new environment and new peoples." (Daniels, 95) This was my favorite quote in the chapter, which in itself is self explanitory and very deep.

Lastly, I was surprised to read that the Spanish had been the first Europeans yo traverse much of the United States starting from the 1500s, but were not seen in the Census of the 1700s.

Coming to America - Chapter 1. 2. & 3

"In historic times we make a distinction between the term migration, which simply means moving, and immigration which means moving across national frontier." (Daniels, 3)
From reading the quote above one could almost think that immigration was a good thing.  Afterall, it got us all here to the United States and many others where they are today.  Moving across a national frontier can be harder than it sounds and can lead to deportation.  Today many people have tried and are trying now to immigrate to the United States for a better life.  A few make it, some die trying, and others never make it.  I think the United States has lost it and has gone to feeling that being American is superior to all others.  So many of our clothes, food, and accessories come from other countries.  They want supplies, but can't offer their international workers a home? I just don't get it. 

Lucy, the African Eve whom could possible be the mother who started it all migrated and settled.  Her footprints have been tracked and because of her migration we are all here today.  Migration has been turned into a negative actions, but it has its positive aspects as well.  In a previous class called Cultural Anthropology, taught by Dr. Don, he told the class about having done a DNA test and the results had come back that he was 1% African.  He told the class that this 1% African can be found in all of us because of Lucy.  It is amazing to me how someone so long ago can be accounted for a part of our personal and very own life, hence we tend not to really think about things like that.  We could be all related to Lucy and we could not be, we will never truly know.  It feels good to think and have an idea that there is some relation that dates back into time, that being Lucy.

Before I opened the book, I held the pages to chapter 1-3 together and thought to myself, "Ugh, this is just too much!" When I actually began to read the book, the pages seemed to just fly right by.  I usually have a difficulty reading and remembering things I read, but this book has me interested.  I love learning about the different cultures and ethnicities that exist.  Since the beginning of this course I started to wonder, "How did racism come to be?" This book has answered my question just in the first chapter. 
"With some notable exceptions, Europeans had a contempt for the cultures and people they encountered, an attitude that would soon evolve into modern racism." (Daniels, 4)
Atlas! That's how racism began.  The Europeans felt that themselves and their race was not only better and more important, but that it was SUPERIOR to that of anyone else that existed.  Wow, what a shame.  I can't help but wonder how the world would be today if the Europeans had been more humble and appreciative of the diversity that surrounded them. 

The central mexican population from 1519-1605 shown on pg. 9 was absolutely unbelievable! I can't seem to take in and accept how the population went from 25,200,000 to 1,075,000 in less than one hundred years, while the European population heavily increased (not surprising.)

In Chapter 2, it was brought to my attention how helpful young children were to their families.  Widow mothers were appreciative to have 4-5 children around because their labor was worth  a lot.  I can't help but to think about the children in America today.  Child labor laws of course make it clear that we should not slave our kids and make them work when they are under the age of 16 I believe, but the children of today just seem so lazy and unappreciative.  I would love to have lived in an earlier age and experienced life before electronics.

One of my favorite parts of chapter two, were the short excerpts about runaway slaves.  I find it interesting to read the type of language and word choice that people used in that time period.  It reminds me of a lost and found section you would see on craigslist, minus the slaves.

In chapter three, I was most astonished by the realization that hardly if any genuine African American history made it through the cracks of time because they were all nonliterate.  I thought that some were literate, but that may not have been for some years to come.  It makes sense that for the first years or so that the Africans arrived in America, they were nonliterate and could not possibly have written journals about their experiences.  Everything written during that time would most likely be by, "slave traders, masters, and other white observers." (Daniels, 55) This can cause most of the history we know to be inconclusive because of their bias opinions, thoughts, and observations.  What a shame that we will never know what the Africans experienced.  I would be interested in reading a journal about the hardships, language used, and descriptive imagery given of that time period.  Daniels described not knowing what went on in the history of the Africans perfectly, "It is a hunger that can never be satisfied." (Daniels, 55)

Prehistory: Pacific Seafarers and Maritime Cultures

The reading about seafarers was very interesting to me and kept me hooked, no pun intended.  Boating and fishing goes back a long way and it was engaging to read and learn about different societies in the Pacific and around the world whom colonized coastlines and explored the ocean.  To learn more about the ocean and its artifacts is to know more about the world and land that surrounds that water.  Oceanography was a main concern and focus point in this reading.  I learned about the sea change of sea levels and how many of the ancient coastlines have been "deeply submerged and far offshore." (Erlandson, Ph.D,, 9) Having read that sentence made me give thought about all the land that no longer exists that either had or had never been explored.  I think about the size of the ocean and water around us and what lays beneath it, will man ever be able to discover what's underneath it all? Maybe, and if so it will take many years from now to be able to explore it all.  There are still so many species of animals and plants that we don't know about.  This reading has made me excited to think about what else could be out there.

"...inset shows mussel, abalone, and sea urchin shells from a shell midden on San Miguel Island." (Erlandson Ph.D, 10)
The study of fish and its migration is revelant to the study of seafarers and can lead us to believe that people from the past may have known their location or found new areas of water and species through the migration of fish.

"These longer oceanic voyages may have posed technological and logistical challenges that could not be overcome until more sophisticated boats were developed, along with the agricultural products needed to survive on more remote and biologically depauperate islands." (Erlandson Ph.D, 12)
This sentence showed me that trial and error has always been an important step in civilization since before our time.  Boats have been around since people had to build them from flat pieces of wood, then finally realize the structure that would best float and get them around in water.  In this specific reading the seafarers had faces difficulties because their boats were still not designed correctly and reliable enough to get them to where they needed to be and explore.

Lastly, in the section called Polynesians in the Pacific, not only was the above revelant to me but also reading about the expansion of languages throughout the Indian and Pacific oceans, the colonization of more ilsand groups in Melanesia, and the transporting of Polynesian chicken to America in return of American sweet potatoes (bartering), were entertaining for me to read about.

What is history?

When I think about history, I think back in time during the Golden Age and about the eyptian gods and goddess', the incredible architecture, and different types of structures of social class and governments that have been around since our time.  Trial and error is an important part in making history better than it was before and crucial to making societies and the world what it is today. 

In class we were given the question, "What is 'the problem of history'?" to answer in our own words.  I believe one of the main problems of history is finding out what to believe is actually true and for cultures to be able to preserve their native norms, rituals, and language.  It's extremely hard to keep the past alive for those who have run away from it to better their lives and the lives of their family.  Who wants to relive a nightmare?

History is hard to believe because we will never know exactly how much of it is true that we read.  We weren't there of course, so how much of it actually happened? There are so many questions to ask about the past.  Our history books don't necessarily tell it all because publishers pick and choose events they feel are most important for individuals to learn and read about. 

One sentence from the reading, The American Indian and the Problem of History edited by Calvin Martin that stood out to me most was the following:
"What distinguishes the post-Archaic phase (ca.500 B.C. to A.D. 1500) above all is the variety of strategies employed by Native North Americans to maintain traditional norms in the face of demographic and environmental pressures and Mesoamerican cultural influences, and the relative success of those strategies." (Martin, 49)
This quote to me implies how difficult it is for a culture, the Native Americans in this case, to maintain their cultural background, while being surrounded and influenced by many other various backgrounds.  It reminds me of America and how we are all an important mix in its recipe.  Diversity can be seen as a positive or a negative.  In my opinion I believe diversity and cultural influences make us better people because we can look at situations from various views.  Its helpful to learn about others cultures as well in order for us to be less prejudice against a group or hateful.  Hate often exists because of lack of knowledge or assumptions.  In all, I enjoyed the reading because it gave me the opportunity to think more deeply about the society I live in and about cultures, diversity, and what history actually means to me.

The Americas - A Hemispheric History

After reading chapter one and excerpts from chapter two, The Americas: A Hemispheric History by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto turned out to be an in-depth descriptive history and unique perspective of how the Americas began.  The section named, "The Multiplication of Americas" in chapter one was most unique for me and triggered many questions and ideas.  "The United States is partly, importantly. composed of hyphenated identities; Americans there are no less American for being Italian-American or Irish-American or Polish-American, or, as they say in the English of America, 'whatever.'" (Fernandez-Armesto, 11) This sentence made me think about my own identity and how I consider myself Mexican-American.  Aside from being Mexican I am also half Spaniard, but have always considered myself just Mexican-American because I've heard the term used more often and frequently.  Living in the United States and being American doesn't mean losing your past identity.  I'm happy to read that America is home to the "hyphenated identities" because it demonstrates how individuals from other countries can come to America and live a better life, but never have to lose their roots.  No one is pure American, every individual has their own unique ethnic background and came from somewhere, even if they don't know.

In chapter two, "The Centers of Civilization" selection attracted me most.

 "The fields were sown with the triad of native American staples: maize, beans and squash." (Fernandez-Armesto, 36)

"Surviving examples show that before the conquest, these glyphs, written on deerskins or maguey paper, made of cactus pulp, were used for an impressive range of purposes." (Fernandez-Armesto, 40)

These two sentences were distinctive to me because it made me think about the past before everything was so easy.  The first sentence was about food and made me realize how many different foods there are and the background and countries they come from.  We may pick up a variety of fruits at our local grocery store, but imagine how many different countries they all came from. 

The second sentence reminded me of technology.  Today we are able to blog like I currently am and write papers on a computer and immediately print them out in less than 15 seconds.  Years ago people were so creative and did many impressive things by using their imagination, such as write on deerskin as a form of paper.  I am so dependant on technology that I would have never thought to write on deerskin if I had no paper, little things like this about how much life has changed really amazes and intrigues me.