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Mexicanization of Rural California Immigration and Ethnic Communities Psychodiagnostic Assessment of the U.S. Latinos Pocketful of History(Oral Histories) |
The Mexicanization Of Rural California By
The place described by two people in 1997 is a small town located at the base of the mountains of a national park, surrounded by orchards, in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley. The entire economy of the city, and of the surrounding area, depends on agriculture. Most of the population is Mexican or Chicanos, but there are a number of Anglos and Asians. It is a small, quiet town, with a bad reputation. It's easy to transport yourself to Mexico walking around that community. The smell of tortillas and tamales as you pass local restaurants, the Mexican music flowing from car radios, the men with jeans, cowboy boots and hats, the voices speaking in Spanish. Once you have visited it, it is not surprising to find that people call it, and many other communities in rural California, a "Mexican town." Over the past 30 years, this town has gone through a dramatic transformation, from being mostly non-Latino White in the 1960's to being almost completely Latino in 1990.1 Similar demographic shifts are occurring in small towns throughout California. California's population, which increased by some 6 million people in the 1980's, is continuing to grow by a net amount of about 300,000 per year, or 800 every 24 hours. In fact, according to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, California's Latino population grew from 7.7 million in 1990 to 9.9 million in 1997, a 29% gain. Most of this growth is in metropolitan areas, but there has been a large growth of population in rural communities. Many of the new residents are immigrants from Mexico and Central America (SCR 43 Task Force, 1989; Rochín and Castillo, 1995). California is the biggest, but not the exclusive, state with Latino growth. The Latino population has grown in every state in the nation from 1990 to 1997, from 22.3 million in 1990 to 28.3 million in 1997. Until 1970, most rural communities in California were largely populated by non-Hispanic Whites.2 But during the 1970's, and accelerating during the 1980's and 1990's, the White/Latino proportions changed dramatically so that some communities became almost completely Latino. While Latinos were once numerical minorities within barrios of communities, they have now become the majority in many places. At the same time, socio-economic indicators changed to reveal disturbing underclass conditions in rural communities with high proportions of Latinos. Looking at cross-sectional data for 1990, the facts indicate more poverty, unemployment, and lower income and education where Latinos have concentrated, as in "Mexican Towns" (Castillo, 1991; Allensworth and Rochín, 1995). Furthermore, rural Latino enclaves now lack essential housing, health and social services, and there are fewer businesses to cover basic necessities, medical services, pharmaceuticals, and recreational activities (SCR 43 Task Force, 1989). It is easy to view the phenomenon of "Mexicanization" as negative and the reason for the bad reputation of "Mexican Towns." It is also tempting to view the demographic and economic changes that are occurring as a simple result of increasing immigration, i.e. of Mexicanization. But the facts of the matter are much more complex. "Mexicanization" has taken place in nearly every town and community of California. Even the rich and prosperous communities have added more Latinos. That is, there has been greater Latino growth in many prosperous communities which do not bear the reputation of "Mexican towns." What is often ignored in people's assessment of "Mexicanization" is that all communities change, for good or bad for a number of reasons. There are numerous processes occurring daily, such as non-Hispanic White emigration, industrial restructuring, and increasing economic polarization across places. It also must be asked why such places have been labeled, derogatorially, "Mexican towns," while neighboring rural places have not. In short, we need to study the dynamics of the Mexicanization phenomenon in order to understand what's going on in rural California. The book analyzes the Mexican experience in the Pacific Northwest from the early twentieth century to the contemporary period.
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