JE #2

We live in a society that enforces us to believe that the American way of life is THE way of life and that whatever we learn about American History in school, specifically K-12, is the correct history. Growing up in California, roughly around 4^th grade if my memory serves me correct, we learn California history. We learned about the Native tribes here before the Spanish and how the Spanish came in to “civilize” them. We’re taught that the missions in California only saw good things and never hurt or killed anyone. I remember in high school, during our lessons about the US-Mexico War, that the Mexicans were the enemy—that they were out to hurt the white man. My brother, being five years older than me, had began informing me the correct version of the war and it wasn't until I was in college did I learn even more details of the relationship between the US and Mexico. We’re even told to believe that the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo was a peaceful one and that it fairly allowed the US to have the 55% of Mexico that it stole. They always say that “history is written from the winner’s perspective” and that is completely correct. It saddens me that the actual truth of what happened has been lost, hidden, and forgotten with each generation and that it will continue that model.

We’ve always been told to “Remember the Alamo!” but never once as a child did I know what that meant but the more and more that I looked into the slogan, I discovered that by remembering the Alamo was reinforcing anti-Mexican sentiment. Arnoldo De Leon’s “They Called Us Greasers” provides a great look on life in Texas during the 19^th Century, one that would never be discussed in an American History class. I appreciate the detailed accounts De Leon provides on how racist and evil the Texians were to Tejanos and Tejanas. The history between Anglo Texans and Tejanos is quite complicated and vast but it’s definitely important to see how the relations between the two cultures and how the clash has carried out all these years. But, historical amnesia still exists and is reinforced in mainstream US education that exists outside of the US-Mexican relations. Native American history is excluded or sugarcoated in American History class, even the acquisition of Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam in 1898 from the Spanish and even Hawaii prior to that is forgotten or covered up. It just shows how the US wants to be perceived—as the good guy but the reality is American History has its cruel and unjust, “undemocratic” ways. The US is a big brother that has bullied and damaged others.

I like to believe that my historical amnesia is decreasing, that perhaps my 10 from my high school days is now at a 5 or hopefully lower now that I’m older and more educated but, as I see it, there’s always room for improvement. I want to learn more truths to history, learn the correct ways and not from the perspective of the winner. I believe that by reading and learning both sides to history allows one to create their own idea and perspective on the truth.