Jacob Goffstein DB2

What stood out to me the most from the article and film is how much of a role Asians played in the early development of America. I knew that China was considered to be a highly valuable country for trading goods. While I had known that the original objective of Christopher Columbus was to establish a trade route with China, I had no idea that the Spanish ended up establishing sea routes across the Pacific Ocean to Mexico via the Philippines. What stood out to me (although not very surprising) was how badly the Asian sailors were treated. As the author says in the excerpt, the Asian crewmembers only received half rations, and were sometimes never even given their wages. This and the fact that the journey across the Pacific was so rough that many Asian sailors employed for a two-way trip would just abandon ship once they reached Acapulco. I guess they didn’t necessarily plan on sticking around and starting a new life, but the journey was so bad that restarting their lives in Mexico seemed like the best option. Once they were there, they had the ability to develop their lives through a broad range of occupations, which I’m sure attracted even more immigrants to come. 

I think some things have changed in the immigration process, while some have remained the same. Many of the challenges involved in immigrating to a new place have shifted. For example, modern advancement of technology has enhanced travel conditions to no longer be the extremely dangerous and unbearable conditions described by Lee in the excerpt.  However, there are still many challenges involved in settling down in a new place with a completely different language and culture. Much of the motive has remained the same, as we often hear stories (dating from the present to several hundred years ago) about migrants coming to America for a better life, for a new hope. People strive for opportunity and freedom to do what they want.