Expansion and Expulsion
The 1940s
saw yet another reversal of U.S. policies--and attitudes--toward
Mexican immigration. As wartime industries absorbed U.S. workers,
farmers became desperate for low-cost labor and urged the government
to take action. In 1942, the U.S. and Mexico jointly created the
bracero, or laborer, program, which encouraged Mexicans
to come to the U.S. as contract workers. Braceros were generally
paid very low wages, and often worked under conditions that most
U.S. citizens were unwilling to accept. Braceros were treated
so poorly in Texas, for example, that for a period the Mexican
government refused to send any workers to that state. The program
was very popular with U.S. farmers, and was extended well past
the end of World War II, not ending until 1964. More than 5 million
Mexicans came to the U.S. as braceros, and hundreds of thousands
stayed.
Ironically,
just as one government program was pulling Mexican immigrants
into the U.S., another was pushing them out. After the war, the
U.S. began a new campaign of deportation, on a much larger scale
than during the Depression. The expulsions lasted well into the
1950s, and sent more than 4 million immigrants, as well as many
Mexican Americans, to Mexico.
Taking the Public Stage
Throughout these years of social instability,
members of the Mexican American community began to take a more
visible role in American civic life.
After the
1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, Mexican Americans enlisted in the
military in significant numbers. In an on-the-street interview
from December 9, 1941, a Texas man explained that "I was born
in Mexico myself too, but I raised my kids and I have to fight
for my country with my kids…." Mexican Americans were awarded
more than 30 Congressional Medals of Honor during the war, and
Second World War veterans went on to form political organizations
on their return from service.
Many Mexican American civic organizations became
prominent in the postwar years, including the League of United
Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and the Mexican American Legal
Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF).
Perhaps the
best-known Mexican American movement of the postwar years was
the United Farm Workers (UFW) in the 1960s and '70s. The UFW organized
farmworkers nationwide and pressured employers through boycotts
of non-union produce. These campaigns received widespread publicity,
and the UFW's leader, César Chávez, became a well-known representative
of the Mexican American community nationwide. Other activists
fought for greater recognition of Mexican Americans and began
to describe themselves as Chicanos and Chicanas. |