Latino Communities Structural And Social Issues And How...

Amanda Tran Professor Alexandro Gradilla CHIC 305 13 January 2015 Latino Communities: Structural and Social Issues and How They Thrive For many Latino families, their image is misunderstood. The majority of Americans analyze Latino communities focusing on the individual. Asking individual questions such as what did that person do wrong to be poor? Why is that individual immigrating into the US? The real question we should be asking is what factors made them immigrate to a different country in the first place. After all, â€Å"nobody likes to leave their home† says Juan Gonzalez from the documentary Harvest of Empire. Researching Latinos in America requires using structural/social determinants to gain an accurate representation. In Latinos in†¦show more content†¦Looking into social forces such as U.S. history, education, and racism will help find out why such inequality among Latino families exists and how they persevere and thrive in America. U.S. history is a key structural determinant of why Latinos have faced hardship, but now making up over 33% of the nation’s population have found their voice. In the documentary, Harvest of Empire Journalist and author of the book Juan Gonzalez, â€Å"Harvest of Empire† discusses the controversial issue in America of Latino immigration. He examines U.S. intervention in each of the Latin countries which in turn caused them to migrate to North America. â€Å"People in the U.S. have no idea why we come to this country. No idea. And if they do, it’s probably the wrong one† says Mariana Cabrera a Guatemalan immigrant (Harvest, 18:51). Her country of Guatemala had many changes going on in terms of government structure. In 1951 Jacobo Arbenz was appointed as President of Guatemala and wanted to help alleviate poverty in the country by land reform. According the documentary 2% of the owners had control of the land and 75% were in the hands of the United Fruit Company. The United Fruit Company was controlled by America and used the Guatemalan land to create an American powerhouse. With Arbenz in rule, Guatemalan governm ent values did not match those of