As we discussed in class, labor was needed in farm and rural areas. Industrialization attracted many people in urban cities and the left the fields labor less. In search for a better life and new place to settle there families, Mexicans crossed the border and took agricultural jobs. This relationship with the US was very strong in that farmers found workers, and Mexicans were able to provided for their family who lived with them in the United States.
When the Great Depression hit, the need for labor dramatically decreased. When this happened many Mexicans were jobless and poverty and unemployment hit hard. Due to the rise in unemployment, Mexicans were being kicked out of their new homes and forced back into Mexico. As the depression started to ease off the economy, there was a policy that allowed Mexicans back into the United States to work. This policy had very specific guidelines which that the Mexican people will not be discriminated against, they would be treated equally, and they will be payed, given shelter and food. The intent of this program, called the bracero program, was to allow Mexicans to work under contract. When people signed up, they realized that it was nothing like they expected. They WERE discriminated against, they WERE overworked, and they WERE left feeling cheated. After all of this, legislation such as the Executive Order 8802 was passed and laws based on racial profiling and racial segregation were put in place, though it wasn't followed.
During WWII, when Mexicans became Mexican- Americans or Chicano's, they wanted to serve. But the United Sates still present with racial segregation didn't allow for Mexicans to take part in the war efforts. All they wanted to do was express their freedom and also be allowed to protect it. They wanted to do their share of the work but they weren't supported. To White Americans, support from Mexican people usually went labor in the fields and factories.
Though many Chicano people lived in parts of America, ranging from time to time, their relationship with the United States hasn't always been the best. Though they may find jobs, and new homes to settle into, they knew that wherever they went, discrimination would follow.
Great post!
ReplyDeleteAlthough I do agree that the US exhibited a pattern of treating people of Mexican orgin as inferior during the 1900s, the United States did in fact let Mexicans serve during WWII. Over 500,000 mexican-americans or latinos contributed to the United State's war effort. Not only were they allowed to contribute, but they were also not segregated from the white americans like the African Americans were. Don't forget that the US needed all the manpower it could get.
source:
http://www.nationalww2museum.org/learn/education/for-students/ww2-history/at-a-glance/latino-americans-in-ww2.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/
Interesting post about Mexican-Americans in the 1900s. I appreciate how you addressed the struggles of immigrants and the discrimination they faced because of their ethnicity. As we also saw in our homework, the Zoot Suit Riots were also an example of the discrimination of Mexican-Americans. In the early 1940s, Mexican men in Los Angeles who wore zoot suit were targeted because of their ethnicity and stereotype, leading to mobs of people attacking them with little to no police intervention. To learn more about the Zoot Suit Riots, go to: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/zoot/eng_peopleevents/e_riots.html
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