Culture is central to the construction of identity. Identity is created through the practice of representation, such as art, language, literature, and theater. These cultural practices allow different social groups to express their attitudes and beliefs, and allow people to create meaning to their natural and social environment. In a sense, using cultural practices to assign meaning serves as an effort to stabilize - or fix - identity and to represent one's self. Representation allows the construction of meaning or identity through culture, either by people representing themselves or being represented by others. This cultural identity is a power struggle between competing social interests, and the power lays in creating or fixing dominant meanings that are broadly accepted by the population. This has led to struggle in defining identities that make up the social world, which is why culture serves as an expression of politics. It can be used both as a form of resistance or an instrument of domination. For example, Mexican Americans have been seen as a conquered, oppressed people and there has been an emphasis upon total domination and victimization. They have been portrayed as victims of race and class oppression, and this has led to a call for social justice and for unity against oppression. In this sense, culture is important because it is a practice people use to express oppression and a version of identity. It provides a way of questioning assumptions and challenging social norms while generating awareness. Historically, Mexican Americans have been misrepresented by the dominant white Anglo society. This misrepresentation leads Mexican American strive to represent themselves and form their own identity through various cultural practices. The dominant white Anglo society has used common cultural practices to form a negative view of the Mexican American. After the conquest of Mexico, white people did not like the idea that the acquisition of territory meant the acquisition of non-white people, which led to intense racism by whites. For example, while the Protestant Anglo-American Richard Dana toured Southern California during the 1840s, he expressed his disapproval of the lack of exploitation of California lands. He kept a diary that reflected Anglo prejudice, where he wrote about Mexicans not being clever or able enough to dedicate themselves to harness land for wealth accumulation (Professor Eric Avila, Lecture, 14 October 2013). Through the cultural practice of writing, Dana creates a false identity of the Mexican race as being lazy, dumb, and non-deserving of land. This shows the historic struggle of how Mexican Americans have been represented: as uneducated, incapable, and inferior people who are not as good as whites. Through reinforcement of stereotypes, Dana's diary marks another extension of Anglo cultural conquest. It is an effort to define Mexicans as subservient and lazy. This misrepresentation, along with the history, racism, and economic subordination, has helped Mexican Americans develop a sense of ethnic awareness, giving rise to Chicano identity. Through writing, Mexican Americans have combated the Anglo misrepresentation of their identity. After the Second Conquest, the new rise in ethnic identity led to the creation of the first Spanish written newspaper in Los Angeles, called Public Outcry (Avila, Lecture, 14 October 2013). Using literature, Mexican Americans have represented a collective group identity among the Spanish-speaking people in the American Southwest. This shows that a community of Spanish language speakers wants to be educated and informed. It goes against the stereotype that Mexicans are uneducated and lazy people, like Dana had previously documented. It provides an emergence of new ethnic identity separate from whites and it enables new discourses of identity. Although people live in the United States, they still maintain their ties to Mexican culture and to identity as Mexicans. This portrays how Chicana/o identity serves as a third nation, an "in-between  space. Chicanas/os are neither Mexican nor American, but a mixture of both. The new form of ethnic identity reflects cultural survival and shows how Mexican Americans have transformed stereotypes and racism by Anglo whites into fuel to form identity. Mexican Americans have been negatively stereotyped by Anglos through the use of language. Folklore provides a way for Mexican Americans to represent themselves and to seek identity; however, North Americans have also studied Mexican folklore and have tried to form a Mexican character. Anglo social scientists have objectively analyzed Mexican dichos and have concluded the usual stereotype of Mexicans as "a ruthless, aggressive, and extremely pragmatic people"  (Folklore, Lo Mexicano, and Proverbs, Americo Paredes, 249). However, the social scientists are not takin