Beatriz Luelmo Essay

 

Beatriz Luelmo Montánchez

2ºA Infantil

June 7th 2012

 

Injustice, racism and solutions in the USA from the 40’s

Racism was a really important factor in the USA which labeled people through their nationality, especially from the 40´s. At that time, White people believed that Black people have to be considered less valued than the rest of the population. Although this situation has changed nowadays, the same problem happens with different colour skin, religion, personal beliefs as well as sexual persuasion.

My interviewee is Eva Gutierrez, a member of my family who emigrates from Cuba to the USA many years ago. Now she lives in Los Angeles City and she came to Madrid to write a book about emigration which tells different experiences among my family members from XIX century in Cuba. In addition, Eva has become a prominent writer in USA.

The reason why I have chosen her, is because it is a fantastic opportunity to practice English, and to learn more about the history of my family.

My cousin Eva Gutierrez Soteras was a five-year-old child when she and her mother Dra. Asela Gutierrez, went to Oklahoma, United States. Dra. Gutierrez, has recently divorced from my great uncle, Luis Soteras, who was going to work as the director of the Spanish Department in Oklahoma College for Women.

Was at 1949 when the southern states from USA were in the midst of the era of Jim Crow laws. This meant that Black people were routinely discriminated in almost every way, for instance, they had separated bathrooms, also different water fountains as well as schools. Although those laws were clearly unfair, they were accepted by the vast majority of white people.

An example of this situation was when an Eva´s classmate who was kind to her but had strongly bad feeling about black people, often making derogatory remarks about them. One day he even threw stones to a black girl, shouting at her: “go away nigger”. Eva was shocked by this situation due to she didn’t understood her classmate’s behaviour.

While Eva had lived in many Spanish-speaking countries, she was troubled by Jack’s cruelty to this little girl, and the injustices inflicted on African-Americans living around her.

It is not surprising that the Civil Rights movement to take hold during the course of that decade and continued into Sixties.

Eva said to me how those experiences impact her life: “I developed a strong sense of self both as a person, a Latina and as a Cuban-American. I realised that I was a privileged person to have been born into an educated family that had given me a sense of values and moral compass.” As well, the interviewee knows that her life’s work was to reveal the ugly nature of racism and prejudice in all its forms.

Furthermore in the United States of America existed racism between people from other country or races. I asked to Eva about an experience with personal racism. She told me that in 1952, she and her mother were invited to spend Thanksgiving holidays at a student’s ranch in Texas. They were prepared to spend the night before going to the ranch at the White Hotel. They arrived at the hotel and were been greeted politely by the management.

The manager’s attitude changed when Eva’s mother wrote her name on the hotel registration slip. He asked to her mother to pay the bill in advance, and when they asked why, he answered that: “All Mexican have to pay in advance”

Eva and he mother were so angry that they stormed out of the hotel and called her pupil to ask her to pick them up immediately.

On the other hand, she intervene in other acts of racism for example as an adult professional Eva worked in the newspaper field for many years covering stories on social issues including the rights of fair housing, issues between races and worked for AT&T developing programs to create better understanding between people in North and South America and Africa.

In the last ten years Eva was public Information Director for the Country of Los Angeles and worked specifically for the Human Relations Commission. In that position she worked to create harmony between various groups. For example, many Muslims were targeted after 9/11 and were victims of hate crimes.

Hate crimes carry a felony conviction in the USA and this can mean jail time. The Human Relations Commission of Los Angeles is a pioneer in this area, and has been since 1944 “Zoot suit wars” between sailors and Mexican-Americans when the Commission was formed.

In Los Angeles Country there are more than 165 languages spoken and this mixture of races, religions, sexual persuasion, and ethnic derivations creates the need for aggressive work within each community. It is vital for each to feel that they have a stake in the County and that their rights are being respected.

In her work with the Human Relations Commission, she monitored summits between Jews and Muslims, rival ethnic gangs, issues between African-Americans and Koreans and conflicts between Samoans and Tongans.

The predominant groups targeted for hate crimes remain African-Americans, Jews and transgender individuals.

To finish the interview I asked Eva if she had personally intervened against an act of racism. She said, “Both personally and professionally I have stood up against acts of discrimination and racism. I believe each of us needs to be judged, as Martin Luther King would say, on contents of our character and not our skin colour, religion, or sexual persuasion.”

As the result of her own trauma as a child, Eva has marched against hate and wars and feel strongly that each of us must make our voices heard to our political representatives.

Benjamin Franklin, one of America’s great patriots, once said: “We give you a Republic; it is up to you to keep it”.

At seventy years of age that is her mandate as it for everyone living in a Democratic country.

To conclude racism concept was much common in the USA from 40’s because many white people considered black people as a lower raze. Insults, not privileges as well as discrimination were been happening in the USA until not too much years ago when fortunately, Martin Luther King among other leaders changed the world through his morality about discrimination. From there, discrimination were been disappearing until nowadays that the president of the USA, Barak Obama, belongs to black skin.