During the Great Depression, a sense of total despair plagued the United States. Americans sought a convenient scapegoat and found it in the Mexican community. Laws forbidding employment of Mexicans were accompanied by the hue and cry to “get rid of the Mexicans!” The hysteria led pandemic repatriation drives and one million Mexicans and their children were illegally shipped to Mexico.Despite their horrific treatment and traumatic experiences, the American born chil… More >>
Decade of Betrayal: Mexican Repatriation in the 1930s
The deportations of the 1930s need to be put into historical perspective and not just labeled as another incident of how bad America is to Mexicans. In 1924, the Immigration Act shut down immigration from Europe; Mexicans were EXEMPTED from such quotas between 1924 and 1965 (unacknowledged by most Chicano polemicists who can’t deal with the fact that a policy was biased against white Europeans benefitted non whites). According to historian John Womack, some 900,000 Mexicans entered the US between 1924 and 1930, some 630,000 illegally. So this wave continued unabated into the Depression, and with 25% unemployment, the Federal government decided to crack down on this migration. Europeans were not targeted because the waves of immigartion had already been shut down, and those who did enter did so legally throught the nation’s ports; most Mexicans entered through a land border. Abraham Hoffman puts the number involved and deportedat 400,000, not 1 million, with about half leaving voluntarily and half forced. Fifty percent were US citizens, largely the children of illegal immigrants who left with their parents. Of course, there were many cases of discrimination, as Manuel Gonzeles points out, where the methods used, especially in Los Angeles, were heavy handed and even in some cases illegal. These individulas should receive compensation. But it is ridiculous to compare this to the forced migration of Indians or to say that this was a program of complete discrimination ala those which targeted African Americans, even though there were individual cases of such.
As for those who took Balderrama as a professor, of course Chicano activists want to portary all of their problems and poverty as simply the result of racist Anglos versus innocent Mexicans. While legal discrimination did exist in many individual areas in the Southwest, particularly South Texas, thsi ignores the fact that more than two-thirds of all Mexican immigrants have no high school diploma (versus only 8% of native whites and 13% of Asian immigrants), that more than 4 out of 5 are not proficient in English, or that Asian immigrants and their children, despite being subject to historically more vicious legal racism, actually do better than whites !!!The vast majority of Mexicans are immigrants or their immediate children who arrived after 1965, whose presence makes the tracking and progress of wages for Mexican Americans very difficult to measure.
Between 1920 and 1970, Mexicans were considered legally white by the govt.; they were allowed to intermarry with whites (unlike blacks and Asians); were allowed to get citizenship upon arrival (unlike Asian immigrants); served in all-white units during the SEcond World War (unlike blacks and Japanese); could vote and hold elected office in places such as Texas, especially San Antonio (unlike blacks); ran the state politics and elite of New Mexico since colonial times; went to integrated schools in Central Texas and Los Anegeles (unlike Blacks in the south and Asians in Southern California); were not subjected to immigration quotas like Europeans and Asians between 1924 and 1965.
According to the PPIC, Hispanics with similar education and occupation as whites make just as much in income; Asians in the similar situation make 10 to 15% MORE!!!! So while racism has been a factor, it is not the determining factor as to why Mexicans do or do not succeed. This is too much for Chicano professors and activists to acknowledge since their world is framed around victimology.
Chris
Rating: 2 / 5
I read the review by Michael Sturdevant and think he is probably a racists. I have took classes with Dr. Balderrama and can tell you he is a excellent teacher. He teaches his Chicano students about victimology and how they are victims of white America. This is very true. Some teachers think that Chicanos are struggling to get ahead because they are not as educated as white people. But Balderrama teached us that it is because we are victims that we can’t make enough as the white people.
That is why Balderrama is suing the US government. Then the Chicano people will have billions of dollars to share with him. And we don’t need to get more education. Just more money. I believe in Balderrama, I believe in victimology, and I only wish all Chicanos believed in victimology, then we would all be as rich as the white people.
Rating: 5 / 5
The author spends several chapters detailing the Mexican reparations during the 20’s and 30’s. His main argument is that the reparations did not save the US money or jobs, but instead cost them more. He argues the money spent sending Mexicans back to Mexico was more than welfare given to Mexicans. and jobs were not freed up, since most Americans wouldn’t work the jobs Mexicans did. So instead, it caused a labor crisis for many employers. However, he doesn’t argue this well. He instead writes a social history of the reparations. Who was sent back, what their experience was like, what the Mexican government did to help, etc…. He did not even explore the social reasons for the repatriation in detail. Overall, if you can stomach his arogant writing style and ignore the preachiness, it’s pretty interesting.
Rating: 4 / 5
Dr. Balderrama is a great historian. His research into the Mexican repatriation is told magnificently. I also happen to be one of his former students at CSULA. I do remember his class and enjoyed his lectures. Unlike other history professors at CSULA, his style of teaching and lecturing was memorable. His contribution to Mexican American history is invaluable. Great book! *****.
Rating: 5 / 5
This is an interesting part of American History. We should never forget the past, so that we may not repeat these awful racist misdeeds. Go figure? imigrants kicking imigrants out of the country.I reccomend this book for some insight in a part of American history that is usually left out of History books.
Rating: 4 / 5