History 3208: History of Immigration, Ethnicity, and Nativism
Professor Peter Catapano

Mexican Immigration
I. Mexico, the United States and Manifest Destiny (Recommended Takaki, Ch. 7)
      • The Spainish Conquest of the New World (pbs site)
        • Conquest of Mexico (1519)
        • Pizzaro defeats the Incas (1527)  (new spain map)
      • Mexican Independence (1810 - 1821)
      • The Mexican -American War (1846-1848) (pbs site)
      • The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (map)
      • Mexico cedes 55% of its territories to the US for $15million
      • Set Texas border at the Rio Grande
      • Promise by US to protect property and civil rights of Mexican nationals








II. El Norte and the Border (Takaki, Ch. 12, Daniels, pp. 309-320)
Pushes, Pulls and Means after 1900
  • Pushes
    • Lack of Land for Peasants
    • Mexican Revolution (1910-20)
      • More than 890,000 Mexicans immigrated to the United States
  • Pulls
    • During WW1, Mexican immigrants also moved into industrial cities- Detroit, Chicago and Pittsburgh
    • Joined Chinese, Japanese, and Filipinos as agricultural labor source in California and the Southwest
    • World War II, Bracero Program created to deal with labor shortages
  • Means
    • Shared open border, many workers temporary
    • Completion of the Mexican International RR in 1895


III. Lines of Exclusion
  • Post 1848, discrimination against Mexican-Americans and their culture
    • Only New Mexico officially bilinigual state
    • Many Californios lost land after Mexican War
  • Border Patrol created in 1924
  • Deportation and "Operation Wetback" in the 1950

Untitled, 1949
Dimmitt, Texas
http://www.cah.utexas.edu/ssspot/lesson_plans/lesson_8.php



IV. The Emergence of the Mexican American Community
      • Different names during different times and regions
        • Chicano
        • In Texas, Tejano
        • In California, before 1848 - Californios
        • New Mexico - Spanish-American
      • The Barrio
      • Compared to other immigrant groups
      • Low naturalization rates
      • Low education levels
      • By 1970s, 85% urban population
Updated 4/28/08