杨鹏难句056

Now we must also examine the culture as we Mexican Americans have experienced it , passing from a sovereign people to compatriots with newly arriving settlers to , finally ，a conquered people – a charter minority on our own land.

划线部分as是啥作用啊？我觉得是代词，指代culture但是，这样的话it 就有点多余了。该怎样解释啊？难道是作连词？表示因为？