MEXICAN AMERICANS AND PUERTO RICANS

1. MEXICAN AMERICANS AND PUERTO RICANS CHAPTER 10

2. Mexican Americans • Legacy of war created America’s two largest Hispanic minorities • Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans • The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, February 2, 1848 • Under the treaty the new Americans were guaranteed rights to property and their cultural traditions. • The loss of land and the lack of legal protection after the treaty

3. US gained Texas, California, Arizona, ad New Mexico for $15 million • In exchange, US granted citizenship to 75,000 Mexican nationals • Guaranteed • Religious freedom • Property rights • Cultural integrity • Right to continue Mexican and Spanish cultural traditions and to use the Spanish language • Land conflict between Anglo ranchers and Mexican-American ranchers • Mexican-Americans became outsiders in their own land

4. The Immigrant Experience • Immigration from Mexico is unique in several respects • Continuous large-scale movement for most of this century • Proximity of Mexico encourages past immigrants to maintain strong cultural and language ties • Aura of illegality that surrounded Mexican migrants • Suspicion of Anglos toward Mexicans contributed to mutual distrust

5. Mexican immigration has been tied closely to the economies of Mexico and the United States • US corporations invested in Mexico in a way that maximized profits but minimized money remaining in Mexico to provide needed employment • Mexican workers are used as cheap laborers in their own country by fellow Mexicans and Americans or as undocumented workers here

6. Repatriation • Program of deporting Mexicans during depression of 1930s • Constitutional because only illegal aliens were to be deported • Many classified as illegal had resided in US for decades • Braceros • Program between Mexico and US allowing migration across border by contracted laborers • Mexicans regarded as positive presence when useful

7. Operation Wetback and Special Force Operation (1954) • Crackdown on illegal aliens • Mojados • Derisive slang for Mexicans who enter illegally and refers to those who secretly swim across Rio Grande • The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) • Expressed concern over handling of illegal aliens

8. The Economic Picture • Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans • Higher unemployment rates, higher rates of poverty, and significantly lower incomes than Whites • The Culture of Poverty • Embraces a deviant way of life that involves no future planning, no enduring commitment to marriage, and absence of work ethic • Developed by Oscar Lewis • Cultural traits as the cause of poverty • Blaming the victim • Used indiscriminately to explain continued poverty

9. César Chavez • Formed National Farm Workers Association • Became United Farm Workers (UFW) • Difficulties of organizing migrant farm workers • No savings for organizing or to live on while on strike • Growers relied on limitless supply of Mexican laborers to replace strikers • Opposition by agribusiness and lawmakers • 70% lack health insurance and make less than $10,000/year

10. Political Organizations • La Raza Unida (LRU) • Pride in one’s Spanish, Native American and Mexican heritage. • Supported candidates who offer alternatives to the Democratic and Republican parties • Chicanismo (Chicanozaje) • Stress a positive self-image and place little reliance on conventional forms of political activity

11. Reies Lopez Tijerina (1963) • Formed the Alianza Federal de Mercedes (Federal Alliance of Land Grants) • Purpose of the organization was to recover lost land • Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) 1967 • Pursue issues through the courts and protect Mexican Americans’ constitutional rights • Addressed segregation, biased testing, inequities in school financing, and failure to promote bilingualism

12. Puerto Ricans • Borinquen (Puerto Rico) claimed by Spain in 1493 • Native inhabitants, Taino Indians • Reduced in number by conquest, slavery, and genocide • Puerto Rico was annexed by the United States from Spain after the the Spanish-American War of 1898 • Puerto Rico has been a United States colony since 1898 (Commonwealth Status since 1948) • Puerto Ricans have been subjected to bureaucratic (Political) control by the United States

13. Colonization of Puerto Ricans • Politically, then culturally, and finally economically • Jones Act of 1917 • Citizenship extended to Puerto Ricans • Remained a colony • 1948 • Elected its own governor and became a commonwealth • Cannot vote in presidential elections and have no voting representations • Subject to military service, Selective Service registration, and all federal laws

14. The Bridge Between the Island and the Mainland • Despite citizenship, occasionally challenged by immigration officials • Other Latin Americans attempt to enter country posing as Puerto Ricans • Push and pull factors led to migration from the Island to the mainland • Underdeveloped and overpopulated island, absence of legal restrictions, growth of cheap air transportation, and Puerto Rican communities (New York City) on the mainland

15. Neoricans • Term the islanders use for Puerto Ricans in New York • Better educated and have more money than Puerto Ricans from the Island • Often resented by long time Islanders • Now more dispersed throughout the mainland • Sizable numbers in New Jersey, Illinois, Florida, California, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut

16. The Island of Puerto Rico • Original inhabitants, Taino Indians, wiped out in a couple of generations • Disease, tribal warfare, hard labor, unsuccessful rebellions against the Spanish, and fusion with their conquerors • Neocolonialism • Refers to continuing dependence of former colonies on foreign countries • English and Spanish are the official languages

17. Statehood and Self-Rule • Puerto Ricans periodically argued and fought for independence • Contemporary commonwealth arrangement is popular with many, others prefer statehood, and some call for complete independence from the US • Idea of statehood invokes fear of higher taxes, erosion of cultural heritage, end of separate participation in Olympics and Miss Universe pageant • Commonwealth supporters argue too many unknown costs, so embrace status quo • Others view statehood as key to increased economic development and expansion for tourism

18. Arguments for and against independence • Probably economic • Independent Puerto Rico would not be required to use US shipping lines, more expensive than foreign competitors • Independent Puerto Rico might be faced with a tariff wall when trading with its largest customer, the mainland US • Puerto Rican migration to mainland would be restricted • 50% favor commonwealth; 47% backed statehood; less than 3% favor independence • Discontent remains a “colonial dilemma”

19. Social Construction of Race • Color Gradient • Describes distinctions based on skin color made on a continuum rather than by sharp categorical separations • Reflects past fusion between different groups • Rather than being “black” or “white”, such societies judge as “lighter” or “darker” than others • On the Island factors such as social class determine race • On the mainland race is more likely to determine social class

20. The Island Economy • Overall economy well below that of poorest areas of the US • Federal government exempted US industries in Puerto Rico from taxes on profits for at least 10 years • Enterprise Zones • Federal program that grants tax incentives to promote private investment in inner cities • Extended to Puerto Rico • Island’s agriculture ignored and economic benefits to the island are limited • Business profits returned to the mainland

21. Unemployment is three times that of mainland • Per capita income is less than half of Mississippi, the poorest state • Puerto Rico emerging as major gateway to US for illegal drugs from South America • World Systems Theory • View of the global economic system as divided between certain industrialized nations that control wealth and developing countries that are controlled and exploited

22. Major factors in Puerto Rico’s economy • Tourism • Government subsidies encouraged construction of luxury hotels • Criticisms • Major economic beneficiaries are investors from the mainland not locals • High prices prevent less affluent from visiting, unnecessarily restricting tourism • NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) • Reduction of trade barriers and its lower wages undercut Puerto Rico’s commonwealth advantage • Other island nations compete for tourist dollars

23. The Contemporary Picture of Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans • Education • Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans experienced gains in formal schooling but still lag behind Whites • 1968 – 55% of all Hispanics attended predominantly minority schools • 30 years later, increased to 76% • Over 1/3rd of Latinos in schools that were at least 90% non-White

24. 3 factors of increasing social isolation of Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans • Latinos are increasingly concentrated in largest cities where minorities dominate • Latino numbers increased dramatically since 1970’s when school desegregation began to lose momentum • Schools once desegregated have become re-segregated • Tracking • Practice of placing students in specific classes or curriculum based on test scores and other criteria

25. Family Life • Most important organization or social institution among Latinos or any group • Structure differs little from that of all families in US • Familism • Means pride and closeness in the family, which results in family obligation and loyalty coming before individual needs • Expected to decline in importance with urbanization, industrialization, and acquisition of middle-class status • Display variety of American family in general while suffering higher levels of poverty

26. Health Care • Life Chances limited for Latinos • People’s opportunities to provide themselves with material goods, positive living conditions, and favorable life experiences • Hispanics as a group are locked out of health care system more often than any other racial or ethnic group • Complicated by lack of Hispanic health care professionals • Curanderismo • Latino folk medicine, form of holistic health care and healing • Culture makes them less likely to use medical system

27. Religion • Predominantly Catholic • Church took assimilationist role in past • Recently, more community oriented • Hispanic population growth important for the church • Some churches starting to accommodate observances of Mexican rituals • Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) • Pentecostalism • Type of evangelical Christianity growing in Latin America

28. QUESTIONS

29. In what respects has Mexico been viewed as a source of workers and a place to leave unwanted laborers?

30. Using the functionalist perspective, will the current exploitation of Mexican labor in Mexico by American corporations and the Mexican government eventually lead to an improved economy and living conditions for Mexicans? Explain your answer.

31. In what respects are Hispanic families similar to and different from Anglo households?

32. How does Chicanismo relate to the issue of Hispanic identity?

33. How does the case of Puerto Rico support the notion of race as a social concept?

34. What role does religion play in the Latino community?

35. Churches have become reliant on the growing Latino population to replenish their congregations. Based on the changes in religious values currently noted in American culture, will the religiosity of Latinos remain the same as they assimilate more into American culture? Explain your answer.