Chapter 20
Section 3
States with high populations of
Mexican descents
• Many people of Mexican
descent lived in Texas,
California, Arizona, New
Mexico, and Colorado.
• The numbers of Mexicans
living in the Southwest
steadily increased in the
1800s because the United
States acquired territory
where Mexicans lived.
Migration
• In the 1910s and 1920s,
some Mexican
Americans moved to
cities in the Midwest
and Northwest.
• They hoped to find jobs
in factories
Barrios
• Most Mexican Americans in the Southwest
lived in barrios, partly due to ethnic
discrimination.
• Barrios are poor Hispanic and Latino
neighborhoods.
Discrimination during the Great
Depression
• Discrimination in
employment also kept
Mexican Americans
from finding well paying
jobs.
– Many worked on farms.
• Mexican Americans
faced more
discrimination during
the Great Depression.
Repatriation
• Federal officials deported (sending people
from one country to another) many Mexican
immigrants in a program known as
“repatriation.”
Ike and Deportation
• More than 3.7 million
Mexicans were also
deported while
Eisenhower was
president.
• Many of them were
legal residents.
• Some had even been
born in this country.
Latin America
• In the 1950s, other
Latinos arrived in the
country.
• They included large
numbers of Puerto
Ricans, and Cubans
fleeing a revolution.
• By the late 1960s, more
than 9 million Latinos
lived in the United
States.
Beginning to organize
• Latinos in the American Southwest were often
treated as outsiders whether they were
citizens or not.
• They began to organize to work for equal
rights and fair treatment.
LULAC
• In 1929, several Mexican American groups created the
League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).
• Its purpose was to fight discrimination against Latino
Americans.
• LULAC helped end segregation in public places in Texas.
It also ended the practice of segregating Mexican
American children in schools.
• LULAC openly criticized officials for deporting so many
Latinos.
– It also won Mexican Americans the right to serve on juries
in Texas.
American G.I. Forum
• After World War II, Latino
veterans were not allowed
to join veterans’ groups.
• They also could not get the
same medical care that
other veterans did.
• The American G.I. Forum
was founded to protect the
rights of Latino veterans
who were denied medical
services by the Veterans
Administration.
A “dis”service
• The American G.I. Forum
worked on behalf of a
Mexican American soldier
killed in the war received
national attention.
• A funeral home in Texas
had refused to hold his
funeral.
• With the help of
President Johnson, the
soldier was buried in
Arlington National
Cemetery.
Prejudice in the 1960s
• Latino Americans still faced prejudice in the
1960s.
• They did not have the same rights to
education, housing, and employment as other
Americans.
• Latinos began campaigns to try to improve
their economic status.
• They also wanted to end discrimination.
Chavez and Huerta
• In the early 1960s, Latino
leaders César Chávez and
Dolores Huerta formed
two groups to fight for
farm workers’ rights.
• The result was a strike
against California growers
in 1965.
• The workers demanded
union recognition, higher
wages, and better
benefits.
UFW
• When that effort failed,
Chávez organized a national
boycott of table grapes.
• Around 17 million people
stopped buying grapes. Profits
tumbled.
• In 1966 Chávez and Huerta
merged their two
organizations to form the
United Farm Workers (UFW).
• The boycott lasted until 1970.
Grape growers agreed to raise
wages and improve working
conditions.
MAYO
• Latino youths also
became involved in civil
rights.
• The Mexican American
Youth Organization
(MAYO) led school
walkouts and
demonstrations.
Bilingual Education
• In 1969, protests by
MAYO led to creation of
a bilingual education
program, in which
immigrant students are
taught in their own
language while they
learn English.
La Raza Unida
• Its success led to a new
political party, La Raza
Unida, in 1969.
• La Raza Unida, also
called, “United People,”
worked for Latino
causes, encouraged
Latinos to vote, and
helped to elect Latino
candidates at the local
level.
Berkeley…again
• At the University of
California at Berkeley in
1969, students staged a
sit-in to demand the
creation of a Chicano
Studies program.
Overall
• Many Mexican Americans began to fight
prejudice and celebrate ethnic pride.
• Leaders began to promote bilingualism, or
teaching immigrant students in their own
language while they learn English.