More Subjects
With His Pistol In His Hand: A Border Ballad And Its Hero
Name
Instructor Name
Class
Date
With His Pistol in His Hand: A Border Ballad and Its Hero
The ethnographic and anthropological location of Latin America established it as a good trade market; similarly, the government did many reforms such as abolishing slavery before the United States of America. The population had huge lands, and their property rights were safeguarded at both state and communal levels. Likewise, people were generating more income per capita. However, under the hidden agendas of colonization and Manifest Destiny, America looted the resources of Latin America and took over its many territories, including California. Similarly, settlers took over the rights of land ownership from the indigenous people and turned those areas into agricultural lands. Likewise, America used several other hidden agendas such as trade, education, and civilizing the Latinos as a disguise to colonize them and remove native people from these areas. The novel, With His Pistol in His Hand, deals with the aforementioned tactics that allowed Americans to colonize the Latinos through neo-colonialism. This essay analyzes the legitimate control of Northern Americans on Texas Mexicans through the avenues of law enforcement agencies, education, and mass media.
America viewed Latin America as an opportunity to sell its goods in its trade market and extend its neocolonial practices to colonize the indigenous lands. The Latin American economy was thriving, and the people were not threatened by the external forces. Likewise, it was a common practice in the colonial times that colonization was not done directly; instead, native people were neo-colonized through trade markets and cultural exchange policies. Such practices always proved unidirectional, and only the imperialist forces thrived on the economy of the other nation. In the same manner, imperialist powers used the strategy of capitalism to exploit the working class. It is evident in the history that soft power sets the foundation for hard power, which results in military rule and war. For instance, when the Mexicans refused to trade with the Americans, the latter declared war, and both sides suffered multiple casualties. In the novel, the author has referred to these historical events. He has talked at length about the brutal treatment of Texas Mexicans in the hands of the North Americans. Similarly, they were fooled into trade and did not receive the same benefits as the Northern Americans. For example, when a Northern American wants to trade his mule with a Texas Mexican named Roman, he says, “I never go back on my word. What do you think I am, a Mexican” (Paredes, 38). Quite on the contrary, later in the plot, the reader gets to know that the Northern American falsely Roman of theft. This symbolizes the racial superiority of the dominant White groups in America and how law enforcement agencies such as police and legal procedures save them. In the novel, the sheriff illegally shoots an innocent Texas Mexican because the White law does not provide supreme justice to the liberties of immigrants.
Prejudices play an integral role in developing hate sentiments among the population since racial hate acts as a driving force to blind any particular nation into racial prejudices. Likewise, the social stigmas of referring to the minority group as uncivilized or criminal people, allows the dominant group to keep their hegemony over the other. Similarly, the education department in America produced texts that clearly stated these racial stereotypes by using the keywords “thieves," "looters," and "savages" for the Texas Mexicans. The role of educational literature is significant since it encourages the population to absorb these stereotypes in their cognition and normalize such practices. For instance, these books mentioned, "The Mexican is cruel by nature. The Texan must in self-defense treat the Mexican cruelly since that is the only treatment the Mexican understands" (Paredes 16). Likewise, these patronizing instructions encourage the practice of violence and legitimize it by making it part of the discourse. In the same manner, such literature promoted the idea of White privilege and White supremacy in the minds of the American people. This attitude formation is still prevalent in the American nation, and they place their sense of nationalism based on this background work.
Mass media serves as another powerful medium to normalize the racial stereotypes directly to the mass audience. In this context, the political campaigns and their promotion among the White American population was done through print and electronic media at that time. Past disputes were specifically highlighted by the White political leaders to legitimize the practice of mass killing and snubbing the civil liberties of the Mexican people. As a result of the Mexican-American war, Latinos had to migrate into America for their survival. However, American people perceived these people as a burden on their economy. Moreover, to gain cultural dominance over them, White Americans made the whole Mexican race suffer so they could get revenge from the Mexican commander, Santa Anna. These campaigns stimulated the process of racially profiling the Latin Americans in the united states of America. Similarly, these campaigns were administered at the state level. In the text, Paredes has mentioned the unsung Mexican hero, and the ballad celebrates him yet describes the stereotypes attached to him as well. For instance, the evidence signifies the biased representation of Gregorio Cortez and compares it with his real personality traits as “He was a man, a Border man. What did he look like? Well that is hard to tell. Some say he was short … some say he was blond like a newborn cockroach ... He was a peaceful man, a hard-working man like you and me” (Paredes 34). These border narratives suggest that colonizers have control over the narrative voice of the colonized ones as well.
The book, With His Pistol in His Hand, narrates the aftermath of colonization in Latin America and narrates the account of White American malice over the Mexicans. Similarly, this control was legitimized through the mediums of law enforcement agencies, propaganda literature, and mass media.
Work Cited
Paredes, Américo. With His Pistol in His Hand: A Border Ballad and Its Hero. University of Texas Press, 2010.
More Subjects
Join our mailing list
© All Rights Reserved 2024