Bracero Movement

Hispanics have been immigrating to America since the beginning of the Spanish Colonial era. Up until the 1920’s Mexican Americans have boomed in rural places in america. The 1920’s was meeting the beginning of a renaissance, a better promised life for both native americans as well as immigrants. Businesses were booming, wages were higher, and the industry was creating a bright future for America. However, Mexican Americans continued to face hardships as well as few successes leading up to the 1920’s. Whether these were Native born Americans with a Hispanic background or newly immigrated Mexicans, Mexican Americans faced the hardship of poverty, discrimination, segregation, and struggles during the 1920’s.

Farmers in Texas, such as Nelson, had a strong influence on the level of protection that the government provides the cotton industry. The Bracero program, authorized by Congress in 1942, benefited Nelson’s ranch and other cotton farmers by allowing Mexican labor to enter the U.S. to work for short periods of time. “Disasters happen to cotton but not to people,” (Rivoli, 2014) due to the level of protection provided by the U.S. government to cotton farmers. In 2001, Nelson lost his entire cotton crop to a hailstorm, but government crop insurance ensured Nelson’s farm would survive until the next year.

The railroad played a key role in the economic development of San Antonio after the Civil War. The railroad encouraged the development of cattle trade and brought tourist to the city. Newspaper accounts inflamed residents, spreading rumors that Mexicans had armed themselves. In August 1894, Blacks attacked Mexicans at Beeville, Texas. Mexicans were brought there to drive down wages of blacks and to create a labor surplus. The federal government encouraged this antagonism by stationing black soldiers in Mexican areas. The history of Texas being known as a state of violence, brought terror toward the Mexicans since they didn’t have the same protection under the law. On the other hand, in South Texas, Mexicans outnumbered the North American, latter controlled politics and the land. Mexicans did not accept North American rules and they hardly felt like liberated people. They called them greasers and denied them the opportunity to acquire property, to exercise political control over their own lives, and to maintain their rights within the society. Mexicans in the country banded together along lines of race and class taking direct action in the response to the political chicanery of foreigners. It was a class struggle against the rich and powerful establishment.

While many remember the Great Depression as a time of terrible trials for Americans, few understand the hardships faced by Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the U.S. This paper examines the experiences of Mexicans in America during the Great Depression and explores the devastating impact of repatriation efforts. America has an extensive history of accepting Mexican workers when they are needed for cheap labor, and demanding that they be deported when the economic situation is more precarious in an attempt to open jobs for Americans. In the 1930s, “Americans, reeling from the economic disorientation of the depression, sought a convenient scapegoat. They found it in the Mexican community.” Mexicans were blamed for economic hardships

During the 1970’s, Mexican Americans were involved in a large social movement called the "Chicano movement." Corresponding with the great development of the black civil rights movement, Mexican Americans began to take part in a series of different social protests in which they demanded equal rights for themselves. Composed mainly of Mexican American students and youth, these activists focused on maintaining a pride for their culture as well as their ethnicity to fuel their political campaign. Left out of this campaign initially though were Mexican immigrants.

Even by the 1930s, this was particularly among young people who, “born and educated in the United States, demanded to be included in the city’s future … ” (Sanchez 226). At a crucial meeting of Mexican-Americans in 1927, facing an Anglo led municipal incorporation move that would have raised taxes and driven them out, many Mexican-American leaders opposed applying for U.S. citizenship. Even though it would have given them more of a target, specifically, the right to vote on a subsequent ballot measure. The affront to Mexico and their heritage was, for them, a crime that outweighed the benefits (Sanchez 4).

In Harvest of Empire’s “Mexicans: Pioneers of a Different Type” Juan Gonzalez outlines how Mexican descendants contributed to U.S. prosperity and culture. Gonzalez’s assertion is that the Mexicans and their culture have been in the United States long before the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the establishment of settlements and trade along the Rio Grande by Mexican pioneers, and the important factor Mexican-American workforce had in the nation. He supports his argument using historical records, individual’s stories and local papers. Respectively, Gonzales provides information that Mexicans greatly affected the economic uprising and culture of United States across the border.

The formation of segregated barrios and the development of a wealth of community-provided services showed that Mexican-Americans were not content to be marginalized by the United States. Instead, they were embracing an empowering new sense of self-determination and referring to themselves as “Mexicanos or as members of a larger, pan-Hispanic community of La Raza.” At this time La Raza referenced individuals of the Mexican “race”, whether they were in Mexico or in the United States, and was particularly important in the United States, where race was more important than citizenship. In the late 19th and early 20th century United States, race was determined by purity of blood, and there were only two races—white and black. White meant the individual had “pure blood” (European blood); black meant that the individual’s blood included indigenous or African influences. Being white meant being able to exercise one’s constitutional rights and being treated as a normal member of society’s dominant group. Being black meant that, regardless of whether he or she was a citizen, the individual would face discrimination similar to that which I described earlier. When the Spanish conquerors mixed with the people of Latin America, forming the mestizo, or mixed race, population that now composes most of the region, they removed themselves from a “white” classification in the United States. Thus, by engaging with the concept of La Raza, which connotes a mestizo race and population, Mexican-Americans rejected the binary nature of race in the United States and embraced what made them different—their indigenous-mixed blood and the cultural heritage that accompanied it. While the abuse directed towards Mexican-Americans may have

Many Mexican Americans have been able to accomplish their own versions of the American dream by attending a 4-year college, owning businesses, and taking on political and public service careers. However, Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants continue to face the hardships that their ancestors went through in the 20th century. The ethnic Mexican experience in the United States has been a difficult one for Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans of the first generation. Two key factors that continue to shape the lives of Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants are labor laws and the citizenship process. Focusing on the research, statistics, and information provided by Mai Ngai “The Architecture of Race in American Immigration”, Natalia Molina’s, “In a Race All Their Own": The Quest to Make Mexicans Ineligible for U.S. Citizenship”, and George J. Sanchez, “Becoming Mexican American” will provide the cause and effect of labor laws and citizenship laws that made an impact on the lives of Mexicans during the 20th century.

Tejano, Texans of Spanish and Mexican descent, formed several organizations in the early 20th century to protect themselves from official and private discrimination, but made only partial progress in addressing the worst forms of official ethnic discrimination. The movement to overturn the many forms of state-sponsored discrimination directed at Hispanic Americans was strongest in Texas during the first fifty years of the 20th century. It was just right after World War II that returning veterans joined the League of United Latin American citizens (LULAC) to end segregation. Their main goal was to have equal rights for Mexicans. “According to the U.S Census, tejanos comprised 32.4 percent of the workers in the state and owned 33 percent of its wealth”. (102)

Olsson, Tore C. Sharecroppers and Campesinos: The American South, Mexico, and the Transnational Politics of Land Reform in the Radical 1930s. The Journal of Southern History Volume LXXXI, No. 3, August 2015.

Mario García’s study of this era could also be considered prophetic to many Mexicans in the mid-nineties as the North American Free Trade Agreement was signed, it sank México’s economy, lands that the Mexican revolution had provided for farmers were gone, and as México was now obliged with treaty to buy produce from the United States. Mexican farmers unable to compete fled México once again in search for a better life to the United States.

The United States wielded the power of negotiations with both the Mexican government and the Mexican people. Mexico lost all real bargaining power in the 1950’s. Along with opposition from Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, the United States determined that the program was no longer vital to the American’s; it discontinued the program in 1964. Chavez and Huerta fought the program because it undermined American workers and exploited the migrant workers. Nothing says it more obvious than the account from Walt Edwards (as cited in Dillin, 2006),

Multiple components of the agreements were breached but not many of the braceros spoke out due to the fear of their jobs being given to someone else. With both legal and illegal migrant workers infiltrating in the United States, gave agriculturalist the opportunity to exploit and abuse The Bracero Program and its workers. In 1951, “President Truman’s Commision on Migratory Labor reported that employer abuses and lax enforcement produced deplorable working and living conditions for the braceros; that the INS had effectively abdicated its border control responsibility.” (Calavita, pg. 1901). Nothing was officially done to ensure that contracts were not broken instead, The Bracero Program continued to expand as Korean War began to rise but there were revisions. For example, Public Law 78 was passed in 1951 by Congress. This law officially extended The Bracero Program until 1964 which allowed more than 2 million workers to have official contracts. Furthermore, it also faintly recommended that the agriculturalist have to make a modest effort at luring in legal braceros before hiring illegal braceros (Chang, pg.

The Bracero Program was approved by both the Mexican and American government. This contracted mexican workers to work in the United States during World War II. Ten thousands of contracts were made. About 4.5 Mexicans entered The U.S to receive such contracts. The Bracero Program was made to help the temporary labor shortage they had because of the men who were fighting in the war. This is very significant term because previously during the depression The United States had forced many Mexican to migrate back to mexico so Americans could have all the jobs during that times. This connect with our reading and it reveals that during this time the United States is in need of workers because of all the men who went off to fight. It very ironic that