Latino history

Latino history is the history of Mexicans and other Hispanics in the United States from 1846 to the present. By 2005 the Latino population reached 41.3 million,of whom 64% were Mexican, 10% Puerto Rican, 3% Cuban, 3% Dominican, 3% Salvadoran, and the remaining 17% from smaller groups. About 12 million undocumented ("illegal") immigrants live in the U.S., a number that has grown since the 9-11 attacks of 2001.

19th century

When Mexico took over control from Spain in the early 1820s, the new government ignored and isolated the "norteños" (inhabitants of Mexico's northern provinces), except to break up the mission system in California. The systematic Navajo and Apache raids on New Mexico villages and ranches were ignored, as was the vulnerability of California, as the central government pulled back its soldiers to use them in recurrent civil wars and factional battles. When Texas seemed too independent, Mexico's President Santa Anna led an army to massacre the villagers and destroy the American settlements. After initial victories and massacres at The Alamo and Goliad, Santa Anna was decisively defeated by the Texans, who declared independence. The Tejanos in Texas joined the revolution and supported the new Republic of Texas; The Hispanics in New Mexico and California were localistic and did not identify with the regime in Mexico City. The "norteños" played a minor role in the Mexican American War of 1846-48, and when offered the choice of repatriating to Mexico or remaining and becoming full citizens of the United States, the great majority remained. Only when large numbers of Americans arrived did they develop a sense of "lo mexicano," that is of "being Mexican," and that new identification had little to do with far-off Mexico. American entrepreneurs often cultivated alliances and partnerships with the Mexican propertied elites in the states of Texas and California, and the territories of New Mexico and Arizona. The Californios--who only numbered 10,000 in 1848, remained in California but were soon overwhelmed by the immigration of hundreds of thousands of newcomers to California, and largely became invisible to Anglos. The Latino culture of the rest of the Southwest, especially New Mexico and southern Texas, called itself "Spanish" (rather than "Mexican") to distinguish themselves from "los norteamericanos". The Latinos emphasized their own religion, language, customs and kinship ties, and drew into enclaves, rural colonias and urban barrios, which norteamericanos seldom entered; intermarriage rates were low.

After 1911 the ferocious civil wars in Mexico led 600,000 to 1 million refugees to flee north across the border, which was generally open. Well educated middle class families as well as poor peons. Over 500,000 returned after 1930, but many stayed. The consulates of the Mexican government in major cities in the Southwest organized a network of "juntas patrioticas" (patriotic councils) and "comisiónes honoríficos" (honorary committees) to celebrate Mexican national holidays such as the Cinco de Mayo; the target audience was the Latino middle class.

In borderlands towns such as Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Laredo, San Antonio, El Paso, Tucson, Yuma, San Diego, and Los Angeles, local Latino leaders wanted to restrict the influx of immigrants, because the newcomers directly competed with resident Latinos for jobs and housing and because they reinforced negative stereotypes regarding a lazy and violent lifestyle. In 1929 the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) was formed on the premise that full acceptance of American social, educational and political values was the only way Latinos could reasonably expect to improve their political, economic, and social position in American society. Some upwardly mobile families joined Protestant churches, but most remained devout conservative Catholics. From the early 1930s through the 1960s, LULAC's political agenda focused on citizenship training and naturalization of "foreign-born Mexicans," English-language training, active support of antidiscriminatory litigation and legislation (particularly regarding public schools), and strict control of further immigration from Mexico. LULAC promoted the liberal rhetoric of "equality" and "rights" and the mutual obligations of republican civic duty. However, voting levels were quite low, and especially in South Texas the Latino vote was notoriously controlled by local "bosses." There was little in the way of radical movements.

From 1945 to the early 1970s, large numbers of Latinos moved out of dead-end, low-wage work into higher-paying and higher-status skilled blue-collar occupations. They and their children experienced steady gains in virtually all major socioeconomic indicators, including income, occupational status, English-language proficiency, years of education, and geographic mobility. The opportunities were in the cities; there was little upward mobility for those who remained in the California farmland or in the chronically depressed lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, and in the isolated rural hamlets of Colorado and New Mexico.

A common pattern emerged after 1940 of men working summers in the U.S. and spending the winter season in the village back in Mexico. While this became illegal in 1965, the numbers involved kept growing. By 2007 there were 12 million or so undocumented workers in the U.S.; they had jobs, often using fake identity cards. They made money in the U.S. but return to the village to spend it, attend fiestas, tend to family business, and participate in extended kinship rituals such as baptisms, weddings, and funerals. After the increased border security following the 9-11 attacks in 2001, the back-and-forth pattern became dangerous. People kept coming north, but they stayed in the U.S. and sent money home every month. Locked into the American economy year-round, millions of these undocumented workers moved out of season agricultural jobs into year-round jobs in restaurants, hotels, construction, landscaping and semiskilled factory work, such as meatpacking. Most paid federal social security taxes into imaginary accounts (and thus were not eligible for benefits.) Few had high enough incomes to pay federal or state income taxes, but all paid local and state sales taxes on their purchases as well as local property taxes (via their rent payments to landlords).

Politics

Latinos engaged in national politics for the first time in 1960 when hundreds of "Viva Kennedy" clubs were created. As a result of military service in World War II the slowly improving civil rights atmosphere of the 1950s, Mexican Americans had tasted some limited successes in access to employment, education (particularly through the benefits of the G.I. Bill), and the election of a few government officials at the state and local levels. Moreover, with the establishment of new, aggressive Mexican American advocacy organizations in the Southwest between 1947 and 1959, community activists symbolically announced that Mexican Americans would henceforth be a political force with which to reckon. About 85% of the Mexican American vote went to Kennedy, slightly higher than other Catholic ethnics. The Latinos took credit for carrying California and Texas by razor-thin margins. President Kennedy, however, made some symbolic appointments but showed minimal interest in Mexican American issues.

Demography

California in 2006 had the largest Hispanic population of any state as of 2006 (13.1 million), followed by Texas (8.4 million) and Florida (3.6 million). Texas had the largest numerical increase between 2005 and 2006 (305,000), with California (283,000) and Florida (161,000) following. In New Mexico, Hispanics comprised the highest proportion of the total population (44%), with California and Texas (36% each) next in line. The Hispanic population in 2006 was much younger, with a median age of 27.4 compared with the population as a whole at 36.4. About a third of the Hispanic population was younger than 18, compared with one-fourth of the total population.

The diffusion of Latinos across the country was dramatic after 1990. In Georgia, for example, there were barely 60,000 Latinos in 1980, and 100,000 in 1990, less than 2%. By the 2000 Census the number had surged to 435,000, or 5%, with continuing rapid growth to 700,000 in 2006.

Puerto Ricans

The U.S. acquired Puerto Rico from Spain in 1898, and engaged in a massive modernization program involving disease control, sanitation, transportation, internal improvements, and medical care, along with corporate investment in sugar plantations. The island was overpopulated, so a systematic effort was made to assist migration. Over 5000 migrated to Hawaii (also acquired in 1898) to work in sugar plantations. By 1920 Puerto Ricans had full U.S. citizenship and had a presence in 45 states. New York City was the destination of 60%; children born anywhere on the mainland were dubbed "Nuyorican."

World War II

World War II was a watershed for all the Latino groups. Some 500,000 were drafted; even larger numbers of the women and older men worked in high paying munitions plants, ending the hardship years of the depression and inspiring demands for upward mobility and political rights. The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and El Congreso de Pueblos de Hablan Española (the Spanish-Speaking Peoples' Congress), founded before the war, expanded their membership and more successfully demanded full integration for their middle class constituents. Labor unions opened their membership rolls and Luisa Moreno became the first Latina to hold a national union office, as vice-president of the United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA), and affiliate of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).

Historiography

The study of Latino history raises a issues regarding the definition and boundaries of "Latino." Are Latinos a "group" and if so, what are its defining boundaries and characteristics? Is speaking Spanish a requirement to be Latino? Are indigenous peoples from Latin America part of the group? Do Latinos consider themselves a group? Do they cluster along lines of geographical origin? What is the relationship between old established settlements and new arrivals? How does the presence of 12 million undocumented ("illegal") arrivals affect the 25 million "legal" residents of the U.S. How has nativism and the hostility of Anglos and blacks shaped the group identity and opportunity? What impact is the rapid diffusion across the country having on local communities, schools, labor markets. Will the Latinos start voting in large numbers and become a political force? What is the impact of high dropout rates? Will majority-Latino communities change the national culture? Does Latino immigration follow or alter traditional patterns of assimilation?

Bibliography

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• De Leon, Arnoldo, and Richard Griswold Del Castillo. North to Aztlan: A History of Mexican Americans in the United States (2006)
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• Gutiérrez, David G. "Migration, Emergent Ethnicity, and the "Third Space": The Shifting Politics of Nationalism in Greater Mexico" Journal of American History 1999 86(2): 481-517. ISSN: 0021-8723 in JSTOR covers 1800 to the 1980s
• Rochín, Refugio I., Valdés, Denis N. eds. Title: Voices of a New Chicana/o History. Michigan State U. Pr., 2000. 307 pp.
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• Ruiz, Vicki L. From Out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in Twentieth-Century America (1998)
• Gomez-Quiñones, Juan. Mexican American Labor, 1790-1990. University of New Mexico Press. 1994.

Pre 1965

• Bogardus, Emory S. The Mexican in the United States (1934), sociological
• Gamio, Manuel. The Life Story of the Mexican Immigrant (1931)
• Gamio, Manuel. Mexican Immigration to the United States (1939)
• García, Mario T. Mexican Americans: Leadership, Ideology and Identity, 1930–1960 (1989),
• Gomez-Quinones, Juan. Roots of Chicano Politics, 1600-1940 (1994)
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Culture and politics, post 1965

• Aranda, José, Jr. When We Arrive: A New Literary History of Mexican America. U. of Arizona Press, 2003. 256 pp.
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• Branton, Regina. "Latino Attitudes toward Various Areas of Public Policy: The Importance of Acculturation," Political Research Quarterly, Vol. 60, No. 2, 293-303 (2007) Abstract
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• Fregoso, Rosa Linda. The Bronze Screen: Chicana and Chicano Film Culture. (1993) excerpt and text search
• Garcia, Ignacio M. Viva Kennedy: Mexican Americans in Search of Camelot, Texas A&M University Press, 2000. 227pp Excerpts and online search from Amazon.com.
• García, Mario T. Mexican Americans: Leadership, Ideology and Identity, 1930–1960 (1989)
• * Gomez-Quinones, Juan. Chicano Politics: Reality and Promise, 1940-1990 (1990)
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• Matovina, Timothy. Guadalupe and Her Faithful: Latino Catholics in San Antonio, from Colonial Origins to the Present. 2005. 232 pp. excerpt and text search
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California

• Hubert Howe Bancroft. The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft,
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• Camarillo, Albert M., “Cities of Color: The New Racial Frontier in California’s Minority-Majority Cities,” Pacific Historical Review, 76 (Feb. 2007), 1–28; looks at cities of Compton, East Palo Alto, and Seaside
• Daniel, Cletus E. Bitter Harvest: A History of California Farmworkers, 1870-1941 1981.
• García, Matt. A World of Its Own: Race, Labor, and Citrus in the Making of Greater Los Angeles, 1900-1970 (2001),
• Hayes-Bautista, David E. La Nueva California: Latinos in the Golden State. U. of California Press, 2004. 263 pp. excerpt and text search
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• McWilliams, Carey. North from Mexico. (1949), farm workers in California
• Pitt, Leonard. The Decline of the Californios: A Social History of the Spanish-Speaking Californians, 1846-1890 (ISBN 0-520-01637-8)
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• Valle, Victor M. and Torres, Rodolfo D. Latino Metropolis. 2000. 249 pp. on Los Angeles

Texas and Southwest

• Alonzo, Armando C. Tejano Legacy: Rancheros and Settlers in South Texas, 1734-1900 (1998)
• Hubert Howe Bancroft. The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft,
  • v 15: History of the North Mexican States and Texas, Volume 1: 1531 - 1800
  • v 16 History of the North Mexican States and Texas, Volume 2: 1801 - 1889
  • Vol. 17 History of Arizona and New Mexico 1530-1888) (1889)
• Blackwelder, Julia Kirk. Women of the Depression: Caste and Culture in San Antonio 1984. excerpt and text search
• Buitron Jr., Richard A. The Quest for Tejano Identity in San Antonio, Texas, 1913-2000 (2004) excerpt and text search
• Chávez, John R. The Lost Land: The Chicano Image of the Southwest (Albuquerque, 1984)
• Chávez-García, Miroslava. Negotiating Conquest: Gender and Power in California, 1770s to 1880s (2004).
• De León, Arnoldo. They Called Them Greasers: Anglo Attitudes toward Mexicans in Texas, 1821–1900 (Austin, 1983)
• De León, Arnoldo. Mexican Americans in Texas: A Brief History, 2nd ed. (1999)
• Deutsch, Sarah No Separate Refuge: Culture, Class, and Gender on the Anglo-Hispanic Frontier in the American Southwest, 1880-1940 1987
• Dysart, Jane. "Mexican Women in San Antonio, 1830-1860: The Assimilation Process" Western Historical Quarterly 7 (October 1976): 365-375. in JSTOR
• Echeverría, Darius V., “Aztlán Arizona: Abuses, Awareness, Animosity, and Activism amid Mexican-Americans, 1968–1978” PhD dissertation (Temple University, 2006). Order No. DA3211867.
• Fregoso; Rosa Linda. Mexicana Encounters: The Making of Social Identities on the Borderlands (2003)
• García, Richard A. Rise of the Mexican American Middle Class: San Antonio, 1929-1941 1991
• Getz; Lynne Marie. Schools of Their Own: The Education of Hispanos in New Mexico, 1850-1940 (1997)
• Gómez-Quiñones, Juan. Roots of Chicano Politics, 1600-1940 (1994)
• Gonzales-Berry, Erlinda, David R. Maciel, editors, The Contested Homeland: A Chicano History of New Mexico, 314 pages U of New Mexico Press 2000, ISBN 0-8263-2199-2
• González; Nancie L. The Spanish-Americans of New Mexico: A Heritage of Pride (1969)
• Guglielmo, Thomas A. "Fighting for Caucasian Rights: Mexicans, Mexican Americans, and the Transnational Struggle for Civil Rights in World War II Texas," Journal of American History, 92 (March 2006)
• Gutiérrez; Ramón A. When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away: Marriage, Sexuality, and Power in New Mexico, 1500-1846 (1991)
• Handbook of Texas History Online
• Márquez, Benjamin. LULAC: The Evolution of a Mexican American Political Organization (1993)
• Matovina, Timothy M. Tejano Religion and Ethnicity, San Antonio, 1821-1860 (1995)
• Montejano, David. Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas, 1836-1986 (1987)
• Muñoz, Laura K., “Desert Dreams: Mexican American Education in Arizona, 1870–1930” (PhD dissertation Arizona State University, 2006). Order No. DA3210182.
• Márquez, Benjamin. LULAC: The Evolution of a Mexican American Political Organization 1993.
• Quintanilla, Linda J., “Chicana Activists of Austin and Houston, Texas: A Historical Analysis” (University of Houston, 2005). Order No. DA3195964.
• Sánchez; George I. Forgotten People: A Study of New Mexicans (1940; reprint 1996) on New Mexico
• Taylor, Paul S. Mexican Labor in the United States. 2 vols. 1930-1932, on Texas
• Stewart, Kenneth L., and Arnoldo De León. Not Room Enough: Mexicans, Anglos, and Socioeconomic Change in Texas, 1850-1900 (1993)
• de la Teja, Jesús F. San Antonio de Béxar: A Community on New Spain's Northern Frontier (1995).
• Tijerina, Andrés. Tejanos and Texas under the Mexican Flag, 1821-1836 (1994),
• Tijerina, Andrés. Tejano Empire: Life on the South Texas Ranchos (1998).
• Timmons, W. H. El Paso: A Borderlands History (1990).
• Weber, David J. The Mexican Frontier, 1821-1846: The American Southwest under Mexico (1982)

Other regions

• Bullock, Charles S., III and Hood, M. V., III. "A Mile-wide Gap: the Evolution of Hispanic Political Emergence in the Deep South." Social Science Quarterly 2006 87(special Issue): 1117-1135. Issn: 0038-4941 Fulltext: in Blackwell Synergy
• García, María Cristina. Havana, USA: Cuban Exiles and Cuban Americans in South Florida, 1959–1994 (1997);
• Korrol, Virginia Sánchez. From Colonia to Community: The History of Puerto Ricans in New York City, 1917–1948 (1994)
• Millard, Ann V. and Chapa, Jorge. Apple Pie and Enchiladas: Latino Newcomers in the Rural Midwest. 2004. 276 pp.
• Murphy, Arthur D.; Blanchard, Colleen; and Hill, Jennifer A., ed. Latino Workers in the Contemporary South. 2001. 224 pp.
• Whalen, Carmen Teresa, and Victor Vásquez-Hernández, eds. The Puerto Rican Diaspora: Historical Perspectives (2005),
• Zaragosa Vargas, Proletarians of the North: A History of Mexican Industrial Workers in Detroit and the Midwest, 1917-1933 (1993)

Primary sources

• Richard Ellis, ed. New Mexico Past and Present: A Historical Reader. 1971.
• David J. Weber; Foreigners in Their Native Land: Historical Roots of the Mexican Americans (1973), primary sources to 1912

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