south by southwest essays

south by southwest essays 1. Title : South by Southwest : The Mexican-American and His Heritage 2. Author : John Tebbel and Ramn E. Ruiz 3. Publisher : Zenith Books and Doubleday 5. The setting of this story covers an immense number of years of conquering and colonization in the Southwest areas we now know as California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico. It begins in the early 15 and 1600s, in a time when many important Spaniards, such as Juan Bautista de Anza (in 1775 he led the longest overland migration of a colony in North American history before Oregon), were moving into the Southwest in search of gold, silver, bread, and jobs. It also talks about the Indians, who were already living in the area we now know as Mexico, that did not get along real well with the Spaniards(Anglos) when they came in to invade their land. The two main Indian tribes of that time were the Mayas(a peaceful people who were interested in science, invented a calendar to grow maize, and were later believed to be wiped out by a great natural catastrophe), and the Aztecs(a powerful bloodthirsty tribe who feared no human only their gods). Next it went on to the 1800s and early 1 900s, when Mexico decided to fight the Spaniards for their independence. Finally, the book went on into the mid to late 1900s, where Mexico began to modernize and become a good neighbor to the United States. 6. The major conflict was between the Anglos and the Mexicans. It began with the Spaniards and the Indians(Aztecs) fighting over the Valley of Anahuac. The Spaniards(led by Cortez) ended up winning the battle over the Aztecs(led by Moctezuma). Due to the cruel and ruthless Spanish rule, a new social system was set up where the Spanish-born whites were the rulers, the Mexican-born whites were the aristocracy, and the Indians lived lives of poverty and slavery. Anothe ...