…el blog de andrew…

The article basically breaks down three scenarios in which our formation of intercultural images can be influenced.  The first would be “accurate, balanced, well-contextualized” information coming from both schools and the mass media.  The second would exhibit a little shift in the balance of data, which may be left out or distorted, but as noted by the author, this scenario could at least lead to critical thinking excercises where students could examine different accounts and make up their mind on their own.  The final scenario is one in which students receive ”erroneous and distorted images” from both parties, which reaffirm each other and assist in “fostering intercultural misconceptions.”

Even before reading this article it seemed obvious to me that the first scenario was not something that I experencied during earlier schooling years.  After various history classes in college I was left questioning the validity of certain things I learned in my 7th grade class of Texas History.  So many topics popped up that seemed new to me and the manner in which the material was presented was totally different.  In 7th grade, the main focus of my class was the Alamo and Stephen F. Austin and his settlers moving peacefully into the southern territory.  I barely recall anything else about the US-Mexican War except that Santa Anna was a very evil man.  By focusing on the tragedy of the Alamo, an US vs THEM idea was planted into my mind.  And by painting Stephen F. Austin’s journey as one by which they abided the conditions stated before entering made the Americans seem upright and honest.  I don’t know if this was influenced by the teacher’s opinions, the book, or whatever, it was too long ago to remember.  But I didn’t question any of it when I was 13 or however old I was.  I just checked my brother’s history book from TCC and one page out of five hundred talks about the US-Mexican War.  It doesn’t seem like very much coverage to explain how we acquired so much territory. 

As far as ways specified in the article, it is noted that Latin America and Mexico are usually only brought up when they have something to do with the United States.  Books caricatured Mexicans by portraying them in traditional clothing or representing them as simple Indians.  Certain aspects are stressed while ignoring others.  These are even if there is even a section covering the countries.  The lack of coverage for them is also a problem noted by surveys. 

One thing that I have noticed first-hand is something mentioned in the article about the Spanish conquistadors.  They are portrayed as violent and overpowering, meanwhile, hundreds of years later the atrocities committed toward the Native Americans by the New Americans are kind of pushed aside.  Now Native Americans are extremely marginalized.  They have super-high high school dropout and alcholism rates, and are barely seen off of reservations.  Do you ever see any Native Americans in the city?  Their lives, land, race has been destroyed and they are given some breaks from the government that others don’t get, but they don’t make up for anything.

Films are described as “a special opportunity for Anglos to demonstrate their superiority over Mexicans.”  Obviously from The Martyrs of the Alamo we can see how the Anglos were portrayed as morally superior, but fell at the hands of a “mass of ineffective fighters, able to triumph only through vast superiority of numbers…” 

It is impossible to tell history in an unbiased way because there is no being who is capable of describing events without having previous ties or opinions that may influence the way he/she does so.  But the article makes a good point by mentioning certain faults of the mass media and education systems.  Throwing money into the mix of opinions corrupts everything that much more.  A better way to approach history would be to take texts from different people, different nations, different professions, as varied as possible, and compare them, hopefully finding some type of general consensus, thus making the story as unbiased as possible.