Aaron Benlolo Ms.

Lubin A Nation of Immigrants

10/29/11

Many immigrants come from all over the world to come and live in America. As a matter of fact, most of the people in the U.S. are immigrants because the only actual natives are the Native Americans. That is one of the reasons America is called A Nation of Immigrants. Cartoonists draw cartoons to show numerous opinions on the influx of immigrants into the United States. The cartoon I am writing about describes the thoughts of the Native American when the Conquistadors came to America. The cartoon shows the relationship between the way the Native Americans reacted to the conquistadors, and the way Americans reacted to immigrants. The cross on the sail of the ship helps me understand that the sailors are conquistadors, and the feather headpiece and designs on the cloths help me understand that the people talking are Native Americans. We understand from the cartoon that the Native Americans were paranoid of people coming to their home just like the Americans. The two Native American men are telling each other Im okay with it as long as they pay us taxes, learn our language and do the jobs we Americans dont want to do. The quote is explaining how the Native Americans are xenophobic, meaning that they are scared of anyone that is different then them. This is exactly how the Americans reacted to the influx of immigrants in the 1900s. They were paranoid that the incoming immigrants would take over America and steal the Americans goods like the conquistadors did to the Native Americans(The conquistadors came to America, took all the Native Americans gold, massacred them and then returned to Spain as heroes). Americans were scared that the same would happen to them, and thats what I think the author is trying to show in his cartoon. Americans try to make immigrants adapt to American culture, learn our language and become more like Americans in order to prevent that from happening. Quotas were passed in America to stop immigrants from

coming into the U.S. (A Quota is a limit on something made by congress). For example, The Chinese Exclusion Act passed in 1882 said that Chinese people werent allowed into America anymore. The main reason why Americans were so paranoid was because Nativists (people who didnt want immigrant to come to America) convinced everyone that if immigrants come here there will be no more jobs, and nobody will speak English anymore and we will lose our culture. This is what I think the authors opinion about this cartoon is. Clearly, this cartoon is trying to prove that the Americans are paranoid about the immigrants just like the Native Americans were about the Conquistadors, but I have different opinions. I think immigration is a good thing for the U.S. for numerous reasons. One reason why I think immigrants are good is because some of the most successful people in America are immigrants. They help make the economy better, and we cant be so prejudice against them for being different because if we went to their country we would be different. Also it is ironic that we dont want them in America because they arent native to America, when most people in the U.S. arent native America either because only the Native Americans are actually native to America. That is what I think about immigration yain the United States.