INDUSTRIAL EXPANSION; THE DEPRESSION; WAR YEARS; POST WAR YEARS Flashcards
INDUSTRIAL EXPANSION: SOUTHWEST ECONOMY
“In general then, the economic development of Southwest, from 1900-1930 was based on an expansion of the agricultural and mineral extracting activities that had characterized the region in the 19th century, and on industries which were tied to those activities.
Intensive Agriculture = small farmer to agribusiness.
Irrigation and Hydraulic systems
Urban Development
Labor Repression - Fear of Boshevism
INDUSTRIAL EXPANSION: DUAL WAGE SYSTEM
became the way of business throughout the Southwest
INDUSTRIAL EXPANSION: IMMIGRATION
“Between 1850 and 1880 there was virtually no movement across the border”. “In 1925, $1 million was appropriated for the creation of the border patrol.”
• Mexico began early 20th century.
• Between 1910 and 1930, “…as much as one eighth of the Mexican population came to the United States (Mirance p. 49).
THE DEPRESSION:
• During the early days of the depression, 25% of the U.S. labor force was unemployed.
Voluntary repatriation programs (designed to encourage individuals (Mexicans) who had no hope of a job here to go back to their country).
1929 - one fourth of the U.S. working population was unemployed
THE DEPRESSION: OPERATION DEPORTATION DEPORTATION
“In Los Angeles alone over 80,000 Mexican workers and their families were herded together with their worldly belongings and sent back across the border in special trains. Significantly, many of those excluded were children born in this country and thus United States citizen” (Mirande p. 53).
Gross violations of human rights took place. Authorities often did not permit deportees to sell their property or collect wages. The healthy and the sick alike were shipped off and often families separated. Long time U.S. residents were as vulnerable as transients were. Even U.S. born children received no special protection. (Acuna p. 205).
THE DEPRESSION: RACIALIZATION: ASCRIPTIVE CLASS SEGMENTS
“…a portion of a class which is set from the rest of the class by some readily identification and relatively stable characteristic of the persons assigned to that segment such as race…” (Barrera p. 212).
THE DEPRESSION: DE FACTO SEGREGATION (DONE LEGALLY)
Schools
o “The issue of the Mexican students hygiene was perhaps the most effective rationale need to justify segregating students without the school boards or the PTA’s appearing racist” (Montejano p.69).
o “Concern with hygiene did not exhaust the meaning of “dirty Mexican”. Anglo community use the adjective dirty as synonym for dark skin color and inferiority” (Montejano p. 227).
Public Facilities such as swimming pools restaurants, etc., were unofficially kept separate
THE DEPRESSION: GENERATIONAL ISSUES: PACHUQUISMO
“By the late 1930s and early 1940s, youths within barrios had adopted the faddish zoot suit of the era and formed to a specific slang (an agent called calo) that combined the vocabulary of the Spanish gypsies and the Anglicization of Spanish in the barrios” (Griswold del Castillo and De Leon).
THE DEPRESSION: ZOOT-SUIT
Mexican/American style of dressing
THE DEPRESSION: MEXICAN CRIMINALITY
“Contrary to popular impression, pachucos were never organized. They were just boys who hung around street corners and formed shifting, informal allegiances”.
WAR YEARS: GOOD NEIGHBOR POLICY
Latin America nations were allies in the war against the Axis Powers.
Bracero Program (1542-1965) - No discrimination, adequate housing, minimum number of work days and minimum wage.
WAR YEARS: SLEEPY LAGOON CASE
August 1942 the body of Jesus Diaz found. The case received much publicity and led to the conviction of seventeen young Mexican boys for conspiring to commit a murder that was never confirmed. This convinced the public that all Mexicans were criminals. 17 young men were indicted for murder. Defendants were not allowed to sit near or confer with attorneys, change their clothing, or cut their hair. They were to stand every time their names were called.
ZOOT-SUIT RIOTS
June 3rd, 1943. Los Angeles declared “off limits”. U.S. servicemen attack Mexicans
POST WAR
• “As the flow of illegals increased in the 1950s pressure mounted to restrict illegal entry.” Literally, millions of Mexicans were deported under the auspices of “operation wetback”. (Mirande p. 56)
POST WAR: CONTEMPORARY NATIVISM FOCUSES ON:
Millions of undocumented Mexican Aliens
Undocumented workers take jobs away from citizens
They are a burden on public, social, educational, and medical services
They are responsible for increasing rates of crime: they are a threat to peaceful society
They undermine existing wage rates and unionization efforts
Undocumented workers and their families are a “threat” to the ecological balance of the U.S.
They threaten the political and military security of the U.S. (Mirande pg. 57)
