LITR 4231 Early American Literature 2012 Student Midterm Samples 2. Short essay (4-6 paragraphs) on 1 of 2 options (or combinations as inspired) : Highlight and analyze a passage from our course readings--your best textual experience  in comprehending course contents (terms, themes, objectives, class discussion) Favorite term, objective, concept in course + explanation & application to 1-2 readings

Roberto Benitez

The Creation of the Mestizo and its Effects on Mexican-Americans

            Unlike the near genocide that occurred to the Native American, the Amerindian has survived the passage of time through the creation of the mestizo.  This is because the mestizo is the genealogical extension of the original inhabitants of Mexico.  A couple of factors necessitated, or perhaps simply facilitated the creation of the mestizo:  the first is the absence of female colonists to New Spain, not so with New England colonists, and the second is the desire to expand the number of subjects loyal to the crown and the Church, missing in the minds of Pilgrims.  These factors set the tone for the treatment of Indians in both colonies.  Fast forward to today and we see that the majority of the population of Mexico is mestizo and the majority of the population of Hispanics in the United States is mestizo as well. 

            The creation of the Mexican mestizo, in contrast to other mixed-race people, possibly occurred with the coupling of Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés and a Nahuatl woman who we now know as La Malinche. They could not have known that what they created would later dominate the demographics of that land, much of Latin America as a whole, and possibly, in the not so distant future, the United States.  In other words, they could not have imagined that their first purported son would one day represent the majority of the population of an entire hemisphere.  Prior to all of that, however, are the searches for identity of that son and the newly created social group he represented in New Spain, and that same search for identity, but redefined, in the United States today. 

            In the search in New Spain, we find the need for an idea that unifies the distinct peoples of that colony and the arrival of that idea in the Virgin of Guadalupe and her appearance to mestizo Juan Diego.  Prior to this appearance, New Spain’s indigenous and mestizo populations, effectively ostracized from its affluent populations, did not embrace the Catholic faith or much of Spanish culture as devotedly as the crown and Church wished.  Both Juan Diego and the manifestation of the Virgin Mary were mestizo and consequently acted as a synchronization of European religion with indigenous identity.

            Currently in the United States, we can observe some of the same conditions present in New Spain at that time with Mexican-Americans who split their loyalties, for lack of a better word, to the homeland of their parents and that of their birth.  However, what bridges the gap today is not a symbol like the mestizo Virgin Mary, but something that cannot be censused:  time.  The process goes as follows:  Mexicans immigrate and start families of first generation Americans raised Mexican, loved by Mexicans in Mexican-American culture that understandably grow to feel that they are neither 100% American nor 100% Mexican.  Then those first generation Americans start families as well raised Mexican-American, loved mostly by Mexican-Americans in American culture that understandably grow to feel that they are American.  The more and more generations past, the further away they are removed from Mexican culture and the need to hyphenate their social and cultural identity.