Fighting for Rights

“I thought they would just book me and let me go like they did some other ones, before this. But no, I have to stay put” (Kingsolver 408). Reading Why I Am a Danger to the Public by Barbara Kingsolver upset me because it is a further example of how not long ago minorities were openly discriminated against, and there were virtually no consequences for the discriminators; which is why I decided to find more instances of discrimination towards minorities by looking into the Civil Rights Movement.

                It’s very difficult to realize that only 60 years ago, African Americans were fighting for their rights as citizens of this “great United States.” In fact, we still have people alive that remember segregation.  In the 1940s, while white Americans were shocked over the Nazi’s obliterating an entire culture, they openly hated, beat and killed African Americans for the color of their skin. It may not have seemed as extreme as the Holocaust but it sure was reminiscent.

                William B. Harvey, Vice President and Director for the Center for Advancement of Racial and Ethnic Equity, wrote a paper in which he talks about at age 6 when he was out in the city with his grandmother. He was “brought up to be polite and always respectful of his elders” (Harvey 44). So when his grandmother tried to get the attention of the young white girl behind the counter by raising her hand and addressing her as “ma’am”, he was very confused. Later when he was asking his grandmother why she addressed the girl like that when “she was someone so much younger” she explained that “was just the way it was between white people and colored people” (Harvey 44). This was around the time the infamous Brown V. Board of Education occurred, which deemed segregation in schools as unconstitutional.

                I think we take for granted how far we have come. Today, if someone wanted to attend the University of Alabama, the most they would have to worry about is having a high enough GPA or enough money to pay for it. Nothing life or death. In 1963 George Wallace, the governor of Alabama at the time, blocked the door in front of the school from black students trying to enroll; and he wasn’t alone in wanting to prevent those students from attending. The assemblies against desegregation, which by the way were more than just students, were closer to riots than protests.  Mobs of people filled with hatred of students just trying to make a better life for themselves by getting educated.

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/brown/images/br0174as.jpg

              Another important issue that Americans take for granted is the issue of voting. African Americans men were granted voting rights in 1870, but were prevented from voting with acts such as the Grandfather Clause, which prevented anyone from registering to vote unless their grandfathers had been eligible, as well as the poll tax. Voting was a luxury then and now we take it for granted. In the 2008 Presidential Elections, the voter turnout was 56.8 percent and that was higher than usual. We complain about the issues of today yet we want to do nothing about it; and frankly some of the issues aren’t as bad as they were compared to the 1960s.

                The protagonist Vickie Morales fought for what she believed in because she knew it would get results. No matter who was talking about her behind her back or who was pushing against her, she just dug her boots in and never let up. The people fighting for their rights during the Civil Rights Movement were much like Vickie and in the end, they succeeded.  

"A Timeline of Major Events in the American Civil Rights Movement |." A Timeline of Major Events in the American Civil Rights Movement |. The Majlessi Law Firm. Web. 09 May 2012

Barbara Kingsolver. “Why I Am a Danger to the Public.” The Literary West: An Anthology of  Western American Literature.Ed. Thomas J. Lyon. New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 1999. 396-409. Print.

Harvey, William B., and Adia M. Harvey. "A Bi-Generational Narrative On The Brown Vs Board Decision." Negro Educational Review 56.1 (2005): 43-49. Academic Search Complete. Web. 8 May 2012.

"National Voter Turnout in Federal Elections: 1960–2010." Infoplease. Infoplease, 2011. Web. 09 May 2012. <http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0781453.html>.

The Cultural Blending of Texas

When I visited family in California, it was safe to say that the area was very different than what I was used to in North Central Texas. My cousins were complaining about how hot the weather was while at the same time I was wishing I had a sweater because of how cold it felt. 75 degrees is hot to them. That blew my mind. I met lots of people when I was there and they were always so surprised to hear that I was from Texas. The things I heard were along the lines of, “How many horses do you have?” and “You’re from Texas? Well where are your cowboy boots?” I had my own stereotypes of how San Diego was going to be but I had no clue that people still thought we ride horses everywhere. The short story “Why Texas Is the Way It Is” by Betty Sue Flowers caught my attention because it included many old school ideas of what it means to be a Texan.

                As a native Texan, I know firsthand what goes on in the Lone Star State. What the masses probably don’t realize is how much Mexican culture is involved with Texas. When other states think of Texas, they think of white cowboys; they don’t think about the millions of Mexican Americans that inhabit this great land, and the Mexican culture that has blended over time. In a time where illegal aliens are looked down upon, most Americans don’t want to think of one of their largest states influenced by another country. Flowers mentions the battle at the Alamo and how as a little girl she originally “thought it was six people against the whole Mexican Army” (Flowers 694). I think many people forget that even though we took Texas back from Mexico, the Mexican culture and people stayed in Texas.

                If a person travels to Mexico, largely what they will encounter are the stereotypes of Texas. There are many cowboys, ranchers, and horseback riders. A popular style in Northern Mexico and the southern part of Texas is the Tejano and Ranchero style. It includes men wearing fitted blue jeans, a long sleeve Western style shirt, and cowboy boots. Sounds very similar to what a cowboy from Texas would wear. Along with clothing style, Mexican music has had a large impact on citizens of Texas. One of my favorite bands is a group called Intocable and they are a very popular Tejano band in both Texas as well as Mexico. And I was very shocked to find out that they are originally from Zapata, Texas because all of their music is in the language of Spanish. They were even the first of their genre to play during half time of a Dallas Cowboys game in the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium.  Mexican culture is deeply rooted into Texas history and I wish that more areas of the United States could see that side of us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LYiswKfSJw&feature=related

Mexican Americans have been one group who “continue having loyalties to the state while simultaneously retaining a binary culture past” (De Leon). In fact, Mexican Americans are rapidly catching up to the white population in Texas. According to the most current census, in 2010 43.5% of the population of Texas is white while 37.6% of the population is of Hispanic or Latino origin; and the numbers of Hispanic are only set to increase. Pretty soon Hispanics will be the majority.

But there is one thing that is inherently born into a person that is from Texas no matter how the cultures are meshed; and that is a pride for our state. No other state can fly their flag the same height as the American flag. No other state can say they fought for their own independence and won. And that is why no one messes with Texas.

http://www.elcivics.com/state-lessons/images/texas-usa-flags-flying.jpg

Works Cited

De Leon, Arnoldo. "Mexican Americans." Rpt. in Texas State Historical Association. The Handbook of Texas Online. Web. 26 Apr. 2012. http://ezp.tccd.edu:2192/handbook/online/articles/pqmue.

Flowers, Betty Sue. "Why Texas Is the Way It Is." Lone Star Literature: From the Red River to the Rio Grande: A Texas Anthology. By Don Graham. 1st ed. W. W. Norton &, 2003. 692-97. Print.


"Intocable." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 04 July 2012. Web. 26 Apr. 2012. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intocable.


"Texas QuickFacts from the US Census Bureau." 302 Found. U.S. Census Bureau, 17 Jan. 2012. Web. 26 Apr. 2012. <http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/48000.html>.

Returned to the Unknown

I can’t even begin to imagine how it feels to be pulled from your family and traditions. When I read Lost Sister by Dorothy M. Johnson, Aunt Bessie’s sadness radiated from the page as she was confined to a home that she did not know and her only escape was to stand looking out a window day after day. I was surprised to learn that this particular story was loosely based on the story of Cynthia Anne Parker, daughter of the Parker family from modern day North Texas.

                In 1836, a group of Comanche Indians attacked Fort Parker and captured five people, one of which was Cynthia Anne Parker. She was around nine years of age. She grew up within the tribe and forgot her white ways. She married a Comanche warrior and had three children with him. She was given the name Naudah which in the Comanche language translates to “Someone found.” To the Comanche Indians she was found, not taken.  In 1860, she was recaptured by Sul Ross and his men at the “Battle” at Pease River. It was not much of a battle as the tribe was “caught completely off-guard and massacred” (Selcer 30).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cynthia.jpg

They discovered that one of the Indian women they had captured had blue eyes and eventually realized that they had found Cynthia Anne Parker. She was returned to her “white” family. I put quotations around white because she also had her Indian family that she was torn away from. She had spent more than 20 years with the Comanche Indians and learned their ways. The Comanche Indians were her family yet she was still returned to the Parker family to spend her last years depressed from being pulled away from her tribe and her way of life. The story Lost Sister may have been loosely based but I am sure that the feelings that Aunt Bessie felt were similar to how Cynthia must have felt.

                As I said before, Cynthia Anne had three children and one of them became a very famous figure in history. Just like in Lost Sister, Cynthia Anne’s Indian son was an important leader. Unfortunately, she was never able to see him again. His name was Quanah Parker and he was born into the Indian culture but embraced his white side and bridged the gap between the two worlds.

                Quanah had “the high cheekbones of his father’s people and the blue eyes of his mother’s, but his face was all Comanche” (Selcer 31). It seems that he also received his father’s leadership skills as his father was the tribe’s chief and Quanah came to be well respected by both Indians and Whites. As the Indian culture was being destroyed by the white man, Quanah did his best to save what he could. He knew that if he wanted to have anything done for his people he would have to play by the rules of the government.  The government appointed Quanah the chief leader of the Comanches after they were forced to surrender and settle down on reservation lands. Quanah encouraged “the Comanches to take up ranching and farming, educate their young in government schools and sign contracts with whites” (Selcer 32).

http://www.pan-tex.net/usr/p/pampa-hist/quannah_.gif

                I feel as though Quanah felt guilty for his mother being taken away from her white heritage and that is why he felt obligated to embrace that side of his culture. Maybe he felt as though it would bring his mother closer to him. In almost every article I read, they talked of how much Quanah loved his mother. They truly had a special bond and long after she had died he even had her remains moved near to his home in Oklahoma so that one day they would be buried near each other. Although she wasn’t able to live out her life in freedom I am sure that her spirit is in peace now that she is buried next to her son. It reminds me of the end of Lost Sister when Aunt Bessie’s nephew finds her bones out in the canyon. He says,” But I would not make her a captive again. She’s in the family album. She doesn’t need to be in the family plot” (Johnson 96).

CARLSON, PAUL H., and TOM CRUM. "The "Battle" At Pease River And The Question Of Reliable Sources In The Recapture Of Cynthia Ann Parker." Southwestern Historical Quarterly 113.1 (2009): 32-52. America: History and Life with Full Text. Web. 2 Apr. 2012.

Margaret Schmidt Hacker, "PARKER, CYNTHIA ANN," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fpa18), accessed April 02, 2012. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.

Selcer, Richard. "Quanah Parker. (Cover Story)." Wild West 20.4 (2007): 28-35. Bibliography of Native North Americans. Web. 2 Apr. 2012.

Destruction of the Peaceful

A few hundred years ago, Native Americans had a rich, beautiful culture that was almost completely destroyed by the insatiable white man and his dreams of western expansion. Reading Life among the Piutes by Sarah Winnemucca, opened my eyes to the grace and purity of the Native Americans. In Winnemucca’s writing, the young Native American girl speaks of loving others “without being told to” (Winnemucca 65). Their way of life puts our society today to shame. I explored into the struggles and pain that the Indians were forced to endure because of one sentence from the Winnemucca piece. The sadness can be felt when the young girl talks of the Festival of Flowers that was celebrated “many years ago when [her] people were happier” (Winnemucca 66).             

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                For many US Generals in the 19^th century, the ultimate goal was extermination. They had no respect for human life and only cared about their white culture. When talking about the Apache Indian tribe, the Arizona Miner wrote, “Extermination is our only hope, and the sooner the better” (Jacoby 252). That was written in 1864 and apparently the white man’s plan worked. Today it is rare to see Native Americans because they are living on the reservations they were forced onto. I found an article that details the horrors Native American tribes went through.

                It was common for American settlers to go about the way of a mob mentality and terrorize Native American tribes. In one instance of doing so, a group of settlers burned down an entire Apache camp, along with their supplies so that if any happened to survive they would have no choice but to starve to death. If that wasn’t bad enough, one particularly brutal settler named Sugarfoot Jack, found an orphaned infant, “tossed him into one of the fires and watched him burn alive” (Jacoby 257). It is upsetting to hear politicians put America up on a pedestal as if the founders of this country accepted the culture that was here first. The United States is not built upon the idea of equality, peace, and acceptance. It is built on greed, hate, and wickedness.

                Since killing Native Americans was becoming too extreme, the government decided to take matters into their own hands and passed laws could legally break up tribes.  The government wanted the Indians to assimilate to the white culture and began sending young Indians to boarding schools in the cities. The children would not see their parents or their tribe for many years and were returned to their reservations around the age of 16. During their time at the boarding schools, they were forbidden to speak any Indian words and often times their native languages were forgotten. Many became out of touch with their former lives, could no longer relate to their tribes and that often led to alcoholism and many times, suicide.

http://www.racialicious.com/2008/05/13/npr-reports-on-the-strange-history-of-native-american-boarding-schools/

                The sadness can be seen in this picture of Tom Torlino. Tom was sent to a boarding school and when he was released his native culture was essentially eradicated. There are many other stories and photos just like his. It is safe to say that the common image of an elderly Indian tribesman weeping for the loss of his people is quite accurate.