Hispanic/Latino Struggles

Presenter: Samantha Almanza

Presenter Status: Undergraduate student

Academic Year: 20-21

Semester: Fall

Faculty Mentor: Anne-Louise Dierkes

Department: Art

Funding Source/Sponsor: SYRCE Symposium

Screenshot URL: https://drive.google.com/uc?id=13kii9ohuG-dkaLs9qhhhmZdHsYrn9ZMU

Abstract:
I focused on the Latino/Hispanic community activism movements in the 1980s and leading up to that. The Chicano movement was a big part of this time, and it allows us to understand Hispanics were also a minority being mistreated and fighting for equality. Years of oppression, mistreatment, desegregation, and struggles with education. The Chicano Movement first began in the 1960s mostly known as El Moviemiento which advocated social and political empowerment through chicanismo. Those in the Chicano Movement took the racial slur “chicano” and fully owned it showing their pride and heritage. Leaders in the movement pushed for change in multiple parts of the American society. Some things being pushed for change were labor rights, education reforms, land reclamation, and equality. A big one to focus on was the farm work issue, farm workers who were mostly hispanic were being paid poorly, working in harsh conditions, and had no protection/insurance rights. Cesar Chavez was a Latino-American civil rights activist. Cesar Chavez fought for the rights of farm workers since he personally saw the struggles firsthand with his parents. Cesar Chavez educated farm workers of their struggles and encouraged them and others to fight for better pay and safer working conditions. In 1972, Cesar Chavez was at Sonoma State University giving a speech informing the students of the time about proposition 22. Going into the 1980s the population of Latinos grew larger in numbers. In 1985, President Ronald Reagan was extremely racist claiming there was an “invasion of illegal aliens”. Claiming the borders have lost control, enforcing the Immigrant Reform and Control Act. This led to increased patrol along the U.S.-Mexican border, sanctions on employees of undocumented workers, and some programs for long-term undocumented residents. In the 1980s the outbreak of HIV and AIDS swept across the United States. Chicanos/Latinos joined movements having to do with HIV and AIDS to bring awareness.