Family ideal and real: the change of the image of the family in selected works of Mexican American authors

Abstract

Afroamerieane tvorili donedavna nejvetSi mensinu ve Spojenych statech, nicmene poeatkem 2l. stoleti je predstihli pfistehovalci z Latinske Ameriky, z nichz nejvetSi cast tvofi lide puvodem z Mexika. Velikost a rychly rust teto skupiny ma v mnohem vliv na zivot ve Spojenych statech, a je proto duldite venovat jf nalezitou pozornost. Cflem me diplomove prace je predstavit mexicko-americkou mensinu a zejmena jejf literaturu se zamerenim na rodinu, ktera hraje v zivote Amerieanu mexickeho puvodu velmi vyznamnou ulohu. Nejprve je tedy tfeba tuto mensinu popsat z historickeho a demografickeho hlediska a zamefit se na instituci rodiny. Posleze bude mozne prozkoumat, jak je rodina zobrazena ve etyrech dflech mexicko-americke literatury z ruznych obdobi, veem se od sebe jejf obraz v jednotlirych dflech lisf a efm jsou tyto rozdfly zpusobeny. Mexicka mensina Je skupina vel ice ruznoroda. Zahrnuje jak pfistehovalce z Mexika, tak i obyvatelstvo uzemi na sever od reky Rio Grande: napfiklad nynejsi staty Texas, Nove Mexiko, Arizona, Kalifornie, Colorado a Utah, ktere pfed mexickoamerickou valkou nalezelo Mexiku. Smlouvou z Guadalupe-Hidalgo v roce 1848 tato uzemi pfipadla Spojenym statum, ktere se zavazaly, ze Mexieane, z kterych se timto aktem ze dne na den stali cizinci ve vlastni zemi, budou mit vsechna prava obeanu...

The fact that in the twenty-first century Latinos became the largest ethnic minority in the United States is inevitably mentioned in any recent publication on Latino population in the U.S. l People of Mexican origin form the largest percentage of the Latino group, 58%, according to the 2000 U.S. census.2 Mexican Americans have a long history of settling in the United States, nevertheless, their disadvantaged position in the American society is evident. They are usually located among the working-class, have low income, and also low educational attainment. Some social scientists, whose works will be mentioned in this thesis, believe that it is the Mexican American culture that prevents this population from success; others attribute it to discrimination and negative stereotypes of Mexicans that are perpetuated in the American society. In the 1960s and 1970s the Mexican American civil rights movement, known as the Chicano Movement, decided to end the discrimination and other social problems by supporting Mexican American nationalism. One of the ways to increase their national pride was to point at the Mexican American family as a source of strength and a symbol of unity of all Mexicans in the United States. The Chicano Movement asked artists to create works of art that would represent the Chicano family as an...