Presentation:
- Present your public document, any video's, interviews, class facilitation etc...
- Presentations are 10-15 min long 20 min max
- No power point presentations
- Provide any related documents that you used in your project to the rest of class if applicable
- 4 pages long
- I want to know about the process of putting together your public doc.
- What happened? What did you learn? What problems did you encounter? Anything relevant to your project etc.. (See stage 5)
- Make sure that it is organized and structured properly
- I don't just want written sections from each individual
4/7/14
No Class
Read: Inventing The "Magic Valley" of South Texas 1905-1941
By: Brannstrom, Neuman
CLICK HERE!!
4/9/14
No Class
Written response to the article posted on the blog
4/11/14
Group 1. June, Maria, Anabila
Group 2. Miguel, Rodrigo, Emily
4/14/14
Group 3. Armando, Jose, Christian
Group 5. Alex, Marlon, Martin
4/16/14
Group 6. Robert, Rosalia, Mark
Group 7. Abigail, Mitchell, Jossilin
RESPONSE TO: INVENTING THE "MAGIC VALLEY" OF SOUTH TEXAS
ReplyDeleteWhat I got from this article is that John Shary the founder of the shary land farming help bring rich white people into the LRGV by showing propaganda and, telling them that the Mexicans can be the servants for them. Other places saw that crops can grow in the valley 12 months out of the year, so more vegetables were brought and, the labor was nonstop for the workers. In other words they used use to make money for them. That is when this style of a good life was coming into perspective with people in the valley, a lot of promoters paved railroads, security, electricity, and other forms of a “good life”. After this the rich white people started to make high levels of education for them and country clubs as well, all because they had very strong community ties with the richer part of the state, in a way they used Mexicans for money to have fulfillment in within themselves and family. John Shary did the best he can to make money from the LRGV by propaganda, he was already really rich he made $5 million in 1920, he also transported cars in trains with his business partner George paul they brought them to home and land owners in the corpus Christi area, where they also had land as well.
ReplyDeleteJohn Shary came out with a brochure of a women eating breakfast, a worker in the back picking fruit’s and a school bus in the back. This showed that Shary was eager to bring more and more money to the valley even though he had plenty enough for himself. He would bring rich people down and, show them how it was to live in the valley they will go to port Isabel, for some drinks then to Reynosa for dinner and, a bull fight. It was costly for the expenses’, but Shary was not pleased to pay. After World War 2, things happened like Anglo power over labor and water and, segregation. On top of that, Shary lied to the people, it was not how he said it would be, not as exaggerated. Many got sick from drinking out of the water in rural areas. Since the valley was away from the political and economic centers so John Shary did what he can to make profit but, took advantage of it.
I thought it was interesting to see how a huge part of the area we live in came to be. The use of propaganda to develop a community that boomed in large part because of agriculture, and this was made possible by the use of the propaganda that made this out to be a promised land. They devalued the Mexicans and were able to take over everything to build their own city, and it is remarkable to understand how that part of the valley was created. The anglos were able to control everything because they controlled the organizations that relied on the land and the water, and they used that as their foundation to have control.
ReplyDeleteThis article was very insightful, and it helped me get a better understanding how Mexicans were treated in this land that we populate. The whole, “cheaper and more dependable than African americans” idea really illustrates how they were treated. By saying there was an unlimited supply of Mexicans along with saying that they wanted to work for the anglos really degraded them, and that is how they were able to create this place myth.
The place myth eventually was under attack but it is still incredible what they were able to accomplish with the place images. It helped that the place they wanted to locate to was far away from their economic area, but just the effect that the propaganda had on the minds of the people is fascinating.
This article shows how propaganda is effective. It gave people this false idea to get their attention. It sounds negative to say that the valley was being used, this propaganda helped the RGV grow and get some recognition. Although Mexicans were used for cheap labor to make white people wealthy, they are responsible for building the valley we have now.
ReplyDeleteIt is no surprise that white people used Mexicans for cheaper labor and collected the profits and kept it to themselves. Mexicans were seen as replaceable with the idea that if someone is willing to work for less money, then they replace the Mexican making the most. The valley is cheap compared to other places. A house here might just get you an apartment in New York. Our standard of living is lower which seems like a result of Mexicans being used for their labor.
-Christian Casarez