Mexican Americans/American Mexicans

MEXICAN AMERICANS AMERICAN MEXICANS FROM CONQUISTADORS TO CHICANOS • MA 1T S. MEIER AND FELICIANO RIBERA ®1 HILL AND WANG A division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux Hill and Wang A division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux 19 Union Square West, New York 10003 Copyright © 1972, 1993 by Matt S. Meier and Feliciano Ribera All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Fil'llt edition, 1972 Revised edition, 1993 The Library of Congress has catalogued the hardcover edition as follo ws: Meier, Matt S. Mexican Americans, American Mexicans : from Conquistadors to Chicanos I MattS. Meier and Feliciano Ribera. - Rev. ed . p. em. - (American century series) Rev. ed. of: The Chicanos, 1972. Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index. 1. Mexican Americans - History. I. Ribera, Feliciano. II. Meier, Matt S. Chicanos. Ill. Title. IV. Series. E184.M5M456 1993 973'.o46872 - dc2o 93-3385 CIP Paperback ISBN: cHl0<)<>-1559"5 Designed by Fritz Metsch www.fsgbooks.com 2i GRATEFULLY DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF Arthur Campa Carlos Castaneda Cesar Chavez Emesto Galarza Tomas Rivera George I. Sanchez CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 3 THE MEETING OF TWO WORLDS 9 2 REVOLUTION AND DISARRAY 27 3 MAN AND LAND ON THE FRONTIER 40 4 MANIFEST DESTINY 53 5 ROOTS OF THE POISON 69 6 CULTURE AND CONFLICT IN NEW MEXICO 87 7 NORTH FROM MEXICO 103 8 MANDE VD. 1 SEIQOR 118 9 DEPORTING JESOS 131 10 UNWANTED MEXICANS 147 11 HEROES SECOND CLASS 159 12 BRACEROS: WORLD WAR II AND AFTER 172 13 THE SLAVES WE RENT: UNDOCUMENTEDS, GREEN CARDERS, COMMUTERS 185 14 A NEW BREED 198 15 EL MOVIMIENTO 218 16 THE CHICANO CULTORAL RENAISSANCE 233 17 JOBS, BUSINESS, AND POLITICS 249 18 EPILOGUE 263 Abbreviations and Acronyms 275 Glossary '2.79 For Further Reading :z87 Index 295 MAPS CoLONIAL NEW SPAIN, 22 NORTHERN NEW SPAIN, LATE COLONIAL PERIOD, 25 INDEPENDENT MEXICO, 1824- 1836, 35 TEXAS CLAIMS AND MEXICAN WAR RESULTS, 6o STATES AND TERRITORIES FORMED FROM THE MEXICAN CESSION, So ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We would like to thank colleagues at San Jose State University and at Santa Clara University as well as library staff members at both universities who gave support to this revised edition of The Chicanos. We also owe a debt of gratitude to colleagues elsewhere who made suggestions, over the years, how we might make it a better, more complete history of the Mexican Amer- ican experience. Special recognition is deserved by professors Alma Garda, Francisco Ram6n Chacon, and Rich- ard Garda, who read parts of the manuscript; their comments and suggestions have also helped make it a better work. Last but hardly least, we wish to acknowledge the careful and dedicated contributions of our editor and publisher, Arthur W. Wang, who spent uncounted hours going over, clarifying, and improving the various drafts of our manuscript. MATT S. MEIER FELICIANO RIBERA MEXICAN AMERICANS AMERICAN MEXICANS INTRODUCTION The United States is a land of immigrants who have come to the Western Hemisphere over the past 4o,ooo to so,ooo years. In prehistoric times these immigrants came from northeastern Asia; today a major part of U.S. immigration is formed by Asians and by Latinos descended in part from those ancient Asian migrants. Mexican Americans make up over 6o percent of this latter minority group. Without a sound knowl- edge of their historical experience, we cannot determine accurately their contributions to American culture. Today there are over 1 3 million people of Mexican descent in the United States. A minority traces its origins to early settlers from central Mexico and Spain, some of whom arrived in the Southwest before the Mayflower reached New England and all of whom arrived before the 1846 U.S.-Mexican War. Most live in New Mexico and Colorado and, emphasizing their Spanish origins, usually call themselves Hispanic or Spanish Americans. The second and far larger group consists of somewhat more recent arrivals and their descendants. A substantial migration from Mexico began toward the end of the nineteenth century, was greatly increased by the 1910 Mexican revolution, and continued in cycles throughout the twentieth century. Until the 1920s, Texas served these migrants 4 Matt S. Meier and Feliciano Ribera both as their principal destination and as a way station to the large urban barrios of Los Angeles, San Jose, Denver, Chicago, Detroit, Omaha, and other midwestern cities. Later, particularly after World War II, California became their primary destination. Characteristically many of these Mexicans considered themselves sojourners rather than immigrants- that is, they thought of their move to the United States as expedient and temporary. They believed that they could always return home and eventually would do so. The history of Mexican Americans is a tale of a frontier people whose land was taken by whose culture was pushed aside by Anglo conquerors, and who were overwhelmed in this century by Mexican kin who followed in footsteps. It can be divided into five broad periods. I The first period must consider both their Indian and Spanish back- grounds. It covers the migration of early Asiatic man to the Western Hemisphere, the development of Indian civilizations in Mesoamerica, their defeat by Spanish conquistadors, the blending of Indian and Span- ish cultures, the beginnings of physical mestizaie, early expansion to the present-day U.S. Southwest, and finally, the achievement of in- dependence from Spain early in the nineteenth century. The "Grito de Dolores" in 1810 marks the beginning of independent Mexico. Political events soon made clear the gulf that had developed between the Mexican heartland and its distant northern frontier. Local cultures had evolved there based on the mother culture in central Mexico, and continuing isolation led to unrest and mounting political tensions. This period culminated in war with the United States and ended with the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, by which Mexico lost half her territory to her expansionist northern neighbor. The third period, from 1848 to the end of the nineteenth century, is notable for the effects of the change from Mexican to American rule: Anglo migration to the Southwest; investment there of eastern and European capital in railroads, mines, lumbering, cattle, and agriculture; preliminary integration of the Southwest into the larger U.S. economy; and the relegation of la raza to a minority position of second-class citizenship in what had once been its own land. Mexican Americans did not just passively accept this change in status. They resisted dom- ination and exploitation through a variety of responses that also served to unite them and to reinforce their cultural distinctiveness. A rapidly rising rate of migration from Mexico introduces the fourth MEXICAN AMERICANS-AMERICAN MEXICANS 5 period. While Mexico's 19io revolution spewed out its political and social refugees, extreme poverty and future uncertainty impelled Mex- ican workers to move not only into the U.S. Southwest but increasingly also into the agricultural and industrial centers of the Midwest. Their large numbers modified, reinforced, and revitalized Mexican American - culture. This period also witnessed expanded Mexican American social and labor organizing efforts and ended with a reverse migration during the 1930s depression. World War II marks the beginning of the contemporary period, characterized by renewed heavy migration to the United States; by the movimiento, a process of self-identification and heightened awareness of Mexican cultural values; by some improvement in the social and economic conditions of Mexican Americans; by greater acculturation as barriers weakened; and by energetic movements for maximum par- ticipation in American life through insistence on better education, full civil rights, and equality of economic opportunity. Today Mexican Americans constitute the second-largest and most rapidly growing minority in the United States. They are deeply rooted in the Southwest- that is, in the five states of Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas. Nominally at least, most are Cath- olic in religion, and a majority are mestizo in racial heritage. They differ markedly from most other immigrant minorities in their close proximity to their cultural homeland and, to a lesser extent, in the recentness of their migration. Mexicans also differ significantly from most other immigrants to the United States in that they arrive as descendants of a twice-conquered people. Their Indian ancestors were conquered by Spain early in the sixteenth century, and through mestizaje they became inheritors of the enduring Anglo-Saxon Black Legend of unique Spanish cruelty. Their more recent Mexican forebears suffered invasion by the United States in the mid-nineteenth century and endured U.S. conquest and occu- pation. The continuing consequences of these calamitous events, especially the second, and of their many ethnic implications have engendered over the years a Mexican mind-set that differs notably from the mental.attitudes of other immigrants, especially Europeans. Mex- icans enter the United States very conscious, even today, that their country was conquered by the Americans. The final result, though complex, is an ethnic minority with a distinct historical experience and a high degree of racial, religious, and linguistic visibility. 6 Matt S. Meier and Feliciano Ribera Nevertheless, an important characteristic of Mexican Americans is that they · do not form a homogeneous group politically, socially, or racially. Since their incorporation into the country in 1848 diversity and complexity have characterized persons of Mexican descent. Some can trace their family residency back 400 years; others migrated north only "yesterday." There are also differences in the varying degrees of Caucasian and Indian ancestry, as well as of acculturation and integration. There are, of course, disparate viewpoints arising out of the varied occupations Mexican Americans pursue. Lastly, there are differences that arise out of their individual historical experience. Despite this diversity, Mexican Americans have a bedrock of cultural identity.

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