JE#2 Historical Amnesia

Growing up, we were never taught history from the viewpoint of the conquered peoples. This has lead many Chicanas/os, Latinas/os like myself to experience the condition known as historical amnesia. Through De Leon’s book, I was able to see the hatred and racist perspective of the Anglo folks towards Mexicans and Tejanos living in and around Tejas. Because of conditions like historical amnesia, our peoples unwillingly have forfeited those properties/lands that belong to our people. In reading De Leon’s book, I have been able to learn about the Anglo’s attitude towards Mexican and Tejano folks and how they blame Mexicans for what happened in San Antonio. In school, I was taught that Mexicans were the ones who came and created chaos among the Anglo and Mexicans living in Tejas. To be quite honest, in school and in the mainstream media, I was taught to dislike my people because we did not belong. Because I was so young, I did not really pay attention or ask questions, I just followed what I was told. Historical amnesia is enforced in the U.S. educational system by the simple fact that we are taught European history and American history from the point of view of Euro-Americans. Quite honestly, I feel that my historical amnesia was a 8 up until community college. It was then that I started reading and educating myself with the true history of the Americas. Prior to community college, I feel like I had contributed to the forfeit of the destiny of my peoples. From around middle school through high school, I considered myself an American an negated my Mexican cultura and it had a lot to do with how our “white” teachers in school saw Latina/o students. I felt like I had to assimilate and live up to the American standards.