Week 3: Mexican Americans in MI
& Chicana/o Identity
Grab a snack, chat with others, and begin to think
about:
 What was last week’s take home message?
 Did you gain any new perspectives about your own
education or the education of Chicanas/os in the US?
 Did this week’s readings provide new perspectives about
the history of Mexican Americans in Michigan and the
Chicana/o identity?
Frameworks!
Functionalism
Conflict Theory
Interpretive
Critical Theory
DIAGNOSE
PREDICT
UNDERSTAND
EMANICPATE
What are the
characteristics of the
dropout population?
What are the social
class origins of
dropouts and at-risk
students?
How do the patterns
of interaction
between teachers and
students lead students
to define themselves
as failures?
What processes
operate within the
school to push
students out?
Essentialism
Perennialism
Progressivism
Social Reconstruction
Your Story
Midwest
Norteños
Michiganders
Migrants
Our
Stories
Michigan:1900-1920s

1900: 56 Mexicans in Michigan

1920s: Women enter labor sector

1920: San Antonio, Texas was
gateway to the Midwest

Youth: Language brokers

1920 Census:1,268 BUT over 5,000
Mexicans in Detroit)

Other cities: Saginaw, Flint, Pontiac,
Port Huron, Battle Creek, Grand
Rapids

Sugar beet industry: Michigan
Sugar, Continental Sugar, Isabella
Sugar

Auto industry: Ford & GM

Railroads, Steel Mills (Briggs,
Saginaw Grey Iron)

1910-1920 growth: WWI labor
shortage, Henry Ford’s $5 day,
Railroads, Post WWI economic
boom

Mostly men: Ages 20-29
1920-1940s
 Recession 1920-1921: Immigration sweeps or voluntary repatriation
 Detroit: Model for how to handle the “Mexican problem” in USA
 1922 Economic Rebound: Ford, Buick, Chevy
 1925: Mexican owned businesses and newspapers
 Evidence of cultural citizenship: Centro Cultura, Obreros Unidos
Mexicanos, Circulo Mutualista Mexicano
 Great Depression: Voluntary repatriation and family separation (12,500
returned to Mexico)
 Late 1930s + 1940s: Increase of Mexican/Mexican American migration to
Michigan
 Bracero Program
 Increase in cultural citizenship: Businesses, organizations, newspapers,
Spanish language radio
After 1950

1950: 25,000 Mexicans/ Mexican
Americans in Detroit
 1960s: Michigan was second to Texas
in migrant farmworkers employed
 Higher Ed: Michigan State and
University of Michigan (Mecha,
Chispa, United Mexican American
Students)
 Social Action:
 1967 Detroit Riots
 March for Migrants
 Michigan chapter of La Raza Unida
Party
 Committee of Concerned Spanish
Speaking Americans (CCSSA)
 Latin Americans for Social &
Economic Development (La Sed)





1980: 89,000
Julian Samora Research Institute
1990-2000: #15 in United States
Activism: Affirmative action, immigration
reform
2010: 436,000
Oral History: Saginaw, MI
 Purpose of study: To understand Mexican American wage labor,
community formation, geographic links (local, regional, national)
 Methodology: Saginaw based newspapers, field reports from
Bureau of Labor Statistics, 14 oral history interviews
Let’s form three small discussion groups:
1.
2.
3.
Factories in the fields
The Mexican American industrial class
Community building along the Saginaw River
Make sure to discuss:
 Great Depression
 Discriminatory
 WWI & WWII
 Migratory networks

 Reasons/ motivations for

migrating
Sugar beet industry
Recruitment strategies
Repatriation
Children/ youth
Women
Mexican colonies
Impact on family life

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

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


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
practices/policies
Wage labor
Residential segregation
Diversity
Educational system
Community building
Civic organizations
Civil rights
Border crossings
Identity +Ideology/Issues + Imagination
 Chicanismo
 Politics of identity or political identity
 Identity: Race/ethnicity/male; outside of “the system”
 Ideology: Cultural nationalism/ Aztlan: Mexican Americans were neither
Mexican nor American.
 Issues: Schools, political self determination, rights of farmworkers, land rights,
Vietnam War, racial discrimination
 Imagination: Counter-narrative/ Chicano-centric narrative
In your group, discuss Chicanismo and pose/write a discussion question
that will engage the class in an more in-depth discussion of this political
identity.
Chicana/o
Identity +Ideology/Issues + Imagination
 Xicanismo
 Politics of critical thinking
 Identity: Multidimensional and intersecting/ Transnational/ elastic; outside and
inside of “the system”
 Ideology: Broader vision of social justice and human rights; alliance; coalition
building
 Issues: Language, immigratio,n and connections to race/ethnicity
 Imagination: Willingness to critique our positions
In your group, discuss Xicanismo and pose/write a discussion question
that will engage the class in an more in-depth discussion of this
transnational identity.
CM
Somos Familia
 Identity
 Critical consciousness
 Awareness of the role of power
 Result from various forms of oppression
 Social Justice
 Praxis
¿Qué me llevo?
Take home message
 Discuss with peers :
 What did I gain from today’s conversation?
 What should I share with others?
 What should I research further?