Chapter Sixteen

The Mexican American in an Industrial Age

In following the history of Mexican Americans in the United States, a number of themes seem to cut across time. One of these themes, of course, is the persistent Indian, Spanish, Mexican and Anglo-American cultural influences in which the Chicano has been formed. Many writers have commented on the heterogeneity, both biological and cultural, of this population-a unique population in American society.

A second theme that flows through time is the Catholicity of the Mexican American. He may not have been an avid churchgoer as in the Irish-American tradition, but there has been a deep sense of religion throughout his history. It is expressed not so much in religious practices-that is, going to church, receiving the sacraments, joining organizations and making monetary contributions to the church-but rather in everyday behavior.

Recently several Protestant denominations have made large-scale proselytizing efforts among Mexican Americans with considerable success. Their success is much more evident in the cities than in the rural areas, although even relatively isolated villages of northern New Mexico now have a Protestant church. However, the great majority of Mexican Americans are at least nominally Catholic.

The third theme is the persistence of the Spanish language. At a time when the United States is essentially a monolingual country and evidently proud of it and at a time when practically every other ethnic minority has lost its mother tongue, the Mexican American has persisted in maintaining his language, his culture and loyalty to his heritage. American Indians and Mexican Americans seem to be the two groups which have retained this cultural pluralism and, to be sure, at great sacrifice and under the pressure of tremendous criticism from the dominant society.

The latest and most concentrated immigration of persons with a Spanish language heritage has reinforced this pluralism. This immigration consists primarily of Puerto Ricans and Cubans, although other Latin Americans have also contributed numbers to the Spanish-speaking community. The majority of the Puerto Rican and Cuban immigrants reside in large eastern cities or in Dade County, Florida. But sufficiently large numbers have moved to other parts of the U.S. to make an impact in those centers where Mexican Americans are in larger proportion.

The fourth theme that has run through the history is the fact of rural residence. Although most Mexican Americans in the United States are urban dwellers today, it can safely be said that the great majority of them had their origin in rural areas, either in Mexico or the United States. Throughout their history, beginning in the 1600s and up until 1960, Mexican Americans have been a predominately rural population.

The differences between rural and urban life can be examined from many points of view. One method of assessing the impact of the rural or urban experience on people is to consider visible differences in the geographical setting. Environment is a very important measure of the differences that exist.

Housing differs visibly in rural and urban areas. As an example, many people in urban settings live in apartment buildings, a type of dwelling almost unknown outside the cities. Furthermore, the space available for living is significantly larger in rural areas, where there are fewer roads and highways, few if any sidewalks, and an abundance of trees, grass, and open fields. Available facilities differ considerably as well. Consider, for instance, the small country school versus the city's large educational system, or the urban supermarket compared to a general store in a small rural community. Consider also the availability of public transportation-buses, streetcars, taxis, railroads-servicing the cities. Access to such services is limited in rural areas, if it exists at all, as is the availability of electrical power, gas, and appliances.

Equally important, the numbers and types of people with whom one comes in contact varies radically from urban to rural areas. Urban areas tend to be highly congested, with an abundance of entertainment facilities and a general anonymity of the populace. In contrast, there is greater familiarity among rural dwellers, a greater sense of comradeship among the people of a community. As we have seen, similarities developed between people who lived in the isolated atmosphere of the colonial borderlands.

The variety of occupations and the division of labor also differ considerably from rural to urban settings. Many urban jobs are related to the production of goods and services, while few rural jobs fall into this category. Rather, many rural jobs are related to farming. As a consequence of these visible differences, growing up and living in a rural area leads to the development of one type of lifestyle while the urban setting creates another.

Migration to the Cities

The point is that Mexican Americans, for the most part, have grown up and lived in rural areas. It was not until the 1960s that they began to leave their rural homes in large numbers and migrate to the cities. Like any other rural people, these Mexican Americans faced a number of problems in adjusting to the urban way of life. In the familiar rural situation, it was highly likely that the relatives and people around an individual would share the same culture. Moving into an urban setting often meant moving into an environment with a diversity of people and cultures and having to contend with new ways of life. As an example, the work environment provided a new experience. Working, even for others, in villages and small towns requires a different kind of behavior than does working in cities. In the city the worker must contend with time and punctuality, transportation, machines, office buildings, crowds of people of different backgrounds, unions, bureaucracies and a whole host of other factors that might be quite strange and different.

Not all rural people have been able to adjust well to an urban setting. This has led to an upsurge of a series of social problems, including delinquency, alcoholism and drug abuse, prostitution, broken families, and many other psychological maladjustments. Many of these problems have plagued the Mexican Americans who have moved to the city as well as other migrants from rural areas.

Of course, some Mexican Americans have always lived in cities. Among the first dwellers were those who migrated to Los Angeles and San Antonio generations ago. Significant numbers of Mexican Americans have trickled into the cities during the past century. Many who worked on building and later running the transcontinental railroad networks have ended up in the urban centers in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Kansas, and other states. Migratory agricultural workers often found seasonal work on the fringe of the cities and some have opted to remain there.

Although the migration of Mexican Americans to the cities had already begun, it intensified during the second decade of this century. This phenomenon was directly related to the recruiting practices of many industries. An acute shortage of cheap labor in the Midwest led many industries to recruit actively in the Southwest and in Mexico. The existing labor shortage was further complicated by the growing militancy of the unions and increased strike activity. Many companies, such as Inland Steel of East Chicago, Indiana, imported thousands of Mexicans and Mexican Americans as strikebreakers during labor disputes. Additional numbers migrated to the cities to seek jobs in the defense industries that sprang up throughout the country during World War I. More often than not, these people remained in the cities even when the jobs were no longer available.

The Great Depression had a catastrophic effect on urban workers. As industries cut back production or closed completely, thousands of workers were left without jobs. But at least in the cities the unemployed and destitute could find some relief in the breadlines and soup kitchens and could find occasional odd jobs which brought in a few pennies. On the other hand, conditions in rural areas were often intolerable. Nature conspired with man-made economic turmoil to increase the hardships of the rural dwellers when long-lasting drought turned much of the South and Southwest into a huge, useless dust bowl. During this period, many people were compelled to leave the farms and rural communities in their fight for survival. For the most part, they ended up on the relief rolls in the cities. Many of the Mexicans among their numbers were repatriated to Mexico by the U.S. government.

Mexican Americans and World War II

The Second World War served as a catalyst which brought the United States out of the Depression. Furthermore, it served as the most important single event in changing the lifestyle of the Mexican-American population. Mexican Americans were either drafted in large proportions into (he armed services or volunteered to serve. For the first time they dispersed in large numbers throughout the United States and many parts of the world. While in the armed services, their horizons expanded and many learned new skills not available in the rural areas. Mexican Americans conducted themselves well in the Second World War and they had the highest proportion of Congressional Medal of Honor winners of any minority in the United States. They also saw the world outside and when they returned many became dissatisfied with their previous condition of subordination, low paying jobs, and discrimination. Many decided to change the system in which they were reared.

The termination of the war also brought into being the "G.I. Bill of Rights." This act provided veterans with opportunities for employment, high school and college education, job training, and resources for purchasing homes and life insurance. Many Mexican Americans took advantage of the G.I Bill. For the first time, they entered college in large numbers. Within a few years after the war, their slightly higher educational achievements would lead to expanding opportunities in employment.

The war also created intense labor shortages as defense industries grew. Many Mexican Americans who did not serve in the armed forces found new employment opportunities open to them. New facilities had to be built such as training camps and air bases, concentration camps for the Japanese Americans and prisoner of war camps. Basic supplies and war materials had to be produced and delivered to distant places. The production of food and fiber had to be accelerated. Even the establishment of the Bracero program required many Mexican Americans as administrators, office workers and interpreters.

Since most war-related job opportunities existed in urban centers, there was considerable migration of Mexican Americans to the cities in the decades of the 1940s and 1950s. The impact on rural areas was frequently tremendous. For instance, the smaller towns and cities in the southern part of Colorado lost many residents who moved to Pueblo and Denver for employment. In New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona there was a large exodus of the population to the urban centers. Perhaps the state which received the most migrants during this period was California, giving it a Mexican-American population equal to that of Texas. Most of California's recent Mexican-American migrants have come from other parts of the Southwest. In contrast, most of the recent migrants to Texas have come from Mexico.
Many of the people who made a move either for employment or because of the armed services during and after World War II never returned permanently to their home residences. A general redistribution of the Mexican-American population had taken place and the majority eventually took residence in urban areas.

Thus, a generation of Mexican Americans with new experiences, wider horizons, different goals and values and greater expectations began to appear. These were persons who wanted an education and/or had achieved it, who wanted more than the usual menial jobs, and who also wanted to be treated as first-class citizens. They considered themselves as Americans and wanted their full civil rights. They also wanted an end to prejudice and discrimination. They were no longer content with the old way of life as they sought equality and justice.

The changes that occurred, however, did not come easily or without penalties. The larger society does not always accept changes gracefully and Mexican Americans had to suffer the scourge of discrimination in jobs, housing, public accommodations, and civil rights. Some of this discrimination is still evident today in spite of the laws and in spite of the affirmative action that local, state, and federal governments sometimes attempt.

One of the most serious incidents of discrimination occurred during World War II in the Zoot-Suit Riots of Los Angeles. The incident received its name from the type of clothing, known as a Zoot Suit, worn by many young Mexican Americans of the early 1940s. In the summer of 1943, a private quarrel between a Mexican American and an Anglo erupted into widespread rioting. Anglo members of the armed forces were soon joined by civilians in a spree of attacking and beating Mexican Americans wherever they were found. The Zoot-Suit Riots created a heritage of bitterness and fear that is still remembered among the Mexican Americans of Los Angeles. The riots represented a blatant example of discrimination and violation of civil rights in U.S. history. It compares with acts of violence perpetrated by Americans on Indians and blacks.

An Urban Population

Although encountering problems of discrimination, Mexican Americans continued to settle in the urban areas. By the 1960s they were a significant element in the industrial and urban setting of American society.

Many of those who went to college became teachers. Others continued on to professional schools in the fields of medicine, dentistry, law, and social work. Only a few entered graduate school to obtain their doctorates and become university professors, researchers, or writers.

Others chose to work in industry and in factories. Some became technicians, some engaged in unskilled work and some entered services as clerks, waiters, secretaries, truck-drivers and salesmen. A few became proprietors, mostly owners of small businesses. Coming from a rural background, a considerable number continued working in agriculture and many became seasonal farm workers.

Regardless of their occupation, it soon became evident that urban centers had acquired large concentrations of the Mexican-American population which became more and more visible. In California, the Mexican-American population had grown in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego. In Arizona, the major concentrations settled in Phoenix and Tucson. The Mexican-American population grew in New Mexico in Albuquerque, Las Cruces, and Santa Fe. In Colorado, Denver, Pueblo, and Colorado Springs attracted much of the Mexican-American population from the rural areas. The border cities of Texas such as El Paso, McAllen, Laredo, and Brownsville have always had high concentrations of Mexican Americans, but now the large cities of San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston attracted many.

Chicago, Kansas City, Detroit, Toledo, Gary, and East Chicago, Indiana attracted many Mexican Americans. In 1940, the Census Bureau reported that the majority of people with Spanish surnames in the Southwest were rural residents. In the census of 1960 it was reported that the majority of Mexican Americans were urban residents. Thus, the transition from rural to urban residence occurred over a twenty-year period. The 1970 census shows the continued trend in urban residence, but not at the same accelerated rate.

The Zoot Suit Riots

In the early 1940s many Mexican-American teenagers wore "drapes." This popular style of clothing resembled the zoot suits worn in Harlem. It was designed to be comfortable to dance in, and was sometimes used as a signal that the wearer belonged to a club or gang. Most Anglos called the outfit a zoot suit and assumed that only hoodlums wore them.

In 1942, in the name of national security, all the Japanese Americans on the west coast had been taken from their homes and interred in camps. With this group of scapegoats safely out of the way, Los Angeles newspapers began to blame crime in the city on the Mexican Americans. They began to give prominence to incidents involving Mexican Americans, or as they called them "zoot suiters."

On the evening of June 3, 1943, eleven sailors on shore leave walked into one of Los Angeles's worst Mexican-American slums and became involved in a fight with persons unknown, but who were thought to be Mexican Americans. This incident stirred up the anger of the citizenry, as well as that of the many members of the armed forces who were stationed in Los Angeles.

The next evening two hundred sailors hired a fleet of taxicabs and drove through the heart of the city to the Mexican-American communities on the east side. Every time they saw a Mexican-American boy in a zoot suit they would stop and beat him up. The city police did nothing to stop them.

The following two nights the sailors were joined by other servicemen as they wandered freely through the city harassing Mexican Americans. Los Angeles police arrested several severely beaten Mexican-American boys on charges of rioting, even though no resistance had been offered by the Mexican Americans. The newspapers featured headlines such as "44 Zooters Jailed in Attacks on Sailors."

On June seventh, thousands of civilians joined in the riot. Filipinos and Negroes as well as Mexican Americans were attacked. At midnight military authorities decided the local police could not handle the situation and declared downtown Los Angeles off limits to military personnel. The rioting spread to the suburbs for two more days before it finally subsided.

The Los Angeles zoot suit riots touched off similar disturbances across the country in the summer of 1943: in San Diego; Beaumont, Texas; Chicago; Detroit; Evansville, Indiana; Philadelphia and Harlem.