Transcript New Wave of Immigration

1930s-1960s
Michael Quiñones
Clarifying question
All the notes you take need to help you answer the clarifying questions
below. As you analyze and evaluate the information contained
throughout this presentation you should be asking yourself the following
question:
[I will not collect your answers but they should help you think about the
information. If you have any questions please share them with me and
your classmates before, during and after classes.]
New Waves of Immigration: Some origins
 Hispanic immigration to the United States dates
back to the 1850s and 1860s.
 After the Mexican cession of western territories
such as California, Nevada, New Mexico and
Arizona tens of thousands of Spanish speaking
people lived within the new U.S. borders.
 Competition between Mexican-Americans and
English-speaking white settlers was fierce and led
to legal discrimination [particularly in jobs].
 The maltreatment of Mexican-Americans
culminated with a series of deportations during
the financial strain of the 1930s called
repatriation.
 This cycle of discrimination was repeated in the
1950s under President Eisenhower when nearly 4
million people were deported [many legal U.S.
citizens were deported as well].

The U.S. victory over Spain in the
Spanish-American War in 1898 resulted
in U.S. control over Cuba and Puerto Rico
each less than 250 miles from the
mainland.

Many of these islands’ residents
migrated to the U.S. during the 1910s.

Due to the Cuban Revolution of the late
1950s thousands of Cubans fled to
Florida less than 90 miles away.

During the 1950s and 1960s hundreds of
thousands of Puerto Ricans migrated to
major U.S. cities such as New York,
Miami and Chicago where populations of
upwards of 3-5 million reside today.

Due to the huge domestic labor
shortage in the U.S. during the
initial phase of WWII President
Franklin Roosevelt sought an
alliance with Mexico.

F.D.R. established a guest worker
agreement with Mexico called
the Bracero Program in 1942.

The intent of the program was to
dramatically increase agricultural
production to support the U.S.
war effort.

Braceros=strong arms [manual
labor]

Through the Bracero guest worker
program hundreds of thousands of
Mexican nationals came to the U.S.

Workers were provided higher pay than
was available in Mexico and were often
provided with housing, food and health
care at employers’ expense.

The Bracero program had worker limits
thereby providing incentive for illegal
immigrants to offer their labor below
legal workers’ rates.

Consequently, workers outside of the
program were often exploited and
inspired labor leaders to create the
United Farm Workers [U.F.W.].
Dolores Huerta
Cesar Chavez

Back lash against Mexican-Americans
and Mexican immigrants resulted in
rampant public discrimination.

Some examples during the 1940s and
1950s were exclusions from public
schools, libraries and juries.

As early as 1929 L.U.L.A.C. [League of
United Latin American Citizens] was
formed to fight such legal public
discrimination.
2 very modern
examples of Hispanic
protest
demonstrations that
seemed to demand
legal rights they may
not in fact be entitled
to.
Poster message’s translation: No
human is illegal
New Waves of Immigration: Legal protections won
 Several landmark anti-discrimination cases resulted in the reversal of jury
exclusion [Hernandez v. Texas] and public school segregation [Mendez
v. Westminster].
 Up to WWII thousands of Hispanics served in combat for the U.S. military but
upon discharge were barred from veterans’ organization such as the V.F.W.
and American Legion as well as denied medical benefits granted by the V.A.
[Veterans’ Administration] to other veterans.
 The American G.I. Forum was formed as a result of Hispanic military
discrimination and eventually secured the well deserved honor, respect,
dignity and equal legal treatment of Hispanic veterans.

Legal victories were also secured by and for Hispanics throughout the U.S. through the
efforts of LULAC, UFW, American GI Forum, M.A.Y.O. [Mexican-American Youth
Organization] who fought against college discrimination and La Raza Unida [The United
People/Race] in 1969.

La Raza Unida was an immediate descendant of M.A.Y.O. and was formed to promote the
political candidacies of Hispanics many of whom won elections and touted “Brown Power.”

A significant problem that still provokes resentment from many native American citizens is
bilingualism which was codified in 1968 with the Bilingual Education Act that required
public schools to teach limited English proficient students in their native languages while
they learned English.

Discontent with multiculturalism has resulted in the so-called English only movement
that has rolled back in at least 25 states bilingualism as a practice.
Reexamining the Clarifying question
Now that you have analyzed and evaluated the information in this presentation
using the clarifying questions as a guideline how should you answer each
question using specific examples from what you have learned? [I will not
collect your answers but they should help you think about the information. If
you have any questions please share them with me and your classmates
before, during and after classes.]