Mexican Americans Quotes

“I held Angie Luna in that room for hours, and I remember the different times we made love like epochs in a civilization, each movement and every touch, apex upon abyss. In the luxury of our bed, we tried every position and every angle. I explored the curves on her body and delighted in seeing the freedom of her ecstasy. Her desperate whispers and pleas. I told her I loved her, and she said she loved me too. We lay in bed with our limbs entangled, in a pacific silence that reminded me of existing on a beach just for the sake of such an existence. I couldn't imagine the world ever becoming better, and for some strange reason the thought slipped into my head that I had suddenly grown to be an old man because I could only hope to repeat, but never improve on, a night like this. I finally took her home sometime when the interstate was empty, and the bridges seemed to lead to nowhere, for they were desolate too.”
― Sergio Troncoso, The Last Tortilla & Other Stories

“It was a mission of celebration: never had two Mexican-Americans flown up in space on the same mission, and never did burritos shine so brightly.”
― Gustavo Arellano, Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America

“At Harvard, the strong and savvy and confident thrived, while the nice or shy or quaintly moral were just bit players. In Ysleta, you believed in God because you were poor and needed something to hold on to. At Harvard, you believed in your good luck or bad luck, in all-nighters, in your political savvy.”
― Sergio Troncoso, From This Wicked Patch of Dust

“I believe we have reached a point where those of us who belong to this culture of la frontera in Ysleta and El Paso are not content to sit back and watch others tell us who we are. We know who we are, and we ourselves can tell others about what we love and what we fear and what we hate and what can save us. I believe our community has developed that confidence to step forward and start taking responsibility for the many images that are projected in the name of Ysleta and El Paso.”
― Sergio Troncoso, Crossing Borders: Personal Essays

“You cross a border because you are searching, because you want more, because you want to match where you are with who you are, because you want to test your place. Maybe because you want to expand your sense of place. You are searching for something that may as yet be indefinable. A border crosser questions the very idea of home.”
― Sergio Troncoso, Nepantla Familias: An Anthology of Mexican American Literature on Families in between Worlds

“Turi remembers this strange feeling repeated throughout his life: who he thinks he is in his mind is sometimes not who others see or imagine he can be. This gap never seems to go away. Sometimes this secret self is comforting, for its privacy. Sometimes it is amusing, when he witnesses what crazy assumptions others have of him. Too often this gap is dispiriting, a prison inside of him without any means of escape.”
― Sergio Troncoso, Nobody’s Pilgrims

“A final challenge that we face as a result of our great dilemma is to be ever mindful of enlarging the whole society, and giving it a new sense of values as we seek to solve our particular problem. As we work to get rid of the economic strangulation that we face as a result of poverty, we must not overlook the fact that millions of Puerto Ricans, Mexican Americans, Indians and Appalachian whites are also poverty-stricken. Any serious war against poverty must of necessity include them. As we work to end the educational stagnation that we face as a result of inadequate segregated schools, we must not be unmindful of the fact, as Dr. James Conant has said, the whole public school system is using nineteenth-century educational methods in conditions of twentieth-century urbanization, and that quality education must be enlarged for all children. By and large, the civil rights movement has followed this course, and in so doing has contributed infinitely more to the nation than the eradication of racial injustice. In winning rights for ourselves we have produced substantial benefits for the whole nation.”
― Martin Luther King Jr., Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?

“ভালোবাসা
যে ভালোবাসা তুমি চাইছ তা তোমার প্রাপ্য
আলুথালু,
যে সমস্ত কারণে তোমাকে করে তোলে তার জন্য
তাড়াতাড়ি উঠে দাঁড়াও,
কারণ রাক্ষসেরা তোমাকে দেবে না
ঘুমোতে ।
তোমার এক ভালোবাসা প্রাপ্য যা তোমাকে দেবে
নিরাপদ থাকার অনুভূতি,
জগতকে খেয়ে ফেলার সামর্থ্য
যখন সে তোমার পাশাপাশি হাঁটে,
তোমার জড়িয়ে ধরার সেই অনুভবগুলো
ত্বকের জন্য নিখুঁত ।
এক ভালোবাসা তোমার প্রাপ্য যা নাচতে চায়
তোমার সঙ্গে,
যা তোমার প্রতিবার মনে হবে স্বর্গ
তোমার চোখের দিকে তাকিয়ে আছে,
যে তুমি কখনও অবসাদে ভোগো না
তোমার অভিব্যক্তি বুঝে নিতে ।
এক ভালোবাসা তোমার প্রাপ্য তুমি শুনতে পাও
যখন তুমি গান গাও,
যে তুমি নিজেকে সমর্থন করো যখন তুমি উদ্ভট কাজ করো,
তা তোমার স্বাধীনতাকে শ্রদ্ধা করে,
তুমি তোমার উড়ালে নিজের সঙ্গে থাকো,
যে পুরুষটি পড়ে যাবার ভয়ে ভীত নয় ।
এক ভালোবাসা তোমার প্রাপ্য যা তোমায় দূরে নিয়ে যায়
মিথ্যা থেকে
যে তুমি স্বপ্নকে নিয়ে আসো,
কফি
আর কবিতা ।”
― Frida Khlo

“Rather than speaking in terms of specific and distinct subgroups (Mexicans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, etc.) ‘Latino’ and ‘Hispanic’ have become the shorthand designation of choice among journalists, politicians, advertising executives, academics, and other influential elites.”
― Cristina Beltrán, The Trouble with Unity: Latino Politics and the Creation of Identity

“Jorge’s andd Yesi’s experiences show how particular enactments of Puerto Ricaness and Mexicanness were viewed as problematic. Not coincidentally, Jorge and Yesi became marked in part because of their Spanish and English language practices, respectively.”
― Jonathan Rosa, Looking like a Language, Sounding like a Race: Raciolinguistic Ideologies and the Learning of Latinidad

“In the early 1900s, while colonization continued, the original Mexican population of the Southwest was greatly increased by an immigration the continues today. This combination of centuries-old roots and relatively new ones gives the Mexican-American people a rich and varied cultural heritage.”
― Elizabeth Martínez, De Colores Means All of Us: Latina Views for a Multi-Colored Century

“And now, today, as we hear the call of the Raza, and as the dormant, "docile" Mexican American comes to life, we see the stirring of the people. With that call, the Chicana also stirs and I am sure that she will leave her mark upon the Mexican-American movement in the Southwest”
― Enriqueta Vasquez, Enriqueta Vasquez And the Chicano Movement: Writings from El Grito Del Norte (Hispanic Civil Rights)

“The family must come up together. The Raza movement is based on Brotherhood. ¿Qué no? We must look at each other as one large family. We must look at all of the children as belonging to all of us. We must strive for the fulfillment of all as equals with the full capability and right to develop as humans. When the man can look upon "his" woman as HUMAN and with the love of BROTHERHOOD and EQUALITY, then and only then, can he feel the true meaning of liberation and equality himself. When we talk of equality within the Mexican-American movement we better be talking about TOTAL equality beginning right where it all starts. AT HOME...”
― Enriqueta Vasquez, Enriqueta Vasquez And the Chicano Movement: Writings from El Grito Del Norte (Hispanic Civil Rights)