relationship of mistrust between the both
legal and illegal Mexican immigrants and
the government agency that was charged
with enforcing immigration policy.
Once in the United States, Mexican
Americans faced considerable prejudice
and ill treatment. Most of the immigrants
were poor farmers or laborers who could
not read or write. Anglo business owners
saw them as cheap sources of labor whom
they could pay far less than white work-
ers. For example, an Anglo wagon driver
in the 1920s might be paid $4.50 a day,
while a Mexican would get just $2.50.
Anglo workers resented Mexican workers
since they feared they would take their
jobs, and therefore Mexicans were
banned from joining Anglo unions.
The Mexican-American community
coped in various ways: by developing self-
help organizations, such as mutualistas
and their own labor unions; by maintain-
ing close family ties; and by keeping alive
a sense of Mexican cultural dignity.
Hispanic Americans
and World War IWorld War I (1914–1918) had been rag-
ing for three years when the United States
joined the struggle of the Allied Powers,
which included Britain, France, Russia,
and Serbia, against the Central Powers,
which comprised Germany, Austria-
Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and
Bulgaria. On April 6, 1917, the United
States declared war on Germany, in
response to German submarine attacks
and to the “Zimmermann note,” an inter-
cepted telegram from German foreign
minister Arthur Zimmermann that pro-
posed a German-Mexican alliance against
the United States, with Mexico to win
back its lost territories in Texas, New
Mexico, and Arizona. Though unprepared
for war, with an active U.S. Army of only
about 200,000 men, the United States
quickly mobilized, instituting a draft and
building up an army of nearly 4 million, 2
million of whom served overseas in the
American Expeditionary Force (AEF).
The AEF first landed in France on June
14, 1917, at first in small numbers, later in
great ones, until the war ended with an
Allied victory on November 11, 1918.
Whether they were U.S. citizens or
merely intended to become citizens,
Hispanic males aged 21–31 in the United
States were required to register for the
draft like all other American males of
that age group, in accordance with the
Selective Service Act of May 1917. The
people of Puerto Rico, who had only just
been made U.S. citizens through the
Jones Act of March 1917, were subject to
the draft just like their fellow Hispanics
on the mainland.
Some Mexican Americans fled to
Mexico to avoid the draft, but for many
others the war was an opportunity to
prove their patri-otism. The Zimmer-
mann note, combined with old-fashioned
anti-Mexican prejudice, had made many
Anglo-Americans suspicious of Mexican-
American loyalty. The Justice Department
spied on the Mexican- American commu-
nity in Los Angeles, which they suspected
of having been infiltrated by German
agents. In Texas vigilante groups harassed
and murdered Mexican Americans for
their alleged German sympathies.
Newspapers warned of the “bronze men-
ace.” The slur was proven wrong by the
fact that Mexican Americans volunteered
to serve in World War I in proportionate-
ly larger numbers than the U.S. popula-
tion as a whole.
Many Hispanic Americans were sent
to Camp Cody, New Mexico, where those
unable to speak English found theirTHE AGE OF WORLD WARS 141The cards arrived
at home for each one,
verifying the registration
those twenty-one to thirty-one.Goodbye, Laredo, highlighted
by your towers and bells,
but we shall never forget
your beautiful Mexican women.They are taking us to fight
in some distant land,
and taking us to fight
the German troops.They are taking us to fight
in distinct directions,
and taking us to fight
with different nations.How far is the journey
over the waves!
Great will be my pleasure
if I will triumph.When I was fighting
I would remember everybody,
and more of my poor mother
who cried so much for me.Goodbye, dear parents,
and the lady I love,
when we are in France
a sigh we will send you.Goodbye, Laredo, highlighted
by your towers and bells,
but we shall never forget
your beautiful Mexican women.GOODBYE, LAREDO
Tejanos drafted to fight in World War I sang a Spanish song called “Registro de 1918”
(“Registration 1918”), so called for the draft registration cards they had received. Here
are the translated lyrics, which include a sad farewell to Laredo, Texas: