or electricity—and often with bread and
beans as their only food.
The work was largely seasonal and
migratory. When one crop was picked,
the laborers moved by automobile or
truck to another field, and then another,
often traveling great distances each year.
The workers were often recruited
through a middleman, the labor con-
tractor (called in Spanish a contratista or
enganchista), who was engaged by a
grower to supply truckloads of workers
for a fixed fee per head. Both contractors
and growers were famous for cheating
and exploiting workers, withholding
wages on various pretexts and supplying
food, water, and other necessities at exor-
bitant prices.
Low wages meant that whole fami-
lies had to work to make ends meet.
Child labor laws and compulsory school
attendance were routinely ignored as
children joined their parents to labor in
the field. Those children who did try
to get educations had to change
schools often. César Chávez, who
later became the most prominent labor
leader for farmworkers, attended 36
different schools as a migrant worker
growing up in the Great Depression,
with eighth grade as his last year of
formal education.
In addition to hardships in the work-
place, Mexican Americans faced contin-
ued persecution on account of their
ethnicity. In Texas there were many
instances of lynching and mob violence
against Mexican Americans, including
the excesses of the Texas Rangers, who so
terrified the community that the Spanish
word rinche (ranger) was used to fright-
en children into behaving. By 1920 the
Ku Klux Klan was vigorously persecuting
Mexican Americans in southwestern
mining camps.
Despite the migratory character of
Mexican-American labor, settled com-
munities of Mexican Americans began to
spring up. Laborers often established a
colonia, or colony, close to the farms,
mines, or railroads where they worked.
Along railroad lines, a colonia of boxcars
and shacks arose at regular intervals
along the tracks being laid by Mexican
Americans. Some of these settlements
developed into lasting communities.
Within cities, Mexican Americans
usually lived in a barrio, or neighbor-
hood, a section of a city predominantly
populated by Hispanics. Two forces drew
Mexican Americans into barrios: the
comfort of living with people who spoke
the same language and shared the same
culture; and Anglo-American segrega-
tion practices, which often forced
Mexican Americans to settle in ghettos
away from Anglo areas whether they
wanted to or not.
Yet despite such growing settle-
ments, Mexican Americans retained
strong ties to their homeland. Unlike
European immigrants, who endured an
arduous and expensive ocean voyage to
come to the United States and generally
expected never to return, Mexican immi-
grants had only to cross a border to go
home. Many were not permanent resi-
dents but temporary ones, sojourners or
commuters who worked in the United
States during harvesting season and
returned home to Mexico in the winter.
Some intended to stay temporarily but
unexpectedly put down roots and stayed
permanently, though with enduring
bonds to their homeland. Family ties are
important in Mexican culture, as they are
for many Hispanics, and regular visits
kept the ties alive.
The effect was that Mexican culture
thrived even within the United States.
New immigrants, permanent and tempo-
rary, were constantly arriving and
reminding more settled Mexican
Americans of the old language and the
old ways. Mexican customs and holidays,
including the Cinco de Mayo celebra-
tions, also reminded Mexican Americans
of their roots. In a tough environment
where Anglos regularly exploited and
persecuted them, cultural bonds con-
soled and energized Mexican Americans.
On the other hand, those very bonds
accentuated the language and cultural
differences between Anglos and Mexican
Americans, giving nativist Anglos yet
another charge to lob at them; as one
federal report put it, they had low
“assimilative qualities.”The Mutualistas
and Labor StrugglesOne tradition Mexican immigrants
brought with them from their homeland
was that of mutualistas, or mutual aid
societies. These local self-help groups,
first developed in the Southwest duringTHE AGE OF WORLD WARS 145“There should exist
something greater... that
will speak higher of us as
women, wives, and as
Mexicans—that is the
betterment of our people,
all for country and home.”—Carolina Munguia, cofounder
of Círculo Social Feminino de
México, a women’s group
dedicated to help people of
Mexican origin, 1939