De Colores Means All of Us

De Colores Means All Of Us

Author Elizabeth Martínez is the Chicana voice for her book "De Colores Means All Of Us." She has more than thirty years of experience in the movements for civil rights, women's liberation and the empowerment of Latinos and Latinas in the United States. 

Reading through her first two chapters I can say that yes, too many Americans only see recent Hispanic or Latino immigration arrivals, forgetting about earlier roots and their significance to the people...but once again, I have to say that the job of governments around the world was to always move people from one place to another, sometimes wanting to change their cultures to keep up with their policies. Those actions always create conflict among the people involved within the new territory lines. Look at the Middle East for example. 

I´m not Mexican or identify myself with the majority of the Latino population in the U.S because in South America, the way of thinking is very different, but I do see a lot of discrimination here in the U.S. It seems that everybody needs to have some type of label attached, and I consider that very wrong.

But going back to the book, I can say that yes, identity continues to be a major concern of youth in particular, and as Martínez writes: "with reason." 

She explains that "obsession with self definition can become a trap if that is all we think about, all we debate."

She goes on to explain that "People of color were victimized by colonialism not only externally but also through internalized racism_the 'colonized mentality.' On the poverty scale, African Americans and Native Americans have always been at the bottom, with Latinos nearby."

But a 1997 U.S census found that Latinos have the highest poverty rate, at 24 percent.

The Black-White model was based on the need for the primitive accumulation of capital with the enslaved Africans as a crucial labor force (as the author explains), and to serve as the foundation for the very idea of whiteness, with the concept of blackness as inferior. A very wrong and inaccurate concept. Martínez also listed three other reasons, such as numbers, geography and history. But she also explains that while "people who learn at least a little about Black slavery remain totally ignorant about how the United States seized half of Mexico or how it has colonized Puerto Rico."

There is a lot of ignored history portrayed when the author explains that "the average citizen doesn't have the foggiest notion that Chicanos have been lynched in the Southwest and continue to be abused by the police, that an entire population has been exploited economically, dominated politically, and raped culturally."

Another point that she makes and that I never understood until now is why the United States calls itself  "America" when America is a continent, and besides that, the dominant languages are Spanish and Portuguese, and not English. Martínez answered my question as simple as this: "The nation lacks any global vision other than relations of domination." "It arrogantly took for itself alone the name of half the western hemisphere, America, as was its 'Manifest Destiny,' of course."

To get more information on the biography of this controversial author, you can go to:

http://world.world-citizenship.org/wp-archive/2532

  

Nickle and Dimed

I'm glad this book was written, because it brings people back to the reality of how hard it is to survive out of a minimum wage income. I believe we owe respect to all employees at Walmart and other commercial chains...just because they are working hard, very hard for their money. Barbara Ehrenreich clearly explains why these low wage workers don't just leave their jobs for better paying jobs. The answer is simple: the poorer they are, the more constrained their mobility usually is. Also, a change of the place they work may also mean problems getting a ride, a babysitter, distance (as some workers ride their bikes to work), among other things.

Ehrenreich clearly showed that while rents are sensitive to market forces, wages are not. 

There is a very interesting  article on the low wage life style and lack of resources, such as medical care and its costs. Just go to the cnn site below to check it out!

www.cnn.com/2008/US/07/25/minimum.wage.workers/index.html

Nickel and Dimed: Something caught my attention...

I just remembered reading the "Evaluation" section of "Nickel and Dimed," and how Ehrenreich touched on employees being fired for discussing wages with other employees and the gap between male and female earnings. I read the 2000 New York Times article that Ehrenreich mentions in the book and it's a very interesting article. I'm not sure how much has changed since this article was published, but the question I ask myself is: Should employees be free to discuss their earnings with other employees and should employees be free to complain to their employers/managers/supervisors if they believe they have a problem with their earnings and if they believe they are not being treated the same as their male workers WITHOUT getting fired?

I never encountered any problems or witnessed any employees getting in trouble or fired for discussing their earnings to one another in retail stores I used to work in, but I remember people being very hush hush when it came to talking about wages and wanting a raise.

Here is the link to the article if anyone is interested to look at: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F05E3DF173DF93BA15754C0A9669C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1

www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/02business/02walmart
Look up this site to see shocking facts about Wal-Mart....

Lizette Gomez

Nickel and Dimed

This book has given us much insight to what we don't take the time to think about.  Many of us discussed after reading the first chapter, that we "couldn't believe" these types of wages existed for these types of jobs that Barbara Ehrenreich was taking on.  We "couldn't believe" that there is an everyday struggle to afford to live, not just for those who are homeless, but for those who actually have a job.  It doesn't seem right, that there are many people who fall in this category that Barbara put herself in.  The category of a working class of people who maintain a small living with not much left in their pocket.  

One thing that I would like to point out, that maybe some of you haven't realized, was that this truly was a courageous experiment.  It was something that Barbara took on that would be very hard for many of us to do.  We "couldn't believe" that she worked as a maid, housekeeper, waitress, and did many of those types of grimy jobs, where you work with your hands and it's as physical of a job as it gets.  Not to mention, the very low pay that you get.  But the point that I want to make is that even though we couldn't picture ourselves doing this type of experiment, when it's all said and done, it is an experiment.  She was able to go home.  The people that she met along the way are still living their lives in the same way and are struggling to get by.  The things that we "couldn't believe" are most peoples reality's that they can't just so easily get away from.  They fight to survive, to have a place and to have food to eat.  

The Wal-Mart chapter was eye-opening because I started to remember how many times I grew up going to Wal-Mart and putting things away in the wrong places, or leaving clothes unfolded. Someone's job was to clean after me, as well as many others.  I posted a link to the recent wal-mart results.  Most of these articles show Wal-Mart in the limelight, with talks about their recent sales.  I also posted a link for Wal-Marts law suits and how many people have had to fight to get what they were cheated, through a legal matter.     

Lizette Gomez

Nickle and Dimed

I believe Barbara Ehrenreich did a great job on her book "Nickel and Dimed." Even though I didn't finish reading it yet, I believe her decision to do this type of investigative reporting is awesome, a hands on experience. The task must have been difficult for her, specially on a personal level. Now, this type of work is great to show the government that we, the people, are in great need of policies and social programs updates. Obviously, living under a minimum or low wage income is not fun, but rather a hard and difficult lifestyle, one that can make any human being fall into depression or desperation. Just like the horrible and recent case of the husband and wife with five kids who killed themselves because they lost their jobs at Kaiser Permanente. Even though government agencies step forth to announce that there are programs that can help families to get through this hard economic times, maybe it is time they realize that it is not true. I understand that anyway there is no justifiable reason under a right state of mind to commit such an act like suicide, they probably didn't want to live the miserable life of the unemployed or low wage income. I believe that case was only one of the many happening on a daily basis in our country, and that is a consequence of an incompetent system that is failing and has been failing for a long time. This book should be translated to other languages, so people in third world countries can finally see the reality of the United States of America: that everything is far from perfect here. I'm going to keep reading this book to keep understanding the reality of a lot of people in this country.