JE #4

The Chinese exclusion act is a part of history that I was not aware of. Usually, when I hear about segregation and racism I think of blacks and whites in the south. The Chinese exclusion act demonstrates how the US tries to maintain supremacy of all other races. Anglos living in el Paso, Texas constructed grotesque images of Chinese. I found this particular quote interesting in David Romo’s book Ringside Seat to a Revolution An Underground Cultural History of El Paso and Juarez: 1893-1932,“Chinese would often cut their braids and exchange their blue jeans and felt slippers” for the most picturesque Mexican dress”(198).” This exemplifies the cultural schizophrenia of not only Mexican but Chinese as well.

For the most part, I only understood the Mexican revolution within the borders of Mexico. The division amongst Mexicans living in the US was new for me. The privileged Mexican who had the wealth and power sided with the Anglo while the poor and working class Mexican was sympathetic towards the revolution. Romo mentions in his book that Anglos demonized Mexican during the war, “photographers and filmmakers were on the front lines of image and propaganda war (197).” This contextualizes the current animosity that the US has against people of Mexican descent.

 The Bath riots were an act against the humiliating condition Mexicans would have to undergo when they crossed the border. It was a mujer name Carmelita Torres who resisted and demonstrated against these conditions and was followed by hundreds. This fed propagandists with material to dehumanize Mexicans.

There are two photos in Ringside Seat to a Revolution An Underground Cultural History of El Paso and Juarez: 1893-1932 that illustrate a sense of cultural schizophrenia.

First image is the Chinese English class in El paso on pg 198. The picture is a divide between Chinese wearing traditional clothes while others wear western clothing while attending an English Class. These are Chinese who are acculturating and others who are assimilating. How many Chinese resisted assimilation and how long did they survive?

Second, the Braceros who undergo medical inspection on pg 238 & 239 shocked me. Mexican submitted to the picture, what did this do to their psyche? I cannot help but wander how that trauma is carried out through the generations. They cross the border and I would assume had a strong sense of personal identity and then to be stripped, herded, chemically sterilized, and photographed had to have changed them. How do they not question who they believe they are?