The Ancestral Times Reflection (Allie Pequeno)
In our project, “The Ancestral Times”, we discussed the course’s themes of immigration, being “othered,” worker’s rights, and the bracero program. In the middle of the trifold, we mimicked the layout of a real New York Times article to create a vintage look of a newspaper. On the sides, we provided more images that connected to our newspaper articles to further the audience’s understanding of our families’ journey to the United States.
For the theme of immigration, we each wrote about our own families’ experience coming to America. We talked about what prompted them to leave and what they experienced throughout their life. For example, my great grandfather immigrated to the United States to escape the tension of the Mexican Revolution occurring in the 1910s. Petros’s father came to the United States for a better job, life, and environment and Cristina’s mother came for a better education. Once in America, each of the members of our family faced discrimination, which we often discussed in class.
We each talked about how our families were “othered” in America and how they felt like outsiders in the US. My great grandfather and Petros’s father are both laborers and both suffered from low wages because they were both immigrants. They both felt discouraged because they were often doing better work than the Americans that were being paid much better. This and other forms discrimination made them feel like they did not belong in America. On top of this, Cristina’s mother came to America for a better education, but there were few international students at the time. She also felt like she did not fit in the college environment and like she was an outsider.
For the theme of worker’s rights, my great grandfather and Petros’s father were both highly affected. My great grandfather was living in Delano when Ceaser Chavez and the United Farm Workers association (UFW) led the Delano grape protest. The protestors struck down grape vines in hopes of raising awareness and giving field immigrant laborers a higher hourly wage. This protest helped bring attention to the cause and, later, greater pay for workers like my great grandfather. Petros’s father was also directly affected by unsafe working conditions as well, suffering from severe injuries. Both of these examples emphasize the need to ensure all worker’s rights are being exercised and that they are safe and getting a good wage. Our families provide real examples of the activity we did in class about the safety and fair treatment of laborers.
For the theme of the bracero program, I discussed the life of my great grandfather, Jacobo Martinez, who immigrated from Coahulia to Texas in the 1920s for the first Bracero program. World War I was occuring during this time and American laborers were drafted to fight in the war. The United States and Mexico came to an agreement to hire Mexican workers to labor on American farms. My great grandfather was part of this movement and crossed at Eagle Pass to work in Texas. He first labored here for many years, but then moved to Arizona to work, then later worked and settled in Delano, California. This relates to our class discussion of the second bracero program, 20 years later, and the video created to promote it.
All of our stories in our “Ancestral Times” newspaper were heavily intertwined with the themes we discussed in class. We included the topics of the bracero program, worker’s rights, being “othered”, and immigration in our families’ stories, applying these ideas to our families. By creating this poster board, it was a celebration of our families’ journey to America and our rich discussions throughout the course.