(CUOM), founded in 1928, was notable
for its broad aims, which included organ-
ization of all Mexican-American workers
and wage parity with Anglo workers.
Despite some successes of the
Mexican-American labor movement in the
early 20th century, such as the strike
against the Portland Cement Company in
Colton, California, in 1917, Mexican
Americans often had an antagonistic rela-
tionship with organized labor. Anglo labor
leaders were among those pressing for
immigration restrictions, arguing that
Mexicans depressed wages and under-
mined strikes by accepting low wages.
Indeed, it was a common employer prac-
tice to import workers from Mexico as
strike-breakers—a strategy used, for exam-
ple, to end a strike organized by the
Western Federation of Miners in the
Colorado coalfields in 1904. However, the
pace of Mexican-American labor organiz-
ing accelerated after 1929. That was the
year the nation’s prosperity ended and the
Great Depression began, throwing
Mexican Americans into economic dis-
tress and persuading many Anglos that it
was time to send them back to Mexico.
A TAPESTRY OF
HISPANIC AMERICANS:
THE 1920S AND 1930SThe Mexican-American community was
by far the largest subgroup of Hispanic
Americans in the early 20th century, as it
is today. But other Hispanic communities
also developed at this time, taking distinc-
tive shape in the 1920s and 1930s. These
included Puerto Rican Americans, cen-
tered in New York City with strong ties
to their island homeland; Cuban
Americans, driven to the United States by
the political turmoil at home; and Spanish
Americans, whose increasing immigra-
tion numbers in the 1930s were testimo-
ny to the traumatic consequences of the
bloody Spanish Civil War.
Puerto Rican Americans
Since the 19th century, when it housed
Puerto Rican patriots against Spanish
rule, New York City had been the chief
refuge for Puerto Rican émigrés. It
remained so in the early 20th century,
when Puerto Ricans migrated there
mainly for economic rather than political
reasons. Before World War II few Puerto
Ricans lived in the United States, but the
rate of population growth was rapid. In
1910 only 1,513 Puerto Ricans lived in
the entire mainland United States; by
1940, 69,967 lived there—or 46 times as
many. Most Puerto Rican immigrants
were concentrated in New York City,
where 61,462 (87.8 percent) of the 1940
mainland population lived. However,
small Puerto Rican satellite communities
existed throughout the United States,
many of them founded by veterans ofTHE AGE OF WORLD WARS 147Mainland Population of Puerto Ricans
in the United States and in New York CityPercentage of Mainland U.S. Puerto Ricans Living in
New York City