Repatriation of Mexico in 1930's - Essay Example

and Section # of Mexican Repatriation of the 1930's The Mexican Repatriation was a massive migration, which took place between the year 1929 and 1937. It is estimated that about 400-500, 000 Mexicans left the United States of America. The reason for this repatriation was the raised unemployment and the fear of deportation. It was the time when United States was suffering from the Great Depression. It was natural for the citizens of US to consider Mexicans as usurpers of American Jobs, because they were suffering from the joblessness and poverty. This was the reason that US citizens started thinking that Mexicans were a burden on their economy and social services, which were the right of the citizens of United States. The President of United States, Mr. Herbert Hoover supported these actions and allowed the targeting of Mexican population. The most affected areas were California, Texas, Colorado, Illinois and Michigan. This made them leave the country and they went back to Mexico. President Franklin Roosevelt, after taking charge, ended the government support to these actions, but it continued at a small scale. United States of America was always a heaven for immigrants from different parts of the world. There used to be a million immigrants from Europe each year before the introduction of Quota Act of 1924. The new act reduced the immigration to less than 100, 000 immigrants per year. As the Depression began and people started suffering of it, government planned to take an action against the illegal immigrants, who were not only burden on the weakened economy but were also the cause of disturbance among the people in the country (Blea, 1988. Page No. 99). The act does not put extra restrictions from the immigrants of Mexico and they enjoyed their stay and mobility between the two countries. It came out that there were more than 400,000 illegal immigrants in United States. The government started a raid against the illegal immigrants in all the major cities, including New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco etc. This resulted in the deportation of some 163,900 people in ten years. These people were living illegally in the United States and almost 35,000 people were deported to Mexico (Barrera, 1974. Page No. 21). This makes it 20 percent of all the deported people. People who were living legally were also deported due to the some legal reasons. But a large number of Mexican immigrants came illegally and they were deported back to their country. Almost 1.3 million Mexican origin people were deported in 1930's and the number increased to 1.6 million in the next decade. It is considered to be a shameful act by the Americans and many people realize it now. According to many Americans, it was a shameful time in the United States, which is considered to be a land of opportunity for all the people around the world (Burma, 1970. Page No. 192). Hundreds of thousands of people were forcefully removed from the country and it includes the Native Americans too.And another point here is that not many people around the world know about this. This was not publicized and somewhat very little material can be seen about Mexican Repatriation today, if we compare it to the other shameful events which took place in the world. The Mexican Repatriation is considered to be the largest involuntary migration in the United States of America in nineteenth century, after the removal of Native Americans. It was the second time that Mexicans faced the repatriation. The Mexicans first faced it in 1848 after the Mexican War (Hoffman, Page No. 82). Another repatriation was started in 1915, when Mexican Americans rebels were stood against the United States and they tried to re-conquer the lands, which were once owned by the Mexicans. This resulted in the forceful deportation of thousands of Mexicans to their native country. The Mexican Repatriation of 1929-1944 was different in a sense that many American citizens were also sent to Mexico, only because they were Mexico origins. The Americans want to get rid of illegal immigrants, because they were thought to be the cause of suffering for the real Americans during the great depression (Cafferty, 2000. Page No. 321). The worst part in this is the racism and prejudice, which was observed against those people who cannot speak English, and who skin color was different than Americans. The deported immigrants were not given any chance to appeal against this deportation. This does not end here and the immigrants who were living legally or were the citizens of United States found their legal papers torn up by the government officials. Officials did this to make sure that immigrants move back to their country. And they sent those people Mexico, who had never seen it in their lives and were born and brought up in United States of America. They were only Mexico descendants (Lopez Sedillo, 1995 Page No. 210). Many families lost their members and never saw them again. A famous story is of a nine years old girl who was sent to Mexico without her family and hence she never met her family again. She knew very little Spanish and forced to live outdoor due to this. Another story is of a 23 year-old woman, with her three-year-old American born son, who was an American citizen according to the law. She responded with her family to a meeting about a famous Mexican painter, Diego Rivera. The government officials informed her that they needed to go back to Mexico because the United States of American is not able to keep them. The officials were told them that they can live in Mexico easily because there is a lot of land in Mexico that can be cultivated and they can have food and shelter over there. The immigrants did not receive their belongings, which they packed in United States and it was seen nowhere. When the federal government ended their support for the program, it still goes on in many states with the help of local authorities (Meier, Page No. 108). And this mission was carried out in all the parts of the country, not just in the southern states. Mexicans are feared that they might be deported back again at any time, because they have experienced it once. The Mexican Repatriation has been given very less attention and details were not made public in many places. The most neglected era of Mexican repatriation from the United States is before 1930. The forced deportation of Mexicans from Texas during 1930 to 1936 was not reported much. This was the period of Great Depression and this was the reason why it did nto get the due attention in the world. And the newspapers and media in the Untied States was quiet at that time. It started gaining publicity in 1980's when the four short articles on the Great Depression published in a paper and one of them includes Mexican Repatriation in 1930's. The peak of the repatriation was in 1931 and the roads which connects Texas and Mexico was much congested due to the immigrants returning back to their homeland. The number declined in 1932 and it became more less in next year. The condition became better in 1934 to 1938, when only occasional groups of repatriates left Texas. But it again increased in 1939 to 1940, when a large number of Mexicans were deported back. The repatriation during the Great Depression began in 1929 in five areas. Most Texas repatriation after 1929 originated in five areas. A large number of people from the lower Rio Grande valley had been employed as laborers on large truck farms in United States of America. And some were working in packing plants and other people were associated in the business of agriculture (Balderrana, 2006, Page no. 201). It was observed that the repatriation from some Valley towns was so absolute that only few of the Mexicans remained. The other area was the South Texas, which probably furnished the second-largest number of repatriates. The Mexicans departed from their jobs and from hundreds of cotton plantations and farms. They had served as tenant farmers and laborers in those farms. And in the third area, many rural communities and small towns throughout the Central Texas also witnessed repatriation. The Mexicans living there had been working as tenant farmers and laborers on large cotton plantations. And they were also working in the cotton-related industries as unskilled laborers. The fourth area, where a large number of repatriates left was the Southwest Texas, where they work as cattle and sheep ranches. They were also employed in agriculture laborers. The fifth area in this regard was the West Texas. The Mexican population in West Texas was employed in the extensive cotton farms and was also working in the silver mines in the Big Bend. Though most of the above mentioned areas were included in rural areas of Texas, but repatriation was witnessed equally in the urban areas of the city. A large number of Mexicans were forcefully deported from all the major cities of Texas. The most affected cities included were the San Antonio, El Paso, Houston, and Dallas-Fort Worth. The Mexicans living in the urban areas were employed as seasonal or permanent employees in labor-intensive industries before the Great Depression. The Great Depression made them jobless and they were among the first discharged and deported. The Mexican population showed resistance in the beginning, they were not ready to leave their homes in Texas, because there was a large number of American born Mexicans in the countries and they believe themselves as American citizens rather than Mexicans. But they left United States when their savings were ended and they could not find any job and the government officials were determined to send them to Mexico. Urban Mexican population faced more threat from the Federal agencies and Immigration Service deportation agencies and they were sent to Mexico forcefully. There was an intense local anti-Mexican campaign in the cities, which shows that Americans believe them the cause of their sufferings in Great Depression. The Mexicans living in the city were involved in different professions and few own their commercial enterprises and they were severely harmed by the depression. The effects of the depression on Mexican businesses were possibly highest at El Paso, where a large number of commercial enterprises closed (Samora, 1977. page No. 201). Many of the owners were forced to return to Mexico. Many of the repatriates returned to their homeland in good financial conditions. They own their own vehicles, and have their own farm equipments and tools (Acuna, 2000, Page No. 102). Many of them were having their livestock with them. They took their furniture, household goods, and other stuff with them. But there was less money with them and this was the reason why they could not start their work as a farmer in Mexico. The Mexicans involved in business lacked money, which they need to start a new business in their homeland. A lot of their belongings were of such little monetary value that they could not be sell and like this they came to know the worth of the stuff they had. And the condition was such worse for them that they could not pay for petrol and registration for their vehicles and the charges of its repairs. The Mexican Repatriation was started as an attempt to improve the financial problems of the country, which was suffering from the Great Depression and the citizens of United States were blaming the large number of immigrants for their sufferings. Though the Mexicans living in El Paso, used to cross the border freely for decades but this massive deportation was not what they want. The number of people is supposed to be in a million or two. And this includes a large number of people who were born in America and have never seen Mexico in their entire lives. The raids by the government agencies and officials were made in order to scare Mexicans to leave the country. Not only illegal immigrants left but also the legal immigrants, and the officials destroyed their legal papers and permits for work. This added in the misery of these people. The Mexican people were doing a lot of jobs in United States which the native Americans were not willing to do and this does not put a negative effect on Mexicans but also on United States. Works Cited Acuna, Rodolfo, "Occupied America a History of Chicanos", New York NY. Addison Wesley Longman, 2000. Page No. 102 Balderrana, Francisco E., "Decade of Betrayal Mexican Repatriation in the 1930's", Alburquerque, NM, University of New Mexico Press. 2006. Page no. 201 Barrera, Mario, "Action Research in Defense of the Bariio", Los Angeles Aztlan Publications, 1974. Page No. 21 Blea, Irene, "Toward a Chicano Social Science", New York, NY, Praeger Publishers. 1988. Page No. 99 Burma, John H. "Mexican-American in the United States", Cambridge, MA, Schenkman Publishing Co Inc, 1970. Page No. 192 Cafferty, San Juan, "Hispanics in the United States", New Brunswick, NJ, Transactions Publishers, 2000. Page No. 321 Hoffman, Abraham, "Unwanted Mexican Americans in the Great Depression Repatriation Pressures 1929-1939", Tucson, Arizona. University of Arizona Press. Page No. 82 Lopez Sedillo, Antoinette, "Historical Thems and Identity", New York NY, Garland Publishing, Inc., 1995 Page No. 210 Meier, Matt S., "Bibliography of Mexican American History", Westport, CT, Greenwood Press. Page No. 108 Samora, Julian, "A History of the Mexican-American People", Notre Dame, IN, University of Notre Dame Press, 1977. page No. 201 Read More