Hispanic American movement in the U.S.; Cesar Chavez; immigration reform

• Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo (1848) - treaty that ended the Mexican-American War - Mexico lost 1/3 of its land to the USA, ceding what are now TX, NM, AZ, CA, and parts of UT and CO. Over 100,000 Mexican citizens become USA citizens - these people were GUARANTEED full citizenship rights under the USA constitution

• Chicano - Persons of Mexican descent - activists that drove the civil rights struggles in 1960s/70s and beyond

• Aztlan - mythical homeland of Mexican People (SW USA)

• Mendez v. Westminster (1946)

• Mendez sent his kids to school at the main school in their area

• the kids had to go to a different school in a different district along with every other Mexican or Mexican-American student

• Mendez argued that this segregation was against the 14th amendments equal protection clause

• they didn’t argue that racial segregation was bad bc Plessy v Ferguson was still in effect and bc “Mexicans are apart of the white race”

• Hernandez v. Texas (1954)

• Hernandez was sentenced to life in prison for a murder

• the jury during his case were all white

• Hernandez claimed special class but was denied bc “Mexicans are white”

• Hernandez won at supreme court bc 14th protects beyond 2 classes

• SCOTUS decides Hispanic Americans can NOT be prohibited from serving on juries in TX

• Hart-Cellar Act of 1965

• Established the modern immigration laws we still have

• Replaces the 1924 Immigration law (Johnson-Reed Act) based on a system of quotas - most were being given to the norther (white…) European countries

• Replaced the quota system with 2 priorities for immigration

  • family relationships - keeping families together

  • Skilled workers - based on economic needs in the USA

• the authors of the law and representatives who passed of STRONGLY DENIED that it would explode immigration numbers

• They saw this law as an extension of the other Civil Rights laws being passed - that it would correct the old, racist quota system

• This law does result in a MAJOR shift in immigrants’ home countries - it EXPLODED the numbers coming from Asia and Latin America

• La Raza Unida

• political party firmed in Texas (started in Crystal City) in 1970

• Goals? simple. to elect Hispanic-Americans to all levels of government

• after initially strong showings in local and state elections, the party floundered and essentially dissolved as a political entity in the late 1970s

• in the following decades, awareness groups using the same name sprang up all over the USA -

• Brown Berets & Young Chicanos

• a militant youth-based organization started in California in the 1960s by David Sanchez and others

• modeled on and allied with the BLACK PANTHER PART FOR SELF DEFENSE

• like the BPP, this is a community services organization - ran health clinics, fed children, and advocated for bilingual education after staging a school walkout in Los Angeles, attendance and enrollment amount Hispanic-Americans rose 1800%

• The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)

• founded in 1929 - oldest and most respected Hispanic civil rights organization in USA

• sued Orange County School System fro segregation & worked on Hernandez v Texas

• is still an active member in this space doing things like scholarships, voter registration, and seminars

• it was created my merging together multiple Mexican-American organizations to have a more united and powerful front

• one of the first national organizations that put an emphasis on the role of women

• Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales - more aligned with the nonviolent aspect of the CRM, had a background in organizing for the Democratic party in Denver, CO - founder of Crusade for Justice - also wrote the inspirational poem “I Am Joaquin”

• Ruben Salazar- Veteran who went to college on the GI Bill, reporter and columnist for the LA Times, the only real voice for the Hispanic-American CRM in the mainstream media, died under suspicious circumstances at the hands of LAPD on the Chicano Moratorium March - August 1970

• Cesar Chavez - experienced injustice at a young age, became a migrant farm worker out of financial necessity for the family, then became an organizer in the 1950s for the community services organization (CSO) - an early farm workers rights group, eventually forms the UFW with Huerta

• Delores Huerta - Co-founder and chief negotiator for the United Farm Workers (UFW)

• Reies Lopez Tijerina -born in TX 1926

• most of “four horsemen” to be involved in grassroots organizing and was militant (Malcom X of his movement)

• created Federal Alliance of Land Grants in NM

  • to reclaim ownership of what was originally Mexican land using the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo

• reclaimed part of national forest reserve and took over a courthouse

• went to jail a lot

• United Farm Workers (UFW)

  • Origins?

    • The WWII era “Bracero Program” - was extended decades after the war ended

  • PL 78?

    • Forbids growers from replacing any American worker with a “Bracero”

    • Growers abused the Bracero Program, ignoring PL - 78

  • Demands?

    • in addition to better pay and working conditions, a series of organizers in hthe 1950s argued for:

      • an end to the Bracero Program - it is ended in 1964

      • LEGAL PROTECTION - to force the growers to recognize the union through COLLECTIVE BARGAINING

  • Tactics / Strategies?

    • LA HUELGA! (Spanish word for strike) stated by Filipino workers in Coachella, joined by the UFW in Delano in 1965

    • companies / growers use “scabs” - temporary workers and injunctions to limit the UFW successes

    • after corporations used strike breakers (scabs) to continue the harvest, the UFW started a nationwide boycott of grapes

    • Teatro Campesino - a group of Chincano activists that staged skits to educate about the farm workers struggle

  • Successes?

    • some success in getting better contracts from 1960 to 1970

    • 1970- most growers negotiate with the UFW and are able to get “the stamp”

    • 1975 - California Labor Relations Act (CALRA) passes - farm workers unions are now protected by law