Women and Change at the U.S.-Mexico Border pg 3-16

The book “Women and Change at the U.S.- Mexico Border” by Doreen J. Mattingly and Ellen R. Hansen opens up with speaking about the roles such as family life and working in factories, home life, etc. for the women who work in cities along the U.S.-Mexico boarder. They say that these women are apart of a larger force. They are apart of a movement. The chapters in the book helped the reader though stories learn about these women's experiences which include genders as a changing social construct, how gender is still a challenge in which these women must negotiate when working in these factories and raising families, and also that the U.S.-Mexico boarder is a type of window that allow a way in which women will cross boundaries if not physically but mentally.
Section one of book titled Women’s Mobility speak of gendered roles for men and women and that geographic mobility it in fact effected by gender. Through the different chapters in the section one will learn how migration effects indigenous women along the boarder, also how mobility is gendered through the division of labor- the reality is that men and women hold different jobs and have a different set of responsibilities and obligations.
The next section is about Labor and Empowerment in the Boarder Region it is said that a woman being employed is a “catch-22” or a “double-edged sword”. This section also offers theories to the reasoning of why industrialization has gendered impact.
In the last section titled Activist Women Changing the Border touches on how working conditions are for these women and problems and reasons why they choose to cross the border. Some reasons has been that there is a development of colnias at a very staggering rate creating new communities along the border. These women became activists due to the needs that we not reached in the lower-income communities. Also these women have formed NGO’s which are like unions.

No Parole Today p. 1-17

No Parole Today by Laura Tohe tells the story of children in Indian Boarding Schools through free verse poems and very short stories. The first story talks about assimilation with the thanks of “Dick and Jane” books and that its helps to subdue the Dine language. Her teacher Mrs. Rolands was a black woman whom she describes as “treat[ing] us the way were people had been treated by white people” (2). I quickly scribbled in the margin that it was a reoccurring racism and about hierarchy. I remember previously in my Anthropology class we learned that the ladder of hierarchy that God came first, then white man, then blacks and insects, then Native Americans were placed on the same level as beasts because of the “savage” moniker placed upon them. Probably the most powerful quote she made in this piece was “utter one word of Dine and the government made sure our tongues were downed in the murky waters of assimilation” (3).
In the short story/free verse poem called “She was Real Quiet, a Letter from the Indian School I” she talks about a girl by the name of Mae Jean who was always quiet, always doing what she was supposed to do, she followed the rules, she had never drank liquor, or sniffed glue or gasoline. I wonder is she the personification of the perfect Indian. Was the perfect Indian achieved here? She said that no one ever messed with Mae, so who was she to the students? It makes me wonder was she once a very strong person who resisted the change until she could not fight any longer then she just went along with the change that was pressed upon her? Did any of the students strive to be like her? I don’t know what to think…just a few questions I thought would be interesting.

Don't Let the Sun Step Over You Chapter 5 & 6

In these two chapters of Don’t Let the Sun Step over you, Eva Tulene Watt focuses upon her time spent at St. John Boarding School (Chapter 5) and when she went home after her mother went blind, and her family life with a her new stepfather (Charley Marley). However, for this post I am going to focus specifically on chapter 5 because it relates to my mid-term about the experience at Indian Boarding Schools (good and bad) and her experience is definitely a puzzle piece of the larger picture.
Watt begins with her arrival to St. Johns and her remembering that she and her brother Dewey were tied up with a rope by a priest to keep them inside of the seat because he may have felt that they may stand up. Really it sounds like he was worried that they would run off and parish the thought that he lose “precious Indian cargo”. That seems to be the way in which they were treated, like a crate tied to the top of a car. Once she arrived she was immediately put into a group of girls and ushered around the school.
Her experience with church, religion, and people of the catholic faith is very interesting. She is told her first day in church by another student “this is a church. You’re not supposed to talk loud in here. You have to be quiet ‘til it’s over with”. She just seems to adhere to it. I wonder why this is? Also, she would get oreos or eating the food of the catholic people until they gave her the evil eye. Did she just fall in line because there was some kind of incentive?
Watt’s section of when the children would get names because they needed English names would seem to be a very humiliating and assimilating moment in ones life. Because she already had an English name she would not have to go through the process. She describes that “some of the boys that came to school had real long hair. They cut it bald-headed the first times, not right down to the skin but real short, They cut the girls’ hair too. It’s short on the side and bangs. And they sent the kids’ clothes back to their families. They gave each of them a bag and they told them to put their clothes in there, Then they sent it back to their family. Then they gave them all new clothes”. This sounds like a death of a person. For the males, hair is a big deal, so to be striped of hair, and clothing that connected you to who you were previously as well as your clothes being sent way signifies to your parents that you are gone also.
When it came to learning English the rule was “After you catch on, you’re not supposed to talk your won language anymore. If they catch you talking your won language, they punished you.” Punishment at their school was extra chores, but what about other boarding schools? Was the punishment much harsher?
Other than her reason to not go home because of her new step father, I am still trying to figure out why she would deliberately stay there. What made her experience so good compared to that of other children or even people who went to other boarding schools? Anyway that is a good question to ponder.

Everyday Is a Good Day- Chapter 3

In Chapter 3 titled “Context is Everything” the reader is brought through the frustration of how there has been little or no teaching to Non-Natives about the lives about Native Americans and Indigenous people although this oppressed group has been forced to learn the dominant cultures history. It is said that “People in the United States fail to recognize how much they have been influenced by indigenous people. It is simply amazing that even after hundreds of years of living in our former villages, most American’s don’t know much about the original people of this land.” I can say I understand that this frustration being African-American. In school we are only taught the history of white people although my ancestors helped them to build this country with literally blood, sweat, and tears. However, on the other hand I can say myself that I guilty. Being for the Westside many of our cities hold the names of indigenous nations like the Puyallup which is closets to me, but I can say I do not know much of their history.
Another point that was made was that “rather than appreciate the ancient cultures of indigenous people in the United States, most governmental policies have been designed to assimilate indigenous people into the larger American culture”. I call this the “assimilate and eliminate” factor. Once you are completely assimilated your own culture is cut away, watered down or just eliminated all together through systematic practices.
Beatrice Medicine best describes this frustration in this chapter when she says that “white people can’t understand us or the strength and diversity of aboriginal people, and they don’t even try. That’s why there is such racism and misunderstanding. We have different attitudes toward one another”. This makes me pose the question to everyone: Do you think there is a way to bridge the gap between these vastly different groups of people now or even in the future? Also, Do you feel that there is away we can start to incorporate these teachings of the history in our own curriculum if not college, high school, or even younger? Lastly, How would you go about to bridge this gap in misunderstanding and racism?