Reflection #2 - Elizabeth Pérez

Since coming to the University of Michigan, I’ve realized the amount of information that I have access that can help me learn more about “my people”. From classes and to extensive written knowledge, I realized that there is so much I didn’t know about my own culture and the struggles its had to encounter. When having to do any research or having ny free reign on a project for a class, I generally tie it back to something related to Mexicans, being Mexican American, or Latinos. So when looking for an image to write about, I decided to make it related to one of these things. For me it is really important to know this information first hand and not have anyone tell me about me.

The picture is one of the many Mexicans that helped Texans pick cotton. In my opinion, this image continues to make the case that Mexicans, for a very long time, have helped the US progress in some aspect or another. It represents the Mexican work ethic and their willingness to do anything to provide for their own. It shows that for a long time, the US and Mexicans have had this complicated, long-standing relationship.

I like this image for those very reasons. I like that there is proof that Mexicans have always been willing to do even the most arduous jobs in order to provide for their families. I like that you can imply, to a certain extent, that the US has needed Mexicans. With the image description, “One of the hundreds of Mexicans who lent a hand to Texas cotton growers. Without this help from across the border this cotton would not have been picked”, one can assume that a relationship with Mexico was not always so negative. What I mean is that this image reflects differently on this US-Mexican relationship than the current one. Unlike it can be assumed in this image, the US is now seen as highly helpful and beneficial for Mexico. It doesn’t make Mexico seem so needy and unable to make it on its own.

From this image, I get the sense that there’s a lot more information out there to help tell a better story about Mexico and its people with respect to the US. It makes me think that history can be retold to a certain extent. It makes me think of Jovita Gonzalez and how she revolutionized Texas folklore. This can be applied across the entire United States, and across other Latino-based cultures. It makes me realized how much knowledge is missing from the world on so many peoples. It really makes me appreciate courses like this one that try to help tell these stories and not let these histories go untold or unknown.

Based on my opinions shared above, I was very happy to watch Gloria Arrellanes’ oral history. I didn’t expect to be so captivated by the story she was going to share. My plan was to watch the first part of all the oral histories and decide what woman captured my attention the most and then watch that one oral history. Gloria was the second clip that I watched and that’s where I stopped looking for an oral history. Off the back her attitude and hearing that she had been part of so many things, I knew that she would be interesting to watch and that I’d learn so much from her.

Gloria’s way of ending up involved in the Chicano Movement and the Brown Berets was really amusing to me. I thought, how funny that she ended up doing so many great things just because she overheard people when out hanging out or cruising around. To hear that she went out and cruised the streets made her more of a real person to me. It made me identify with her. I think that her being able to express this in the interview and kind of laugh about it was what made me even more invested in what she had to say. She was a real person, out having fun and enjoying her life but was also able to do so many things for such a large group of people. Gloria attended conferences, riots, was involved in the Brown Berets, helped run a clinic for some time, and above all was able to reach out and cater to the Latino community.

One of the things that stood out to me the most from her interview was the way she expressed herself about her image. She said she was a big and loud woman and that helped her be heard. She used that to make a difference and stand up for herself and other woman. Watching her tell this was what made it more enjoyable, because you could see how she felt about it and how much being big and loud really helped her and what she wanted to do. This was interesting because her father wanted her to be a traditional, Mexican housewife. For so many years, Mexican women weren’t allowed to speak up for themselves and the idea of Gloria being one of those women just didn’t seem likely. She would help revolutionize the role woman played in the household with her bigness and loudness.

This boldness of hers was also displayed in her telling of the trips she made with others involved in the movement and the trips they made in her Volkswagen. Her willingness to travel with all men and not realize the type of things that she’d encounter along their way to DC was really admirable. She took so many risks in order to help the Chicano Movement make progress and try to get it to meet its goal.

As a Mexican American woman, this makes me proud but it frustrates me at the same time because the efforts and accomplishments made by woman for this movements aren’t very commonly known. Like Gloria says and we’ve learned from this class, woman were behind everything. They were the ones doing all the work behind the scenes, the ones actually getting things done but they received little to no credit. It’s saddening that the stories of women like Gloria weren’t passed on and recognized like those of the males involved. When Gloria says that she was a little disappointed that the new director of the clinic she worked with for so long didn’t know whom she was, I couldn’t help to think “ouch” like Gloria said. She was what made the clinic successful and for people not to know whom she was, was just disheartening. This made me think about how many efforts made by woman go untold and have the potential of being forgotten. Gloria was fortunate enough to be able to tell her story and have that part of Chicano history be known, but what about the women that aren’t heard? What about the woman that have the potential of being forgotten?

What Gloria had to say was very educational and motivating. It was very thought provoking and left me with the desire to learn more and appreciate the opportunity to be able to collect more stories like hers that help tell a story very important to me. It left me thinking that there’s so much else I can do to help tell a more accurate story.