Foreigners In Their Own Land

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Foreigners in their Land; The Plight of American Latinos

“Latino Americans Episode 1: “Foreigners in Their Land” (1565-1880) is a great film

that focused on the “Spanish colonial era.” There was Spanish presence in twenty-five states of

the United States and other key civil settlements. Their interaction with Indian nations is crucial

in understanding how the European oppression was brought to the Americas. There was rampant

Spanish genocide of Indians, slavery (encomienda system ), mestizaje and racial status of the

Spanish and sexual violence of non-Spanish. In this paper, I am going to review the film with

particular attention to racialism as developed through four themes that are substantially covered

in the movie; Discrimination, Prejudice, Segregation and Resistance.

Discrimination

Discrimination refers to the selective treatment of people or groups of people based on

various grounds as; sex, race, and gender. The Spanish invaders in the American land treated the

Indian Latinos as second-class citizens of an inferior race. They mistreated them and displaced

them from their own homes. In the film, all the land belonged to the Spanish authorities, and they

allocated it to their loyalists. The Latinos were expected to submit an offer labor in the lands that

were now occupied by the Spanish authorities. Many Latinos died fighting for their lands, but the

Spanish tyrants were relentless. The Latinos suffered selective treatment for years for no crimes.

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Their rights were scuttled, and they had no voice in any aspect of society. The most affected state

with this discrimination was California. ("Documentary Latino Americans Foreigners In Their

Own Land Episode 1 - Youtube")

Prejudice

Prejudice refers to the treatment or judgment of a person or a group of people with no

factual justification. In the film, the Latinos are judged to be naturally inferior people and hence

mishandling them seemed right. The place of Latinos in the American was a sorry one; they were

taken to be dirty, sworthy and dangerous people. There were public lynchings of Latinos, and the

authorities never saw wrong in it. Whenever they reported their cases to courts, they were either

denied justice or justice came delayed. This prejudice impoverished the Latinos and left them at

the mercy of the dictatorial Spanish authorities. (Ong, Anthony et al., 2013)

Segregation

Refers to the act of alienating things or people from one another. The Latinos received

the worst treatment due to the white supremacy notion. They were not entitled to any leadership

positions and were often granted no rights. The essence was to punish them and make them

remain subjects forever. The communal grazing land was fenced off by the Spanish ranch

owners raising agitation in the people. They held no rights, and whenever they raised their

complaints, they were either shot at or just ignored. It made them foreigners in their land; They

had to resist injustice meted on them (Weber, 2003)

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Resistance

When the injustices meted on the Latinos got out of hand, the people had to come

together and defend what is theirs. They were fed up and decided to fight for recognition. A

resistance movement sparked out with the fencing of the communal grazing fields, and they no

longer had pasture for their livestock. They were prisoners in the own land. In the resistance,

they burnt down huts among other strategies to reclaim their stake in society. The Spanish

occupation had lasted over three centuries, and the Latin nation was on its knees economically.

The resistance lay the foundation for future agitation. ("Documentary Latino Americans

Foreigners In Their Own Land Episode 1 - Youtube")

In conclusion, the film helped me understand the historical plight of the Latinos in

medieval America. The act of treating them poorly and subjecting them to lynching and

colonization in their land led them to resist against this insurgency. It now adds up why the

American society should treat the Latinos better; they have gone through a lot of history.

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Works cited

Weber, David J., ed. Foreigners in their native land: Historical roots of the Mexican Americans.

UNM Press, 2003.

"Documentary Latino Americans Foreigners In Their Own Land Episode 1." Youtube, 2017,

https://youtu.be/CvlW1YSJSVU.

Ong, Anthony D., et al. "Racial microaggressions and daily well-being among Asian

Americans." Journal of Counseling Psychology 60.2 (2013): 188.

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