Daniels, Chapter 12

Before I even started reading chapter 12 the title caught my attention.  I questioned what Daniels meant by it since it states: "from the new world".  The reason I didn’t understand the title is because the Mexico use to own California, Arizona, New Mexico and parts of Utah, Nevada, and Colorado.  Technically the Mexicans were already the new world before the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo changed all that.  Being that the western states were once the home of Mexicans, a home they owned, it is sad that they are ridiculed and stereotyped for being illegal.  Having to show their paperwork to prove that they are here rightfully.

Although the section is very short Daniels talks about the zoot suit riots.  The zoot suit was seen as a flashy outfit to wear because of the material it was made out of.  The young Mexican Americans in Los Angeles wore it in 1943 during WWII.  During this time the Americans wore "victory suits", which was worn to represent as a sense of patriotism for America when they were entering the war.

There were many sailors who were the "victory suits" and saw it as an offense when these young boys would wear the zoot suits.  They  started to attack young Mexican Americans wearing the zoot suits, they would "de-zoot" a boy wearing one by ripping their suits and cutting of their long slicked back hair.  They would then burn their suits and at times even urinated on the suits and even the young Mexicans.  Soon people realized that the riots were towards an Mexican living within Los Angeles in general. 

The chapter referenced the Bracero Program. The Bracero Program was introduced in 1942 as a means for Mexicans to come to America and work in the fields.  There were no workers on the fields and America was going into war at the time.  Although the program was beneficial it had it's fair share of discrimination. Many of the farm owners took advantage of the workers since they could not speak or understand English.  There was also Operation Wetback.  This is where Americans beat the farm workers and started sending them back over the border.  The people committing these violent acts failed to realize that it wasn’t a good idea to send the Mexicans back seeing as most of the Mexicans who were victims of an attack were actually born in the United States.