Perspectives in Mexican American Studies

Community, Identity and Education

Item Type Book

Authors Garcia, Juan R.; Gelsinon, Thomas

Publisher Mexican American Studies & Research Center, The University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ)

Journal Perspectives in Mexican American Studies

Download date 02/10/2021 19:00:00

Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/624815 Perspectives in AmericanMen Studies

Community, Identity and Education Perspectives in Mexican American Studies is an ongoing series devoted to Chicano /a research. Focusing on Mexican Americans as a national group, Perspectives features articles and essays that cover research from the pre -Columbian Era to the present. All selections published in Perspectives are refereed. Perspectives is published by the Mexican American Studies & Research Center at the University of Arizona and is distributed by the University of Arizona Press, 1230 N. Park Avenue, Tucson, Arizona 85719. Individual copies are $15. Subscriptions to Perspectives (3 issues) are $39 for individuals and $60 for institutions. Foreign individual subscriptions are $42 and foreign institutional subscriptions are $66. For subscription orders, contact the Mexican American Studies & Research Center, 315 Douglass Building, the University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721. Manuscripts and inquiries should be sent to Professor Juan R. García, Department of History, the University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721. For additional information, call MASRC Publications (602) 621 -7551. Perspectives is abstracted and indexed in Historical Abstracts, and America: History and Life. Copyright© 1992 by The Arizona Board of Regents. All rights reserved.

ISSN 0889 -8448 ISBN 0- 939363 -03 -8 PERSPECTIVES IN

MEXICAN

AMERICAN

STUDIES

Volume 3 1992

Mexican American Studies & Research Center The University of Arizona Tucson

COMMUNITY, IDENTITY

AND EDUCATION

Editor Juan \. García

AssocaaleJ ditár` Thomas Gelsinon

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction vii

Ralph Cintron Divided, Yet a City: A Brief History 1

Irene Campos Carr Mexican Workers in Aurora: The Oral History of Three Immigration Waves, 1924 -1990 31

June Webb -Vignery A Grande Dame Stripped of Her Jewels: The Last Days of Jacome's Department Store 53

David L. Torres and The Quest for Power: Hispanic Melissa Amado Collective Action in Frontier Arizona 73

Sylvia Rodríguez The Hispano Homeland Debate Revisited 95

Francisco H. Vázquez Chicanology: A Postmodern Analysis of Meshicano Discourse 117

Roseann Dueñas Language Rights and The Mexican González, Victoria F. Americans: Much Ado About Vásquez and John Bichsel Nothing 149

Mary A. Alexander and Factors Related to Obesity in Jacqueline Blank ShermanMexican American School Children 169

David J. León and A Precursor to Affirmative Action: Dan McNeil Californios and Mexicans in the University of California, 1870 -72 179

INTRODUCTION

Volume III of Perspectives in Mexican American Studies focuses on the themes of community, identity and education. Several of the selections incorporate all three of these strains to describe how each has influenced and shaped the experiences of Mexican Americans. The themes of community, identity and education are central to the articles by Ralph Cintron and Irene Campos Carr. In "Divided, Yet a City: A Brief History of Aurora, Illinois" and "Mexican Workers in Aurora: The Oral History of Three Immigration Waves, 1924 -1990," Cintron and Carr, respectively, survey the development of a midwestern Mexican community from the early 1900s through 1990. These two studies, which are part of a larger research project, examine the Mexi- can, Mexican American and Latino experience in Aurora from different perspectives. Cintron's research focuses upon education and literacy in tracing the history of Mexican immigrants in the community. Carr's work draws upon oral histories of mexicana immigrant workers in Aurora to describe the different waves of immigration. Both essays, which are based on oral histories, delineate the impact of these migra- tions on the social, cultural and economic life of the community during this century. The element of community is also present in June Webb -Vignery's "A Grande Dame Stripped of Her Jewels: The Last Days of Jacome's Department Store," which is a chapter excerpted from her larger study, Jacome's Department Store: Business and Culture in Tucson, Arizona, 1896 -1980. The article traces the changes and forces, both economic and cultural, that led to the closing of this community institution in 1980. In "The Quest for Power: Hispanic Collective Action in Frontier Arizona," David L. Torres and Melissa Amado focus on the Mexican elite in Tucson at the turn of the century. They describe the attempts of this commercially and business -oriented group to ward off U.S. cultural domination. By examining U.S. and Mexican forms of capitalism, the

vii PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES authors describe how the elite attempted to retain a Mexican -based culture that recognized the primacy of the community rather than individual rights and freedoms. This struggle, they conclude, actually served to unify the Mexican elite and el pueblo (i.e. the proletariat). Sylvia Rodriguez's "The Hispanic Homeland Debate Revisited" focuses on the question of identity. She seeks to place the fervent academic debate about the ethnic distinctness of Hispanic New Mexi- cans within a clearer analytic framework. The essay also examines the interactive process by which this notion of distinctiveness evolved or developed. In a related vein, Francisco H. Vázquez also ponders the question of identity, and its relationship to power and knowledge in "Chicanology: A Postmodern Analysis of Meshicano Discourse." The author presents a philosophical and theoretical discourse on how power and knowledge are manifested and exercised. The essay relates how these concepts have shaped and influenced mesbicano discourse (the term is used to emphasize the relation of language to power), Chicanology, and Chicano Studies. Language and culture are central elements that define a community. They are also substantive parts of one's identity. For Mexican Ameri- cans, language retention has been a cardinal principle in their struggle to preserve their cultural heritage. The battle over language rights has been lengthy and acrimonious. Roseanne Dueñas González, Victoria F. Vásquez, and John Bichsel discuss the history of this issue and its outcomes in "Language Rights and the Mexican Americans: Much Ado About Nothing." They argue that the conflict has shifted attention from and jeopardized the more important issue of equal access rights for Mexican Americans. Health within the Mexican American and Hispanic community has been largely neglected and ignored by researchers. What does exist is largely impressionistic and based upon a paucity of accurate empirical data. As a result, little is known about the health status, needs and use of health care services by Mexican Americans.Even less is known about health care practices and beliefs that are culturally based. In their study of "Factors Related to Obesity in Mexican American School Children," Mary A. Alexander and Jacqueline Blank Sherman examine the values, customs and beliefs associated with health and nutrition among Mexican Americans. They then detail the social, cultural and economic factors associated with childhood obesity, and describe their impact on the health of school -age children.

viii INTRODUCTION

The research of David J. León and Dan McNeill will surprise many readers with its premise that affirmative action programs are not unique to the latter part of the twentieth century. "A Precursor to Affirmative Action: Californios and Mexicans in the University of California, 1870- 1872," describes the development of a program designed to help students pass the strict entrance requirements of the newly formed University of California. This program, known as the "Fifth Class," was a sub -freshman grade that enrolled a number of Spanish- surnamed students. León and McNeill describe the program, the backgrounds and experiences of the students who participated in it between 1870 and 1872. The theses, ideas and issues raised in this issue remain of critical importance to Mexican Americans. It is the editors' hope that these works will stimulate further research and promote greater discussion. We are grateful to the authors for providing us with timely, provoca- tive, and insightful articles and essays. The editors also wish to acknowledge Dr. Macario Saldate, Director of the Mexican American Studies & Research Center at the University of Arizona. His continuing support of this publication, and his Center's commitment to research, education and community service have been immeasurable. A special note of thanks goes to my co- editor, Thomas Gelsinon, whose editorial skills, insights, and labors on Volume III, and on the series have greatly lightened the workload involved in publishing each issue. His help has also made the task pleasurable and rewarding. I look forward to collaborating with him on the next issue of Perspectives.

Juan R. García, Series Editor Tucson, Arizona April 1992

ix Authors' Preface

Information for the following two essays emerged, in part, from an oral history project organized by Irene Campos Carr, Ralph Cintron, and Susan Palmer, and partially funded by the Illinois Humanities Council. The project consisted of seven interviews (sixteen hours of audiotape) with representatives from the three waves of Mexican immigration to Aurora, Illinois. The interviews were conducted between 1987 and 1988 and are indicated in both texts with Roman numerals in the order they occurred. Earlier interviews with other Mexican immigrants, however, were conducted by Susan Palmer for her dissertation, Building Ethnic Communities in a Small City: Roumanians and Mexicans in Aurora, Illinois, 1900 -1940. Since these essays were written as parts of larger projects, they reflect the special interests of the authors. Irene Campos Carr, for instance, is interested in the immigrant mexicana worker, and Ralph Cintron in immigrant education and literacy. This accounts for the different foci of the essays despite the shared information. In presenting two different accounts of the same immigrant conditions, we hope to highlight the differences that occur between two interpreters looking at the same data. DIVIDED, YET A CITY: A BRIEF HISTORY

Ralph Cintron

As we approach from the west along a variety of roads, the farmland gives way to a small airport, or to subdivisions with new, inex- pensive houses and attendant strip malls, or large undeveloped tracts marked as industrial parks. We are at the western boundary of Aurora, Illinois. Leaving Aurora and for the next forty-plus miles by way of I -88 into Chicago, we drive through one of the fastest growing areas in the United States. The High -Tech Corridor, asitis popularly known, contains research centers famous for their work in particle physics, superconductivity, telecommunications, and petroleum. Amoco Re- search Center, Argonne National Laboratory, Fermi National Accelera- tor Laboratory, and Rockwell International are anchors for smaller companies with exotic or faddish terms in their names: "robotics," "omni," "concepts," "uni," "networks," "systems." Clearly, much of the economic energy of Northern Illinois has located itself outside of Chicago and within its western cities called, not so long ago, "bedroom suburbs" or "white- flight" suburbs. The focus of our attention is Aurora. The city does not seem like a suburb, although it sits at the end of the Burlington Northern commuter line. In 1988 it ferried approximately a thousand Chicago -bound com- muters from Aurora every weekday morning. Today, the official name of the terminal is the "Transportation Center." In the mid- 1850s, however, the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad Company,

I wish to acknowledge the support services provided at the Center for Advanced Studies, The University of Iowa. 2 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES which eventually became the Burlington Northern, constructed the building for repairing locomotives and called it the "Roundhouse." Only thirty years prior, the same locale was part of a forest called "Big Wood," which stretched continuously for approximately ten miles to the north. The Fox River split the forest. The name changes encapsulate the economic and social changes that have troubled and inspired Aurora for the last 150 years. During the late 1820s and mid- 1830s, settlers, many from the Yankee states, began to stake their claims a few hundred yards south of the future Roundhouse. The Sauks, who had crossed the Mississippi to stop the white advance, and a few of the local Pottowatomis occasionally offered fierce resistance. The settlers' small dams irritated the tribes because the dams restricted the movement downstream of an important Native American food -fish.' It was easy for the settlers to build dams at this point in the river, however, because of a series of small islands. And build they did: a dam, taverns, a sawmill, a grist mill, and attendant small businesses. Somehow, they also maintained friendly relations with most of the Pottowatomis.2 In 1836 the Pottowatomis, by treaty with the United States, agreed to move west of the Mississippi.3 With the removal of the Indians, Aurora, already a village of two - hundred souls, grew even more rapidly.4 Stage coach lines, which already linked various Fox River communities to western locales, necessitated the building of hotels. In 1837 Aurora officially registered with the postal department.5 "Big Wood" may have provided much of Aurora's building material, but literacy helped to establish ownership and allowed a cash economy to simultaneously bring together and divide the inhabitants of the young community. To further the local economy, the community was quick to establish the institutions that support and promote literacy. Hence, schools began in 1835, although the first building was not erected until 1838 or 1839.6 The first library was attempted in 1837.' The first local newspaper appeared in 1846.8 By 1848 Aurora had more than a thousand people and was ready to make its most significant economic move: it became a railroad town. It was not, however, a railroad town in the sense of being created by the railroad. Aurora was a market town that was transformed when the railroad located its shops there. During the late 1840s, short- distance tracks were built north and east of Aurora. Less successful railroad companies were absorbed. And, with the building of an easterly track to Chicago, the foundation for one of the most successful railroad DIVIDED, YET A CITY: A BRIEF HISTORY 3

companies in America, the C. B. & Q. (Chicago, Burlington and Quincy), which became the Burlington Northern, was established.9 Until at least World War II, the C. B. & Q. was Aurora's economic centerpiece and the city's largest employer. Locomotives were built and repaired along with a variety of railroad cars. In addition the railroad provided local industries and the outlying farms a means to transport their goods. Finally, several industries located in Aurora in order to build machinery for the C. B. & Q. Aurora, during the nineteenth century was a working -class community. Waves of immigrants came to Aurora. Germans, Swedes, Norwe- gians, Greeks, Luxembergers, Lithuanians, Poles, Russians, Dutch, French Canadians, Irish, Hungarians, Roumanians, and Italians arrived during different decades, sometimes replacing each other in the various industries' and neighborhoods where they bought homes. In 1870 Aurora's population was 11,162 and its foreign -born population was twenty-eight percent; in 1880 the population was 11,873 and its foreign born was twenty-two percent; in 1890 the population was 19,688 and its foreign born was twenty-four percent. According to Palmer,10 however, the 1890 figures did not separate foreign born from foreign stock. In 1868 the German presence in Aurora was large enough to support the publication of a German -language weekly, The Aurora Volksfreund." The Germans also established both Catholic and Protestant parishes." Housing for the new immigrants was close to the C. B. & Q. shops. Some industries were west of the river. However, the East Side, particularly that area overlooking the rail yards and called Pigeon Hill, became famous for its collection of ethnic groups. Actually, Pigeon Hill was often the second stop for an immigrant working for the railroad. The first stop typically was along the streets at the bottom of Pigeon Hill immediately north and east of the C. B. & Q. shops. As workers earned money, some moved up the hill towards more substantial housing. When the Roumanians attempted this after World War I, however, they encountered resistance from the Luxembergers and Germans who were afraid their neighborhoods would shortly deteriorate. A decade or two later, Mexicans encountered resistance from the Roumanians.13 In short, Aurora was immersed, along with the rest of the United States, in ethnic - versus- native squabbles during the early decades of the twentieth century. In describing Aurora's ethnic history, one realizes that the city has always been and continues to be, though in even more complicated 4 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES fashion, a split community. Even before the immigrants arrived, the river had been the dividing line. For the first two decades or so, floods destroyed Aurora's bridges almost annually. A ferry allowed the two settlements to communicate;14 nevertheless, economic rivalry meant that the two settlements matured separately. The east side of the river grew faster and was incorporated nine years before its western side. In 1857 both sides were brought together through a state charter that located City Hall in a neutral zone, one of the islands in the middle of the river. In addition, the city's four wards were drawn to span both East and West Sides. The arrival of working -class immigrants, however, permanently divided east from west. Enclaves of merchants, bankers, and monied others lived on the East Side, but by the turn of the century the East Side consisted mostly of ethnic churches and modest homes within walking distance of industries. The 1900 city directory listed nine ethnic churches on the East Side and only two on the West Side. Four of the East Side's churches were Catholic while the West Side only had one.15 Increasingly during the nineteenth century, if one had money, one strove to live on the West Side on spacious lots. Long before Aurora's hundredth birthday in 1937, the West Side had acquired the seal of being more Yankee and Protestant, more homogenous, and apparently more arrogant: "They of the West Side feel that they are composed of a little finer texture in the compounding of their anatomy," said one of the city's historians.16 Political, economic, and ethnic divisions were commonplace as Aurora left the nineteenth century and entered the first decades of the twentieth. The Roumanians, whose numbers accelerated after 1905, immediately preceded the Mexicans. In approximately 1923 the first significant Mexican community developed on the outskirts of Aurora in a boxcar camp maintained by the C.B. & Q. Prior to the establishment of this community, however, Mexicans apparently were living in a variety of areas inside Aurora. For instance, during the 1922 -23 school year, the annual report for the grade school located near the center of town states: "The character of pupils attending has changed to a marked degree in that mingled with the children of older residents of the city, is a large proportion of aliens, many of these children having been born in the Balkan states, and in Mexico. "17 This school was far from the boxcar camp, and when the children from the camp started to go to school, they did not go here. In addition, night school enrollments, which had been sponsored for immigrant groups since 1913 by the DIVIDED, YET A CITY: A BRIEF HISTORY 5

Aurora East School District, show that during the 1920 -21 school year four "Spaniards" attended.18 It is unlikely the four were from Spain, for the United States never experienced a significant Spanish migration in the decade after World War I. On the other hand, railroad companies in Chicago had been recruiting Mexicans since 1916. By 1920 the census recorded more than 1,000 Mexicans in Chicago and by 1930 more than 20,000.19 In short, Mexicans were in the vicinity of Aurora, and probably already living within its boundaries, at least a few years before the start of the boxcar settlement. The completion of railroads in northern Mexico and the southwestern United States at the turn of the century made Mexican emigration a significant possibility. What was needed, however, was reason to emigrate. Farm work was available throughout the Midwest, and factory and railroad work in the cities. Some emigration had already begun during the first decade of the 1900s, but in 1910 the Mexican Revolution unleashed, for the next decade or so, extensive social upheaval.20 It is after 1910, then, that Mexican immigration to the Midwest accelerated. This period, whose temporal boundaries are fairly well defined, might be called the first wave of Mexican immigration. By and large, most were young single males, who were unskilled, uneducated peasants from the central plateau of Mexican Illinois was not the first stop for the immigrants. Statistics gathered in Chicago in 1925 and reported by Kerr state, "only 15 per cent of the Mexicans had come directly to the city from Mexico; 49 per cent had been somewhere else in the United States for two to eight years; 32 per cent had been out of Mexico for more than eight years. "22In Aurora, interviews with the descendants of the first Mexican families reveal a similar migratory pattern. Initial stops, particularly in Texas, were the norm. Then came stops in Iowa or elsewhere to pick beets or other crops, or to work for the railroads in a variety of cities in Illinois and other parts of the Midwest. California and other western states were sometimes part of the itinerary. Socorro Leon, who arrived in Aurora as a young woman, describes in two interviews -the first in English, the second in Spanish -her early experiences and impression of the considerable amount of travel that characterized the first immigrant families:

I have a brother here in Texas for long years, and he loved to come and then go back to us and come, and he didn't stay long with us 6 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

[in Mexico] and kept coming back and coming back, and then finally we all decided to come. But it was not good to travel at this time.(I)

... It was1912 -1914before my mother and I came to join the others. You couldn't even travel by train. The cars would become derailed. Something was wrong with the track. It was during the war in Mexico.(III)

. . . We went to my uncle'sfarm. . .and we stay there for a while

. . . and go to see my sister, who used to live in Arizona with a

cousin, and we come back to El Paso... to my uncle's farm. . .and

my mother pass away in1920.. . [in the other interview she says her mother died in1918]. Igo with my sister that was not married

. . .back to Mexico ... Until1925my brother went to see us and he asked me did I want to come to the farm -I said sure. [After arriving at the farm, she met and married her husband.](I)

. . . Myuncle was very upset. He wanted to do away with my husband So my brother wrote to my other brother who was living in Aurora.(I)

. . . Inorder to avoid problems my brother sent us tickets to come

to Aurora. . . Mybrothers wanted to avoid problems within the family.(III) Mexican immigrants worked in a variety of places but primarily for the C.B. & Q. Forty -one percent of the men worked with the railroad, nine percent worked at the Scraper Works, twenty -six percent were unemployed, about thirteen percent worked as laborers without a place of employment named, and a handful of others worked at the cotton mills, the well works, and various foundries. Not surprisingly, most of the workers lived close to their place of employment.23 The industrial work and the urban experience contrasted with the upbringing of most of these immigrants. Interviews with a few of them or with their descendants reveal that they were accustomed to farming small ranchi- tos with their extended families. Socorro Leon, for instance, whose family had been shoemakers in Guanajuato, worked with some of her cousins on the farm located in El Paso.(III) A closer look at the pattern of settlement of Mexican immigrants in Aurora reveals there was one solidly Mexican community that both resisted and eased, perhaps, the transition from Mexican ways to American- albeit the word "American" at this time and locale is not easily identifiable through the hodgepodge of ethnicity. A sense of DIVIDED, YET A CITY: A BRIEF HISTORY 7 these conditions and the need of institutions to dilute and Americanize ethnicity can be gleaned from this 1927 principal's report to the superintendent about Oak Park School, one of the grammar schools in the Pigeon Hill area: "Tho [sic.] probably over ninety per cent of the pupils are of alien parentage, all are developing into good American citizens." 24Interestingly, the 1929 Oak Park report counted "about seventeen Mexican children in September [1928] who had never been to school and who could not understand English. They were given a special room by themselves until after Christmas and then placed in the proper grades. "25 The one solidly Mexican community that sent many of its children to the Oak Park School was the Eola boxcar camp on the outskirts of Aurora. However, Mexicans also lived near North Broadway, close to the car shops of the C.B. & Q, or along other streets close to other places of work. It is important to keep in mind these two kinds of immigrant settlements: ethnic dispersion as opposed to ethnic concentration. The dispersion of one group into a community consisting of many groups may lead to very different accommodation and/or assimilation patterns compared with the creation of a concentrated community relatively isolated from other surrounding communities. Of course, given, as we will see, the short duration of the boxcar camp, the pattern of Mexican settlement in Aurora has always been one of dispersion. In fact, dispersion may be a general pattern for much of the Mexican settlement of the Midwest. Thus the Midwest becomes extraordinarily interesting in contrast to Mexican communities in other parts of the United States. Those who lived at Eola worked at the C.B. & Q.'s Reclamation Plant. They called the plant "El Scrape," a Spanish version, perhaps, of the English "scrap." This is where the company sent its old engines to be cut into scrap metal, which was then sorted and sold. The workers used acetylene torches to cut the metal and pneumatic hammers to straighten out bolts and rods. Roumanians, Hungarians, and possibly Poles worked alongside the Mexicans. The children who grew up in the boxcar camp do not remember African- Americans working at the plant or racial and ethnic tensions or any derogatory labels used by the Mexicans for the other nationalities or vice versa.(III and IV) Railroad boxcar camps (the Mexicans in Eola called theirs "El Campo ") were not unusual in the early decades of this century. Aurora had at least one other camp beside the one at Eola. This second camp was north of the Aurora Roundhouse. It had a variety of ethnic groups 8 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES as occupants and was smaller than the Eola camp.26 Descendants of the Eola camp remember other camps located in Naperville, the town immediately east of Aurora, and Beardstown, Illinois. This latter camp contained Greeks and Mexicans.(IV) One count lists twenty -six camps maintained by seven railroads in two Chicago -area counties, neither of which includes Aurora. These camps differed considerably in the ratio of single males to families, in the living conditions, and in the percentage of Mexican inhabitants.27 The population at El Campo fluctuated. One former resident remembers about thirty -five families (I), and another remembers several single males who lived and ate with families willing to board them.28 Another former resident remembers his family living for a short while in crowded conditions with another family until his father was able to find a place to rent in Aurora.(I) These conditions suggest the same somewhat fluid conditions that characterized the lives of the Mexican immigrants before arriving in Aurora. For many immigrants, Aurora was just another stop on their journey. For others, however, what may have started as an intended short stay became a lifetime. Several of the children who grew up in El Campo remember a surprising amount of stability in the little community. Rather quickly the camp built a church complete with steeple from lumber and nails supplied by the railroad. For a short period the church was even served by a Mexican priest who was a relative of one of the camp's residents. He lived outside the camp in a nearby town. At other periods, however, the church was served by priests who arrived every Sunday from the nearest Aurora parish.29 Church services were sometimes attended by Mexicans who travelled from Aurora.(I)30 The church also provided communion classes in Spanish.(IV) Also providing social organization to El Campo was a mutualista, a self -help society providing a "financial cushion in case of death." Although the mutualista was primarily a burial society, it was also a social organization with a constitution, officers, and regular meetings. It also sent small sums of money to the Mexican needy via the Mexican Catholic Church and was a conduit of information about the political, social, and economic affairs then occurring in Mexico.3' In some ways El Campo was the center of Mexican life in Aurora. The Mexicans scattered on Aurora's East Side occasionally came to the church located there and to El Campo's jamaicas, which were bazaars mostly organized by the women. The jamaicas had food, music- sometimes provided by residents of the camp -and maybe even DIVIDED, YET A CITY: A BRIEF HISTORY 9 dancing inside a small hall built in much the same way as the church.(I and IV) National and religious celebrations also occurred at El Campo.32 Mexicans also came for weddings and births, or just to visit. For at least one child in Aurora, travelling to El Campo was special. It was a chance to play baseball and reunite with friends of his own kind.(II) In contrast, members of other ethnic groups almost never visited.(I and IV) There were, however, occasional visits from a county nurse (II) and from others peddling goods. One former resident tells the story of a baker who, before entering the camp, asked one of the children how to say in Spanish "fresh bread, good bread." Apparently, the child tricked him into saying pan apestoso, which means "foul" or "stinky bread. "(I) The anecdote symbolizes the geographical and cultural separation of El Campo from the rest of Aurora. El Campo was a distinctly Mexican community that attempted to recreate Mexican ways and in the process achieved a degree of stability and identity that attracted other Mexicans. This served to keep out those who were not Mexican. It is interesting, then, to consider ways in which the residents of El Campo came into contact with the surrounding community and the other ethnic groups. We have already noted that the Reclamation Plant had a variety of ethnic employees. In addition, the residents also travelled occasionally to Chicago or Aurora and its environs and had extensive exposure to Aurora's schools. Travels to Chicago seem mostly to have reinforced Mexican traditions. Chicago at that time had three substantial and thriving Mexican communities largely defined by the nearby place of employment: on the Near West Side in the Hull House area (railroads); South Chicago (steel mills); and Back of the Yards (meat packing).33 Although the Mexican Aurorans did not identify specific locations, Chicago was visited often, sometimes almost every week, for if one worked for the railroad the trip was free. Sometimes they visited friends, but shopping was particularly favored. It was in Chicago where traditional foods were purchased, and good buys on household items were made.(I) Chicago was also visited during the 1933 World's Fair by at least one of the families from El Campo.(IV) Metaphorically speaking, Chicago was also present in the camp. Orders for food and goods were placed at the Reclamation Plant, where they usually arrived four or five days later.(II) Chicago, in a sense, had a strong presence in the camp. It helped to broaden the camp's sense of Mexicanness, and its knowledge of the United States and the world. 10 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

Aurora's influence on the camp was even stronger, however. Day -today food and household goods were purchased in Aurora and occasional fairs and company picnics drew those residents willing to walk to the nearest streetcar route. Of greater significance, however, was schooling, which attempted to provide explicit instruction in written and oral language and to Americanize El Campo's residents. Schooling seems to have influenced El Campo in two ways: through a night school for adults and through parochial and public schooling for children. The first entry describing a night school in the reports to the board of education occurs in 1915. The school was for the instruction of foreigners in the English language. It also offered a class in citizenship for those seeking naturalization papers who were required to pass an examination which now implies a reasonable knowledge of American governmental methods.34 Aurora's night school was part of a national effort that seems to have doggedly pursued its goals. The United States government has thru [sic.] its Department of Labor put forth a strong and persistent endeavor to secure the attendance at night schools of as many aliens as possible, especially of those who make application for citizenship. Notice is sent to the Superin- tendent of each alien in the city who applies for citizenship, such notice giving the essential facts concerning him. A personal letter then goes from the Superintendent to the applicant informing him of the night school and urging his attendance. At the same time a somewhat similar letter reaches him from the Department.35 Despite these efforts, two constants seem to have haunted Aurora's night school before the arrival of the Mexicans: poor attendance and the inability to attract women. Even in 1914, the first year of operation, student attendance seems to have been a major frustration for administrators. For the 1915 school year they required a two dollar deposit at registration that would be refunded if the student attended three- fourths of the twenty week term. The following chart compiled from yearly Reports of the Board of Education suggests that the students had difficulty sustaining enthusiasm for night school: DIVIDED, YET A CITY: A BRIEF HISTORY 11

Year #Of Students # Of Women Average Attendance

1914 325 1915 82 - - 1916 85 7 - 1917 60 11 - 1918 - 1919 199 65 1920 93 32

It did not take long for the Mexicans, after their arrival in Aurora in the early twenties, to appear at night school. During the 1924 -1925 school year, twenty-seven Mexicans enrolled. This was the third largest group behind the Germans and Roumanians at eighty-one and sixty-six, respectively. Again, the school district's determination to recruit students is seen in how the immigrants were contacted. During the summer the district, with the help of the Chamber of Commerce, surveyed various employers of foreign workers. Cards were mailed to potential and former students, and announcements were posted in all the industries that employed foreign workers. Despite these efforts, however, the board remained disappointed in the number of immigrants enrolled. Much of the schooling that year, as in prior years, was devoted to the singing of "American patriotic songs" and to saluting the flag. Also, four night -school parties occurred that were variously sponsored by the Kiwanis Club, the Woman's Relief Corps, the Rotary Club, the Daugh- ters of Veterans, the Drama League, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Lions Club, and the Catholic Daughters of America.36 It was the custom of these organizations to provide introductory talks explaining who they were and what they stood for in the community.37 Apparently, the night school was the result of an intense desire among the professional class to integrate the immigrant into American society. This effort, however, created a curious problem among Aurora's Mexican immigrants. The report of 1926, the second year of Mexican attendance, is aglow with the participation of the Mexicans. The Kiwanis and the Community Chest were willing to pay for a bus to El Campo. to transport the Mexicans. One hundred twenty-three Mexicans attended, which was more than double the participation of the next largest nationality, and they rarely missed a single night. For the final party, a 12 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

Mexican orchestra and a "Glee Club," which is not what the Mexicans themselves called it, provided some of the music. Finally, the demand for more schooling was so great that twenty-three students, including seven Mexican men, were willing to pay twenty-five cents per night for private classes.38 The directors of the night school sensed an eager population on whom they would bestow the gift of American citizenship. The 1927 report suggests that Mexicans were still by far the largest group, that the bus still traveled to El Campo, and that the curriculum remained the same: that is, a class for beginners and intermediates, who would eventually apply for "first papers," and an advanced class. Students from the advanced class,it was hoped, would apply for "second papers" after studying "spelling," "sentence construction," "grammar," "public speaking," "history," and "civics." The Mexicans in the beginning and intermediate levels, however, "because of their reticency," were taught separately.39 Not until 1928 do the reports clarify the problem: ...the Federal Government will provide text -books only for those persons who have received their first papers. The Mexicans are glad to come to Night [sic.] school but do not care to sever their allegiance with Mexico, and so must buy their own text- books.4° Earlier in the report the superintendent says: While it is highly desirable that all residents of the state should be familiar with the language of the country, it may be questioned whether the community is warranted in expending its resources for such as are unwilling to become citizens of the state.4' The issues pointed to are of enormous significance both then and now. First -wave Mexican immigrants did not fit into the ideals and expectations of those among Aurora's professional class who believed in the importance of American citizenship. That the idea of citizenship had become paramount is seen throughout the school reports: Modern educational theory holds that it is not so much the information which the child stores up, but what he gives out in the form of conduct that is the important consideration. Emphasis in education has changed from scholarship to citizenship 42 Indeed, the concept of citizenship had become one of the centers of DIVIDED, YET A CITY: A BRIEF HISTORY 13 educational theory and was driving much of the curriculum in the Aurora schools. To decline American citizenship, therefore, was to ignore an important American value. From the Mexican view, to sever allegiance from Mexico was not realistic. Unlike many European immigrants, most Mexicans planned to return to Mexico after pocketing cash. A railroad trip home did not cost that much and could be accomplished in a few days. As one of the children of those early immigrants said, "The majority of Mexicans were gonna' go back. Ninety-five percent were gonna' go back and why bother with any papers. "(II) The belief that learning English was not necessary further complicated matters. Another interviewee, a married woman at that time, said: Yes, there were night schools back then. My husband never went. It just didn't interest him. For example, there were jobs where English was important, but then there were jobs where English didn't matter. Say, for example, those who worked on the tracks, why would they care to learn to speak English? It was all hard work.(III) The Mexicans, seemingly, had made a realistic assessment of their needs and goals. To be an American citizen was not necessarily what they desired. As other scholars have suggested, American citizenship may have also made Mexicans more vulnerable in an American system that might not be willing to help them, whereas in remaining Mexican one could always turn to the Mexican consul for assistance.43 In not valuing American citizenship, the Mexicans not only challenged a fundamental icon of the American professional class but also effectively undermined one of the major reasons for learning English at night school. Also undermined was the belief that English might help at the work place. Perhaps the Mexican response was unfathomable to the American professionals, but from the Mexican point of view, night school was unable to locate its importance in the lives of many Mexicans. Nevertheless, between 1928 and 1931 Mexican enrollment compared to other nationalities was very high, though it never again rivalled the enrollment of 1927. The Mexicans continued to be taught separately because of their "reticence." In 1932 the night school closed. Among the reasons for doing so was "the return of many Mexicans to their native land. "44 As for the children of these first Mexican immigrants, it is notable that they are almost invisible in the Board of Education reports. We have 14 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES mentioned the occasional statements that take note of them. In addition, starting in 1929 they also appear on various lists: perfect attendance, graduation to junior or senior high, or the honor ro11.45 It is interesting that the twenties and thirties brought not only Mexicans to local schools, but also curricular and structural reforms initiated by the Aurora East school system. These reforms were, seemingly, widespread in the United States. However, Aurora East seems to have taken special advantage of research -based reforms through connections with the University of Chicago: With the opening of the fall term, Dr. Freeman's system of writing, the Zaner, (a simplified form of handwriting) will be introduced in our third and fourth grades. He is at present experimenting with manuscript writing in the first two grades of the elementary school of the University of Chicago and working out a correlation between the two systems of writing. 46 An interesting experiment was conducted in the various high schools in this section of Illinois and Indiana under the direction of Dr. Judd and the University of Chicago. Each high school principal, who was a member of the Judd Club, gave an achievement test to his senior English classes.47 In making itself available to and in incorporating the educational research of the time, the Aurora East school system became distinctly progressive. Various reforms, for instance, the ungraded primary school, had the aura of modernism: "progressive schools throughout the country have been experimenting on the primary level with saner methods of promotion based upon standards of child growth. "48 The ungraded primary school consisted of grouping children according to their abilities in math or reading despite their official grade: "the success or failure of a child must be measured in relationship to his own capacity to achieve, rather than in terms of the achievement of his fellows. "49 But progressive reform in the Aurora East system was more far -reaching than this. Heavy reliance on standardized testing in the United States emerged during these decades. One response to testing was the fear that it would encourage "a levelling -off process" in which slow pupils would be retained until they accomplished the goals of the tests and brilliant pupils would be encouraged to attain the goals and no more.50 Also appearing was the activity program in which children had first -hand experiences during field trips outside the school and also could DIVIDED, YET A CITY: A BRIEF HISTORY 15 reproduce experiences in the classroom. An example of the latter consisted of children "building the fusilage [sic.] of an airplane or the captain's bridge on a boat," thereby "connecting knowledge to facts and acquiring a sense of their working relationship." The activity program, therefore, meant a "loosening up," a "de- formalizing as it were, of the ordinary school program "51 with the hope of developing "initiative in the children in controlling their own work periods."52 Other examples of progressive reform consisted of experiments in teaching mathematics; the institution of a reading readiness program;53 and the introduction of a remedial reading program.54 Many of these reforms were pushed through by Mabel O'Donnell, who in the late twenties became grade supervisor for the primary schools and eventually acquired fame for her Alice and Jerry educational books.55 Four assumptions seem to underlie her reports: (1) that research in the learning processes of children and in education in general was generating valuable assessment tools; (2) that this same research was articulating a "natural," hence, scientifically understood, model of childhood behavior that valued the self -expressive individual in a societal context; (3) that a curriculum could be developed that could be monitored, without becoming restricted, by the assessment tools; and (4) that a curriculum that mirrored those "natural" processes not only treated its students more generously but also was superior to other curricula. This last assumption became fact, for administrators at least, because standardized test scores revealed that the Aurora East school district was far ahead of the national norm. From reading the reports, it is not clear whether the administrators thought about the relationship between test scores and a diverse student body. Interestingly, however, the schools within the district receiving the lowest scores were often the most international. Not all the Mexican children received the progressive education of the public school, however. A number children were sent to Catholic schools despite the cost. Actually, the Catholic school costs, even for laborers, were not prohibitive, and sometimes the schools did not even charge. One family, when faced with the possibility of removing their girls from the school and enrolling them in the public school, was told by the monsignor that the family would not have to pay. By and large, the parochial schools were chosen for religious reasons, not because they were better schools.(III and IV) According to some of the parents and children, however, the 16 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES experience of schooling, whether progressive or not, whether public or private, tended to be about the same. In the following quotations, Frank Barrajas and Ralph Cruz describe their experiences in public and Catholic schools, respectively, during the 1930s in Aurora:

. . . when I first went to school, I didn't understand English, and this big teacher pointin' her finger at me and yellin' at me, and I don't know what she told me, or I don't even know what I did wrong

.. . and ever since then, you know, I got behind one year, and my brother he got ahead a year, because he was paying attention, I guess, and he kept goin'.(II) I'd come home with my hands all blistered up, you know, and Ma says, `What happened' -and I says, `Well, they slapped my wrists `cause I couldn't remember, or I couldn't pronounce, or I couldn't say it like the (other) kids'.(IV)

Language difference was an enormous obstacle for Mexicans and the schools did not institutionalize a way to surmount it. For one family at least, language difference was a problem: "My daughters then began to hate Spanish. They would even hide our Spanish records. They would refuse to speak in Spanish and my husband and I were unable to speak in English. They quit speaking Spanish. "(III) Usually parents never spoke English at home, and their attitudes towards formal education were mixed: ... I don'tthink most cared. Well, not all were like that. Lupe (daughter of one of the early families) was told she was not going to learn anything going to school. She was unable to finish elementary school.(III)

. . . myfather -and I don't blame him in a way because he had no parents, etc. -but he always used to knock me, in other words, `What do you wanna take up that junk for -you know - things like this that really pressed me down, you know, but I can understand it because he never had the chance, and he felt that maybe I was crowdin' him or overcoming him.. . .(IV) There were also informal ways of learning, and it is possible that these unstructured ways produced more learning -at least for the adults. The amount of literacy learning and second -language acquisition in unstructured situations is an area rarely investigated by researchers. The data from oral histories are, of course, less than satisfying. Nonetheless they DIVIDED, YET A CITY: A BRIEF HISTORY 17 do help in understanding what may have been a surprising amount of English literacy and language acquisition among this first wave of Mexican immigrant adults. For the most part, men learned and used English more than women. They were the ones who went out of the house either to work or, in some cases, to do the shopping. Depending on where the men worked, very little English may have been necessary; still the women tended to stay at home more and have less exposure to English. Nevertheless, one woman later in life did pick up English mostly through soap operas, through a friendship with an English- speaking woman, and through attendance at citizenship classes -not the ones held during the thirties.(II and III) Women had the most interaction with children. One mother gave her son the blackboard she used in a Mexican school, and the singing of songs, including Mexican alphabet songs, was only performed by women. One alphabet song remembered was A, B, C, D, ya mi burro se me fue (my burro has left me); A, E, I, O, U, el burro sabe mas que to (the burro knows more than you). Interestingly, both the alphabet song and the stories of espantos (ghosts), brujerías (witchcraft), and buried gold had several purposes. The stories admonished children to behave properly, and the songs teased children and encouraged them to learn.(II and IV) There was one man, Mr. Frausto Sr., from El Campo whose use of language and literacy was well known beyond El Campo's boundaries. He was known as the community's intellectual, as "high class." He owned a large 1927 Webster's dictionary, but it is claimed that he had owned English dictionaries before arriving in the United States. The 1927 dictionary contains check marks that may have been made while reading English newspapers and encountering words he did not know. Frausto Sr. also owned books, including Upton Sinclair's Thejungle, and in his later years was fond of Time. His knowledge of a wide range of subjects, large English vocabulary, command of English (he was completely self -taught, his education in Mexico being only a few years), and odd habits, which included a fondness for exercising and sunning himself, endeared him and made him famous among the Mexican residents of Aurora. It was not uncommon for Mexican men to teach themselves how to read and write English at least minimally. Depending how far a man might advance at his job, a certain amount of writing might be 18 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES demanded of him. Socorro Leon's husband, for example, wrote short reports about the work done under his supervision. In time, he became literate enough that most daily affairs could be handled without help. In addition, Spanish and English newspapers occasionally appeared at El Campo. (The Spanish ones, most believe, were printed in Chicago's Mexican community and allowed El Campo's residents, some of whom were subscribers, to keep up with the political happenings in Mexico.) Finally, it ought to be mentioned that although Frausto Sr., along with a few others, encouraged his children to get an education, he did not take an active part in educating them. For instance, he did not read to his children or help them with their reading -nor, for that matter, did any other male parent.(I, II, III, and IV) El Campo was torn down around 1934, perhaps as a slow phase -out of the Reclamation Plant. Some of the lumber of the boxcars went into building new homes in Aurora for the former residents.(II and IV) With the dismantling of El Campo, the only true Mexican community in the Aurora area disappeared. With the decrease of Mexican immigration caused by the Depression, Mexican growth was effectively curbed. The Mexican population became scattered among streets mostly on the East Side, with little chance to establish definably Mexican social institutions. If anything, the Mexican presence in Aurora at this time probably decreased because of repatriation. The story of repatriation is long and complex, and it is hard to determine how it affected Aurora. During the 1920s, when more stringent immigration laws were enacted,itis estimated that one half of the Mexican nationals living in the United States were illegal.Illegal immigration, however, did not create a problem until 1929. With the onset of the Depression, unemployed aliens, in particular, began to be seen as an important drain on American social institutions. However, during the first stage of repatriation (1929 to 1933), repatriation was sometimes seen as beneficial by the aliens themselves. During the second stage (1933 to 1937), the "requirement for proof of legal residence became the basis for repatriation." During the third stage (1937 to 1941), repatriation became a "dreaded weapon" of deportation, which, though rarely initiated, did remove some longtime immigrants and their American -born children. Major shifts in the Mexican population, a partial result of repatriation, occurred in Chi - cago,56 but the effects of repatriation on Aurora remain undocumented. Aurora's first wave of Mexican immigrants, now depleted and dispersed, continued to raise families, and, for the most part, to send their DIVIDED, YET A CITY: A BRIEF HISTORY 19 children to school. In time most of the adults, if not all, became American citizens, but not necessarily for the grand ideals advocated by the early administrators of the night school. For Socorro Leon's husband, the reasons were pragmatic. He chose citizenship to insure that he would receive his pension. Some of the children went on to graduate from high school or college; others did not finish high school. Some became professionals; others joined the labor pool obtaining jobs that demanded a level of skill that their fathers never had. Interestingly, one son writes for a newspaper, another was a supervisor in a factory, and another is a non -degreed electronics technician /engineer involved in research and development.(I, II, III, and IV) Also interesting is that with notable exceptions, the adults and their children have become a somewhat conservative elite. For instance, they criticize the most recent wave of Mexican immigrants, pointing to the quality of the immigrants' Spanish and English and how they do not encourage their children to speak English. The conservatives also claim that the newer immigrants refuse to assimilate and to make a commitment to stay in the United States. The conservatives also say that the public schools' bilingual programs do not encourage the learning of English. To a certain extent, the conservatives seem to have forgotten their earlier troubles in the school system or that many first -wave immigrants also did not intend to stay in the United States. Nevertheless, all, whether conservative or not, are proud of their Mexican background and proud that their own children or that they themselves have often married into the Anglo mainstream. Intermarriage itself, however, has led to a set of mixed feelings among the third- generation descendants of the first immigrants. The third generation does not know Spanish when the Anglo community expects them to. Some within this third generation have diligently pursued Spanish courses, a fact that parents or grandparents find curious.(I, II, and III) Shortly after World War II and into the late 1960s, a second wave of Mexican immigration appeared. The Aurora they encountered was not the one of the twenties and thirties. The railroad continued to be a major employer, but opportunities to work in factories created a more diverse pool of employers. Some who were members of this wave remember other Mexicans employed at Bench Wire Assemblies, Thor Power Tool, Caterpillar, Austin Western, Aurora Paperboard, Barber -Greene, Stan- dard Coil, Process Plastic, AllSteel, and Western Electric.(V and VI) For the first wave of immigrants, Austin Western along with the Burlington 20 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES had been major employers, but as Aurora moved through the second half of the century its economy became increasingly diverse. However, diversity of employment was symbolic of both cultural and residential diversity. For instance, nothing comparable to El Campo, an isolated, single- ethnic community replicating a limited version of its native culture, was able to emerge. The second -wave immigrants did not appear in large enough numbers to form such a community. Neither did they necessarily settle on Aurora's East Side, though most did. If workers during the earlier decades lived within walking distance of their places of work, the diversity of employers and the availability of cars allowed the Mexicans increasingly to populate the West Side. Aurora became even more profoundly diverse because of the arrival of two other Latino groups, Puerto Ricans and tejanos (Texans of Mexican ancestry or descendants of Mexicans who were natives of Texas when it belonged to Mexico). Moreover, the women from all three groups were more willing (there is some reason to believe that the Puerto Rican women and tejanas may have been the most willing) to enter the labor force in contrast to the Mexican women from the first wave. In many ways, however, second -wave immigrants resembled the first wave. Both waves had roots in the same regions of Mexico. Both waves also had travelled and worked in a variety of places in the United States before arriving in Aurora, and after arrival occasionally returned to Mexico. In short, both waves did not necessarily come to Aurora with the intention of staying, and so they did not immediately become citizens. In addition, both waves had similar levels of education, were accustomed to hard work, and had children who attended the same parochial and public schools and who, typically, received more education than their parents. As with the first wave, there are instances of self -education. One man, a railroad and factory laborer who was born in Texas and minimally schooled in Mexico, claims to have read the story of Napoleon, Don Quijote, the history of the Aztecs, and three or four of the "Shakespeare books." For him the reading of books and the experience of some schooling have made him less of a believer in religion and in stories of espantos and brujerias. In his story we can hear, perhaps, the tension between traditional values and those of education: In fourth grade I went to a school where the principal was a friend DIVIDED, YET A CITY: A BRIEF HISTORY 21

of my father's. He was very smart, his name was Donato De LaVara. That was my first teacher that I will always remember. He was very smart. When I was a kid and was on the ranch with my dad. My dad only went to school for one year. But he learned to read and write and he could multiply and add but not too many numbers. But he used to tell me, do you believe in heaven? I would answer, my

teacher Donato De LaVara says there is no heaven . . . He(De LaVara) knew of this (Copernicus). I having a good memory would pass these things onto my dad. My dad wanted to know. If he had lived a long life, he would know these things like I have learned.(V) The most distinguishing characteristic of the second wave, however, was the emergence of social structures that, intentionally or not, tended to bind the Mexican community together. During the fifties and accelerating after that, the first businesses appeared. They were few enough that many informants can name the families who ran them. It is unclear, however, whether these families were from Mexico or Texas. Despite a small and scattered community, there were businesses that survived because of Mexican or tejano clientele. One of the more popular grocery stores during the fifties and later was the Casablanca. It was here or in the various East Side Catholic churches that Mexicans, tejanos, and Puerto Ricans met other Latinos who did not work or live beside them. The first owner of the store also sold insurance, prepared income taxes, and did notary public work.(V and VI) In providing these services, he became a bridge linking the Latino community to American institutions and institutional literacy. During the late fifties or early sixties another kind of social structure began to appear. A subsequent owner of the Casablanca began to rent the local ice rink to hold Mexican dances. Within a few years Mexican Independence Day festivals with reigning queens and attendance of at least one hundred were celebrated yearly. Some of the organizers of these festivals were responsible for starting the Latin American Club, which still exists. One of the former secretaries of the club recalled that in 1967 there were about thirty members. He also remembered that the minutes before 1967 had been kept very carefully. The Latin American Club soon took charge of Fiestas Patrias, the traditional Mexican patriotic festival held all over Mexico and in the United States wherever a sizeable Mexican or Mexican American community exists. Other Latino organizations that appeared during the sixties were Club Guada- lupano, an organization with religious connections, LULAC (League of 22 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

United Latin American Citizens), and a Puerto Rican club. The Puerto Ricans identified the Latin American Club as being primarily Mexican. It is important to remember, however, that not everyone within the second wave of immigration made alliances beyond immediate friends and family. There is evidence that some chose to associate very little with the Mexican and other Latino communities.(V and VI) Political efforts by Latinos were begun during the late fifties and early sixties. One of the descendants of the first wave of immigrants became, some believe, the first Latino to run for public office. Other descendants began to participate actively in the Democratic Party. Moreover, during the mid -sixties, Jesuit priests with a social agenda helped form the Centro Hispano Americano whose purpose was to unite a fragmented Latino community and open factories to Latino workers (II). In addition, the Latin American Club became the site for political speeches from mainstream candidates attempting to attract the Latino vote.(VI) As the Mexican community entered the seventies, it seemed that a certain amount of social organization had rooted itself within Aurora. Nothing comparable had emerged during the first wave. Granted, the appearance of tejanos, Puerto Ricans, and even Cubans had complicated the possibility of further social organization. Each group speaks a different dialect of Spanish, eats different foods, and maintains different cultural beliefs, musical tastes, identities, and national loyalties. The result of these differences was and continues to be rivalry, but it also results in a distinctive condition that seems to occur among small communities that locate within and beside each other. Aurora's Mexican community is a "soft shell" community57 penetrated not only by other Latino groups but by other races and cultures as well. One consequence of this condition has been that Aurora's mainstream population and institutions, except for the administrators and teachers who work within the school district's bilingual programs, have been unable to distinguish one Latino group from another. Furthermore, as the children of these groups mature, there seems to occur a mingling of cultural identities tending towards a generic Latino identity. This becomes evident during festivals in which Puerto Rican food is sold beside Mexican food and Puerto Rican contestants compete against Mexicans in the singing of traditional Mexican songs. Linguistic evidence is also available, though the phenomenon will not be discussed here. The important issue, however, isthat, before the third wave of immigration, Aurora's Mexican community was simultaneously creating a social organization DIVIDED, YET A CITY: A BRIEF HISTORY 23 and disappearing into a larger Latino identity and, to a lesser extent, into a larger mainstream identity. In short, the size of the Mexican community was not large enough to prevent dispersion into smaller Latino communities or into the mainstream. However, when the third wave of Mexican immigration started to arrive during the late sixties and early seventies, the social institutions, to a certain extent, were unable to absorb them. With the exceptions of the Catholic church and the business community, which began to proliferate rapidly, the new arrivals ignored many of the social organizations created by second -wave immigrants. Sometimes, the new arrivals created their own organizations or relied instead on ad -hoc networks of friends, family, and church officials to help them. Today, Mexican life, indeed Latino life, on Aurora's East Side seems highly tentative. Housing is poor and insubstantial, and it is suspected that there are large numbers of illegal immigrants but they remain un- counted. In addition, school administrators complain about the mobility of students. For instance, in the 1985 -86 school year the mobility rate in the district was thirty -two percent, while some buildings with Latino concentrations were above forty percent. In comparison, the state average was twenty-one percent.58 Also, the high school cannot raise its low graduation rate. In the 1985 -86 school year, the rate was fifty- eight percent while the state average was seventy-six percent. These statistics mean that forty -two percent of the freshmen who entered Aurora East High School in 1982 did not graduate in 1986.59 The context for these figures is that as of 1987 Latinos were forty -three percent of the student population, the largest student population in the district.ó0 Examining other aspects of Latino life on the East Side, it is clear that a significant gang problem exists, political organizing has not taken hold, and city policy -making occurs without significant input from the Latino community itself. The general impression is that this new wave of immigration has overwhelmed not only the nascent social organization started during the second wave of Mexican immigration but, more significantly, has taxed the economic, educational, and political institutions of Aurora itself. This third wave of immigration has occurred within an equally unsettling economic context. Aurora has experienced an almost tide - like local economy that receded first but has recently returned with unexpected vitality. During the early seventies, Aurora began to suffer the problems of other industrial Midwestern cities. Its large factories 24 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES were whiplashed by economic problems, lay -offs, strikes, and closings. In 1974 the Burlington Roundhouse, which had long been the center of Aurora's economy and the major employer of Aurora's immigrant groups, closed.61 In addition, the downtown deteriorated. Many businesses closed, and city leaders were appalled by some of the businesses that appeared: tattoo parlors, a small hubcap business, and prostitution. The downtown had been deteriorating since the sixties in part because of the competition of nearby malls.62 More serious competition appeared in the early seventies, however, with the annexation of land beyond the eastern boundary of Aurora's East Side. Here, cornfields became enormous malls with attached subdivisions. By 1987 the far East Side malls serviced 42,000 shoppers daily. The area had acquired 5,000 inhabitants (40,000 are projected), and a new 1,500- student high school had been filled to capacity.63 The growth since 1987 has not stopped. Aurora has survived the tensions between East and West Sides, between settlers from the East and newly arriving immigrants, between the more or less well -off and the less well -off. However, an unpredictable third element has entered the equation. Those living on the far East Side identify more with the fast -growing city to their east, Naperville, not with the old money of Aurora or with its Spanish- speaking poor. These new inhabitants of Aurora are largely professional and attached to the explosion of new jobs from the high - tech corridor. Their roots are elsewhere and their housing turnover is rapid, duplicating, more than likely, the two -year- nine -month turnover rate of their trendy neighbor, Naperville 64 The split between old and new was seen in a recent city election when thirty-seven percent of old Aurora voted compared to only thirteen percent of the newcomers. During a city meeting about the location of a betting parlor, the newcomers argued heatedly.65 Aurora is determined to integrate this group and attract even more like them to other recently annexed areas. The Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission projects Aurora's population to be 151,000 by the year 2005 and that of Naperville, ten miles to the east, to be 103,000. Combined, the two cities "will be the second largest metropolitan area in the state, the largest outside of Chicago. "66 As part of this new growth and to attract more of it, Aurora renovated the old Roundhouse and called it the "Transportation Center." "Big Wood," "Roundhouse," "Transportation Center" -these are names that reveal the shrewdness of a community darting quickly to where the opportunity lies. Each name sums up the conditions of its time: DIVIDED, YET A CITY: A BRIEF HISTORY 25

Bigwood -land clearing performed by hardy pioneers, Roundhouse - industry built with the hands and minds of immigrants and native -born capitalists, and Transportation Center -the new "network" economy invented by young technocrats and dependent on the mobility of workers, goods, and services. Ironically, only a hundred yards from the Transportation Center and hidden from view by a railroad levee is a string of very modest homes. This is the border of one of Aurora's largest Latino enclaves. This area contains homes that at one time were occupied by other kinds of ethnic residents. The symbol of this juxtaposition is clear: Aurora is split between its aspirations to become an elite community, a fashionable address in America's future, and its difficult reality. Spanish- speaking communities, with their traditionally low educational levels are, from the mainstream point of view, unable to compete in the high -tech world. Many in Aurora are not sympathetic to the Spanish- speaking. There- fore, those who remain culturally different will be overwhelmed if they do not acculturate. As the mayor has stated, "Immigrant and minority groups who have moved here will become more culturized [sic.], as we

all do. . . .The melting pot still works. "67 The overtures made to the Latino communities, such as Puerto Rican Day and Mexican Independ- ence parades (both are rarely attended by those from the mainstream), pose as celebrations of Latino life. However, they are shallow appease- ments meant to soften the tensions between Latinos and Anglo- dominated institutions. Such institutions in Aurora simply do not know what to do with one -fourth of the city's population that lives so conspicuously on its East Side. Occasionally, an institution attempts to hide them from the view of the monied mainstream the city wishes to attract. Some Latinos believe this was one of the motives behind a 1988 school board attempt to stop publishing the East Side school's bilingual newsletter. Extensive housing rehabilitation had recently occurred in the district in order to make the district attractive to home buyers. This motive, attracting the mainstream, of course, was never publicly admit- ted but remains the interpretation of some members of the Latino group that protested and eventually reinstated the newsletter. Aurora's history of divisiveness continues as the city approaches the twenty-first century. After two decades of economic trouble, the opportunity to capture a new kind of wealth is hindered mostly by what city fathers call an "image problem." The Latino community, somewhat dispersed yet numerous, unsure of itself in an alien environment, 26 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

fragmented, and politically unorganized, does not have the stability to protect itself on all fronts from mainstream forces. Moreover, with the recent changes in immigration procedures, it is possible that Mexican immigration may significantly slow down, meaning that the main device for discouraging the processes of mainstreaming, namely, uncontrolled growth, may be over. If this should occur, the Latinos' future may resemble the experiences of the first -wave immigrants, when the Depression and repatriation allowed mainstreaming to take hold.

REFERENCES

Oral History Interviews I Frank Barajas, Ruben Frausto, and Socorro Leon. Personal Interview. 14 Nov. 1987. II Frank Barajas, Mary Ann and Ruben Frausto, and Joe Hernandez. Personal Inter- view. 20 Nov. 1987. III Socorro Leon. Personal Interview. 18 Jan. 1988. IV Julia and Ralph Cruz. Personal Interview. 26 Mar. 1988. V Otilia and Joseph Garcia. Personal Interview. 8 Aug. 1988. VI Aurelia Alvarez and Israel Castillo. Personal Interview. 16 Aug. 1988. VII Luz Garcia, Apolonia Soto, and Teresa and Jesus Urbina. Personal Interview. 16 Aug.1988.

NOTES

' L. Fleckenstein, "Accommodation of settlers, Indians was not without pain and bloodshed," The Beacon News (Aurora, Illinois, August 13, 1987), sec. C, p. 8.

z C.S. Ward, "McCartys: Founders of Aurorasaw river as key to future city," The Beacon- News (Aurora, Illinois, August 13, 1987), sec. C, p. 9.

3 Fleckenstein, The Beacon -News, p. 8. 4 V. Deny, The Aurora story: A pictorial history of Aurora, Illinois U.S.A. (Aurora Bicentennial Commission, 1976), p. 10. DIVIDED, YET A CITY: A BRIEF HISTORY 27

5C.S. Ward, "Housekeeper to postmaster," The Beacon News (Aurora, Illinois, August 13, 1987) sec, C, p. 1.

6J. Robiez, "Bachelors put up cash for first schoolhouse," The Beacon -News (Aurora, Illinois, August 13, 1987), sec. C, p. 5; Derry, The Aurora story: A pictorial history of Aurora, Illinois U.S.A., p. 62.

7Ward, The Beacon -News, sec. C, p. 8.

8Derry, The Aurora story: A pictorial history of Aurora, Illinois U.S.A., p. 106.

9Derry, The Aurora story: A pictorial history of Aurora, Illinois U.S.A., p.14. 10 S. Palmer, Building Ethnic Communities in a Small City: Roumanians and Mexicans in Aurora, Illinois, 1900 -1940 (Dissertation, Northern Illinois University, De Kalb, Illinois, 1986), pp. 27, 31. H Palmer, Building Ethnic Communities in a Small City, p. 26; Derry, The Aurora story: A pictorial history of Aurora, Illinois U.S.A., p. 107.

12Palmer, Building Ethnic Communities in a Small City, p. 26.

13Palmer, Building Ethnic Communities in a Small City, p. 168.

14Derry, The Aurora story: A pictorial history of Aurora, Illinois, U.S.A., p. 10.

75Palmer, Building Ethnic Communities in a Small City, pp. 14, 16.

16Palmer, Building Ethnic Communities in a Small City, p. 16.

17Aurora Public Schools, District 131: Report of Board of Education, 1923, P. 26.

18Report of Board of Education, 1921, p. 48.

19L.A.N. Kerr, The Chicano Experience in Chicago, 1920 -1970 (Dissertation University of Illinois at Chicago, 1976), p. 19.

20 Kerr, The Chicano Experience in Chicago, 1920 -1970, pp. 18 -19.

21Kerr, The Chicano Experience in Chicago, 1920 -1970, p. 18.

22 Kerr, The Chicano Experience in Chicago, 1920 -1970, p. 21.

23Palmer, Building Ethnic Communities in a Small City, p. 142.

24 Report of Board of Education, 1927, p. 42.

25Report of Board of Education, 1929, p. 34.

26Palmer, Building Ethnic Communities in a Small City, pp. 139 -140. 27 Palmer, Building Ethnic Communities in a Small City, p. 140. 28 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

28 Palmer, Building Ethnic Communities in a Small City, p. 138.

29Palmer, Building Ethnic Communities in a Small City, pp. 145 -146.

3°Palmer, Building Ethnic Communities in a Small City, p. 147.

31Palmer, Building Ethnic Communities in a Small City, pp. 147 -148.

32Palmer, Building Ethnic Communities in a Small City, p. 148.

33Kerr, The Chicano Experience in Chicago, 1920 -1970, p. 10. 34 Report of Board of Education, 1915, p. 53. 35 Report of Board of Education, 1916, p. 66.

36Report of Board of Education, 1925, pp. 49 -52.

37Report of Board of Education, 1926, p. 51.

38Report of Board of Education, 1926, pp. 50 -52. 39 Report of Board of Education, 1927, pp. 61 -62.

48Report of Board of Education, 1928, p.48. 4' Ibid.

42Report of Board of Education, 1927, p. 13.

43Palmer, Building Ethnic Communities in a Small City, pp. 172 -173.

44Report of Board of Education, 1932, p. 14. 45 Report of Board of Education, 1929, p. 49.

46Report of Board of Education, 1929, p. 24. 47 Report of Board of Education, 1930, p. 25. 48 Report of Board of Education, 1936, p. 39. 49 Report of Board of Education, 1937, p. 42.

5°Report of Board of Education, 1938, p. 41.

51Report of Board of Education, 1931, pp. 26-27.

52Report of Board of Education, 1932, p. 17.

53Report of Board of Education, 1937, pp. 47 -49 and 64.

54Report of Board of Education, 1940, p. 48.

55Report of Board of Education, 1937, p. 42. DIVIDED, YET A CITY: A BRIEF HISTORY 29

56Kerr, The Chicano Experience in Chicago, 1920 -1970, pp. 69 -75.

57M. Saville -Troika, The Ethnography of Communication (Baltimore, University Park, 1982), p. 20. 58 Aurora East Unit School District 131: School Report Card 1985 -1986, p. 4.

59School Report Card, 1985 -1986, p. 5.

60School Report Card, 1987, p. 3.

61Derry, The Aurora story. A pictorial history of Aurora, Illinois U.S.A., p. 116.

62R. Hasse, "Optimism abounded in 1962," The Beacon -News (Aurora, Illinois, August 13, 1987), sec. H, p. 3.

63L.R. Rolfe, "Annexation changed the look of Aurora's East Side forever," The Beacon - News (Aurora, Illinois, August 13, 1987), sec. H, p. 2.

64M.P. Kauffold, "Naperville bubble bursting with jobs," The Beacon -News (Aurora, Illinois, January 24, 1988), sec. D, p. 1.

65S. Lord, "Off -track betting parlor divides old, new Aurora," The Beacon News (Aurora, Illinois, September 6, 1987), pp. 1, 5.

66S. Lord, "2 informed seers on city's comeback: Puzzle pieces are finally starting to fit," The Beacon -News (Aurora, Illinois, August 13, 1987), sec. H, p. 4.

67 Ibid.

MEXICAN WORKERS IN AURORA: THE ORAL HISTORY OF THREE IMMIGRATION WAVES, 1924 -1990

Irene Campos Carr

The town of Aurora grew by the banks of the Fox River in a valley heavily populated by Pottawatomies. Their well -known chief, Wau- bonsee, is still remembered in the area with a community college and a high school named after him. The prairie land of the natives, however, was claimed by the federal government when white men from the east began to settle by the river in the early 1830s.1 In a few years Aurora was incorporated as two villages, East Aurora in 1845, West Aurora in 1854. They merged in to one city in 1857. From its inception, Aurora was perceived by its population as two towns divided by the Fox River, which separated the East side's heavy industry plants and working -class homes from the affluent in West Aurora. This unofficial division has persisted throughout the years.2 The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy (C. B. & Q.) Railroad, the most significant industry in Aurora for the following century, had a modest beginning in 1850 with a little engine and a coach running on a new railroad reaching the town. In 1856, a round house, machine shop, and paint and carpenter shops were completed in Aurora. Factories and stores followed, providing opportunity for employment and prosperity for those heading west to seek their fortune.3 In 1867, the city of Aurora voted to raise $50,000 through taxes to help the C. B. & Q. buy additional railroad property. Within ten years the railroad shops employed one thousand men, and the C. B. & Q. became nationally known for its development of railways in the Midwest. As the

-31- 32 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES largest employer in Aurora, the railroad paid eighty percent of the total wages paid in the city during the late 1800s.4 The Fox River, new roads, a railroad center, and the proximity to Chicago spurred the economic development and growth of the city. Railroad and industry in Aurora attracted newly arrived immigrants to Aurora. Although Germans were the first and largest group of immigrants to come to Aurora, they were soon followed by Swedes, French Canadians, Irish, Luxemburgers, and Hungarians. The early years of the twentieth century marked the arrival of a large number of Romanians and a small number of Mexicans. Those born in the United States, and earlier ethnic immigrants such as the Germans, held the skilled jobs required to build and repair the railroad engines and freight cars. The newest immigrants to Aurora, the Romanians, Hungarians and Mexicans, were hired for the unskilled, backbreaking jobs in the reclamation plant. Most of the early Mexican arrivals came to Aurora in the 1920s. They came from Mexico and other areas of the United States after learning there was work on the railroad. The first wave of Mexicans arriving in Aurora in the second decade of the 1900s left Mexico to escape the political and economic instability of the Mexican Revolution (1910- 1917). Once in the United States, they often looked for jobs in the Southwest or on farms in the Midwest. Sometimes they heard about work in the railroads. Frank Barajas, who grew up in Aurora railroad camp during the 1920s, relates: My dad came here when he says he was either 18 or 19 years old, and he worked for the railroad. I guess he followed the railroads all the way to California, and then he figured he had some money, and he went back to Mexico and married my mom and brought her up.(I)5 From relatives and friends they learned of jobs at Aurora's C. B. & Q.'s reclamation plant, and they came to work for the railroad. Once in Aurora, Mexicans worked in the repair shops downtown or at the Eola scrap yard. Ralph Cruz observes that: they gave the Mexicans most of the dirty jobs. My father was a scrap

sorter . . .and all he did was when the cars came in he would take a torch and then cut them in pieces and then they would sort the metal.... (IV) He remembers the Eola scrap dock as a large area where the railroad MEXICAN WORKERS IN AURORA: ORAL HISTORY 33 deposited the old engines to be cut and sorted for recycling purposes. Some of the workers stripped the metal from the engines, others used pneumatic hammers to straighten the rods, while the rest cut them into pieces with a torch and then sorted them. A large electro magnet sorted and picked up the steel and placed it in railroad cars. It was then taken to the steel mills and remelted.(IV) During the early years of the settlement, the railroad workers were predominantly male. It was not until the late 1930s and during World War II that some Mexican women worked with the men in the scrap yard. Perez Padilla's mother sorted scrap materials at the C. B. & Q. shops. Padilla also worked for the railroad in the 1940s and managed to get a job driving a fork lift after proving her ability to handle what had been considered a "man's job. "6 The Mexicans working at the scrap yard, el escrape, developed into a small, close -knit community living in twenty-one box cars by the railroad tracks near the reclamation plant. Much like other railroad companies throughout the United States, the C. B. & Q. provided the box cars rent free along with some kerosene and coal for lamps, heating and cooking. A pot belly stove in the middle of the car was the only source of heat in the winter. The community water pump and the outhouses were located in a central area in the camp. Cruz, one of the children who lived in the box cars, tells of being so cold in the winter that he slept with his clothes and shoes on but still could not get warm.(IV) Barajas recalled the winter also: In the wintertime his mother'd whack him [Cruz] one and say, "Go out there and take your bath for tomorrow." He'd go out there, wet his hair a little bit, wet his hands a little bit, wet his hair a little bit and come back and say, "I'm done." The box car was cold.(I) Most of the Mexicans who settled in the camp arrived as families; a few came without their families but soon sent for them. Often a newly arrived family would share a box car until they found another place to live. Barajas remembers Antonio Cruz saying to his (Barajas') father: "Stay with us until you get settled down. "(I) Single men frequently stayed with a family. Usually only a curtained partition separated them from their host. Single men often returned to Mexico, married and traveled back to Aurora.(I) The first wave of immigrants, according to some of their children, crossed the border by simply buying a bridge ticket for fifty cents. 34 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

Traveling from the interior of Mexico, however, often required hiding from soldiers as well as revolutionaries. The Perez family remembers traveling by wagon with the children covered by straw. Ralph Cruz recalls childhood stories about his father and other Mexican revolutionaries blowing up railroad tracks to get the steel to make the parts to repair German Mowser guns. The parts were machined with a file and tempered with bonfires in mountain hiding places. Afraid of getting caught, the elder Cruz escaped to the United States with his family in 1919.(IV) The box car camp families in Aurora became a cohesive and stable community comprised of thirty -five to fifty families with a prevailing sense of cooperation and interdependence.' For instance, during the periodic distribution of the C. B. & Q.'s free coal to the camp families, Ruben Frausto's father voluntarily checked the unloading of the coal from the railroad car. He also kept track of the number of fuel barrels for each family to make sure that everyone received enough coal.(I) For recreation there was a small baseball field in the camp area where loud and hotly contested games took place. In addition, the Fraustos had a 1925 Sears Silvertone battery radio that became the center of attention the night of the 1927 Tunney- Dempsey fight in Chicago. Nearly twenty five people gathered around the radio. Even Anglos from across the field walked over to the little box car camp to listen to the boxing match on the radio.(II) The families held yearly celebrations with food, live music, and dancing, that drew the other Mexican families in Aurora to the camp. Called jamaicas, these large celebrations were memorable affairs for the children of the early immigrants. Other sources of socialization were their frequent trips to Chicago using their C. B. & Q. train passes. The families shopped in the Mexican stores and enjoyed get -togethers with the larger Mexican community in the city.(I) A small Catholic church at the camp was built in 1927 by the Mexican workers and lasted until the dissolution of the camp in 1934. The first priest was a relative of the Perez family. Like other Mexican and Spanish priests who had fled the anticlerical wave sweeping revolutionary Mexico, he returned to his country after the war. Subsequently, the railroad workers from the camp were attended by priests from the nearest Catholic church, St. Therese. Other Mexican families in town also came to the church to hear Mass and participate in religious activities. A church organization, the Asociación Católica para Jovenes MEXICAN WORKERS IN AURORA: ORAL HISTORY 35

Mexicanos (Association for Catholic Mexican Youth [ACJM]), brought together many town and railroad camp Mexicans. The parents, in turn, sent their children to St. Therese School or to the closest public school.(I) One mother saved her pennies and sent the children to the parochial school and later to Marmion Academy (a Catholic military preparatory high school in Aurora) without her husband's knowledge. Strongly anticlerical, her husband refused to let her go to church. When he found out she had secretly attended mass, he punished her by making her kneel down on the floor. "Once a neighbor saw her kneeling down and wondered what had happened," recalls Mrs. Leon.(II) Since the husband worked long hours at the railroad yards, he never discovered his wife was sending their children to Catholic schools. Seemingly compli- ant, this traditional Mexican wife acted independently and according to her conscience. Americanization classes for adult immigrants were provided by the East Aurora School District beginning in the 1913 -1914 school year. Although Barajas, Frausto, and Cruz have no memory of their parents attending night school, Julia Perez Padilla remembers her mother going to class. She did not return to school because she was the only woman in her class and felt the men were making fun of her. Her father, on the other hand, learned to speak English. According to C.M. Bardwell, Superintendent of Schools, the fall - winter evening classes met twice a week "for the instruction of foreigners in the English language, and also included a class in citizenship designed for those who were applicants for naturalization papers and who were required to pass an examination which now implies a reasonable knowledge of American governmental methods. "8 In the first year, there were 325 adult students. In 1916, the superintendent reported a strong effort by the United States Labor Department to recruit as many aliens as possible to attend the classes, especially those who had applied for citizenship. After receiving a government notice listing the names of alien applicants, the superintendent wrote letters to the prospective citizens informing them of the classes and urging their attendance.9 It was not until 1925 that Mexicans attended classes. That year twenty - seven were enrolled. That same year the school reported a survey of the number of foreigners employed in the city's industry, observing that it did not include the Mexican laborers employed by the Burlington Shops 36 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

(C. B. & Q. railroad shops). The survey showed a large percentage of the aliens were not attending classes. To encourage them to attend, five hundred post cards were sent out to these employees and posters placed in the departments of the industry surveyed.10 Mexican workers were ignored in the foreign employee survey and presumably in the promotion of the classes. During the 1925 -26 academic year, night classes were held in three school buildings. The largest ethnic group was Mexican, with 127 students, including four women, enrolled out of a total registration of 244 adult students. The night school teacher reported:

. . . Mexican menand women from the box cars of Eola came to the Oak Park [school] classes. On account of the condition of the streets, a bus had to be engaged to bring them to the building. The Kiwanis Club of Aurora paid for three weeks of this service and the rest of the year was paid for by the Community Chest. Very few Mexicans missed a single night of school." The monthly parties sponsored by civic and patriotic organizations were a popular feature during night school classes. Germans, Swedes, Romanians, Mexicans, and other immigrants studying English and civics, socialized and presented entertainment programs at the parties. The Mexicans had an orchestra, a Glee Club, and gave recitations. When the classes ended in late March, there was a demand for more and private classes were arranged. Students were charged a "small fee of twenty five cents per night or $2.50 for ten nights, paid in advance. Twenty-three enrolled in these classes, seven of these being Mexican men. "12 The following year, Mexican adult students continued to be the largest number attending, with 97 registered out of a total student enrollment of 177 adults. The second largest group was German, with 34 in attendance. Mexicans constituted more than half of the students enrolled and were again brought in by bus from the box car camp. During the 1926 -27 school year, however, the school began to segregate Mexican students. "Three classes of work were offered: beginning, intermediate and advanced. It was decided to keep the Mexicans in classes by themselves in the beginning and intermediate groups because of their reticency [sic]," wrote the new teacher, Mabel Fraser.13 The previous year, Mexican students socialized freely with other immigrants during the monthly parties, according to the teacher's MEXICAN WORKERS IN AURORA: ORAL HISTORY 37 report. But in the following school year, these students became "reticent" and were separated from eastern and western Europeans. Mexican attendance became irregular "because of the constant changing of their working conditions" according to the same 1927 report.14 Mexicans were again separated during the 1927 -28 school year. Be- ginners were separated because the federal government provided texts only to those who had received the preliminary "first papers" leading to naturalization. "The Mexicans are glad to come to Night [sic] school but do not care to sever their allegiance with Mexico, and so must buy their own text -books. "15 In the same 1928 school report it is observed that although it is "desirable that all residents of the state should be familiar with the language of the country, it may be questioned whether the community is warranted in expending its resources for such as are unwilling to become citizens of the state. "16 That year the number of Mexican adult students enrolled dropped to 38 but still remained the largest group. Although no accurate count is available, Mexicans were the newest immigrants and constituted the smallest percentage of Aurora's newcomers in the 1920s and early 1930s. Intent on learning English and the culture of their new country, whether they wanted to become citizens or not, Mexicans attended evening classes in greater numbers than any other immigrant group in the city, according to the school records of those years. However, in 1932 the night school was discontinued "owing to the decline in immigration, the return of many Mexicans to their native land, and the depression. "17 The Americanization classes remained closed until 1940. Mexican immigration to Aurora was stopped by the Depression and the harsh repatriation laws. Although none of the Mexican families in Aurora seems to have been deported, according to some of the immigrants' accounts of the period, one of the Board of Education reports (1932) alludes to the return of Mexicans to their country. Generally, Mexican workers were protected by the C. B. & Q., an employer that did not want to lose its hard working employees. Although the men had less work at the railroad shops, their jobs were stable and their rent -free living quarters helped them economically. In addition, railroad workers received some aid in the form of food and clothing during the Depression. Barajas and Cruz remember that as boys they wore the railroad- issued corduroy pants Barajas and his friends called "whistle britches" because they made a swishing noise as they walked.(II, IV) 38 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

To make more money when work at the railroad plant was slow, some families, primarily fathers and sons, traveled in the spring to the Iowa farm fields to cut asparagus, top beets, and weed between the rows of plants. Families like the Fraustos and the Barajas would "top" sugar beets for three weeks in the summer. Barajas, whose family worked as farm labor before settling in Aurora, was told that he was born in Iowa in the "middle of a sugar beet field." At the age of twelve, after his family moved from the box car camp, Barajas and the male members of his family cut asparagus in a nearby farm in the early dawn hours. Barajas remembers trying to get the field work done before he returned home to eat breakfast and go to school.(II) In 1934 the railroad decided to begin phasing out the scrap docks and asked the families to move. Although many of the men continued to work in el escrape for some years to come, the families were forced to look for other housing.(IV) As old box cars were discarded, their beams and lumber were used to build the homes of some of their former occupants who joined the few and scattered Mexican families living in the East side of Aurora.(IV) The men from the camp came together more than once to have a "building bee" where they raised the frame of a new house for one of the families in their community.(II) Some families stayed temporarily with friends, compadres and comadres (names used mutually by godparents and the parents of the godchild to indicate their relationship), while they looked for a house in town. Frausto's father invested his life's savings of $1,700 to buy a Sears and Roebuck pre -cut six room house in Aurora.(II) Others buying houses in neighborhoods where no Mexicans had lived previously faced petitions signed by neighbors who did not want them living close to them. Socorro Leon's neighbor, a German immigrant, started a petition to keep them out. The petition, however, was disregarded by the neighborhood, especially by those who already knew the young Mexican couple. Not knowing who was responsible for the petition, Leon's husband offered to help his German neighbors with some heavy cement work in their back yard. Consequently, the relationship between them changed and became very friendly. The Leons later received very contrite apologies for the misguided petition.(III) The thrifty railroad workers saved their money very carefully for many years to buy the homes where they lived for the rest of their lives. Most of the first Mexican immigrants remained with the C. B. & Q. until they retired. MEXICAN WORKERS IN AURORA: ORAL HISTORY 39

Leon's husband, for example, worked for forty-seven years in the railroad yards.(III) Although the majority of the immigrants worked for the railroad, there were a few who worked at the Western Scraper Company (later Austin Western). It manufactured road machinery and was located within the area of the box car camp. Others worked at the Aurora Cotton Mills or other local industries.(I) The Mexican immigrants in Aurora stressed the importance of hard work and education to their children. Barajas' father told him: "Try to do your best even if its only to try to spit farther than someone else. "(II) Joe Hernandez's father instilled in his children the drive to improve their lives through education and hard work. "His dream was to see us graduate from high school. . .and that we wouldn't end up in the same situation [as him]. . . always living in the same type of hard working job that he did. "(II) Parents also insisted that their children supplant their first language with English and increase their opportunity for success in the United States.(II) Therefore, assimilation took place rather quickly for the offspring of these families. An added factor insuring a rapid assimilation was the very small number of Mexicans in Aurora. Barajas and Frausto still insist on the importance of being Americanized. They speak with some contempt of the more recent Mexican immigrants who want their children to remain Spanish -speaking and wish to continue to enjoy their own culture.(I, II) Many of the grandchildren of these early families are college educated, have married non -Mexicans, have never learned Spanish, and seldom associate with the new Mexican immigrants. Nevertheless, to the Anglo American population of Aurora they remain "Mexicans." The second wave of Mexican immigration started with a handful in the 1940s, quickened shortly after World War II and lasted to the late 1960s. In some cases, the new arrival was a young Mexican -born bride of one of the young men raised in the railroad camp in Aurora. The groom, perhaps during a visit to relatives in Mexico, would meet, court his wife- to -be, and bring her to this country after the wedding. One new bride found herself ensconced in the home of her in -laws in Aurora while her husband was away in the war. She was surprised that Mexicans were subjected to so much prejudice. She recalls going to a restaurant in Aurora with her in -laws and not being served because they were Mexican. When she found out, she said, 40 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

I was furious. I stood up and yelled at them. I thought, why didn't they see that mark [being Mexican] when they accepted him [her

husband] in the U.S. Army ?. . .They had a poor image of us, they always thought we were the worst. They looked at us as if we were strange creatures.'$ She added that she felt Mexicans were not accepted at that time and still were not. This woman felt disillusioned and hurt by her first experiences in Aurora while her husband fought in the Pacific for the United States. Yet she remained in Aurora with her husband, a member of a well- respected and well -known Mexican family. She worked in a factory for many years and became the mother of five children, all college graduates working in various professions. The Mexican immigration wave of the 1950s and 1960s was drawn to a city with an expanding "smokestack" industry and plenty of work to offer newcomers. Many came with permits as braceros to work as temporary agricultural laborers and stayed. Others worked for the railroad, and many more sought work in the large factories in Aurora. The C. B. & Q. continued to be a stable source of employment for the new arrivals. In the 1950s, Mexicans working in the railroad's roundhouse on Broadway, located close to downtown Aurora, were again housed in box cars until they eventually rented or bought houses. With the arrival of the English speaking tejanos (Texans of Mexican origin), many of them World War II veterans, and the new immigration of Puerto Ricans to Aurora, there was a diversification of the Latino population in the city and a new development of sociocultural community organizations and businesses. These immigrants no longer needed to travel to Chicago to buy Mexican foods. The first grocery owned by a Mexican, Casa Blanca, was established in the 1950s. Immigrants in the second wave were likely to have moved to Aurora from Texas. Some had parents who migrated to the United States and returned to Mexico, crossing the border with some frequency. Joseph García was born in Austin, Texas, in 1913, the grandson of land -owning Spaniards who had immigrated to Mexico in the 1800s, and the son of an immigrant from Zacatecas, Mexico, who came to the United States during the years of the Mexican Revolution. When García was seven, his father, a railroad worker, returned to Mexico. With his savings he bought land in Durango and successfully ran a dairy ranch. García attended grade school in Mexico. Inspired and guided by one of his MEXICAN WORKERS IN AURORA: ORAL HISTORY 41 teachers, he gained a life long interest in learning. At eighteen, he came back to the United States where he worked intermittently. In the 1940s he began working for the Texas Pacific Railroad. He eventually settled in Aurora in 1953 and worked at a manufacturing plant. He married his wife, Otilia, in Mexico. They had ten children, all of whom attended Catholic schools.(V) During the 1950s and 1960s, Otilia García worked sporadically in Aurora factories where she joined a growing workforce of Spanish - speaking Puerto Rican and Mexicans. She worked the day shift, and her husband worked the second shift. When she worked at a restaurant in a neighboring town, she took a bus to work and returned by 3:00 P.M. because her husband started to work at 3:30. She said, My husband didn't want me to work. He said a woman's place was in the home. I knew it was difficult for him to raise so many children so sometimes I would work for only six months which would often stretch to an extra three more months, until he said, "that's it, that's enough!" (V) The problem seemed to be that García found it very taxing, and probably unsuitable, to take care of their large number of young children while his wife worked outside the home. Therefore, when she discovered that her husband's idea of feeding the children consisted of giving them breakfast cereal, she quit her job. On the other hand, she seems to have imposed her will on certain occasions. García gave up his much loved motorcycle at her request: "My wife told me one day, `You have a family and you have me and the children. I want you to sell the motorcycle because it's not safe.' She put her foot down and I sold the motorcycle. "(V) Aurelia Alvarez, like García, had parents who immigrated to the U.S. in 1916 during the Mexican Revolution. Her parents told her the story of her father, a seventeen -year -old soldier in the Revolution who stole the girl he fell in love with and brought her to a new country. Alvarez tells the tale: In Mexico [in the rural areas] they had these big wells and there was one in that area that was dry. So my grandfather hid my mother down in there because the soldiers would come around and they didn't have any respect for anything. It was wartime. There was no law. They would just do whatever they wanted to do. I guess what happened was that my father found out that she was down in there 42 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

. . . and got her out. Since he was a soldier, he took her with him.

. . . Heleft the war behind and took her and came up here.... She didn't really have any choice. He made it clear that he liked her and everything, but she really didn't know what was going on. She was only about fourteen or fifteen years old. She was afraid. ...(VI) The couple settled in Illinois and did not return to Mexico until after their first child was born. There, the paternal grandfather helped them marry in the church to legalize the status of their children. Alvarez's father found a job in Waukegan, Illinois, worked hard, saved his money, and returned to San Luis Potosí, Mexico, to buy land and cattle. As a livestock rancher he did very well financially, but he continued to cross the border to work in Waukegan and make the extra cash he needed, presumably for his business.(VI) Born in Mexico, Alvarez, like her mother, was married at fifteen and had her first daughter when she was sixteen. She attended school to the sixth grade and wanted to continue. However, secondary school required her to move to a neighboring town where the school was located, and "my mother didn't like the idea. A woman wasn't supposed to do this. My mother said `Never.' That's why I married young," Alvarez commented.(VI) She was twenty-one and expecting her third daughter when her husband died. It was at that point that she left Mexico for San Benito, in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, because a close relative had assured her she could find a job to support her daughters. To make a living, Alvarez worked as a packer in canning plants, a housekeeper, and primarily in farm labor. Although it was hard work, she liked working in the fields because she had grown up doing it. As a young girl, she handled the livestock on the family ranch. "People would say that I was like a man and that I had a knack for handling the animals," Alvarez recounted. She began to travel north to Illinois in the early spring with the migrant farm workers from the valley, eventually settling in Joliet, Illinois, and ultimately in Aurora in 1959. She bought a house, worked at a factory, and raised her daughters.(VI) Large numbers of Mexican and tejano migrant workers, some of whom are now prominent members of the Latino community, settled in Aurora in the late 1950s and 1960s, adding to the demand for Mexican businesses and social organizations. Other tejanos, jobless in Texas, came to Aurora to fill the need for workers in the many manufacturing MEXICAN WORKERS IN AURORA: ORAL HISTORY 43 plants in the area. Israel Castillo, an ex- Marine from San Benito, was unemployed when he came to Aurora with friends. To his surprise, he found a job at a factory in Aurora the day after he arrived from Texas in 1965. Dozens of companies in need of factory hands employed many Mexicans, men and women, in their plants.(VI) Castillo and Alvarez became active in the growing Mexican community. By the early 1960s a few families had begun to organize annual celebrations such as Fiestas Patrias (Mexican Independence Day) and choose reigning queens for their parades. Castillo was quickly recruited as a member of the Latin American Club at a time when there were only a few dozen members. When the Latin American Club was founded, its hall was used for family social events such as weddings and quin- ceañeras (large "coming out" parties for girls celebrating their fifteenth birthday). Subsequently, the elected officers took over much of the organizing for personal as well as community-wide celebrations. Castillo's own wedding reception and dance, for instance, was held at the Latin American Club. Around the same time, other organizations began to appear: Club Guadalupano, the Puerto Rican Club, L.U.L.A.C. (League of United Latin American Citizens), and the Latin American Democrats. Nevertheless, the Latin American Club has remained the largest social club with nearly fifteen hundred members.(VI) Although not all Mexicans joined these clubs or became involved in church activities, the second wave of immigrants began to create a well - defined Latino community structure that included the first Mexican immigrants and their descendants, the English- speaking Texans, the Spanish- speaking Mexicans, and the newly arrived Puerto Ricans. As more immigrants arrived, the diversity and fragmentation increased. The most recent influx of Mexican immigrants, beginning in the late 1960s, is the largest. It is these recent immigrants that have filled Aurora with their presence, the schools with their children, the factories with their workers, and finally, the air with the sounds of Spanish. These newcomers are principally natives of Mexico who, like their predecessors, have heard of work in Aurora from relatives living there. Unlike the early immigrants, they enter an established and thriving Mexican/Latino community. The newest immigrants form part of a small community within the larger Latino community and seem to be related to or be from the same village as a large number of other Mexicans who have arrived in the last fifteen years. The dozens of small "mom and pop" Mexican grocery stores in East Aurora are in a sense general stores, 44 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

where customers greet the owners like old friends and receive the latest news and gossip. Like their predecessors, many of the men have returned to Mexico to find brides and bring them to the United States. Many of the women working in Aurora factories came as brides brought over by husbands already settled and working in the area. These men, sometimes the sons of braceros, may have come to this country to join their fathers and, like their fathers, traveled back and forth from Mexico to the United States. Luz García, Teresa Urbina, and Pola Soto, assembly line workers at an electronics company in Aurora, arrived in the United States in the 1970s. Luz García was sixteen when she married her husband in Tamazula, Jalisco, and went to Aurora to be with him. Her husband, also a native of Jalisco, lived and worked in Aurora for several years before he married. After settling in Aurora to join his brother, he left his brother's home to live with his factory supervisor's family. This family informally "adopted" the sixteen- year -old, sent him to school where he became proficient in English, and subsequently helped him obtain his residency papers. His wife, Luz, started to work in a factory within a year of her arrival to save money to buy a house. However, when his mother became despondent in Mexico after the death of one of her sons, the Garcias sold their house and belongings and moved to Jalisco to be with her. The move turned out to be temporary, for a year later, after the mother felt better, the Garcia family was back in Aurora. Neither had wanted to stay in Mexico. One of the more salient effects of these moves is that their first child was born in Aurora, their second one in Mexico, and their new baby was recently born in Aurora.(VII) Teresa and Jesus Urbina met as children in school in San Julian, Durango. By the time she was thirteen, they were novios (sweethearts). Brought up by his grandparents in San Julian, the sixteen- year -old Jesus traveled to Aurora in 1976 after his mother established U.S. residency and was able to send for him. Two years later, Teresa went to Chicago where her uncles and older sister lived. She observed: My family lived in Chicago, and they would invite me to visit them. [My parents] never wanted to let me because I was very young, and my uncle always wanted me to baby -sit for him. But they would never let me stay [in Chicago] because my mother always said that there is no place like home, that nowhere would I be treated as I was at home where I had everything.... But I got my way.(VII) MEXICAN WORKERS IN AURORA: ORAL HISTORY 45

Once in Chicago the fifteen- year -old started to work in a factory (she looked older) and began to send her parents five hundred dollars a month. "I didn't save for me and didn't dress well. I only bought the essentials. I'd send them money to buy land, tractors, machinery, trucks, furniture for the house, and everything. That's how I helped my parents," she added.(VII) Jesus had a good job and wanted them to get married as soon as possible, but she kept postponing it because she was too young. She wanted to learn English and went to school to become fluent. Jesus, disdainful of English classes, became language proficient on his own. In addition to reading and writing English, he speaks it with hardly a trace of an accent. Teresa married him when she was eighteen and began saving money for their own needs: a car, a house, and furniture of their own.(VII) Still in their twenties, this couple has recently bought a second home located in a new, middle -class subdi- vision. This house is spacious, well furnished with elegant living room furniture, and a more comfortable family room in the nicely finished basement. Since the couple works on alternate shifts, she cares for the children during the day, and he watches them in the evening. This arrangement is particularly important for them at the present time since she recently gave birth to their second child. To take care of her new baby, she asked for a change in shift after the end of the twelve -week maternity leave provided at the electronic factory where she works. Pola Soto also met her husband, José, at a young age in her home town in Durango. In 1962 José Soto migrated to Los Angeles with his father, a bracero with an agricultural work permit. Like many of his compatriots, he returned to his hometown with regularity, in this case to see Pola. When Pola was nineteen, she married José and joined him in California in 1971. The following year they arrived in the Aurora area, where a cousin had found a job for him in a meat packing plant in Melrose Park, a Chicago suburb. Pola also found a job in a factory. After twelve years of marriage, and two sons, Pola and José separated and eventually divorced. The separation left Pola on her own to support herself and her two sons.(VII) Barely literate in her native language, she finds it difficult to learn English. This has created problems for her. However, the inability to speak English is ameliorated by the changes that have taken place in Aurora. For this latest immigration has found a well -established Spanish -speaking community in Aurora, a decided advantage for the newcomers. But it has also proven to be a double edged sword for those who are less likely to try to learn English. 46 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

The three women, like many other Mexican women, have worked in factories from the time they arrived in the United States. For most married couples the double income is the only way to live in comfortable circumstances, to save money, and buy their own homes. Also, two incomes are a hedge against the unexpected factory layoff of one of the wage earners. This is often a likely prospect for these workers. Thus, they can still count on one income. When Luz García, Pola Soto and Teresa and Jesus Urbina were asked about the notion that traditional Mexican men are opposed to their wives working outside the home, they responded with a chuckle that customs change with the crossing of the Rio Grande. Jesus added that he does not like Teresa not to work. They also agreed that certain customs change while others remain because it is to their advantage and convenience. Luz García observed that the reason women had jobs outside the home was that Mexicans like to save their money.(VII) The women in this last wave are representative of many of the Mexicans who have immigrated to Aurora during the last twenty years. They came to the United States without tourist visas or residency permits. Many crossed the border and evaded the border guards, others came as tourists and stayed. Pola Soto recalls crossing the a border station checkpoint in 1971 while the guard was having lunch. When he asked her where she was going, she answered, "shopping," and he gave her the go ahead sign.( VII) In many cases the immigrants received residency papers through their husbands or relatives, but some remained undocumented, afraid they would be caught and sent back. Although viewed negatively by many of the Anglo Aurorans, recent Mexican immigrants, legal or not, have contributed to the area's labor pool. Hired by businesses unwilling to pay more than minimum wages, they often work at jobs other people will not tolerate. Often unemployed during periods of economic recession, many Mexicans have taken whatever job was available to them. The undocumented have frequently suffered unfair treatment in the work -place as unscrupulous owners or supervisors have taken advantage of the illegal status of the workers and their lack of language skills. In 1986, Congress passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) that authorized the legalization of those residing in the United States for a predetermined number of years and tightened controls of employment of illegal workers. Not surprisingly, IRCA facilitated the legal residency of hundreds of Mexicans with jobs in the Aurora area. MEXICAN WORKERS IN AURORA: ORAL HISTORY 47

The IRCA law is only the latest means of limiting the migration of Mexicans to the United States. The pendulum has swung back and forth depending on this country's need for cheap labor, but immigration has continued regardless of the direction of the swing. The accounts of the Mexican immigrants interviewed show that during sixty years of migration to Aurora their goal has remained the same: to find work and improve their living conditions. However, unlike other immigrants whose homeland lay across the sea or a continent away, Mexicans have been able to maintain close links with their friends, families, and villages. Even the second and third generations of Aurora's Mexican population retain ties to Mexico. Mexicans in Aurora currently constitute 15,000 to 17,000 out of approximately 25,000 Latinos in a city of 97,000, and are one of the largest ethnic groups in the area. Although the majority live in the near East Side, a fact easily demonstrated by a forty -five percent Latino student population in the East School District, they have spread throughout the city. The strong and visible presence of Mexicans in Aurora has had an impact on the community at large. The large number of darker skinned people has the tendency to become threatening to many Anglo Americans who have little knowledge of, and show even less tolerance for Mexicans. Prejudice and unfounded stereotypes contribute to the negative images of Mexicans that continue to persist in the minds of many Anglo American residents. Poverty, laziness, drunkenness, crime, and gang activity are characteristics often associated with the whole Latino population. This overshadows the many positive aspects of the Mexican people and culture. Serious problems, however, plague the Latino community. These include high drop -out rates and the current prevalence of gangs and violence in the densely populated East Side, where most of the Latinos live. The trend toward gang violence and drug- dealing started in the early 1980s and shows no sign of abatement. Nevertheless, the Latino community in Aurora is making advances. A hard working, thrifty people, they buy their own houses as soon as they can, make plans to start businesses, encourage their children to finish their schooling, and speak with pride of the few who are attending college. A young group of second -generation Mexican American professionals is becoming involved politically and starting to wrest the leadership away from the immigrants that arrived in the 1950s. The older caciques 48 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

(political leaders) were never able to have any direct influence in City Hall. The new, more politically aware group, works within the inner circles of city government exerting a power that is beginning to be visible. Unfortunately, the very heterogeneous nature of the Aurora Latino community -English- speaking Mexican Americans, assimilated descendants of the first Mexican immigrants, the growing number of middle - class professionals, Spanish -speaking immigrants from rural Mexico, Puerto Ricans - results in a lack of cohesiveness that has prevented the community from becoming a strong political force. Additionally, the high number of the foreign -born Latinos has meant fewer registered voters. In very recent years, nevertheless, there have been more Latino appointed officials in City Hall and on city-wide commissions. For example, after a city council seat was vacated by an alderman, the mayor appointed a Puerto Rican woman long active in the Hispanic community, and a young Mexican American is Assistant to the Mayor. Also, the congressman from the district maintains a Spanish- speaking staff person in Aurora. More importantly, the remapping of the city wards with two new wards, one in an area of high Latino density gives new hope for the election of Hispanics from these neighborhoods. The Mexican community in Aurora has grown from approximately fifty families of railroad workers in the 1920s to nearly 15,000 residents as the decade of the 1990s begins. The Mexican immigrant workers are on the verge of becoming a political and economic force that can have an effect on the future of the city in the next century.

APPENDIX Now in their middle sixties, three of the men interviewed, Ruben Frausto, Frank Barajas, and Ralph Cruz, grew up in the railroad camp in Aurora in the 1920s. Their stories are similar although their perspective and memory of the circumstances they lived reflect personal experience and vary accordingly. All three joined the armed forces at the onset of World War II, fought overseas, and are very proud of serving their country. Barajas, who joined the army before finishing high school, returned from the war to find work in Aurora at the Austin -Western Road Machinery Company, the second largest plant in Aurora and located close to the old railroad reclamation plant. Relatives helped him find a MEXICAN WORKERS IN AURORA: ORAL HISTORY 49 job in the factory where he worked his way up to supervisor, remaining there until he retired. Barajas' father, one of the first Mexican immigrants moving to Aurora to work for the railroad, is nearly one hundred years old and still lives by himself in the house he bought for his family in the 1930s. Frausto graduated from high school before going to war and also came back to Aurora to settle down. He married an Anglo, had seven children, and still serves in the Air Force Reserve. His father was well known in the railroad box -car community for his intelligence, wide - ranging knowledge, and the large English dictionary he used as a daily reference to his new language. Cruz came home after the war, and attended more than one university, including the University of Chicago. Although he did not attain a baccalaureate degree, his extensive studies in math and engineering have enabled him to work in research and development as an engineer. His comfortable home in Elmhurst, a Chicago suburb, is concomitant to his rise in social and professional status. His father, a leader in the railroad camp, also served as a contractor for seasonal agricultural Mexican labor at the local and regional produce farms. A fourth informant, Joe Hernandez, grew up in the same era but not in the railroad camp. Hernandez, who has been a faculty member of the art department at Waubonsee Community College for many years, returned to school as an adult to gain undergraduate and graduate degrees. A respected and well -known member of the Latino community in Aurora, he serves on city-wide committees. Julia Perez Padilla, another box car child, did not marry until she was twenty -eight because her "sickly" mother kept her single and at home with threats that "she would die" if Julia married. This strong willed mother ruled her household with a hard hand while her husband worked at the railroad yards. Perez Padilla had five children, all of whom attended parochial schools and none of whom speak Spanish. Only one of the first immigrants, Socorro Leon, was willing to be interviewed. Leon arrived in Texas with her parents as a young child but went back to Mexico in 1918 after her mother's death. Although she lived very comfortably in Mexico on the income her brother in Texas sent his family, she returned to Texas at his invitation. At seventeen, she married and left with her husband to avoid her uncle's strong disap- proval of her early marriage. The young couple traveled to Aurora after 50 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES her husband's brother advised them of job opportunities on the railroad yard. Her husband found work at the C. B. & Q., where he remained from 1925 to 1972 when he retired.

REFERENCES

Oral History Interviews

I Frank Barajas, Ruben Frausto, and Socorro Leon. Personal Interview. 14 Nov. 1987. II Frank Barajas, Mary Ann and Ruben Frausto, and Joe Hernandez. Personal Interview. 20 Nov. 1987.

III Socorro Leon. Personal Interview. 18 Jan. 1988.

IV Julia and Ralph Cruz. Personal Interview. 26 Mar. 1988. V Otilia and Joseph Garcia. Personal Interview. 8 Aug. 1988.

VI Aurelia Alvarez and Israel Castillo. Personal Interview. 16 Aug. 1988.

VII Luz Garcia, Apolonia Soto, and Teresa and Jesus Urbina. Personal Interview. 16 Aug. 1988.

NOTES

' Charles S. Battle, editor, Centennial Historical and Biographical Record of Aurora, Illinois for 100 Years, 1834 -1937, and of the C. B. & Q. Railroad for 86 Years, 1985- 1937. (This commemorative volume has no publication date or publishing house. It seems to have been published in the year of the centennial, 1937, and sponsored by the many Aurora companies and businesses that are featured in the book), 5, 6.

2 Battle, 19, 22.

3 Battle, 23, 24, 174.

4 Battle, 175, 188. MEXICAN WORKERS IN AURORA: ORAL HISTORY 51

5As noted in the introduction, references to the oral history interviews are indicated in the text with Roman numerals in the sequence they occurred. See appendix for a narrative on individuals interviewed.

6Julia Perez Padilla. Personal interview. 18 July 1987.

7The group of families, Cruz, Hernandez, Cansino, Nila, Paredones, Perez, Gonzales, Frausto, Torres, Barajas, Leon, Guzman, Morales, Rocha, Rangel, Gutierrez, Navarro, Acosta, Cervantes, Orta, Vargas, and Ochoa were among the first to immigrate to Aurora and showed much concern for each other. 8 Aurora Public Schools, District 131, Report of Board of Education, 1915, 53.

9Report of Board of Education, 1916. 10 Report of Board of Education, 1925. 11 Report of Board of Education, 1926, 50. 12 Report of Board of Education, 1926, 51, 52.

13 Report of Board of Education, 1927, 61. 14 Report of Board of Education, 1927, 61.

15 Report of Board of Education, 1928, 48.

16Report of Board of Education, 1928, 48.

17Report of Board of Education, 1932, 14.

18E.V. Telephone interview. 10 August 1987.

A GRANDE DAME STRIPPED OF HER JEWELS: THE LAST DAYS OF JACOME'S DEPARTMENT STORE

June Webb -Vignery

In1896,Carlos Jacome opened "La Bonanza," a general mercantile store in downtown Tucson, Arizona. For eighty -four years the store flourished, evolving into a mainstay of Tucson's retail life: Jacome's De- partment Store. As the store grew and prospered, it developed a distinctive image. Derived from the Mexican -American background of its owners and managers, Carlos and his son, Alex, Sr., that special image set it apart from Anglo -owned retail establishments. Yet, like Tucson's other leading retailers, Jacome's had its roots in an era when the town was far removed from the mainstream of American economic life, and local concerns dictated its survival. Fundamental changes in American business organization, economy, and values between World War I and the1920sportended an end to this localized focus. Many of those changes brought short-term benefits, but by the1960sit was evident that they worked against the interests of Jacome's and other downtown independent retailers in Tucson. AnArizona Reviewarticle in1960raised the question that was to confront independent retailers across the United States in the coming decades: Did concentration in the industry spell the end for many of them? Citing the bitter depression -era struggle for survival between chain stores and independent retailers, the article pointed to many signs

This article is excerpted from Jacome's Department Store: Business and Culture in Tucson, Arizona, 1896 -1980. (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1989).

-53- 54 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES that the battle was escalating. The chains, especially the discounters, continued to wage war against fair trade laws and other legislation passed to protect small retailers. Congress focused its attention on collusion between lending agencies and major retailers because of charges that dominant firms had reserved prime shopping center locations and made them inaccessible to smaller stores. Independents were also finding it increasingly difficult to compete with the chain stores' mass media advertising and the price advantages they enjoyed from manufacturers.' Since the early1930s,three department stores, Jacome's, Levy's, and Steinfeld's had dominated the downtown retail district. Together with specialty shops such as Dave Bloom and Sons men's store and Cele Peterson's women's shop, they shared a competitive -cooperative relationship which only enhanced their dominance. Thus, when Levy's joined the nationwide Federated Department Stores in1960and made plans to open a store outside this central business district in1961,the first real wave of concern spread through downtown Tucson. Up to that point, downtown retailers, exerting power and influence far beyond their numbers, had exhibited more concern with conditions in the local community than with those nationwide. The Penney's and Sears chains had located downtown years earlier, and retailers had come to accept their existence as part of Tucson life. Shopping centers on the outskirts of town offered some competition, but downtown retailers had remained comfortable because shopping patterns had not changed significantly. Much of their complacency also came from knowledge that industrial growth did not accompany Tucson's tremendous expansion after World War H, and thus the city remained geographically and economically isolated from the vast changes taking place in the mainstream of American economic life. Levy's move, however, heralded the onset of a new era in the "Old Pueblo," whether the retailers wanted it or not. C. Wright Mills'1956 description of the American power elite nicely fits Tucson's power structure before and after the pending change. According to Mills, traditionally a "set of cliques or crowds," composed of old upper -class people in the community, sat at the top of local society, judging and deciding the important community issues. These cliques, which inthe case of Tucson were heavily dominated by downtown retailers, identified their principal socioeconomic interests with the immediate area. With the arrival of national corporations and their executives, whose A GRANDE DAME STRIPPED OF HER JEWELS 55 interests were broader in scope, local cliques were displaced. From this point on it became evident that success emanated from regional and national contacts as these corporate executives with national status assumed positions of power and authority in the community.2 Leon Levy's awareness of this nationwide shifting of power from local influentials to the corporate managerial elite and the parallels he might have drawn in relation to Tucson is open to question. Certainly the reasons he gave for joining Federated reflected a personal realization that in economic terms local independent department stores were losing power. As he stated, "Taxes were eating the store up and we could not borrow the funds to continue to expand and grow. "3 In a business where strategic location is necessary for survival, Levy saw the downtown area beginning to lose its vitality and felt expansion beyond its borders was essential. Besides the favored status chains enjoyed in capital markets, Levy probably had another reason for joining Federated: scale econo- mies afforded it by the national parent company in everything from distribution systems, buying practices, and management training to advertising programs and computer technology.4 To the downtown retailers, Levy's expansion plans were "old news." As early as 1958, the store had announced plans to branch out, initially choosing a site at Broadway and Wilmot. When these plans fell through shortly after Aaron Levy's death, Leon closed a deal with the owners of the El Con Shopping Center for a store to open in1960.At the same time, Levy's went public, selling stock first to employees at seventeen to eighteen dollars per share. What surprised the downtown merchant community was Levy's announcement that he planned to join Federated. According to Leon Levy, the initial contact from the chain came shortly after he returned from Europe in January of1960.Meeting with Fred Lazarus and John Lavor of Federated, Levy received an interesting offer, which he explored further with Lavor over a three -day period. After this initial session, certain questions about the venture continued to concern him. For instance, would Levy's employees receive full credit for their years of service when absorbed into the Federated pension plan? With the resolution of this and other problems in the ensuing months, Levy's and Federated signed the papers closing the deal on August 1,1960,at the Pioneer Hotel. Two months later the El Con store opened.5 As the1960sadvanced and other major businesses followed Levy's lead into the east and north sections of the city, Alex Jacome looked to 56 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES business organizations and political entities to stem the "pressure from outlying competition," which was affecting his trade. To Lee Davis, chairman of the Tucson Trade Bureau's Promotional Committee, he protested the discontinuance of "Downtown Wednesday Only Specials" which had drawn customers to the area.6 He also requested the Mayor and City Council to permit free parking for customers "because the majority of businesses require foot traffic to survive, whether a Central Business District or a Shopping Center."7 Letters to state legislators directly attacked the chain stores, with Alex suggesting "Sunday closing laws [because the]...big chain stores were promoting Sunday more than ever. "8 Alex's appeal for help from local and state government did not signify that he viewed them as benefactors. On the contrary, even while looking to the government for political help, his view of the state was an interesting blend of "the Latin tradition" and opinions long held by small businessmen. In both cases, the state was seen as having only negative functions: to regulate and to tax.9 Like the businessmen of his father's generation, Alex also expressed strong beliefs in the free enterprise system and the operation of supply and demand in a competitive market. It is not clear how he reconciled his belief in competitive free enterprise and his support of fair trade laws legalizing price fixing to avoid "ruinous competition. "10 Nor did he explain how the chains were limiting, under the guise of competition, his ability to participate in the free market system. Perhaps like other American businessmen, Alex wanted not so much a "free" enterprise system but a "safe" free market for his particular business. Yet he insisted that promotion of a competitive free enterprise system, both at home and abroad, was central to his political philosophy. When discussing United States expansion in international trade, for example, he urged the "promotion of the private enterprise system

. . . to counter the Reds. "11 The same fear of communist influence marked his views on domestic labor movements. Of particular interest was his belief that César Chávez, labor organizer of farm workers in the San Joaquín Valley of California, was a communist. Chávez's movement represented a real threat to the established social system of which the Jacome family had become a part. In a real sense, Chávez's questioning of the rationales by which local ethnic stratifications were maintained presented a challenge not only to American agribusiness but also to those like the Jacome family who had risen within the system.12 A GRANDE DAME STRIPPED OF HER JEWELS 57

His views on bilingual programs closely corresponded to his general political philosophy. Although more conservative than views on bilingualism generally expressed by the Hispanic business community, they contained some of the same concerns. Most leading Hispanics felt that Hispanic students needed a strong English -language competency to compete in the business world. At the same time they urged that strengthening bilingual skills would prove advantageous in the international marketplace. Citing his own experience, Alex maintained that bilingual programs were not in the best interests of the Hispanic child. Spanish was spoken in his home, but at school he had no problem learning "English and other courses offered. "13 A $1.3 million grant awarded by the Ford Foundation to the La Raza Council for bilingual programs drew his special attention because he feared the program would "segregate and harm the Mexicans more than ever. "14 Similarly, in a letter to Senator Paul Fannin, he opposed the 1975 Voting Rights. Act providing that ballots and election materials must be bilingual.15 Civil rights activities and the movement for bilingualism also popu- larized new descriptive terms for Mexican Americans. Alex's reactions to those terms gives a strong indication of his identification with his culture. On October 29, 1976, the University of Arizona's College of Liberal Arts Committee on Mexican American Studies published "Noti- ciero Chicano," with articles containing such terms as "Chicano" and "La Raza." Upon receipt of the publication, Alex drafted a letter to Paul Rosenblatt, Dean of the College, stating, "If Arizona State can use the words `Spanish Surnamed'... Ithink the University of Arizona should eliminate the use of the word 'Chicano' or `Raza. "16 Reflecting the sentiments of an earlier era when President Theodore Roosevelt coined the phrase "hyphenated Americans," Alex clarified his cultural identification in a letter to Senator Fannin. "Don't misunderstand me," he stated, "I am proud of my Mexican ancestry, but first of all I am an American and there is no hyphenation to it, just like the Italians, Danes, English and others who changed their names and became American. "17 The civil rights activism of the 1960s produced legislation which increased governmental regulation of the store's personnel practices. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Executive Orders decreeing Affirmative Action programs, according to Alex F. Jacome, Jr., took "lots of extra time...especially in terms of paperwork." The dress styles and grooming of those entering the work force during the turbulent sixties also led to a stiffening of policies governing the store's dress code. No 58 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES longer could men wear beards or hair below their collars, and women were required to wear clothing deemed appropriate to their sex. Yet, for women, this dress code broadened from the 1950s edict of only black or navy blue dresses to a variety of colors and even pants.18 Jacome's continued to look for sales personnel to fit the profile developed by its founder many decades earlier. Loyalty and honesty were high on the list of desired attributes. In so doing, the store was going against the national trend, especially among the chains, of recruiting a low- skilled, high -turnover work force to reduce costs.19 Alex's father, Carlos, could have written his son's answer to a student in merchandising about the personal characteristics and attitudes Jacome's looked for when hiring workers: "show imagination...work hard...and be honest and above reproach. "20 Training for employees emphasized what Carlos had instilled in his children many years earlier, "Make your store a friendly store, and it will live forever. "21 Yet customer complaints indicated that some personnel no longer adhered to that principle: "Jacome's isn't the friendly store it used to be" wrote one customer in 1967.22 To a similar complaint about an employee, Alex replied, "I'm sorry one of the many Jacomes was not around to be of help. 2,23 Theft and wage problems also surfaced in employee relations. The pension fund, based as it was on profits, made employees acutely aware of thefts. With the 1951 move to Pennington and Stone, however, the store had to employ undercover agents to monitor the sales help from time to time. Customer theft was also a problem. At Christmas time, off - duty police were utilized to prevent shoplifting. Curtains were short- ened in the women's dressing rooms for better visibility, and the number of garments a person could take into a fitting room was restricted.24 Blaming the inflation and recession of the early 1970s on Richard Nixon wanting "to be reelected," Alex wrote Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater that " Jacome's employees want a wage hike; the auto workers got theirs, and the steel workers got theirs. Where is this going to stop ?" Although Goldwater's reply to this particular letter is not known, these two heirs of Arizona department store magnates corresponded regularly through the years, sharing similar views on a diversity of subjects. Whether discussing politics, foreign policy, or a multitude of other questions, they displayed an obvious intimacy in their correspondence which reflected a longstanding relationship.For instance, in 1962, Goldwater was aiming for the Republican presidential nomina- A GRANDE DAME STRIPPED OF HER JEWELS 59

tion, which would place him in the running against the Democratic incumbent, John F. Kennedy. After a Saturday night speech, Alex sent

him a letter saying, "I hope you won't mind a little fatherly advice.. . in criticizing the Democrats I am afraid you lose friends." In the same letter he also suggested that Goldwater "not mention Mrs. Kennedy unless she commits a major crime. Your remarks regarding her were a little too vituperous [sic.]." In1963,before the Kennedy assassination, Goldwater complained to Alex about Kennedy's Latin American policy, saying that the administration's total emphasis on economic aid would not solve the problem.25 In contrast to their similar political views, the Senator and Alex took divergent paths in matters of business management. Goldwater's De- partment Store abandoned its family -owned and family- operated origins in the early1960sand joined a chain, the Associated Dry Goods Corporation. Operating a number of select department stores from New York to Los Angeles, Associated was one of a number of groups which exercised financial control over its stores while allowing each to retain its individual character and personality.26 Although chain stores like Goldwater's and Levy's were moving away from the family- oriented philosophy from which they sprang, family continued to dominate Jacome's management. In contrast, Levy's began to emulate the chain store practice of wooing graduates of prestigious business schools to its management team?' For example, shortly after joining Federated, Leon Levy brought Henry Quinto into Levy's management. Quinto, a highly experienced Harvard graduate and former employee of the Allied Stores Corporation, became Executive Vice Presi- dent for the store and assumed the presidency in1967.Together with Leon Levy, he helped elaborate explicit goals and procedures which replaced what had been, for the most part, unwritten policies. Levy's also increased executive salaries to attract others with credentials like those of Quinto.28 While management of Jacome's remained under family control, both the family and the store managers were changing. In1962,the popular merchandising manager and Alex's brother and right -hand man, Richard Jacome, died. He was the twelfth of thirteen children.29 Three years later, the oldest, Carlos, Jr., died in Seattle, Washington, where he had moved at an early age.30 By 1972, six of Alex's brothers and sisters were gone, and another generation of Jacomes was taking over the store's operation. Moving up in the ranks was Alex's son, Alex F. Jacome, Jr., 60 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES promoted to sales manager and assistant to the merchandise manager in 1967. At the same time, Richard C. Jacome, Jr., became divisional merchandise manager of domestics and housewares, and Henry G. Jacome, Jr., assumed management of the men's furnishings and clothing departments.3' In 1972, Alex, Sr., stepped down as president of Jacome's and became Chairman of the Board. His son, Alex F., succeeded him.32 Throughout the 1960s, management of the store brought excellent profits, which peaked at an all -time high of $4,000,000 in 1967. While on a buying trip to Europe in April, 1968, Alex, Sr., received a letter from the store's comptroller, Gilbert Martinez, describing the "unusually busy April...[with a] 28 percent increase in sales." According to the letter, income taxes and the pension fund took a total of $132,000. The import shop alone grossed $9,000 33 One reason for the store's continued prosperity was its mastery of marketing techniques. Jacome's utilized Spanish- and English -language newspapers in Mexico to promote its merchandise.34 It capitalized on ordinary changes as well as unique events to publicize the business. For example, the Department Store Journal demonstrated how the store's advertising made almost everyone in Tucson aware that the popular piece goods and notions department had been moved from a central location to an out -of -the -way space in the basement.35 The store sent customers special materials reminding them of its long tradition. Of special importance here was a "First Day of Issue" envelope with a commemorative stamp bearing Carlos' portrait as a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1912 to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Arizona statehood.36 Jacome's also conveyed a strong emotional message of attachment to its customers when in 1975 it initiated a special shopping day before Christmas for the physically handicapped. Established in honor of Alex F. Jacome's son, Gilberto, this day gave the physically handicapped in Tucson an opportunity "to do their Christmas shopping without having to contend with the hustle and bustle of the holiday crowds. "37 The same year Jacome's profits peaked, Levy's announced a new five million dollar department store at the El Con shopping center and mentioned Jacome's as a possible tenant for its existing store. The Tucson Daily Citizen reported on September 27, 1967, that "President Alex G. Jacome said today he has talked with El Con developers of the shopping center about taking over the Levy store, `but only in general terms.' Jacome's has another thirteen years on a lease for its Stone A GRANDE DAME STRIPPED OF HER JEWELS 61

Avenue store, which Jacome said continues to be a profitable business."38 Several factors supported a move to El Con. This was not the first time Jacome's had thought of opening another branch. As early as 1928, Carlos indicated "he was contemplating opening other stores." During that period of time, Carlos and Alex went to Phoenix to look at a specific site, were wined and dined by the property owners, and then decided after retiring to their hotel for the night that they had enough problems in Tucson. The next day the stock market crashed.39 Also, the proposed move to El Con was one customers and competitors supported.40 Henry Quinto personally took Alex through the old Levy's store and suggested he could "stay downtown and die on the vine, or come to El Con and take his chances." According to Quinto, Levy's motive for inviting in a competitor was the need for a strong anchor on the other side of the ma11.41 Herb Bloom, who together with his brothers had opened a second store at El Con in 1963, also talked to both Alex and his son about taking the old Levy location. According to Bloom, he really "put the heat on because he wanted a local store close to their shop. "4z Yet Jacome's resisted. As Alex explained to a customer, the store would have to "borrow most of the capital to launch the enterprise" and splitting the business between the two stores would probably yield no profit.43 The Steinfeld lease on the downtown store, which stipulated that Jacome's could not have another store within fifteen miles, was another major problem. Years later, Steinfeld's Jim Davis acknowledged that if Jacome's had challenged the lease in court, they might have broken it. There were precedents in other states. On the other hand, he believed Steinfeld's could have persuaded Jacome's not to go to El Con since it was only three miles away» Jacome's was offered the Levy building at $1.25 a square foot.45 According to Holden Olsen, Executive Loan Officer with the Southern Arizona Bank, Alex did discuss the offer with people in the bank office. In Holden's opinion, he could have acquired necessary interim bank financing if he had secured permanent financing from an insurance company. Except for occasional extensions of payoff dates on outstand- ing notes, Jacome's credit record with the bank was fairly good. Olsen also felt Alex probably would have won approval of the interim bank loan at one -half percent over par, something Alex demanded and usually got because of his personal relationship with the bank president. 62 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

Yet, to Olsen's knowledge, the El Con offer never reached the loan proposal stage.46 In order to assess the feasibility of acquisition, Alex hired an appraiser from California to look at the old Levy store. Taking this man's advice, he called the El Con Center owner and said, "We pass. "47 In February, 1968, Levy's closed the downtown store and on September 16, 1969, opened a six -million- dollar, 225,000- square -foot structure at the new location in El Con.48 The store was built on the site of the old El Conquistador Hotel,49 and the opening was celebrated with several parties. There was a press preview luncheon attended by representatives from several nationally known publications and a champagne party featuring Cary Grant.50 A few months later, Levy's announced they were considering two more suburban stores, one ten miles east of the El Con site and the other ten miles west.51 Construction of a westside store in the Foothills Mall followed in 1982, but the eastside location remained undeveloped as late as 1985, when Feder- ated Stores changed the name of Levy's to Sanger Harris. The disintegration of the central business district, almost coinciding with the El Con Shopping Center opening in 1960, continued relentlessly after Levy's closing of its downtown store. Survival of the remaining businesses required a number of strategic changes. Most pressing was the need for cohesive action to deal with problems such as parking, advertising, zoning, and rising taxes. As early as the 1950s, downtown retailers were aware of many of these problems. Yet, as reported by the Daily News Record in 1972, they had made little progress.52 A 1979 headline in the Arizona Daily Star declaring, "Retailers Admit Infighting Slows Downtown Plans," showed little had changed in almost two decades.53 Number one on the list of problems was parking. Downtown customers had to search for a parking space and, if lucky enough to find one, then deal with a parking meter. They encountered neither problem at a shopping center. Further, the Tucson Police Department was notorious for its tight control of downtown parking. Cele Peterson remembers, with chagrin, arriving at her place of business only to find an illegally parked vehicle blocking her private alleyway. When Peterson resorted to parking in front of her store, she, like her customers, was frequently ticketed by the diligent Tucson Police.54 High taxes, deteriorating buildings, zoning ordinances, and loss of the Mexican trade were among the most pressing problems the A GRANDE DAME STRIPPED OF HER JEWELS 63 merchants faced. According to Cele Peterson, one of the reasons for property deterioration, especially on Congress Street, was the high taxation the city levied on any improvements to buildings. A strict enforcement of zoning ordinances presented store owners difficulties as well. For instance, a requirement of two fire exits per store made surveillance for theft very difficult. Similar regulations at El Con were much less rigorously enforced.55 Probably the biggest blow to Jacome's was the drying up of the Mexican trade. Some of the contributors to that decline were the Pioneer International Hotel fire, the requirement that Mexican customers pay sales taxes, withdrawal of free parking stamps to Mexican customers, and the drop in value of the Mexican peso. The Pioneer fire occurred on December 20, 1970, and destroyed the major residence for Mexican tourists coming to Tucson.56 Shortly afterwards, Mexican tourists encountered a sales tax from which they had previously been exempt. To make matters worse, Tucson's Mayor and Council withdrew the free parking stamps Mexican customers had grown to expect. One of the strongest proponents of these changes was Reuben Romero, a Hispanic Councilman, who contended that the well -to -do Mexicans who shopped in Tucson could afford to pay.57 The final blow was the devaluation of the Mexican peso in August of 1976. When the peso, which had been pegged to the United States dollar for twenty-two years, was allowed to float, purchases of everything "from clothing to tractors by Mexicans who frequented Tucson retailers dropped twenty-five percent and more. "58 In addition to those problems, downtown business owners suffered from the repeal of federal and state fair trade laws. These laws had prohibited discounters from undercutting the manufacturer's retail price. In December, 1975, President Gerald Ford signed the Consumer Goods Pricing Act, which terminated all interstate utilization of "fair trade" or resale price maintenance. In 1975 both the House and Senate of the Arizona legislature passed repeal measures, but the Conference Committee could not resolve differences between the two measures. With passage of the federal law, however, the question was moot. In their long campaign for. change, the discounters argued that the laws conflicted with a free market, sustained inflation, and in the last analysis were unconstitutional. Until repeal, discounters had carried products with unfamiliar labels and unknown quality. After repeal, they expanded their product lines and broadened their target customer 64 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

population, drawing from the former middle -class customers of conventional retail stores like Jacome's.59 Recognizing that it would benefit from fair trade laws, Jacome's had supported their enforcement in the Tucson area. When Korby's, the first mini -department store to locate outside the downtown area in 1951, was said to be selling national brands such as Van Heusen and Haggar at lower prices, Jacome's and other retailers complained to the manufacturers, threatening to withdraw their business. The owners of Korby's, Nathan and Flo Kaiserman, resolved that controversy by showing copies of their newspaper advertisements to the manufacturers. Their ads proved that they were not selling below the suggested retail price. Still, in the years that followed, local retailers kept a close vigil over the actions of their competitors to ensure these laws were observed.60 Fair trade repeal was only one of a long list of reasons downtown retailers had for looking at the question of their very survival. Most of them concluded that their only course was to move out of downtown. In 1963, Dave Bloom and Sons expanded to El Con and in 1965 closed the downtown store.ó' Steinfeld's, rather than Jacome's, opened their El Con store in the old Levy building in March of 1971.62 Like the Bloom brothers, Cele Peterson saw her customers moving to the east side of town and heard from them the difficulties of getting downtown. She opened an El Con store the same year as the Blooms, and in the first year, her business went up over thirty percent. Unlike the Blooms, she maintained her downtown store -until one more parking ticket provoked her to close it in 1979. By the time she left, the only remaining retail stores of consequence were Jacome's, Penney's, and Lerner's.63 In 1976, Jacome's found a way to bypass the fifteen -mile stipulation in the Steinfeld lease by going outside Tucson to Sierra Vista, Arizona, for their second location. Optimistically announcing that "there undoubtedly will be more to come," store management signed the lease for a 65,000- square -foot structure and hired architect Terry Atkinson to draw up plans for the internal allocation of space.64 Problems with the Sierra Vista city government led to the postponement of the opening, planned for August. Canceling merchandise orders, they rescheduled for March 1977. Again unable to open, Jacome's dropped the Sierra Vista project altogether. The developer sued for breach of contract, but after a court trial, Jacome's emerged the winner.65 Still searching for a site, they discussed terms with the owner of Park Mall, the second major shopping center to appear in Tucson. Small A GRANDE DAME STRIPPED OF HER JEWELS 65 space allocation, 30,000 square feet as compared with Sears' 225,000 square feet, led them to look elsewhere. In turn, they gave close scrutiny to Phoenix, El Paso, and Green Valley.66 During the same period, Jacome management spent many hours talking with bankers about expansion. What they encountered in trying to obtain capital for expansion characterized the plight of independent retailers across the United States. Typically, family -run independents were generating inadequate retained earnings to expand. In fact, as inflation soared and recession grew in 1974 and 1975, all but the very healthiest had to cut their operations drastically. Like other independents, Jacome's found the bank willing to lend for operating capital but not for expansion. In advising them to focus on what they already had, the bank officials also suggested a reduction of expenses by shutting down one floor of the store. Because the overhead would remain the same, according to Alex F. Jacome, Jr., this afforded no savings for the store.67 Jacome's had at least one other alternative to expansion. According to Alex F. Jacome, Jr., "Over the years the store had several inquiries from the chains." However, Alex, Sr., felt that acquisition of the firm by a department store chain represented a "betrayal of the family name and the integrity and honesty it represented. "68 In allprobability, this decision to ignore the chains' overtures reflected the influence of culture on Jacome's survival. Certainly the admonitions of Carlos to his children about integrity and honesty in business played a strong role in the decision not to consider joining a chain. Just as important was the precedence family interests took over the maximum exploitation of economic opportunities. Some experts have argued that the exceptionally strong familistic trait within the Mexican -American culture curtails mobility by sustaining emotional attachments to people, places, and things. As a source of collective pride, familism is ultimately the cause of resistance to change of all sorts.69 At Jacome's, protection of the family and its name rested upon a management structure in which the family members assumed the positions of trust. Rationalized chain management would have eroded that control. Increased risk to the family name and managerial deper- sonalization were avenues they chose not to pursue. By late 1979, Jacome's had almost reached final agreement for the opening of two stores outside the downtown area. One, a grocery store building in the Casas Adobes Shopping Center, had 16,000 square feet 66 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

and offered space for a scaled -down version of the Pennington and Stone store. A second site in Green Valley, like the Casas Adobes store, required a minimum amount of capital investment to open. Inflation aborted those plans and forced Jacome's to make preparations for liquidation in early 1980.7° On January 15, 1980, Alex, Sr., arrived at the store as usual, greeted employee Armando Flores with his "usual smile and 'a good morning, - and went to his office!' While working at his desk, he complained of chest pains and collapsed. His son attempted to revive him until paramedics arrived to take him to St. Mary's Hospital. There Alex was pronounced dead upon arrival. He had suffered a massive heart attack.72 "He died the way he wanted to, working in the office, with his boots on," said his daughter, Margarita. "He was the patriarch," stated Alex, Jr. "He not only ran the business, but the family as well -and that is kind of difficult for a number ten. "73 This reference was to Alex's tenth position in a family of thirteen children. Remaining were two sisters, Josephine and Rose, and four brothers, Henry, Arthur, Augustine, and John.74 Friends and relatives from throughout Arizona, the United States, and Mexico came to Tucson for the funeral mass held at St. Augustine Cathedra1.75 During the last years of his life, Alex had continued to receive honors from the community. In 1974 the University of Arizona awarded him an honorary Doctor of Law degree for his "achievements in business and civic affairs and in the field of international relations." In 1976, he served as Grand Marshal of the Fiesta de los Vaqueros Parade, an event unique to the Tucson community, accompanied by his beautiful wife, Estela. Commenting upon his appointment as marshal, Arizona Governor Raúl Castro noted, "He typifies Tucson and has made our neighbors to the south and Southern Arizona become as one. "76 In late February, six weeks after Alex's death, the Jacome Department Store announced its closing because of the declining retail market in downtown Tucson. The firm was not going bankrupt, according to Alex, Jr., "It simply wasn't making enough money." Stockholders -about a "dozen family members" -would receive the distribution of the firm's assets. Although his father had made plans to liquidate the store prior to his death, Alex, Jr., acknowledged, "I'm glad he is not around to see it ... after all, this was his whole life. "77 On Thursday, March 6, 1980, the Arizona Daily Star announced Jacome's "Out of Business" sale. The store offered "every item from [al A GRANDE DAME STRIPPED OF HER JEWELS 67

$1.5 million inventory of fine fashions, Home Furnishings...Antiques and Collectibles...[at] 20% to 50% off." According to the advertisement, "lifetime savings were offered on America's most reputable famous brand labels," many of long standing at Jacome's: Society Brand, Arrow, Haggar, Farah, and, of course, Stetson.78 Employees at Jacome's, now numbering less than one hundred, felt a great sense of loss with the impending closing, and reactions were wide and varied.79 Import shop manager, Grace Bourguignon, sensed it was coming even before the announcement because customers were treating her treasures differently. When the liquidators appeared, she refused to help them sell the articles she had pampered for so long.80 Annie Shaar, an employee of thirty -eight years, noticed during the hectic activity of the first day of the sale that people in the store for the first time in years kept asking, "Annie, why are they doing this? Why is the store closing ?" When she, in turn, asked why they no longer patronized the store, they typically replied that "they didn't come downtown because they did not want to fight the traffic." 8' Nina Avennenti, a twenty-one -year veteran of the store, recalled that when the auctioneer intervened to sell an alpaca blanket from Peru which was selling for forty percent of its retail value, but which a customer wanted for less, she snatched it from the customer and "just walked away," only to sell it a few minutes later for the whole forty percent 82 Annie Shaar probably stated most succinctly what the others felt as the inventory dwindled, "I feel like I'm losing my family, my home, and it's very hard for me. "83 Jacome's management worked to place each employee in another job. When Leon Levy called to offer his help, many went to his store.84 Tony Anton recalled that Alex, Jr., and Henry, Sr., placed several employees with other organizations and even found positions for him. Due to his ample pension fund, however, Tony elected to take a few years off.85 Other employees revealed that several had deep feelings about the pension fund, which helped them through various emergen- cies after the store closed.S6 And some found employer concern reaching beyond finding them a job and provision of a retirement benefit. For example, Augustine Jacome told Grace Bourguignon "to get a new knee cap" before the store insurance ran out. She left the store the same day to go to the hospital.87 "Jacome's reaches the end with nothing but its dignity," read a Tucson Citizen headline on the last day of the store's existence. Mirroring the community's emotional response to the store's demise, the Citizen 68 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES described its last minutes of life. "It is 4:10 p.m. Friday, April 4, 1980. The department store at the corner of Stone Avenue and Pennington Street basks in the warmth of a bright springtime sun. It is a pleasant day to die." The Citizen article went on to describe the few items left from the store's month -long close -out sale as "a cut above your standard merchandise." It also explained that "when you're competing not with the guy down the street, but with the suburban expansion that offers your customers the glossy malls and expansive parking lots that your location can't provide, being a cut above the rest just isn't enough. "88 At 5:25 p.m. a woman's voice announced over the store's public address system: "Attention, Jacome's shoppers: The store will be closing in five minutes. Thank you for shopping at Jacome's." Henry Jacome, Jr., peeled a sale poster from the plate glass window, looked at it for a moment, and then commented, "Jacome's is no more." There were a few goodbyes to the store Carlos began so optimistically in 1896, and at "5:50 p.m. a key turned not only the tumblers of the lock to the store but the pages of the story of an era." Two of Carlos' grandsons, Henry and Alex, shook hands in final farewell tribute to "a grand [sic.] dame stripped of her jewels and her kingdom, but not her dignity. "89 In the end, she had remained true to her founder's vision.

NOTES

' Howard E. Morgan, "The Changing Structure of the Distributive Trades in Arizona," Part II, Arizona Review (March, 1960) Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 1 -23. 2 James E. Officer, "Power in the Old Pueblo: A Study of Decision- Making," unpublished manuscript, The University of Arizona, 1961, Special Collections, p. 61; C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite (New York: Oxford University Press, 1956) pp. 12, 19, 36 -39, 43. 3 Leon Levy Interview, November 5, 1984; Barry Bluestone et al., The Retail Revolution, Market Transformation, Investment and Labor in the Modern Department Store (Boston: Auburn House Publishing Co., 1984) pp. 24, 64, 71. 4 Ibid., p. 71. 5 Leon Levy Interview, November 5, 1984. 6 Alex G. Jacome to Lee Davis, August 2, 1965, Special Collections, The University of Arizona (hereafter cited as J. P.). A GRANDE DAME STRIPPED OF HER JEWELS 69

Alex G. Jacome to Mayor Lew Davis and City Councilmen, April 7, 1967, (J. P.) Special Collections, The University of Arizona.

8Alex G. Jacome to Senators Frank Felix, Douglas Holsclaw, Carmen Cajero, November 21, 1973, (J. P.) Special Collections, The University of Arizona.

9Richard Arellano, Strategies for Hispanic Business Development: Trends and Implica- tions (Washington, D.C. : National Chamber Foundation, 1984) p. 32. 10 Edward Kirkland, Dream and Thought in the Business Community, 1860 -1900 (New York: Cornell University Press, 1956) pp. 13 -20; C. Wright Mills, White Collar The American Middle Classes (New York: Oxford University Press, 1953) pp. 36, 57. " Alex G. Jacome, "Address to the Tucson Women's Club," 1963, (J.P.) Special Collections, The University of Arizona.

12Leo Grebler et al.,The Mexican American People: The Nations Second Largest Minority (New York: The Free Press, 1970) pp. 6, 532; Senator Dennis DeConcini to Alex G. Jacome, July 13, 1979, (J. P.) Special Collections, The University of Arizona.

13Alex G. Jacome to Honorable Paul Fannin, March 17, 1970, (J. P.) Special Collections, The University of Arizona; Richard Arellano, Strategies for Hispanic Business Develop- ment: Agenda for Action, Recommendations (Washington, D.C.: National Chamber Foundation, 1984) p. 16.

14Alex G. Jacome, "Letters to the Editor," Arizona Daily Star, April 29, 1970, Sec. D, p. 14.

15Alex G. Jacome to Honorable Paul Fannin, May 7, 1975, (J. P.) Special Collections, The University of Arizona.

16Alex G. Jacome to Dr. Paul Rosenblatt, November 4, 1976, (J. P.) Special Collections, The University of Arizona.

17Alex G. Jacome to Senator Paul Fannin, March 17, 1970, (J. P.) Special Collections, The University of Arizona. '8 Alex F. Jacome, Jr., Interview, June 8, 1984; Nina Avennenti Interview, May 21, 1985.

19Bluestone et al., The Retail Revolution, p. 2. 20 Alex G. Jacome to Helen D. Seright, October 17, 1969 (J. P.) Special Collections, The University of Arizona.

21Alex G. Jacome, "Letters to the Editor," Arizona Daily Star, December 21, 1966, p. 22.

22Mrs. Frank D. Wilkey to Mr. Jacome, January 16, 1967 (J. P.) Special Collections, The University of Arizona.

23Alex G. Jacome to Lucille S. Abel, May 15, 1976 (J. P.) Special Collections, The University of Arizona. 70 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

24 Alex F. Jacome, Jr. Interview, June 7, 1984. 25 Alex G. Jacome to Senator Barry Goldwater, March 27, 1962; Barry Goldwater to Alex G. Jacome, April 9, 1963 U. P.) Special Collections, The University of Arizona.

26 John William Ferry, A History of the Department Store (New York: McMillan Publishing Co.,1960) pp. 40, 54, 66, 170. 27 Bluestone et al., The Retail Revolution, pp. 3, 17, 144. 28 Henry Quinto Interview, January 11, 1984; Leon Levy Interview, November 4, 1984. 29 Arizona Daily Star, November 5, 1962. 3° Ibid., February 5, 1965. 31 Tucson Daily Citizen, November 29, 1967, p. 37. 32 Arizona Daily Star, April 6, 1972, Sec. D, p. 7. 33 Gilbert Martinez to Alex G. Jacome, April 26, 1968 (J. P.) Special Collections, The University of Arizona. 34 See, for example, El Sonorense, Hermosillo, Sonora, April 24, 1958; Nogales Arizona International, September 22, 1976. 35 Department Store Journal (April 1964) pp. 51 -52. 36 Jacome Department Store to Dr. E. L. Larson, February 11, 1962 (J. P.) Special Collections, The University of Arizona.

37 Arizona Daily Star, December 4, 1978, Sec. D, p. 4; Jacome Flyer, "Gilberto A. Jacome Memorial Day Special Opening for the Handicapped" (J. P.) Special Collections, The University of Arizona. 38 Tucson Daily Citizen, September 27, 1967, p. 1. 39 Arizona Daily Star, March 4, 1928; Alex F. Jacome, Jr., Interview, July 22, 1985. 4° Mary Hamm Spencer to Jacome's Department Store, October 16, 1969 (J. P.) Special Collections, The University of Arizona. 41 Henry Quinto Interview, January 11, 1984. 42 Herb Bloom Interview, June 20, 1984.

43 Alex G. Jacome to Mary Hamm Spencer, October 17, 1967 (J. P.) Special Collections, The University of Arizona.

44 Jim Davis Interview, August 30, 1984. 45 Alex F. Jacome, Jr., Interview, February 13, 1984. A GRANDE DAME STRIPPED OF HER JEWELS 71

46Holden Olsen Interview, February 13, 1984.

47Alex F. Jacome, Jr., Interview, February 13, 1984; Arizona Daily Star, January 23, 1958, p. 1; July 20, 1958, Sec. B, p. 1.

48 Levy's Scrapbook, "Memoirs of Leon Levy," Arizona Daily Star, August 31, 1969, Sec. C, p. 11; "Levy's Section," September 14, 1969.

49 Henry Quinto Interview, January 11, 1984.

50Levy's Scrapbook, "Memoirs of Leon Levy," Arizona Daily Star, September 7, 1969, Sec. A, p. 8.

51Tucson Daily Citizen, March 17, 1969, p. 43.

52"Retail Scene Tucson," Daily News Record, August 3, 1972.

53Arizona Daily Star, December 23, 1979, Sec. D, p. 1.

54Cele Peterson Interview, August 2, 1984.

55Ibid. 56 Arizona Daily Star, December 20, 1970, p. 1; Tucson Daily Citizen, January 15, 1971.

57Cele Peterson Interview, August 2, 1984.

58Arizona Daily Star, September 19, 1976, Sec. H, p. 1.

59Bluestone et al., The Retail Revolution, pp. 120 -131; Louise L. Luchsinger and Patrick M. Dunne, "Fair Trade Laws -How Fair ?," Journal of Marketing (Massachusetts: Heffernan Press, 1978) p. 53; Bruce J. Walker, "Arizona Retailers on Fair Trade Repeal," Arizona Business, Volume XXIII (Arizona State University: Bureau of Business and Economic Research, 1975) pp. 20-27.

60Interview with Nathan and Flo Kaiserman, May 21, 1985; Jim Davis Interview, August 30, 1984.

61"Retail Scene Tucson," Daily News Record, August 3, 1972.

62Arizona Daily Star, March 27, 1972, p. 15; March 28, 1971, Sec. C, p. 1.

63Cele Peterson Interview, August 2, 1984; Arizona Daily Star, November 9, 1979, p. 1.

64Arizona Daily Star, May 29, 1976, Sec. E, p. 9.

65Alex F. Jacome, Jr., Interview, February 13, 1984; Arizona Daily Star, May 29, 1976, Sec. E, p. 9; February 22, 1978, p. 6.

66Alex F. Jacome, Jr., Interview, February 13, 1984; Sam McMillan Interview, June 20, 1984. 72 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

67Bluestone et al., The Retail Revolution, pp. 25, 63, 67; Alex F. Jacome, Jr., Interview, February 13, 1984.

68Alex F. Jacome, Jr., Interview, February 13, 1984. 69 Grebner et al., The Mexican American People, pp. 350 -351; Alex F. Jacome, Jr., Interview, February 13, 1984. 7°Alex F. Jacome, Jr., Interview, February 13, 1984.

71Tucson Citizen, January 17, 1980, p. 1.

72Arizona Daily Star, January 15, 1980, p. 1.

73Tucson Citizen, January 17, 1980, p. 1.

74Ibid., January 15, 1980, p. 1.

75Ibid., January 17, 1980, p. 1.

76Arizona Daily Star, January 15, 1980, p. 1.

77The Arizona Alumnus, April, 1980.

78Arizona Daily Star, March 6, 1980, p. 3.

79Grace Bourguignon Interview, July 31, 1984; Librado (Tony) Anton Interview, July 24, 1984; Nina Avennenti Interview, May 21, 1985. 8° Grace Bourguignon Interview, July 31, 1984. 81 Arizona Daily Star, April 3, 1980, Sec. B,p. 1. 82Nina Avennenti Interview, May 21, 1985. 83Arizona Daily Star, April 3, 1980, Sec. B, p. 1. 84 Leon Levy Interview, November 7, 1984.

85Librado (Tony) Anton Interview, July 24, 1984. 86Grace Bourguignon Interview, July 31, 1984; Toleta Martinez Interview, August 7, 1984.

87Grace Bourguignon Interview, July 31, 1984. 88 Tucson Citizen, April 5, 1980, Sec. B, p. 1.

89 Ibid. THE QUEST FOR POWER: HISPANIC COLLECTIVE ACTION IN FRONTIER ARIZONA

David L. Torres and Melissa Amado

We, too, become institutions unto ourselves and often forget the needs and desires of the whole pueblo in our own scrambling to maintain position and status. Armando Rendon in Chicano Manifesto, 1971' The majority [of social theoriesl are based on the absurd assumption that well -being is dependent on economic individualization; as if money and possessions are sufficient to save us from the austere circumstances that daily confront us. Deep blasphemy: economic independence, badly understood, merely fuels the exaltation, the erroneous belief, of personal superiority, egoism, and ultimately leads to isolation, desolation, and misery. Professor M. Castillo Martinez, 19322

Fvery generation brings with it new interpretations of the realities of class struggle. With time, some interpretations become symbolic representations of ideals, such as the many adventures of Pancho Villa as told by ancianos who experienced Mexico's days of revolution.

This research was made possible by a grant from The Small Grants Program of the University of Arizona to the senior author. Both authors acknowledge the able assistance of Dina Robles, the staff of the Arizona Historical Society, and several sons and daughters of Tucson's Hispanic pioneers. Note: Dina Robles and Melissa Amado, undergraduate students at the time of data - gathering for this research, have strong roots in Tucson. Their steadfast devotion to discovering the soul of their heritage enabled the project to come to successful fruition.

-73- 74 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

Other interpretations become symbols of undesirable attributes, such as la malinche, the Indian woman who betrayed her kind and sided with the Spaniards in their conquest of Mexico. At the core of all historical interpretations is truth -if they are increasingly garnished with elements of extraordinary heroism, evil, or tragedy, it is because these historical events tend to solicit such emotional reactions from a culture that places great significance on relational behavior. We mention class struggle, symbolism, and la malinche because they are elements we attempt to understand in our study of the role of the Mexican elite. We focus on this elite's struggle against cultural domination by the United States in the town of Tucson, Arizona, at the turn of the century. According to Barton, elites are "a body of people holding positions of authority or influence in a major institution. "3 As the opening quotes illustrate, Mexican -based culture has consistently recognized the primacy of el pueblo, the community, over individual rights and freedoms. While this collectivist ideology is philosophically based on Catholicism, and perhaps even on ancient cultures that preceded invasion by the Spaniards, it has been buttressed by historical praxis. The masses have consistently had to band together in their struggles against one or another set of elites. Elites in Mexico have tended to be associated with treacherous oppression. At least symbolically, therefore, elites have become the antithesis of el pueblo. The tendency to cast a wary eye at the elite remains, even in contemporary times. Especially shunned are those who "sell out" to the system in the name of personal success. In the United States, the act of "selling out" takes on special significance. Not only is it possible to abandon the cause of the community and become a member of the elite, it is also possible to abandon Hispanicity altogether, in an attempt to become a part of the Anglo culture. The latter act is apt to conjure up images of la malinche. Though many times subtle, negative feelings toward those who go "too far" in assimilating are quite pervasive, affecting fields as diverse as politics and literature.4 Entrepreneurs, professionals, and politicians are especially vulnerable to being viewed as traitors to the common cause. Entrepreneurs examined by Torres, for example, were careful not to be seen as straying away from the Mexican American community, although most of them recognized that the resources needed to build their businesses resided elsewhere.' To be sure, all social groups deplore acts of betrayal or perceived betrayal (e.g., Benedict Arnold in the U. S., Thomas Sowell THE QUEST FOR POWER: HISPANIC COLLECTIVE ACTION 75

in the black community). For our purposes, it is sufficient to recognize that loyalty to el pueblo is ubiquitously and intensely compelling. It cuts across many facets of Mexican and Mexican American life. Because of the collective sentiment and the resulting precarious role of elites in Mexican society, the focus of this paper examines both during a unique period in history. When Arizona territory was fast succumbing to the "manifest destiny" of the United States, there was a struggle between the Mexican bourgeoisie and proletariate (that is, between el pueblo and the elite). However, there was an even greater struggle involving U. S. versus Mexican forms of capitalism. We intend to show that the latter conflict actually resulted in unifying rather than splitting the two classes in Mexican society. The conditions that gave rise to the historical events of the late 1800s and early 1900s are likely never to occur again. Nevertheless, the values and behavior patterns elicited by these events are more institutionalized in Mexican culture. These patterns can be expected to re- emerge whenever the U. S. and Mexico are forced to address each other in more - than- superficial fashion. Recently, the two countries have discussed the establishment of a free trade agreement and there is growing interest in further development of the maquiladora program. Whenever cultural differences necessitate give- and -take, as these events are likely to do, it is better to understand the mind -set of each party that comes to the table. U. S. businesses are more apt, however, to consider only their view of capitalist praxis. United States ideology, which emphasizes individualism and a need for personal achievement, has dominated the conventional world view of what entrepreneurship is all about. However the cult of individualism is foreign to-and often unacceptable in many countries of the world.6 The purpose of this study is to go beyond recounting historical events and to begin to unravel the sociocultural praxis of frontier Arizona. Through such analyses, a better understanding of the social /cultural tools that Mexicans and Mexican Americans have vis á vis their engagement of capitalism may emerge. Culture and its effects on entrepreneurial performance have been a traditional area of scientific investigation, with Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism being one of the most noted.' Japanese, Asian -American, Greek, Black and Jewish influences on capitalism have also been 76 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES investigated.8 There is no similar focus on Mexican Americans, save for an excellent, but generalized synopsis offered by Abalos.9 The history of Tucson, Arizona, is similar to that of many southwestern cities with historical ties to Mexico. Like many other cities of the Southwest, Tucson served as a protective outpost from which the early settlers, the Spaniards, carried out their colonization of previously Native American territory. Once freed from the Spanish Crown, settlements like Tucson, San Antonio, El Paso, Los Angeles and San Diego gave rise to their own class structures. Only further research in other cities will enable us to gauge the generalizable nature of Mexican -based class formation in the Southwest. However, insofar as the evolution of selected cities in the Southwest are linked to one country and its social/ political influence, Tucson promises to share many dynamics with its sister cities. Tucson does have some unique characteristics. It remained fairly isolated from the outside world, resulting in delayed Anglo immigration into the area, As a result Tucson elites had more time to develop a distinct class structure.1°

Capitalism: Class versus Systemic Struggle Reactionary collective action against exploitation is part of the evolution of capitalism. The Mexican case has been duly examined by historians and other social scientists.'1 Marx considered reactionary activity to be an evolving process that would culminate in revolution leading to communism.12 Thus far in the United States, such a revolution has not occurred and, perhaps, never will because the state has responded to the demands of labor at critical periods. The best examples are the federal programs begun in the 1930s and again in the 1960s.13 Keynesian economic policy, the Social Security Act of 1934, the War on Poverty, and a varied assortment of other social programs have all been responses to labor strife and have marked the progress of labor vis á vis the propertied class. In the United States, the values of an unshackled free market and individual freedom have remained strong because of the strategic ability of the propertied class, along with its instrument, the state, to respond to eminent challenges. However, that has not been the case in many other countries. In contrast to the United States, a direct confrontation between the classes did occur in Mexico, culminating in the Revolution THE QUEST FOR POWER: HISPANIC COLLECTIVE ACTION 77 of 1910. Even before the Revolution, intermittent civil and foreign wars wreaked havoc on Mexico's political infrastructure of the mid -to -late 1800s.14 The propertied classes, led by General Porfirio Diaz in the period before the Revolution, subscribed to Spencerian positivism. Operationally, this theoretical ideology dictated that peace and order had to be restored at any price before Mexico could develop economically. In the end, economic development was given priority over freedom of speech and other civil liberties. In essence, "the bourgeoisie replaced the caudillo as the governing class of the Mexican people. "15 The resulting social reality brought the masses into direct confrontation with the Mexican bourgeoisie and its instrument, the Mexican state under Diaz. The Mexican Revolution of 1910 can be seen as the climax to a struggle that in large part was a reaction to the rigid class formation and practices of the Mexican elite. Thus, Mexico's civil war dealt directly with the issue of class, in contrast to that of the United States, which dealt with slavery, states rights, and other related issues. Mexican elites, as a result of this direct confrontation, were forced to make important concessions to the proletariate. These concessions were moralistic in nature because they reflected the core of the Mexican community's philosophy for living: conduct as an important criterion for evaluating human worth, as opposed to "manifest destiny" and its emphasis on ends rather than means;16 emotion as an important guide to action, as opposed to a major emphasis on objective evaluation;" and collectivism, as opposed to individualism.18 In summary, both Mexico and the United States subscribed to the main tenets of capitalism. Unique experiences with class struggle, however, led to major systemic differences. So long as the two systems remained separated, their points of discordance did not have to be directly addressed. With the encroachment of Anglo capitalists into Mexican territory, however, clashes between the two systems were inevitable. What follows is a synopsis of the ideological and behavioral reactions to such encroachment.

Tucson's Hispanic Elite: Origins and Background The Spanish government, in cooperation with the Catholic Church, established an efficient method of racial classification during its control of Tucson. Under this hierarchal caste system, over twenty racial classifications existed. A person's place in society was defined at birth 78 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

and was maintained throughout his or her lifetime. The classifications of peninsular (an individual born in Spain) or a criollo (an individual born in the New World to Spanish parents) were linked to special privileges, such as land titles, governmental posts and positions within the Catholic Church. The various classifications became the core of a rigid class system. In Arizona, the linkages among prominent families were so strong that they "soon became so interrelated that they often had to seek permission from church authorities to wed individuals who were already their close relatives. "19 For the most part, the elite were not native Tucsonans.20 For example, Sheridan's research showed that thirty -four of sixty -two Mexican Americans with property valued at $1000 or more were born outside of Arizona, twenty -seven of them in Sonora.21 "Many of the town's Mexican immigrants were educated men -lawyers, doctors, journalists, and politicians," notes Sheridan. Carlos Velasco, the editor of El Fronterizo, a prominent Spanish -language newspaper, was raised as a member of the Sonoran elite.22 He was considered a friend of Porfirio Diaz and the ruling triumvirate of General Luis Torres, Rafael Izabel, and Ramón Corra1.23 Most intellectuals "affirmed the positivist doctrines of `order' and `progress,' accepting the exploitation of labor, Mexican or otherwise, as a necessary step in the advancement of society on both sides of the border. "24 Diaz's positivist doctrine became firmly entrenched among Hispanics in Tucson. For example, the Porfirio Diaz Club, which included many of the elite, existed as late as the 1950s. But it must be remembered that the positivist doctrine had, by this time, been tempered by the revolutionary activity of the masses. Fresh in the minds of many of Tucson's capitalists, many of whom had fled the dangers of community revolt, were the principles lain down by el pueblo. Shades of la malinche begin to color this analysis with the recognition that the elite's new role after the Gadsden Purchase was all too often that of intermediary between the Mexican and Anglo communities. Not that they lost power entirely. Indeed, they remained heavily influential in the shaping of pioneer Tucson. Table 1 lists the many political offices held by Mexican Americans from the years 1864 to 1930, the period that begins right after the Gadsden Purchase. Most of these people were from recognized elite families.25 THE QUEST FOR POWER: HISPANIC COLLECTIVE ACTION 79

TABLE 1: Arizona's Hispanic Legislators and Elected Community Officials, 1864 -1930 Name Position Year Elected Filiberto Aguirre Pima County Assessor 1892 Pedro Aguirre Pima County Board of Supervisors 1878 Jesus M. Elias Council (Senate) 1864, 1868, 1875 Juan Elias Council 1873 Perfecto Elias, Jr. Tucson City Council 1927 Francisco Esparza Tucson Marshall 1873 -1875 Lucas Estrella Tucson Marshall 1893 -1896 Wenseslao Felix Tucson City Treasurer 1892 N. Gonzalez House 1899, 1903 Joaquin Legarra Tucson City Treasurer 1899 -1904 Francisco S. Leon Council 1864, 1865, 1871 Pima County School Board 1867 Estevan Ochoa Pima County School Board 1867, 1875 Council 1868, 1871 Mayor of Tucson 1875 -1879 Tucson Justice of the Peace Nabor Pacheco Constable of Tucson 1900 -1904 Sheriff of Pima County 1904 -1908 Tucson Chief of Police 1909 -1910 Jose M. Redondo Council 1864, '73, '75, '77 House 1875 Yuma Prison Board 1875 Mayor of Yuma 1878 Ramón Romano House 1871 Federico Ronstadt Pima County Board of Supervisors 1890s Jose Maria Ronstadt Pima County Board of Supervisors 1927 Alfred Ruiz Council 1905 Mariano Samaniego House 1877, '81, '91, '95 Tucson City Council & Pima County Supervisors 1880 -1900 Arizona Board of Regents 1886 Carlos Tully Tucson Public Schools Superintendent 1891 -1895 Felipe Villaescusa Tucson City Council 1903, 1905 80 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

Elite families controlled a respectable portion of the city's economy. Table 2 lists some of the entrepreneurs and their lines of business.26

TABLE 2: Prominent Business People in Tucson: Circa 1850 to Early 1900s

Entrepreneur Birthplace Business

Estevan Ochoa Chihuahua Freight, Retail, Dry Goods, Smelting, Mining, Sheep Mariano Samaniego Sonora Freight, Ranching,Saddle, Harness Shop Leopoldo Carrillo Sonora Freight, Ranching, Ice Cream Parlor, Saloon, Bowling Alley, Feed Stable, Real Estate, Recreation Park Aguirre: Epifano, Chihuahua Freight, Ranching, Pedro, Conrado, Yjinio Stage Line Federico Ronstadt Sonora Carriage Shop, Hardware, Car Repair, Ranching Carlos Jacome Sonora Department Store Bernabe Robles Sonora Ranching, Real Estate, Saloon, Grocery Store, Dairy, Stage Line Perfecto Elias, Jr. Jewelry/Watch Repair Carlos Velasco Sonora Newspaper Ramón Soto Ranching, Dairy Hilario Urquides Tucson Saloon Keeper, Hotel Jose Maria Ronstadt Tucson Rancher Felipe Villaescusa Saddle Making Brena Rosario, Ramón Sonora Saddle Shop, Soap Factory, Grocery Store, Wholesale Teofilo Aros Cattle Amado: Antonio, Manuel Cattle, Real Estate, Bottling Otero: Sabino, Teofilo Tubac Ranching, Freight, Real Estate Fernando Laos Sonora Barber Shop, Tobacco Shop Billiard Parlor THE QUEST FOR POWER: HISPANIC COLLECTIVE ACTION 81

The data presented in the tables shows the elite did maintain significant power and prestige, at least for the relative short run. Surprisingly, there is no record of increasing animosity between its members and the rest of the Mexican American community. Instead of expanding cleavages between the elite and non -elite, there was a growing dependence on the power of the elite by el pueblo. Such power could, and did, defend the rights of the non -elite. To be sure, pre-. revolutionary resentment must not be forgotten. However, the elite, it seems, did internalize the lessons of the Mexican Revolution, which centered on human rights and dignity which Spencerian positivism had denied them. Therefore, this study now turns to an examination of how such an amicable relationship was developed. It becomes important to begin to examine the ideology and behavior of the elite during this important period. The period was transformative in two ways. First, the great upheaval of 1910 and its promise of a new beginning was still fresh in the minds of all. Second, the region was fast becoming settled by the Anglo pioneers. In the following section, we attempt to delve into the society and social philosophy of the Mexican American elite of Tucson. We invoke the basic tenet that our sources, being for the most part products of the elite themselves, are likely to afford only a biased reflection. However, if we toss aside the accolades of greatness and benevolence the elite bestow upon themselves, and of which there are many, the substance of the recorded evidence, that is to say, what was covered and why it was deemed significant, tells much about the ideology and praxis of these people.

A Perceived Moral Gap Between U. S. and Mexican Capitalism There was a growing awareness by the elite that Anglo capitalism, which they had so admired from a distance, was in reality not a true fit in terms of moral philosophy. In one passage from Las Dos Republicas, cited by Tom Sheridan in the book Los Tucsonenses, the following observation was made: The...article, written by an author who called himself Quivira, argued that while the United States may have been a giant of industry, its lack of a strong moral system made it seem barbaric at times. Hispanic society, on the other hand, possessed a firm moral foundation based on Catholicism... Inthe war of cultures being 82 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

fought in Arizona, "Latin" civilization would eventually triumph because of its superior morality.27

Likewise, in an article in Velasco's paper, El Fronterizo, it was argued that:

in the United States, people had deteriorated into Protestant degen- eracy, losing all religious sentiment and morality. The only thing Mexico required to achieve the highest level of culture on the North American continent was mechanical and scientific expertise. Spiritu- ally she was more advanced than her northern neighbor.28 In an editorial that covers the entire half of a newspaper page, and which effectively illustrates the elite's sense of losing the battle of morality in frontier Tucson, community leader Ramón Soto wrote:

In the life of a community, dramas unveil which stand apart because of their pleasurable qualities, and which upon remembering them after the passage of many years, bring back to the person who remembers them or to the person who recounts them, a reliving of the days of youth, and of past romanticism which is gone and will never return, and in those remembrances we encounter the essential essence of dreams: that forever will be triumphant those who dream of the difficult situations [encountered); and in this manner, in the memory of our youth, we see ourselves forever strong, intrepid and arrogant and always victorious in all the difficult passages of life, and nothing of today is as good or as pleasurable as then, and in part there is a fundamental reason: for civilization simplifies and perfects things, robbing them of their mystery which in their natural state the things possess.29 Soto described the many festivals and rituals that the Mexican American community celebrated, and of the unity of spirit which these events wrought. He concluded:

These times have passed, others will come, they have already come, they are here; yes here today is the new Tucson, the modern society of traffic and commerce, the modem society which thinks more of how to seek another peso than how to spend it advantageously.3o The significance of the foregoing article, which appeared twice in a prominent Spanish- language newspaper, is that it was in commemora- THE QUEST FOR POWER: HISPANIC COLLECTIVE ACTION 83 tion of Cinco de Mayo, which compares with the Fourth of July in patriotic importance. The central theme is that something of great value is being lost - hegemonic harmony with the community-and a source of that loss is attributed to the chasing of money without regard to spending it "advantageously ". To spend money "advantageously," in the eyes of the Hispanic elite, was to invest in the symbolic continuance of the community, in the many rituals that added mystery and romanticism to the otherwise lonesome pursuit of money. In contrast to the capitalist of the U.S., described by Sumner as "in a certain sense, an isolated man," the Mexican capitalist ideal was to be anchored to the community.3' An acknowledged source of the morality of the Mexican community was the Catholic Church. The Tucson elite buttressed the strength of the church with generous donations. Sabino Otero, for example, was a patron of the Sisters of St. Joseph, not only in Tucson but in Phoenix, Prescott and Los Angeles. He "practically built the Catholic church at Tubac and was a heavy contributor to churches built in this diocese. "32 The moral core of the elite was passed on to later generations through club activity. The most active of these clubs was the Club Latino, which was organized and maintained by male descendants of the elite. Aside from being noted for "good times" and for sponsoring successful dances, an explicit fundamental principle of the club was the inculca- tion of morality. In 1926, Genaro Manzo, son of a prominent Tucsonan and member of the Club Latino, wrote in El Tücsonense:

The culture of men and of communities, should be measured not by its measure of external showiness [of goods, riches, etc.], but instead by its measure of morality, because a community with whatever level of showiness, if it does not impart morality, will degenerate quickly and without orientation; it is a ship without a rudder that sooner or later will become shipwrecked.33

Two years earlier, Salvador Peña, another prominent Tucsonan, had noted that the "North Americans" were not well enough aware that they were dealing with "an advanced society, which aspires to high ideals, and furthermore with communities of innate qualities and nobility." 34 Final tributes to respected, and very successful, capitalists of the Old Pueblo indicate that the social worth of a man was measured in terms of capitalistic achievement and activities for the betterment of the collective. The final tribute to Carlos Tully is a good example: 84 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

A man of merit such as Mr. Tully could have reaped, through his active intelligence and his vast networks, great wealth, if he had appraised his services in monetary value constantly. But because of his generosity, he not only disdained recompenses at times justified, instead he became an advisor to the major part of the resident Hispanics, with the love of a father and the application of an apostle, he imparted his advice and his services without compensation, or in some cases, one so modest that none would have believed it to be true. His knowledge of law saved many residents of the Old Pueblo from incurring misdeeds or preserved them from complications that ignorance of the law may bring. 35 Similar recognition for providing legal assistance to the Hispanic community was given to Enrique Meyer in a final tribute to him.36 Recognizing that final tributes may under or overestimate actual accomplishments, they nevertheless reflect the value system of a community. In essence, the value system of the Hispanic elite in Tucson emphasized sacrifice in the name of the collective. Moreover, such loyalties seem to have intensified after the onslaught of U. S. capitalism. The best and most prominent example was the establishment of La Alianza Hispano Americana in 1884. Founded originally by Carlos H. Tully, who gave it its name and emblem, and Asunción Sánchez, who devoted much of his life to the founding of social clubs, the Alianza was disbanded in1886.It was reorganized in1894through the efforts of Carlos Velasco (but again Tully, Sánchez, and others were present and influential at the initial meeting). Velasco was an attorney from a prominent family in Hermosillo who was forced to leave Sonora when he took the wrong side in a political struggle. He became the publisher of El Fronterizo, which operated from the late 1880s to1914.Founding members of La Alianza read like a Who's Who of the elite in Tucson, as did the membership of most of the dozen or so clubs that existed during this era. The Alianza operated as a mutual -aid society, offering disability, medical insurance and death benefits to its members. Lodges were established throughout the state and eventually extended as far north as Wyoming and the northern frontier states of Mexico.37 The club became known for its efforts in promoting the culture of Mexican Americans and for its fight against discrimination. In1930,for example, Alianza officers sponsored literary and musical events and proposed establishing libraries at each Alianza lodge, all in an effort to induce THE QUEST FOR POWER: HISPANIC COLLECTIVE ACTION 85 children of Mexican -ancestry to learn about and truly appreciate their culture.38 As late as 1958, the club's Civil Rights Department was recognized as a leader in the introduction of court cases involving discriminatory treatment of Mexican Americans.39 According to El Tucsonense, the pinnacle of achievement in the area of benevolence was reached when the society's officers, during the Alianza's National Convention unanimously and with little debate voted to build a hospice center and orphanage for needy members of the association,40 Only minutes after the decision was made, Carlos Jacome stood before the members and announced he was placing at the disposal of the club forty acres to be used for the project. The site was located only a mile from downtown Tucson, on what is now South Country Club Road. Hispanic employers expressed a commitment to the betterment of the laboring class, and especially to union activity.

Every nail, piece of lumber, brick, ounce of plaster, stroke of the paintbrush, and all that goes into constructing a store, was handled by workers that were members of trade unions of Tucson (description of Carlos Jacome's new clothing store).41

Thus, although Mexican labor often worked for lower wages and under less desirable conditions than their U. S. counterparts, they were not without voice or assistance. In 1920, The Club Commercial Hispano- Americano made an important gesture to the community by establishing a free medical clinic for the working poor.42 Finally, the value of education was foremost in the minds of some of the Hispanic elite. Chief proponent of education for workers and their families was Professor Cota Robles, educational director of La Liga Protectora Latina (The Latin Protectorate League).

[Professor Robles] proves that the working classisintelligent, honorable, and hard -working, and that they deserve a better place than the one that they have, but which, in order to arrive at a higher status, it is important that they first get educated, if not they will sink deeper into the fangs of vices and ignorance, forever being the slaves of capital.43

Mariano Samaniego was one of the first regents of the University of Arizona. Estevan Ochoa introduced bills to fund public schools and donated personal property and money to build them.44 Sabino Otero 86 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES maintained a school at his general store in Tubac and helped the Sisters of Carondelet develop St Joseph's Orphanage.45 Leopoldo Carillo sought help from the Pima County Board of Supervisors to establish Tucson School District One,46 and Pedro Aguirre established a public school in Arivaca at this own expense.47 It becomes evident that the Mexican American members of the bourgeoisie formed an effective, if perhaps uneasy, alliance with their proletarian counterparts, and did much work on their behalf. Past hostilities did not prevent this from occurring. From the perspective of the bourgeoisie, at least two conclusions must have been reached for this to occur. First, ideological discordance between Mexican and U. S. capitalism must have been perceived to be so great that a consensual solution could not be envisioned. Second, despite their espoused positivist orientation, the serious sociopolitical concessions made to the proletariate by the elite must have been deeply engrained. That is, these commitments must have been so institutionalized that their violation must have been regarded as unthinkable or likely to cause a severe reaction from the proletariate were they be broken. Thus the Tucson elite adopted the ideal of U. S. capitalism as an economic order, but sought to temper it with the cultural values and experiences of Mexico. In essence, the Hispanic Tucson elite never abandoned its normative system. This tenacious adherence ensured their eventual demise. Some might argue that it was the awesome power and discriminatory practices of U. S.capitalists, and the realization that the Mexican bourgeoisie was destined to lose hegemony, that caused the Hispanic elite to seek shelter among their own countrymen. There is no doubt this was part of the reality of the new order. Yet the evidence presented in Tables 1 and 2 shows that the elite enjoyed respectable degrees of political and economic power well into the 1900s. With that power, they could have attempted to negotiate with the Anglos in hopes of eventually being accepted. Some may have opted for this strategy. The vast majority of the Hispanic elite, it seems, opted to defend their own system to the end. Thus, perceived moral superiority, however illusory, prevailed over purely economic desires. This provides an ironic twist to the tale, for it was the lure of progress through economic development (garnered in large part from an understanding of U. S. capitalism) that compelled the Mexican bourgeoisie to impose a repressive government. But it was the repressed, that is to say, el pueblo and the revolutionaries, THE QUEST FOR POWER: HISPANIC COLLECTIVE ACTION 87 that were instrumental in forming the morals to which the Tucson Hispanic elite now so tenaciously hung.

Summary and Discussion We have shown that the values and behavior of the Hispanic elite in Tucson were strongly linked to the affairs of the community as a whole. The elite supported education, labor, community rituals, the Catholic Church, and other activities that reflected a concern for the collective good. These activities intensified with the arrival of more and more Anglos into Tucson. The social worth of a Mexican, including the elite, was measured, not so much in terms of personal achievement, but in terms of contributions to the community. Some might argue that in any society the leisure class has the luxury of getting involved in benevolent activities. However, this is a matter of degree. In the Mexican case, the difference between Anglo and Hispano was enough to prompt reaction against what the Mexican elite considered immoral. Whether one system was more exploitative than another, or more "right" than the other, is beyond the scope of this, and perhaps, any other paper. The issue here does not revolve around rightness and wrongness, although such issues arise when comparing cultural systems. What is important is understanding that capitalism does not comprise technical aspects alone. Social and cultural behavior also must be considered. True appreciation of this makes it easier to understand the underlying difficulties of conducting business in a global economy. Outside academia, cultural and behavior issues are rarely addressed in the context of international commerce. For the United States, this has especially been the case in dealing with Latin American countries. The end effect is usually an attempt to impose both a technical and cultural way of "doing" capitalism in the manner of the dominant country. From the perspective of the less -dominant country, this may be perceived as the "taking" of goods from one country to another, rather than the "trading" of goods. To paraphrase Salvador Allende, the socialist President of Chile who was assassinated in the early 1970s, "After all of the `trading' [mostly in the form of the exporting of raw resources] that we have done with the United States, all we have to show for it are the holes that pockmark our countryside." From the Latino perspective, it is important to debate not only the "whats," but also the "hows" and "whys" of trade. The two ideological systems are still present in Tucson, although the 88 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

Mexican -origin orientation is limited to the Hispanic community and to those business persons who remain loyal to it. The ideological bifurca- tion stands as testament to the perseverance of culture, and its intricate links to the economic praxis of capitalism. Because of Mexico's proximity to the U.S., the Mexican ideological orientation is continuously being re- vitalized in major ports of entry into the United States. The interface between culturally -differentiated capitalist systems can be compared to a fault line created by land masses moving in opposite directions. Everyone understands that sooner or later a major eruption will occur, and the reasons for it are well understood. However, the questions of when the eruption will occur, and how serious it will be, are not as readily predictable. Capitalistic discordance, spurred by cultural differences, affects societies in two ways. One includes the friction created by direct trade between countries, in this case Mexico and the United States. Mexico has been trading with the U. S. for many years, but has witnessed minimal effort by the United States to "do" business the Latino way. Instead, North Americans have expressed hopes that, someday, Mexico may "advance" to the level of the United States. What we imply with our analysis is that Mexico will never completely emulate the U. S., and that the reasons are not technical, but normative. As the U. S. prepares to go to work on the creation of a free trade agreement between the two countries, this message should not be forgotten. The globalization of economic markets is forcing us to confront this same issue in other parts of the world. Who would have believed, at the beginning of the century, that the dynamics that took place in a small town of the Southwest were to become a microcosm of dynamics that are happening worldwide today? Capitalism in the 1990s is developing in areas thought inconceivable just a few years ago - Russia, East Germany, and China to name a few. The most obvious dynamics to be grappled with, at least from the perspective of U. S. capitalists, are those dealing with monetary exchange rates, tariffs, standardization of pricing, and other related issues. From the perspective of those countries going through major economic revolutions, however, the struggle is both technical and ideological. Those countries that can appreciate the significance of this fact stand to net significant strategic advantages. At this very moment, for example, Japan is making impressive headway in Mexico and within the small business community of the United States. Their strategy is to invest in creating an "understanding" between THE QUEST FOR POWER: HISPANIC COLLECTIVE ACTION 89

Japanese companies and their new allies. Their form of investment is the sharing of knowledge and development of trust. Although a long -range project, their market share is already increasing. The second major consequence of discordance created by the interfacing of two capitalist systems is the tension experienced by those people who find themselves straddling the line, in this case Mexican American capitalists, managers, professionals, and workers. Mexican Americans, especially those labelled as "successful," who are lured out of the often constrained markets of the ethnic economy, who prefer to work for Fortune 500 -type companies, and others who assume the trappings of U.S.capitalism, are all- too -easily assumed to have abandoned the values of el pueblo. In most cases, this is not so. The Hispanic professional may find that she is "being `pulled' in cognitively and emotionally opposed directions as the consequence of conflicting normative expectations, attitudes and behavior incorporated in one or more social statuses assigned to the same person. "48 The irony of viewing successful individuals as modern-day malinches is that they are the very people who have the power to work for the collective good of all. That being the case, el pueblo should be pulling back the cultural reigns on such individuals and making them accountable to the Latino community, instead of disowning them and allowing them to drift into a state of alienation. Conversely, the Hispanic elite should be able to rely on the community for the spiritual /market /democratic support that will enable them to become successful agents of change. Only in this manner will the true sense of "Hispanic Community" become a reality. Having argued that U. S. and Mexican capitalism differ in fundamental ways, we would be remiss if we did not address the issue of what those differences might be. This question remains to be addressed more thoroughly in future research. From our preliminary analysis, however, we have identified some rudimentary patterns. The most striking difference between the U. S. and Mexican business mentalities of the period in question (and by extension, the present period), is that the U. S. elite were focused on goals and /or ends. The Hispanic elite, however, concentrated on process. This follows from the U. S. capitalists' subscription to the Calvinist ideology of individual gains as proof of divine destiny versus the Mexican capitalists' adoption of a collectivist ideology, based on Catholicism and the anti -positivism of the masses. In the course of everyday conduct, this means that U. S. business persons will tend to focus on getting the deal done while 90 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

Mexican business persons will be more inclined to assess the social worth of the venture and "size up" the sincerity of the other party as well as the business proposal. A related issue, derived from the value for association and community unity, is the relationship of one company to another, or of one owner/ manager to another. Whereas U. S. businesses view transactions as contractual matters that will end as soon as a given project ends, Mexican businesses tend to view business transactions as understand- ings of relational commitments. Thus, whereas a capitalist from the United States will often send out requests for proposals and seek to do business with the lowest bidder, with all specifications "spelled out," a Mexican business person will tend to propose a project to those companies with which it has already established amicable working relationships. Only after such compatibility has been established will discounts, privileges, and commitments be explained. Finally, the relationship between workers and management deserves some mention. The evolution of Mexican culture revolves heavily around the issue of proletariate versus bourgeoisie rights and social obligations. Therefore, if only symbolically, Mexican workers have a voice in formulating company policy and strategy and the elite have a commitment to labor outside of the work place. This message is becoming clear to maquiladora plant managers, who erroneously believed that higher wages alone would attract and keep Mexican workers in their plants, plants that are at present experiencing phe- nomenal rates of turnover. This brief and exploratory analysis has touched on only the most tangential aspects of business ideology in an old Mexican southwestern pueblo. Because we believe that the ideological core still remains, we attribute some of these same traits to modern Mexican -ancestry entrepreneurs. Much more research is needed. Inter -global competition is creating even larger numbers of partnerships and forcing cooperation among countries. Mexico and its Latin American counterparts have long been considered to be economic allies by the United States. However, a much better understanding of the social forces that drive their capitalist machinery is needed. Only in this manner will a synergistic and competitive partnership occur. THE QUEST FOR POWER: HISPANIC COLLECTIVE ACTION 91

NOTES

' Armando Rendon, Chicano Manifesto (New York: Macmillan, 1971), p. 87. 2 El Tucsonense, "Fragmentos del Sociological y Organización," October 13, 1932. 3 Allen Barton, "Background, Attitudes, And Activities Of American Elites," in Gwen Moore, ed., Research In Politics And Society, (Greenwich, CT: JAI Press Inc., 1985), p. 173. 4 M. De los Angeles Torres, "Latino Politics: The Focus Is On Foreign Policy," The Nation, 247 (1988): 59 -61; Earl Shorris, "Fuentes: Myself With Others: Selected Essays," The Nation 247, 3 (1988): 99 -101. 5 David L. Torres, "Dynamics Behind the Formation of a Business Class: Tucson's Hispanic Business Elite," Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences 12 (1990): 25 -49. 6 Rein Peterson, "Understanding and Encouraging Entrepreneurship Internationally," Journal of Small Business Management 26, 2 (1988): 1 -7. Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, translated by T. Parsons (New York: Scribners, 1930). 6 William Ouchi, Theory Z: How American Business Can Meet the Japanese Challenge (New York: Avon, 1981); H. Kahn and T. Pepper, "Influence of Oriental Cultures," in C. Kerr and P. D. Staudehar, eds., Industrial Relations in a New Age, (San Francisco: Jossey -Bass, 1986); Ivan Light, "Immigrant and Ethnic Enterprise in North America," Ethnic and Racial Studies 7 (1984): 195 -216; Richard Thompson, "Ethnicity Versus Class: Analysis of Conflict in a North American Chinese Community," Ethnicity, 6 (1979): 306 -326; L. A. Lovell -Troy, "Ethnic Occupational Structures: Greeks in the Pizza Business," Ethnicity, 8 (1981): 82 -95; E. F. Frazier, Black Bourgeoisie: The Rise of a New Middle Class in the United States (New York: Collier, 1961); E. Bonacich, "A Theory of Middleman Minorities," American Sociological Review, 38 (1973): 583 -594. 9 D. T. Abalos, Latinos in the United States: The Sacred and the Political, (Notre Dame, University of Notre Dame Press, 1986). ioO. Martinez, "Hispanics in Arizona," in B. Luey and N. J. Stone, eds., Arizona at Seventy-five. (Tucson, Arizona: Arizona State University, Public History Program, and Arizona Historical Society, 1987), pp. 87 -122.

11 See, for example, M. T. Garcia, Mexican Americans: Leadership, Ideology, and Identity, 1930 -1960, (New Haven, CN.: Yale University Press, 1989). Ernesto Galarza, Spiders in the House & Workers in the Field, (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1970); Mario Barrera, Race and Class in the Southwest. A Theory of Racial Inequality (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1979); Tomas Almaguer, and Albert Camarillo "Urban Chicano Workers in Historical Perspective: A Review of Recent Literature," in Armando Valdez, Albert Camarillo, and Tomas Almaguer, eds., The State of Chicano Research on Family Labor, and Migration Studies: Proceedings 92 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

of the First Stanford Symposium on Chicano Research and Public Policy, (Stanford, California: Stanford Center for Chicano Research, 1983), pp 3 -32.

12Karl Marx, Capital: A Critique of the Political Economy, Vol. 1 (New York: Vintage, 1987 [1877]).

13Frances Piven and Richard A. Cloward, Regulating the Poor: The Functions of Public Welfare, (New York: Vintage, 1971); Frances Piven and Richard A. Cloward, The New Class War, (New York: Pantheon, 1982). 14 D. A. Brading, "Creole Nationalism and Mexican Liberalism. Journal of Intrerameri- can Studies and World Affairs, 15 (1973): 139 -190; Patrick Romanell, Making of the Mexican Mind, (Notre Dame, IN.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1952); Manuel Gonzales, "Carlos I. Velasco," Journal of Arizona History, 25 (1984): 265 -284.

15Romanell, Making of the Mexican Mind, p. 51. 16 Romanell, Making of the Mexican Mind; Leopoldo Zea, El Problema Cultural del América Latina, (Valencia, Venezuela: Ediciones de la Universidad del Carabobo, 1960); Abalos, Latinos in the United States.

17 José Vasconcelos, La Raza Cósmica, Misión de La Raza Iberoamericana, (Espasa- Calpa, Argentina: Colección Austral, 1948); Samuel Ramos, El Perfil del Hombre y La Cultura en México, (Espasa -Calpa, Argentina: Colleción Austral, 1951).

18Zea, El Problema Cultural del América Latina; C. Garizurieta, "Isagoge Sobre Lo Mexicano, " in Collección Mexico y Lo Mexicano, No. 8, (Mexico: Editorial Porrúa y Obregón, 1952).

19James Officer, "Arizona's Hispanic Perspective," A Research Report Prepared by the University of Arizona, 38th Arizona Town Hall, Arizona Academy, 1981, p. 40. 20 David L. Torres, "Dynamics Behind the Formation of a Business Class," p. 31.

21Tom Sheridan, Los Tucsonenses, (Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 1986), p. 53.

22Ibid., p 103. 23 Ibid., p. 106.

24 Ibid., p. 106.

25Sources for Table 1: Jay Wagoner, Arizona Territory 1863 -1912 A Political History, (Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 1970); James Officer, Sodalities and Systemic Linkage: The Joining Habits of Urban Mexican Americans, Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, 1964; Sheridan, Los Tucsonenses; Mulford Winsor, "José Maria Redondo" Journal of Arizona History, 20 (1979): pp. 169- 192; George H. Kelly, Legislative History Arizona 1864 -1912, (Phoenix, AZ: State of Arizona, 1926); Arizona Historical Society, Plaza of the Pioneers, (Tucson, AZ: Arizona Historical Society Press, 1982). THE QUEST FOR POWER: HISPANIC COLLECTIVE ACTION 93

26Source for Table 2: David L. Torres, "Dynamics Behind the Formation of a Business Class."

27Sheridan, Los Tucsonenses, p. 107.

28Ibid., p. 107.

29El Tucsonense, "El Tucson de Ayer," May 5, 1923, p. 10.

30 Ibid.

31Cited in Reinhard Bendix, Work and Autbority in Industry, (Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1974), p. 258.

32Tucson Daily Citizen, "Sabino Otero, A Native Son, Is Dead," January 22, 1914.

33El Tucsonense, "Moralidad," April 17, 1926.

34 El Tucsonense, "Ideales Del Club Latino," May 17, 1924.

33El Tucsonense, "Lo Que Pierde La Raza Hispano-Americana Con La Muerte del Sr. Tully," March 29, 1923.

36El Tucsonense, "Uno de los Mas Antiguos Tucsonenses, El Sr. Enrique Meyer Dejó de Existir," November 27, 1928.

37Melissa Amado, "Hispanic Businesses In Tucson Since 1854," Working Paper Series No. 14. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona, Mexican American Studies & Research Center, 1988.

38El Tucsonsense, "La Logia Fundadadora de La Alianza Hispano- Americana Principia Una Labor Pro -cultural," February 25, 1930. 39 Tucson Daily Citizen, "Alianza Hispano- Americana To Hold National Meeting," August 17, 1958.

40El Tucsonense, "Un Vasto Proyecto del Filantropia," January 25, 1921, p. 1.

41El Tucsonense, "Construcción Hecha Solo Por Obreros de Unión," October 20, 1931, P.2.

42El Tucsonense, "El Club Comercial Hispano - Americano Reanuda Sus Trabajos En Bien de La Raza," September 28, 1920.

43 El Tucsonense, "Liga Protectora Latina," October 28, 1919.

44Thomas Sheridan, "Peacock in the Parlor: Frontier Tucson's Mexican Elite." The Journal of Arizona History, 25, 3 (1984): 245 -264.

46Tucson Museum of Art, Plaza of the Pioneers Dedication, Unpublished manuscript, p. 13. 94 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

46 Ibid., p. 21. 47 Ibid., p. 30.

48 E. Morawska, "Sociological Ambivalence: The Case of East European Peasant- Immigrant Workers in America, 1880- 1930s" Qualitative Sociology 10 (1987): 225 -250. THE HISPANO HOMELAND DEBATE REVISITED

Sylvia Rodríguez

T n the early 1980s a bitter academic debate raged around geographer 1 Richard Nostrand's attempt to substantiate the frequently heard claim that the Hispanos or so- called Spanish Americans of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado are ethnically (thatishistorically, culturally, and even genetically) distinct from other Mexican Americans and Mexicans. The controversy unfolded on the pages of the Annals of the Association of American Geographers between 1981 and 1984, in response to the last of a series of articles in which Nostrand, using U.S. census data, mapped the historical population distribution in a regional Hispano "homeland" along the upper Rio Grande Valley.' The dispute erupted when Antonio Ríos -Bustamante and Richard Blaut attacked Nostrand's notion of a culturally distinctive Hispano homeland as the false and insidious construct of Anglo imperialist ideology.2 In a series of rejoinders, Nostrand defended and re- explicated his position3 while Fray Angélico Chávez4 and Marc Simmons5 jumped in to support the Hispano uniqueness thesis, and still others pointed out the merits of Nostrand's methodology.6 Thereafter the AAAG editors declared the matter closed, but the debate continues in diverse quarters. The question of whether a self -conscious sense of ethnic uniqueness

An earlier version of this paper was published in 1986 as Number 17 of the Stanford Center for Chicano Research Working Paper Series. The research upon which it is based was conducted with the assistance of grants from the Wenner -Gren Foun- dation, the American Philosophical Society, and the Academic Senate and ISOP- Mexico Program at UCLA.

-95- 96 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES exists among native Hispanic New Mexicans, and why or why not this should be the case, fires vehemently opposed viewpoints and holds different meanings for different groups. These include not only historians and social scientists but native northern Nuevomexicanos themselves, and other Mexican and non -Mexican- descent peoples in the region. The problem remains a persistent bone of contention among Chicano intellectuals. It is also important to anyone with any kind of interest in the social or political disposition of the population in question. Like so many other contemporary issues that involve ethnic identity, the Hispano homeland debate is not only of theoretical interest, but has potentially volatile sociopolitical implications as well. The intent of this essay is to help place the historical and continuing matter of Nuevomexicano ethnopolitical identity within a clearer analytic framework. Rather than debate the accuracy or insidiousness of the claim that New Mexico Hispanos constitute a distinct subcategory of Mexican American, my discussion will focus upon the historical, interactive process by which the notion of Hispano distinctiveness has come about. I am particularly concerned with the development of this idea, and with the larger issue of ethnic persistence and symbolization, as it occurs in northern New Mexico in the late twentieth century. The question of Hispano ethnicity and its relation to contemporary Mexicano - Chicano ethnopolitical identity and mobilization requires some discussion of ethnic theory. It also calls for a consideration of how the literature on Hispanos and New Mexico has been shaped by, and in turn contributes to, the history and sociology of the region. Although my perspective ishistorical, the materials drawn upon here and the approach brought to bear on the matter are primarily ethnographic. They derive mostly from research on interethnic relations and social change in contemporary Taos, which focuses on the economic and political situation of Hispanos or Mexicanos within what Bodine aptly named the "tri- ethnic trap. "8 The case of Taos, like Santa Fe, is perhaps idiosyncratic insofar as it is a tourism epicenter and therefore atypical of the Rio Arriba as a whole in several respects. It nevertheless exhibits, in extreme or accelerated form, the major features of the regional system of ethnic -race relations. Most importantly for the present discussion, Taos has become, by virtue of its combination tourism -welfare (or federally -dependent) economy, one of the principal focal points for the development of the self- conscious, constructed and reconstructed sense of Hispano or Spanish American cultural uniqueness that stands near the THE HISPANO HOMELAND DEBATE REVISITED 97 center of the controversy .9 Within the past twenty years or so, a new Hispano- Chicano ethnopolitical mobilization has emerged in Taos and elsewhere in northern New Mexico, which bears the mark of several local, regional, and national influences. It is with reference to these phenomena and the problem of accounting for them theoretically that this paper is concerned.

The Reactive Approach to Ethnicity Briefly, the reactive approach to ethnicity emphasizes the interactional or `secondary' rather than `original,' isolation -bred, or primordial nature of ethnic identity. Following Barth,1° the approach tends to focus upon the maintenance of ethnic boundaries rather than the preservation of specific cultural content. This method frees the investigator from the archaic task of trying to measure or explain ethnic persistence or assimilation by trait inventories. It also better fits the widely observed yet -to a primordialist view -seemingly paradoxical facts of ethnic persistence and resurgence in the face of continuing social and cultural change. Without dwelling upon its limitations in explaining, for example, the complex interaction between ethnicity and class in contemporary urban industrial settings, let me simply propose that a reactive approach constitutes a necessary, though not in itself sufficient, component for a working model of ethnic relations in northern New Mexico. Part of the confusion about whether Hispanos or Mexicanos in northern New Mexico ever constituted a culturally distinct and presumably self -conscious subgroup dissipates if the following points are acknowledged: (1) Ethnic boundaries serve to structure group relations and to organize differential access to and control over critical resources, particularly in situations of competition; (2) Ethnic difference and identity are historical products of ongoing interaction between groups; and (3) Ethnic boundaries are maintained and crossed by people who use them, more or less consciously (contingent upon various sorts of factors), as adaptive strategies in their everyday lives. They are nevertheless subject to the primary ascriptive dictates of such boundaries. Ethnic boundaries are, then, both situational and structural or structurally sustained. Probably the most obvious, though surely not unique, feature of the ethnic boundary system in the upper Rio Grande Valley or Río Arriba region is that while the cultural repertoires (not to mention genetic 98 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES makeup) of Indian, Hispano, and Anglo populations have undergone radical and continuous transformation during the past four hundred years, the boundaries between them persist and today seem to be maintained and protected with increasing self -consciousness if not intensity. From the start these boundaries defined, among other things, differential patterns of use and control over land, water, and other key resources. The history and prehistory of intergroup -and intragroup- relations in the region have been cast largely in the idiom of competition for and conflict over land and water. This is still true today.

The Nostrand Controversy The crux of the Hispano homeland debate seems to be that Nostrand and his supporters claim that historically, Hispanos constitute both an etically (outsider's "objective" viewpoint) and emically (insider's "subjective" viewpoint) distinct subcategory of Mexican/Mexican American. The extremist version of this thesis would even deny that Hispanos are Mexicano at all, but Nostrand himself has not argued for this. Ríos -Bustamante and Blaut (1984) deny any of it is true, and detect in Nostrand's claim the insidious workings of a divide -and -rule, imperialist paradigm. However, none of the principals seem seriously to be denying that Hispanos are Mexican Americans, or that real regional and other subcultural variations exist among the sociologically rather heterogeneous population of Mexican -descent peoples in the United States. Instead, as Hall notes, the argument is really over the social, political, and anthropological significance of these facts. Hall correctly contends that Nostrand's basic homeland thesis does not necessarily entail an imperialist interpretation of southwestern history." Yet the terms employed by Nostrand, for example when he speaks of Mexican influx as "diluting" Hispano culture, betray assumptions inherent in an outmoded primordialist notion of ethnicity. His commentaries, and those of his supporters Marc Simmons12 and Fray Angélico Chávez,33 moreover, seem to partake of a certain pervasive naiveté about the modern economic and political underpinnings of the "uniqueness" interpretation of New Mexican inter -racial history. The claim that a significant proportion of Hispanos of all classes in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado see and speak of themselves as related to but distinct from other Mexicanos and Spanish - speaking people is easily substantiated through direct observation and THE HISPANO HOMELAND DEBATE REVISITED 99 perusal of the scholarly and popular literature on the region. Adrian Bustamante14 and John Chávez15 have both argued that the "Spanish" or "Spanish American myth" was originally perpetuated by the Mexican (and mestizo) or Mexican American elite and middle classes as a self - protective strategy against the progressive institutionalization of Anglo American racism. That this strategy simultaneously served their own class interests and reflected Spanish racism against Indians is also apparent, and reminiscent of a similar pattern still observable in other isolated parts of Latin America, including the southern highlands of Mexico and in Guatemala. The historical antecedents of this go back to the Iberian Reconquest preoccupation with limpieza de sangre (cleansing of the [Spanish Christian] blood) that took shape under the Moorish occupation of Spain.1ó As John Chávez notes of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Anglos also assumed an active role in promoting the romantic fiction of a genteel Spanish "fantasy heritage" in California and elsewhere."It acquired further meaning throughout the Southwest in the post -1910 and bracero program periods, as a status distinction between United States -born Mexican Americans and recently arrived Mexican immigrants and migrant workers. In New Mexico, the Spanish myth was fostered by proponents of statehood who wanted to `bleach' the native population and thereby assuage anti -Mexican anxieties in Congress, and to encourage Anglo immigration into the region." The New Mexican Spanish myth has been further shaped in this century by the needs and dictates of the tourism industry, which has also had considerable impact upon the character and symbolic expression of Indian ethnicity." The main point to be made here is not that the Hispanos' post - American sense of themselves as geographically, historically, culturally, or even genetically distinct is a manifestation of false consciousness, nor even that out -group encouragement, touristic commercialization, or scholarly reification of this identity is imperialistically motivated. The basic point is that it happened. Like the self -conscious identity of any other ethnic population, Hispano ethnicity has been historically constructed. This makes it no less real, authentic, or anthropologically significant than an ostensibly `non -constructed' or `natural' ethnic identity. Instead, this very constructedness seems to be a generic feature of ethnicity. And just as it emerged and evolved in the past, Hispano identity, like Chicano and ethnic identity in general, is continuously being constructed, deconstructed, and reconstructed. The process 100 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES consists of ongoing everyday dialogue and interaction between regular people that occurs, for example, in Mora, East Los Angeles, Laredo, San Antonio, or Chicago. It happens on university campuses and at academic conferences, as well as in living rooms, parish and union halls, courtrooms, art galleries, political rallies, and so on. Indeed, scholarly views and the controversy in question are themselves creatures of this process: they express, reflect, and contribute to it in turn. Two aspects of the debate are important to consider. The first pertains to the idea of a homeland, while the other concerns the nature of the process that underlies the widely observed phenomenon of ethnic resurgence in developing and modern states. These two will be linked via an ethnographic consideration of recent events in Taos and Tierra Amarilla, examined for what they can tell us about the complexities of the ongoing negotiation of Nuevomexicano ethnic identity in relationship to land and water.

The Homeland Idea The first point to make about the Hispano or Chicano homeland is that the very idea is a creature of history. This is the basic import of John Chávez's book The Lost Land, which attempts to trace the theme of an ancient homeland, known as Aztlán, from the aboriginal Mexica to contemporary Chicanos in the U.S. Southwest. The term `lost homeland' is probably redundant since the very idea of a homeland implies territorial absence or loss. A brief comparison to Chávez's homeland idea will be pursued here in order to analyze Nostrand's. Their differences are instructive. Chávez's implicitly reactive argument shows how the homeland idea has gradually become more specific and articulated, but also that it has fluctuated through time. The idea has become explicit more or less concurrently with Chicano ethnopolitical mobilization. Chávez's lost land concept also differs from Nostrand's in that its scope is pan - Chicano rather than just New Mexican. Even though he does not prove his thesis, Chávez is correct in suggesting that a homeland mythos has emerged among Chicanos in response to their collective historical experience of foreign occupation, territorial expropriation, and immigrant isolation within Anglo America. The full heterogenous range of Mexican Americans encompasses both these poles of minority experience. This spectrum of experience has contributed to a mixed THE HISPANO HOMELAND DEBATE REVISITED 101 sense of place and dispossession among Mexicanos in the U.S. Southwest. Nostrand's homeland, on the other hand, is by definition exclusively Hispano or northern New Mexican. He sees the homeland as a pre - American phenomenon progressively diminished by Mexican infiltration, Anglo encroachment and assimilation. As noted earlier, Nostrand's approach is essentially primordialist. This is evident in his attribution of Hispano distinctiveness to the preservation of archaic Iberian elements through geographical isolation. In his view, contact with Mexicans from the south, or with Anglos later on, "diluted" and continues to erode Hispano cultural "purity." In response to Hansen's20 commentary, Nostrand nevertheless retreats from the implication that this process began before 1900, and he explicitly places the Spanish American phenomenon in the twentieth century.21Yet the very concept of Hispano difference, which its proponents are well prepared to document with trait inventories, implies pre -American origin. Part of the problem is that Nostrand infers cultural content from geographic distribution. By drawing a line between Hispanos and other norteños, he assumes what he needs to prove. The complex nuances of culture and ethnic membership cannot be proven one way or the other based on census data alone, as Meinig22 correctly notes. Prior to the twentieth century, the Hispano uniqueness thesis, which otherwise is presentist (or projecting contemporary meanings into past events), needs to be tested rather than presumed. Among other things, this would require intensive ethnohistorical study, including archival research, for ethnosemantic reconstruction of a possible early or even gradually emergent regional identity. One would expect the most salient boundaries and distinctions in pre- American times to be Mexicano/ Indian. Spanish/casta or Hispano /Mexicano distinctions would be along class rather than geographical lines. Undoubtedly the ethnic boundary system in New Mexico has changed through time, perhaps in the manner Gutiérrez proposes for the late colonial period, with transition from a caste to class -based society, accompanied by cultural change in marriage practice and ideology.23 The reader may feel some unease due to confused levels of abstraction about the term "homeland." It is therefore useful to call attention to Bateson's distinction between map and territory, and to differentiate between the homeland as map and as territory.24 Territory refers to the 102 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

actual land base lost by Mexicanos as a result of Americanization. I have argued elsewhere that this loss has been the historical stimulant for the homeland as map or symbol.25 It is this `map' or its significance that the whole Hispano homeland controversy is about. Both Chávez's and Nostrand's treatments are themselves expressions of the map or homeland idea, although they are not equally aware of the map /territory distinction. Nostrand's discussion is problematic partly because he confuses the two, even though his thesis ostensibly concerns territory pure and simple. The census data alone cannot prove his claims about intra- ethnic cultural variation. We have yet to see any clearcut evidence for pre -American Mexicano /Nuevo Mexicano difference or sense of difference not reducible to the metropolis /frontier, urban/rural, or civilization/backwater contrast. It seems quite probable that any such distinction in pre -American times would have been invidious to New Mexicans and anything but cultivated.

The Homeland Idea in the Río Arriba Today The most dramatic manifestation of the homeland in New Mexico has been the La Alianza Federal de los Pueblos Libres. This organization of dispossessed mercedes (or land grant) heirs in Río Arriba and other northern counties, led by its charismatic founder, Reies López Tijerina, came to international attention in 1967 with the Tierra Amarilla courthouse raid and its military aftermath. The symbolic import of that episode still reverberates throughout the Río Arriba today, even though Tijerina's actual political effectiveness has long since faded. The Alianza represents one of the most publicized American minority ethnopolitical mobilizations of the late 1960s. It's failed purpose was to bring to an international court of law the alleged violation of the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which resulted in the illegal and unjust dispossession of Hispano land grant heirs, and to restore the "lost" lands. Tijerina and the Alianza became symbols of the stolen homeland and of resistance to further dispossession. The movement explicitly placed the everyday struggle of individual Hispanos to keep their lands and surface waters within a historical, collective, symbolically charged context. The meaning of that context is still very much alive today in Taos and other northern New Mexico counties. In Taos, collective Hispano resistance to further dispossession has emerged since 1970 in the form THE HISPANO HOMELAND DEBATE REVISITED 103 of community-based grassroots protest against large -scale tourism developments. This included protest against Indian Camp Dam above Talpa and Ranchos southeast of Don Fernando de Taos, and against ski resort pollution of the Río Hondo some twelve miles north of the town. The Dam involved a conservancy district that would have flooded lands to create a lake, ostensibly for irrigation. Farmers opposed it when they realized the project was a government -sponsored recreational enterprise for which they would be taxed. After five years of resistance, the conservancy district was dissolved on a technicality. The ski valley protests involved mobilization against uncontrolled resort expansion and associated river pollution upstream above several Hispanic land grant villages and dispersed settlements 26 These cases are significant because they inaugurated ethnically mixed yet `legitimately' Hispano or Chicano direct action protest activity in Taos. Nevertheless, the dissidents represent a political minority within the total population. The following describes their constituency and organizational basis.

Hispano Mobilization and the Acequias Protests against the Indian Camp Dam, ski valley, and other resort developments in the early eighties were composed of three essential elements. These included officers of acequia and domestic water user associations, and, in some cases, of land grant associations, whose members are mostly older Hispanos and their families. They were joined by younger people, often self -identified Chicanos, who had migrated out but subsequently returned home, and by many ex- hippie Anglo environmentalists. The actual divisions at work in the resort protest battles are along class and urban -rural lines, although they are universally perceived as ethnic. This is because the core protest constituencies are based in community organizations that link households through the distribution of surface water on the one hand and ground water on the other. The ethnic significance of the acequias lies in the fact that they constitute the technical means by which traditional, village -based subsistence irrigation agriculture is carried out. They are, in other words, a key institution in the Hispano strategy of adaption to the semi- arid, topographically rugged Río Arriba bioregion. Physically, each ditch system delineates a bounded, self -identified resource domain coextensive with the village or community itserves. Each such 104 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES individuated resource domain is linked to every other within a given watershed, and often to those in adjacent watersheds. Now that most ejidos or commonlands are gone, the acequias are what is left of the material base for the traditional agro- pastoral economy. They remain the means by which Hispanos still exert majority control over arable microbasins surrounded by desert, piedmont and mountain. This control and the ownership it depends upon are now quickly eroding in the rural communities around Taos, under pressure from the real estate boom associated with luxury tourism development and the ski industry. So while the protest movements against such developments are ethnically mixed and individual Anglos may even play important roles in them, they nevertheless have a strong Hispano ethnic identification because the acequias are involved. It is within this context that Hispano cultural survival has become symbolically identified with specific tracts of land and water in the Taos area. The theoretical significance of all this is that the organizational basis for ethnopolitical mobilization in this case is local, small -scale, provincial and traditional. Yet itis commonly supposed, among theorists and politicians alike, that local, small -scale identity is an impediment to the formation of larger -scale identity such as class or nation. Hence the assimilationist thrust of modern efforts is to nationalize ethnic minorities, or to mobilize them along class rather than ethnic lines. This assumption seems to be shared by all the participants in the homeland debate except for Hall.27 In other words, they assume that any sense of Hispano distinctiveness, whether true or false, will impede the development of a broader, more progressive Chicano (or American, or working class) political consciousness, and is therefore undesirable or retrograde. Correspondingly, it is supposed that the processes of modernization relentlessly ordain the supercession of traditional localized identities by larger, more widely shared extralocal ones. Yet a moment's reflection reveals that contemporary world events simply contradict this supposition.

Hannan's Model Michael Hannan has proposed a theoretical resolution to the paradoxical but widespread observation that while modernization tends to cause a decline in ethnic diversity, it also seems to intensify the social and political importance of ethnic boundaries, at least under certain THE HISPANO HOMELAND DEBATE REVISITED 105 conditions. He attempts to link these two processes within a single conceptual framework that combines world systems theory at the macrosocial level with ethnic niche theory at the microsocial level. Hannan argues that: When modern centers penetrate the local community, they

undermine the salience of small -scale identities . . . Sustained mobilization in opposition to further penetration by the center must be on scale commensurate with that of the center. Therefore, successful penetration by the center alters the condition of competition among the various bases of collective action in a direction that favors large -scale identities.... The most important feature of the proposed theory is that it relates the reemergence of ethnicity to the process that typically destroys ethnicity. It implies that the center can be so successful in breaking down subsystem boundaries thatit creates the conditions for successful ethnic collective action in opposition.28 In other words, Hannan is proposing a dialectical process whereby opposition in the periphery, resulting from penetration by the core, necessarily becomes organizationally isomorphic with the core. Local - level oppositional organization accordingly grows larger and more complex, in order to meet the external onslaught effectively. Hence the widely observed emergence or increasing salience of large -scale ethnic identities, at a stage at which an earlier generation of theorists would have expected assimilation to be nearly complete. Hannan's formulation applies to what has been happening in the Rio Arriba. What the case of Taos demonstrates, where acequia officers and small farmers and ranchers join forces with urbanized Chicanos and Anglo environmentalists, is that the stepping stone to a new kind of collective ethnopolitical mobilization is a parochial, highly localized microniche -based ethnic identity. Rather than being an impediment to the emergence of a broad -based, extralocal Chicano identity, the traditional, small -scale organization has become the medium through which a larger identity is realized. Rooted in the village community, Hispano identity has become `Chicanoized' through modernization, outmigration, and resistance. Today this resistance is organized in part around the acequias, MDWUAs (Mutual Domestic Water Users' Associations), and mercedes, against tourism -generated real estate developments that threaten to consume already over -allocated surface waters and other key resources within traditional village resource 106 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES domains. These conflicts are articulated by their native participants as struggles for cultural survival and community self -determination. This attests to a heightened degree of ethnopolitical self -consciousness, at least in comparison to, say, four decades ago. That this phenomenon corresponds to the process Hannan describes is further borne out by the fact that acequia organizations have begun to band together to better protect their common interests, within and between watershed systems, and across the five northern Hispanic counties. It would seem, therefore, that contrary to the assumption shared by principals in the Hispano homeland debate, a strong, ethnopolitically mobilized northern New Mexican Hispano identity both enhances and in turn is reinforced by a broader Chicano identity. They are at odds neither theoretically or empirically. This is borne out by the fact that in Taos, the broader audiences or non -leadership constituencies for both Chicano (national- regional) and local Hispano forms of collective ethnopolitical and ethnocultural expression tend to overlap. For example, many of the same people or families involved in or at least supportive of anti -development protest activity are also involved in contemporaneous forms of ethnic cultural resurgence, such as ritual revivals within the parishes, or Chicano innovations such as Danza Azteca, lowriders, or local celebrations of Cinco de Mayo (not previously observed by Hispanos in Taos). Participants typically span different generations within extended families. The organizational foci or specific leaderships for these two forms of ethnic assertion do not, however, overlap.29

The Homeland in 1990 Since the mid- 1980s, developments have occurred in Taos and Tierra Amarilla that seem to add new complexity to the question of Hispano identity and its relation to land. In Taos an economic downturn (following closure of a molybdenum mine) has increased native outmigration and helped to diminish Hispano grassroots protest activism, but not cultural -religious revivalism. Resort development continues to escalate, and ever greater numbers of outsiders move into and through the town and ski resort areas. The major land -water issue in the local arena at the beginning of the 1990s concerns federal and state adjudication of all surface water rights in the Taos basin. This far -reaching litigation process pits the Taos Pueblo's THE HISPANO HOMELAND DEBATE REVISITED 107 prior claims to surface water rights against those of all its non -Indian neighbors across several watersheds. In Taos, Hispanos distinguish themselves from Anglos and Indians both, and under the influence of tourism and concomitant conditions of poverty, negotiate an increasingly precarious and self -conscious local identity. One of the lessons Taos offers is the reminder that in some locales at least, the self -definition of Hispanos unfolds within a tripartite way where the Hispano- Indian boundary is longstanding and emically important, in terms of territory, water rights, and perceived cultural difference. In Tierra Amarilla, a small town sixty-five miles to the northwest, the overall regional conditions of economic underdevelopment are even more extreme than in Taos. The local situation is also different. Tierra Amarilla is more remote, mountainous, and rural, with far fewer people and a smaller proportion of either Anglos or Indians than either Taos or Española (Rio Arriba county's largest town). It remains primarily ranching country, with little commercial development and a higher unemployment rate. Twenty -three years after the famous courthouse raid, some conditions in Tierra Amarilla remain much the same while others are changing. The Alianza no longer exists as it once did and Tijerina now lives isolated in a well- fenced compound in Coyote. A core of mostly younger former followers continues to work as activists along several fronts, including community health care, grassroots agriculturally - based economic development, water rights, and once again, the original front-the claim to and occupation of contested land within the Tierra Amarilla grant. This time, the conflict, resolved in 1989 with a land and monetary settlement made out of court, involved the armed occupation of a piece of land claimed on the one hand by a local small rancher named Amador Flores, and on the other by an Arizona -based real estate development company called Vista del Brazos. The purpose here is not to provide a detailed account of the legal or sociopolitical aspects of this particular case, but instead to call attention to the rhetoric and symbolism employed by local land grant activists in carrying out the protest activity. Although the new dissident leaders in Tierra Amarilla broke with Tijerina years ago and criticize his centralized style of leadership, those associated specifically with the 1988 land occupation were also organizationally centered on a single individual. This man is a longtime local activist who once served as Tijerina's bodyguard. Although the Flores land case attracted a moderate amount of media attention at state and national levels and enjoyed some loyal support, its active local 108 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES constituency was small and could not be described as a movement. Much of this has to do with regional and national conditions. The conservative post- Reagan era is not ripe for popular mobilization of anti- establishment dissidence. There are few if any ethnic or other countercultural protest movements going on in New Mexico or anywhere else in the U. S. Furthermore, as people in Tierra Amarilla themselves will say, locals who once supported the Alianza are today more cautious and perhaps more cynical as a result of the disillusionment that followed Tijerina's arrest and fall from popular grace. The potential costs of public dissidence, underscored by their own economic vulnerability, are well known to Nuevomexicanos. There may be another reason as well, which has to do with the particular rhetoric and symbolism employed by the leadership of the Flores land occupation. It is this aspect of the case that is of particular interest to the present discussion. The rhetoric and imagery adopted by the Flores land activists is explicitly that of the peasant land struggle of the Mexican Revolution. The matter began in 1985 when Vista del Brazos filed suit for quiet title to land Flores had claimed and used since 1968. The developer's claim was upheld in district court by a judge who subsequently jailed Flores for fifty -nine days in 1988 for publically burning the ejectment order and refusing to leave the land. Flores was then barred from the land under peril of further incarceration, but others continued to occupy it for more than a year before the matter was settled. The activists' policy decisions were made by a small consejo de ancianos (El Consejo de Tierra Amarilla), mostly older individuals within their extended families. The protesters virtually set up an armed camp on the land. They built a log bunker, raised the Mexican flag, and erected signs with the slogan "Tierra o Muerte, " featuring the familiar image of Emiliano Zapata. The newspapers ran photographs of the activists, who posed with rifles at the fence, and were quoted as saying they would fight to the death before leaving the land. Throughout, their leader and principal spokesman insistently referred to the people of Tierra Amarilla as Mexicans. No effort was made to eject the activists while the matter proceeded toward litigation. The number of dissidents resident on the land remained small through the winter, and while tension mounted over the issue, no overt manifestation of broad grassroots support for the action took place. On June 6, 1989, for example, the land activists organized a celebration of the twenty- second anniversary of the courthouse raid. THE HISPANO HOMELAND DEBATE REVISITED 109

The event featured a feast on the occupied land, a march along the highway from the land to the courthouse, and a rally at which several veterans of the raid and its aftermath spoke. Except for a few members of the organizers' extended families, almost no one from Tierra Amarilla attended. A number of outside supporters came, including a few Anglo activists, and a predominantly Anglo peace group from Denver. One reason for the poor turnout, as one local activist intimated, was that people did not like or relate to all the rhetoric about being Mexican (that is, Mexican Mexicans as opposed to plain old Mexicanos, the term used when speaking in Spanish). This is significant not because it seems to prove the claim that New Mexican Spanish Americans reject that which is Mexican, but because of its explicitly ideological character. The meaning we can draw from the noteworthy if not altogether compelling rhetoric of the Flores dissidents can equally be used to support the Mexicanist position regarding Hispano identity. Whether everyone in Tierra Amarilla related to the imagery, the fact is that it was used, and to some degree it worked. Here we see illustrated the practical implications of a theoretical issue along with the theoretical implications of a practical issue. In terms of any organizer's presumed purpose of mobilizing as many of the quiescent or disempowered as possible, the insistently Mexican irredentist rhetoric here would seem to amount to a tactical error in which political success was sacrificed to `ideological correctness.' Yet in the final analysis it also succeeded, insofar as it did publicize the land issue, and, as it turned out, resulted in an award of land and money to Flores and his wife in late 1989.30 While it might exemplify the sort of miscalculation a cultural outsider would make, this particular `error' was made by a working -class native, a grassroots leader and organic intellectual in the Gramscian sense. It is one often made by leftist leaders, and may be as much a consequence of the `leadership' role itself as of class or ethnic misidentification or `false consciousness.' The ethnic symbolization of land among northern Nuevomexicanos is a phenomenon which today intensifies as they urbanize and their actual land base diminishes. It both differentiates them from -and also identifies them with - Mexican or mestizo peasant populations, while simultaneously differentiating them locally from Indians and Anglos. The style or content of Hispano ethnic land symbolization is fluid and changes through time and with the particular context. It has borrowed in places and at times from other models, for example the Blue Lake case of Taos Pueblo, the Mexican Revolution, the Civil Rights Movement, 110 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES and even the Bible. The current land issue in Tierra Amarilla attests to a long and acrimonious history. It portends an uncertain future with respect to whether, how, and precisely which local Mexicanos will act to resist resort expansion and accelerated dispossession, and how they and others will conceptualize and symbolize their situation. Nuevomexicanos' sense of ethnic and cultural identity is tied explicitly to their land base and to the memory of a subsistence pattern, long superseded by the wage economy, which once embodied and now symbolizes this tie. However this situation unfolds differently in different areas. Before we can arrive at a broad, comparative level of analysis and understanding of this phenomenon, we must examine individual cases closely and in depth.

Conclusion Different instances of ethnopolitical mobilization have occurred in Taos and Rio Arriba counties during the past two decades, and have gradually assumed new expression. In Taos, Hispano cultural- religious revivalism, based in the parishes, has emerged alongside grassroots acequia -based community mobilization against resort development. Although it is still too soon to say, it may be that the former, because it is inherently less threatening to the local power structure and is more consonant with a pro -tourism ethos, will displace the latter. In Tierra Amarilla, the Alianza has been replaced by local activists working on several interrelated fronts that include ongoing issues of land and water ownership and use. There, the Alianza has left a mixed legacy of inspiration and disillusionment, while a younger generation of activists still pursues a variably authoritarian, variably popular grassroots strategy of ethnopolitical resistance. Explicit Mexicanist -irredentist rhetoric has emerged recently and even though it enjoys limited local appeal, it has succeeded in attracting some external support and media attention. Its future remains to be seen. We are left with several kinds of questions that call for further investigation. The first set of questions centers on the relation between ethnicity and class, and has to do with how, why, and under what circumstances ethnicity rather than class becomes an explicit or implicit basis for mobilization, or vice -versa. The interaction between the two, under conditions of socioeconomic and technological change and at different historical periods, needs to be examined comparatively in the THE HISPANO HOMELAND DEBATE REVISITED 111 upper Río Grande Valley, and elsewhere in the Southwest. The second set of questions concerns the specific social, political, and cultural - symbolic ways in which local, small -scale identities articulate with larger, extralocal ones, and conversely, how different organizational foci compete for members under different conditions. Particular cases must be examined in ethnographic and historical detail. A conceptual framework for the comparative, subregional analysis of ethnic identity among Mexicano populations throughout the Southwest can be constructed only after such investigations have been made.

NOTES

' Richard Nostrand, "The Hispanic -American Borderland: Delimitation of an American Culture Region," Annals of the Association ofAmerican Geographers 60, 4 (1970): 638- 661; "Mexican Americans Circa 1850," Annals of the Association of American Geographers 65, 3 (1975): 378 -390; "The Hispano Homeland in 1900," Annals of the Association of American Geographers 70, 3 (1980): 382 -396.

z J.M. Blaut and Antonio Ríos -Bustamante, "Commentary on Nostrand's 'Hispanos and their Homeland,'" Annals of the Association ofAmerican Geograpbers74, 1(1984):157- 163.

3 Richard Nostrand, "Commentary in Reply (to Hansen)," Annals of the Association of American Geographers 71, 2 (1981): 282 -283; "Hispano Cultural Distinctiveness: A Reply," Annals of the Association of American Geographers 74, 1 (1984): 164 -169.

4 Fray Angélico Chávez, "Rejoinder," Annals of the Association of American Geographers 74, 1 (1984): 170 -171.

5 Marc Simmons, "Rejoinder," Annals of the Association of American Geographers 74, 1 (1984): 169-170.

6 Thomas Hall, "Rejoinder," Annals of the Association of American Geographers 74, 1 (1984):171; D.W. Meinig, "Rejoinder," Annals of the Association of American Geographers 74, 1 (1984): 171.

John Bodine, "A Tri- Ethnic Trap: The Spanish Americans in Taos," Spanish -Speaking People in the United States. Proceedings of the American Ethnological Society. June Helm, ed. (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1968), pp. 145 -154. 112 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

8Briefly, the tri- ethnic trap is a situation in which Hispanos, unable to advance beyond clearcut secondary economic status and faced with the steady and irrevocable loss of their traditional land base, must abide by a tourism -engendered Anglo glorification of Indian culture, as well as the federal protection and even restoration in Indian lands, sometimes at the expense of Hispano ownership.

This broadly follows MacCannell's usage for "constructed" and "reconstructed" ethnicity. MacCannell proposes that ethnicity is constructed in response to colonialism, and reconstructed in response to tourism. Reconstructed ethnicity presupposes and also constitutes a special case of constructed ethnicity, which itself is largely the product of European colonization of non -western peoples and a fundamentally reactive phenomenon. Ethnic construction may occur under any of four basic asymmetrical relationships between groups: "First, an inferior group attempts to associate itself with a superior; second, the inferior group defines itself as the antithesis of the superior group or the superior group as the antithesis of itself; third, a superior group attempts to associate with and copy the ways of an inferior group; and fourth, a superior group defines itself as the antithesis of an inferior group or vice versa." The third is the situation of tourism is which reconstruction takes place. (See Dean MacCannell, "Reconstructed Ethnicity: Tourism and Cultural Identity in Third World Communities," Annals of Tourism Research 11, 3 (1984): 383.)

10 Fredrik Barth, "Introduction," Ethnic Groups and Boundaries. F. Barth, ed. (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1969), pp.9-38. 11 Thomas Hall, "Comment on the Nostrand, Hansen, Nostrand, Blaut and Ríos - Bustamante, Nostrand Debate," Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Western- Social Science Association, Fort Worth, (1985).

12 Marc Simmons, "Rejoinder," Annals of the Association of American Geographers 74,1 (1984): 169 -170. i3Fray Angélico Chávez, "Rejoinder," Annals of the Association of American Geographers 74, 1 (1984): 170 -171.

14Adrian Bustamante, "Los Hispanos: Ethnicity and Social Change in New Mexico," Ph.D. dissertation, University of New Mexico, (1982).

13John Chávez, The Lost Land. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1984). i6Ramon Gutiérrez, When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away. (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 1991).

17Also see Carey McWilliams, [1948] North From Mexico: The Spanish Speaking People of the United States. (New York: Greenwood Press, 1972).

18Erlinda Gonzales -Berry, "Introduction," Pasó por Aquí. E. Gonzales -Berry, ed. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1988), p. 10 n. 7. THE HISPANO HOMELAND DEBATE REVISITED 113

19Sylvia Rodríguez, "Land, Water, and Ethnic Identity in Taos," Land and Cultural Survival. Charles Briggs and John Van Ness, eds. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1987) pp. 313 -403; "Art, Tourism, and Race Relations in Taos: Toward a Sociology of the Art Colony, "Journal of Anthropological Research, 45, 1 (1989): 77- 99; "Ethnic Reconstruction in Contemporary Taos," Journal of the Southwest 32, 4 (1989): 541 -555.

20Niles Hansen, "Commentary on the Hispano Homeland in 1900," Annals of the Association of American Geographers 71, 2 (1982): 280 -282.

21 Richard Nostrand, "Commentary in Reply (to Hansen)," Annals of the Association of American Geographers 71, 2 (1981): 282 -283; "Hispano Cultural Distinctiveness: A Reply," Annals of the Association of American Geographers 74, 1 (1984): 164 -169.

22D.W. Meining, "Rejoinder," Annals of the Association of American Geographers 74, 1 (1984): 171.

23Ramon Gutiérrez, When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away. (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 1991).

24This is essentially the distinction between the thing or ding an sich and the symbol that represents it in human discourse. Drawing upon the semantic map /territory distinction proposed by Korzbski ( "the map is not the territory" or, to put it another way, "the word 'cat' cannot scratch us "). Bateson incorporated and elaborated upon this notion in his own discussions of epistemology. (See Gregory Bateson, "Form, Substance, and Difference," Steps to An Ecology of Mind.(New York: Ballantine Books, 1972), pp. 448 -466.)

25Sylvia Rodríguez, "Land, Water, and Ethnic Identity in Taos," Land and Cultural Survival. Charles Briggs and John Van Ness, eds. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1987), pp. 313 -403.

26 Sylvia Rodriguez, "The Impact of the Ski Industry on the Rio Hondo Watershed," Annals of Tourism Research 14, 1 (1987): 88 -103; "Land, Water, and Ethnic Identity in Taos," Land and Cultural Survival. Charles Briggs and John Van Ness, eds. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1987), pp. 313 -403.

27Hall states that subcultural identification can but does not necessarily impede the development of a larger political unity, and 'If one accepts the position that ethnicity is reactively created and that there is a general trend to larger, more wide -spread ethnic groups, then the identification and understanding of those features which impede such changes is vital to the construction of such a wider identity." Thomas Hall, "Comment on the Nostrand, Hansen, Nostrand, Blaut, and Ríos -Bustamante, Nostrand Debate," Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Western Social Science Association, Fort Worth, (1985), p. 10. 114 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

28 Michael Hannan, "The Dynamics of Ethnic Boundaries in Modern States," National Development and the World System. John Meyer and M. Hannan, eds. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979), pp. 255 -256.

29 Sylvia Rodríguez, "Ethnic Reconstruction in Contemporary Taos," Journal of the Southwest 32, 4 (1990): 541 -555.

30 The Flores land case was settled out of court when their lawyer established that scores of improper or private and privileged communications had taken place between the presiding judge and the attorney for Vista del Brazos. Whereas the merit of the Flores' land claim might have been contestable, their legal case quickly became a civil rights issue by virtue of the manner in which the court, or District Judge Bruce Kaufman, proceeded. The Flores ended up receiving a substantial monetary settlement (approximately $117,000) plus legal costs (approximately $164,000) and 200 acres of their originally claimed 500 or more. (See Tamar Stieber, "In Río Arriba, Jury Still Out on Land Settlement," Albuquerque Journal, September 3, 1989.)

WORLD,

July 10, 1969 VERDANT VIRGINNY

en el ceno i assail you del cocodrilo and una lágrima question seriously rompe el silencio all that you espouse in the way of civil rights and other power projections

for i know that the people will never know what it is that they must know in order to not only survive you but to live...

world, you come into the barrio (ghetto) and promulgate means of better capitulation from those you oppress.

and i know that you shall ever fear to extend the knowledge

that shall free us....

Ricardo Sánchez' CHICANOLOGY: A POSTMODERN ANALYSIS OF MESHICANO DISCOURSE

Francisco H. Vázquez

Why, indeed, will the people never know what they must know in order to live, to survive? Why the fear to extend the knowledge that shall free us? Poets like Sánchez were probably banished from Plato's republic for asking this kind of question. Today, however, the status of knowledge (what is truth? how do we know ?) is considered a crucial issue in academic circles. For example, Mario Barrera states: ...the politics of the Chicano community can be expected to revolve around both class and colonial divisions in a complex manner whose outlines we can only dimly perceive in the current period of confusion and redefinition.2 (my emphasis) More recently, in a review of the models used to study Mexican political behavior, Juan Gómez -Quiñones decries the dominant liberal - conservative pluralistic myths which "often are not only ahistorical but factually erroneous." He is also critical of the reactions against this analysis by some social scientists who (in) their haste to replace the dominant liberal interpretation with a more profound one, ... proved to be too facile in suggesting an

This essay is part of a study which was originally developed in 1981 -1982 with the support of a Faculty Fellowships for Minorities grant awarded by The Southern Fellowships Fund.

-117- 118 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

"internal colony model," a discrimination related to economic structures and later suggesting consciousness and language as explanatory factors.3 But this quest for "knowledge that shall free us," for adequate analytical models, is not characteristic only of Chicano Studies or Chicano reality. In effect,

(it) seems increasingly probable that Western culture is in the middle of a fundamental transformation: a "shape of life" is growing old. In retrospect, this transformation may be as radical (but as gradual) as the shift from a medieval to a modern society. Accordingly, this moment in the history of the West is pervaded by profound yet little - comprehended change, and uncertainty, and ambivalence.4

It is precisely, this shift from an industrial to a post -industrial society, this radical transformation of the global economy, of the way we produce knowledge, and thus culture itself, which is termed "postmodernism." Clearly, postmodernism includes a variety of transformations that involve everyday practices, economic organization, the grounding of science, aesthetics, ethics and philosophy. But even in the face of a multitude of positions regarding postmodernism, it is generally agreed that its most characteristic thesis addresses the relationship between power and knowledge.5 In this vein, I contend that the difficulties we- Meshicano6 poets, scholars, working men and women -encounter are based precisely on the intertwinement and symbiotic power/knowledge relations specific to the Meshicano. First, Michel Foucault's discussion of two predominant theories of power will be re- produced, along with his tentative hypotheses, suggestions and methodological guidelines for a different, perhaps more adequate, analysis of power? On this basis, the power/ knowledge relations manifested by and within Meshicano discourse in general and Chicano Studies in particular will be discussed.Finally, after mapping the geography of this discourse, the techniques and mechanisms through which it is robbed of its power will be described. May the following words serve, if for nothing else, as "una lágrima que rompe el silencio en el ceno del cocodrilo." There are two prominent systems for approaching the analysis of power. Both share a common point of what may be called an economism CHICANOLOGY: A POSTMODERN ANALYSIS 119 in the theory of power.8 In the juridical- liberal conception, power is taken to be a right that one is able to possess like a commodity.It can be transferred or alienated, either wholly or partly, through a legal act or some act that establishes a right, such as a contract. Power is what every individual holds, and whose partial or total cession enables political power or sovereignty to be established. This theoretical construction is based on the idea that the constitution of political power obeys a model of a legal transaction involving a contractual type of exchange. The other view, the general Marxist conception, sees power in terms of the role it plays in the simultaneous maintenance of the relation of production and class domination, which the development and specific forms of production have rendered possible. In this view, the historical justification of political power is to be found in the economy. Several questions need to be asked regarding these analyses of power. Concerning the juridical- liberal: Is power modeled upon the commodity? Is it possessed, acquired, ceded through a force or contract that one alienates or recovers, that circulates or voids on this or that level? With respect to the Marxist conception: Is power always in a subordinate position? Is its end purpose to serve the economy?Is it destined to realize, consolidate, maintain and reproduce the relations appropriate to the economy and essential to its functioning? Even if we allow that it is the case that the relations of power remain profoundly enmeshed in economic relations, what means are available to us today if we want a non- economic analysis of power? We can begin with the assertion that power is neither given, nor exchanged, nor recovered, but exercised, and only exists in action. Second, power is not primarily the maintenance and reproduction of economic relations. Above all it is a relation of force. The questions to be posed then would be these:If power is exercised, what sort of exercise does it involve? What is its mechanism? The immediate answer of many contemporary analysts is that power is repressive. It represses nature, the instinct, the social class, the individual. So, should not the analysis of power be the analysis of the mechanisms of repression? Another answer may be that if power is the way in which relations of force are put into effect and given concrete expression, it should be analyzed in terms of struggle, conflict and war. In these terms let us compare these major analyses of power. In the first place there is the old system found in the philosophies of the eighteenth century.This (juridical -liberal) approach is based on the 120 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES idea of power as an original right that is given up in the establishment of sovereignty, and the social contract as broker of political power. A power so constituted risks becoming oppression whenever it goes beyond the contract. Thus, we have contract -power, with oppression as its limit, or the transgression of this limit. On the Marxist side, we have an approach that analyzes political power in accordance with war - repression. In this view, repression no longer occupies the place of oppression in relation to the contract. It is not a violation of the contract but the mere effect and continuation of a relation of domination. Repression is none other than the play of a continuous relationship of force -warfare under the illusion of peace. This notion of repression, however, seems inadequate for capturing precisely the productive aspects of power.In defining the effects of power with a law that says "no," power is taken above all as carrying the force of prohibition.If power were never anything but repressive, if it never did anything but say no, would anyone be brought to obey it? What makes power accepted is simply that it does not only weigh on us as a force that says "no," but that it traverses and produces things. Power induces pleasure, forms of knowledge, produces discourse.9 There is, however, a historical reason for the acceptance of the analysis of power in terms of repression -as the mere limitation of liberty. The monarchies that appeared during the Middle Ages brought a measure of order and peace to the mass of warring forces that preceded them by a system of delimited territory and hierarchical authority. That authority was embodied in the sovereign and his /her law. From the Middle Ages on, the exercise of power has always been formulated in terms of law. Of course, there are times such as in seventeenth -century England or in late eighteenth -century France when monarchical authority was identified with arbitrary rule.Despite attempts to free law from monarchical rule and politics from juridical concerns, the representation of power isstill caught up in this system. Whatever criticism the eighteenth -century jurists made of monarchy in the name of the law, they never questioned the principle that power must be formulated in terms of law and exercised within the law -a principle that was established with the monarchy. The nineteenth century saw a more radical critique of political institutions. In this view real power operated outside the role of law. The legal system itself was a form of violence, a weapon to be used to reinforce political and economic inequalities. However, even this critique was based on the postulate that power CHICANOLOGY: A POSTMODERN ANALYSIS 121 should be exercised according to a fundamental right.Despite the differences of intent from one period to another, the representation of power has remained affected by the model of monarchy. In political thought and analysis the King has not yet been decapitated. Hence the importance still given, in the theory of power, to the problems of right and violence, law and illegality, will and liberty and, above all, the state and sovereignty (even if sovereignty is no longer embodied in the person of the sovereign, but in a collective being).10 What of the role of the state? To pose the problem presented by the analysis of power in terms of the state requires posing it in terms of a sovereign and sovereignty. That is, in terms of the law. If one describes all phenomena of power as dependent on the state machinery, this means grasping them as repressive (Le., the Army as a power of death, law enforcement and justice systems as punitive instruments). This is, of course, not to say that the state is not important. Rather, that relations of power (and the analysis that must be made of them) necessarily extend beyond the limits of the state. This is so for two reasons: first, the State, for all the might of its apparatuses, is far from being able to occupy the whole field of actual power relations, and second, it can only operate based on other already existing relations." For example, after reviewing several theories on the State and the terms of their applicability to the Meshicano experience, Barrera states: The Marxist structuralist perspective appears superior in that it better accounts for the imperfect control of the state by the dominant class. This is because this control is primarily exercised indirectly through the structure of the state rather than through direct control.'Z He expresses his frustration (perhaps unwittingly) at the inadequacy of the existing analyses: ...the most satisfactory formulation may be one that sees the most particular interests of capitalists satisfied through the interest group process and through placement of their own members in state positions, while the general interests of the capitalists as a class are attended to through the mechanisms stressed by structuralists.13 (my emphasis) Difficulties in the analysis of power arise precisely because, from medieval times onward, the essential role of Right has been to fix the legitimacy of power.In essence, the function of the discourses and 122 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES techniques of Right has been to erase the domination intrinsic to power and to present power under two different aspects: as the legitimate right of the sovereign, and as the legal obligation to obey it.14Thus, power becomes codified in terms of the Law. Under these circumstances, one must escape from the limited field of juridical sovereignty and base the analysis of power on the study of the techniques and tactics of domination. Domination is not meant here as the way in which power is exercised by one individual or group over another, but the manifold forms of domination exercised within society. It is necessary to show how Right is the instrument of domination. More importantly, there is a need to show the extent to which, and the forms in which, Right defines relations that are not relations of sovereignty but of domination. How was power transformed during the last three hundred years? How did it become less visible and codified in terms of the Law.15 A map to guide us through this transformation is provided in Chart 1. The top of Chart 1illustrates that power under feudalism was dependent upon the earth and its products.It extracted wealth and commodities from human bodies, was distributed with absolute power and absolute expenditure, was exercised through periodic levies and legal obligations, and was centered on the sovereign.Power under capitalism, however is dependent on human bodies and what they do (bio- power).16 It extracts from them time and labor.Its distribution is according to a new economy of power: minimum expenditure, maximum return.It is exercised through continuous surveillance, and is centered on Collective Sovereignty or Public Law. This new type of power, which can no longer be formulated in terms of sovereignty, is one of the great inventions of bourgeois society. It has been a fundamental instrument in the constitution of industrial capitalism. This non -sovereign power is disciplinary power. Yet, the theory of sovereignty has continued to exist as an ideology of Right. It has also provided the organizing principle of the legal codes that Europe acquired with the nineteenth century Napoleonic Code." CHICANOLOGY: A POSTMODERN ANALYSIS 123

CHART 1

Nature of Power In Feudalism Capitalism

Dependent upon Earth and its products Human bodies and what they do

Extract from human bodiesWealth and commodities Time and labor

Distribution of power Absolute power New economy Absolute expenditure of power: Minimum expenditure, Maximum return

Exercised through Periodic levies and legalContinuous obligation surveillance

Centered on The sovereign Collective sovereignty

Rules of Law Public Right

Human Sciences: Power linked to Scientific Knowledge

Rules of Norm I Disciplinary mechanisms

Despite differences between Feudalism and Capitalism, power is conceived in terms of sovereignty.This serves to conceal the increasing invasion of procedures of normalization into the domain of Law.

The lower part of Chart 1 addresses the question of why the theory of sovereignty has persisted as an organizing principle of all major legal codes. There are two discernable reasons. As noted before, it has been a permanent instrument of criticism of the monarchy. At the same time, however, the theory of sovereignty, and the organization of a legal code 124 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES have allowed a system of Law to be superimposed upon the mechanisms of discipline in such a way as to conceal them.It hides the elements of domination inherent in its techniques. Paradoxically, it guarantees to everyone, by virtue of the sovereignty of the State, the exercise of individual rights. Modern society, then, has been characterized, from the nineteenth century to our own day, by (1) the social body and the delegative status of each citizen that articulate an organization (discourse, legislation) based on public right, and (2) a closely linked grid of disciplinary coercions whose purpose is to assure the cohesion of this same social body. These two limits define the area in which power is exercised.Now, in reference to the disciplines, such as the human sciences, it is clear they are concerned with scientific discourse. As such, they do not have anything in common with the discourse of law, rule or sovereign will. When disciplines speak of a rule, they do not intend this as a juridical rule derived from sovereignty but as a natural law, a norm. Thus, the code they come to define is not that of Law, but of normalization. The human sciences are disciplines, which produce knowledge regarding human behavior. Ostensibly, this is done from a scientific, non -ideological perspective. While it is more or less accepted that the social or human sciences have advanced from increasingly scientific techniques, it is more likely that it is the juxtaposition of the right of sovereignty and a polymorphous disciplinary mechanism that makes them possible. Thus, it can be said that the procedures of normalization increasingly engage in the colonization of those of Law.'8 Disciplines, as bodies of knowledge, truth and power, tend to increase the productivity of the human body (in economic terms of utility) and diminish these same forces (in political terms of obedience). They dissociate power from the human body. On one side discipline forms it into an "aptitude," a "capacity," which it seeks to increase. On the other side, it reverses the course of the energy, the power that might result from it, and turns it into a relation of strict subjection.19 This is precisely what Paulo Freire calls education for domination.20 If economic exploitation separates the force and the product of labor, disciplinary coercion establishes in the individual the constricting link between an increased aptitude and an increased domination. To be sure, legal and normative standards have intersected in a variety of ways, some positive, others negative. The problem, of course, is not the human sciences or other disciplines per se, but the insidious ways in which CHICANOLOGY: A POSTMODERN ANALYSIS 125 power establishes particular relationships with knowledge.21 Disciplinary normalization, then, seems to be coming into increasing conflict with the juridical systems of sovereignty. The critical problem is that against the transgression of disciplinary mechanisms, against the ascent of a power tied to scientific knowledge, we find that there is no solid recourse available to us today, except that which lies in the return to a theory of Right organized around sovereignty. This is the predicament in which we find ourselves. In short, modem society is characterized by manifold relations of power that permeate and constitute it. These relations cannot themselves be established, consolidated or implemented without the production, accumulation, circulation and sanctioning of discourses. Power never ceases itsinterrogation, inquisition or registration of truth.It institutionalizes, professionalizes and rewards its pursuit. As a material entity, discourse is subjected to a political economy of truth, so that finally we must produce truth as we must produce wealth. Indeed, we must produce truth to produce wealth in the first place. We are also subjected to truth in the sense that it is truth that makes the laws, that produces the true discourse which, at least partially, decides the effects of power.In the end, we are judged, condemned, classified and destined to a certain mode of living or dying, as a function of the true discourses that are the bearers of the specific effects of power.22 This particular idea of the relationship between power and knowledge leads to the following methodological guidelines:

1.) Where there is power there is resistance. Thus, the focus is not on the regulated and legitimate forms of power in their central location or on the general mechanisms through which they operate. The focus is on power at its extremities, in its more regional and local forms and institutions. Of main concern is the point where power surmounts the rules of Right that delimit it, invests itself in institutions, becomes embodied in techniques and equips itself with instruments and eventually even violent means of material intervention. One should try to locate power at the extreme points of its exercise, where it is less legal in character. 2.) The analysis of power should not concern itself with power at the level of conscious intention or decision.It should avoid questions such as "who has power and what has she or he in 126 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

mind ?" or "what is the aim of someone that has power ?"It is instead a matter of studying power at the point where its intention, ifit has one, is completely invested in real and effective practices. The analysis is on the everyday life, on how things work at the level of on -going subjugation, those continuous processes that target the labor of our human bodies, dictate our behaviors, and even attempt to govern our gestures. 3.) Power is not to be taken as a phenomenon of one individual's domination over others or that of one group or class over others. What should always be kept in mind is that power is not that which makes the difference between those who exclusively have it and retain it, and those who do not have it and submit to it.It is not something that is acquired, seized or shared. Power must be analyzed as something that circulates, as a process, as a continuous chain, a rhizome. It is never localized here and there, never in anybody's hands, never appropriated as a commodity or piece of wealth.Power is exercised from innumerable points, in the interplay of nonegalitarian and mobile relations. 4.) Power comes from below. The important point is not to attempt some kind of deduction of power starting at the top and aimed at the discovery of the extent to which it moves down to and permeates the base.Instead, one must conduct an ascending analysis of power, starting from its micro -mechanisms and then noting how these have been colonized, invested, transformed and extended.. Anything can be deduced from the general phenomenon of the domination of the bourgeois class. What needs to be examined is quite different. One must suppose that the manifold relationships of force that take shape and come into play in the machinery of production, in families, groups, and institutions, are the basis for wide -ranging effects of cleavage that mn through the social body as a whole. These then form a general line of force that traverses the local oppositions and links them together.Major dominations are the hegemonic effects that are sustained by all these confrontations. 5.) Relations of power are not in some kind of superstructural relationship with other types of relationships such as economic processes, knowledge relationships, sexual relations, etc. Power relations are the immediate effects of the divisions, inequalities and disequilibriums that occur in said relations and conversely they are the internal conditions of these differentiations. They CHICANOLOGY: A POSTMODERN ANALYSIS 127

are not ideological constructs with a role of prohibition or accompaniment; they have a directly productive role whenever they come into play.23 We have come full circle in the examination of the juridical -liberal and the Marxist theories of power and their limitations. We discussed the historical reasons for their common grounding in the analysis of power in terms of repression/sovereignty and presented an analysis that reverses the trajectory followed by these two theories. The methodological guidelines lead us to the discovery of an exercise of power that simultaneously increases the forces of domination, and improves the force and efficacy of its techniques of domination. This is made possible by the appearance of mechanisms of discipline concealed under a theory of Right. These mechanisms of power refer to disciplinary discourses, such as the human sciences, which behind a constant pursuit of scientific truth, mask their inherent domination and begin to invade the domain of the Law. In the final analysis, knowledge is not so much true or false as legitimate or illegitimate for a particular set of power relations. And now to explore the relevance of this analysis of power to Meshicano discourse.

Meshicano Discourse and the Analysis of Power In the previous section we referred to power in terms of a political economy of truth. This economy can be characterized by five important traits: Truth is centered on scientific discourse and the institutions that produce it; it is subject to constant economic and political manipulation (for economic production and political power); itis the object of immense diffusion and consumption (circulating through systems of education and information); it is produced and transmitted under the control, dominant if not exclusive, of a few great political and economic systems (university, media, military, literary).Lastly, it is the issue of political debate and social confrontation (ideological struggle).24 Now we need to ask the following questions: In specific discourses, such as Meshicano discourse, what are the most immediate, the most local power relations at work? How did they make possible this type of discourse?Conversely, how is this discourse used to support power relations? How is the action of these power relations modified by their very exercise?Finally, how are such power relations linked to one 128 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES another according to the logic of a great strategy? A clue to the direction that must be followed is provided by two studies based on the analysis of discourse. In The Invention of Africa, V.Y. Mudimbe is"directly concerned with the processes of transformation of types of knowledge." The fact of the matter is that, until now, Western interpreters and African analysts have been using categories and conceptual systems that depend on a Western epistemological order. Even in the most explicit "Afrocentric" descriptions, models of analysis explicitly or

implicitly, knowingly or unknowingly, refer to the same order... . What does this mean for the field of African studies? To what extent can their perspectives modify the fact of a silent dependence on a Western episteme?25

Edward W. Said is more explicit in his analysis of scholarly studies that deal with the Orient: Orientalism can be discussed and analyzed as the corporate institution for dealing with the Orient -dealing with it by making statements about it, authorizing views of it, describing it, by teaching it, settling it, ruling over it: in short, Orientalism as a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient

. . . My contention isthat without examining Orientalism as a discourse one cannot possibly understand the enormously systematic discipline by which European culture was able to manage -and even produce -the Orient politically, sociologically, militarily, ideologically, scientifically, and imaginatively during the post - Enlightenment period.Moreover, so authoritative a position did Orientalism have that I believe no one writing, thinking or acting on the Orient could do so without taking into account the limitations on thought and action imposed by Orientalism.In brief, because of Orientalism the Orient was not (and is not) a free subject of thought or action. This is not to say that Orientalism unilaterally determines what can be said about the Orient, but that it is the whole network of interests inevitably brought to bear on (and therefore always involved in) any occasion when that peculiar entity "the Orient" is in question.26 What Mudimbe and Said are stating here are counter -hegemonic positions against a dominant body of knowledge: the discourse of the West. We might say there is a Chicano Studies discourse that plays a CHICANOLOGY: A POSTMODERN ANALYSIS 129 similar role with respect to the power relations between Anglos and Chicanos. What is that Anglo body of knowledge that "invents" Chicanos, the counterpart to Orientalism? To be sure, there are stereotyped images of the Meshicano present almost everywhere. Carlos E. Cords, for example, has conceptualized the Societal Curriculum: "that massive, ongoing informal curriculum of family, peer groups, neighborhoods, mass media, and other socializing factors which `educate' us throughout our entire lives. "27Much longer than one lifetime, however, there is also a "historical curriculum" known as the "Black Legend," a collection of anti -Spanish, anti -Catholic statements, that can be traced to the sixteenth century!28 More recently, in the early twentieth century, we find an academic discipline, sociology, which played a similar role. It, too, defined Chicanos in terms of a traditional culture, as people who were not free subjects of thought or action." Similarly, Américo Paredes in his search for the folklore of the Anglo Texan finds what he calls "the Texas Legend," which he attempts to categorize as either folklore, fact or "something else. "30Echoing the "Black Legend" discourse that has functioned since the sixteenth century, the Texas Legend basically states that "the Mexican is cruel by nature ... cowardly and treacherous ... as degenerate a specimen of humanity as found anywhere...he descends from the Spaniards, a second -rate type of European, and from the equally substandard Indian of México...and the Mexican has always recognized the Texan as his superior. "31 Paredes is puzzled that this legend is not found in the cowboy ballads, the play -party songs, or the folktales of the people of Texas. Paredes concludes this legend is pseudo -folklore which, disguised as fact, still plays a major role in Texas (we might say Meshicano) history. Implicit in this conclusion is the relation of the legend to two sources of power where it appears; that is "the written works of the literary" (where the power of knowledge is exercised) and "among a class of rootless adventurers who have used the legend for their own purposes (where raw, physical power is exercised)." This illustrates the contention that power is tolerable only on the condition that it masks a substantial part of itself.Its success is proportional to its ability to conceal itself. Stereotypes, academic disciplines, and legends or pseudo -folklore disguised as fact, however, do not quite fit the role of a "corporate institution that manages or produces Chicanos politically, sociologically and imaginatively" that Said finds in Orientalism. Yet, we know such discourse exists as a hegemonic power because we live with 130 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES it, struggle against it, analyze it, and write about it. How can a discourse like that have so much influence on our everyday life and remain unnamed? This is no mystery; it illustrates the power relations between Chicanos and Anglos. For example, the subject of this discourse, the Meshicano, is identifed as "a forgotten people," "a minority nobody knows," and "the invisible minority." Or, once "discovered" or "awakened" Chicanos are defined as Hispanics, Latinos, Mexican Americans, Spanish Americans, and so many other names that no single definition is possible.This highly diffused discourse that appears as stereotypes, social science, legends, or pseudo -folklore disguised as fact is, in effect, a politicized science of Chicanos. This logos gives statements about Chicanos the status of truth, thus it is a Chicanology that serves as a fundamental tool of domination. Paraphrasing Said, we can say that Chicanology is the whole network of interests inevitably brought to bear on any occasion when that peculiar entity "the Meshicano," is in question. No one writing, thinking or acting on the Meshicano can do so without taking into account the limitations on thought and action imposed by Chicanology. It is precisely the expression of power intrinsic to Chicanology that engenders a Meshicano discourse, understood poetically as "that which we must know in order to survive." More specifically a knowledge that in the politics of truth of Anglo America is never allowed the status of truth. Without the status of truth, Meshicano discourse cannot invest its statements on institutions and their practices.Itisa subjugated, oppositional knowledge. Such knowledge is defined as the historical contents that have been buried and disguised in a functionalist coherence or formal system.It is the whole body of knowledge that has been disqualified as inadequate or insufficiently elaborated. It is popular knowledge, though not common sense. It is a particular, local, regional knowledge, a heterogeneous knowledge incapable of unanimity that owes its force only to the harshness with which it is opposed by everything surrounding it.32 Consequently, subjugated and oppositional knowledges are concerned with a historical knowledge of struggles. Whether itisin specialized areas of erudition (such as doctoral dissertations) or in the disqualified popular knowledge (such as corridos, rap songs, and jokes) we find the memory of hostile encounters. Films like Seguún, The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez, and Zoot Suit are examples of these memories. In the context of availability to the dominant culture, these are, even up to this day, confined to the margins of knowledge. CHICANOLOGY: A POSTMODERN ANALYSIS 131

(And they were intended for the general public!) Within the power relations between Chicanology as a discourse of dominance and Meshicano discourse as a subjugated (and thus oppositional) knowledge we can see the conditions for the appearance of Chicano Studies as we commonly understand the term.Chicano Studies is a specific form of struggle, a particular practice within Meshicano discourse that stands in a counterhegemonic position to Chicanology. In effect, the claim that Chicano Studies is an academic discipline (that it is based on a logical, empirical structure and that therefore its propositions are the outcomes of verifiable procedures) is the attempt to invest it with the effects of power that have been attributed to science since Medieval times.33 The important point is that this is not a battle "on behalf' of truth but a struggle "about the status of truth" and the economic and political role it plays. Until this is clearly understood, there is the possibility that Chicano Studies may be appropriated by Chicanology. We have defined Chicanology as an elusive yet systematic hegemonic discourse that expresses and actualizes Anglo domination over Chicanos, and Meshicano discourse as a diffuse, subjugated, oppositional knowledge resulting from the struggle against Anglo power. Chicano Studies has been defined as a specific discursive practice within Meshicano discourse that attempts to acquire power by claiming academic and scientific validity.Several questions remain, however, regarding the scope and configuration of Meshicano discourse and the procedures by which it is controlled.

The Geography of Meshicano Discourse A map of the power /knowledge relations that define the Meshicano people since the United States invaded northern México (or since Columbus tripped over this continent) needs to be drawn. Because of space limitations, however, here it is only possible to trace the key statements of this discourse. Now, according to the guidelines that have been established above, power must be analyzed as something that circulates, as a process, as a continuous chain, and Meshicano discourse as an oppositional knowledge, which owes its power precisely to the harshness with which it is opposed by everything that surrounds it. To adhere to these points, then, it is necessary to refer to rhizomes:34 132 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

(Any) point of a rhizome can be connected to any other, and must be.... Semiotic chains of every nature are connected to very diverse modes of coding (biological, political, economic, etc.).

It is not a question of this or that place on earth, or of a given moment in history, still less of this or that category of thought. It is a question of a model that is perpetually in construction or collapsing, and of a process that is perpetually prolonging itself, breaking off and starting up again.

(The) rhizome pertains to a map that must be produced, constructed, a map that is always detachable, connectable, reversible, modifiable, and has multiple entryways and exits and its own lines of flight.

On this basis, a specific event is here presented as an entryway into the geography of Meshicano discourse.It is one that exhibits a very particular kind of semiotic chain. On April 13, 1972, Ricardo Chávez Ortiz, a Mexican national, hijacked a Frontier Airlines 737 Jet from Albuquerque, New Mexico, with an unloaded gun. The hijacker ordered the plane flown to Los Angeles, California. According to the Los Angeles Times, his request was not for money or to be flown somewhere, or to release prisoners. He requested "live broadcast time in which to voice the frustrations of a man who feared the world would not listen to his problems, and those of his people, under any other circumstances. "35 Thus, in terms of the analysis here discussed, this event shows power at its extremes. It involves an illegal act, the threat of violence and, potentially, an international incident.It also involves issues that were being discussed at the academic level. Ironically, while Chicano faculty and students were trying to prove the truth of their statements, Chávez Ortiz appropriated the means togive the status of truth to his statements. Addressing himself to Anglo Americans, Chávez Ortiz made the following statements:

I have felt an obligation to do this bad deed but not only for the situation of my family but ... it is much more delicate and dangerous for the new generation than you can imagine... I(told) myself: ask for what you need and make them realize that we are also the children of god ... I wanted to attract the attention of everyone in this nation and to say to everyone once and for all, what type of CHICANOLOGY: A POSTMODERN ANALYSIS 133

human beings we are...What I need to say to you and that you need to pay very close attention to (is that) on the path we are following, there are going to come very disastrous and terrible days ...All you do is let the days go by and maybe tomorrow, maybe the next day, there will be a chance, there will be a new governor or a new president, yakkity, yakkity... . Don't always think about your good clothes and having enough to eat and your good friends ... The Americans (Anglos) go and send rockets to the moon. Yes, go ahead and do whatever you want to do while we become rebellious ... All I want is for Mexicans to know that this is Mexican land and always will be...This land that we are working on was a divine gift... Iwould not admit to any son of a bitch that my nation is for sale or in servitude.. . I was held in captivity for two years and all I had was the right to search through garbage cans for something to eat. I also worked for two years without being paid one single cent ... Where was justice at this time? Where were the authorities? I have a great fear of going out into the street because I am afraid that at any moment a policeman will take his pistol and shoot me.36 Thus, in thirty -five minutes of air time, bought with the violation of a federal law, Chávez Ortiz revealed to the world the harshness that surrounds Meshicano discourse. His statements include the following key points: (1) an assertion of the basic humanity of the Meshicano with reference to god, (2) Anglo indifference to social justice and emphasis on materialistic values, (3) empty political promises, (4) the land grab, (5) Meshicano nationalism, (6) the imposition of a colonial labor system, and (7) police brutality. This collection of observations and accusations, however, is not only the "frustrations of a man" or an example of individual alienation. It is that and much more.Leaving aside the question of how "aware" he was of the significance of his act, what he said is equivalent to a microcosm of Meshicano discourse.It is a holographic fragment of the Meshicano experience, a rhizome. The critical relationship to the geography of Meshicano discourse is that these statements represent a specific articulation, of the "governing" statements that emerge, to some extent, in every event in Meshicano history. These are: (1) racial theories, (2) the land grab, (3) the establishment of a colonial labor system, (4) the system of justice, (5) nationalism, (6) education, (7) internal divisions, and (8) the right of self 134 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

preservation.In other words, specific arrangements or assemblages of these statements give Meshicano discourse a sort of regularity that has been in operation since the United States invaded Northern México, now known as the Southwest.A regularity that can also be seen in rhizome terms, as "a model that is perpetually in construction or collapsing, and of a process that is perpetually prolonging itself, breaking off and starting up again." At any rate, this discursive regularity appears at different times, and in different circumstances. Thus, one could take a journey tracing these metamorphoses from, say, the guerrilla tactics of Juan N. Cortina or Las Gorras Blancas, the social banditry of Tiburcio Vásquez or Joaquín Murrieta, the increasing sophistication in organizing from the mutualistas, the Magonistas, and other union efforts to the G.I. Forum, L.U.L.A.C. (League of United Latin American Citizens), the Viva Kennedy Clubs and La Raza Unida Party. The journey would take us to different levels of the Power /Knowledge relationship, with the emergence of particular discourses: the Chicano Student Movement, the Chicano Artistic Renaissance, and the Chicano Studies programs /curriculums. Today we witness the appearance of a new object of political, economic and epistemological attention: the Hispanic. Despite the variation, that is, no matter the level of specificity of the statements, they constitute a Meshicano discursive regularity because of the implicit or explicit threat, or actual practice of violence.

Procedures for the Control of Chicano Discourse There is, however, another aspect to the statements made by Chávez Ortiz that go beyond the geography of Meshicano discourse and point to the specific procedures by which it is dominated. I could very easily force this plane to go to Mexico and I could have demanded three or four million dollars...and I assure you that I would have been able to avoid capture there... I am a pretty smart person. And I know how to use my intelligence so I can get along well with my family. You are the ones that make the laws and elect the governments. Well what are you doing, what kind of governments are you electing? What kind of society are you making? I want ... a clean society not a filthy traitorous society like the one we are presently CHICANOLOGY: A POSTMODERN ANALYSIS 135

living in...If that is what the laws are like, then the laws are for the protection of the capitalists, or, in other words, to protect the government. There is a Mrs. Bañuelos (U.S. Treasurer 1971 to 1974) ... She has trampled on a lot of people and because of this she is a son of a bitch37...only very capable people and good hearted with good intentions ... have the right to obtain positions like these... . The children that I have ... attended school for many years and they know absolutely nothing.38 These statements refer to points of struggle between Chicanology and Meshicano discourse: (1) the question of intelligence, (2) the ambiguous nature of the law as applied to Chicanos, (3) the status given to speakers of Meshicano discourse and (4) educational institutions and processes. These points will be used to illustrate some of the techniques, mechanisms and procedures for the control of discourse.Through these, Chicanology selects, organizes, and redistributes Meshicano discourse in order to deflect its power, to neutralize its impact on public policy.39However, let us first finish the story of the hijacking. The event ended with the conviction of Chávez Ortiz on charges of air piracy. He was given a life sentence and released in 1978. To the chagrin of his supporters, his only logical defense was based on "diminished capacity," not being "mentally competent and criminally responsible. "40 This may seem ironic. However, from a Chicanological perspective, this is a technique to invalidate this tactical (as opposed to strategic)41 articulation of Meshicano issues. The procedures for the control of Meshicano discourse are illustrated by the following examples that include the points raised by Chávez Ortiz and others taken from Meshicano history.

Prohibition This is perhaps the most obvious procedure and many examples of it are found in Meshicano history. There was the prohibition to speak Spanish under penalty of bodily punishment or suspension from school (some people swear it still happens). In the late nineteenth century the singing of corridos about Meshicano bandidos was illegal, and early in this century the practice of red -baiting inhibited Mexicanos and Chicanos from speaking up for better wages and working conditions. This led to 136 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES the demise of unions such as the Cannery and Agricultural Workers Industrial Union (CAWIU) and organizations like the Congreso de Habla Española during the 1930s. Certainly Ricardo Flores Magón experienced the effects of prohibition around the turn of the century.He was incarcerated nine times for speaking or writing radical political doctrines.

Reason vs. Insanity There is a more subtle technique of intervention in the control of discourse that is based on the contrast between Reason (usually on the side of the dominant power) and Insanity (usually on the side of those who are subjugated). Thus, Ricardo Chávez Ortiz had to plead insanity for hijacking a plane in order to protest the oppression of the Mexicano in the United States. Furthermore, Meshicanos have not only been overrepresented in mentally retarded classes, but their cultural characteristics have been categorized as deviant. A revealing example of this practice is the statement made by the Texas historian Walter Prescott Webb about the Plan de San Diego of 1915.He does not believe that Mexicans wrote the plan because "the disturbances had behind them a purpose, an intelligence greater than that of the bandit leader or of his ignorant followers."Instead, he attributes it to an ambitious Texan or Germans. While it is not clear who the author of this plan was, it is known that Aniceto Pizáña and Luis de la Rosa, Mexicans native to Texas, led military actions at that time.42Similarly, Commodore John D. Sloat, who took over Monterey Port in 1846, could not understand why Chicanos were planning to rise against him.

Truly this procedure is more that of insane people than of persons in their right minds, because if they had common sense they would understand that I am too strong to allow myself to be forced to give up what I have acquired.43 At a different level, in American fiction, there are many Mexican characters who suddenly and inexplicably, go temporarily crazy. One thinks for example of Spanish Johnny in Willa Cather's The Song of the Lark, and Danny in John Steinback's Tortilla Flat.44It is in this context that we can appreciate the force behind Chávez Ortiz's insistence on his intelligence. CHICANOLOGY: A POSTMODERN ANALYSIS 137

Validity An even more insidious technique to deny the validity of what is said is the assignment of the status of truth to certain events or statements. In other words, the regime of truth appropriates the right to decide the distinction between true and false statements, the correct method to acquire knowledge and who is qualified to speak the truth 45 This is, as noted before, not a matter of what is true, but of what can be made to appear as true. To find examples of this technique, one need only open any Chicano history book: the violation of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the blurring of what is justice and injustice in the second half of the nineteenth century, the exclusion of Chicanos from labor unions and schools, the manipulation of immigration laws, deportations, the zoot -suit riots, and charges of "reverse discrimination." From the perspective of Meshicano discourse and Chicano Studies, every one of these instances represents a struggle to establish what actually happened as opposed to what has been given the status of truth.

Academic Control of Discourse Even in academic disciplines we find procedures of control in the production of truth.46 Disciplines allow us to build a discourse, but only within a narrow framework. They are defined by groups of objects of study, methods, a body of propositions considered to be true (the literature), and the interplay of rules, definitions, techniques and tools. In order to speak the truth within a discipline, one must obey the rules of some discursive policy that takes the form of a permanent reactivation of a set of rules.It is precisely the resistance to these rules and regulations that gives rise to a Chicano Studies discipline.The first generation of Chicanos who entered academia found that history, political science, sociology and other academic disciplines were somehow detrimental to their search for knowledge about their own culture. Through the establishment of Chicano Studies, these scholars hoped to validate their discourse. But this validation was thwarted by restrictions in terms of material support.Meshicano professors were denied tenure, Chicano Studies courses were not required for graduatión, programs were funded with "soft" monies, editors and publishers would not publish articles or books by Chicanos, and many that were published, soon were out of print.There are, of course, exceptions. 138 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

The rule is, however, that the knowledge provided by hundreds of dissertations, studies and research projects did not have the effect on institutional practices that they might have if the authors had been speaking from positions within the dominant culture.

Status of Chicano Intellectuals There are various methods to limit the number of people who are given the charge of speaking the truth. One of these methods is the establishment of the status of the speaking individual through (1) the criteria of competence; (2) systems of differentiation and relation with other individuals or groups with the same status; (3) the function of this status in relation to society in general and the Meshicano community in particular; (4) the institutional sites that lend legitimacy to their statements; and (5) the various positions occupied by the speaking individual in information networks.This allocation of individuals is determined by a "politics of truth " -a Chicanology.Thus we find ourselves in a very uncomfortable position when we realize that our demand for more Meshicanos in positions of authority has not been realized in terms of the acquisition of power. Rodolfo Acuña refers to this development as the rise of the Meshicano bureaucrats, power brokers who function as agents of social contro1.47This is precisely what Chávez Ortiz denounced in very harsh terms in his reference to Mrs. Bañuelos. To be sure, this is not a matter of labeling successful individuals as "vendidos" (sellouts), but a description of the workings of power that go beyond intentionality (or why we never know what we need to know). In effect, this situation may be getting worse: Relative gains are visible in the modest improvements for the middle class -for the most part, college educated professionals and small business persons -and the increment in wealth for the wealthy entrepreneurs.... However, because of political self -protection, the advantaged move in step with the reigning conservatism and the distance that separates them from the working poor of their own community potentially could increase.48

Fellowships of Discourse More restricted than academic disciplines is the control of discourse by what may be called fellowships of discourse. Their function is to CHICANOLOGY: A POSTMODERN ANALYSIS 139 preserve, reproduce or circulate discourse according to strict regulations and within a closed community. For example, the Anglo Texans in 1832 and 1835, borrowing a technique from their revolutionary forefathers, formed municipal committees for safety and correspondence. These committees, which brought citizens together outside of legal channels, became an important vehicle for bringing on the declaration of independence of Texas.49 Meshicano organizations such as mutualistas and groups such as the Penitentes50also fall into this category. Meshicano youth in the barrios have their own fellowship of discourse which is restricted by the discourse of caló. More commonplace are technical, scientific, medical, economic, teaching discourses and others that follow different schemes of exclusivity and disclosure.

Doctrine At first sight, doctrine (religious, political, philosophical) would seem to be the reverse of a fellowship of discourse, for among the latter, the number of speakers is, if not fixed, at least limited.It is among this number that discourse is allowed to circulate and be transmitted. Doctrine, on the other hand, tends towards diffusion.It is the holding in common of a discourse on which individuals, as many as possible, can define their reciprocal allegiance. In appearance, the only requisite is the recognition of the same truths and the acceptance of a rule of conformity with these truths. If it were a question of just that, doctrines would be barely different from scientific or academic disciplines. The control of discourse would bear only on the form or content of what was said.Doctrines, however, involve both the speaker and the spoken. Doctrines involve the statements of speakers in the sense that they are, permanently, the instruments and the manifestations of an adherence to a class, a social or racial status, a nationality, a struggle, a revolt.In short, doctrine links people to a certain type of statement while barring them from all others. It brings about a dual subjection, that of speaking individuals to discourse and that of discourse to the group of individual speakers.The restriction imposed by doctrine is illustrated by José Antonio Villareal R., author of Pocho. Referring to the effects of the "doctrine" of the Chicano Movement on Chicano literature, he states: What resulted then is that an unwritten set of standards began to take form. Codes for Chicano literature were explicit. First and foremost 140 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

was the fact that we could never criticize ourselves as long as we followed this developing pattern.5'

Education On a much broader scale there is education as the social appropriation of discourse. Education is the instrument whereby every individual can gain access to any kind of discourse.We well know that in its distribution, in what it permits and in what it prevents, it follows the well- trodden battle lines of social conflict. Every educational system is a political means of maintaining, or of modifying the appropriation of discourse, with the knowledge and powers that it carries with it.Of course, these forms of control of discourse -the status given to individual speakers, fellowships of discourse, doctrinal groups and social appropriations -are linked together, constituting a corporation that distributes speakers among the different types of discourse. What is an educational system after all, but the allocation of discourse to specific individual speakers, the constitution of a diffused doctrinal group, a distribution and appropriation of discourse with all its pedagogical powers? Thus, the control of Meshicano discourse, the reason that "the people do not know what it is that they must know in order to survive" is to be found in the educational process. This is why Chávez Ortiz's children and the vast majority of Meshicano children "have attended school for many years and they know absolutely nothing." Education as a mechanism for the control of Meshicano discourse combines all the procedures discussed above.It manifests itself in the curricula of all grades, and is, in effect, an extension of the Societal Curriculum discussed by Carlos E. Cords. This is because "there is no power relation without the correlative constitution of a field of knowledge, nor any knowledge that does not presuppose and constitute at the same time power relations. "52 If power is to be studied at the extreme points of its exercise, where it is less legal in character, one must look at the very battle line where hegemonic and counter - hegemonic practices meet face to face with very tragic results: school failure among Meshicano children, for instance. Such failure leads to other battle fronts such as youth gangs in the barrios and high arrest and incarceration rates for these youths.With reference to bio- power,53 what we have here is, in effect, a body count of the struggle between Chicanology and Meshicano discourse. Here, too, power is effective to CHICANOLOGY: A POSTMODERN ANALYSIS 141 the extent that it is invisible. Thus the difficulty in finding solutions to the problem of school failure: is it culture, language, a cast -like status, or "dramaturgical communicative competence ? "54 If we define the property of discourse as the ability to invest discourse into institutional practices (public policy), thenwhat we have just considered are the techniques, procedures and mechanisms by which that corporation of truth called Chicanology appropriates, organizes, rearranges and distributes Meshicano discourse to deflect its impact on these institutional practices. We can now answer Ricardo Sánchez's question. The people do not know what it is they must know because their discourse and its inherent power is either forbidden outright, considered insane or irrational, declared a falsehood, or restricted by academic disciplines, and the educational process, in general. To reiterate the thrust of these discussions, what is being proposed here is an analysis of discourse that includes both erudite knowledge and local memories. This will establish a historical knowledge of struggles and make use of this knowledge tactically today. Discursive analysis is not a return to a more careful or exact form of science; though it does not call for a lyrical knowledge or the right of ignorance. Such analysis seriously considers the claims of local, discontinuous, disqualified, illegitimate knowledge against the claims of a unitary body of theory that filters and orders them in the name of true knowledge and a politicized idea of science. The focus of this analysis, then, is on the insurrection of knowledges that are opposed primarily to the effects of centralizing powers linked to scientific discourse.55 Further study along these lines would address, fora specific historical event: (1) the goals and objectives of Meshicano discourse; (2) the status given to the speakers of such discourse; (3) the operational conceptual scheme; (4) the institutionalization of these three aspects; and (5) the ultimate effects of this particular discourse on the actual physical body of the people (bio- power). It is critical to make one very important clarification. The struggle between Chicanology and Meshicano discourse has been presented in terms of a dialectical relationship for the sake of simplicity.It is not, however, as if all Meshicanos speak from within Meshicano discourse, and all Anglos speak from within Chicanology. As already noted, power functions in terms of manifold relationships that are determined by specific conditions. Thus, depending on the particular struggle under investigation, we may find Chicanos making statements dictated by 142 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

Chicanology and, conversely, Anglos obeying the rules of Meshicano discourse. Any ethnic group found in the United States can speak either discourse (from within their own discourses, their own power/ knowledge relations).It is precisely the purpose of discursive analysis to reveal the specific, ever -shifting micro -physics of power and its micro -mechanisms. In passing, it should be noted that this is particularly important when culture is conceptualized as a platonic entity: "It's a (brown, black, red, yellow) thing. You wouldn't understand." Often multicultural relations are perceived as being above not only race and class but most critically, above relations of power. In conclusion, the essential political problem for the intellectual is not to criticize the ideological contents supposedly linked to science, or to ensure that his own scientific practice is accompanied by a correct ideology. Rather,itis a matter of ascertaining the possibility of constituting a new politics of truth.The problem is not changing people's consciousness -or what's in their heads -but the political, economic institutional regime of the production of truth.It is not a matter of emancipating the truth from every system of power (which would be a chimera, for truth is already power) but of detaching the power of truth from the forms of hegemony within which it operates at the present time. The political question is not error, illusion, alienated consciousness or ideology.It is truth itself.%

NOTES

' Ricardo Sánchez, Hechizospells (Los Angeles: Chicano Studies Center Publications, 1976), p. 91.Incidentally, I believe Ricardo Sánchez meant "seno," and not "ceno."

2 Mario Barrera, Race and Class in the Southwest (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1979), p. 219.

3 Juan Gómez -Quiñones, Chicano Politics: Realityand Promise, 1940-1990(Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1990), p. 19.It should be noted that, besides misspelling my last name, this author erroneously refers to my work as belonging to the language critical -theory of the Frankfurt School which he considers "socially abstract or potentially one more manipulation to further veiled interests, or at worse an argument for no politics." (p. 221 -222). Clearly, though, he is against any analysis of discourse.The correct analysis, he claims, involves "(real) politics (involving) CHICANOLOGY: A POSTMODERN ANALYSIS 143

conscious individuals acting rationally ..." p. 30. This is, however, not the proper place for a critique of his assumption that the self is a coherent, stable individual engaged in an "objective" world through a transparent representational language. 4 Jane Flax, "Postmodernism and Gender Relations in Feminist Theory," Signs 12, 4. (1987): 621. Quoted in Mustafa U. Kizikan, William J. Bain and Anita Canizares M. "Post Modern Conditions: Rethinking Public Education," Educational Theory (Summer 1990, Vol 40. No. 3), p. 352. For a thorough, concrete analysis of postmodern transformations, look at the working papers produced by The Post - Industrial Future Project: A Canadian Exploration of the Implications of Profound Societal Change,Ruben Nelson, Director, (Canmore, A.B. Canada: Square One Management, 1989). For a brief discussion of the various definitions of postmodernism, see Stanley Aranowitz and Henry Giroux, Postmodern Education, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1991. pp. 60-67. Ibid. p. 353.

6The term "Meshicano" is here used to address three concerns. One is to emphasize the symbiotic relationship between power and language (i.e. discourse). Nearly five centuries ago Cristóbal Colón appropriated the power to define, and thus dominate, what he had encountered: the native peoples became Indians, and later, Americans. Another exercise of the power to define took place at the beginning of the Chicano movement when the term "Chicano" was used as an abbreviated form for "Mexicans north of the Rio Bravo, and ` Chicanismo' meant a politically charged Mexicanidad (sic)." But, as Juan Gómez -Quiñones astutely observes "with hindsight, one can ask whether "Chicanismo" ... was one more effort to subsume Mexican identity with all its implications." (cf. infra, Chicano Politics, p. 104). There is also the question of etymology. The letter "x" in México originally had a "sh" sound and it was changed by the Spaniards into a "j" sound (h in English).If we want to come close to the original Náhuatl word, we would say that some Meshicanos live in Meshico and others live in the United States. Then, in the 1960s some of the latter dropped the "Me -" prefix and simply called themselves "Chicanos." None of these concerns, however, are intended as an argument for what is the "correct" name. Such decisions are made within the context of a political economy of discourse, not by individuals.Thus, Gutierrez Tibón has found seventy versions of the word "México," yet he considers chicano a "corrupción pachuca de mexicano "in Historia del nombre y de la fundación de México, Segunda edición, (México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1983), p. 420. At any rate, it is revealing of the unfortunate state of affairs, that the term with more currency today is "Hispanic." ' I use the word "re-produced" because at various points in this article I use Foucault's own words which I have "poached" from different texts. This was done for various reasons. One is the difficulty in paraphrasing him. Another is to avoid a cumbersome fragmentation of the text by frequent quoting and interpolation of my own remarks. Most importantly, as Michel de Certau points out in The Practice of Everyday Life, reading is "poaching ": "The reader takes neither the position of the author nor an author's position. He invents in texts something different from what they `intended.' 144 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

He detaches them from their (lost or accessory origin). He combines their fragments and creates something un -known in the space organized by their capacity for allowing an indefinite plurality of meanings."(tr. Steven F. Rendall, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984), p. 169.I have, however, taken care to note the sources of the various fragments when these deviate from the main discussion which can be found in Michel Foucault's "Two Lectures," in Power /Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972 -1977, Colin Gordon, editor (New York: Pantheon Books, 1980), pp. 78 -108.For an intimate discussion of Foucault's writings see Gilles Deleuze, Foucault, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1988.For an informative discussion of his work, a complete bibliography and biography and his last interview (five months before he died), see James Bernauer and David Rasmussen's, The Final Foucault (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1988).

8Foucault, "Two Lectures," Power /Knowledge,p. 88.

9Michel Foucault, "Truth and Power," Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972 -1977, Colin Gordon, editor (New York: Pantheon Books, 1980), p. 119.

10 Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality, Volume I, tr. Robert Hurley, (New York: Pantheon Books, 1978), p. 89.

11 Foucault, "Truth and Power," Power/Knowledge, p. 122.

12Barrera, Race and Class in the Southwest, p. 172

13Ibid.

14Foucault, "Two Lectures," Power /Knowledge, p. 95.

15Ibid. pp. 92 -93.This transformation was the object of Foucault's ouvre,Some examples are Madness and Civilization, tr. Richard Howard (New York: Pantheon, 1965); The Order of Things, tr. Alan Sheridan (New York: Pantheon, 1970); The Birth of the Clinic,tr. Alan Sheridan (New York: Pantheon, 1973); Discipline and Punish, tr. Alan Sheridan (New York: Vintage Books, 1979); The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1, tr. Robert Hurley, (New York: Pantheon, 1978). For a complete bibliography see James Bemauer and Thomas Keenan, "The Works of Michel Foucault, 1954 -1984" in James Bemauer and David Rasmussen's, The Final Foucault (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1988) pp.119 -159.

16Foucault, The History of Sexuality,p. 140 -141.

17Foucault, "Two Lectures," Power /Knowledge, p. 105.

18Ibid., pp.106 -107.

19Foucault, History of Sexuality, p. 141. 2° Ira Shor and Paulo Freire, A Pedagogy for Liberation: Dialogues on Transforming Education (New York: Bergin & Garvey, 1987), pp. 12 -13. See also Henry A Giroux, CHICANOLOGY: A POSTMODERN ANALYSIS 145

Teachers as Intellectuals: Toward a Critical Pedagogy of Learning (Massachusetts: Bergin & Garvey, 1988), pp. 114 -116.

21There are many observations of the relationship between social science and disciplinary mechanisms. One very specific example is Alexander Liazos, "The Poverty of the Sociology of Deviance: Nuts, Sluts, and `Preverts, "' in Stuart H. Traub and Craig B. Little, Theories ofDeviance, Third Edition, Itasca: F.E. Peacock Publishers, ín.,1985. More extensive and recent examples are: James Clifford, The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth -Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989 and Renato Rosaldo, Truth and Culture: The Remaking of Social Analysis, Boston: Beacon Press, 1989. The most specific discussion of this topic, however, is Michel Foucault's Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, New York: Vintage Books, 1979.

22Foucault, "Two Lectures," Power/Knowledge, p. 93 -94. 23 These methodological guidelines have been compiled from two sources: "Two Lectures," Power /Knowledge, pp. 96 -102 and The History of Sexuality, pp. 94 -95.

24Foucault, "Truth and Power," Power /Knowledge, p.131.

25V.Y. Mudimbe, The Invention of Africa: Gnosis, Philosophy, and the Order of Knowledge (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988), p. x. 26 Edward W. Said, Orientalism (New York: Pantheon Books, 1978), p. 3.

27Carlos E. Cortís, "The Societal Curriculum and the School Curriculum," Educational Leadership, XXXVI, 7 (April, 1979), pp. 475 -479. More recently he has extended this conception in "The Education of Language Minority Students: A Contextual Interaction Model," in Beyond Language: Social and Cultural Factors in Schooling Language Minority Students (Los Angeles: Evaluation, Dissemination and Assessment Center, California State University, Los Angeles, 1986), pp. 3-33.

28 RaymundParedes, "The Origins of Anti -Mexican Sentiment in the United States," New Directions in Chicano Scholarship , Ricardo Romo and Raymund Paredes, editors (San Diego: University of California, 1978), 139 -165.

29Octavio Romano -V. developed a critique of this view through his journal El Grito. See for example "The Anthropology and Sociology of the Mexican American: The Distortion of Mexican American History," El Grito Vol. 1, No. 2 (Fall, 1968).

3°Americo Paredes, With his Pistol in his Hand, (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1978), P18.

31Ibid., p.16.

32Foucault, "Two Lectures," Power/Knowledge, p. 81.

33 ibid.,p. 85. 146 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

34 Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari in "Introduction: Rhizome," A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1987), pp. 7 -21 passim. 35 This is a paraphrase of the event as described in the Los Angeles Times, July 6, 1972. 36 David F. Gómez, Somos Chicanos: Strangers in Our Own Land (Boston: Beacon Press, 1973), pp. 177 -187, passim. 37 "(Nominated) by President Richard Nixon and subsequently confirmed by the Senate as Treasurer of the United States. During the Senate investigation into her qualifications, it was discovered she was hiring "illegal aliens" from Mexico ... In the barrio it is common knowledge that she has made her fortune in the Mexican food business exploiting cheap labor from Mexico." Ibid. p. 183.

38 Ibid, pp. 177 -187 passim.

39 Michel Foucault, "The Discourse on Language," The Archaeology of Knowledge, tr. Alan Sheridan (New York: Pantheon Books, 1972), pp. 215 -237. This appendix contains a discussion of the various forms of exclusion of discourse.

4° Gómez, Somos Chicanos, p. 186.

41 For the meaning of "tactic"as an act of resistance against a "strategic" force, see Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984), pp. xvii -xx.

42 Juan Gómez -Quiñones., "Plan de San Diego Revisited," Aztlan (Spring, 1970), pp. 124- 132.

43 David J. Weber, Foreigners in Their Native Land (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1973), pp. 129 -130.

44 Paredes, "The Origins of Anti- Mexican Sentiment," p. 165.

45 Foucault, Archaeology, pp. 217 -220.

46 Ibid., pp.222 -224.

47 Rodolfo Acuña, Occupied America: A History of Chicanos, Third edition (New York: Harper and Row, 1988), pp. 377 -386. 48 Juan Gómez -Quiñones, Chicano Politics: Reality and Promise, 1940 -1990, (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1990), p. 195.

49 Weber, Foreigners in Their Native Land, p. 105.

50 Robert J. Rosenbaum, Mexicano Resistance in the Southwest (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981), pp. 145 -146. CHICANOLOGY: A POSTMODERN ANALYSIS 147

51 Antonio Villareal R. "Chicano Literature: Art and Politics from the Perspective of The Artist," in The Identification and Analysis of Chicano Literature, Francisco Jimenez, Editor, (New York: Bilingual Press, 1979), p. 163.

52 Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, tr. Alan Sheridan (New York: Vintage Books, 1979), p. 27.

53 Foucault, The History of Sexuality, p. 140.

54See John Ogbu and Maria Eugenia Matute- Bianchi, "Understanding Sociocultural Factors: Knowledge, Identity, and School Adjustment," in Beyond Language: Social and Cultural Factors in Schooling Language Minority Students (Los Angeles: Evaluation, Dissemination and Assessment Center, California State University, Los Angeles 1986). A critique and attempt to improve this assessment is provided by Douglas E. Foley, "Reconsidering Anthropological Explanations of Ethnic School Failure," Anthropology and Education Quarterly, Volume 22, 1991.The latter publication includes a critical commentary of both perspectives by Henry T. Trueba.

55 Foucault, "Two Lectures," Power /Knowledge, p. 83.

56 Foucault, "Truth and Power," Power /Knowledge,p. 133.

LANGUAGE RIGHTS AND THE MEXICAN AMERICANS: MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

Roseann Dueñas González, Victoria F. Vásquez and John Bichsel

A'though long beset by limited opportunities for meaningful participation in American society, Mexican Americans have realized some advances. The dignity of equal citizenship, however, has not yet been achieved. Those privileges of citizenship they enjoy are largely due to federal protections extended by the civil rights legislation of the 1960s and 1970s -the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Bilingual Education Act of 1968, the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, and the Court Interpreters Act of 1978. These civil rights laws were specifically designed to ensure political, educational, employment, and legal access to traditionally powerless minority groups. Unfortunately, because these acts identify language as a tool for promoting equal access, they have been misconstrued as "language rights" policies. Conflating access rights with "language rights" obscures the original intent and ultimate goal of this body of legislation, making it appear that Mexican Americans and other language minority groups possess something that they in fact do not have. The clarification of these terms is essential to the intelligent resolution of the language rights controversy. We argue, therefore, that the debate on "language rights" for Mexican Americans is much ado about nothing: Mexican Americans have no language rights. What they do have is the right of equal access to specific American institutions, rights now jeopardized by widespread acceptance of an argument founded on illogic.

-149- 150 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

This contention is most effectively advanced by illustrating: 1) the history of Mexican Americans as a socioeconomically op- pressed territorial minority; 2) the continuing need to protect the rights of Mexican Americans through federal legislation; 3) the fundamental access orientation of civil rights law; 4) the difference between access legislation and "language rights "; and, 5) the threat of state and federal English Language Amendments (ELA). In this article four major federal laws as they apply in particular to Mexican Americans are briefly discussed. For an extensive review of these and other statutes, see Federal Recognition of the Rights of Minority Language Groups.'

Historic Overview Historically relegated to second -class status in the United States, Mexican Americans are a classic example of a regional ethnolinguistic minority. Distinguishing features of this group are their native rather than immigrant history; their slower rate of assimilation; their unassimilatable physical features; and the low- stature of their primary language-Spanish.' The subjugation of Mexican Americans dates back to the early nineteenth century when the United States, motivated by Manifest Destiny, sought to conquer new territory. Mexican citizens residing in Northern Mexico suddenly found themselves subject to violence and prejudice from the rapidly expanding Anglo empire.3 As one Chicano historian observes, "Anglo- Americans arriving in the Southwest believed they were racially superior to the swarthy Mexicans, whom they considered a mongrel race of Indian halfbreeds. "4 Escalating Anglo encroachment and rising intercultural hostilities in

This discussion confines itself to the experiences of Mexican Americans. We recognize, of course, that the federal legislation protecting their rights was enacted because of the similar experiences, combined needs, and united lobbying efforts of differing Hispanic groups including Puerto Ricans and Cubans as well as Black, Asian, and American Indian ethnic groups. LANGUAGE RIGHTS AND THE MEXICAN AMERICANS 151 the early 1800s led to the 1835 Texas Revolution. In 1848 Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ending the Mexican -American War and establishing the Rio Grande as the Texas border. The Treaty ceded more than 600,000 square miles of land that is now all or part of the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming. Mexican citizens within these boundaries were forced to decide if they would become citizens of the United States. Although 3,000 elected to leave, over 80,000 chose to remain in what they considered their homeland.5 Reluctant to abandon their former citizens to a country that exhibited great animosity toward them, Mexican officials incorporated religious, political, and proprietary rights in Articles VIII and IX of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.6 Inevitably, however, the "Mexican way of life was replaced by Anglo laws, administration, language, and values -all of which were alien to the conquered people."7 After the 1854 ratification of the Gadsden Purchase, the United States acquired another 30,000 square miles of what is today southern Arizona and New Mexico. The Gadsden agreement reiterated the guarantees of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Although the "constitutional protections" mentioned in the Treaty have been popularly interpreted to include cultural and linguistic rights for the new citizens, the United States has never accepted this as a legal interpretation. This conflict over the provisions of the treaty continues to this day. In Lopez Tijerina v. Henry,8 a New Mexico federal district court found that the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo did not confer "any proprietary right to have the Spanish language and culture preserved and continued in the public schools at public expense." Four factors contributed to the growing disdain for Mexican American language and culture: (1) the hostile nature of the initial encounter, (2) the Anglos' superior economic resources, (3) a racial association of Mexicans with Indians who were generally viewed as subhuman, and (4) the Mexican community's traditional Catholic roots that were antithetical to the Anglo Protestant ethic .9 Furthermore, the Spanish language was denigrated and Mexican American "children were discouraged from going to school...often segregated. . .[and if] overheard speaking Spanish on the school grounds [they were] detained, fined, reported, or in other ways punished...."10 Economic exploitation of Mexican Americans became a matter of course, offering an easy solution to the problems of a growing industrial 152 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES society. Booming American mining, railroad, and agriculture industries aggressively encouraged Mexican immigration to the Southwest. By 1900 the Mexican American population was estimated to have been as high as 562,000. Between 1900 and 1930 more than 700,000 Mexicans immigrated to the United States. Legal migration was further augmented by the arrival of large numbers of undocumented workers." The end of the Depression and the advent of World War II rekindled the demand for cheap labor, and the Bracero program of 1941 to 1947 offered 200,000 laborers short-term work. When Congress reestablished the program from 1951 to 1959, over three million more Mexicans entered the United States. Many of these laborers never left. These workers became pawns in the debate on immigration policy. Employers who profited from underpaid labor supported unrestricted immigration. Those in opposition viewed Mexicans as "racially inferior, culturally wanton, socially undesirable, and potentially disloyal to America. "12 The United States government responded to this influx of undocumented workers by expelling over three million people in a five- year period. Many were American citizens of Mexican descent.13 By the 1960s, Mexican Americans were the second largest minority in the United States. With an increasing urban population -85 percent by 1970-came a concomitant increase in community and political activism. Many Mexican American organizations such as the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO), and the Mexican American Political Association (MAPA) encouraged political participation and advanced equal rights. In agriculture and mining industries, Mexican Americans sponsored successful strikes and union activities.14 Most signifiantly, some gains were made in registering voters, electing Mexican Americans to political office, and establishing community development projects. The progress made by Mexican Americans has come about slowly and with much effort. Delimiting further gains, however, is the enduring sentiment held by a number of Americans that Spanish speakers are "illiterate, impoverished, dirty, backward, criminally inclined, residually Roman Catholic, prone to Communist infiltration, dark -complexioned, and now pushing cocaine and marijuana north for all they are worth. "15 The following statistical profile attests to the persistent exclusion of Mexican Americans from the activities and institutions of the larger society. LANGUAGE RIGHTS AND THE MEXICAN AMERICANS 153

Current Profile of the Mexican American Population Approximately 10.3 million Mexican Americans live in the United States and make up 60.6 percent of the Hispanic population.16 Most Mexican Americans reside in one of five southwestern states: they represent 16 percent of the population in Arizona; 19 percent in California; 12 percent in Colorado; 32 percent in New Mexico; and 21 percent in Texas. About three- quarters of Mexican Americans are native born. Mexican Americans are a very young population. Their median age is 23.3 years compared with 31.9 years for the total United States population; and more than a quarter (27.4 percent) of the entire Mexican American population is between the ages of five and 17. The average family -size for Mexican Americans is 4.15 whereas the average family in the United States is 3.23. They are under -represented at all levels of education, over - represented in the lowest income strata, heavily unemployed and faced with limited economic opportunities. Because of its historic alienation from mainstream American society, and its geographic concentration and continuing immigration to the United States, the Mexican American population exhibits high levels of language loyalty to Spanish. According to the 1980 Census, eleven million persons reported speaking Spanish at home, although 76 percent reported they could also speak English. The 1978 Children's English and Services Study (CESS) indicated there were 1.7 million Spanish -language background children ages five to 14 who had limited - English proficiency. Moreover, states with the highest concentration of Mexican Americans -California, New Mexico, and Texas -were reported to have the largest percentages of limited- English proficient persons. Not surprisingly, Mexican Americans are educationally at risk. In the Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education's (WICHE) report, From Minority to Majority: Education and the Future of the Southwest," limited employment opportunities and lack of economic advancement for Mexican Americans are attributed to their high educational attrition rate. Mexican American youth are more likely to be enrolled two or more years below grade -level than are other Hispanics. One of the most alarming statistics is that only 53.3 percent of all Mexican Americans, as compared with 85.7 percent of Anglo students, graduate from high school. Although a mere 2.2 percent of the Anglo population has less 154 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES than a fifth grade education, for Mexican Americans the figure is 17.1 percent. The number of Mexican Americans who enroll in institutions of higher education and professional schools is dismal. As reported in 1984, of those eligible to do so only 2.8 percent of Mexican Americans ages 18 to 19 enrolled in colleges compared with 88.6 percent of all Anglos. For the academic year 1984 -85, medical school enrollment was 1.7 percent for Mexican Americans; 84 percent for Anglos; and 5.9 percent for Blacks. Law school enrollment in 1985 -86 was even lower for Mexican Americans -1.3 percent, while Black enrollment was 4.9 percent.18 If lack of education is the single best predictor of unemployment,19 Mexican Americans should experience high unemployment rates -and they do -10.9 percent compared with 6.2 percent for Anglos. Accordingly, the economic status of Mexican Americans is equally grim. In 1984, 24 percent of Mexican American families lived below poverty level whereas only 11 percent of non -Hispanic families were similarly situated. In 1985, Hispanics had significantly lower median weekly earnings ($250) than did Anglos ($355) or Blacks ($277). Furthermore, as the economy of the Southwest changes from manual to skilled labor, Mexican Americans are doomed to fall farther and farther behind in terms of economic and social equality.20

Federal Access Legislation After more than a century of socioeconomic disparity, Mexican Americans finally realized some relief through the small body of federal access legislation passed during the Civil Rights Era. The specific intention of these access laws is to remove the barriers that block minorities from major socioeconomic institutions. In this sense, these federal access measures are not "language rights" laws; nor are they "tolerance" or "promotional" language rights as conventionally defined by Heinz Kloss.21 The United States has never created legislation that has recognized, upheld or enforced a right to language. According to Reynaldo Macías,22 these federal statutes "do not provide for, nor guarantee, language choice or language rights, directly or explicitly." The only "right to language" Mexican Americans have is the one vested in all Americans: the private right to association as guaranteed by the First Amendment. LANGUAGE RIGHTS AND THE MEXICAN AMERICANS 155

The Voting Rights Act, the Bilingual Education Act, the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, and the Court Interpreters Act identify limited- English proficiency as an obstacle to equal access and mandate the use of native languages and bilingual materials as compensatory remedies. By bridging the linguistic gap between language handicapped persons and government agencies, these measures afford equal access. They do not supplant the primacy of English or promote the maintenance of Spanish or any other language. Four major access laws that have positively affected Mexican Americans are briefly described in the following section.

Political Access Participation in the electoral process is central to citizenship. The Voting Rights Act of 196523 protects the Fifteenth Amendment right to vote and the Fourteenth Amendment promise of due process and equal application of law. This Act specifically bans the use of English literacy tests that prevented the registration and suffrage of Black Americans. Justified under a new anti -racial discrimination rationale, the Act declared that a citizen's right to vote could not be denied or abridged because of race or color. In 1975, Amendments to the Act24 extended the same protections to minority language groups, stating that "it is necessary to eliminate such discrimination by prohibiting English -only elections, and by prescribing other remedial devices." Fulfilling the Act's intent requires the use of bilingual materials that enable non -English speakers to comprehend the electoral process and cast an effective ballot. Furthermore, the "term `language minority' or `language minority group' is...defined racially [emphasis supplied] in accordance with the Bureau of the Census... [as] `persons who are American Indian, Asian American, Alaska natives, or of Spanish heritage.'"25 The five southwestern states containing the majority of Mexican Americans were obliged to comply with the 1975 federal amendments. As a result, a forty -four percent increase in Hispanic registration in the Southwest was reported from 1976 to 1950.26 At present, only California, New Mexico, and Texas provide for either minority voting rights or multilingual voting materials by state law.27 Arizona and Colorado have state regulations mandating voting assistance for non -English speakers only by virtue of federal law.28 156 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

Educational Access The systematic failure of limited- English -speaking children in American schools triggered demands for equal educational opportunities.29 In response, the Bilingual Education Act of196830 provided for the unique educational needs of children (1) of limited - English- speaking ability and (2) from homes with incomes below $3,000 per year. In 1974, amendments eliminated the low- income prerequisite and broadened protections to all children of "limited- English- speaking ability." The bill was further modified in 1978, permitting limited - English- proficient students to continue in bilingual education programs until they attained full English proficiency. The intention of the 1968 Act and its Amendments was to surmount the language barrier by purposefully emphasizing "the importance of mastery of English- language skills. "31 It is also evident that American bilingual education programs, as intended and implemented in the Southwest, do not maintain the child's native language.32 In truth, the transition to Englishisswift and unequivocal, and the Bilingual Education Act of 1968 would be better designated as the "American Assimilation through Education Act." Provision for bilingual education through statute varies substantially from state to state. Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico have statutes which "permit" bilingual education while California and Texas "mandate" it.33

Employment Access Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 196434 was enacted by Congress to prohibit private employment discrimination. As amended by the 1972 Equal Employment Opportunity Act (EEOA), Title VII offers protection to all state and local government and educational institution employees. Employment discrimination based upon sex, race, color, religion, or national origin is proscribed. Employers may not discriminate against employees by unfair compensation, terms and conditions, or privileges of employment. The EEOC is enforced through Federal Labor Regulations.35 Included in these rulesis Speak -English -Only, § 1606.7, a regulation that specifically prohibits employers from discriminating against non -native English speakers. Since many Mexican Americans speak Spanish, a large number of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) LANGUAGE RIGHTS AND THE MEXICAN AMERICANS 157 challenges involving Mexican Americans cite this regulation. Employers may, however, discriminate with respect to language if they can prove a bona fide occupational qualification exemption. For example, to achieve certification, federal court interpreters must demonstrate college - level proficiency in English and Spanish. Therefore, Title VII allows Mexican Americans access to employment opportunities by prohibiting exclusionary actsin the workplace. Although anti -discrimination employment laws have been passed in most states, they are not uniform. A further limitation for individuals is that they must exhaust state remedies before filing a Title VII claim.36

Legal Access The federal Court Interpreters Act of 197837 upholds four constitutional guarantees of citizenship: the Fifth Amendment right not to be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; and the rights of the Sixth Amendment to confront witnesses, have assistance of counsel, and understand the nature of the charges and proceedings brought by the government. The Act3s mandates the use of interpreters in any criminal or civil action initiated by the United States where a defendant or witness "speaks only or primarily a language other than the English language... so as toinhibit such party's comprehension of the proceedings or communication with counsel or the presiding judicial officer or so as to inhibit such witness' comprehension of questions and the presentation of such testimony." As is evidenced in other civil rights areas discussed here, access to the judicial system is not uniformly protected at the state level. Except for California, New Jersey, New Mexico and the state of Washington, none of the other states with a heavy concentration of Mexican Americans offers certification programs for interpreters.39 Legal access also includes the provision of bilingual personnel to meet the needs of non -English speakers. Although access to all government services has not been guaranteed at the federal level, some statutes do allow for the use of foreign language personnel in federally funded programs such as migrant and community health centers.40 The only legal measure in the Southwest that provides for system -wide bilingual personnel is California's Dymally -Alatorre Bilingual Public Services Act.41 158 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

In sum, federal legislation has provided equal access for Mexican Americans. Lamentably, these rights have not been uniformly guarded at the state level. This condition may exist because of unabated discrimination or the assumption that the preservation of constitutional rights is the domain of the federal government. Since there is a lack of parallel protections in the states, it is clear that federal support for Mexican Americans in the form of access legislation must be sustained.

Access Rights versus Language Rights Confusing access legislation with "language rights" threatens the future prospects for advancement of the nation's largest language minority group. Merely adopting a new perspective on a set of laws does not change the original rights granted by their enactment. To underscore the differences between access rights and language rights, it is necessary to examine the federal Court Interpreters Act of 1978. Table 1 contrasts this Act with a hypothetical language rights version. Under the access law one person is added to the judicial system: an interpreter as mediator. Conversely, the "language rights" version accommodates a non -English speaker by providing proceedings in the native language, thus requiring bilingual court personnel in all positions. The Court Interpreters Act narrowly defines the access rights of Mexican Americans by providing an interpreter. It does not advance in any way the right of defendants to speak their own language. The Act simply provides a linguistic tool to overcome a "language handicap." This model legislation was a long overdue remedy for the inequitable treatment of Mexican Americans in the federal criminal justice system.

TABLE 1: Access Rights versus Language Rights Existing Access Rights Hypothetical Language Rights* Grants defendant right to Grants defendant right to interpreter (adds mediator choice of language during to legal process) proceedings (adds bilingual judges, attorneys, clerks, etc.)

Grants defendant right to Grants defendant right to participate in own defense participate in own defense through interpreter directly in native language LANGUAGE RIGHTS AND THE MEXICAN AMERICANS 159

Existing Access Rights Hypothetical language Rights Grants defendant right to Grants defendant right to comprehend trial through comprehend trial directly in interpreter native language

Grants defendant right to Grants defendant right to understand the charges understand the charges brought by the state brought by the state through interpreter directly in native language

Grants defendant right to Grants defendant right to transcript in English transcript in native language

Upholds statute requiring Grants right to establish the court record to be in courtroom record in both English English and defendant's native language

The 1970 Report of the United States Commission on Civil Rights, Mexican Americans and the Administration of justice in the Southwest,42 identifies "the inability to communicate between Spanish -speaking American citizens and English -speaking officials,... poorinterpretation, and the lack of a systematized approach to the provision of interpreter services" as reasons behind the denial of due process and equal protection under the law for Mexican Americans. Case law reflects the inertia of the courts to recognize and attend equitably to the needs of limited- or non -English speaking persons.43 In Arizona v. Natividad,44

This hypothetical example is similar to a language rights oriented bill proposed in 1973. See United States Senate (1974). Hearings on S.B. 1724, The Bilingual Courts Act, 10 October 1973 and 5 February 1974 (Committee on the Judiciary). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. This Act would have allowed Puerto Rican defendants to choose English or Spanish as the language of the proceedings. It died in committee after heated debate. 160 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

Judge Lockwood provided an enlightened view of the access issue: The inability of a defendant to understand the proceedings would be not only fundamentally unfair but particularly unjust in a state where a significant minority of the population is burdened with the handicap of being unable to effectively communicate in our national language.

Consequences of the Language Rights Debate By renaming access rights as "language rights," the English Language Amendment (ELA) movement has capitalized on the fears of many Americans that the United States is becoming a "Tower of Babel." EIA proponents claim that federal access laws advance the maintenance of non -English native languages at government expense. Unfortunately, many ELA opponents and language policy scholars accept both these faulty analyses without scrutiny.45 For this reason, those who oppose the ETA must insist on clarifying the differences between these two disparate types of legislation. Failure to do so will invite passage of the ELA and bring into question the constitutionality of federal access law.

The ELA Movement For a constitutional English Language Amendment to pass, three - quarters of the states must ratify it. As of June, 1990, eighteen states have passed state -level EIA legislation. This shows increasing support for a similar federal amendment.46 State constitutional amendments, however, pose no threat to federally enacted access laws.47 This is true primarily because the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution declares "that all laws made in pursuance of the Constitution...under the authority of the United States...shall enjoy legal superiority over any conflicting provision of a State constitution or lace' [emphasis supplied].48 Figure A illustrates this concept through a simplified hierarchy of federal and state law. LANGUAGE RIGHTS AND THE MEXICAN AMERICANS 161

FIGURE A: Hierarchy of Federal and State Laws with Examples

Federal U.S. Constitution (First, Fifth, Sixth, Fourteenth, Fifteenth Amendments)

U.S. Supreme Court, Appeals and District Court (Case law)

Federal Statutory Law (Court Interpreters Act, 1978)

Administrative Law (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Code of Federal Regulations § 1606.1 -8)

(Supremacy Clause, makes federal law supreme over state law]

State State Constitution (ELA Amendment)

State Supreme Court, Appeals and Superior Court (Case Law)

State Statutory Law (State Court Interpreter Act)

Administrative Law (State Department of Education Rules)

Municipal Ordinances (City Regulations for Traffic)

A 1988, ninth circuit federal district court case, Gutierrez v. Municipal Court of Los Angeles,49 upholds this supremacy analysis. In Gutierrez a Hispanic -American hired as a bilingual employee challenged her employer's English -only personnel rules that restricted her from speaking in Spanish during breaks and working hours. Under a Title VII, Equal Employment Opportunity Act anti- discrimination analysis the court found that "prohibiting the use of the employees' native tongue may contribute to racial tension. "50 The court, relying on federal access law, ruled in favor of Gutierrez because of the "legal insufficiency" of the employer's arguments. The state constitution and employer's rules were subordinate to the federal law. The court further held that: 162 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

While Section 6 [California's constitutional ELA] may conceivably have some concrete application to official government communications,if and when the measure is appropriately implemented by the state legislature, it appears otherwise to be primarily a symbolic statement about the importance of preserving, protecting, and strengthening the English language.51 Just as this case demonstrates the dominion of federal law and the relative impotence of a state -level constitutional ELA, it also hints at the circumstances under which such an amendment might foster virulent anti -Hispanic attitudes. For now, states must adhere to practicable federal law. Although some analysts underestimate the potential for passage of a national ELA, the current social climate suggests otherwise. Historically, three conditions have promoted widespread support for past ELA movements: (1) war or national crisis;52 (2) massive immigration;53 and (3) economic recession.54 It is sobering to realize that all three conditions currently exist. Should an amendment declaring English the official language of the United States pass, two conditions must obtain for it to be effective: access rights must be redefined as "language rights," and that new definition must be widely embraced. Furthermore, the newly defined term must be formally accepted and acted upon by policymakers, thus acquiring legal significance. For example, recategorizing the Court Interpreters Act as a language rights law creates a domino effect. When the Act is misconstrued as promoting the maintenance of native languages, it conflicts with the ELA and exposes it to the danger of nullification. Inevitably, this jeopardizes the constitutional protections that Mexican Americans have just begun to exercise. At the very least, passage of a federal ELA would force the United States Supreme Court to decide which competing constitutional doctrine has precedence, i.e., the right of the defendant to a court interpreter versus English as the official language of the government. If an anti - language rights agenda is adopted by an ultra- conservative court, then a full -scale assault on current access privileges could ensue.

New Directions On May 11, 1988, the United States Senate Committee on the LANGUAGE RIGHTS AND THE MEXICAN AMERICANS 163

Constitution initiated a series of hearings on the merits of the proposed constitutional amendment proclaiming English the official language.55 This development highlights the immediacy of the threat to the fundamental civil rights of Mexican Americans and other language minorities. It also points out the urgency of finding an answer to the language rights question. Clarifying the issues is the first step to a judicious solution to the language rights argument. Once the differences between access and language rights are understood, the controversy can be treated logically. Obviously, full access to education, government, employment, and justice is a notably different goal from that of preserving language and culture. After this distinction is made, , two divergent paths become evident: one leads to social equality through the perpetuation of current access rights, and the other to language rights through the initiation of new legislation that protects and preserves native languages and cultures. Once a language rights agenda has been set, proponents can introduce legislation similar to LULAC's English Plus proposal,56 which proposes the teaching of English while also preserving cultural heritage. They also could lobby for the ratification of international agreements for human rights such as Resolution 2200, Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1966.57 Finally, they may introduce federal and state amendments and laws that overtly propagate language rights. Above all, a sound argument will shield the basic civil rights of Mexican Americans from the ill- founded attacks of ELA proponents. Mexican Americans must continue to have basic access to important social institutions. And to ensure access, federal laws must be sustained until minority groups achieve equality with the majority. If Mexican Americans lose their opportunity for access in the states, then the local majorities could use government to deny them their constitutional rights. As Kenneth Karst has so eloquently pointed out in "Paths to Belonging: The Constitution and Cultural Identity, "58 we must understand that becoming a "good citizen" is not predicated on speaking English as ELA proponents advocate. Rather, to be an "American" one must adhere to and participate in our national civil culture. Without exception, everyone must be granted the right to vote, to be educated, to be employed, and to claim justice. 164 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

Conclusions Because state laws inadequately guarantee constitutional protections, the future progress of Mexican Americans as a group depends on the continuance of federal access legislation. The extensive confusion of terms and labels, goals and rights, and legislation and linguistic ideology in the language rights debate clears the way for passage of a federal ELA. The consequence of such a declaration is potentially disastrous. Dismembering federal legislation would nullify the basic civil rights of Mexican Americans and other non -English speakers. Strictly defining existing laws as access rights underscores the fact that Mexican Americans have no language rights. However, it does not preclude proponents of such rights from developing a separate body of legislation to promote those goals.

NOTES

Leibowitz, A. (1982). Federal recognition of the rights of minority language groups. Rosslyn, VA: National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education. 2 See Connor, W. (Ed.). (1985). Mexican Americans in comparative perspective. Washington, DC: Urban Institute Press; Dolbeare, K., & Edelman, M. (1977). American politics: Policies, power and change. Lexington, MA: D. C. Heath and Co.; Jacobs, P., & Landau, S. (1971). To serve the Devil: Native and slaves (vol. 1). New York: Vintage Books; McLemore, S., & Romo, R. (1985). The origins and development of the Mexican American people. In R. de la Garza, F. Bean, C. Bonjean, R. Romo, & R. Alvarez (Eds.), The Mexican American experience: An interdisciplinary anthology (pp. 3 -32). Austin: University of Texas Press; and Sanchez, R. (1983). Chicano discourse: Socio- historic perspectives. Rowley, MA: Newbury. 3 See Alvarez, R. (1985). The psycho- historical and socioeconomic development of the Chicano community in the United States. In R. O. De La Garza, F. D. Bean, C. M. Bonjean, R. Romo, & R. Alvarez (Eds.), The Mexican American experience: An interdisciplinary anthology (pp. 33 -56). Austin: University of Texas Press; and Meinig, D. (1971). Southwest: Three peoples in geographical change 1600 -1970. New York: Oxford University Press. 4 Acuña, R. (1972). Occupied America: The Chicano's struggle toward liberation (p. 7). San Francisco: Canfield Press. 5 Cortís, C. (1980). Mexicans. In S. Thernstrom (Ed.), The Harvard encyclopedia of American ethnic groups. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. LANGUAGE RIGHTS AND THE MEXICAN AMERICANS 165

6 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexico, signed 2 Feb., 1848. Treaties and Other International Acts (TIAS 207).

Acuña, R. ( 1972). Occupied America: The Chicano's struggle toward liberation, pp. 35- 36. San Francisco, Canfield Press.

s Lopez Tijerina v. Henry, 48 F.R.D. 274 at 279, D.N.M. (1969), appeal dismissed, 398 U.S. 922, 90 S. Ct. 1718, 26 L.Ed. 2d 86 (1970). 9 Ruíz, R. (1988). Bilingualism and bilingual education in the United States. In C. Paulston (Ed.), International handbook of bilingual education (pp. 539 -560). New York: Greenwood Press. 1° Ruíz, R. (1988). Bilingualism and bilingual education in the United States. In C. Paulston (Ed.), International handbook of bilingual education (pp. 539 -560, at p. 545). New York: Greenwood Press. " Cords, C. (1980). Mexicans. In S. Thernstrom (Ed.), The Harvard encyclopedia of American ethnic groups. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 12 San Miguel, G. (1986). One country, one language: A historical sketch of English language movements in the United States, at p. 2. (Available from the Tomas Rivera Center, 710 North College Avenue, Claremont, CA 91711).

13 See Galarza, E. (1964). Merchants of labor- The Mexican Bracero Program. Charlotte, NC: McNally and Loftin; and Steiner, S. ( 1969). La Raza: The Mexican Americans. New York: Harper & Row.

14 See de la Garza, R. (1985). As American as tamale pie: Mexican -American political mobilization and the loyalty question. In W. Connor (Ed.), Mexican Americans in comparative perspective (pp. 227 -244). Washington, DC: Urban Institute Press; and Grebler, L., Moore, J., & Guzman, R. (Eds.). (1970). The Mexican American people: The nation's second largest minority. New York: The Free Press.

15 McArthur, T. (1986). Comment: Worried about something else. International journal of Sociology of Language, 60, 87 -91, at 91. 16 Unless otherwise cited, the statistics in this section can be found in the National Council of La Raza. (1986). The Education of Hispanics: Status and Implications. Office of Research, Advocacy and Legislation. Washington, DC: Author.

17 WICHE, Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. (1987a, September). From minority to majority: Education and the future of the Southwest (Report No. 2A170), at p. 6. Boulder, CO: Author. 18 WICHE, Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. (1987b, October). Shaping the future of the Southwest: Background materials on minorities in education and the economy of the Southwest (Report No. 2A172), at p. 51. Boulder, CO: Author. 166 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

t9 Ibid., at p. 4.

20Ibid., at p. 1.

21 Kloss, H. (1977). The American bilingual tradition. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

22Macias, R. (1979). Language choice and human rights in the United States. In J. Alatis & G. Tucker (Eds.), Georgetown University round table on languages and linguistics 1979 (pp. 86 -101, at p. 94). Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.

23 voting Rights Act of 1965, Pub. L. No. 89 -110, 79 Stat. 437 (codified at 42 U.S.C.A. § 1971 -1973 [1982]).

24 Voting Rights Act Amendment of 1975, Pub. L. No. 98 -110, § 203, 89 Stat. 400 (codified at 42 U.S.C. § 1973aa -la [19821).

25Ibid., fn. 1, at p. 9.

26Downing, P. (1981, November). The Voting Rights Act of 1965: Historical and policy aspects. (Issue Brief No. IB81079). Washington, DC: Library of Congress.

27Marshall, D. (1986). The question of an official language: Language rights and the English Language Amendement. International Journal of Sociology of Language, 60, 7 -75.

28Arizona Voter Registration and Colorado Elections Offices, personal communications, May 4, 1988.

29Hakuta, K. (1985). Mirrow of language: The debate on bilingualism. New York: Basic Books.

3°Bilingual Education Act of 1968, embodied in Title VII of the Educational Amendments Act of 1984, Pub. L. No. 98 -511, 98 Stat. 2370 (codified at 20 U.S.C.A. §§ 3221 -3262 [West Supp. 1985]).

3'Ovando, C., & Collier, V. (1985). Bilingual and ESL classrooms: Teaching in multicultural contexts, at p. 27. New York: McGraw -Hill Book Co.

32 Cummins, J. (1981). Four misconceptions about language proficiency in bilingual education. NABEJournal, 5(3), 31 -45; and Hakuta, K. (1985). Mirror of language: The debate on bilingualism. New York: Basic Books.

33Ibid. at fn. 32.

34 Civil Rights Act of 1964, Pub. L. No. 88 -352, 78 Stat. 241 (codified at 42 U.S.C. § 2000a to 2000h -6 [1982]).

35Federal Labor Regulations, 29 C.F.R. § 1606.1 -8 (1980); Speak -English -Only Rules § 1606.7 (rev. July 1, 1987). LANGUAGE RIGHTS AND THE MEXICAN AMERICANS 167

36 Aniol, J. (1982). Language discrimination under Title VII: The silent right of national origin discrimination (Note 9). John Marshall Law Review, 15, 667 -691.

37 CourtlnterpretersAct of 1978, Pub. L. No. 95 -539, 92 Stat. 2040 (codified at 28 U.S.C.A. § 1827 (1978)).

38Ibid., at (a)(11). 39 Administrative Office of the United States Courts. (1987, November). Federal court interpreters advisory board: Report to the director. (Available from Author, 811 Vermont Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20544).

4° Interdepartmental Work Act of 1979, Pub. L. No. 96-88, 93 Stat. 695 (codified at 42 U.S.C.A. § 254 (1988)).

41 Dymally-Alatorre Bilingual Services Act of 1973, A.B. 86 Cal. Stats. Ch. 1182, d 7290 et seq. (1973). 42 United States Commission on Civil Rights. (1970). Mexican Americans and the administration of justice in the Southwest, at p. iii. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

43 See Escobar v. State, 30 Ariz. 159, 245 P. 356 (1926); People v. Annett, 251 Cal. App. 2d 858, 59 Cal. Rptr. 888 (1967), cert. denied; 390 U.S. 1029, 88 S. Ct. 1421, 20 L.ED.2d 287 (1968); People v. Ramos, 26 N.Y.2d 272, 258 N.E.2d 197 (1970); State v. Kabinto, 196 Ariz. 575, 480 P.2d 1 (1971); Suarez v. United States, 309 F.2d 709 (5th Cir. 1962); and Viliborghi v. State, 45 Ariz. 275, 43 P.2d 210 (1935).

44 Arizona v. Natividad, 111 Ariz. 191, 526 P.2d 730, at 733 (1974). 45 González, R.D., Schott, A., & Vásquez, V. F. (1988). The English Language Amendment: Examining myths. English Journal, 77(3), 24 -30; Judd, E. (1987). The English language amendment: A case study on language and politics. TESOL Quarterly, 21(1), 113 -133; Marshall, D. (1986). The question of an official language: Language rights and the English Language Amendment. International Journal of Sociology of Language, 60, 7 -75; and Pian, B. (1986). Toward a domestic recognition of a human right to language. Houston Law Review, 23, 855 -900.

48 U.S. English, personal communication, October 1, 1991.

47 Ibid. Judd at fn. 48; Official English: Federal limits to curtail bilingual services in the states. (1987). Harvard Law Review, 100, 1345 -1362.

48 Black's law dictionary, (5th ed., 1979), at p. 1292. St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Co.

49Gutierrez v. Municipal Court of the Southeast Judicial District, County of Los Angeles. No. CV 85- 2172 -RG, slip op. at 1033 (9th Cir. Feb. 5, 1987).

38 Ibid., at p. 1035. 168 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

51 Ibid., at p. 1054.

52 Heath, S. (1981). English in our language heritage. In C. Ferguson & S. Heath (Eds.), Language in the U.S.A. (pp. 6-20). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; and Higham, J. (1963). Strangers in the land: Patterns of American nativism, 1860 -1925. New York: Atheneum.

53 Leibowitz, A. (1969). English literacy: Legal sanction for discrimination. Notre Dame Lawyer, 45, 7 -67. 54 Billington, R. (1964). The Protestant crusade, 1800 -1860. Chicago: Quadrangle. 55 Mary Carol Combs, The National Forum English Plus Information Clearinghouse, personal communication, May 8, 1988.

S6 LULAC, League of United Latin American Citizens. (1986). The English plus project. Washington, DC: Author.

57 Djonovich, D. (Ed.). (1975). Resolution 2200, Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. United Nations resolutions: Resolutions adopted by the General Assembly (vol. 11). Dobbs Ferry, NY: Oceana. 58 Karst, K. (1986). Paths to belonging: The Constitution and cultural identity. North Carolina Law Review, 64, 303 -377. FACTORS RELATED TO OBESITY IN MEXICAN AMERICAN SCHOOL CHILDREN

Mary A. Alexander and Jacqueline Blank Sherman

Childhood obesity, one of the most prevalent and serious nutritional diseases in the western world, is reported to be increasing in Mexican American children.' Although there is a lack of consensus on the etiology of obesity in childhood, factors related to maternal nutritional knowledge, feeding practices, values, socioeconomic status, acculturation level and other select demographic variables have been associated with obesity in children.' Understanding these factors may direct health care professionals in their efforts to prevent obesity in Mexican American children. Obesity among children is a growing problem and a potential health risk that requires recognition.3 Obesity has been recognized as a major contributing factor to the increased incidence of coronary artery disease, hypertension and maturity onset diabetes.4 Childhood obesity, which occurs in five to 25 percent of children in the United States, is the leading cause of pediatric hypertension and a source of devastating psychoso- cial consequences.' There is a high prevalence of obesity among Mexican American children .6 In an Arizona study of two- to five -year- olds, 13.3 percent of the Mexican American and 8.9 percent of other ethnic groups were overweight, a statistically significant difference.' Obesity in the early years is likely to be followed by obesity in adult life.8'9 Prevention starts in the early years because once established,

This research was supported by a Biomedical Research Support grant and an Arizona Foundation grant, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona.

-169- 170 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

childhood obesity often becomes chronic and resistant to treatment. 10,11 Consequently, research has begun to focus on understanding the correlational determinants of obesity, especially potentially modifiable ones. The focus of this paper is on research regarding the relationship between nutritional knowledge, feeding practices, values, socioeconomic status, acculturation level and select demographic variables of Mexican American mothers and obesity in their children.

Conceptual Orientation From a review of research, a framework for the study of obesity in Mexican American children emerges. Figure 1 is a schematic diagram which represents the variables of interest figuratively. Constructs,

FIGURE 1: Theoretical Framework for Factors Related to Obesity in Preschool Children

CONSTRUCT Health Factors Health

CONCEPT Nutritional Feeding Maternal Demographic Nutritional Knowledge Practices Values Variables Requisites II

Socio- Acculturation Other economic Select Status Demographic Variables

CONCEPT Maternal Maternal Ideal Weight Weight/ Nutntional Feeding In ant Body Locus of Body Fat Knowledge Practices Perception Control

OPERATIONAL I I INDICATORS NKQ MFP IBH WLOC GSES ARSMA SDQ TSF Ht/Wt (child) Sex/ Age (child)

KEY: NKQ - Nutrition Knowledge Questionnaire. SDQ Select Demographic Variables (Sex of Child Birth MFP - Maternal Feeding Practices Questionnaire. Order, Birth Weight, Breast Fed vs. Bottle Fed, Age IBH -Ideal Body Habitus. of Introduction of Solid Food, Body Mass Index, WLOC - Weight locus of Control. Marital Status of Mother, Presence of Male in the GSES - Green's Socioeconomic Scale for Household, Person Responsible for Child's Food Whites and Non -Whites. Intake, Weight Status of Siblings). ARSMA - Acculturation Scale for Mexican Americans TSF Triceps Skinfold. Ht/Wt Sex/Age - Weight for height, age, sex. FACTORS RELATED TO OBESITY 171 concepts and the linkages between them are clarified to identify areas of inquiry. On the construct level multiple health factors are associated with health, which is a state of complete physical, mental and social well -being. On the conceptual level, nutrition is a primary requisite of health and is related to nutritional knowledge, feeding practices, maternal values and demographic variables. Body weight and percent of body fat are measures of nutritional requisites. Overnutrition is considered to be a health risk. Childhood obesity has been associated with the variables of maternal nutritional knowledge, maternal feeding practices, ideal infant body perception and weight locus of control, socioeconomic status, acculturation level, and other select demographic variables. Obesity is defined as excess body fat. The measurement of the triceps skinfold thickness greater than or equal to the eighty-fifth percentile of the United States Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1989), and the weight for height, age and sex greater than or equal to the eighty- fifth percentile are recognized methods of determining childhood obesity.12 The eighty-fifth percentile corresponds approximately to 120 percent of ideal body weight and serves as an accepted definition of obesity.13

Nutritional Knowledge Customs and beliefs from Mexico concerning food affect nutrition awareness among Mexican Americans in the barrio, where obesity is a problem among infants and small children.14 Clark describes a fad of giving sweetened high -calorie milk to infants and reports an incident in which a mother had fed her child a mid -morning snack consisting of a cup of whole milk flavored with coffee and a tablespoon of sugar, a doughnut, half of a pan dulce (sweet bread) and a large breakfast roll.14 This mother took pride in having a fat baby and was annoyed when the doctor suggested that overfeeding constituted a health problem. Kay observed that few mothers breast feed for more than a few weeks.15 The first solid food for babies is usually maizena, a pudding of cornstarch. Next, they receive more coarsely ground corn and are frequently given a chocolate milk drink thickened with flour. She also notes that commercial baby foods are used liberally. Lack of maternal nutritional knowledge may relate to obesity because individuals may unintention- ally select a diet that contributes to excess weight gain.16,17 172 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

Feeding Practices Parental feeding practices may contribute to the risk of childhood obesity. The relationship between selected feeding practices and infant weight was investigated using subjects aged 12 to 30 months.18 Subjects and parents were observed during the dinnertime meal. Parental prompts, particularly parental encouragements to eat, correlated highly to the child's relative weight and increased the probability that a child would eat. Wright, Holberg and Taussig also analyzed feeding practices in a sample of 1,112 healthy infants.'9 Data were collected regarding breast feeding, formula feeding, and use of solid foods. They found that factors positively associated with breast feeding included education and marriage, whereas maternal employment outside the home and ethnicity (being Hispanic rather than Anglo- American) were related positively to bottle feeding. Solid foods were introduced earlier by Hispanics, by less educated women and by single women; maternal employment was unrelated to the introduction of solid foods. The use of food for non- nutritive purposes such as reward and punishment, relieving boredom and depression were shown by Guinn to be associated with obesity in Mexican American children."

Values Children of mothers who are more "external" in their beliefs about personal control of weight may be at risk for obesity. The value of maternal perceived degree of personal control over body weight was investigated in relation to obesity of children.21 The perceived degree of personal control over body weight was assessed by the Weight Locus of Control (WLOC) scale.22,23 Locus of control was viewed as a continuum, with individuals perceiving a high degree of personal control over life events classified as "internal." Individuals classified as "external," who perceived they had less control over body weight, were predicted to be at increased risk of the development of obesity. The results of this study indicated that there was a trend that mothers were heavier and had heavier children if they perceived a more external focus with respect to locus of weight control. The belief that one cannot control one's own body weight has been associated with the development of obesity in mothers and children. Mexican American women have been reported to be more likely than Anglo women to feel they cannot control their weight.23 FACTORS RELATED TO OBESITY 173

Researchers have noted the cultural variations in the meaning of obesity and its prevalence in children.24.25 Many beliefs from Mexico about food and feeding persist in the thinking of second- and third - generation Mexican Americans and continue to influence health behavior.14 The belief that a fat baby is a healthy baby has been shown to be related to obesity in children.b0,26 Interviews with mothers as well as their reactions to drawings exhibiting a range of infant body sizes -from lean to chubby -were used to assess the maternal value of ideal infant body size. Mothers who believed that a fat baby is a healthy baby and those that preferred drawings representing chubbier infants had more obese children than mothers who preferred a leaner baby. Some degree of fatness seems to be preferred by Mexican American mothers.14,25,26

Socioeconomic Status Golden, Saltzer, DePaul- Snyder and Reiff-L7 attempted to identify which variables contribute to the development of obesity in children. They explored the nutritional knowledge factor that might contribute to the excess risk for obesity in low socioeconomic populations. They appraised maternal nutritional knowledge with a 14 -item multiple choice and true /false scale dealing with caloric values and food preparation. Nutritional knowledge was significantly less in mothers of lower socioeconomic status, the group with the greatest incidence of obesity in children, as compared with a middle -class population. From their study they concluded that there is an increased incidence of obesity in children in the lower socioeconomic status population. These results are consistent with the results obtained by Oken, Hartz, Giefer and Rimm; Durant, Martin, Linder and Weston; Garn, Hopkins and Ryan; and Woolston in their studies of obesity in the lower socioeconomic population.28-31 Furthermore, in low- income families there is a greater prevalence of obesity among children in ethnic groups than in the Anglo group.6

Acculturation The Mexican Americans are a heterogenous group with regard to acculturation.14 Acculturation is defined as the process by which cultures adapt to and integrate different lifestyles congruent with some of their own cultural beliefs.32 Some Mexican American families appear 174 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

to be almost fully assimilated into Anglo culture; for others there is less acceptance of Anglo patterns. For some, American fast foods often replace rice and beans on the dinner table. In a southwestern Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program, obesity is prevalent in 11.9 percent of all children ages one to five years old, but for Mexican American children alone the rate is 14.2 percent.33 However, intracultural diversity must be assumed in any study that explores possible relationships between food consumption and other social and cultural factors.34 Hazuda, Haffner, Stem and Eifler assessed the relationship between acculturation and obesity in 1,288 Mexican Americans and 929 non - Hispanic white adults.35 For the Mexican Americans, increased acculturation was accompanied by a statistically significant decline in obesity. The investigators suggest that culturally mediated factors exert a pervasive influence on obesity in Mexican Americans.

Other Select Demographic Variables Other demographic variables have been suggested as contributing to the risk of obesity in children. These include: sex of child, birth order, birth weight, breast -feeding vs. bottle feeding, age of introduction of solid foods, maternal body mass index, marital status of mother, presence of male in household, person responsible for child's food intake and weight status of siblings. Controversy remains concerning the variables related to breast feeding and bottle feeding, birth weight and age of introduction of solid foods in relation to the development of obesity in children. Kramer and Castiglia reported that breast feeding has been shown to have a significant protective effect against subsequent obesity and that the early introduction of solid food could be an early step to obesity. Dubois, Hilland and Beaton failed to demonstrate that an obese child is one who is given solids early and not breast fed.3ó-38 Obese children do tend to have overweight parents and siblings, establishing a recog- nizable familial pattern.37 Facets of the family organization, such as the absence of a father or male in the household, also may play an important part in the customs that influence maternal child health practices.14,39 Alexander and Blank26 report finding a statistically significant relationship between the body mass index (weight in kilos /height in meters) of Mexican American mothers and obesity in their preschool children. FACTORS RELATED TO OBESITY 175

A significant increase in the prevalence of obesity in Mexican American children was reported by the National Institutes of Health (1985) and by Malina, Zavaleta and Litle.13,4° Obesity in the early years clearly cannot account for all obesity occurring later in life, but there is sufficient evidence of a relationship to cause concern. Reports from the Childhood Obesity Workshop of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development suggest that prevention of obesity should begin in programs for children between the ages of three and five.3 Because early childhood is so critical to physiological development and to the establishment of lifetime habits and behavioral traits, this period is thought to have the greatest potential for the prevention of obesity.41 Understanding the etiology of obesity in children can provide health care professionals with preventive intervention strategies. Health care professionals are in a position to help prevent obesity. Their close and continuous contact with school children and their families provides opportunity for nutritional assessment and counsel- ing. They can increase awareness of the prevalence of obesity in Mexican American children and of the factors associated with childhood obesity: nutritional knowledge, feeding practices, values, socioeconomic status, acculturation level and other select demographic variables of Mexican American mothers and their children.

NOTES

Kolata CT. Obese children: A growing problem. Research News, 1986;232(4): 20 -21. 2 Kramer MS, Barr RB, Leduc DG, Boisjoly C, McVey -White L, Pless ID. Determinants of weight and adiposity in the first year of life. Journal of Pediatrics, 1985;106(1): 10- 14. 3 Blessing P. Childhood obesity. Children Today, 1986; Sept. -Oct.: 26-29. 4 Crow RA, Fawcett J. Child obesity. Nursing Times Community Outlook, 1979; January 11; 11 -20. 5 Dietz WH. Prevention of childhood obesity. Pediatric Clinics of North America, 1986;33(4): 823 -833. 6 Trowbridge FL. Prevalence of growth stunting and obesity: Pediatric Nutrition Surveil- lance System, 1982. Centers for Disease Control Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 1984;34(4): 23 -26. 176 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

Yanochik -Owen A, White M. Nutrition surveillance in Arizona: Selected anthropo- metric and laboratory observations among Mexican American children. American Journal of Public Health, 1977;67(2): 151 -154. 8 Garn S. The origins of obesity. American Journal of Disabled Children, 1976;130: 465- 467. 9 Turtle JR. Obesity. The Medical Journal of Australia, 1976;1: 3. 1° Kramer MS, Barr RB, Leduc DG, Boisjoly C, Pless ID. Maternal psychological determinants of infant obesity. Journal of Chronic Disease, 1983;36(4): 329 -335. 11 Carlson M. Childhood obesity: How to treat it, how to prevent it. Ohio Medicine, 1985;85(3): 187 -189. 12 Frisancho AR. New norms of upper limb fat and muscle areas for assessment of nutritional status. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 1981;34: 2540. 13 National Institutes of Health Consensus Development Conference Statement. Health implications of obesity. Annals of Internal Medicine, 1985;103(6): 1073 -1077. 14 Clark M. Health in the Mexican American Culture. Berkeley, CA, University of California Press, 1970. 15 Kay MA. Health and Illness in a Mexican American Barrio. In E.H. Spicer (Ed), Ethnic Medicine in the Southwest, Tucson, University of Arizona Press, 1977. 16 Stern MP, Pugh JA, Gaskill SP, Hazuda HP. Knowledge, attitudes, and behavior related to obesity and dieting in Mexican Americans and Anglos: The San Antonio heart study. American Journal of Epidemiology, 1982;115(6): 917 -928. 17 Huenemann RL. Environmental factors associated with preschool obesity. Interna- tional Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 1974;64: 480 -487.

1 Klesges RC, Coates TJ, Brown G, Sturgeon- Tillisch J, Moldenhauer -Klesges LM, Holzer B, Woolfrey J, Vollmer J. Parental influences on children's eating behavior and relative weight. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1983;16(4): 371 -378. 19 Wright AL, Holberg C, Taussig LM. Infant -feeding practices among middle -class Anglos and Hispanics. Pediatrics, 1988;82(3): 496 -503. 20 Guinn B. Emotions and obesity among Mexican American children. Journal of School Health, 1985;55(3): 113 -115. 21 Saltzer EB, Golden MP. Obesity in lower and middle socioeconomic status mothers and their children. Research in Nursing & Health, 1985;8: 147 -153. 22 Saltzer EB. Locus of control and the intention to lose weight. Health Education Monographs, 1978;6(1): 118 -128. 23 Saltzer EB. The weight locus of control (WLOC) scale: A specific measure for obesity research. Journal of Personality Assessment, 1982;46(6): 620 -628. FACTORS RELATED TO OBESITY 177

24Ritenbaugh C. An anthropological perspective on nutrition. Journal of Nutrition Education, 1981;13: 12 -15. 25 Ritenbaugh C. Obesity as a culture -bound syndrome. Culture, Medicine and Psychia- try, 1982;6: 347 -261.

26Blank JJ, Alexander MA. Factors associated with obesity in Mexican -American preschool children -A cardiovascular risk. Progress in Cardiovascular Nursing, 1988;3: 27 -31.

27Golden MP, Saltzer EB, DePaul- Snyder L, Reiff MI. Obesity and socioeconomic class in children and their mothers. Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 1983;4(2): 113 -118.

28Oken B, Hartz A, Giefer E, Rimm AA. Relation between socioeconomic status and obesity changes in 9,046 women. Preventive Medicine, 1977;6: 447 -453.

29Durant RH, Martin DS, Linder CW, Weston W. The prevalence of obesity and thinness in children from a lower socioeconomic population receiving comprehensive health care. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1980;33: 2002 -2007.

30Gam SM, Hopkins PJ, Ryan AS. Differential fatness gain of low income boys and girls. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1981;34: 1564 -1568.

31Woolston JL. Obesity in infancy and early childhood. Journal of American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 1987;2: 123 -126.

32Leininger M. Transcultural Nursing: Concepts, Theories and Practices. New York, J. Wiley, 1977. 33 Fields KL. personal communication, April 21, 1987. 34 Pelto GH, Jerome NW. Intracultural diversity and nutritional anthropology. In M.H. Logan & E.E. Hunt, (Eds), Health and the Human Condition, North Scituate, MA, Duxbury Press, 1978. 35 Hazuda HP, Haffner SM, Stem MP, Eifler CW. Effects of acculturation and socioeconomic status on obesity and diabetes in Mexican Americans. American Journal of Epidemiology, 1988;128(6): 1289 -1301. 36 Kramer MS. Do breast -feeding and delayed introduction of solid foods protect against subsequent obesity? Journal of Pediatrics, 1981;98(6): 883 -887. 37 Castiglia PT. Obesity in infants and toddlers. Journal of Pediatric Health Care, 1987;4: 218 -220. 38 Dubois S, Hill DE, Beaton GH. An examination of factors believed to be associated with infantile obesity. TheAmericanJournal of Clinical Nutrition, 1979;32: 1997 -2007.

39Kinston W, Loaker P, Miller L. Emotional health of families and their members where a child is obese. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 1987;31(5): 583 -599. 178 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

40 Malina RM, Zavaleta AN, Little BB. Estimated overweight and obesity in Mexican American school children. International Journal of Obesity, 1986;10: 483 -491. 41 Myres AW. Obesity: is it preventable in infancy and childhood? Canadian Family Physician, 1975;21: 73-77. A PRECURSOR TO AFFIRMATIVE ACTION: CALIFORNIOS AND MEXICANS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, 1870 -72

David J. León and Dan McNeill

Introduction We tend to take the presence of substantial numbers of minority students on campuses for granted. Yet their widespread matricu- lation is a fairly recent phenomenon. Before the mid- 1960s, most colleges geared admissions standards to the scholastic level of wealthy, white high schools. This practice limited minority enrollment dramati- cally. Only the affirmative action programs, created in response to dem- onstrations and ghetto riots, have enabled significant numbers of minorities to attend universities. These programs have been criticized for relaxing admissions criteria and lowering institutional quality. It is not generally known, however, that colleges in the late nineteenth century commonly relaxed standards so technically unqualified students could enter a preparatory department, adjunct to the university, and ready themselves for formal admission. The high school movement had not yet flowered, and the preparatory department filled the gap between the free public school and the university. In 1870, there were only five states where no college had such a department. Four of them were in New England, where the tradition of private academies remained vigorous.' Sometimes these departments made it possible for minorities to enter a university. For example, in 1870 the University of California created a sub -freshman grade called the Fifth Class. Its curriculum was designed

-179- 180 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES to help students pass the strict entrance exams. At a time when the university proper enrolled only one minority student, the Fifth Class contained several Spanish -surnamed individuals, many of whom later qualified for entry into the freshman class. When the regents ended the program in 1872, minority enrollment virtually ceased. This paper examines the brief career of the Fifth Class and minority access in the early 1870s.

The University of California The California constitution of 1849 provided for a state university and any branches of it that might be deemed desirable. Legislators, however, did not exploit this opportunity at once. Gold fever, and the later excitement over the Comstock Lode, drew potential students off to the sluices and mines. Financial problems, competition from private colleges, and warnings of catastrophe from worthies like Dr. Horace Bushne112 further delayed its inception. After the Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862 made a state university feasible, politicians from Sacramento, Napa, Alameda, Santa Clara, and El Dorado counties vied for its site. Not until March 23, 1868, did governor Henry Haight sign legislation officially creating the University of California. It was a time of swift transition, for both the state and higher education. The transcontinental railroad was nearing completion, and most Californians were buoyed with expectation of imminent prosperity. In education, the traditional small colleges were rapidly transforming themselves into universities as we know them. American colleges in the nineteenth century resembled the medieval institutions in Bologna, Paris, and Oxford more closely than modem universities. The European schools originated as guilds, whose members had recognized rights to instruct apprentices (students) and dispense licenses (degrees) to teach.3 Since the functional core of a guild is monopoly of a service, admission was restricted:

For nothing destroys the standards, dignity, status, and above all the prestige of a guild so decisively as open doors and large numbers ... Knowingthis, many scholars insist [ed] that every applicant must be carefully scrutinized; and that only those who possess the

qualities essential to excelling in scholarly work . . . should be permitted to attend the universities.4 A PRECURSOR TO AFFIRMATIVE ACTION 181

Though the purpose of universities had grown somewhat broader since the late Middle Ages, they retained structural, philosophic, and linguistic holdovers from the era.5 Most nineteenth century colleges maintained narrow classical curricula, small enrollments, and a cloistral commitment to the preservation of learning. In 1870s America, however, this practice was coming under sharp attack. Industrialization created the need for a better educated populace, and such lords of the marketplace as Vanderbilt, Stanford, Cornell, and Johns Hopkins were endowing new universities apace. Rising affluence brought a college education within the reach of more and more people. The rapid growth of technology inspired confidence in science and progress. A new concept of higher education was developing, which Ezra Cornell perhaps summed up best: "I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study. "6 Vanguard universities added science and other topics to the curriculum. They introduced the elective system, stressed intellect over piety, induced many more students, and declared their goal to be the search for truth rather than the conservation of antiquity. The new University of California experienced this conflict in an interesting way. On one hand, it was a public institution, open to all who could pass the entrance exams. It offered numerous courses in the pure and applied sciences, and had a Board of Regents who

had been drawn, as Regents have been drawn ever since, from the ranks of Californians who had reputations for astuteness in business or for contributions to the cultural development and general prosperity of the state.' On the other, it had a faculty of ten men who were unusually attached to the admission standards of the guild. The resulting interplay between openness and elitism largely determined the trajectory of the Fifth Class.

Costs of Attending the University The first official catalog of the university proudly announced that its doors were open "without charge, to all of both sexes, who are qualified to profit by its advantages." The Register urged students to "avail themselves of its advantages, in such numbers as to justify its high aims and its large hopes. "8 The university was free and public, and beckoned 182 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES the bright to enter. However, hidden costs prevented many of them from responding. Though students were not charged tuition, they still had to pay room and board. The 1870 -71 Register listed the estimated expenses: Board and Lodging, from $200 to $320 Fuel, Lights, and Washing, from 40 to 60 Books and Stationery, from 20 to 40 $260 to $420 With modest allowance for clothing, travel, pocket money, and board during vacation, the cost of attending the university probably ranged from $300 to $500 per year. These were substantial sums, more than most working class or minority families could afford. A list of annual wages in various occupations, issued by the Legislature in 1868, gives some idea of the value of the dollar at this time: apothecaries, $480; bakers, $360 to $480; barbers, $720 to $1200; butchers, $420 to $720; dyers, $480 to $600; fruit - pickers, $300 to $360; harness- makers, $480 to $900; laborers, $300 to $360; laundrymen, $360 to $480; salesmen, $420 to $600; undertakers, $960.9 Clearly, with such incomes, most parents could not send their children to the university. Moreover, by 1870 wages had dropped significantly. Completion of the railroad in 1869 led to competition from Eastern companies, a slump in the artificially excited real estate prices, and a statewide depression. At the same time, the influx of former railroad workers inflated the labor pool and reduced demand. Jobs grew scarcer and less remunerative. The "Terrible Seventies" were upon California. Minorities, always at the lower end of the pay scale, suffered most. University administrators encouraged students to help defray expenses by working part-time. The school itself offered a few jobs tending the grounds or working in the printing office. In addition, students could seek employment "on Saturdays, and in vacations away from the University."In the same breath, however, administrators cautioned, "It should be borne in mind, to avoid disappointments, that hard mental work is not often compatible with hard manual labor; and that the tact to earn something, while pursuing a course of study, varies much with individuals. "" About 90 students, or slightly less than half the 1873 -74 enrollment, had such jobs. No figures exist on the extent to which the "hard manual labor" of students paid for their living expenses. A PRECURSOR TO AFFIRMATIVE ACTION 183

However, it is evident that part-time work did not cover all their costs. Thus a university education was generally restricted to the offspring of fairly wealthy parents.

Admission Standards The very structure of the university showed the tension between the old and the new. The school had a College of Letters, which required familiarity with Greek and Latin for admission. The school had a College of Arts, whose entrance requirements were basically modern. The admission requirements for these two colleges were: TO THE COLLEGE OF ARTS - Candidates for admission to the Fourth Class, in either of the Colleges of Arts, must pass a satisfactory examination in the following studies: Higher arithmetic, in all its branches, including the extraction of square and cube roots, and the metric system of weights and measures. Algebra, to Quadratic Equations. Geometry, first form books (Davies' Legendre or Loomis). English Grammar. Geography. History of the United States. TO THE COLLEGE OF LETTERS - Candidates for admission to the Fourth Class in the College of Letters, in addition to the foregoing requirements, must pass a satisfactory examination in the following studies, viz.: Caesar, four books. Virgil, six books of Aeniad. Cicero, six orations. Greek Grammar. Xenophon's Anabasis, three books. ADVANCED STANDING - All candidates for advanced standing, whether from other Colleges or not, in addition to the preparatory studies, are examined in those already pursued by the classes which they propose to enter.12

How did one go about obtaining such knowledge? California maintained a system of public schools in 1870. Attendance was not compul- sory and "truancy" was estimated at 40 percent.13 The state had nine 184 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES high schools: San Francisco, Sacramento, Nevada City, San Jose, Grass Valley, Vallejo, Oakland, Santa Clara,14 and Stockton. The latter four had opened within the previous three years.'5 Aspirants from towns that lacked a high school, had to find other means of preparation. Much more common were the private academies, whose enrollment in 1866 was 15,644 children aged 5 to 15. The total number of children in this age group (excluding Asians and reservation Indians) was 84,042.16 Such lyceums were denominational or secular, large or small, expensive for boarders, but relatively cheap for day students. The Russian River Institute at Healdsburg, for instance, enrolled 110 pupils in 1864." The household academy run by the mother of Josiah Royce for her son and other children in Grass Valley probably enrolled but a few.18 The Sonoma Institute for Young Ladies charged boarders $600 per year. The San Francisco Collegiate Institute (where boys wore uniforms "to prevent some of the evils arising from different style of clothing ") $60 to $80 per month. And a Sierra academy at Chinese Camp charged $20 per month.14 The private schools thus asked fees comparable to the living expenses for university students. Hence, if one lacked access to a secondary school and could not afford an academy, entering the university became a task involving significant ingenuity.

Minorities in California Meeting the entrance requirements posed special problems for California minorities. They faced pervasive and sometimes brutal big- otry. Native Americans, Chinese, and Californios had to master a second language to pass the English grammar exam. Native Americans and blacks had to overcome the lack of a university tradition. In 1870, Native Americans, Chinese, and blacks all attended segregated schools. Only Califomios, who claimed a European heritage and vestiges of social position, seemed able to send their children to white schools without stimulating Anglo opposition. Native Americans have lived in California for at least 15,500 years. They monopolized it for 97 percent of its human history, and dominated it numerically for another 99 percent.20 The immigration of whites decimated them. In 1769 there may have been 275,000 Native Americans in the state. By 1846, there were only about 100,000, and by 1870, 30,000.21 Enslaved by the padres, murdered22 or sold into servitude by Anglos, scythed away by smallpox, typhoid, measles, tuberculosis, and A PRECURSOR TO AFFIRMATIVE ACTION 185 starvation, they faced problems more immediate than quadratic equations. In 1866 a white Indian agent at Tule River refused to recommend schools for them, since they "must soon be extinct. "23Even if the Legislature had allowed them to attend white schools, it is likely that few of them would have seized the opportunity. Bitterness aside, the method and substance of education in their cultures differed critically from those in the Anglo. The Native American system of knowledge transmission was oral, informal, and pedagogically social; the Anglo was primarily visual, institutional, and professional. Anglo schools exalted white ways and insulted Native Americans.24In 1862, the Legislature excepted Native American youngsters with white guardians from the segregation strictures. By 1866 the public schools had enrolled 63 such children, out of 1,093.25 In terms of passing entrance exams, the Chinese had several advantages over Native Americans. Literacy in their South China homeland was relatively high (30 to 45 per cent among males), learning was venerated, and exams themselves had long determined access to social rank.26 Prodded by poverty, overpopulation, a tremendous flood,27 the Taiping Rebellion, and glittering rumors of easy money across the seas, thousands embarked around mid- century for California.29 Most paid their passage by indentured servitude to the Six Companies, a Chinese -run association that farmed out their labor for pennies and kept them in debt -bondage and penury for years. Their numbers in California grew, from about 25,000 in 1852,30 to 35,000 in 1860,31to 49,000 in 1870.32 Their prevalence, their willingness to work for low wages, and the 1869 depression turned white sentiment against them. Pogroms occurred. On October 24, 1871, between 50033 and 1,00034 of the 6,000 citizens of Los Angeles swept through the Chinese quarter, burning, looting over $30,000, lynching fifteen Chinese, and killing four more. At almost the same time, in 1870, the Legislature deleted all reference to Chinese from the state school law. This move virtually excluded Chinese children from the public school system for fifteen years.35 It forced the educationally ambitious back upon the "missionary schools," founded by Protestant sects to teach Christianity and English to the infidels. Lau Choy, a graduate from one of these schools, later wrote that the original Chinese "emigrated to China not long after Noah had left the ark...by and by they turned more to evil, and forgot the way of God...those heathen Chinese still kept on their idolatrous and wicked course?" California blacks fared better than either Native Americans or Chi- 186 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES nese. Most had grown up in America, knew English and something of the political system. Since probably "only the brightest and most enterprising of the race could have mustered the resources needed to attempt a trek to California, "37 they prospered in agriculture, business, real estate, and mining. An 1855 report estimated their total valuation at $2,413,000, or over $501 for every black individual in the state.38 In 1860 they numbered perhaps 4,000,3940 or about one percent of the total population. Their relative scarcity probably spared them the attention of white lynch mobs. It did not relieve them of statutory discrimination. Through concerted political action, they won the right to testify against whites in court in 1863,41 and to ride San Francisco's streetcars in 1864. However, by 1870 their children still attended segregated schools. In that year there were 17 black public schools, and a smattering of black academies, which had 75 pupils in 1866.42 "Nowhere in California did qualified blacks have assurance of admittance to public secondary schools. "43 Because of the small size of the segregated schools, those who did reach the high school level often found themselves with only one teacher to cover the entire curriculum. No black graduated from a California University until Ernest H. Johnson earned his diploma at Stanford in 1895.44 The native Mexicans or Californios had the most to lose from the Anglo takeover. However their racial resemblance to the conquerors and the diverting presence of Native Americans and Chinese probably saved them from the brunt of Anglo intolerance. They had ruled the state from the founding of the missions in the 1770s to the Bear Flag Revolt of 1846. They were ranchers whose wealth was based on cattle and land. From 1861 to 1864, flood and drought killed 40 percent of the state's livestock, and drove the price of cattle down from $12 to 37 and a half cents a head.45 Then an epidemic ravaged the species. In 1862 Santa Barbara had 200,000 head; by 1869, only 13,000 remained in all southern California. 4ó Californio title to land disappeared more subtlety. The Land Law of 1851 opened all claims in the state to legal challenge. The resulting title cases lasted an average of seventeen years.47 Attor- neys for the Califomios- mostly Anglo and often corrupt -were paid in land, since cash was scarce and clouded title prevented most of them from obtaining mortgages.48 In all, court judgements and lawyers' fees may have divested Californios of one -fourth to two- fifths of their land.49 Side effects of the litigation cost much more. Squatters, banding together in "settlers' leagues," forced their way onto landowners' property, some- A PRECURSOR TO AFFIRMATIVE ACTION 187 times burning their crops and killing their stock. Confidence men posing as their benefactors boldly defrauded them. Lenders, charging weekly interest rates as high as twelve percent for loans and three percent for mortgages, foreclosed on their property.50 Such depredations rapidly impoverished the Californios, and inspired a rash of banditry.51 Nonetheless, the 15,000 Californios of 1850$2 "were not early targets of discriminatory educational legislation. "53 When Stockton's first white public school opened, for instance, twenty-two of the town's thirty Cali - fornio children attended 11.54 Because many of these youngsters spoke only Spanish, they faced linguistic problems, especially after the Bureau of Public Instruction issued its 1855 order that all instructors teach solely in English. This edict sparked creation of some bilingual private schools. In 1856, J.R. de Neilson opened a bilingual Catholic academy for boys in Los Angeles, but he found he had to lower his tuition constantly. "Even at $1 a month many parents found the cost steep. "55 When public subsidies failed to materialize, the school folded. By 1870, the public schools were still the main avenue for Californio advancement in education. The University of California opened in 1869 with forty students, none of whom, as far as can be ascertained, was a minority. It would have been noteworthy if the university had a Native American or Chinese ma- triculant, and surprising if it had a black one. California whites did not want educated minorities, and had taken effective steps to prevent their preparation for the university. As a group, only Californios had a chance, and even they needed the boost of a preparatory department.

The Fifth Class: Creation A great university could not have only forty students. Harvard and Cornell's students numbered in the hundreds,56 and the University of California could aspire to no less. Moreover, as a public institution it had a duty to educate its citizens and spur the economic growth of the state. In December of 1869, the regents sought legislative permission to buy new buildings for the Oakland campus to house a preparatory department. The Legislature approved the request. However, the faculty objected because they believed the task of college preparation belonged to the fledgling high school system. The regents ignored this cry of impropriety. In the spring of 1870, Regent O.P. Fitzgerald, state superintendent of public instruction and a 188 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES segregationist, introduced a resolution. It directed the faculty to create "a fifth class or otherwise, which shall bring the different University schools into direct relation with the Grammar schools of the State. "57 Faculty members contemplated this development for several weeks. In May, Professor Robert Fisher, the Regent- appointed Dean of Faculty, announced that the faculty now approved of the Fifth Class, provided it was temporary and did not lead to weakening of the admission standards. However no plan for initiating the Fifth Class appeared. Under the leadership of Professor John LeConte, a physicist and former official of the Confederacy, the faculty dawdled into the late summer. In August, Regent John W. Dwinelle58 decided to address the Academic Senate. He reminded the professors of "the necessity of `popularizing' the institution, "59 and urged them to take action. When he withdrew, they formally resolved "that in pursuance of the power conferred by the Board of Regents, the faculties of the University hereby establish a Fifth Class in the nature of a preparatory class to continue during the pleasure of the Board of Regents. "60

The Fifth Class: Operation Entrance requirements for the Fifth Class were noticeably less stringent than for the rest of the university: "Candidates for the advanced grade of the Fifth Class must not be less than fourteen years of age, and must pass a satisfactory examination in English grammar, arithmetic, geography, and United States history. "61 Admission to the Fifth Class, as opposed to the College of Arts, required less knowledge of English, geography, and history, and none of algebra or geometry. However, since the Regents forbade independent living arrangements and charged tuition, the Fifth Class, under supervisor George Tait, charged costs that equaled or exceeded those of attending the higher grades:

Members of the Fifth Class, or Preparatory Department, who do not reside with their parents or guardians, are expected to room and board in the buildings belonging to that Department. Boarding and lodging, with suitable supervision, will be provided at $30.00 per month for students of this Department; and $27.50 for others. Tuition for day scholars in the lower grades of the Fifth Class will be at the usual rate; in cases of need, it may be free.62 A PRECURSOR TO AFFIRMATIVE ACTION 189

The Register nowhere shows "the usual rate," and this important omission suggests either crafty salesmanship or the existence of separate pamphlets, now lost. In any case, it appears that most boarding students paid expenses rivaling those of the cheaper academies, and some day students may have paid nothing at all. The Fifth Class was aimed at increasing enrollment, not helping minorities in particular. Nevertheless, in its first year sixteen of its students had Spanish surnames. As Table 1 shows, Mexicans outnumbered Californios. Moreover, they bore the names of some of the most illustrious Californio families: Alvarado, Pacheco, Peralta. Juan Bautista Alvarado had been governor of California under Mexico. After the Bear Flag Revolt, Anglo creditors forced him to sell his Rancho Mariposa, the only Mexican land grant on which gold would be discovered. Later, twenty years of litigation reduced his holdings to a fraction of one rancho.ó3 The Pachecos had long been active in California politics. Romualdo Pacheco, elected lieutenant -governor of the state in 1871, served briefly as governor in 1875. His party did not renominate him. The Peraltas had owned the site of the University of California. Their Rancho San Antonio covered all present -day Oakland, Berkeley, and Alameda. After passage of the Land Law, the half -mad Vicente Peralta realized he needed a knowledgeable Anglo adviser. He settled on attorney Horace Carpentier, who had regularly "appeared in the family casas with a cross dangling from his neck, talked of religion, and unrolled legal papers that would `make the family rich. "'64After inducing Peralta to sign a "lease" that mortgaged the Rancho away, Carpentier bought the land at a sheriffs sale, laid out upon it the town of Oakland, and became its first mayor. B. Peralta may have enrolled in the Fifth Class to gain greater familiarity with Anglo ways, since litigation in this matter lasted until 1910.

TABLE 1: Californios and Mexicans in the Fifth Class, 1870 -71

Californios Listed Home Town Fred Alvarado San Diego M. Moreno San Diego Ynes Pacheco Pachecoville (Pacheco) B. Peralta Fruit Vale (Oakland) 190 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

Mexicans Listed Home Town F.F. Astiazaran Hermosillo, Sonora Mexicans Listed Home Town Jesus Cota Santiago, L.C. Manuel Cota Santiago, L.C. R.F. Corella Sonora R. De La Toba La Paz, L.C. E. Grice San Antonio, L.C. L. Martinez Guadalajara, Jalisco Rafael Salorio La Paz, L.C. Salvador Salorio La Paz, L.C. F. Urriolagoitia Mexico G. Urriolagoitia Hermosillo, Sonora P.P. Yrigoyen Mazatlan, Sinaloa

In 1870 -71, the Fifth Class outnumbered the rest of the university by 10: 88 to 78.65'66 Moreover, breakdown of university enrollment reveals that most students were lowerclassmen -First Class (seniors): 5; Second Class (juniors): 2; Third Class (sophomores): 13; Fourth Class (freshmen): 32; Special Category (part- time): 26.67 Of these students, 46 came from the San Francisco -Oakland area, 30 from the rest of northern California, one from Los Angeles, and one from out of state. Seven of the 78 were women. Only one, as far as we can tell, was a minority. He was Manuel Corella, a Special Category student. From his class picture, Corella stares at us with a serious expression and deep -set, dark eyes. His black, curly hair is parted on the left, and he wears a narrow mustache and an imperial. He is dressed in a white shirt, vest, wide -lapelled coat, and bow tie. His young unlined face gives no indication of a harsh life. As Corella is not a common Hispanic name, he may well have been related to Sonoran R.F. Corella of the Fifth Class. He was probably the first minority ever to attend the University. In 1871 -72, the Fifth Class grew from 88 to 262 students6e .69 probably because more people knew about it, and had time to apply and prepare for attendance. Nonetheless, the number of Spanish surname individuals declined from 16 to 12, as Table 2 shows. Among the Californios, the two San Diegans - Alvarado and Moreno -had dropped out, possibly because of the strain of travel on their budgets. They were replaced by three Bay Area persons -Garrido and the two Bernais, the latter of A PRECURSOR TO AFFIRMATIVE ACTION 191 whom had also come from a notable Californio line. Peralta and Ynes Pacheco remained. Among the Mexicans, R.F. Corella, Grice, G. Urrio- lagoitia, and Yrigoyen had left. No one took their place, and their ranks were depleted. It is hard to tell exactly why, in the face of a vigorous upsurge in enrollment, so many Califomios and Mexicans abandoned the program. Perhaps expense, hostility from within the institution, and a sense of the limited utility of a university degree in a white world all contributed to the decline.

TABLE 2: Californios and Mexicans in the Fifth Class, 1871 -72

Californios Listed Home Town A. Bernal" Pleasanton M. Bernal' Pleasanton E. A. Garrido* Walnut Creek Ynes Pacheco Pacheco B.J. Peralta Fruit Vale (Oakland) Mexicans Listed Home Town F.F. Astiazaran Hermosillo, Sonora Jesus Cota' Santiago, L.C. Manuel Cota' Santiago, L.C. R. De La Toba La Paz, L.C. L. Martinez Guadalajara, Jalisco Rafael Salorio' La Paz, L.C. Salvador Salorio' La Paz, L.C. 'earned right to enter Fourth Class of 1872 -73

The Fifth Class of 1871 -72 exceeded the rest of the student population 262 to 153,7° or by about 170 percent." There were 24 females and 129 males, so the female /male ratio among the remaining students had risen from one -seventh to one -fifth 72Also, there were now two Mexicans enrolled at a level above the Fifth Class. F. Urriolagoitia, who came from Mexico and lived in San Francisco, had passed the entrance exam and was attending the Fourth Class. Manuel Corella, who listed his residence as Oakland, not only remained as a Special Category student, but became an instructor of Spanish for the Fifth Class. He was thus the first minority to teach in the university. 192 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

The Fifth Class: Demise The Faculty did not view the growth of the Fifth Class with equanim- ity. Guild spirit had been dampened, not dowsed, and professorial claims to an elite environment remained alive. Indeed, they soon led to a compromise proposal, in which the citadel would revert to the high academics and local branches of the Fifth Class would dispense preparatory education to the populace. According to the plan, neighborhood school districts would solicit the branches, and the university would oversee their quality. Dwinelle supported the option, and the Regents passed regulations authorizing and defining it: 1.) Applications for the establishment of such a Fifth Class branch must come through the highest local board of education. 2.) The applicant for license to teach a branch must furnish satisfactory testimonials as to character, and also credentials of competency from the County and State Superintendents of Public Education. 3.) He shall be subject to examination by the Faculty of the University. Undoubted evidence of high literary standing and ability to teach may be accepted in lieu of a personal appearance before the Faculty.73 Local school boards were to bear the expenses. Few of them were enthusiastic about doing so, and the dispersal program soon withered from lack of local initiative. However, the Fifth Class faced a far more serious difficulty. Students, it seems, were not paying their bills. The sometimes cryptic brevity of the minutes of the regents' meetings make the extent and nature of this problem hard to ascertain. Nevertheless, there appears to have been at least some abuse. As early as December 12, 1871, the regents adopted the following resolution: That it is expedient to discontinue the system of boarding students in the Preparatory Department, and thatit be referred to the Committee on Instruction to make the necessary arrangements for the purpose, at as early a date as practicable, with power 74 This move suggests that at least one faction of the regents had already decided to eliminate the Fifth Class, since if fourteen -year -old students from out of town could not obtain room and board from the university, A PRECURSOR TO AFFIRMATIVE ACTION 193 their parents might prevent them from attending at all. The resolution does not explain why it is "expedient" to end the boarding system, but subsequent actions suggest financial considerations played a significant role. At their next meeting the regents resolved: That the manner of admitting students, to the University of Califor- nia, who are not citizens of the United States, and not already provided for, be referred to the Committee on Instruction, to report to the Board, at its next meeting.75 Since Mexicans constituted the only sizeable group of foreign students at the University, this investigatory measure was probably aimed at them. It implies they were causing the institution financial distress. It is impossible to assess the truth of the implication. When the Committee on Instruction reported back at the following meeting, it addressed the problem of tuition nonpayment as one involving the whole Fifth Class: Mr. Dwindle, from the Committee on Instruction, presented a Report in writing. The Report was accepted and order [sic.] on file. The Committee recommend [sic.] that tuition in the Preparatory Depart- ment, including the Fifth Class,76 be payable by term invariably in advance. On the motion of Mr. Merritt this recommendation was adopted. 77 Henceforth, the regents decreed, Fifth Class students had to pay tuition before enrolling. Though seemingly rational, this solution to student financial delin- quency received no extended trial. On May 24, 1872, Mr. Dwindle moved that the Committee on Instruction be authorized to inquire into the condition of the Preparatory Department of the University, to report at the next meeting of the Board.78 The regents adopted this resolution. No report was immediately forth- coming, however. On June 14, George Tait submitted a document to the regents showing the financial condition of the Preparatory Department. This evidence was passed along to the Committee. Finally, on July 16, 1872, the Committee on Instruction presented its written report, recom- mending termination of the Fifth Class. The suggestion provoked controversy, but the minutes do not record whatever debate ensued: 194 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

First recommendation: To abolish the Preparatory Department at the close of this term. Mr. McKee moved, as a substitute, that the Preparatory Department be continued from and after this term, under the direct control of the Academic Senate, and that the tuition fees be exacted invariably in advance. Lost on a division -Ayes, 6 Noes, 8.

The first recommendation was then adopted.... On motion it was ordered that the Committee on Grounds and Buildings be authorized to dispose of so much of the furniture of the Preparatory Department, as may not be needed.79 When the regents took votes deemed especially significant, as that of July 30, 1872, in which Daniel Coit Gilman was elected president of the university, the minutes listed the individuals for and against the proposition. Since no such list appears concerning the abolition of the Fifth Class, we can only speculate whether the move represented a genuine shift in sentiment among regents who had previously favored the class, or merely a change in the composition of the Board. However, it is worth observing that the vote was very close, and that, for some reason, eight of the twenty-two regents did not participate in it.

Consequences of Termination On November 7, 1872, President Gilman delivered a stirring inaugural address in which he described the university as a prime force for the prosperity of all Californians: It must be adapted to this people, to their public and private schools, to their peculiar geographic position, to the requirements of their new society and their undeveloped resources. It is not the foundation of an ecclesiastical body nor of private individuals. It is "of the people and for the people"-not in any low or unworthy sense, but in the highest and noblest relations to their intellectual and moral well- being.80 The speech won Gilman wide acclaim, and helped stimulate a flow of donations into university coffers. The academic year of 1872 -73 saw the virtual disappearance of Spanish surnamed students from the University of California. The three Californios and four Mexicans who had earned promotions to the Fourth Class never enrolled. F. Urriolagoitia, a freshman the previous year, A PRECURSOR TO AFFIRMATIVE ACTION 195

dropped out. It is difficult to determine whether they simply abandoned higher education or transferred to another local institution, perhaps to Catholic St. Mary's in nearby San Francisco, which was incorporated as a college in 1872. After their departure, Manuel Corella became, again, the only minority in the university. After eliminating the Fifth Class, the regents further restricted enrollment by stiffening admission requirements. The Register of 1872 -73 strongly urged that applicants to the College of Science and the Arts have at least one year of Latin, and insisted that aspirants to the College of Letters know Virgil's Eclogues and two books of The Iliad. Abolition of the Preparatory Department and augmentation of the entrance requirements succeeded in limiting the growth of the student population. Enrollment in 1872 -73 was 185, up 22 from the 153 of the previous term. Enrollment in the following year was 191, up six.81

Manuel Corella: A Postscript Manuel Corella was not the only foreign language instructor for the Fifth Class. On April 8, 1872, he and two other teachers presented their bills to the regents:

On motion of Mr. Hammond, the bill for the back salary due Louis Armand, M.M. Corella, and Julius Grossman, Instructors respectively of French, Spanish, and German were [sic.] referred to the Commit- tee on Instruction with power to act.82 Corella sought $956.66, Armand $550, and Grossman $725. The Committee on Instruction reported back about three weeks later. It fixed the salary of Corella at $80 per month, Armand at $100 per month, and Grossman at $125 per month, for services up to April 1, 1872, "said salaries not to be constructed as fixed beyond that date. "S3 It is unknown if these rates satisfied the instructors' requests. At such salaries, the regents would have fully paid the bills of Armand and Grossman if the latter had worked about five and a half months, or since the school year began in late September. They could only have recompensed Corella if he had worked 12 months, or since early January of 1871. Differences in salary pose even more of a puzzle. Stadtman says "there were curious inconsistencies in salaries within the same rank" at 196 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES this time in the University.TM One can only speculate to what extent variations in work load, teacher supply and demand, paper credentials, personal influence, or ethnic origin led to discrepancies in this case. By way of contrast, assistant professors earned $150 to $175 per month, and professors $200 to $300.85 The regents' warning that instructors' salaries might fluctuate was not idle. Soon after, the minutes reveal that On motion of Mr. Dwinelle, the sum of $150 was audited and ordered to be paid to M. M. Corrella on a/c for services as Instructor of Spanish.86

Since it seems unlikely the regents would have paid Corella for one and 7/8 of a month, this action suggests that they reduced his salary to $75 per month. After termination of the Fifth Class, Corella remained on campus as both a student and instructor, teaching Spanish to the traditional top four grades. Despite this apparent promotion, his wages did not change. Later in the 1872 -73 academic year, Dwinelle introduced and the Regents passed the following resolution: "That M.M. Corella be paid $75 per month for instruction in Spanish, for the academic year from Sept. 19th to July 19th 1873. "87 No other teacher at the university received lower pay.TM Besides studying and teaching, Corella trained regularly with the campus military unit. The Register of 1872 -73 lists him as Second Sergeant in Company C of the University Cadets. The following year he was moved up to Second Lieutenant in Company B. On September 24, 1873, the university opened its doors at its new Berkeley campus. Two buildings, North and South Hall,89received students for the first time. Compared with the relatively urban Oakland, Berkeley at this time was pastureland, and the administration warned: The hours of recitation are such that many students reside in Oakland, and come out daily to the University by horse car. It is possible, but quite difficult, for a student to reside in San Francisco while in daily attendance at the University.90 Room and board was available with private families in both Oakland and Berkeley at between $20 and $30 per month. Students who joined clubs reduced this expense to $16 per month.% A PRECURSOR TO AFFIRMATIVE ACTION 197

Manuel Corella attended and taught classes at the new Berkeley site during 1873 -74. On the back of his class picture, someone, perhaps Corella himself, noted that he was a member of the graduating class of 1874. However, this observation was premature. The records show he never received a university degree. Of the 13 people in the class of 1874, none was a minority. By the academic year 1874 -75, minority enrollment at the University of California had ended. No Spanish surnames appear in the Register's student list, and Carlos F. Gompertz had replaced Corella as instructor of Spanish. Manuel Corella attended the University for about four years, and taught at it for perhaps three. At the time his name disappears from University archives, he had presumably fulfilled most of the requirements for a diploma. He was certainly earning more than most Californians, though less than his peers. There seems to have been no doubt about his competence and fortitude. We can only guess the possible reasons for his withdrawal: discrimination, physical injury, family disaster, a better offer. In any case, he played a ground- breaking role in the history of the university.

Conclusion The Fifth Class differed from the affirmative action programs of today in many important respects. It was not aimed at minorities. It involved preparation for admission requirements rather than selective alteration of them. It contained no special services or retention mechanisms for those who passed the entrance exams. But the similarities are perhaps more significant than the differences. The Fifth Class did, and affirmative action does, bring into the university intelligent people who otherwise would not attend. In the 1870s, with secondary education expensive and sometimes inaccessible, the Fifth Class offered cheaper, centralized preparation, that was well -articulated with the university. Today, with the best high schools in wealthy neighborhoods inaccessible to most minorities, and with admission standards geared largely to these schools, affirmative action affords a means for bright minority students to enter the university. In both situations, there is a sense that some prospective applicants need special programs, that students will be drawn from a broader population base, that enrollment will and should increase, and that everyone will benefit thereby. As modern affirmative action offers financial aid to the needy, 198 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES so the Fifth Class offered tuition elimination. As affirmative action involves vigorous recruitment, so the Fifth Class had the effect of recruiting students for the Fourth (or Freshman) Class. It is easy to see why the regents wanted the Fifth Class. Their reasons for termination are not so clear. It worked well. It filled a need and profited the state. The rationale of financial difficulties is simply not convincing, at least insofar as student failure to pay bills may have caused the problem. Prepayment of fees is the obvious response to such problems, but the university attempted it only briefly. It is possible the Fifth Class was not paying its way for other reasons. If this was the case, one wonders why its supporters at the critical regents' meeting of July 16, 1872, did not advance other alternative proposals, such as raising tuition. In any case, student default seems less a reason than a rationale for closing the Fifth Class. We thus must look elsewhere for the truth behind the termination. The financial condition of the university, as opposed to that of the Fifth Class, may have played a role. "The original financial support of the University was scandalously inadequate, and based, unbelievably, on nothing more than the relatively small state and federal endowments that were created in 1868. "92 As the Fifth Class bolstered enrollment, the regents had to hire many young instructors, not only in foreign languages, but in mathematics, English, drawing, and other topics. In addition, a steadily growing student population required more new buildings on the undeveloped Berkeley campus. The regents may have abolished the Fifth Class to curb enrollment and hence rein in labor and construction costs. If they feared the public might perceive this policy as anti -democratic, they may have decided to cloak it in an explanation that seemed fair, pragmatic, and totally internal. There was yet another source of inspiration for eliminating the Fifth Class. Stadtman says the regents acted because of the "deficit, problems of discipline, and a growing feeling that the department really was inappropriate to the University. "93The complaint about discipline deserves no serious attention; if mere student rowdiness could close a school, Oxford and Bologna would have died aborning.94 However, the reference to the Fifth Class as "inappropriate" is more interesting. Appropriateness, of course, is meaningless as a virtue in itself. It always indicates congruence with a larger set of values, and we must look to these if we are to divine the sense and merit of the criticism. If such values are unspoken, as they are here, we must attempt to determine A PRECURSOR TO AFFIRMATIVE ACTION 199 them by extrapolation. We must ask: With what aims of the university did the Fifth Class conflict? The Fifth Class clearly did not interfere with the university's educational role.If a preparatory annex could degrade the quality of instruction, then the teaching of elementary Spanish in one room can inhibit exposition of Cervantes in the next. Indeed, the Fifth Class so swiftly increased the sheer amount of education, by augmenting the number of students qualified for admission, thatit enhanced the educational mission of the university. It seems hard to deny that the Fifth Class was "appropriate" for the basic function of bringing higher learning to Californians. At the same time, the Fifth Class just as clearly did conflict with the faculty's concept of itself and the institution. This vision sprang from the ideal of elitism and exclusivity for its own sake. Every college is exclusive to some extent, because facilities are limited and not all people can do the work. Elitism has a long history in the academic sphere. The medieval guild professors used it to bulwark their own positions and prerogatives. After the Reformation, the upper classes in England and later in America came to dominate the universities, and employed them to stamp their offspring with social superiority.5 This heritage was not lost on the faculty at the University of California. It is hard to resist the conclusion that most of them saw, or wished to see, themselves as masters of a special scholastic enclave, where difficulty of student access could feed their own sense of privilege and prestige. At the outset, they insisted that the task of preparatory education belonged not to them, but to the high schools, a responsibility the schools were unable to assume. After the Fifth Class was commenced, over their protests and delays, they fought to scatter it across the school districts of the entire state. It might seem anomalous that professors of modern topics at a state university should so oppose popular education,96 but few of them sought out the university because of sympathy with its public nature. John and Joseph LeConte, ex- Confederate administrators, could not get work in the North or the South. They were contemplating Europe and Latin American when word came of possible openings in California. Ezra S. Carr had failed to gain re- election to the faculty of the University of Wisconsin in 1867. Martin Kellogg had taught at the College of California, and was left stranded when the university supplanted it. William Welcker had never taught at the university level before and William Swinton was known to have spied on the command- 200 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

ing generals of the Union Army 97 Such men were in vocational straits. They joined the university to earn a livelihood, not to further an educational experiment. They brought with them very old notions of what a university should be, and defended these values at every turn. It is hard to tell how, or to what extent, their ideals affected the regents, whose interests were somewhat different. But the elitist viewpoint decidedly had influence. In 1875 the regents elected John LeConte president of the university. The Fifth Class probably succumbed to both financial pressures and the guild ideal. Enrollment stabilized only briefly, however, and in succeeding decades the University of California grew into a multi - campus giant, with 166,547 students in 1990 and a worldwide reputation for scholarship and enlightenment. The University of California system has proven conclusively that a university can be large and excellent too. Yet a history of discrimination still kept most American Indians, Chinese, Blacks, and Mexican Americans outside the gates. As the founding regents recognized in 1870 that admission standards did not mesh well with the public school experience, and thus created the Fifth Class, so almost one hundred years later the regents of 1964 recognized that admission standards did not mesh at all with the minority school experience, and created the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP).98 Only through EOP have minorities been able to attend the university in significant numbers. In both cases, a special program of the university successfully remedied defects of the lower schools, and brought higher education into a closer relation with the people of the state. As a device to improve an imperfectly responsive admission system, the Fifth Class was a true precursor of today's affirmative action.

NOTES

' Frederick Rudolph, The American College and University (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1962), p. 281. 2 "The state university becomes, of course, a mere prize for placement and subject to all the contests, agitations and changes of dynasty that belong to party politics. There is no place for that quiet which is the element of study, no genuinely classic atmosphere.... It is little to say that no university can live in such an element." (See William W. Ferrier, Ninety Years of Education in California. (Berkeley, CA: Sather Gate Book Shop, 19371, p. 311.) A PRECURSOR TO AFFIRMATIVE ACTION 201

3 Charles Homer Haskins, The Rise of Universities (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1923), p. 11.

4 Calvin Woodard, The Effect ofHistorical Change on University Purpose (Charlottesville , VA: Resident Staff Program of the Office of the Dean of Students of the University of Virginia, 1976), p. 11.

5 For instance, the term "master" of arts was borrowed directly from craft guilds.

6 Walker P. Rogers, Andrew D. White and the Modern University (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1942), p. 47.

Veme A. Stadtman, The University of California, 1868 -1968 (New York: McGraw -Hill, 1970), p. 36.

8 The University of California Register, 1870 -71, pp. 64, 65. The yearly Register was something of a super catalog. It contained the names of students, teachers, and classes, as well as information for applicants and appeals to the public for funds. It is the only extant source for much of what we know of the student body.

9 Hubert H, Bancroft, History of California, Vol.II (San Francisco: The History Company, 1890), p. 350.

10 Register, 1873 -74, p. 29.

" Ibid., p. 29.

12 Register, 1870 -71, pp. 30-31.

13 William W. Ferrier, Ninety Years of Education in California (Berkeley, CA: Sather Gate Book Shop, 1937), p. 117.

14 Santa Clara may have openedas late as 1873.

15 Ferrier, Ninety Years of Education in California, p. 89.

16 Irving G. Hendrick, The Education of Non -Whites in California, 1848 -1970 (San Francisco: R & E Research Associates, Inc., 1977), p. 17.

'7 Ferrier, Ninety Years of Education in California, p. 134.

'8 Stadtman, The University of California, 1868 -1968, p. 6.

19 Ferrier, Ninety Years of Education in California, p. 130 -131, 138.

20 John W. Caughley, California: A Remarkable State's Life History (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice -Hall, 1970), p. 4. 202 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

21Walton Bean, California: An Interpretive History (New York: McGraw -Hill, 1968), p. 169.

22"Two Indians were found murdered in our streets the past week, by persons unknown, and dumped into the common recepticle made and provided for such cases." (See Alta California. [San Francisco, August 8, 1854.1)

23Charles M. Wollenberg, All Deliberate Speed: Segregation and Exclusion in California Schools, 1855 -1975 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976), p. 86.

24Evelyn C. Adams, American Indian Education (Morningside Heights, NY: Columbia University Press, 1946), p. 56.

25Hendrick, The Education of Non - Whites in California, 1848 -1970, p. 17.

26Evelyn S. Rawkski, Education and Popular Literacy in Ch'ing China (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1979), p. 140.

27The inundation of 1849 created a lake one hundred miles long, devastating livestock, killing 10,000 people, and, to the chagrin of the Chinese, floating up coffins everywhere. (See Stanford M. Lyman, "Strangers in the Cities," in Charles Wollenberg, ed., Ethnic Conflict in California History. [Los Angeles: Tinnon -Brown, Inc., 1970], p.68.)

28This savage uprising (1851 -1865) may have left more than 30,000,000 dead. (See Stanford M. Lyman, "Strangers in the Cities." In Charles Wollenberg, Ethnic Conflict in California History. [Los Angeles: Tinnon -Brown, Inc., 1970], p.68.) The population of the entire United States in 1870 was 38,558,371 (U.S. Census), and of California was 560,000.

29Ronald Takaki, Strangers From A Different Shore (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1989). i°Bean, California: An Interpretive History, p. 164.

31Wollenberg, All Deliberate Speed: Segregation and Exclusion in California Schools, 1855 -1975, p. 30.

32Stanford M. Lyman, "Strangers in the Cities." in Charles Wollenberg, Ethnic Conflict in California History (Los Angeles: Tinnon- Brown, Inc., 1970), p. 78.

33Bean, California: An Interpretive History, p. 235.

34 Coughley, California: A Remarkable State's Life History, p.328.

35Hendrick, The Education of Non -Whites in California, 1848 -1970, p. 25.

36 Wollenberg, All Deliberate Speed: Segregation and Exclusion in California Schools, 1855 -1975, p. 35 -36. A PRECURSOR TO AFFIRMATIVE ACTION 203

37 Hendrick, The Education of Non -Whites in California, 1848 -1970, p. 4.

38 Hendrick, The Education of Non -Whites in California, 1848 -1970, p. 5.

39 Because many light- skinned blacks passed as white, exact figures are hard to obtain.

4° Velesta Jenkins, "White Racism and Black Response in California History," pp. 121 -134 in Charles Wollenberg, ed., Ethnic Conflict in California History (Los Angeles: Tinnon- Brown, Inc., 1970), p. 124.

41 In 1852, a white murdered Gordon Chase, a black San Francisco barber. Witness Robert Cowles was able to identify the killer, but the court held his testimony inadmissible when analysis of his hair revealed that he was "1/16 black." (See Kenneth Good, California's Black Pioneers [Santa Barbara, CA: McNally & Loftin, 1974], p. 75.)

42 Hendrick, The Education of Non- Whites in California, 1848 -1970, p. 17.

43 Wollenberg, All Deliberate Speed: Segregation and Exclusion in California Schools, 1855 -1975, P. 16.

44 Delilah L. Beasley, Negro Trail Blazers of California (Los Angeles: publisher unmen- tioned, 1919), p. 186 -187.

45 Leonard Pitt, The Decline of the Californios (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966), p. 247.

46 Ibid.

47 Bean, California: An Interpretive History, p. 157.

48 Pitt, The Decline of the Californios, p. 100.

49 Paul W. Gates, "California's Embattled Settlers." California Historical Society Quarterly XLI, (June, 1962): 124 -125.

58 Pitt, The Decline of the Californios, p. 100. 51 From 1854 to 1865, 16 to 20 percent of San Quintin inmates were Mexicans or Californios, a high figure even after allowing for selective law enforcement. (See Pitt, The Decline of the Californios, p. 256.)

52 Pitt, The Decline of the Californios, p. 53.

53 Hendrick, The Education of Non- Wbites in California, 1848 -1970, p. 12.

54 Ibid.

55 Pitt, The Decline of the Californios,p. 227. 204 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

56 Rudolph, The American College and University,pp. 219, 267.

57 Minutes of the California Board of Regents, April 12, 1870, pp.133 -134.

58 Dwinelle, a prominent San Francisco lawyer, had authored the State's Organic Act of 1868, which established the University of California and defined its structure. From 1872 to 1874 he represented blacks in Ward v. Flood, which challenged the constitutionality of segregated schools.

59 Minutes of the Academic Senate, August 29, 1870, p. 16. b0 Ibid., August 29, 1870, p. 17.

61 Register, 1870 -71, p. 31.

62 Ibid., pp. 65-66.

63 Pitt, The Decline of the Californios, p. 139.

"Pitt, The Decline of the Californios, p. 97.

65 Register, 1870 -71, p. 25.

66 A Regents' report of 1872, however, puts the number of Fifth Class students at 55. (See Stadtman, The University of California, 1868 -1968, p. 56.)

67 Register, 1870 -71, p. 26.

68 Register, 1871 -72, p. 25.

69 The 1872 Regents' report asserts there were only 149 Fifth Class students. (See Stadtman, The University of California, 1868 -1968, p. 56.)

7° The 1872 Regents' report gives a figure of 151 for the remainder of the students, so that, in its calculations, there are actually fewer Fifth Class students than others. (See Stadtman, The University of California, 1868 -1968, p. 56.)

71 Register, 1871 -72, p. 26.

72 Stadtman adds that, of the 65 freshmen, 54 had graduated from a 55- member Fifth Class of 1870 -71. (See The University of California, 1868 -1968, p. 56.) By his reckoning then, only one student from the 1870 -71 Fifth Class failed to become a freshman in 1871 -72. It is hard to square these figures with the Register, which lists nine Spanish surnames in the Fifth Class of both 1870 -71 and 1871 -72, and another six who dropped out after 1870 -71.

73 Register, 1871 -72, pp. 34 -35. A PRECURSOR TO AFFIRMATIVE ACTION 205

74 Minutes of the California Board of Regents, December 12, 1871, p. 239.

75Minutes of the California Board of Regents, December 23, 1871, p. 241.

76If this diction is precise, its meaning is mysterious, since every other source refers to the Fifth Class as the entire student population of the Preparatory Department.

77Minutes of the California Board of Regents, January 5, 1872, p. 243.

78Minutes of the California Board of Regents, May 24, 1872, p. 257.

79Minutes of the California Board of Regents, July 16, 1872, pp. 262 -263, 265.

8° Stadtman, The University of California, 1868 -1968, p. 64.

81Register, 1872 -73, p. 13.; Ibid., 1873 -74, p. 20.

82Minutes of the California Board of Regents, April 8, 1872, p. 250.

83Ibid., April 30, 1872, p. 252.

84 Stadtman, The University of California, 1868 -1968, p. 58.

85Ibid.

86 Minutes of the California Board of Regents, July 23, 1872, p. 268.

87 Ibid., March 4, 1873, p. 303.

88Stadtman, The University of California, 1868 -1968, p. 58.

89The former, built largely of wood, has vanished. The latter, made of brick and iron, still stands on the Berkeley campus, near the buildings named after Dwinelle and Le Conte.

90 Register, 1873 -74, pp. 28 -29.

91Ibid., p. 28.

92Stadtman, The University of California, 1868 -1968, p. 85.

93Stadtman, The University of California, 1868 -1968, p. 56.

944 Student riots in medieval Oxfordwere common, and, at Bologna, a student was attacked with a cutlass in a classroom, "to the great damage and loss of those assembled to hear the lecture of a noble and egregious doctor of laws." (See Haskins,, The Rise of Universities, p. 60-61. 206 PERSPECTIVES IN MEXICAN AMERICAN .STUDIES

95 Woodard, The Effect of Historical Change on University Purpose, p. 30.

96 The faculty also rebelled against lecturing before working -class boys at the Mechanics Institute, a practice obligated by the land grant college program. Again, the regents overrode the protest.

97 Stadtman, The University of California, 1868 -1968, p. 51 -52. 98 David León, "Racism in the University: The Educational Opportunity Program, Humbolt Journal of Social Relations (Spring, 1981): 83 -101.

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