Fluent Essays

For this assignment, you are to read a journal article about a topic related to a regional topic within the context of the class, and you are asked to use articles from the JSTOR database. Unfortunately, Grossmont College does not have JSTOR available from its library, but some of you may have used JSTOR from institutions like Mesa, Palomar and Southwestern Colleges, in addition to San Diego State or Cal State San Marcos. Therefore I will provide you with an ample selection of articles that I have downloaded from Palomar Colleges JSTOR database. All you need to do is pick any of the articles for your review. Just click the Files section from the Canvas class menu, and open the folder that says 115_JSTOR articles. In the folder are several subfolders with topics arranged by nation, in alphabetical order. The articles are in PDF format and labeled by the topic of the article, so just browse the collection of articles before you make your final selection. You do not need to notify me of your article choice, just pick any one of the articles in any of those subfolders, and youre ready to roll!The due date for this review is Thursday, May 28 at 11:59 PM. No late papers will be accepted, all reviews must be submitted by May 28. The report is to be 5-6 pages in length. Please be sure to use both a title page and works cited page. (title and works cited pages do not count toward the overall page count of your review) You are also encouraged to follow the MLA or Chicago formats to develop this report. Please double-space your review. This review will count as 20\% toward your final grade. And in your works cited page, please list the name of the article that you will be summarizing and analyzing. This an example of the type of the format you should follow:“Argentina in 1983: Reflections on the Language of the Military and George Orwell, by Alberto Ciria. Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Vol. 11, No. 21 (1986), pp. 57-69.In terms of the content of the report, I am looking for two main points of discussion. First, you should devote the first half of the report to a summary of the main points that the author is trying to convey to the reader. To help you to address this issue, consider some of these questions: What type of article is this? Is the author presenting an original feature, or is he/she conducting a book review? If this is a book review, what book (or books) is being reviewed? What is the author’s purpose for writing this article? What is the author’s academic or professional background?As for the second point of discussion, this is where you provide your opinion or perceptions of the article. In other words, what did you think about it? What were the strengths or weaknesses of the article? How did the article relate to the class? You are definitely encouraged to write in first person singular (I feel that..., I think..) as you provide your opinions. As a general rule of thumb, your JSTOR review should be about 60\% summary and 40\% commentary. Thus a 5-page review with about 3 & 1⁄2 pages summary and 1 & 1⁄2 pages commentary is an ideal proportion. jewish_culture.pdf Unformatted Attachment Preview Canadian Association of Latin American and Caribbean Studies JEWS AS A MINORITY IN MEXICO Author(s): ADINA CIMET Source: Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies / Revue canadienne des études latino-américaines et caraïbes, Vol. 20, No. 39/40, Special Issue: Cárdenas, Vargas, Perón and the Jews (1995), pp. 215-225 Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Canadian Association of Latin American and Caribbean Studies Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41799921 Accessed: 12-10-2019 17:29 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Canadian Association of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Taylor & Francis, Ltd. are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies / Revue canadienne des études latinoaméricaines et caraïbes This content downloaded from 205.153.156.220 on Sat, 12 Oct 2019 17:29:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms JEWS AS A MINORITY IN MEXICO ADINA CIMET YIVO Summer Program, New York While almost all societies can spur the interest of social scientists Mexico seems to hold a special fascination for many scholars. Eve since Mexicos encounter with Spain and its version of Western civilization over five centuries ago, its situation has become paradigmatic of the relationship between the conquering and the conquered. Mexicos independence (1810) highlighted the issues that were emblematic o the multiple political and economic accommodations experienced b the entire continent. Its revolution in 1910 similarly presaged the soci and political themes that were to be points of contention in Latin Amer ica and beyond for the rest of the century.1 Equally challenging devel opments surfaced later in this century, both within the country itself and between the Mexican government and other nations and international bodies, as the country faced extraordinarily complex and impor- tant issues around World War II. The history of Mexico can thus b seen as a microcosm that allows us to study not only the society itsel but also the issues and questions that are important in the bettermen and constant quest for a more dignified life in any society. The same characteristic weave of perspectives arises from the study of the situation and modern history of Jews in Mexico. Although some Jews immigrated as marranos in the colonial period following the devastation of the Inquisition, most Jews arrived in Mexico in ver small numbers and regrouped as a minority during this century. With out a blueprint as to what and how their social life would evolve, these Jews, Sephardim and Ashkenazim, succeeded in re-creating them selves as a minority in an alien society. In their history as well as in Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies , Vol. 20, No. 39-40 (1995): 215-225 215 This content downloaded from 205.153.156.220 on Sat, 12 Oct 2019 17:29:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 216 CJLACS / RCELAC 20/39-40 1995 their current social structure, Jews in Mexico variety and multiplicity of choices and challe faced in this century everywhere. They had gion, their diverse internal political choices r tional history and condition,2 processes of cultural integration; and the establishment of ture accommodating the diverse ideologies of as the local political choices open to them. Both the clustering of the community (the Mexico City) and its relatively small numb proximately half Ashkenazim and half Sep opportunities to researchers who can reconstr voices of the pioneering Jews. This is extraor very large societies. In the United States, for bers defy any generalization and where many type of community or city, so that the ideol community is eclipsed,3 this type of study se enact. Thus, the case of Mexico allows us to r philosophical issues which, although not new on the internal life of this minority in its attem on more general queries that apply to all socia In the encounter of Mexico and Jews in th first the need to document the history of the en Many have attempted to answer this question ly. Several university theses have contributed the Jews in Mexico; these have varied in both they have received. In general, the Ashken attention than the Sephardim. Few committed on the case of Mexican Jews.4 Worthy of me María Martínez Montiel, La Gota de Oro5 on im tion; the comparative work done by Haim A immigration during Cárdenass tenure;6 A papers on Jews in the colonization period and she co-ordinated for the Kehila Ashkenazi Ashkenazi Jews in Mexico) Generaciones jud Ashkenazi (1922-1992).7 Works examining the political context o include Tzvi Medins, which specialized in the mato periods;8 Enrique Krauzes work on C issues spinning from the Revolution of 1910;9 This content downloaded from 205.153.156.220 on Sat, 12 Oct 2019 17:29:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Cimet / Jews as a Minority in Mexico 217 Corinne Krauze and Harriet Sara Lesser;10 the comparative wo Jewish education carried out by Efraim Zadoff;11 and the wo David Bankier on the left political linkages between Jews and Jews during World War II.12 The theses of Miguel Abruch, J Bokser Liwerant, Elizabeth Broid, Adina Cimet, Ana Portnoy, Sus Ralsky-Cimet and Monica Uniquel examine a variety of issues in d ferent depth.13 Also significant are the contributions of Gloria Ca ño,14 Guadalupe Zárate,15 Silvia Seligson,16 Liz Hamui,17 Lo Meyer, Ezra Shabot, Moisés González Navarro, Tzvi Schechner1 the visual representation of the Jewish settlement in Mexico, team directed by Judit Bokser Liwerant.19 Finally, a recent census of Jewish community directed by Sergio della Pergolla and Susana L under the sponsorship of the Hebrew University and the Coleg México provides information on the present and extrapolates from present to the past, estimating the Jewish population in Mexico, growth, trends and economic changes.20 This list is illustrative r than exhaustive, and gives only an impressionistic view of what h been done. Most of the work has used local sources including gov ment materials; primary sources written in Yiddish or Spanish; b articles and correspondence from immigrants in the country; arch and oral history.21 From them emerge the contours of the life and str ture of the Jews in Mexico, which was self-made to a degree, ye shaped by the Mexican context within which it unfolded. All studies of Jews in Mexico, especially those that deal with migration, address in a way or another the problem of space, wh at the root of many confrontations between groups in the world definition of the legitimate space of an individual or a social grou obviously not a new topic. Space is so central a subject because it cludes physical and sociological aspects in its definition. Yet, beca there is no consensus over these definitions in different historical moments each group must rework the limits of the space it has as well as deal with the boundaries of the space it is given. These limits are always contingent upon the definition of the space of the other. In our contemporary world we continue to put to the test specific definitions of the political and philosophical space that groups put forth. Intellectually, the works of Henri Lefebvre22 and other French thinkers such as Pierre Bourdieu and Michel Foucault have created an awareness that, although the planet is finite, and perhaps because of that, issues of space are crucial. They suggest it is not only political, economic, ideological and territorial issues that have influenced the opening or closure This content downloaded from 205.153.156.220 on Sat, 12 Oct 2019 17:29:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 218 CJLACS / RCELAC 20/39-40 1995 of space among groups; rather, it is within ries that space is created or defined. In oth especially those that lie latent within a socie confined and almost silent there, are the fo groups to exist. Studying that space of soci the patterns of control, power and dominat ing the patterns of interrelation within and b limitations and violence that are imposed b what can change. It is within a society that relations between its members is construct selves and others; groups with more power domination as they attempt the consens which may constitute the majority. And some challenge the status quo and resist the them, there is neither a philosophical nor a tects rejected groups from those that want to Following independence Mexico was co social and political reconstruction. The b how should the new independent society g specific issues of governance was the matte included, which should have power, and, b be excluded. The same issues resulted in a Revolution of 1910. If this society spent 10 answer to these questions, in this century have been devoted to implementing the visi posed into specific forms and channels in or Once the revolutionary war was over, the p their hegemony, ignoring the arguments p the same questions once more, because inadequate, incomplete or wrong. As this society defined itself anew, it ha ship with all others: the foreign powers tha ers that wanted to come, the foreigners th were part of a complex puzzle that had not vertently guided the functioning of this so groups that regrouped as a subculture in t ways had a variety of cultural types in its tions of tremendous variety, blacks, Europe allow new minorities into the country pos This content downloaded from 205.153.156.220 on Sat, 12 Oct 2019 17:29:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Cimet / Jews as a Minority in Mexico 219 create a political and social space for them, but also to accep definition of itself, of its emerging body politic. Studying a minority always reveals much about the majorit period of Lázaro Cárdenas (1934-40) provides an example of litical, economic and philosophical issues connect, thereby brin the surface a host of social and sociological issues which ot would have remained dormant. The Cárdenas years are paradig because issues of space were effectively being brought to the flecting tensions over national space, international space, owner space and its resources, historical ownership of territory, mor between groups, internal political space, responsibility for the selectivity of the other, all effectively part of the political disc the period, but also encoded in many structures that defined society forever after. The Cárdenas period through World Wa the postwar period was thus rich, enriching, challenging and un all at once, then and now. With regard to the Jewish community in Mexico, there ar main areas of inquiry that have captured the interest of schol first deals with the internal actions of the minoritys membe political views as Zionists, Bundists, Communists; their edu structure, which consisted of ideologically linked day schoo religious organizations which comprised a scattered number of gogues and congregations; and their cultural output which pro much material in Yiddish and Spanish in the form of books, n pers, journals, etc. The second area concerns the relationship b the minority and the general society. Though it is still dev scholars have addressed the problems on the official space Jews in Mexican society, and have dealt to a degree with topics rejection of the minority, the symbols of acceptance that the m received and highlighted, the position of the national progres and the position of the conservative right with respect to the m the integration of Jews into the general society and issues of a tion and adaptation. While much information on the Jews of Mexico has bee misplaced and not recorded, there is still much that needs to be and reinterpreted. Areas which still need examining include the ing: the peculiarly idiosyncratic mixture of religion and secul Jews in Mexico; their solutions for the private/public definit themselves; and womens roles and minority power, among oth ics. Yet, we have enough data to portray certain patterns and This content downloaded from 205.153.156.220 on Sat, 12 Oct 2019 17:29:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 220 CJLACS / RCELAC 20/39-40 1995 raising the questions as to the identity of Me Jewish community in Mexico. Because what is the definition of the self of these two entities Power differentials provide an important lens it is with power and its symbolic and real opened or closed in a society. But power is within a government and its repressive organizati entials undergird most of the relationships in mate, cultural, racial and sexual touching all mem There are many reasons why the president Lázaro Cárdenas until the 1950s has elicited so m est in academic circles. This largely reflects the which Cárdenas has been held. To leftist intelle the first true authentic stance in modern M For the nationalists, Cárdenas represented a new expropriated the rail (1937) and petroleum right, Cárdenas embodied all that was fearful Cárdenas consolidated the political power stru that became his strongest asset and the center for the system.23 Much has been studied from labour and union movements, agrarian reform figures of the period such as: Enrique Flores M Emilio Portes Gil, Luis N. Morones and Vicent mention a few. Differences and similarities bet policies have been compared using Cárdenas as ferences between the Calles and Maximato per suggesting that in the former the system was use olutionary forces and the local caudillos, and, in as a channel for political climbing - ascenso - a country. Other scholars see Cárdenas regime government as a presidential instrument for t efforts between the well-recognized sectarian d is seen as initiator of a novel phase in Mexican implemented touched on a variety of other is power structure of the country, for example, space of religious and lay structures of society of the political system also affected the economy changes launched by him established the patter cal parties and within the major political party all under the rhetorical slogan of balancing cl This content downloaded from 205.153.156.220 on Sat, 12 Oct 2019 17:29:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Cimet / Jews as a Minority in Mexico 221 The Jewish community of this period was not impervious changes. For socialist Jews, Cárdenas embodied socialist ide represented true change in a world that had started experimenti the ideology of change as no other century had. Jews searched leftist ideology a space and a new source of legitimization. Wh ish communists wanted a complete utopia, socialists searched for ance of their cultural differences; acceptance of their right to exist, port in the fight against Nazi fascism and eventually after the w ing Zionists, all wanted legitimization of their national nee dreams - support for the state of Israel. Their insertion into the however, was not without difficulty. During this period Jews enced insecurity and rejection. The changes in the economy prejudice to surface. Responses to the ongoing changes in the economy as wel the new boundaries and power statuses of the groups involv being forged. If the left seemed active, so was the right. The d ment of anarchist ideas, labour mobilization, free-masonry, et interpreted by some as hostile to Catholicism. The Camisas and the Sinarquista movement became the physical outcry threatened right. Their anti-Semitic discourse was openly f The left in Mexico seemed less accepting of this anti-Semitism, this banner was meaningfully picked up mostly by the intern left - the European refugees that came later to Mexico during t They argued strongly the case for Jews. As an institution, the ment of Mexico showed weak open support towards the Jews. W exception of the workers movement and the documented solida Lombardo Toledano, Jews had few allies. Later, in the period o War II the lack of support was particularly wounding. While M had responded to the civil war in Spain by opening its door Spanish refugees, no such welcome met the Jewish refugee insecurity of Jews in Mexico increased with these developments of the labels attached to Jews systematically showed the limit conditional space they had been granted in Mexican societ moment they were citizens; another, they were foreigners and r They were also described as subversive, undesirable, minority, e ate, heretical, all labels from the repertoire that is used for any that is ostracized and marginalized in language and society b who define their own space and that of others. Few protested t few protest now if they notice such labeling at all. This content downloaded from 205.153.156.220 on Sat, 12 Oct 2019 17:29:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 222 CJLACS / RCELAC 20/39-40 1995 The same pattern of unexpressed prejudice and linger in the study of the past and its re can take the opposite format: from political a cal symmetry). A recent (1996) major exhibit seum in New York called Converging Cultur history as a crucible of cultural harmony. Co complete overviews of colonial art ever pre exhibit interprets Mexican history with the Octavio Paz: Although following independence, and indeed until quite recently, Mexico attempted to deny its colonial past as an integral part of its history, this is no longer the case. We now understand that Mexico is best defined by the title of this great exhibition: Converging Cultures, and today we Mexicans are as proud of our Aztec, Mayan, or Olmec past as we are of our Spanish heritage. . . . The great colonial poetry, the baroque art, the Leyes de Indias, the work of the first cronistas and historians, the architecture in which the most diverse sources have been harmonized in an order as rigorous as it is wide, are nothing but a reflection of the equilibrium of colonial society, a society in which all men and all races found their own place, their sense and justification. This quotation is a perfect example of the underlying thinking that redefines history in a way that excludes large parts of history itself. Not only is this mythical harmonizing of cultures and past dangerous, it is also inaccurate. By emphasizing as accomplishments issues that modern Mexico still has to address in dealing with its inherited past, it distorts reality, past and present. Paralleling, as we study Jews as a minority in Mexico, we have to question the basis for Mexicos acceptance of minorities. Has this acceptance been conditional; has citizenship really been the key to full membership? What does it mean to have or lack full membership in Mexico? Mexicos democracy must still contend with the countrys policy towards minorities, the inconsistencies with its internal policies towards its own indigenous minorities, and the discrepancies between its international self-definition and image and its policies and prejudices towards minorities and foreigners.25 Questions about the minority condition during the Cárdenas years reveal not only the internal challenges and conflicts of the minority, but the limits and challenges that Mexico faced and still faces towards all minorities and itself. One of the values of historical analysis is its promise to articulate something relevant to us today. The kind of studies we have mentioned This content downloaded from 205.153.156.220 on Sat, 12 Oct 2019 17:29:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Cimet / Jews as a Minority in ... Purchase answer to see full attachment