Effects of past conquests still felt by ethnic Americans

By Linda Prendez, On-Line Forty-Niner

Thursday, October 8, 1998

The fact that this year marks the 100th anniversary of the end of the Spanish-American War does not seem to be part of the public's consciousness, said a panel of historians and educators Wednesday in the University Student Union.

But the effects of the American conquests of Pacific Islands and the acquisition of most of the Southwestern United States in 1848 in the Mexican-American War, persist today and are common threads in the fabric of human relations amongst ethnic Americans, educators said.

To commemorate the wars, often neglected in public discourse, the Asian and Asian-American studies and Chicano Latino studies departments as well as other CSULB Pacific Islander groups, are sponsoring a two-day symposia, "Redefining Visions of U.S. Expansion."

In the first panel, guest speakers examined the realities of U.S. imperialism and discussed the current climate for people not displaced physically by the wars, but rather socially and politically.

"The [Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo] transferred the land men inhabited from Mexico to the United States. This is a significant issue especially for the local population," said Dr. George Sanchez, director of the Chicano Latino studies department at USC.

However, states like California choose to celebrate other events such as the gold rush and in two years, the state constitution and statehood. While a war is not necessarily something to celebrate, legislators forget about the significant history, Sanchez said.

"The lands were won by war, not by people wanting to flow into the United States. That's something that the government doesn't want to remember," Sanchez said.

Still, the neglect of addressing the wars might not be deliberate, he said.

"The major reason is that expansion and movement into California is still seen as natural. It was inevitable [to political leaders]," Sanchez said.

Sanchez and other guests, including John Nieto Phillips, a historian from Hunter College and Kimberly Alidio, a doctoral candidate at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, suggested that when the past is neglected, the opportunity to understand the present and ultimately to make major changes is lost.

"It leads to a national blindness," Alidio said. "If we know the context by which things are the way they are, we can conquer racism and other social plagues."

The symposia will continue Thursday night from 6 to 8 p.m. in PH1-141. Panelists will discuss the acquisition of Hawaii, Guam and Samoa; Filipino citizenship; and identity politics of Mexican Americans.

The sponsors of the symposia received a $2,000 grant from Forty Niner Shops Inc. to fund the event.