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For Mexican workers in Texas, industrialization meant worsening economic conditions and widespread discrimination. In this ground-breaking work, the author challenges the stereotypical view of Mexican workers as passive and describes their efforts to organize their own labor. Book jacket.
The primary purpose of this study was to present the little-discussed Mexican and Mexican-American labor contribution to the economic development of the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas between 1870 and 1930. Special attention was given to their efforts in the citrus industry which became a major enterprise. Immigration laws, local and national Anglo attitudes and their effects on this numerous and apparently submissive people were discussed in length. Due credit has been given to the Burgos, Tamaulipas, residents who came to the Valley before, during, and after the Mexican Revolution in search of stability and better wages. In spite of the abuses they suffered some of them decided to stay. Their children (now Mexican-Americans), are still contributing to the citrus industry today, although not in the strenuous way their parents did. The various attempts which were made to develop the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas prior to the coming of the railroad in 1904 were all but futile. This situation, however, did not restrain Anglo businessmen from coming to the region in search of prosperity. They saw its potential if the available resources were properly tapped. The combination of inexpensive Valley land and cheap Mexican and Mexican-American labor attracted entrepreneurs to the area. They bought brushlands, had them cleared, and started irrigation projects in preparation for the crops they experimented with. Although not all Anglos prospered it was not because of the labor force they employed, but rather, to some extent, because of the poor transportation system available. They employed Mexicans and Mexican-Americans for all types of work. With the coming of modern transportation the Valley broke its economic isolation and in the process everyone benefited: Anglos from the use of cheap labor and Mexicans and Mexican-Americans from jobs which had previously been non-existent. The Valley owes a tremendous debt to those businessmen with foresight who encouraged the construction of a railroad line through the Valley and built irrigation systems, but the greatest debt for its success, as presented in this work, is owed to the Mexicans and Mexican-Americans.
In the early years of the twentieth century, newcomer farmers and migrant Mexicans forged a new world in South Texas. In just a decade, this vast region, previously considered too isolated and desolate for large-scale agriculture, became one of the United States' most lucrative farming regions and one of its worst places to work. By encouraging mass migration from Mexico, paying low wages, selectively enforcing immigration restrictions, toppling older political arrangements, and periodically immobilizing the workforce, growers created a system of labor controls unique in its levels of exploitation. Ethnic Mexican residents of South Texas fought back by organizing and by leaving, migrating to destinations around the United States where employers eagerly hired them--and continued to exploit them. In From South Texas to the Nation, John Weber reinterprets the United States' record on human and labor rights. This important book illuminates the way in which South Texas pioneered the low-wage, insecure, migration-dependent labor system on which so many industries continue to depend.
Inspired by a 1968 U.S. Commission on Civil Rights six-day hearing in San Antonio that introduced the Mexican American people to the rest of the nation, this book is an examination of the social change of Mexican Americans of Texas over the past half century. The San Antonio hearing included 1,502 pages of testimony, given by more than seventy witnesses, which became the baseline twenty experts used to launch their research on Mexican American civil rights issues during the following fifty years. These experts explored the changes in demographics and policies with regard to immigration, voting rights, education, employment, economic security, housing, health, and criminal justice. While there are a number of anecdotal historical accounts of Mexican Americans in Texas, this book adds an evidence-based examination of racial and ethnic inequalities and changes over the past half century. The contributors trace the litigation on behalf of Latinos and other minorities in state and federal courts and the legislative changes that followed, offering public policy recommendations for the future. The fact that this study is grounded in Texas is significant, as it was the birthplace of a majority of Chicano civil rights efforts and is at the heart of Mexican American growth and talent, producing the first Mexican American in Congress, the first Mexican American federal judge, and the first Mexican American candidate for president. As the largest ethnic group in the state, Latinos will continue to play a major role in the future of Texas.
A well-documented account of the sources, extent, and consequences of poverty among a group of Americans largely neglected by social scientists, public policy, and the media. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR