Immigrants to the U.S. from Latin America and the Caribbean include those people born in the United States who trace their origin to Latin American or Caribbean countries, as well as those born in Latin America and the Caribbean who have migrated to the U.S., including naturalized citizens, legal immigrants, or undocumented immigrants. The U.S. Department of Justice Immigration and Naturalization Service have more detailed definitions. An undocumented immigrant is a person without proper documents showing legal entry into the United States. Although an undocumented immigrant could be someone who accidentally misplaced their passport, this term is generally used to mean illegal person. An accurate assessment of undocumented immigration is difficult to find. A Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education has offered the following estimate:
After an exhaustive review of the data, the blue-ribbon National Research Council panel on the new immigration concluded that an average 200,000 to 400,000 new illegal immigrants enter the USA every year. The panel estimates that the total population of illegal immigrants in the USA today is between 2 and 4 million people. In recent years it is estimated that about half of all illegal people in the United States enter through the US-Mexico Southern parts. Among those who enter without inspection, the great majority are Mexicans and Central Americans. The other half is visa over stayer. They typically fly into US international airports with proper documents and simply overstay their permits. This is an extremely assorted population. Most U.S. citizens would find it surprising that today Canadians constitute an important group of illegal immigrants in the USA.
Famous Immigrants
Famous first, second and third generation immigrants from Latin America have contributed to American cultural, scientific, and political life. They have put a lot of economical effect Into America.
Famous immigrants include:
Luis Walter Alvarez José Angel Gutierrez
Fernando Bujones Oscar Hijuelos
Rita Moreno Celia Cruz
Dr. Americo Paredes Cesar Chavez
Mariah Carey Henry Cisneros
Oscar de la Renta Tito Puente
Mario Molina Aida Alvarez
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LATIN AMERICAN POLITICS
If Latin America today enjoys a degree of democratic rule it is in part because of the political left's existence and its struggle against decades of dictatorship. Likewise if many nations created ramshackle, corrupt and inefficient, but at least partly functioning welfare states to protect part of the population from poverty and variation this was also a product of the left's influence. Despite twenty years of total economic growth (1960-1980), Latin America today is not much better off than it was in the 1950's. During the 1980's and through the beginning of the 1990's, Latin America suffered its worst economic and social crisis since a long time. In 1980 120 million Latin Americans of the region's population lived in poverty. By 1985 the number had grown to 170 million, by 1990 the figure had grown to an estimated 240 million living in poverty. Social injustices flourished. In the 1989 Brazilian elections 70% of the voters had not finished 6 years of schooling. In Mexico, difference is so appalling that the life expectancy of the poorest 10% was 20 years less than for the richest 10%.
For the last 50 years Latin America as lived through a sustained period of economic and social deficiency. If it was not for drug exports, immigration, and the informal economy it would have been much worse for the nations of the hemisphere. Yet despite all these problems Latin America was living through its most substantive and broadly based process of democratization. With the exception of the US sponsored military dictatorships in Central America, one-party dictatorship of Mexico, and Cuba, the rest of the nations of Latin America went through a process of democratization where democracies replaced dictatorship.
In part the economic and social problems can be recognized to a Latin blend of Reaganomics of reliance on the free-market to solve all the problems of society and economy. The problem was that such financially conservative policies deepened unfairness, the rich got richer and the poor got poorer.
In economic and social matters the left tends to highlight social justice as being more important to economic addition, national control of natural resources, social spending over controlling inflation, and policies of fair income distribution over the miracle of the free market, and reducing inequality is more important than competitiveness. For the left today five key dates are milestones of 20th century Latin American political history.
Of the struggles for democracy in Latin America the first was led by the various populist leaders of the region, beginning in the 1930's. There Juan Peron in Argentina, Lazaro Cardenas in Mexico, Getulio Vargas in Brazil, Jose Ibarra in Ecuador, Haya de la Torre in Peru, and in Bolivia they had Victor Paz Estenssoro's. All were populist parties. Populism defines governments of Latin America that followed specifically similar economic policies regardless of the different histories of the countries. Populist parties also seek the inclusion of the masses into the political system. Populists also believe that industrialization, modernization and export development can be achieved with a minimal amount of social cutbacks and pain for the common men and women of their countries.
But despite inclusion populist rules are almost always based on a strict tradition and on strict politics.
The Cuban Revolution impacted the left in Latin America badly. The extreme command also carried out the most profound social and economic reforms in the history of the western hemisphere such as land reform, urban reform, mass education and health programs.
Finally, and most important for the US was the demonstration effect of the Cuban Revolution. The revolution proudly announced its intention of lighting fires of revolution throughout Latin America seeing that its very survival was dependent on creating or supporting revolution throughout the region. One of the sequels from the mellowing of the Cuban Revolution was the emergence of new organization that wanted to change the conservative position of Latin American politics.
A second wave of guerrilla movements developed. From South America this wave moved to Central America, the Caribbean, and in particular to Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. The Guatemalan guerrilla movement got its start following the CIA backed coup of president Arbenz who required to nationalize banana properties owned by United Fruit and to create an 8 hour day and minimum wage law. In his place the US installed a puppet rule that would be friendly to US corporate interests. Beginning in the 1960's the rebel movement grew to where by the 1970's the rebels were engaging the Guatemalan military in open armed conflict. But by the early 1980's the revolutionaries were unable to withstand the scorched-earth policy of General Efrain Montt that drove entire peasant villages into exile in Mexico. The army killed tens of thousands and the US backed regime had one of the worst human rights records in the world. The rebels did not expect the Army's offensive in 1982 and were totally unequipped in terms of weapons and missiles to deal with it. But despite the defeat the popular political military organizations built up during the 1970's survived and they continue today to be a fundamental political actor in Guatemalan politics.
In El Salvador, rebel movements sprung up after the failed 1932 peasant insurrection when the military killed up to 40,000 people in two weeks. By the late 1940's Salvador Carpio had formed the FPL in order to take the oligarchy of El Salvador. The mass based opposition grew through the 1960's and then in the late 1970's matured into the FMLN. In the 1970's the FMLN was secretly arming itself, and by the late 1970's had sufficient firepower to confront the military. In late 1979 and 1980 the military unleashed a severe offensive against all big businesses in the cities. At this point the FMLN faced a decision to either be ruined in the cities or to take to the mountains and prepare for armed resistance from the countryside. But that required a lot more guns. Between 1980 and 1982 over 10,000 weapons with bullets were smuggled So many guns arrived that fighters had two weapons each. The FMLN was convinced that the only way they could win and make political demands on the systems was through armed struggle.
Rudolfo Alfonso Anaya was born on October 30, 1937. He was born in the rural village of Pastura, New Mexico. His parents were Rafaelita Mares and Martin Anaya. He was the fifth out of the seven children. Rudolfo Anaya had vivid memories of his childhood. He was told how a curandera helped with his birth, and how he crawled toward the pencil and paper, choosing education over the life of a vaquero or farmer. His father was a vaquero, a rancher to roam the llano. His mother's family were farmers working sunrise to sundown. In addition to his parents, his family consisted of him, 4 sisters and 2 brothers who spent his childhood fighting in W.W.II. His childhood was surrounded by sisters, and the neighbouring Chavez brothers. With the Chavez boys he would swim, fish were there was golden carp, fight and swear. Rudolfo grew very close to an aunt who lived with them, and who died during his childhood. One of the most tragic instances in his life occurred when he was swimming. He dived into a pool of water and fractured his neck. Over many years he was able to regain his movement. Anaya went on to college at the University of New Mexico. It was a depressing time for him, and from the influence of his freshman English course, began to write poetry and novels which he would later burn. Eventually college ended and Anaya worked as a public school teacher in Albuquerque from 1963 to 1970. During that period, he married Patricia Lawless. Afterward, he worked as the director of counselling for the University of Albuquerque for two years before accepting a position as an associate professor at the University of New Mexico. When Anaya was a freshman in college, he began writing poetry and novels. Anaya was strongly encouraged by his wife to write.
He followed her suggestion and started his 7 year journey to write Bless Me, Ultima. After being refused publication by countless publishers, a group of Chicanos at the University of California at Berkeley published his book. Immediately it won the Premio Quinto Sol Award for the best book published by a Chicano in 1972. Since then Anaya has travelled to give speeches about his book and life, and has continued writing and teaching English. Similarities between Anaya's life and Bless Me, Ultima
Antonio's father is a vaquero and his mother is from a farming family. Antonio is surrounded by sisters during his childhood. Antonio's brothers are off fighting World War II. Antonio and his friends often fight and swear. Ultima comes to live with Antonio and later dies. Antonio waits to see a golden carp come many times. Florence drowns after hitting his head on the bottom of a pool of water.
It is set in New Mexico in the 1940s. This book follows the story of Antonio Marez, a boy who meets a curandera named Ultima. She is the on who cures people with herbs and magic. Antonio Marez was six years old when Ultima came to stay. Under her wing Antonio will investigate the family ties that bind and scratch him for life. He will discover himself in the magical secrets of the pagan past and a legendary legacy as obvious as the Catholicism of Latin America.
The main plotline involves Ultima's struggle to stop the witchcraft of the three daughters of Tenorio Trementina, the main villains in this book. In the book is when Antonio mentally matures into an adult as it says, it is a coming of age story. In the story Antonio, who is witness to several deaths, is forced to deal with religious and ethical issues. As Antonio grows up, he finds that he must choose between the two opposing families from which he came, the Marez, wild and untamed cowboys from Antonio's father's side, and the Lunas, quiet, religious farmers from whom his mother descended. His father wants to help Antonio make his own choice about his future. His mother's dream is for him to become a Catholic priest, but over the course of the book Antonio becomes pessimistic with the faith and through Ultima learns of the broad awareness and possibilities of other gods. Much of the book is spent with Antonio trying to reunite Paganism with Catholicism as well as the Lunas with the Marez. In this story Antonio experiences many deaths, which force him to mature and face the reality of life.
Summary of the Book
The night before Ultima’s arrival, Antonio lies in his bed in the little attic above his mother’s kitchen. He hears his parents talking about Ultima. His father says that Ultima is old, and though she has served the people as a healer her entire life, she has now been reduced to be living alone out on the llano. Antonio knows that his father is a vaquero and loves the wildness of the llano, while his mother is from the Luna family, who are all farmers, and prefers society. Long ago, Maria convinced Gabriel to move to the town of Guadalupe so that their children could have an education, and Gabriel still misses the life on the open plains of the llano.
Antonio is happy that his parents have decided to take Ultima into their home and to provide for her. As he drifts off into sleep, he has a dream in which he floats over the hills of the llano to the village of Las Pasturas and toward the window of a lighted hut. There, a woman is in labour, and Antonio recognizes that he is witnessing his own birth. After the baby Antonio is born, his mother’s brothers arrive and declare that he will be a Luna and perhaps become a priest. His father’s brothers declare that he will continue their tradition of a cowboy wandering on the llano. Each family wishes to arrange of the afterbirth according to their family traditions. The Lunas seek to bury it in the earth, while the vaqueros seek to burn it and scatter the ashes across the open plains. Ultima stops the resulting disagreement by stating that she will bury the afterbirth herself. She declares that only she will know Antonio’s destiny.
Antonio is anxious the next morning. He knows that he will soon begin school, and he is nervous at the thought of leaving his mother. He talks with his mother about his birth and she confirms that Ultima helped at her bedside, and she urges her children to treat Ultima with respect when she arrives. She then strongly implies that she wants Antonio to become a priest. Antonio was troubled so he decides to visit his friend Jason but finds that he is not home. Antonio guesses that Jason has disobeyed his father’s wishes by going to visit an Indian who lives alone in the hills. Antonio returns home to work in the garden.
Later that day, Gabriel arrives with Ultima. When Antonio shakes Ultima’s hand, he senses the power of a whirlwind pass around him. He calls her by her given name instead of the expected greeting, Grande, and Ultima says that she knew when he was born that she would one day be close to him. Ultima’s owl takes up residence near Antonio’s home. Although owls are said to be a disguise taken by witches, Antonio dreams that the owl carries the Virgin of Guadalupe and all the babes of Limbo to heaven.
They are often respected members of the community, being highly religious and spiritual. Literally translated as healer from Spanish, curandera often use herbs and other natural remedies to cure illnesses, but their main method of healing is magic. This is because they believe that the causes of many illnesses are lost nasty spirits, a lesson from God, or a curse.
Curandera treat ailments like espanto, Spanish for shock, empacho, Spanish for surfeit, susto, Spanish for fright, mal aire, literally bad air, and mal de ojo, Spanish for evil eye. They also treat ailments with religious rituals, ceremonial cleansing, and prayers. While curandera are capable of treating these ailments, in reality they rarely do for many ailments, such as empacho, can be treated by family members. Often Curandera employ the use of sung Icaros to contact certain spirits to aid them in their healing work.
The remedies of the curandera are often helpful, but sometimes have negative effects on the health of their patients. For example, a common method of healing mollera caída, a condition in which an infant's fontanelle has sunken, is to hold the infant's feet with its head down and perform a ceremonial ritual. Other remedies are harmless for example a common method of treating mal de ojo is to rub an egg over the body of the sick to draw out the evil spirit causing the disease. Remedies also vary between regions, in Andean countries the guinea pig is often used as a ceremonial method.
These methods of treating health problems often lead to conflict with modern medicine, because doctors reject the curandera's healing as superstitious and worthless. As a result, curandera have often experienced unfairness and been likened to witches, by the medical profession. However, because of the importance of the mystical in traditional Mexican culture, these insults generally lead only to disagreement and rejection of modern medicine by traditionally minded Mexicans. Other medical doctors, recognizing the benefits of the spiritual and emotional healing offered by curandera, have begun to work in conjunction with them, supporting their use of rituals and ceremonies in the healing of the sick while insisting that patients receive modern medical attention as well.