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A History of Mexican Americans in California:
REVOLUTION TO DEPRESSION: 1900-1940
The first three decades of the twentieth century saw rapid growth in the
size of the California Chicano population. However, the stage for this
growth had been set by years of social and economic changes in Mexico and
the United States.
Development of mining and industry in northern Mexico, as well as building
of north-south railroad lines, attracted large numbers of Mexicans to the
northern part of the country in the late nineteenth century. There they
learned new industrial, mining, and railroad skills that would be useful
later in the United States. The railroad also provided a quicker and easier
means of travel to the north. At the same time, economic pressures were
mounting. Many small landowners were losing their holdings to expanding
haciendas, while farm workers were increasingly and systematically trapped
into peonage by accumulating debts.
Finally in 1910, political opponents of President Porfirio Diaz revolted. He
was quickly overthrown, but replacement of his government did not end the
Mexican Revolution which spread throughout the country and took on deep
social and economic, rather than merely political ramifications. The
resulting chaos drove thousands of Mexicans north. Beyond physical
proximity, the United States offered jobs -- in industry, in mines, on
railroads, and in agriculture -- and all at wage levels far higher than
those in Mexico. World War I further increased the demand for Mexican labor.
In the 1920s, the pace of emigration increased, spurred in part by the short
but violent Cristero Revolution (1926-1929), while the U.S. economy
continued to expand and attract Mexican labor. Nearly one-half million
Mexicans entered the United States on permanent visas during the 1920s, some
11 percent of total U.S. immigration during that decade. Thousands more
entered informally, before passage of restrictive regulations. Even after
establishment of more stringent immigration rules and procedures, thousands
continued to cross without legal sanction. Many of them were ignorant of the
required legal processes; others sought to avoid the head tax, the expense
of a visa, and bureaucratic delays at the border. Coyotes -- as the
professional labor contractors and border-crossing experts were known --
often received commissions from U.S. businesses. They began the industry of
smuggling people and forging documents that continues to the present.
Most Mexican immigrants settled in the Southwest. By 1930, more than 30
percent of Mexican-born U.S. residents lived in California. They entered
nearly every occupation classified as unskilled or semi-skilled. Chicanos
became the bulwark of southwestern agriculture. By 1930, manufacturing,
transportation, communications, and domestic and personal service had become
the other major sectors of Chicano employment. Chicanos made up 75 percent
of the work force of the six major western railroads. They also held
blue-collar positions in construction, food processing, textiles, automobile
industries, steel production, and utilities. In California during the 1920s,
Chicanos constituted up to two-thirds of the work force in many industries.
A small Chicano middle class developed, often oriented toward serving the
Chicano population. The growth of barrios and colonias fostered expansion of
small businesses such as grocery and dry-goods stores, restaurants, barber
shops, and tailor shops. Small construction firms emerged. Chicanos entered
the teaching profession, usually working in private Chicano schools or in
segregated public schools.
Many factors kept Chicanos in a marginal status. The geographical isolation
of employment sites, particularly in railroading, agriculture, and
agriculturally related industry, often reduced opportunities for Chicanos to
gain familiarity with U.S. society through personal contact. Chicanos also
encountered various forms of segregation. These included maintenance of
separate Anglo and Mexican public schools, restrictive covenants on
residential property, segregated restaurants, separate "white" and "colored"
sections in theaters, and special "colored" days in segregated swimming
pools. Numerous government agencies, religious groups, and private social
service organizations, however, made special efforts to assist in the
acculturation of Chicanos by providing instruction in the English language,
U.S. culture, and job skills.
The dramatic increase in Mexican immigration affected Chicano residential
patterns. Thousands settled in older barrios, causing over crowding and
generating construction of cheap housing to meet the sudden demand. In some
barrios, Mexican immigrants attained such numerical dominance that U.S.-born
Chicanos became a minority within a minority. Immigrants sometimes formed
new barrios adjacent to historical Chicano areas or new colonias in
agricultural or railroad labor camps.
The growth in the size and number of Chicano communities fostered the growth
of community activities. In the early twentieth century, there was a major
increase in Chicano organizations, particularly mutualistas (mutual aid
societies). Some adopted descriptive or symbolic names, such as Club
Reciproco (Reciprocal Club) or Sociedad Progresista Mexicana (Mexican
Progressive Society). Others selected names of Mexican heroes, such as
Sociedad Mutualista Miguel Hidalgo (the father of Mexican independence),
Sociedad Mutualista Benito Juarez (the famous Mexican Liberal president), or
Sociedad Ignacio Zaragosa (the victorious Texas-born general at the Battle
of Puebla, 1862).
Membership varied. Some organizations were exclusively male or female;
others had mixed membership. Most developed as representative of the working
class, but others were essentially middle or upper-class, or reflected a
cross-section of wealth and occupations. Although each mutualista had its
special goals, they all provided a focus for social life with such
activities as meetings, family gatherings, lectures, discussions, cultural
presentations, and commemoration of both U.S. and Mexican holidays.
Most provided services, such as assistance to families in need, emergency
loans, legal services, mediation of disputes, and medical, life, and burial
insurance. Some organized libraries or operated escuelitas (little schools),
providing training in Mexican culture, Spanish, and basic school subjects to
supplement the inferior education many Chicanos felt their children received
in the public schools. Mutualistas helped immigrants adapt to life in the
United States. Many mutualistas became involved in civil rights issues, such
as the legal defense of Chicanos and the struggle against residential,
school, or public segregation and other forms of discrimination. Some
engaged in political activism, including support of candidates for public
office. At times, mutualistas provided support for Chicanos on strike.
Coalitions of Chicano organizations were formed, such as La Liga Protectora
Latina (Latin Protective League) and El Confederacion de Sociedades
Mexicanas (Confederation of Mexican Societies) in Los Angeles.
In addition to mutualistas, a variety of other cultural, political, service,
and social organizations were developed in the early twentieth century, as
communities grew or were formed. Possibly the most turbulent Chicano
organizational activity of that era was in the labor sphere, where Mexicans
played ironically conflicting roles. Because of depressed wages and
unemployment in Mexico, Mexican workers could earn more in the United
States, even by accepting jobs at pay levels that Anglos refused. Employers
thus used Mexican labor to hold down pay scales, and often reached across
the border to recruit Mexicans as strikebreakers. Because of the antipathy
Mexicans generated in these roles, and also because of the biases of union
leaders, local chapters of U.S. labor unions often refused to accept
Chicanos as members, or required them to establish segregated locals.
There were Mexican strikers as well as strikebreakers, though. Chicanos were
in the forefront of agricultural strikes. In 1903, more than 1,000 Mexican
and Japanese sugar-beet workers carried out a successful strike near
Ventura. In 1913, Mexican workers participated in a strike against degrading
conditions on the Durst hop ranch, near Wheatland, Yuba County. Although the
intervention of National Guard troops and the arrest of some 100 migrant
workers broke the back of the strike, the Wheatland events contributed to
establishment of the California Commission on Immigration and Housing, and
recognition of the oppressive living and working conditions of agricultural
laborers.
Throughout the late 1920s and early 1930s, Mexicans heed or participated in
a number of agricultural strikes throughout California. Mexicans struck
Imperial Valley melon fields in 1928 and 1930. In 1933, El Monte strawberry
fields, San Joaquin Valley cotton fields and fruit orchards, Hayward pea
fields, and many other locales were affected. Strikes spread to Redlands
citrus groves in 1936, and to Ventura County lemon groves in 1941. Mexicans
also challenged the related food-processing industry through strikes by
lettuce packers in Salinas in 1936, cannery workers in Stockton in 1937, and
others.
Chicanos created a number of their own unions. El Confederacion de Uniones
Obreras Mexicanas (CUOM, Confederation of Mexican Labor Unions) was formed
in 1928. Among its goals were equal pay for Mexicans and Anglos doing the
same job, termination of job discrimination against Chicano workers, and
limitation on the immigration of Mexican workers into the United States. At
its height, CUOM had about 20 locals and 3,000 workers.
In the early 1930s, Chicanos established some 40 agricultural unions in
California. The largest, El Confederacion de Uniones de Campesinos y Obreros
Mexicanos (CUCOM, Confederation of Mexican Farm Workers' and Laborers'
Unions), created in 1933, ultimately included 50 locals and 5,000 members.
Most of these unions later joined the American Federation of Labor or the
Congress of Industrial Organizations.
The Great Depression brought a dramatic population reversal among Mexican
Americans. Tabulated immigration to the United States from Mexico fell from
nearly 500,000 during the 1920s to only 32,700 during the 1930s. At the same
time, official figures indicate that some half- million persons of Mexican
descent moved to Mexico.
The Depression displaced millions of American workers, and the drastic
midwestern drought dispossessed thousands more, many of whom headed for
California. As a result, California Chicanos not only lost their jobs in the
cities along with other Americans, but also found themselves displaced from
agricultural jobs by Dust Bowl migrants. Whereas before the Depression
Anglos had composed less than 20 percent of California migratory
agricultural laborers, by 1936, they had increased to more than 85 percent.
The shrinking job market caused Anglo attitudes toward Mexicans in the
United States to change. Previously welcomed as important contributors to an
expanding agriculture and industry, Mexicans now were seen as "surplus
labor." No longer considered the backbone of California agriculture and
invaluable contributors to other employment sectors, Mexicans instead were
viewed as an economic liability, and had become objects of resentment as
recipients of scarce public relief funds.
The government's solution was the Repatriation Program. In cooperation with
the Mexican government, which had regretted the loss of so many able
workers, U.S. federal, state, county, and local officials applied pressure
on Mexicans to "voluntarily" return to Mexico. At times, this procedure
resulted in outright deportation. Mexican aliens who lacked documents of
legal residency, including many who had entered the United States in good
faith during an earlier period when immigration from Mexico was a more
informal process, were particularly vulnerable. Among the victims of the
process were naturalized and U.S.-born husbands, wives, and children of
Mexican repatriates, who had to choose between remaining in the United
States or maintaining family unity by moving to Mexico.
The Depression era also sharpened long-existent Chicano distrust of
government, particularly its agents of law enforcement. During the
Depression, the use of violence to break strikes and disrupt union
activities was widespread and added to Chicano antagonism toward
law-enforcement officials. The Repatriation Program further increased
Chicano distrust of government.
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History
