"Foreigners in Their Own Land" (Takaki Chp. 7)

1.) The Mexicans were in the U.S. first (i.e. California) where they were continually being invaded by illegal American immigrants. The Americans thought it was their "manifest destiny" to conquer all of America and expand westward into the land that rightfully belonged to the Mexicans, forcing them out of their homeland.

2.) The significance of the title of this chapter is that the Mexicans gradually became native to their homeland in America due to the Americans forcing them out and overpowering them. As Takaki states on page 177, "Suddenly, they were 'thrown among those who were strangers to their language, customs, laws, and habits."

3.) The Mexicans, before becoming overpowered by the Americans, were made of classes based on whether they were of "pure Spanish blood" (the upper class) follwed by the laboring class, going down the class system by shades of skin, with the darkest on the bottom (mainly Indians). Once Americans took over, it was still based on skin color and race but anyone not American was lower than the Americans. They were treated unfairly and looked at as unequal.

4.) The Mexians resisted discrimination and racialization by "creating a community of the dispossessed" and fighting for the rights that they believe they were entitled. THey went on many strikes to defy the racism that Americans presented in jobs, land, taxes, etc. One example of such is in 1903 when the Clifton-Morenci mines were strucky by some "3,500 miners, 80 percent of them Mexican. The strikers demanded an eight-hour day, free hospitalization, paid life insurance, fair prices at the company stores, and the abolition of the dual wage system."

5.)One example in the chapter of race is when Mexican diplomat Manuel Crescion Rejon states that "Our race, our unfortunate people will have to wander in seach of hospitality in a strange land, only to be rejected later." An example of ethnicity is how the Mexicans gained a sense of pride in their ethnic background of being Mexican and united because of this, resisting the American power. THe difference between the two as they are discussed here is that race pertains more to the color of one's skin and how they are treated because of this characteristic, while ethnicity had more to do with one's ethnic background and where they are from (as well as the customs associated with this aspect).