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"Things Don't Have To Be The Way They've Always Been",,"Gloria Anzaldua’s Borderlands was one of the assigned texts in my U.S. Mexico Border class this semester. In this book, Anzaldua writes about borders she encounters between herself and men, other cultures, and even her own culture as a homosexual Mexican-American woman from the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. She expresses a deeply planted love for her culture by using personal narrative, poetry, and the unique approach of switching between English and Spanish without warning.
Amongst all of this literary beauty, she directly addresses the shortcomings of the Mexican-American culture. One problem Anzaldua specifically points out is machismo. She bashes machismo by calling out the oppression women experience because of this culturally developed mentality of male superiority.
As a native of the Rio Grande Valley like Anzaldua, I know what it is to live in a community where two worlds collide and make one. Living in a place where strong Mexican influence is easily detectable by seeing the kinds of restaurants operating or by hearing the kinds of languages spoken in schools (Spanish, Spanglish, Tex-Mex), I grew a love for this fusion of cultures. With this love came a sense of duty to defend my culture which typically meant a shut mouth about its flaws. I continually accepted the explanation, “Things are the way they are because that’s how they’ve always been.” I thought if I drew attention to something I thought was wrong with my culture, I would be embarrassing my own kind.
It was not until I read Anzaldua’s book that I realized that did not have to be true. Like a parent would, I could show tough love to my culture by teaching it to acknowledge and learn from its mistakes, instead of biting my tongue about them. The Humanities are frequently studied to learn about populations, experiences, and ideas that may seem to only be relevant in places that are worlds away. Learning about others is of great value. And so is learning from others. But let us remember that the Humanities can always have something to teach us about the worlds that are our own.",,"Borderlands by Gloria Anzaldua",,"September 2018","Gabriela Lopez, 21, Texas A&M University Undergraduate Student",,,,,,things-dont-have-to-be-the-way-theyve-always-been,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Dr. Marian Eide's Violence and Literature class at Texas A&M University","Anzaldúa, Gloria,Biculturalism,Books & Reading,Borderlands,Borderlands/La Frontera: La New Mestiza,College Station, Texas,Gender Inequality,Rio Grande Valley, Texas,Social Justice,Students,U.S./Mexico Relations",http://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/267/Borderlands-Image.jpg,Text,,1,0
"Executive Order 9066",,"
Actor, author, director, and activist George Takei recalls his family’s resilience and ability to find joy, beauty, and love in simple treasures while imprisoned in Japanese internment camps in the 1940s. He notes that the humanities remind us that we are better than war and destruction and together are capable of bettering society.
To celebrate its 40th year anniversary of grant making, programming, and partnerships that connect Californians to each other, California Humanities invited a group of 40 prominent Californians to explore what the humanities mean to them. For more information visit California Humanities: We Are the Humanities.
",,,,,"George Takei, actor, author, director, activist",,,,,,george-takei-executive-order-9066,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"",,,"Activism,Actors,Aesthetics,Executive Order 9066,Families,Imprisonment,Internment Camps,Japanese Americans,Nature,Resilience,Rohwer War Relocation Center,Rohwer, Arkansas,Roosevelt, Franklin Delano,Social Justice,World War II (1939-1945)",http://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/5/145/Japanese_internment_detainees.jpg,"Moving Image","California Humanities: “We Are the Humanities”",1,0 "The Jungle: Personalizing the Historical Struggle of Workers","Sinclair famously quipped that he “aimed for the public’s heart” but accidentally “hit it in the stomach.” His novel hit Shedd in both places. The Jungle personalized the hopes and struggles of those living in the era that she would eventually study as a modern U.S. historian. Sinclair’s story prompted her to seek answers to questions: How did this novel prompt policy change? How did it capture the struggles of historical actors and immigrants in the early 20th century? What other novels did Sinclair write? What institutional structures need reform in order to be more just?","An early encounter with muckraking American novelist Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle exposed Kristen Shedd to issues surrounding human rights and animal rights in the early 20th century. For Shedd, the 1906 novel exposed the intersections of fiction, policy, history, and social justice. Sinclair’s story prompted her to seek answers to questions: How did this novel prompt policy change? How did it capture the struggles of historical actors and immigrants in the early 20th century? What other novels did Sinclair write? What institutional structures need reform in order to be more just?",,"The Jungle by Upton Sinclair",,,"Kristen Shedd, Fullerton College & The John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress",,,,,,shedd-jungle-personalizing-history,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"",,,"Animal Rights,Books & Reading,Boston (1928 novel),Emigration & Immigration,History,Human Rights,Kluge Scholars,Literature,Muckraking (Journalism),Policy,Professors,Sacco-Vanzetti Trial,Sinclair, Upton,Social Justice,The Jungle",http://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/11/124/The_Jungle.1.jpg,"Moving Image","Kluge Scholars",1,0 "Eyes on the Mockingbird","Without Eyes on the Prize, I would have never seen what was happening outside of my little hometown. I knew there were different cultures, ethnicities, and nationalities surrounding Durand, but I never came in contact with them. I certainly never knew that people had to fight to be able to go to school or that fire hoses were used to deter people from going to school. It also taught me that minority does not indicate a color or even social grouping; rather it indicates a lack of political power. By Lee showing that people in the minority were being harmed by those with power, I was able to see how important it is for me to stand up for human rights. Without the humanities, I would have been blind to the world.","I grew up in a very small town in rural Wisconsin. When I looked at my classmates it was like looking in a mirror. Because of that, I never realized that there were many people who were facing hardships because of their minority status and people who were taking advantage of them. Fast forward to my sophomore year of high school. Mrs. Shaw made it her mission to open our eyes. She wanted to expose us to the realities of this world. While I questioned it at the time, she showed us the entire Eyes on the Prize documentary. She would allow us to watch, and then she would force us to talk about it and face the facts. We had to face the fact that people could be cruel, especially if they felt they had power over others. The curriculum then went on to To Kill a Mockingbird. Mrs. Shaw made sure to show us that skin color is not the only way to dictate belonging in the minority. She made us see the importance of standing up for the fact that people are people, no matter what, no matter their political power.Luis Rodriguez, Poet Laureate of Los Angeles in 2014, explains how his love for books and libraries rescued him from a life of trouble. He notes that through books, he discovered more about people and their lives, which encouraged his interest in writing about injustice and activism.
To celebrate its 40th year anniversary of grant making, programming, and partnerships that connect Californians to each other, California Humanities invited a group of 40 prominent Californians to explore what the humanities mean to them. For more information visit California Humanities: We Are the Humanities.
",,,"California Humanities",,"Luis Rodriguez, Poet Laureate of Los Angeles in 2014","Standard YouTube License",,,,,luis-rodriguez-writing-activism,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"",,,"Activism,Books & Reading,Gangs,Immigration,Juvenile Delinquency,Libraries,Literature,Los Angeles, California,Mexico,Multiculturalism,Oral History,Poetry,Poets Laureate,Social Justice,Storytelling,Vocation,Writing",http://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/5/54/LA_Public_Library.jpg,"Moving Image","California Humanities: “We Are the Humanities”",1,0