1. MEXICAN AMERICAN HISTORY

2. THE AMERICAN ENTRADA American trappers and entrepreneurs allied with Apaches. Constant frontier warfare between Spanish/Mexicans and Comanche and Ute Native Americans. Mexicans lost land through marriage alliances to European Americans.

3. DISPOSSESSION OF LAND Mexican Independence, 1821 As long as Americans claimed Catholicism as their faith and paid taxes, they could obtain citizenship and occupy land. Texas Independence, 1836 U.S. annex’s Texas, 1845 U.S. war of aggression, 1846-1848

4. The war between the United States and Mexico ranged over an enormous territory, though the main battles occurred deep within Mexico. While the navy blockaded Mexican coastlines, General Winfield Scott landed at Vera Cruz, marched more than two hundred miles inland, and seized the capital, Mexico City, forcing a negotiated settlement to the war. War with Mexico, 1846–1848

5. DISPOSSESSION OF LAND  The Guadalupe-Hidalgo Treaty of, 1848  The Gadsden purchase of 1853  Taxation  Boundary manipulation  Theft  Juridical means – delaying land grant claims.

6. This map shows the various boundaries considered in the negotiations over the treaty. Imagine how different the United States and Mexico would be had any of the various alternatives been adopted. Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 1848

7. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM  Industrialization  The railroad system – need for labor  Decline of the farming and ranching  Intensive capitalist penetration created the need for labor from the south, thus stimulating migratory pressures  Unequal economic rewards

8. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM  Process of barroization  By 1900 more than 25% of all Mexican households were headed by widows.  Four out of every ten Mexicanos worked for a dollar a day in unskilled jobs.

10. DISCRIMINATORY ATTITUDES IN EDUCATION  Being Mexican was a disadvantage  Speaking Spanish was bad  Mexican children were perceived as immigrant  The Anglo-Saxon model of work and social relations was emphasized  Being a Mexican was equated with ignorance, laziness, and illegitimacy because of the Indian/ Spanish admixture.

11. RESISTANCE TO DISCRIMINATION The Mexican culture maintained in the barrios The maintenance of the kinship system across the Mexican border Continued migration of intellectuals, revolutionaries, writers, and artists from the south, which served to preserve the culture.

12. MEXICAN-AMERICAN PEOPLE IN THE U.S. OUTLINE: Growth of capitalism and the Commodification of the Chicano labor The Mexican Revolution on 1910 and the push-pull factor. Life in an Urban Environment Internal Colonialism

13. GROWTH OF CAPITALISM AND THE COMMODIFICATION OF THE CHICANO LABOR  Soon after 1860, the U.S. moved into an era of commerce, investment, and speculation.  Mexico was also caught in this web.  Millions of dollars were invested in agricultural enterprises, mining, railroad, and oil wells.  Industrialization and urbanization intensified an unequal social structure with laborers at the bottom and capitalists on top.  Mexicans were regarded as a source of cheap labor and exploitation.

14. THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION OF 1910  In Mexico, by the 1910’s, 1000 families owned all the land and 85% of the population were landless. American investors owned at least 75% of coastal land.  Laborers and peasants revolted against these conditions, making agrarian issues a main reason for the war which lasted 10 years. Mestizos, like Zapata and Villa were the children of this revolution.  The PRI, Institutional Revolutionary Party was established in 1920. It assimilated peasants and workers.

15. PUSH-PULL FACTOR  The Mexican Revolution had a great impact in the U.S. because it created a great migration push to the north.  The presence of Mexican immigrants in U.S. cities had a reinvigorating effect.  The U.S. economy also pulled Mexican immigrants in because it needed workers encouraging immigrants in.

16. Big Bend resident Gilberto Luna, probably 1930s.

17. MEXICAN FARMWORKER IN 1935

18. THE BRACERO PROGRAM  The agribusiness wanted “arms” to help in the production process  Relaxation of immigration policies to facilitate the entrance of legal Mexicans  Establishment of the Bracero Program 1942-1964.  Undocumented Mexicans also enter and find jobs easily.

19. The Bracero Program, 1942-1964 Initially 300,000 Mexican laborers come to agricultural areas such as California’s San Joaquin Valley By mid 1960s nearly 5 million have participated in the program

20. Mexican nationals in tomato harvest, Muri Ranch on Roberts Island, San Joaquin Valley. ©California Annual Farm Labor Report, 1951. Sacramento: State of California, Farm Placement Service.

21. IMMIGRANT WORKERS IN EL PASO IN 1940

22. Repatriation  The 1930s Great Depression  Mexican and Mexican Americans Suffered Massive Deportations  Migrants were said to hold jobs that belonged to Americans

23. Operation Wetback, 1954-1957 Bracero Program, 1942-1962 1953. Lieutenant General Joseph M. Swing appointed commissioner of the I.N.S. “Mexican” looking people stopped in the streets and asked for identification U.S. army brought into the Southwest to detain and deport “wetbacks.” 1954. 1 million “Mexicans” deported Undocumented immigrants deported along with their American-born children

24. LIFE IN AN URBAN ENVIRONMENT  Gathering of workers in urban areas as a result of the establishment of industries around the cities.  Creation of ethnic enclaves: barrios and colonias.

25. INTERNAL COLONIALISM  It is a model that can be applied to subjugated ethnic minorities in any country of the world. It relates to:  Isolation in ethnic communities (barrios, ghettos, reservations).  Poor educational preparation  Lack of political power  Inability to improve the social condition

26. DISCRIMINATORY POLICIES  Chicanos were generally paid less than Anglos for the same types of jobs  Schools were segregated  Political participation of Chicanos was barred using several methods:  Gerrymandering: the regions with high concentration of Hispanics were deliberately divided to ensure that no state assembly or senator would have to rely on a majority Chicano vote to win.

27. DISCRIMINATORY POLICIES  Chicanos were a minority in every district in California at the beginning of the century.  In Texas poll taxes were paid by whites to ensure that Chicanos voted for white representatives  In the case of districts with high percentage of Chicanos, people with Spanish surnames were nominated who would be easily manipulated by elites.  Chicanos as dispossessed of the large quantities of money necessary to run for big positions.

28. DISCRIMINATORY POLICIES  Even though all these immigrants contributed greatly to the language, ideas, customs and cuisine, they were rejected by the mainstream.  Pressure was created for these groups to assimilate and forget about their cultural ways.

29. RESISTANCE  The discrimination Chicanos encountered stimulated them to organize in groups  There were a series of farmworker strikes beginning in the 20 th C.  Strikes also occurred in urban areas where workers demanded better wages, improved sanitation, working conditions, and better educational opportunities.  All of this led to the Chicano Movement of the 1960’s.

30. CESAR CHAVEZ FARMWORKERS’ STRIKE

31. Photo Copyright © Manuel Echavaría 1971. Farm workers picking chili at Santa Maria, California.