Book Review

The book, Honor and the American Dream: Culture and Identity in a Chicano Community, and the film, Salt of the Earth, both relay to their audience, the pursuit of happiness within the Chicano community in which they live. These works aim to show how Mexican-American immigrants fight to keep both their honor and value systems alive in the United States of America, a country which is foreign to their traditions. The Mexican-Americans encountered in these works fight for their culture of honor in order to define themselves in their new homeland, a homeland which honors the American dream of successful capitalism.

The author of Honor and the American Dream, Ruth Horowitz, takes us to Chicago’s Chicano community of 32nd Street in the 1970s. She introduces us to a wide range of residents as they face the challenge of keeping their honor and value system brought with them from their former country. While keeping this honor and value system alive inside their community, they face the challenge of a completely different set of values based on the American dream.

Salt of the Earth is the story of Mexican-American miners living in the small New Mexico community of Zinc Town. The movie focuses on the miners whose lives are subjected to the unjust treatment of the Zinc Mining Company. The immigrants come together in the form of a union and fight for their rights of basic plumbing, sanitation, and equal pay with that of the Anglo-Americans. Earth is a story of the Chicano struggle in America against the social challenges of racism, violence, and workers rights, while keeping their traditions and values intact. Ramon and Esperanza are the two main characters in the movie, who along with the other community members fight agaist the verbal abuse and discrimination in working and living conditions they encounter on a daily basis.

The social challenges they face on a daily basis that will be focused on in this paper include: 1) how the Chicano community deals with the consequences of racial prejudice in order to overcome the stereotypes held against them by Anglo-Americans; 2) the violence they face in a need to defend their honor; 3) the patronizing effect of men’s honor on their wives and; 4) how the Chicano community fights to keep their traditions alive amidst an American culture so different than their own.

The consequences of racism in the United States can affect and therefore manifest itself differently among various American communities. This essay will look at the similar affects of racism among Mexican-Americans in two different social groups.

The Chicanos in Earth’s Zinc Town fight against discrimination in order to obtain their civil rights that should be afforded to them by the Constitution. Racism experienced in Salt of the Earth is much more prevalent and more openly expressed than it is in Honor and the American Dream.

At work, Ramon and the other Chicano miners are forced to take on the most dangerous jobs while working alone, while white miners were allowed to work in pairs, doing some of the less life-threatening jobs. The Chicanos become indebted to the company through high prices, as the only stores in the town are those owned by the company. Ramon and Esperanza, along with the other community members fight against verbal abuse and discriminatory practices in the working and living conditions they encounter on a daily basis.

In the opening scene of Salt of the Earth, at a small shack-like home, Esperanza tells of her sorrow. “This is our home,” she says. “The house is not ours. But the flowers…the flowers are ours.” The company expresses its oppression in this scene. The Mexican-American immigrants work the mines for the company, but are not allowed to own their own homes.

The social injustice in this movie is