Most Americans have heard of the difficulties of life for White Americans during the great depression, but few know of the injustices towards Mexican immigrants and Mexican-Americans during that time. Using all peoples of Mexican heritage as a scapegoat for the economic depression, unprecedented hatred and discrimination were shown towards them. Then repatriations-the illegal process of moving immigrants back to their home country. Mexican immigrants and Mexican-Americans were encouraged or forced to return to Mexico, resulting in one of the biggest use of repatriation in America's history. The illegal removal of up to 2 million American citizens of Mexican descent during the great depression resulted in a social gap between Mexican Americans and whites in America, a problem that carries into modern America.
Before the Great Depression, Mexican immigrants weren't considered a threat to American culture or resources. Thought of as docile and hard-working, many Americans even considered them to be a more favorable kind of immigrant than some European immigrants. During the early 20th Century, this positive reputation made Mexican immigrants a popular hire for low-income jobs in the South, where cheap labor was needed. While many Mexican immigrants came to the U.S. for these mining and agricultural jobs, an increasing amount came to escape war and violence in Mexico. In fact, from the year 1910 to the year 1920, the total number of legal Mexican immigrants entering the United States grew by upwards of 30,000 migrants. This increase, due to job availability and acceptance into the U.S., lasted up until the Great Depression.
Then, during the Great Depression, attitudes changed for the worse against Mexican immigrants and Mexican-Americans in the U.S. In 1929 the economic boom ended when the Great Depression began, and there was no longer as great a need for cheap labor. As such, Mexican migrants became less essential, and American citizens ceased welcoming them in with open arms. When those job opportunities dried up, many Mexican immigrants moved back to Mexico, but many others chose to stay in the United States. With new lives, and oftentimes children who were U.S. citizens, the U.S. became the home country for many Mexican-Americans. Those Mexican immigrants who chose to stay in the United States faced more discrimination than in previous years. Up until this time, many Americans had considered the Mexican laborers to be temporary immigrants, coming in to help build America, without permanently living off the land. However, when the Great Depression started and resources became more valuable, the American people turned on the Mexican Immigrants who had made America their home.
It wasn't just new Mexican Immigrants that were targeted for repatriation. At the time, both long-term Mexican-American citizens and new Mexican immigrants weren't seen as citizens and non-cit. Both provided unwanted competition for jobs and therefore were seen as a threat to their European neighbors, who, according to their biases, grouped all people of Mexican heritage together. So, when repatriations picked up speed, they affected many United States citizens of Mexican descent as well as the new Mexican migrants. Even long-term citizens of the U.S. who had Mexican heritage were an easy target because they were a popular choice for cheap labor jobs, not well-paying ones. This left them financially insecure, left to the mercy of their employers while they lived paycheck to paycheck. With all these factors going against their public opinion, as well as their financial security, Mexican immigrants became an increasingly weaker target, easier for white Americans to force out of the U.S.
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While it was starting in that turbulent year of 1929 that Mexican immigrants began to face worse discrimination in the United States, repatriations targeting Mexican immigrants and Mexican-Americans really gained popularity among white citizens in 1930 and 1931. It was realized that sending the immigrants to various cities in Mexico would be cheaper than the total cost of their room and board in America. So trains began shipping large amounts of Mexican immigrants out of the Southern U.S. and into cities such as Sonora, Sinaloa, Jalisco, and Nayart [Amador Letter]. Since these repatriations were illegal ways to get rid of the Mexican population in the United States, they weren't documented, and therefore the exact number sent out is unknown. However, estimates range between 300,000 and 2 million possible repatriates. Of these repatriates, around 60 percent were thought to have been U.S. citizens by birth. Such a high number makes it clear that the majority of white citizens in America didn't care whether the Mexicans being repatriated had a right to stay in the U.S. or not, they disliked anyone of Mexican heritage and wanted to be rid of them.
As a result of these repatriations and the growing hatred against Mexican immigrants, racial discrimination and violence grew like never before. The idea that even American citizens of Mexican descent weren't as worthy of their jobs as white Americans became a very popular opinion. Accordingly, more and more people believed the unemployment problem could be greatly improved by forcing the Mexican immigrants out. So Mexican-Americans began to see a shocking increase in anti-Mexican sentiments. Mexican immigrants and Mexican-American citizens alike were fired from their jobs and faced open racism and harassment. Whereas before the Great Depression Mexicans were thought to be one of the best kinds of immigrants, they were now thought to be one of the worst. In some areas, they faced treatment and racism rivaling that of what was shown toward Blacks during the same time. In 1924 one social worker named Marie Prather summarized this sentiment when she said 'Then, too, because of the very dark color of most Mexicans, Americans have the same racial feelings as they have for the colored.'(Betten and Mohl 374). Although this statement was made while discussing Gary, Indiana, the anti-Mexican sentiments it represents were widespread across the US. This rise in racism continued to have terrible ramifications for the Mexicans and Mexican-Americans living in America.
One such ramification was the worsened quality of life for the Mexican immigrants, and consequently more voluntary repatriations. For many years, even before the upswing in anti-Mexican sentiments during the Great Depression, Mexican immigrants had been living in terrible conditions, and they only worsened during the Great Depression. Mexicans were charged exorbitant fees to live in poorly constructed and overcrowded houses. In some cities, they were even charged more to live in those shabby houses than the white residents living in much better houses nearby. These houses often had little to no furniture and were difficult to keep warm. These poor living conditions, combined with mounting unemployment rates caused major upswings in disease and illnesses in Mexican immigrant communities. Without resources to manage these illnesses, the death rate of Mexicans living in these slums drastically rose. These were all factors that combined to force Mexican immigrants in the U.S. to return to Mexico and increase the amount of 'voluntary' repatriations. Mexican immigrants were forced to fear staying in America and saw no way to escape but to leave.
The anti-Mexican sentiments so popular in the Great Depression stemmed from the idea that those of Mexican heritage were stealing jobs, an idea that carries even to the modern day. Nativists-people who wished to exclude outsiders from immigrating into their country in the 1930s encouraged this notion, pinning the economic crash on Mexican-Americans. They said that 'when employment slackens the Mexicans are the first ones off. They are not Americans.' (Betten and Mohl 377). This racist idea that Mexican immigrants and American citizens of Mexican heritage are only in the United States to steal jobs is also something expressed by nativists today. For example, when recently discussing the Spanish language with an acquaintance of mine, they said 'It's probably good to learn [Spanish] since they're stealing all our jobs' referring to Spanish speakers. Whites in America still find Mexican immigrants to be a convenient place to pin the blame on for unemployment problems frequent in everyday life.
All of the increases in financial, employment, and social discrimination against Mexican immigrants created a social gap between Mexican Americans and whites in the United States. All of the unfair treatment and ill-will shown towards the Mexican-Americans living in the US created deep mistrust between the races, and rightfully so. The Great Depression caused all people of Mexican descent or heritage to be betrayed by the country that they helped to build and support. They were declared unwelcome in America and pushed out, creating deep mistrust that has ramifications that carry out to the modern day. The events and attitudes displaying racist attitudes toward Mexicans throughout American history are numerous. Despite that, many Americans have a very low awareness of these events, making it difficult to heal the damage these events have caused. In order to heal the social gap between Mexican Americans and whites in America, the events of the past that damaged the relationship to begin with must be faced, starting with the racially motivated repatriations from the Great Depression.
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