From Discrimination to Repatriation: Mexican Life in Gary, Indiana, during the Great Depression Author(s): Neil Betten and Raymond A. Mohl Reviewed work(s): Source: Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 42, No. 3 (Aug., 1973), pp. 370-388 Published by: University of California Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3637683 . Accessed: 08/08/2012 14:02 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. University of California Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Pacific Historical Review. http://www.jstor.org FromDiscrimination to Repatriation:Mexican Life in Gary,Indiana, During theGreat Depression Neil Betten and RaymondA. Mohl Mr. Betten is a member of the history department in Florida State University and Mr. Mohl is a member of the history department in Florida Atlantic University. DURING THE PAST DECADE Americanshave been rediscoveringim- portantparts of theirpast. With a fewnotable exceptions, Mexican Americans-the nation's second largestminority-until recently ratedvery little space in scholarlywriting in historyand the social sciences.Today, however,historians and othershave begun to probethe experience of Mexicansnorth of theborder.' The history of Mexican immigrantsin the United Stateshas not been a par- ticularlyhappy one. Soughtprimarily as cheap laborersand sub- jected to povertyand discrimination,Mexicans neverthelessmi- gratedto theUnited States in largenumbers, especially after World War I, as restrictivequotas in the 1920scut offthe flowof Euro- 1 Paul S. Taylor, Emory S. Bogardus, Carey McWilliams, and Manuel Gamio were among early scholarswho examined the Mexican experience in the United States. See Paul S. Taylor's multi-volumestudy, Mexican Labor in the United States (Berkeley, Calif., 1928-1934; reprinted,New York, 1966-1968); Emory S. Bogardus, The Mexican Immigrant(Los Angeles,1929); EmoryS. Bogardus, The Mexican in the United States (Los Angeles, 1934); Carey McWilliams, North from Mexico: The Spanish-Speaking People of the United States (Philadelphia, 1949); Manuel Gamio, Mexican Immigra- tion to the United States: A Study of Human Migration and Adjustment (Chicago, 370 From Discriminationto Repatriation 371 pean immigrants.But with the Great Depression of the 1930s, Mexicansbore the bruntof nativisthostilities and sufferedmassive deportations.These patternsprevailed not only in the Southwest, wheremost Mexican immigrantsresided, but also in northernin- dustrialcities like Gary,Indiana, wheresubstantial Mexican col- onies had sproutedduring the 1920s. Mexicans migratedto northwestIndiana to labor in the steel millsof Gary and nearbyEast Chicago.With the outbreak of World War I and the virtualsuspension of European immigration,U. S. Steel and othercorporations began drawingMexican workersfrom Texas, Kansas,and Mexico to fillfactory jobs. The pace of Mexican migrationto the area speeded up duringthe steel strikeof 1919 when the corporationsrecruited Mexican strikebreakers from as faraway as Laredo and El Paso. By 1920 fifteenmajor industrial plantsin the Gary-Chicagoregion employed 1,746 Mexicans; an- other868 Mexicansworked on local railroads.Although some out- migrationoccurred during the recessionof 1921, Mexican migra- tion to the area passedall previoustotals during the mid-1920s.By 1926 East Chicago'sInland Steel employed2,526 Mexican workers, representingthirty-five percent of its labor unit. Accordingto the 1930 census,some 9,007 Mexican-bornimmigrants lived in Lake County,Indiana-almost all of themin Garyand East Chicago.2 1930); Manuel Gamio, The Mexican Immigrant: His Life Story (Chicago, 1931). In- dicative of awakened interestin Mexican-Americanhistory is the recentand important volume, Leo Grebler, et al., The Mexican-American People: The Nation's Second Largest Minority (New York, 1970). See also the issues of the Journal of Mexican American History,El Grito,and Aztldn.For a recentstudy of repatriationin the Los Angeles area, see Abraham Hoffman,"Stimulus to Repatriation: The 1931 Federal Deportation Drive and the Los Angeles Mexican Community," Pacific Historical Review, XLII (1973), 205-219. 2 Powell A. Moore, The Calumet Region: Indiana's Last Frontier (Indianapolis, 1959), 252, 342, 395-396; Julian Samora and Richard A. Lamanna, Mexican-Americans in a Midwest Metropolis: A Study of East Chicago (Universityof California, Los An- geles, Mexican-AmericanStudy Project, Advance Report No. 8, 1967), 71; Paul S. Taylor, "Mexican Labor in the United States: Chicago and the Calumet Region," Universityof California Publications in Economics, VII (1932), 61; Paul S. Taylor, "Employmentof Mexicans in Chicago and the Calumet Region," Journal of the Amer- ican StatisticalAssociation, XXV (June, 1930), 206-207; U.S. Bureau of the Census, FifteenthCensus of the United States,1930: Population (Washington,D. C., 1932), III, Part 1, p. 720. For more general studies of Mexican immigration,see Jos6 Hernindez Alvarez, "A Demographic Profile of the Mexican Immigration to the United States, 1910-1950,"Journal of Inter-AmericanStudies, VIII (1966), 471-496; Paul S. Taylor, "Some Aspects of Mexican Immigration," Journal of Political Economy, XXXVIII (1930), 609-615; Paul S. Taylor, "Note on Streams of Mexican Migration," American 372 PACIFIC HISTORICAL REVIEW The Mexicanswho migratedto Garyand theCalumet Region of Indiana facedrather persistent patterns of discrimination and often found it difficultto overcomethe social resultsof poverty.The problemof housingprovides a case in point.Planned and built be- tween 1906 and 1909 by a U. S. Steel subsidiary,the Gary Land Company,Gary quickly developed a sprawlingslum of shacks, barrack-likeboarding houses, and cheap framehouses filledwith immigrantworkers and theirfamilies. Early plannershad divided the cityand assignedworkers to neighborhoodsaccording to their jobs. The GaryLand Companyreserved one sectionof the cityfor managementand supervisorypersonnel, other sections for the pri- marilyAmerican-born foremen, skilled workers, and clericalstaff; the companyleft little space for the unskilled immigrantswho formedthe bulk of the workforce.8 Some of the earlyMexican re- cruitswere originally housed in companyboarding houses adjacent to themills, but thearrangement was not entirelysatisfactory. Mex- ican workersfound themselves subjected to employersupervision duringnon-working hours. They soon discoveredthat the corpora- tions chargedmore for housingand food than privateboarding house keepers.Moreover, Mexicans living in companyboarding houses oftencomplained of harassmentby Gary police in nearby downtownstreets. Ironically, they had greaterfreedom in Gary's less controlledbut hardlyidyllic industrialslum. Preferringto boardwith their own people and eat familiarfood, Mexican workers quicklymoved from corporation facilities. By 1928none ofthe Gary plantshoused Mexican workers.4 Mexican immigrantworkers who left companybarracks, like Journal of Sociology,XXXVI (1930), 287-288; "Increase of Mexican Population in the United States,1920-1930," Monthly Labor Review, XXXVII (July 1933),45-48; "Mex- ican Immigration," Transactions of the Commonwealth Club of California, XXI (March 1926), 1-34. For specificstudies of Mexicans in northern cities, see " 'Little Mexico' in North Cities," World's Work, XLVIII (1924), 466; Ruth Camblon, "Mex- icans in Chicago," The Family,VII (1926), 207-211; Anita E. Jones,"Mexican Colonies in Chicago," Social Service Review, II (1928), 579-597; Norman D. Humphrey, "The Migration and Settlementof Detroit Mexicans," Economic Geography,XIX (1943), 358-361; T. Earl Sullenger,"The Mexican Population of Omaha," Journal of Applied Sociology,VIII (1924), 289-293. 3 On the early planning of Gary, see Raymond A. Mohl and Neil Betten, "The Failure of Industrial City Planning: Gary,Indiana, 1906-1910,"Journal of the Amer- ican Institute of Planners, XXXVIII (1972), 203-215. 4 Moore, The Calumet Region, 396-397; Gary Post-Tribune, May 24, 1923; inter- view with steelworkerVictor Valdez, Gary,Indiana, August 1970. From Discrimination to Repatriation 373 blacksand eastand southEuropean immigrants unable to findother housing,crowded into Gary's"south side"-an unplannedsection southof U. S. Steel propertybut withinthe corporatelimits of the city.The area had no municipalservices for many years, and no city housingor zoningordinances restricted cheap and shabbyconstruc- tion by real estatespeculators and builders.Inadequate and over- crowdedhousing, high crime rates, and healthproblems (especially pneumoniaand tuberculosis)plagued the area, even in therelative- ly good timesof the 1920s.The Mexican consulin Chicagovisited Garyin 1924 and depictedMexican livingand housingconditions as indescribablywretched. The followingyear an investigatorycom- mitteeof a local women'sclub was shockedby the "congestionof humanity"in Mexican neighborhoods.The committee'sreport es- peciallydeplored the higherrents paid by Mexicans (and blacks) forhousing considerably more shabby than that of whiteresidents in the same area. It also noted thatthe State Board of Health had condemnedsome occupied