Mexican-Americans in the Pacific Northwest, 1900--2000

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations 1-1-2006 The struggle for dignity: Mexican-Americans in the Pacific Northwest, 1900--2000 James Michael Slone University of Nevada, Las Vegas Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/rtds Repository Citation Slone, James Michael, "The struggle for dignity: Mexican-Americans in the Pacific Northwest, 1900--2000" (2006). UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations. 2086. http://dx.doi.org/10.25669/4kwz-x12w This Thesis is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Thesis in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. This Thesis has been accepted for inclusion in UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Scholarship@UNLV. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE STRUGGLE FOR DIGNITY: MEXICAN-AMERICANS IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST, 1900-2000 By James Michael Slone Bachelor of Arts University of Nevada, Las Vegas 2000 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment Of the requirements for the Master of Arts Degree in History Department of History College of Liberal Arts Graduate College University of Nevada, Las Vegas May 2007 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 1443497 INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI UMI Microform 1443497 Copyright 2007 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Thesis Approval The Graduate College University of Nevada, Las Vegas April 12 , , 20 07 The Thesis prepared by James Michael Slone Entitled The Struggle for Dignity: Mexican-Americans in the Pacific Northwest, 1900-2000 is approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Degree in History Examination Committw Chair Dean of the Graduate College Examination Committee Member Examination Committee Member/ -V- Graduate College Facnlty Representative 11 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT THE STUGGLE FOR DIGNITY: MEXICAN-AMERICANS IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST, 1900-2000 By James Michael Slone Dr. Joseph A. Fry, Examination Committee Chair Professor of History University of Nevada, Las Vegas This thesis explores the struggle for political, social, and labor rights waged by the Mexican and Mexican-American people in the Pacific Northwest. Drawing on earlier histories, social studies, census materials, interviews and newspapers articles spanning the twentieth century, the paper locates the roots of the community in the early twentieth century and details the organizing activities of farm workers, the direct political action of students, and the efforts of the whole community to attain political representation, economic power, and some measure of hard earned dignity. This study is equal parts political history, social history, and labor history, ultimately indicting an exploitive agricultural system in Oregon and Washington, one that has impeded every effort to improve the lives of Mexican immigrants, farm workers, and the community in general. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ......................................... iv INTRODUCTION .............................................. 1 CHAPTER ONE THE ARRIVAL OF MEXICANS IN THE NORTHWEST .. 13 CHAPTER TWO THE CHICANO MOVEMENT ...................... 3 7 CHAPTER THREE THE 198 OS AND THE I RCA .................... 6 9 CHAPTER FOUR THE 199OS: ADVANCES AND SETBACKS .......... 8 8 Labor Issues ............................................ 90 Farm Worker Housing ..................................... 101 Health Care ............................................. 107 Education ............................................... 109 Political Empowerment and Immigrant Rights ............ Ill CONCLUSION THE CONTINUING STRUGGLE ................... 124 BIBLIOGRAPHY .............................................. 133 VITA ....................................................... 13 8 IV Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my Thesis Examination Committee, Thomas Wright, J. Andy Fry, Elizabeth White Nelson, and Vincent A. Perez for their careful guidance and their incredible patience for what proved to be a very long and sometimes fruitless thesis project. I would also like to extend my thanks to Trevor Griffey at the Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project for his insights and research ideas. I also benefited from the incisive editorial suggestions from my friend Jenny Rose Ryan and the patience and generosity of my parents, whose support made both my move to Seattle and my work on this project possible. I would finally like to thank all the organizations that have fought for human and civil rights in the western United States, especially those who have addressed the needs of the poor and the dispossessed, the rural workers, and the anonymous immigrants that have made the United States an exciting, socially dynamic and culturally diverse country. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INTRODUCTION When I first arrived in Seattle nearly a year ago, I was completely unaware that the largest ethnic minority in the state was the Mexican-American community. European-Americans, many descendants of Scandinavians, predominate in Seattle and one has to travel to the small and increasingly gentrifled Central District, or the neighborhoods in southern extreme of the city and the suburbs, to see large numbers of African-Americans or Latinos. Even though Mexican-American Latinos currently represent the largest minority in most regions in the country now, people still tend to associate the Mexican-American community with the Southwest. Their presence is demographically much more noticeable and their cultural association solidified by their history there, from the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo to César Chavez. The idea that Mexicans are as economically important in the Northwest as they are in California did not dawn on me initially. Mexican-Americans have performed a vital economic function in the Pacific Northwest, but based on the number of publications and academic writing on the subject of their history, one would never know it. One of the reasons the Mexican-American community is so little discussed is the simple fact they have not been enormously visible in the large metropolitan centers in the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. western parts of Washington or Oregon. Seattle and Portland are mostly homogenous cities in mostly homogenous states, and only in recent years have Mexican-Americans and more recent Mexican immigrants appeared in notable numbers in these cities. Their burgeoning numbers in urban areas coincided with the arrival of other Latinos from Central America and the Caribbean in the mid 1980s, and Mexican-Americans have been largely subsumed into the more generic "Hispanic" population despite their much larger numbers. Mexican restaurants and Latin dance clubs have become commonplace in Seattle in recent years, and one often finds Mexican workers toiling in the rear kitchens in the trendier clubs and bars frequented by hip twenty-something European- Americans. Milagros, a fashionable Mexican folk art store at Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle, sells Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) statuettes to upscale Seattle residents. Throughout the city striking murals point to an obscured Mexican- American past in Washington. Seattle based moralists Alfredo Arrequin and Yakima's Daniel DeSiga have both contributed to the city's history of public art. Even murals painted by artists of Scandinavian ancestry have the vibrant color and flat understated symbolism of Mexican murals. Signs of Mexican culture are easy to spot with an observant eye. The successive waves of Mexican immigration are the result of two powerful forces: the economic pull of jobs and higher wages in the United States, and the economic and social problems Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. workers face in Mexico. The availability

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