Chicanos, Foreigners In Their Own Country, By Ada Savin - Resumen En Inglés

Paulina SANTANDER November 2012 Book presentation Les Chicanos aux États-Unis: étrangers dans leur propre pays? Ada Savin (1998) Chicanos in the USA: foreigners in their own country? by Ada Savin(1998)

I)

Introduction

Today, I’ve chosen to present you a book entitled Chicanos in the USA: foreigners in their own country?, written by Ada Savin and published in 1998 . Before starting thispresentation, let’s try to introduce the most relevant concepts in this title: Chicano: What does Chicano mean?

Meaning: This term is used as reference to US citizens of Mexican descent(Mexican-American). It began to be widely used during the Chicano movement in the late 60’. Today, this term can even be extended to other Latin-Americans living in the USA. Origins: Some critics claim it is ashortened form of “Mexicano”. Probably coming from the original pronunciation of “Mexico” in nahuatl “Mesh-ee-co”. Why foreigners? (let’s people participate)

They don’t consider themselves neitherAmericans nor Mexicans, but… What is the Chicanos’ country?  Borderlands

II)

Presentation

This text is an essay and it deals with the Chicano identity construction in America since 1848, dateof the Mexican cession (Mexican cession lands were captured during the Mexican-American war in 1846-48 and ceded by Mexico to the USA in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo). In this essay, the writerfocuses on the Chicanos’ cultural and linguistic duality in the multicultural context of America.

1

This text is composed of three parts: In the first part of this book entitled “Between twocultures”, the writer describes the different steps in the Chicano identity’s construction. At the end of the war between the USA and Mexico, people living in the annexed lands chose to stay because theyhad always lived there and also because, in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, maintain of their proprieties and respect of their language and culture were guaranteed. Very quickly, The Treaty of...