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https://imaginationsoup.net/middle-grade-books-latinx-main-characters/

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"According to this information from the US Department of ED A teacher's priorities to have a culturally responsive school and classroom are...

1. "utilize state and local programs that recruit and retain culturally and linguistically diverse educators.

2. b)  invest in social workers, guidance counselors, and wellness services to support educators and students.

3. c)  seek out professional learning opportunities for myself or my teachers that focus on child-centered instruction.

4. d)  provide more translated materials or interpretation services for families and caregivers.

5. e)  offer more opportunities for students to develop linguistic practices for academic contexts.

6. f)  support students’ multilingual identities and socioemotional development"

Resources for middle school teaching can be found at

https://readingmiddlegrade.com/latino-middle-grade-and-chapter-books/

Ideas for incorporating art resources

https://www.educationworld.com/a_issues/schools/schools018.shtml

Incorporating appropriate Spanish-speaking movies

https://acis.com/blog/spanish-language-resources-25-student-appropriate-spanish-language-movies/

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Tips for teachers Teaching students from Mexico! 

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Tips for teachers Teaching students from Mexico! 

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According to colorincolorado.org some tips teachers can follow in the classroom are

Do not stop children from using Spanish in the classroom, it's a part of their identity.

Allow them to use a mix of Spanish and English to help them get more comfortable speaking in the classroom.

Make sure to model the correct pronunciation of ELLs' names to the class so that all students can say the correct pronunciation.

Get to know the student along with their strengths and weaknesses and use this to help them progress in class

Learn about the student's talents! Do they like to dance or draw?

Include their culture in the classroom, flags, words, places, and even names or events in assignments.

Doing things like this will...

increase their confidence

make them feel more comfortable in the class

build a foundation for positive relationships with you and their peers.

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An important first step in helping English language learners (ELLs) succeed is making them feel welcome in the classroom.

This will:

increase their confidence

make them feel more comfortable in the class

build a foundation for positive relationships with you and their peers.

Here's how you can get started!

The ELL student population includes students who were born in the U.S. and students who have immigrated from another country. For ELLs who have recently arrived in the U.S., they will face the challenge of learning a new language in addition to adjusting to an unfamiliar cultural setting and school system.

On a daily basis, ELLs are adjusting to new ways of saying and doing things. As their teacher, you are an important bridge to this unknown culture and school system.

In the same way that ELLs go through stages of English language learning, they may also pass through stages of cultural accommodation. These stages, however, may be less defined and more difficult to notice. Being aware of these stages may help you to better understand "unusual" actions and reactions that may just be part of adjusting to a new culture.

Euphoria: ELLs may experience an initial period of excitement about their new surroundings.

Culture shock: ELLs may then experience anger, hostility, frustration, homesickness, or resentment towards the new culture.

Acceptance: ELLs may gradually accept their different surroundings.

Assimilation/adaptation: ELLs may embrace and adapt to their surroundings and their "new" culture.

It is also common for students who are learning a new language to be 'silent' for a period of time, when they are listening to the language around them without speaking yet (much as a young child listens to language first before learning to talk). This is considered the first stage of language acquisition.

Patience and creating opportunities for small successes in speaking with you and peers can help build students' confidence. In addition, keep in mind that students' silence could also be a sign of respect for you as an authority - and not a sign of their inability or refusal to participate.

Students may also have experienced trauma or face different kinds of hardship in the U.S. You can better prepare yourself for this possibility by:

Learn more from the following:

This award-winning documentary highlights how the Dearborn, MI public school district is helping its immigrant students succeed. Learn more about this project and see related videos.

Getting to Know Students

Learn how to pronounce students' names correctly

Don't forget to smile and use positive body language!

A lot of communication happens through expressions, body language, and tone. Smiling and using positive body language can go a long way in making students feel welcome and comfortable, particularly if they are newcomers, as seen in the vignette shared by a teacher below.

Build relationships with students

Veteran teachers of ELLs always point to building relationships as the most important step in their work with ELLs. Not only does it increase engagement and support students' later academic success, it also provides invaluable information that can inform your instruction and family engagement.

In addition, it can help build bridges with students who may have particularly unique experiences, such as children in migrant farmwork families or Indigenous students.

See more ideas on how to build these relationships from the following:

Video: Showing students you care

Corpus Christi teacher Christine Price talks about the importance of showing students you care early on.

Identify students' strengths and interests

It's important to remember that ELLs bring lots of strengths, talents, and rich experiences to the classroom. Getting to know students' interests can help:

build rapport

engage students in learning

find connections with new friends.

Families are also an important source of information and are often happy to talk about the activities that their child enjoys. They may also appreciate the fact that their child's teacher is taking an interest in the child's strengths and talents. (This is especially true in special education settings.)

Teacher Omar Salem describes a student who not only sings and dances but manages her own YouTube channel and edits all of the video she posts of her performances.

Video: Using parent letters to get to know my students

Albuquerque teacher Clara Gonzales-Espinoza asks her parents to write her a letter at the beginning of each school year telling her about the child's personality, interests, strengths, and anything else they think she should know. In this interview, Clara speaks more about this strategy and its impact on her relationships with parents and students.

Ensure that students have information about activities and clubs

Make sure that students have information about extra-curricular activities, sports, and clubs related to their interests. You can also encourage them to start their own club within the school.

ELL educator Christine Rowland notes, "Many students find involvement in school clubs and teams to be extremely helpful, as they are often experts in these areas, and they can provide a space where they more easily feel they belong."

Welcoming Students' Language and Culture

Invite students' cultures into the classroom

Encourage ELLs and their families to share their culture with you and your class. Show-and-tell is a good opportunity for ELLs to bring in something representative of their culture, if they wish.

Invite students and families to:

share photographs, visuals, or meaningful artifacts such as flags or mementos

tell a popular story or folktale using words, pictures, gestures, and movements

share information about important holidays or celebrations.

Looking beyond the classroom

Imagine that you are walking into your school for the first time as a parent.

What do you see on the walls?

If your first language weren't English, would you see signs in your language?

Would you see flags, maps, or books representing your home country?

Would you see your child's work on display in the hallway?

If you think more could be done to make families feel welcome, consider:

sharing some ideas with colleagues or administrators and taking small steps that you can point to as successes

looking for opportunities to celebrate all families and their languages, customs, and cultures, whether in the classroom or at a school-wide event

keeping a lookout for a special part of their lives that other families might appreciate getting to know.

See more ideas in the following:

Video: What happened when the students realized the Yemeni flag wasn't on stage

ELD Specialist Diana Alqadhi tells the story of some students who realized that the Yemeni flag was not featured prominently enough on stage before a school show.

Invite students' languages into the classroom

Label classroom objects to allow ELLs to better understand their immediate surroundings. These labels will also assist you when explaining or giving directions, and it gives peers an additional opportunity to learn some words in their classmates' language.

Start with everyday items, such as "door/puerta," "book/libro," and "chair/silla."

You may wish to ask students who can write in their first language or family members to help you with this project.

You can also invite students to teach the class some words from their home language.

Learn more about the resources available in students' home languages

Students benefit from support in their home language - what Dr. Fred Genesee calls their " most valuable resource." You have may have access to learning material in students' languages, or you may be able to find resources that support those languages.

Language access for multilingual families

In addition, it's critical to understand what language access resources you have available through your school and district, particularly for communication with families. Keep in mind that all families have a legal right to information in their home language. Family liaisons, interpreters, ESL teachers, or administrators may have more information about what language access resources are available in your district.

Video: What Do School Districts Need to Know About Language Access?

This helpful overview about what language access means for school districts is a great introduction to the requirements, best practices, and funding streams related to language access in public education. This interview features Dr. Jennifer Love, the Supervisor of Language Access and Engagement in Prince George's County Public Schools, Maryland.

Video: Language Access for Multilingual Families

What does appropriate language access mean for multilingual families? This interview also features Dr. Jennifer Love.

Ensure your students see themselves reflected in the classroom

Ask yourself if students can see representations of their culture, race, gender, and other aspects of identity reflected in your:

classroom materials and library

lesson plans and activities

classroom visuals (both in-person and virtual).

In addition:

Success in the Classroom

Encourage your students

Some ELLs may not answer voluntarily in class or ask for your help even if they need it. ELLs may smile and nod, but this does not necessarily mean that they understand. Offer one-on-one support and encouragement as much as possible. For convenience, it may be helpful to seat ELLs near your desk.

Assign a buddy

Identify a classmate who will make a good buddy for new students - someone who is friendly, patient, and a good communicator to be a buddy. This student can make sure that the new student understands what he or she is supposed to do during class activities. It is helpful if the peer partner knows the ELL's first language, but not necessary. However, remember to never use another student as an interpreter in any situation.

Learn more about ways to increase peer interaction and collaboration in these related strategies.

Ask the class how they can help welcome new students

Ask students to brainstorm ways to help ELLs in particular. You may wish to make a list of ideas on how to welcome new students at the beginning of the year so that students have these strategies in mind if a student comes with little advance notice.

Be vigilant about health issues, dietary concerns, and allergies

Students may have specific health issues or dietary restrictions due to health, cultural, or religious reasons. Be sure that you learn all essential information you need to know about student health and diet from parents or guardians. For ELLs, be sure to confirm and clarify this information with the help of interpreters.

If you learn information about a student that would be helpful for other staff to know, particularly regarding health or food allergies, talk with administrators about how to keep the child safe. In addition, be sensitive to cultural or religious norms, such as fasting for religious reasons.

Keep an eye out for signs of culture shock

Moving to a new country and leaving a familiar life, relatives, friends, and language behind can be traumatic for children in the best of circumstances. Those challenges are compounded if children have experienced trauma, violence, or upheaval. Learn more about how culture shock can impact students in the classroom and affect student behavior so that you recognize signs if newcomers act out.

Encourage students to take ownership of the classroom culture

Ask students to answer the following questions through drawings or written responses.

How can I be a good classmate to others?

What are examples of unkind or disrespectful behavior in the classroom?

To support ELLs in their discussions of these questions:

Encourage students who speak the same language to discuss their ideas in groups.

Provide scaffolded materials such as graphic organizers, sentence stems, and sentence frames.

Use a picture book to talk about different kinds of behavior with students.

Create a shared set of classroom expectations together

Return to your earlier discussion of what a respectful classroom looks like.

Brainstorm ideas on possible class rules based on that discussion.

Streamline the list of class guidelines or rules.

Add any rules or guidelines that are missing.

In order to establish appropriate consequences for disrespectful behavior, you may wish to come up with ideas with the class or determine those consequences yourself.

Post the final list classroom rules in the classroom.

Translate the rules into ELLs' native languages so that they can keep the list handy and share it at home.

To see an example of this proces in action, take a look at ELL expert Carol Salva's process for developing a community contract each year.

Help your ELLs understand expectations for the classroom

ELLs may need some extra support in understanding expectations for classroom behavior. Helping them understand these expectations can avoid misunderstandings, discipline problems, and feelings of low self-esteem.

At the same time, it's important to remember that students bridging two cultures may need guidance which behaviors are appropriate in which setting (such as eye contact, physical proximity, etc.). If you have questions, talk with a cultural liaison in the school to learn more about appropriate responses and ideas for helping students navigate a new culture. You can also learn more about cultural norms of your students, particularly related to schooling, to help inform your approach.

Here are a few strategies that you can use in class:

Use visuals like pictures, symbols, and reward systems to communicate your expectations in a positive and direct manner.

Physically model language to ELLs in classroom routines and instructional activities. ELLs will need to see you or their peers model behavior when you want them to sit down, walk to the bulletin board, work with a partner, copy a word, etc.

Be consistent and fair with all students. Once ELLs clearly understand what is expected, hold them equally accountable for their behavior.

Post a daily schedule. Even if ELLs do not yet understand all of the words that you speak, it is possible for them to understand the structure of each day. Whether through chalkboard art or images on Velcro, you can post the daily schedule each morning. By writing down times and having pictures next to words like lunch, wash hands, math, and field trip, ELLs can have a general sense of the upcoming day.

Finally, remember ELLs can make unintentional "mistakes" as they are trying hard to adjust to a new cultural setting. They are constantly transferring what they know as acceptable behaviors from their own culture to the U.S. classroom and school. Be patient as ELLs learn English and adjust - and remember that you will learn a lot from this experience too!

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How to Create a Welcoming Classroom Environment for ELLs

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An important first step in helping English language learners (ELLs) succeed is making them feel welcome in the classroom. This will: increase their confidence make them feel more comfortable in the class build a foundation for positive relationships with you and their peers. Here's how you can get started!

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Resources for Teachers and Their Students

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Resources for Teachers and Their Students

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Minnesota Council for Latino Affairs, Community Resources page: "A list of local and national organizations which offer services or resources related to community, advocacy, policy, or research. Many of these organizations offer resources relevant to Latino communities."

NAVIGATE MN

Scholarships for Hispanic and Latino/a Students

dicapacitados abriendos caminos

La Opportunidad

Green Card Voices:

Nathanael Valera (Mexican immigrant)

Evelyn Mendez (born in Chicago, IL, Mexican immigrant parents)

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A list of local and national organizations which offer services or resources related to community, advocacy, policy, or research. Many of these organizations offer resources relevant to Latino communities.

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Open Door Health Center (ODHC) is an independently owned and operated, non profit community health center, providing quality and affordable medical, dental, and behavioral health care to all people in Southern Minnesota. Many private insurance plans are accepted, as well as MinnesotaCare and Medical Assistance (MA).

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Minneapolis' Celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month

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Minneapolis' Celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month

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From the article: "Nationally known as Hispanic Heritage Month, Minneapolis celebrates Latinx Heritage Month September 15 through October 15, 2022. Check out the events, businesses and restaurants where you can celebrate and support the Latinx/Hispanic community and enrichment of Minneapolis’ culture."
Gwen personally recommends Rincon 38!

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Mexican Independence Day on Lake Street

Mexican Independence day Festival features a parade, Mexican music, folkloric dancers, carnival rides, prize drawings, children's activities, community resources exhibit, information booths, crafts, food, merchandise, and much more!

El Festival del Día de la Independencia de México se festeja en Lake Street Mpls MN. Presentacion desfile, música mexicana, bailarines folklóricos, juegos mecánicos, sorteos de premios, actividades para niños, exhibición de recursos comunitarios, mesas deinformación, artesanías, comida, mercadería y mucho más!

Pre-Fiesta to Selena Movie

Join El Burrito Mercado for a pre-party in their cantina before the 7:30pm Selena Movie at Parkway Theater!

The award winning midwest up & coming performers Michael d'Fernandez and Jolette Rivera will sing from 5:30-7:30pm! Plus grab some happy hour drink and food specials AND their elotes (roasted corn stand) will be there too!

It's also a kick off to Hispanic Heritage Month, Viva Mexico! No reservations, first come first serve!

(NOTE: You can also order food to go and take it with you into the theater!)

Selena (1997) // Hispanic Heritage Month Kick-off
September 15th, 2019
Doors open at 6:30pm
The Parkway Theater
Kick-off Hispanic Heritage Month with a special screening this celebration of Selena Quintanilla Perez (Jennifer Lopez), a girl from South Texas with global talent, incredible will, and magnetic charm. At 23, Selena shone as a fresh star in a vibrantly new musical field. But just as she was poised to be the next pop-music sensation, her life was tragically cut short. Directed by Gregory Nava. Tickets are $9 Advance // $11 Door.

La Hora Latina

As part of the City of Minneapolis' Welcoming Week celebration in partnership with Wellstone International High School, the City is hosting La Hora Latina. There will be music, entertainment and free food. As well as Salsa with Rene Thompson, Caporales dance by Mi Peru-Minnesota and performances by Grupo de Danzas Colombianas.

Alma Lopez at El Colegio
September 27th, 2019
5:30pm-9:30pm
El Colegio High School
Join us for a fundraiser dinner catered by the Sioux Chef, followed by a public lecture at El Colegio High School by Los Angeles Chicana artist Alma Lopez, co-sponsored by the University of Minnesota's American Studies & Chicano Studies departments, as well as the Imagine Fund Special Events Program.

A renown visual artist, Alma Lopez has been exhibited in over one hundred solo and group exhibitions internationally. In 2011, the University of Texas Press published her book Our Lady of Controversy: Alma López's "Irreverent Apparition," co-edited with Alicia Gaspar de Alba. Currently, Lopez is an Assistant Professor in Residence in the Cesar E. Chavez Department of Chicana/o Studies and LGBTQ Studies Program at UCLA. She teaches courses on art censorship, queer art, Chicanx/Latinx art, public art, and digital art. To learn more about her work, see http://www.almalopez.com/

LatinoLEAD Heritage Month Event: Celebrating our Latinidad!

Hear from Maria Regan Gonzalez, the first Latina Mayor in the State of Minnesota! Maria has been committed to advancing racial and social justice issues by bringing people together and connecting the needs of the community.

Appetizers and refreshments will be available. RSVP to claim your spot today.

Young Professionals Networking: Travel and Hispanic Heritage

Enjoy a pint and an evening of travel, trivia, and networking at Global Minnesota's next young professionals event at La Doña Cervecería in Minneapolis. In recognition of National Hispanic Heritage Month, connect with others interested in international travel, with a focus on Latin America, and learn the top tips to seeing more of the world for less, from the co-founders of Thrifty Traveler.

The evening will include a short presentation by Jared Kamrowski and Nick Serati of Thrifty Traveler, a lightning round of Latin America-themed trivia, and time for networking.

During the event, there will be a give away for a one-year subscription to Thrifty Traveler Premium, which delivers 1-3 international flight deals each day directly to your email inbox. Must be present to win!

Registration includes one drink ticket and appetizers.

Gala Latina: Celebrating Latino Leadership and Culture
October 11th, 2019
5:00-9:30pm
Minneapolis Hilton Hotel
CLUES' Gala Latina celebrates the organization's 35 years of service and the impact of Latino leadership and culture in Minnesota. 500-600 elected officials, Latino leaders, corporate, government, business, and community partners will come together to recognize and award community leaders in Minnesota who have impacted and contributed to the advancement of Latinos in Education, Public Service, Advocacy, and Innovative Latino Community Development.

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All the Ways You Can Support Hispanic Heritage Month

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We've put together a list of Hispanic events, restaurants and shops in Minneapolis to help you celebrate and support Hispanic Heritage all month long.

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Why Mexicans Come to Minnesota--A Historical Lens

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Why Mexicans Come to Minnesota--A Historical Lens

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Immigrating to Minnesota came with the promise of work.

World War I caused an increase in labor demand in Minnesota and political issues in Mexico.

The first major waves of Mexican immigrants settled in the Red River and Minnesota River valleys.

Obtained jobs in agriculture, particularly in harvesting sugar beets.

Seasonal.

As immigrants transitioned to being full-time residents of Minnesota, many settled at the west side of St. Paul.

However, here jobs were harder to find due to language barriers.

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Skip to Main Content

It looks like you're using Internet Explorer 11 or older. This website works best with modern browsers such as the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. If you continue with this browser, you may see unexpected results.

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Skip to Main Content It looks like you're using Internet Explorer 11 or older. This website works best with modern browsers such as the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. If you continue with this browser, you may see unexpected results.

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Pull Factors (the "American Dream"):

Better access to healthcare and quality/higher education.

Benefits for second generation children.

The establishment of and ability to join already existing communities of Mexican immigrants within the United States.

Family reunification.

Job opportunities.

Push Factors:

High crime rates.

Drug trafficking.

Unemployment.

Poverty.

Climate hazards.

Water shortages.

Political Factors:

Political activism can put people at risk, causing them to seek asylum.

The chance of receiving successful asylee status is low for immigrants from Mexico.

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

This agreement has displaced ~5 million workers in agriculture.

Loss of resources to maintain agricultural pursuits.

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After being deported for being an undocumented Mexican immigrant, Elvira Arellano has returned and is seeking asylum in Chicago for herself and her US-born son. Why did she come to the United States in the first place, and then return after being turned away? Like many other Mexican immigrants, not necessarily for the American dream.

The "American dream" is an ethos steeped in American lore that became popularized in the 1930s. It is the bedrock belief that one can achieve success through hard work and initiative with the economic opportunities provided here.

Since Mexican immigrants make up a large portion of the US's immigrant population, it is assumed that the American dream is the driver of the influx, regardless of immigration laws and policy. In 2015, about 11.6 million immigrants from Mexico resided in the US, accounting for more than 1/4 of all US immigrants, according to American Community Survey (ACS) data. Although attaining the American dream is the reason many come to the United States, it is not the only one.

There are various pull and push factors that determine why a Mexican citizen would choose to come to the United States. Some pull factors that make the US appealing include access to better healthcare and quality education, large existing communities of Mexican immigrants, family reunification, and more job opportunities. These factors are correlated with the economic benefits of the American dream. Some push factors that compel a Mexican citizen to leave his or her home country include high crime rates, drug trafficking, unemployment, poverty, and climate hazards that lead to water shortages.

What is seldom expressed in the polarized and inflammatory political discourse is that US policies have contributed to some of the reasons Mexicans feel forced to leave their native country and opt to live in the US. In seeking asylum, Arellano cites these factors, along with her fears of returning to Mexico where she says her political activism has put her at risk. As she awaits her asylum hearing, her concerns about being deported again have been stoked by the Trump administration's avowed commitment to step up enforcement and target a larger pool of immigrants for removal, according to a Chicago Tribune story, "Immigration activist Arellano faces ICE check-in, worries about deportation."

Arellano points to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the agreement that President Trump has called the " worst trade deal in history" and pledged to end it or renegotiate it, as affecting the agriculture of her country and her family's land. NAFTA displaced more than five million agricultural workers from the land that they had lived for years, according to Walter Coleman, a pastor of the church where Arellano was given sanctuary for a year in the 1980s. In Mexico, Arellano's father lost his ability to grow corn on his land. When the family land was passed down to Arellano, she did not have the resources to maintain it and ended up losing her job because of the devaluation of the peso, which as she says, was caused by US banks.

Arellano came to the United States, she says, because she had no means of supporting her family back home. Coleman calls her situation a "forced migration," because Arellano did not want to leave her home and come to the United States, but she felt like she had no choice.

"We didn't come to this country looking for the American dream," Arellano says, translated from Spanish. "We left our country because of the politics of [the United States] and how it affected our well-being."

Her son Saul, then only four years old, was with her when she got arrested and deported in 2002. He was born in the United States but moved back shortly after his mom was deported. He went back to a land his mother called home but in which he felt like a stranger. It was difficult for him to transition from one language to another, let alone one country to another. After coming back to the United States, Saul is settled and accustomed to his life. Although he does not call Mexico his true home, he remembers and appreciates the sacrifices his mom made for him by coming to the United States and giving birth to him here.

As with Arellano's second immigration to the United States after being deported, many Mexican immigrants come to the US so that they can provide a better future for their children, even if they themselves would have rather stayed in Mexico. In this case, both push and pull factors matter, with more emphasis on economic opportunities for the children of Mexican immigrants - the second generation.

This is the case for Mariana Berruecos's parents. She immigrated to Miami with her parents and two brothers in 2008 from Argentina, where she lived for two years after leaving Mexico in 2006. The reason her family left Mexico, she says, was because her father got a job offer in Argentina with more benefits than his previous one. After two years there, he got another job offer in Miami, which he immediately took, thinking it would be for a short period of time. The family has lived there since, and each has become an American citizen. For the past two years, however, her father has been working in Mexico City on the weekdays and going back to Miami to be with his family on weekends. Because their extended family lives in Mexico, Mariana's father lives at his parents' house when he is there.

Although her parents are content in the United States because living here has provided the children with educational opportunities they never would have had in Mexico, it is also difficult for them to be apart from their families, and from their children in college. Mariana's older brother attends the University of Pennsylvania, very far from where the rest of his family is, which is unusual in Latin American countries because children tend to go to school in the same city as their parents. Mariana's mom makes do. Mariana says her parents would have liked to stay in Mexico with their families but that the United States was a better choice for their children. Mariana's generation has a better opportunity to attain the American dream because they have lived in the US longer than their parents and did not have to make the difficult choice of moving out of their native country.

"I feel like it would be hard to go back [to Mexico] because I'm already used to it here," Mariana says.

Rita Perez, a UCLA student from Mexico, is in a similar situation. Her father was born in Mexico and moved to the United States by himself when he was 19. After marrying here and getting divorced, he moved back to be with his family and met Rita's mother in Guadalajara. When her mother got pregnant, Rita's father convinced her to move back to Los Angeles with him. Rita was born right before they moved. She came into the

United States undocumented and has since become a permanent resident with her mom. Back in Guadalajara, her father was a firefighter and professional soccer player. Like Elvira Arellano, Rita's family owned land in Mexico but was having trouble maintaining it and making money from it.

"He wanted to come to America to see if he could build a different career and different

life," Rita says about her father.

He now works at a construction company in LA to support Rita and her brother. Rita says that after she and her brother are able to live on their own and graduate college, her parents would like to move back to Guadalajara to be reunited with their families. Nonetheless, Rita's family voluntarily came to the United States in the first place for the economic opportunities to attain the American dream.

Another reason for immigrating to the United States is to flee a home country where someone is subjected to persecution and imminent danger. In this case, the immigrant can seek asylum in the United States, and during the process is safe from being deported.

However, not a large number of asylum cases get approved from Mexico. In 2015, the total number of Mexican citizens who were granted asylum in the United States was 667, according to the Department of Homeland Security. In removal proceedings, only 203 out of 8926 applications for asylum from Mexico were approved by immigration judges in 2015.

There is a difference between fleeing a home country due to forced economic reasons like poverty and unemployment and fleeing because of fear for one's life and security with no help from the government. Although Arellano in her words had no choice but to come to the United States initially because she could no longer support her family, it is unlikely that she will be able to attain asylee status. Successful asylum cases from Mexico are rare. The types of applications that get approved for asylee status involve public figures who have received death threats and whose family members have been murdered or assaulted, victims of domestic violence who have sought help from law enforcement multiple times and been ignored, or people who have been persecuted and dealt with violence from drug cartels and drug traffickers based on their social group or political opinions.

Whether the factors are pull or push or a combination, Mexican families migrate to the United States to provide better futures for their children, even if the parents would have rather stayed in their native land. This differentiates first generation from second generation immigrants, because

Second generation immigrants have a better chance of attaining the American dream once they've lived in the United States for longer, even though their parents may not have initially come for that reason. If they are given the chance.

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Why do so many Mexican immigrants come to the United States?

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After being deported for being an undocumented Mexican immigrant, Elvira Arellano has returned and is seeking asylum in Chicago for herself and her US-born son. Why did she come to the United States in the first place, and then return after being turned away? Like many other Mexican immigrants, not necessarily for the American dream.

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-Early indigenous societies (Such as the Olmecs and Mayans) flourished and expanded but eventually fell on their own.
-Conquistadors from Spain colonized Mexico when it was largely influenced by the Aztec civilization, killing an estimated 24 million people in under 100 years.
-Missionaries from the Catholic Church expanded throughout Mexico, leading to increased Spanish influence until their control was weakened by Napoleon Bonaparte's occupation of Spain in the early 1800's.
-Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a priest, alongside Vincente Guerrero defected and collaborated in eventually achieving Mexican independence from Spain in 1821.
-Mexico faced turbulent times as it faced the U.S. in the Mexican-American War, resulting in a large loss of land in the mid-1800's.
-Tension continued and the abuse suffered by civilians under their leader Porfíro Díaz led to a 10 year civil war in the early 1900's
-Today, many Mexican civilians struggle as there is little opportunity to expand their wealth and overcome their economic status.

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Mexico today has a population of over 111 million people, making it the third most populous nation in the Americas after the United States and Brazil. Of these, about 45 million people constitute the Economically Active Population (PEA). About half of all Mexico's workers labor in the underground or informal economy for employers who do not pay taxes, do not pay into the national Social Security system (pensions and the national health system), and do not deal with labor unions.

Mexicans earn wages about 1/10 of U.S. workers' wages

About half of Mexico's people live in poverty, and about a fifth live in dire poverty. Mexico's poverty is not simply a result of an historical lag in development. Rather much of this poverty results from the modernization and development programs pushed by the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the U.S. and the Mexican government of the last 20 years. Poverty often results from unemployment or from low wages, or wages with declining purchasing power.

Perhaps the most striking symptom of poverty is the declining stature of children. Because of malnutrition, Mexican children in many states in certain age groups have been getting shorter and lighter; that is, seven year olds in 1990 were bigger than seven year olds in 1998. Mexico joined the GATT and NAFTA only to see its population become poorer and its children become stunted.

For seventy years (until 2000) Mexico was ruled by the state-party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). The PRI controlled all branches of government as well as the major labor unions (such as the CTM), peasant, and other social organizations of the country. The party has been called a "perfect dictatorship" because with far less violence than other dictatorships, it was able to keep the population under control.

How did this happen? Let's take a quick look back at Mexico's history.

Read on to sections covering:

Or if you're not interested in Mexico's early history, skip ahead to these sections:

Mexico before Columbus and Cortez

Modern Mexico has a history and culture quite different from that of the United States. Before the arrival of the Europeans, what is today Mexico was inhabited by indigenous people. The indigenous people had immigrated to the Americas by crossing the land bridge across the Bering Straits over 10,000 years ago.

The indigenous people settled in great numbers in Meso-America, that is the region from what is today Panama to about where the city of Zacatecas, Mexico now stands. More than 5,000 years ago they learned to cultivate corn and other foods, and laid the basis for an agricultural civilization. Some historians believe that as many as 25 million people lived in that region when Columbus landed in the Americas in 1492.

The Olmec peoples of the Gulf of Mexico are considered by anthropologists to have been mother culture of Mexico. The most famous Mexican civilizations were those of the Aztecs in central Mexico and the Mayas in the Yucatan Peninsula and southern Mexico. But there were many other important indigenous civilizations - Toltecs, Zapotecs, Tarascans, Purepechas, and many others. Some anthropologists and historians compare these civilizations of Meso-America, including Mexico, to the great civilizations of the Mediterranean.

During the period from 1400 to 1521, the Aztecs, based in the city of Tenochtitlan (the future Mexico City) built an empire based on tribute that extended throughout central Mexico. The Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan is believed to have had a population of 250,000 in 1519, larger than any European city at the time. The Aztecs studied astronomy, practiced irrigation, built great pyramids, temples and cities, and had a written language. Their religion required human sacrifices to please the gods of the sun, rain and warfare, among others.

Spanish Conquest of Mexico

Montezuma II was the head of the Aztec state and empire when the Spanish conqueror Hernan Cortez landed in Mexico in 1519. Cortez and his few hundred soldiers arrived with their sailing ships, horses, war dogs, metal armor, gunpowder and firearms all of which intimidated the indigenous people. (The Aztecs did not have sailing ships, the wheel, metal weapons, or gunpowder and firearms, and there were no horses in the Americas.) Cortez formed alliances with the subject people of the Aztecs, and those subject people provided him with thousands of troops. European diseases to which the natives had no immunity also played an important part in the conquest. Between 1519 and 1521, Cortez succeeded in conquering the Aztecs and then in the next decade he and his men extended their control over most of the other native people.

Colonial Mexico

The conquest of Mexico was followed by colonization by the Spaniards. The conquerors imposed the Spanish government and the Roman Catholic religion on the indigenous peoples of Mexico. Thousands of Spaniards immigrated into Mexico. The Spanish rulers gradually took control of the land, wealth and labor of the country. While the Roman Catholic Church and the Spanish king and queen decided that Indians could not be enslaved, they could be subjugated and forced to work for the Spanish overlords. The Spanish eventually established great haciendas, plantations, ranches, and mines.

The Spanish conquest devastated the indigenous population which dropped from a peak as high as 25 million in 1519 to as little as 2.5 million in 1600. The demographic catastrophe of the indigenous people, whom the Spanish called "Indians," (indios), led the Spanish to import about 200,000 African slaves. (Over hundreds of years many Spaniards and Indians, and in some areas Africans, inter-mixed, producing the mestizos, perhaps the dominant group in the modern Mexican race.) The Spanish rule of Mexico lasted from 1519 to 1821, that is, for three hundred years.

Independent Mexico

Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821, and September 16 has been the national independence day ever since. The first independence movement was led by radical Roman Catholic Priests, father Miguel Hidalgo y Castillo and by Morelos y Pavon. But the radicals were defeated by the Spanish, and independence was eventually won under the leadership of conservative land owners. For most people, Mexico's independence did not change their lives very much. A Spanish (criollo) elite continued to dominate politics and own the land and mines, while most mixed race people (mestizos) labored as artisans or workers and Indians (indigenas) worked the land for the plantation owners.

Many historians refer to the period between 1821 and the 1860s as the lost half century. During that period a small political elite divided between "Conservatives" and "Liberals" fought for control of the government. Conservatives tended to support the old Spanish system of domination by the Roman Catholic Church, the military and the landlords. Liberals wanted to move to a system of private industry and agriculture more like that in the United States.

Under both Liberals and Conservatives and under generals such as Santa Anna, Mexico suffered a series of devastating and almost catastrophic political and military defeats. Most important, between 1836 and 1854, the United States took more than half of Mexico's territory, first through the secession of Texas from Mexico, and then through the U.S.-Mexican war of 1847. Most U.S. historians agree that these were unprovoked wars of conquest, driven by U.S. slave states seeking more land for cotton, and U.S. manufacturers in the Northeast looking for markets in the far East.

The French Conquest and Occupation

Statue of Benito Juárez in New York's Bryant Park (Photo: wallyg)

In the 1860s, the Conservatives invited the French Emperor Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III) to come to their aid in their battles with the Liberals. Taking advantage of the Civil War in the United States, which kept the U.S. government from opposing a European invasion of Mexico, Louis Napoleon's French troops invaded Mexico and established the Austrians Maximilian and Carlotta as the King and Queen of Mexico. The Mexican Liberal Benito Juárez, a Zapotec Indian lawyer and politician, led the Mexican people in their struggle against the Conservatives and the French conquerors.

May 5 ("Cinco de Mayo") celebrates a Mexican victory over the French at the city of Puebla during those wars, and is a second Mexican Independence Day, though more celebrated among Mexicans in the U.S. than in Mexico. Juárez also carried out a series of reforms, reducing the power of the church and ending protection for Indian groups. This period is known therefore as the period of La Reforma, the reform.

The Porfiriato

In the 1870s Porfirio Díaz became president of Mexico and would be its dictator until the outbreak of the 1910 rebellion. Porfirio Díaz invited foreign capital to invest in Mexico in order to develop and modernize the country. While he attempted to balance British and French investment against U.S. interests, U.S. capital became dominant in Mexico.

Under Díaz, a railroad system was built which connected Mexico City with the port of Veracruz, and with the northern border and the United States. U.S. railroad companies controlled most of the Mexican railroad system. Also under Díaz, U.S. mining companies were invited to invest in Mexico, and the Guggenheims and Rockefeller both moved in. Companies such as Phelps-Dodge and American Smelting and Refining Company (ASARCO) controlled much of Mexico's minerals. U.S. industrialists such as Edward L. Doheny and later Standard Oil owned much of the Mexican oil industry.

Other U.S. corporations came to dominate in other areas of the Mexican economy. The International Harvester Company controlled the haciendas of the Yucatan which produced henequen or sisal, a fiber used to make twine for the company's binders. The Wrigley company invested in "chicle" used to make chewing gum. Other U.S. corporations had holdings in rubber and lumber. William Randolph Hearst and other U.S. businessmen bought ranches in northern Mexico.

Meanwhile the Mexican landlords' giant haciendas producing sugar cane or other products for export on the world market encroached on the land of the poor peasantry. Mexican landlords took control of most of the country's territory, depriving Indians, peasants and small farmers of their land.

Though originally elected as a Liberal, Díaz made peace with and entered into a tacit alliance with the Roman Catholic Church. Díaz kept control of the country through the Federal Army, the "Federales" and through the rural police force or "Rurales." His slogan was "pan o palo," bread or the stick. Bread for those who worked with his dictatorship, and the stick to beat those who did not. Under the Díaz regime labor union organizers, peasants demanding land and poor Indians were arrested, tortured and murdered.

Eventually the Díaz dictatorship became identified in the minds of the Mexican people with those forces: Mexican landowners, the Roman Catholic Church, and U.S. and other foreign corporations. Opposition to Díaz and those forces laid the basis for the Mexican Revolution.
Continue to next page: The Mexican Revolution "

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Colonel addresses striking miners in 1906 with armed company men behind him (Photo: Southern Methodist University, DeGolyer Library) Some Basic Information About Mexico Today Mexico today has a population of over 111 million people, making it the third most populous nation in the Americas afte

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A youtube video with multiple beginner-friendly Spanish phrases to familiarize yourself with the language.

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32 Minutes of Spanish Listening Comprehension for Beginners

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The primary language spoken in Mexico in Spanish, but the government also recognizes 68 other indigenous languages as being spoken there.