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thousands of mexican americans have long been employed in fields other
than farm labor and a series of events have helped pave the way for others.
First of all, as mexicans continued to immigrate to the United States.
During the first half of this century, the demand for farm labor in the
southwest decreased. These factors combined to place tremendous pressures
on mexican american families who had been living in the borderlands for
generations. And many mexican americans migrated to new areas where the
wages were better to the crops of Ohio michigan Wisconsin. There. They
worked during the summer, but most of them returned to their Southwestern
homes for the winter. Then too many jobs that had been done by hand were
taken over by machine. The number of people needed to harvest a crop was
drastically reduced and during the 1930s the Dust Bowl drove thousands of
Anglo-American farming people into the southwest. These dust bowl migrants
also sought jobs as farm workers and the labor market was flooded. Where
were the unemployed farm laborers to go? Well, the United States had moved
to limit the immigration of foreigners. Laws had limited Chinese
immigration. In the 19th century, The number of Japanese immigrants was
cut by the Gentleman's agreement of 1907
And in 1924, the United States Congress had passed the National Origins
Act, Although this law had little effect on immigration from Mexico, It
further cut. The number of Europeans who were allowed to immigrate to the
United States.
For many years, these european immigrants had met the labor requirements
of industry in the Northeastern and midwestern sections of the United
States. When immigration restrictions limited the availability of european
workers, many mexican americans were able to move into the vacuum that was
created
the pattern of moving into industrial jobs gained real momentum. During
World War two, job opportunities increased partly as a result of President
franklin D. Roosevelt's Committee on Fair Employment practices established
to ensure equal opportunity in employment and more and more, Mexican
americans began to enter different kinds of work. Some of these jobs had
employed members of la raza for many generations. For instance,
transportation jobs, mexican americans played and continue to play an
important role in the construction and maintenance of the railroads of
this country.
In the 1880s, they provided most of the labor that went into the building
of the Santa Fe and Pacific, railroads.
rails, which place the southwest in the path of transcontinental commerce
and opened the way for its development as an economic empire. Since that
time, mexican americans have worked on the railroads throughout the
southwest and have followed this work into other parts of the country the
necessity of maintaining this vast transportation system created a lasting
demand for labor. Beginning from this base, mexican americans have found
their way into all kinds of construction and maintenance jobs
like agricultural work. Many construction jobs are seasonal in nature
during the winter months, there's little work and so many mexican
americans have entered jobs in other industries. They found jobs in the
heavily industrial areas of the north in places like Chicago Illinois and
Gary indiana. There they went to work in steel mills, meatpacking plants,
tanneries, they've also found jobs in the automobile industry in Detroit
jobs for which hundreds of mexican americans first were recruited in 19
18.5
a century later, There are about 700 Mexican Americans living scattered
throughout the Midwest.
The culture. These mexican americans brought with them from the Southwest
has been modified by their experiences in the north. Perhaps these changes
have occurred because discrimination against mexican americans was not
quite so extreme as it had been in the Southwest. Perhaps because in their
jobs and in their daily lives, they were in constant contact with anglo
americans. Some of these mexican americans have been almost completely
assimilated into the general population, but at the same time, some of the
largest barrios in the country are found in places like East Chicago gary
indiana Lansing michigan compared to the Southwest. A much higher
proportion of the mexican americans in the north are U. S. Citizens and in
many cases english has replaced spanish as the language of the midwestern
mexican american home then to the residential separation of mexican
americans from anglo americans that occurs in many parts of the Southwest
has all but disappeared. In many northern cities
now, many immigrants came from rural Mexico. But in the United States,
they've become an increasingly urban people today. Approximately 80% of
all Mexican Americans live in cities and in these cities they're searching
for new opportunities to learn skills to learn the English so necessary
for many jobs. The large scale farming enterprises once flooded with labor
eventually found themselves facing a shortage of labor and the reaction of
growers to this situation further encourage the awakening for. It created
some of the first widespread spoken protest among mexican americans. It
began when World War Two further depleted and already dwindling farm labor
supply For all workers who could either join the armed forces or found
jobs in higher paying wartime industries, but at the same time the
production of foodstuffs was critical to the war effort. And so in 1942,
the United States and Mexico concluded the Bracero agreement. Mexican
laborers or braceros would be contracted for a specified season and
brought to the United States to perform agricultural work. At first the
bracero program was maintained by the farm Security Administration. The F
. S. A. And the agreement between the two nations was followed to the
letter, the mexican workers were guaranteed wages, transportation and
housing. The agreement stated that braceros were not to be used in
competition with domestic farm workers. They were to be contracted only in
areas where a real farm labor shortage existed, officials from Mexico's
ministry of labor had the right to inspect the farms where braceros were
used and thus for the first time since Mexico lost her northern provinces
to the United States, the government of Mexico had some say in the
treatment of mexicans across the border. Scarcely a year after the program
began, the mexican inspectors accused several texas counties of severe
discrimination against mexicans and mexican americans and refused to allow
anymore braceros to work in these counties. This boycott continued until
the Bracero program ended in 1947,
but it made little difference to the texas growers for they hired illegal
mexican immigrants who continue to provide a steady supply of farm labor
with men willing to work for wages even lower than those paid the braceros.
Now, when the wartime Bracero agreement ended in 1947, the growers cried
for its renewal.
1951. President Harry S. Truman signed into law, Public Law # 78. This law
formalized the bracero agreement between Mexico and the United States. It
began as an emergency measure to cope with labor shortages created by the
Korean War, but growers demanded its continuation and the agreement was
renewed periodically until it finally expired in 1964.
The growers preferred braceros to domestic labor. The Braceros would work
long hours at $0.50 an hour. On the other hand, domestic workers, most of
them US citizens asked for more money and for extra overtime pay. The
Braceros were willing to accept substandard housing, domestic laborers
demanded improved working and housing conditions. Thus in 1951 alone, More
than 190,000 Braceros were contracted to work in the United States, But in
that same year more than 500 Mexicans entered this country illegally,
1955, the number of Braceros in the United States during the crop season
had risen to about 400,000 and this combination of Braceros and illegal
immigrants served to drive Mexican American farm laborers from their jobs.
The availability of cheap labor created intense job competition. Many of
the braceros who had worked a season or two in the United States
eventually returned to this country as permanent residents and became an
accepted part of the mexican american community. But as a group, the
braceros were very unpopular. Mexican americans complained that the
bracero program depress the wages of domestic farm laborers. Since the
braceros were readily available, the growers chose to contract them rather
than hiring the more expensive domestic labor. Mexican american farm
laborers stated that they had a choice of either accepting low wages or
unemployment and the unemployed farm workers had to survive without social
security benefits or unemployment insurance. But Aceros were also
unpopular because they took the money they earned back to Mexico. Mexican
american merchants suffered because the bracero spent most of their money
and company stores or perhaps in gambling casinos set up especially for
them. The government and the public became increasingly aware of the
mexican american protest. Public opinion turned against the bracero
program. Congress renewed public law 78 for the last time in 1963. It was
allowed to expire on December 31, 1964. In spite of the cries and
complaints of the growers. Since that time, the wages of domestic farm
workers have increased and working conditions improved, although in most
cases they're still substandard, but more important, a great many mexican
americans have found for the first time that they can influence public
opinion that they can make themselves heard. And by the thousands, they've
started to take part in a political awakening actively to seek greater
education for themselves and their Children. They've begun to see the
power of the ballot box to participate in a new experience.