JE#4

There were many events that contributed to the racial division of El Paso, which disconnected Anglos and Mexicans. In “Ringside seat to a Revolution”, Romo shows that multiple sides of people that were living there and how it affected it them. El Paso, being a border town had an interesting story of its own with thousands of Chinese, who were once invited by Portfilio Diaz, Japanese who were excluded once they began to get wealthy, African Americans who were told not to fight segregations, Anglos who began to arrive in masses once railroads connected El Paso, and Mexicans, who were stuck in the middle of El Paso being Mexico and El Paso being in the US. The Chinese Exclusion Act contributed to the identity crises because the racism they received in the US was bad. First many of them had to cut their hair, change their clothes and basically “look like Mexicans” in order to cross the international border freely. But once it was made public that a fence should be placed around the Rio Grande to prevent illegal Chinese Immigration, the Chinese responded by going underground. Their identities then became confusing because they weren’t able to be themselves they had to be in hiding and live their lives as if they were invisible to avoided racism. The Chinese in EL Paso had a roller coaster experience because at times they were highly wanted and at other times they were not wanted and highly pushed away. During the Mexican American War, African Americans were stuck in the middle between fighting with each side. African Americans had a connection with Pancho Villa and many were enlisted as privates in his army. But on the other aside, Anglos put African Americans to fight against Villa’s army which then created a tension between African Americans and Mexicans in El Paso. Also, many blacks were sent to fight in Mexico because it was said that their dark skins made it easier for them to cope with Mexican hot weather than American troops. The American army but the African Americans in a position of fighting against Mexicans who were initially the ones that understood them, which in the end disconnected Mexicans and African Americans along the border. The Bath Riots of the 20^th century, created the biggest gap between the Anglos and the Mexicans. This situation where Mexicans living south of the border had to belittle themselves going through this “cleaning” bath process because they were seen as “dirty” increased the Anglos power dynamic. This contributed to their identity crises because only those Mexicans coming from Juarez everyday, just to work had to go through this process but those living in El Paso didn’t even though they were all Mexican.

The photos in this section were very powerful because they show images of what really happened and aren’t sugarcoated like the ones in grade school history books. The picture I found most interested is the one on page 196, where the Anglos soldiers are posing with their guns on their Mexican prisoners. 2 prisoners are looking down and seem to be fearful and shameful because they have guns resting on their heads. All three have their Mexican sombreros in their hands and aren’t armed. The Anglos men are mostly looking at the camera with their guns ether to the heads or shoulders of their Mexican prisoners. I think this picture shows the how has the power. There are 9 Anglos in the picture surrounded 3 Mexicans so it can also be seen as “there are more of us [Anglos] then of them and this is why we are in charge”. The second alarming picture was the disinfecting bath blueprint on page 222. This reminded me a lot of the holocaust even before I read the actual text of the chapter. It made me angry and even a little sick to even see that there was gas rooms and disinfecting rooms. I can’t believe that what I though only happened in Germany and Jewish racism was first a product of Anglo- Mexican racism. It is shocking to think that this treatment of Mexicans happened just because Anglos needed ways to show their power and that they were supreme to other non-white races.

I was extremely shocked by this section because I had no idea that there were other people living the border struggle of racism by Anglos other than Mexicans.  Also, the fact that President Wilson would order for a special census in 1916 to see who exactly was in the land seems as a government tactic to represent population power in the number of occupants. However, this information is definitely skewed because throughout the section it talks about how Chinese went underground and I’m sure many of them along with Native Americans went uncounted for.  Also, how many of these people actually had homes or weren’t consistent travelers back and forth from Jaurez. Also, I wonder what defined a white refugee in this census and what people were counted in this section.