Greasers And Gringos

A lawyer criticizes media portrayals of latino/as because it leads to unfair judgements in the court system.This is an important look at stereotyping in American culture.

From early in their history, England and Spain were among the most competitive of European nations. Both were formed from migrant minorities, conquerors who merged with the native population and established culture only to become, in turn, the conquered. As England and Spain evolved into monarchies, their ambition and their enmity increased. The New World provided a new arena for their competition. Soon their mutual enmity spread from Florida to California--spawning a conflict whose repercussions are still felt throughout North America. Concentrating on the colonization of the Americas and the subsequent cultural development, this volume examines how the historically tense relationship between Spain and England affects North American society today. The politics of conquest and the concept of nativism (which interprets cultures as "races") are discussed. The behavioral and ethical manifestations of prejudice are examined with specific emphasis on how they apply to today's political landscape.

Examines cultural stereotypes associated with the Latin-American community, analyzing the role of mass media in perpetuating negative attitudes and how biases have been reflected in law enforcement, in the educational system, by voters, and by vigilantes. (Social Science)

B.M. Bower's compelling historical story "The Gringos: A Story of the Old California Days in 1849" is a must-read. This compelling story, which is set against the background of the California Gold Rush, transports readers on a thrilling journey through the untamable wilderness of 1849 California. The chaotic and thrilling atmosphere of the Gold Rush period, replete with rough terrain, greedy prospectors, and contacts with Native American tribes, is vividly brought to life by B.M. Bower's narration. Readers see the clash of cultures, the quest of fortune, and the ties of friendship forged in the face of hardship through the eyes of the gringos. The historical fiction novel "The Gringos" weaves a colorful tapestry of action, romance, and the unbreakable character of the human spirit. The Old California Days in 1849 are eloquently depicted in Bower's superb story, which also paints a realistic image of a period and location that permanently altered the American West's terrain

In Mea Culpa, Steven W. Bender examines how the United States’ collective shame about its past has shaped the evolution of law and behavior. We regret slavery and segregationist Jim Crow laws. We eventually apologize, while ignoring other oppressions, and our legal response to regret often fails to be transformative for the affected groups. By examining policies and practices that have affected the lives of groups that have been historically marginalized and oppressed, Bender is able to draw persuasive connections between shame and its eventual legal manifestations. Analyzing the United States’ historical response to its own atrocities, Bender identifies and develops a definitive moral compass that guides us away from the policies and practices that lead to societal regret. Mea Culpa challenges its readers. In a different era, might we have been slave owners or proprietors of a racially segregated establishment? It’s easy to judge immorality in the hindsight of history, but what current practices and policies will later generations regret? More than a historical survey, this volume offers a framework for resolving some of the most contentious social problems of our time. Drawing on his background as a legal scholar, Bender tackles immigration, the death penalty, the war on terror, reproductive rights, welfare, wage inequity, homelessness, mass incarceration, and same-sex marriage. Ultimately, he argues, it is the dehumanization of human beings that allows for practices to occur that will later be marked as regrettable. And all of us have a stake in standing on the side of history that resists dehumanization.

Mexico and the United States exist in a symbiotic relationship: Mexico frequently provides the United States with cheap labor, illegal goods, and, for criminal offenders, a refuge from the law. In turn, the U.S. offers Mexican laborers the American dream: the possibility of a better livelihood through hard work. To supply each other’s demands, Americans and Mexicans have to cross their shared border from both sides. Despite this relationship, U.S. immigration reform debates tend to be security-focused and center on the idea of menacing Mexicans heading north to steal abundant American resources. Further, Congress tends to approach reform unilaterally, without engaging with Mexico or other feeder countries, and, disturbingly, without acknowledging problematic southern crossings that Americans routinely make into Mexico. In Run for the Border, Steven W. Bender offers a framework for a more comprehensive border policy through a historical analysis of border crossings, both Mexico to U.S. and U.S. to Mexico. In contrast to recent reform proposals, this book urges reform as the product of negotiation and implementation by cross-border accord; reform that honors the shared economic and cultural legacy of the U.S. and Mexico. Covering everything from the history of Anglo crossings into Mexico to escape law authorities, to vice tourism and retirement in Mexico, to today’s focus on Mexican border-crossing immigrants and drug traffickers, Bender takes lessons from the past 150 years to argue for more explicit and compassionate cross-border cooperation. Steeped in several disciplines, Run for the Border is a blend of historical, cultural, and legal perspectives, as well as those from literature and cinema, that reflect Bender’s cultural background and legal expertise.

Stretching from the years during the Second World War when young couples jitterbugged across the dance floor at the Zenda Ballroom, through the early 1950s when honking tenor saxophones could be heard at the Angelus Hall, to the Spanish-language cosmopolitanism of the late 1950s and 1960s, Mexican American Mojo is a lively account of Mexican American urban culture in wartime and postwar Los Angeles as seen through the evolution of dance styles, nightlife, and, above all, popular music. Revealing the links between a vibrant Chicano music culture and postwar social and geographic mobility, Anthony Macías shows how by participating in jazz, the zoot suit phenomenon, car culture, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and Latin music, Mexican Americans not only rejected second-class citizenship and demeaning stereotypes, but also transformed Los Angeles. Macías conducted numerous interviews for Mexican American Mojo, and the voices of little-known artists and fans fill its pages. In addition, more famous musicians such as Ritchie Valens and Lalo Guerrero are considered anew in relation to their contemporaries and the city. Macías examines language, fashion, and subcultures to trace the history of hip and cool in Los Angeles as well as the Chicano influence on urban culture. He argues that a grass-roots “multicultural urban civility” that challenged the attempted containment of Mexican Americans and African Americans emerged in the neighborhoods, schools, nightclubs, dance halls, and auditoriums of mid-twentieth-century Los Angeles. So take a little trip with Macías, via streetcar or freeway, to a time when Los Angeles had advanced public high school music programs, segregated musicians’ union locals, a highbrow municipal Bureau of Music, independent R & B labels, and robust rock and roll and Latin music scenes.

One of the famous American author who wrote novels, fictional short stories, and screenplays about the American Old West - B. M. Bower's present novel 'The Gringos' was first published in the year 1913.