Mano, Sandra : University of California-Los Angeles
Summary
American Mosaic helps students expand their historical awareness and critical-thinking skills while they study
the development of literary, political, and cultural voices within the United States. A chronological framework
allows students to examine key events in the history of ethnic groups in the U.S., with each chapter centering
on a significant historical period for the group. The readings within each chapter illustrate how each group has
participated in the development and transformation of American culture.
New! Thirty-one new selections, drawn from a wide range of sources, provide differing viewpoints on provocative
issues such as Puerto Rican statehood and the Makaw whaling controversy. The new selections draw on sources such
as first-person narrative, journalism, oratory, fiction, and poetry.
New!An introductory chapter, "Points of Entry, Points of Departure," provides a foundation for multi-ethnic
studies and the multicultural debate through a collection of essays that explore the meanings of several important
terms such as "melting pot" and "cultural pluralism."
Chapter introductions set the historical context and provide starting points for discussion, while excerpts
from legal documents open each chapter and suggest ways the dominant culture responded to each ethnic group.
Headnotes provide background information.
Pre-reading and post-reading questions foster critical thinking and provide opportunities for group work and
close reading.
Connecting questions end each chapter and ask students to compare selections.
Suggestions for further research and bibliographies for further reading encourage students to continue exploring
issues.
Table of Contents
Note: Each chapter contains Setting the Historical and Cultural Context, Beginning: Pre-reading-Writing, Connecting:
Critical Thinking and Writing, References and Additional Sources. Selections new to this edition are indicated
by an asterisk (*).
1. Points of Entry, Points of Departure
Emma Lazarus, The New Colossus*
Joseph Bruchac, Ellis Island*
James Truslow Adams, The Epic of America*
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., 'What's in a Name?' Some Meanings of Blackness
Greg Sarris, Battling Illegitimacy: Some Words Against the Darkness
Eva Hoffman, Lost in Translation*
Francis Fukuyama, Immigrants and Family Values*
Arnold Krupat, For Multiculturalism*
2. American Indians: Reclaiming Cultural Heritage
From The Indian Removal Act
Chief Joseph, An Indian's View of Indian Affairs*
D'arcy McNickle, Train Time*
Leslie Marmon Silko, Lullaby
Louise Erdrich, Love Medicine
James Welch, A Please to Those Who Matter
Paula Gunn Allen, Pocahontas to her English Husband, John Rolfe*
Vine Deloria, Jr., and Clifford M. Lytle, A Status Higher Than States
Linda Hogan, Crossings*
Nicole Brodeur, The Meaning of the Hunt*
Jerry Large, Concerning a Whale*
3. Early Immigrants: In Search of the Land of Milk and Honey
The Bill of Rights
Constantine Panunzio, In the American Storm
Ole Edvart Rölvaag, Facing the Great Desolation
Anzia Yezierska, The Fat of the Land
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, from I Speak My Own Piece
Maxine S. Seller, Beyond the Stereotype: A New Look at the Immigrant Woman, 1880-1924
Jacob Riis, Genesis of the Tenement*
James West Davidson and Mark Hamilton Lytle, Images from the Other Half*
Robert Pinsky, Shirt*
4. Early Chinese Americans: The Lure of the Gold Mountain
From The Chinese Exclusion Act
From The Gold Mountain Poems
Sui Sin Far, In the Land of the Free
Shawn Wong, Homebase*
Maxine Hong Kingston, The Grandfather of the Sierra Nevada Mountains
Connie Young Yu, The World of Our Grandmothers
Amy Tan, Lindo Jong: Double Face*
Amy Ling, Creating One's Self: The Eaton Sisters*
5. African Americans: The Struggle for Civil Rights
From The Constitution of South Carolina
From Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka
Langston Hughes, Theme for English B
Ralph Ellison, from Invisible Man
Ernest J. Gaines, from A Lesson Before Dying*
Gwendolyn Brooks, The Chicago Defender Sends a Man to Little Rock
James Farmer, "Tomorrow Is for Our Martyrs"
Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail
Malcolm X, from The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Mary Helen Washington, The Darkened Eye Restored*
6. Puerto Ricans: The View from the Mainland
From The Foraker Act
Jesús Colón, Kipling and I
Piri Thomas, Puerto Rican Paradise
Nicholasa Mohr, The English Lesson*
Judith Ortiz Cofer, From Line of the Sun
Martin Espada, Mrs. Baez Serves Coffee on the Third Floor
Linda Chavez, No to Puerto Rican Statehood*
Rosario Ferre, Puerto Rico, USA*
7. Japanese Americans: In Camp, in Community
Japanese Relocation Order
Monica Sone, Pearl Harbor Echoes in Seattle
John Okada, From No-no Boy
Hisaye Yamamoto, The Legend of Miss Sasagawara
Lawson Fusao Inada, Concentration Constellation
Garrett Hongo, Kubota
Dick Thornburgh, Making Amends*
Bob Pool, Uncovering Internment Papers*
Ronald Takaki, Roots
8. Chicanos: Negotiating Politcal and Cultural Boundaries
From The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Cesár Chavéz, The Organizer's Tale
Tomas Rivera, Christmas Eve/La Noche Buena
Pat Mora, Elena
Arturo Islas, From Migrant Souls
Sandra Cisneros, Woman Hollering Creek
Graciela Limón, from Ana Calderon*
Ruben Salazar, Border Correspondent*
Hector Calderon, Reinventing the Border
Richard Rodriguez, Go North, Young Man*
Al Martinez, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World*
9. The New Immigrants: Reviving, Reinventing, and Challenging the American Dream
From Immigration and Nationality Act of 1980
Carlos Bulosan, My Education*
Oscar Hijuelos, Visitors, 1965, from Our House in the Last World
Van B. Luu, The Hardships of Escape for Vietnamese Women
Jose Alejandro Romero, Sumpul
Bharati Mukherjee, Visitors
Cathy Song, Easter: Wahiawa, 1959
Naomi Shihab Nye, White Coals, Broken Clock, Speaking Arabic
Peter H. Schuck, Border Crossing*
