MAS 265 study guides (half done lol) and powerpoints module 1

MAS 265 Study Guide 2B: Reconsidering the Aztecs 

Mesoamerica: Where is it?  

Parts of America where there was rainfall-based maize cultivation, in southern Mexico 

Tenochtitlan 

 Layout  

The city was built around the shrine at the place of omen. It was a planned city center surrounded by unplanned residential quarters. They used a grid the establish alignment for buildings, walled off the sacred part of the city, and then copied the architecture of downtown.  

Transportation 

Wide roads, canoes, boats, canals 

Power of architecture  

Built to impress both human and divine  

Chinampas  

Raised fields, ancient technology for turning swamps into highly productive fields  

Marketplaces  

Physical space where buyers and sellers congregate to exchange goods and services. Markets in smaller settlements are held once a week. Aztec markets and trade were largely independent form the state. 

Codices  

Manuscript Paintings 

Central Mexico rural or urban? 

Rural and Urban contexts were not as different as they are today. Apart from the downtown area cities didn't look very different from villages. Peasants didn't need to move to the city to prosper and urbanites did not have to give up farming  

 What do we learn from Mihaua’s visit to the imperial capital? 

We see how people moved and how the city looked according to a provincial man 

Module 3B: Colonization and the Power of Translators 

Power of Translators 

They needed them to obtain food and water, but more importantly, to expand Spain's dominion by conveying the meaning of military victory  

Malintzin 

An indigenous interpreter for the Spanish, she was gifted to Cortez already knowing how to speak Nahuatl (Aztec) and Mayan 

She was good as a translator because she didn't have a home attachment and she was a natural language learner form a young age  

She was able to not only translate what was said, but convey the messages more effectively, was skilled in communications as a powerful woman telling men what to do 

Her children are emblematic of the first generation of mestizos, and she is seen as a representation of colonization  

Cortes 

Translators were important to Cortes and he rewarded them. He appreciated that the women helped his men learn the language  

Aztec Books 

Paintings on bark or animal skin, ceremonial in nature, used almost exclusively by priests, often public agreements that found communities, divide land, outline a calendar, or demand tribute or payment  

After the conquest many codices were produced where glyphs were removed and put n a blank backdrop for easier identification  

Tlaxcalans 

They recorded all of the conquest happenings in their "books." They tried to erase the history where they went against the spaniards and went on to fight alongside the spaniards  

Chicanx  

  

  

Chicanx Movement  

  

  

  

Video: Episode #1 of Chicano “Quest for a Homeland”  

  

Relationship between Land Gants and the Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty  

  

 The treaty guaranteed that people would keep their land, but land grants would give away their land  

  

Social and educational prospects for Mexican Americans in 1964  

 Being Mexican was considered being dirty, you couldn't go to certain shops and what not  

    

Corky Gonzales  

 Wrote a poem called "I am Waking" to protest injustices and discrimination, it was a spiritual revelation, a celebration of Mexican ancestry and culture  

A great organizer of protests for better education   

  

Ruben Salazar  

  

  

  

Role of Women in the Chicanx Movement  

 They wanted equality between women and men, rejected women's liberation movement because they focused on middle class white women  

  

  

Role of Aztlan in the Chicanx Movement  

  

  

  

Chicanx Moratorium  

 Formed to build momentum against the war  

  

  

Keep these discussion questions in mind as you watch the documentary:  

  

How did the lands rights movement in New Mexico offer a “vision” to those ready to fight?  

  

  

  

How did identifying as Chicanx offer Mexican Americans a sense of pride?  

  

  

  

Why was “I am Joaquin” so influential to the Chicanx Movement?  

  

 protest injustices and discrimination, it was a spiritual revelation, a celebration of Mexican ancestry and culture 

  

What did Aztlan mean to Chicanxs?  

Spanish Missions  

 Populated the northern regions of Mexico in AZ, New Mexico, California. These towns became the centerpiece of colonial life 

Christian community where they converted indians, brought them in to work in fields, weave 

Stephen Austin  

 A young business man originally from Virginia who led 300 families into Texas 

Wanted to transform it into the next great cotton growing part of the US  

Juan Seguin  

 A survivor among those who faught in the Alamo, he became a hero and a political figure, a Mexican  

Sent behind enemy lines to gather reinforcements during the seige, when he returned everyone had been killed  

Joined everyone in the Mexican Revolution 

After the war, anglos were violent against Mexicans, and the Mexicans came to him for protection 

He was sold out and asked to give up his mayoral position  

Texas Revolt  

 1834 Santa Ana disolved the congress, Texans and Tejanos banded together to revolt, Santa ana led an army of thousands to put down the revolt  

John C. Fremont  

  

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo  

 Gave 80k Mexicans the right to become citizens, keep their land, and vote, "become one in the same people"  

Gold Rush of 1849  

 The discovery of gold overwhelms the Mexican families immediately  

This brought new racism and discrimination  

Lynching became commonplace against latinos  

Latinos are seen as greacers  

As gold ran out prospectors s=began squatting on the land of the Mexicans  

Mariano Vallejo  

 Most powerful man in Mexico-America 

Lived in California on a giant ranch with loads of cattle, he was interested in modernizing california  

He was a general 

He was assimilating into califrnia society, learning spanish, becoming catholic, hoping to work together with mexicans  

He was forced to sign articles of capitulation by soldiers who ransacked their home, then he was imprisoned  

Las Gorras Blancas  

 Protested the taking of their land by barbed wire  

They wore white hoods in order to be anonymous and they defended their land by cutting miles of barbed wire, burning train tracks, etc 

They helped set a presedent of latino resistance against injustice  

The Mexican American experience  in the U.S. 

This class will focus on Mexican people in the U.S. and I will refer to them as Mexican Americans. I noted that a few of you mentioned in your initial posts that you were interested in “Mexicans” and “Mexican History.” We usually refer to Mexicans as those who live in Mexico. At this point, however, don’t worry about terminology as there are also self-identifiers in the U.S. such as Latin@, Chican@ and yes, Hispanic. We will address these as the course unravels. 

Did you know? Not all Mexican Americans have an immigration story. 

Some families such as mine, have lived in Tucson since forever. I do not have a cousin or distant relative in Mexico. I can trace my father’s family back to Southern Arizona as far back 1769 and my mother’s family has also lived in Tucson since about 1800. I am an eighth generation Tucsonan, and yet, I speak Spanish (not so well) and identify closely with Mexican culture. This speaks to the power of culture retention, and border culture in general. I am accustomed to, and yes, somewhat slightly offended because I am often asked where in Mexico I am from. When I say I am from here (Tucson), some will ask again, “No really where are you from?” Thus, the Mexican American experience is multilayered and complicated. But as you probably know, Tucson was once Mexico. 

A fun video on identity (optional) 

• http://www.vox.com/2015/8/19/9173457/hispanic-latino-comic 
• This video addresses the identity issues in regards to Latin@ and Hispanic (and Mormon). Chican@ is not touched upon but we will learn more about this in a few weeks. (My use of the “@” aims to be inclusive of both genders.) I self identify as a Chicana. This did not make my mother happy because she identified as “Spanish.” As we will learn, that’s mostly a generational thing. 

The aim of this module, and the rest of this presentation is to gain some knowledge about Mexican Americans’ indigenous past. Make sure to put your “Study Guide” to good use. 

Mesoamerica 

Did you know? 

• That Tenochtitlan is currently Mexico City. 
• The Aztecs and Mexica are the same people. Outside scholars (archeologists, historians, etc.) started calling the people Aztecs because they had migrated from their homeland, Aztlan before they eastablished Tenochtitlan. The people, however, referred to themselves as Mexica. 

5 minute video (required) 

• Watch “Tenochtitlan (The Impossible City).” It touches on some of the issues raised in the Smith article you are assigned to read for this module to provide some insight into Tenochtitlan and its people. 
• https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_nS6MpVbB_g 
• Review the following 7 slides of Tenochtitlan. Pay particular attention to its layout and organization. Can you see why canoes provided the most efficient transportation system? 

400px-lake_texcoco_c_1519_1 

Tenochtitlan 

screen-shot-2010-12-10-at-5 

ANd9GcTjCc5saeCem_AkUALOlYXA8AUUhtLbXV82NyiEQzt6ScMep3O_ 

map4 

ANd9GcTZR8MFJkpWveJ8lTdQtR86H4EPVzq7YHIxG_l26_TJe7uLZfk9-Q 

ANd9GcQDIfRlnQF-Shh2iJIFkIUK4bBZAMWKFMdw1VT-QXFiT3AruF-_jQ 

Power of Architecture 

• Do you agree with Smith’s (the assigned article for this module) claim that “Tenochtitlan was a city built to impress victors, both humane and divine.” 

CHINAMPAS%2BGLAITES 

Salute_2009551 

sacred_precinct 

TenochtitlanChinampa 

Chinampas 

• What does the article by Smith say about them? 
• What do we learn about the Aztec diet? 

chinampa1 

fig60z 

Marketplaces 

What does Smith have to say about marketplaces? Why were they so important? 

market 

teno15 

Codices 

• Skim through the following link to learn more about Aztec codices or manuscript paintings. 
• These provide most of what we know about the Aztecs. Imbedded in the codices is information about their world and viewpoints. Learn more about codices at: http://www.library.arizona.edu/exhibits/mexcodex/intro.htm 
• The following 3 slides taken from codices provides more information about marketplaces. 

Note that Aztec = Mexica Footnote 3 of assigned article, page 660 

• “On the word ‘Aztec’: this was a term introduced generations later by outsiders to talk about a political conglomeration. The ethnic group who held power called themselves the Mexica (pronounced me-SHEE-ka). They, and most of the people they governed, were Nahuas, or speakers of the Nahuatl language.” 

Tenochtitlan 

“Burying the White Gods” 

• Debunks a Colonial Narrative built on a myth where: 
• Aztec religion is portrayed as a major factor in preventing full military resistance. 

• Reinforces perceptions of Aztec backwardness (that they believed in omens, too religious, cowardly). One of the videos assigned in this module points retells these fallacies. 
• By extension, the myth implies that the Aztecs “deserved” their fate. 

Relevant quotes taken from page 660 of the assigned article  

• All quotes are from TOWNSEND: 
• “It perhaps comes as no surprise that the relatively powerful conquistadors and their cultural heirs should prefer to dwell on the Indians' adulation for them, rather than on their pain, rage, or attempted military defense. It is, however, surprising that this element has not been more transparent to recent scholars.” Thus, many myths persist. 

• “The notion that the Indians were too devout for their own good, and hence the victims of a calendric coincidence of tragic consequences, is highly appealing. We can argue that it was no one's fault if the Indians thought the Spanish were gods and responded to them as such.” Again, this refers to the myths that have survived and that some continue to refer as history. 
• “One group can be better equipped technically without being better equipped morally or intellectually. A people's technology is not necessarily a function of their intelligence.” (661) 
• A few main points 
• in Townsend’s “Burying the White Gods” 

1) History ≠ Truth 

• Townsend questions the “actual record of events.” 
• The article highlights problems or issues with translations that become legitimatized through time and history. 
• It forces us to ask, “Whose voices make it into the historical record?” 
• Unfortunately that what we know as “history” is often biased and not the “truth.” 

2) The Spanish possessed technological advantages: See page 660 

• The article highlights Spanish technological advantages and that the Mexica recognized this advantage… “the Mexicans themselves immediately became aware of the technology gap and responded to it with intelligence and savvy rather than wide-eyed talk of gods.” 
• Disease is one determinant: 500 Spanish vs. 250,000 Mexica. 
• However, technology, horses, printing press, ships, and knowledge of Mexica ensured Spanish victory. 

Weapons 

Page 667 “Both their harquebus and crossbow firings were able to slice through the Indians' cotton armor, and, because of their weapons' range, they could attack lethally when the Indians were still distant; furthermore, mounted Europeans carrying long metal lances could forge a path through the throngs. The Indians could fire their arrows at six times the rate of a Spanish blunderbuss, but to no avail, because metal armor rendered the Europeans nearly impervious.” 

Cortes attacks indians 

#4 Spanish Alliances 

In the past, we have been taught that other tribes hated the Mexica and voluntarily stepped up to help Cortes. Townsend offers a new way of looking at these alliances by highlighting how Cortes used violence to force tribes/nations to help him defeat the Aztecs. 

• Page 678 “Much ink has been spilt over the question of why the Tlaxcalans, for example, traditional enemies of the Mexica, briefly battled the Spaniards, then sided with them as their unwavering and most significant allies…Cortes, however, tells us what the clincher was. ‘I burnt more than ten villages, in one of which there were more than three thousand houses, where the inhabitants fought with us, although there was no one [no warriors] there to help them.’” 

#5 Cultural resistance Last page of article 

• “This is a case in which the ending is only the beginning. In the first few years after the conquest was complete, the Aztecs exhibited few signs of believing that gods walked in their midst… for the first five years, no one paid any attention to the priests who were attempting to reach out to the people… When the [priests] opened a school and Cortes ordered the indigenous nobles to send their sons, the families sent servants as substitutes. They had no intention of turning their children over to such men and were confident that the newcomers were too stupid or ill informed to know the difference. What would they have said if they could have known that posterity would insist they believed the Spaniards to be divine?” 

Colonial Narratives 

• Deploy portrayals of colonizing enterprises as “civilizing, rescuing, idealizing” 
• Justify colonial ideals in the manner colonialists want to see himself portrayed in order to further Imperialist goals 
• At the same time they demonized or disparage their Indian subjects as 'others.' 

• Introduce a “systems of ideas” that become normalized as body of theory or practice that becomes classified as “Wisdom” or “history.” 
• Give it a try and deconstruct the colonial narratives associated with the historical renderings in this modules’ discussion. 

Malintzin 

• Known also as Dona Marina and Malinche. 
• She was a product of the Mesoamerican world. 

• She was raised in a household of nobles and knew how to speak a more courtly form of Nahuatl, the native language of the Aztecs. 
• Between 8-12 years old, she was in the hands of long-distance slave traders. Perhaps, some of her people were complicit in her being taken. 
• She was eventually “purchased” by a group of Mayans located in Southern Mexico. Thus she also learned to speak Mayan. After about 5 years of living with them, this group “gifted” her to Cortes. 

Malintzin 

• Signifies different things to different people and her significance changed over time. The majority of the Mexican people see her as representative of colonization and domination by outsiders in general. 

• Her children are emblematic of the first generation of mestizos. 
• Her story highlights evolving ethnicities and multicultural identities 

Power of Translators 

• “Translators had to be present to convey the meaning of the military victory, the new set of expectations, to those who had been conquered.” (58) 
• “Translators were important to Cortes. He rewarded them. And it was probably not lost on him that living with Nahuatl-speaking women would only help the men improve their language skills.”(74) 

Please reread the introductory paragraph of the assigned article 

Something personal 

I got my DNA tested at “23 and Me” two years ago. My father was correct in claiming he was Spanish (somewhat). The test confirmed that I am 35% Southern Iberian (this means from Spain). It also confirmed that I am 53% Indian. Not from Central Mexico but from the Indians who lived in the U.S. Southwest. I got this from my mother. Rumblings in the family hinted at the fact that her father was Apache. But my mother could never call herself Indian (although she certainly looked like one) because she felt too much shame and because her generation could not take pride in this aspect. She was de-indianized. I, on the other hand, tell anyone who will listen that I have indigenous roots. On the other hand, the test also revealed that I am 4% Finnish…I don’t know what to do with that information. 

Mexico Profundo 

The following slides highlight some of Bonfil Batalla’s arguments 

The Indian Face of Mexico 

• Indian genetic contribution was fundamental in the physical makeup of the Mexican population. 
• Social segregation allowed Indians to retain and maintain their culture. 
• Racial mixture occurs --to varying degrees-- in all colonized societies. 
• Bonfil Batalla argues that very few Spanish people came to Mexico and that 50/50 mixture often referred to as the mestizo people is a false concept. 

De-Indianization 

• De-Indianization is a historical process. 
• Populations in Mexico that originally possessed a particular and distinctive indigenous identity and culture were forced to renounce that identity. With that came changes in the social organization and culture of Mexico. 
• It is not a result of biological mixture but resulted from the pressures involved with “ethnocide.” 

Ethnocide  

• The colonial situation in Mexico prohibited indio or Indian identities. 
• The Spanish proscribed the language and religion. 
• Many of those colonized came to accept the “inferiority” that the Spanish colonizers attributed them. Thus, they renounced their indigenous identity and accepted a new one, for example, Mestizo or even Mexican. This is also referred to as internal colonization. 

Mesoamerican culture 

• Is apparent in many cultural aspects of present day Mexican culture. 

• Today, it is not unusual for people in Mexico and for some Mexican Americans to seek herbalists, bone setters, and midwives that practice healing methods grounded in indigenous knowledge. 
• As per the video we watched, it is still present in older cultivation techniques and agricultural practices. The language has not died off either. 
• Indian culture persists but a large group that practices Mesoamerican culture does not identify as Indian. They participate in rituals and pilgrimages grounded in Mexica culture such as The Day of the Dead without knowing their origins. 

Urban Markets 

• Offer a diversity of products. But equally important, is that you can see evidence of Mesoamerican influences and of an underlying cultural heritage that has survived. 

• -Foods available such as nopales, pulque, tlacoyo, prickly pear fruit, acorns (grasshoppers). 
• -Various herbs used for healing. 
• -Crafts and clothing 
• Bonfil-Batalla writes about contempary marketplaces that, “One recognizes the profoundly Indian character…a living inheritance of their ancient Indian population, which today has been de-indianized.” 

Migration “Indianizes” cities 

• Mexico City is the place with the largest number of speakers of indigenous languages in all the Americas. 
• Currently in the U.S., Los Angeles houses the largest number of people who speak indigenous languages. What population has moved to L.A. in recent years? 

National Culture of “Imaginary Mexico” 

Mesoamerican civilizations were considered obstacles to progress by “Imaginary Mexico” who prioritized one TRUE path grounded in Western traditions. The mentality inherited from the colonizers did not allow the invention or inclusion of any other path. Building on Aztec culture was never considered an option by the Spanish, even though the overwhelming majority population in Mexico was Indian. 

Birth of Mexico as an independent nation 

• It invented no new path, and instead followed Western traditions. 
• It followed European convictions that a state or country is the expression of a people with common history, culture and language. 
• It sought to create a homogeneous population. Those that claimed the right to govern were the minority population (Spanish) inheritors of Western civilization. 
• It sought to transform Mexico into a modern society 
• National consolidation of Mexico meant eliminating the culture of majority and imposing a culture held by a few. 

The following slide indicates that many people across the Americas spoke, or still speak some form of Nahuatl or Uto-Aztecan languages. “Uto” means a newer form. 

uto-aztecan-language-map 

Optional Slide: For those who speak some Spanish, check out the following Nahuatl words. You probably use some of them. Ok, maybe all of you use words like tequila. 

Cuauhtémoc 

• Kin to Montezuma. Last Mexica king. 

• Takes up the fight against Spanish. 
• Asks for protection of women, children and elderly in Tenochtitlan. 
• Held captive and on the way to Honduras (Maya) Cortes executes Cuauhtémoc. 
• Review his last message in the next slide. 

Cuauhtémoc’s Last Message  August 152_? 

• Our Sun has hidden itself Our Sun is lost and has left us complete darkness but we know that it will return another time that it will come out at another time to light our way once again. 
• But while it is there in the Mansion of Silence very soon let us meet, let us come together, and in the center of our Being let us hide all that our heart loves, that which is our great treasure. 
• We must hide our houses of creation, our schools, our ball courts, our houses of youth, our houses of flower and song. That the roads remain empty, we take refuge in our homes, conserve our traditions and our Mexican language until the new Sun dawns. 
•  Teach the children and the youth how our Beloved Mother, Tonantzin Anahuak, was and will be great and how the destinies of our people will be realized… 
• THE MEXICAN SPIRIT WILL NEVER PERISH! 

• FORWARD, MEXICANS! 

superposition 

• The dynamic involved in remaking space to aid in colonization. 
• Sites are built over older sites to transfer older meanings into new ones. 
• The Spanish imposed Christian institutions over indigenous ceremonial sites. 

The Spanish first destroyed and then built their city directly over the Mexica sacred city. 

Tenochititlan 

Mexico City 

el_templo_mayor City_Zocalo 

The Metropolitan Cathedral (Catedral Metropolitana) in Mexico City 

It is the oldest and largest cathedral in all of Latin America. Construction started in the 16th century. The cathedral is a medley of styles and dominates the city's huge plaza or Zócalo. Cortes tore down the Aztec temples. Instead of discarding the stones he intentionally used them to build the cathedral. 

MetropolitanCathedralZocaloJan18 

zocalo 

Mexico City 

If archeologists dug anywhere in the center of Mexico City they would probably find Aztec relics. 

On February 21, 1978, electricians working in Mexico City discovered the Coyolxauhqui stone that dated back to 1500 as they were digging beneath the city street level at a site where the main square in Tenochtitlan was located. 

Note modern day excavations in the main plaza. See the Cathedral in the background 

newperspectives12 TemploMayorJan21-2 

59350709LyeUfZ_fs p59839-Mexico_City-Indian_dances 

Today, many hold Mexica inspired celebrations in the plaza 

Another example of superposition: A grassy pyramid topped by a church at Cholula, Mexico 

Cholula, Mexico 

Superposition and the power of oral traditions. 

This is a church in Ixcateopan, Mexico 

• The church was built on a site that held special meaning to the indigenous population. 

• Cuauhtémoc was born Ixateopan. 

Ixcateopan_Church2002_74k 

Superposition 

After Cuauhtémoc’s death, his body was recovered and brought to Ixcateopan and buried. In 1529, Catholic Church officials destroyed the pagan temple where he had been buried and built the Church of Santa María de la Asunción over his burial site. 

For close to 400 years no one talked about it. Yet, people from the area would take flowers and pray at the rear of the church and not at the main altar. 

The Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH) noticed and began excavating in 1949. 

Led by archeologist, Eulalia Guzman they examined documents and unearth what is said to be Cuauhtémoc remains. 

ixcateopan1 cuauhtemoc tomb / remains - ixcateopan, guerrero, mexico 

Syncretism 

• Is a hybrid combination of different forms/fusions of beliefs or practices usually associated with religions. 

• Indigenous and Spanish forms (two) forms combine to form a third (This is also sometimes referred to as “Third Space” which we shall discuss in a future module) 
• This dynamic is often typical of intercultural encounters and necessary to preserve ethnic or cultural identity while learning to adopt to the dominant culture (“Chicana Identity Construction” p.105) 

Virgin de Guadalupe 

Immigration 1880-1910 

225px-Porfirio_diaz 

Motto: “Order and Progress” 

• During this time, Mexican President, Porfirio Díaz’s (Porfiriato) displaced many of the poor who crossed the border and moved northward. 
• A friend of the U.S., and a classic example of “Imaginary Mexico,” Diaz tried to modernize Mexico. He even passed legislation that forced the citizens of Mexico City to look “modern.” 
• Diaz invested in building railroads in Mexico. Take a look at the following slide. Can you see how they were designed to connect Mexico to the U.S.? 

Mexican%20Railway%20system 

Railroads 

• Were part of Díaz’s plan to modernize and a symbol of economic progress. Most were subsidized by British and U.S. capital. 
• They introduced a new economy and new occupations. 
• They introduced new ways of transporting goods and people. 
• New places were established because of the railroads. For example, Nogales was founded in 1882 as a railroad stop. 

The Mexican Revolution 1910-1920 

• The people rebelled against Diaz who they considered a “dictator”. 
• By 1900, in Sonora, 2/3 of all property belonged to foreign interests (mostly U.S) making it the most prosperous state in Mexico. 
• By 1900, U.S. Senator George Hearst, owned 12 million acres of land in Chihuahua. 
• Most Mexicans began to perceive of Mexico as a country where outsiders profited at their expense. 

• Masses of Mexicans felt displaced and the middle class felt that there was no room for upward mobility. Note in the following two slides, how railroads moved people (mostly northward) and goods during the Revolution. 

yaqui_indian_fighters_rr_train_1892_poster-p228333997952542178qzz0_400 

Rev%20Image%20A0191 

Push and Pull factors during Mexican Revolution that caused an increase in border crossings between 1910-1920 

• Typical determinants when discussing displacement and migration. 

• Pull (to U.S.): The lure of jobs and a peaceful existence in the U.S. attracted masses of poor Mexicans who had lost their land under Diaz. Those displaced started to see the “north” as a place of opportunity. 
• Push (out of Mexico): The upheaval ushered in by the Revolution caused Mexicans to flee to the U.S. 

Tucson: A Haven for Refugees 

• 1900-1910 There was a 12.4% increase in the number of Mexicans. 
• 1910-1920 (during the Mexican Revolution) Tucson witnessed nearly a 75% increase. The number of Mexicans born outside the U.S. rose from 2,441 to 4,261. 

• Some upper class refugees crowded into hotels. It became a status symbol for Mexicans to stay at the Santa Rita Hotel (no longer standing). 
• Most new arrivals who arrived in Tucson and in the rest of the U.S., however, were lower class migrants. 

Revolutionary Consciousness 

• The Mexican Revolution gave birth to a revolutionary consciousness that influenced Mexican and Mexican Americans in U.S. 
• In the first half of the twentieth century, however, most Mexicans in U.S. far from “revolutionary.” 

• The Chicano Movement late 1960s and 1970s would call for “total liberation from oppression, exploitation, and racism.” And, they looked to the legacy of the Mexican Revolution and its leaders for “heroes.” 

The 1960-era of social unrest 

• “By 1950 the Mexican and Mexican American population in the United States had increased significantly - doubling in California, for example. World War II had resulted in an influx of Mexican and Mexican American labor from ru­ral areas to the urban centers of the South and Midwest. The economic pros­perity generated by the war had made possible some upward social mobility for a small sector of the Mexican American working class. But most Mexican Americans remained rooted in the semi-skilled and unskilled workers” 
• In 1968 people witnessed student demonstrations in countries such as France, Italy, Mexico. In Mexico City, the site of the Olympics that year, over four hundred students were massacred by the Mexican army. In Paris, students battled police and brought the entire city to a standstill, touching off a month-long nationwide general strike of ten mil­lion workers. Between 1968 and 1969, Mexican American student militancy intensified as more and more of them became convinced that they were part of an international revolution in the making. 
• In March 1968 well over ten thousand students walked out of the mostly Mexican American schools in East Los Angeles to protest the inferior quality of their education. Recognized as “Blowouts.” (We will discuss this later in the semester.) 

What is a Movement? 

• “Social movements are conscious, concerted, and sustained efforts by ordinary people to change some aspect of their society by using extra-institutional means. They are more conscious and organized than fads and fashions. They last longer than a single protest or riot. There is more to them than formal organizations, although such organizations usually play a part. They are composed mainly of ordinary people as opposed to army officers, politicians, or economic elites. They need not be explicitly political, but many are. They are protesting against something, either explicitly as in antiwar movements or implicitly [in this case, bettering the conditions of Mexican Americans in the U.S.]”(Goodwin and Jasper) 
• “What is a movement? It is when a group of people care enough so that they are willing to make sacrifices. It is when there are enough people with one idea so that their actions are together like a wave of water which nothing can stop.” César E. Chávez 

Chicanx identity 

• The insistence on a special group identity represented the bedrock of political claims and actions. 

• Insistence on the recovery of some identity which had always been “there” but which had been forgotten- abandoned-or threatened key to Chicanx identity. 

Chicanx 

• Emphasis on self-determination. 
• “Chicanismo embodies an ancient truth: that a person is never closer to his/her true self as when he/she is close to his/her community.” 
• The origins of the word debated, but it is clear that it is adoption as a self-identifier in the late 1960s introduced a political and cultural agenda unknown in Mexican communities in the U.S. 

• Let’s be clear, not all Mexican Americans identify as Chicanx. Some refer to is as a “litmus test for a political frame of mind.” 
• The construction of this new identity in the 1960s was the foundational issue that drove the Chicanx Movement. 

Chicanx Urban Student Movement 

• “Despite the inspiration provided by Cesar Chavez and the farmwork­ers movement, student activists found it difficult to organize students solely around the issues related to the struggle of the farmworkers. The attention giv­en to the farmworker movement by liberal politicians like the [John and Robert] Kennedys and by the mass media contributed greatly to the movement's rise and the making of Chavez into a respected national leader. But it also reinforced the exist­ing stereotype of all Mexican Americans as farmworkers. Although strongly supportive of the Chavez and Tijerina movements, student leaders on urban campuses were well aware that the vast majority of their people lived in cities. They therefore felt the need to build an urban movement to address the is­sues faced by the majority of Mexican Americans. Neither Cesar Chavez and the farmworkers nor Reies Tijerina and the farmers of northern New Mexico truly addressed the needs of urban youth.” 
• Identity and the discovery of one's roots were thus becoming crucial is­sues for student organizations as they emerged on campus after campus. And as student activists confronted the issue of Mexican American identity, they increasingly exposed the historic role of the schools in the undermining of Mexican American culture. 

Aztlan was the ancestral home of the Aztec or Mexica. I believe it is relevant to the larger themes discussed in the module because it represents the displacement that Mexicans have faced, and it gave Chicanos a place where they belonged and could be at home.