Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America
Mexicans may have had one of the longest relationships with the United States of all nationalities and immigrated to this country in the largest numbers, but that by no means equates to how they have been treated over the centuries. Latinos account for the largest wave of immigration in this country, surpassing the 14.4 million Europeans arriving from 1901 to 1920, and accounting for more than 50 percent of immigration since 1960. Growing over seven times as fast as the rest of the nation during the 1980s, Latinos are expected to become the largest minority group in the country by the year 2010. Yet, from the very beginning, as seen in the book Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America by Juan Gonzalez, they have been treated as second-class citizens in more ways than one. The overriding theme of the book is America's imperialistic power over its years since forming as a nation. In the first section, Gonzalez portrays the history of the colonial period, called "Raices," or "Roots" in English, which is much different than the history read in most U.S. history books. It clearly shows that the majority of American political leaders in the early 19th century eyed Spain's neighboring colonies as free for the taking. It had
In the last chapter of Harvest of Empire, as Gonzalez focuses on one of the issues, Puerto Rico, the world's oldest colonies. no interest in the future of these revolutionary societies, even if they were following the example set by the U. This mindset culminated in Manifest Destiny, the desire of the U. As noted by Gonzalez, his goal is (p. As he notes, contempt for Latin Americans began changing into an even more emotional vein-fear---of hordes of Spanish-speaking "barbarians at the gate. and Latin America over their history together, besides wars. He describes the varying arguments for statehood, commonwealth and independence and finds none of them to his liking. There are some places he could have toned down his anger against the U.
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