began with the collapse of the stock mar-
ket on Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929,
affected all Americans. But it was partic-
ularly hard on two groups: those at the
bottom of the economic ladder and those
who could be scapegoated by virtue of
their race or ethnicity. Mexican
Americans were in both groups. Amer-
ican employers who had encouraged
Mexicans to immigrate when times were
good no longer offered work to immi-
grants, leaving them without means of
subsistence when times were bad.
Meanwhile, Anglo-American workers,
themselves in dire straits, turned against
Mexican Americans more ardently than
ever, regarding them as unwelcome com-
petitors for government aid and scarce
jobs. The result was the Mexican
Repatriation Program, in which hundreds
of thousands of Mexican Americans were
sent back to Mexico—some forcibly,
against their civil rights as U.S. citizens.
Those Hispanic Americans who
remained behind benefited from
President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal
programs, but often to a lesser degree
than did Anglo-Americans. As of 1937,
noncitizens, including many Hispanics,
were barred from receiving government
aid. Even so, Roosevelt has historically
been popular among Hispanics. Even
more important to the people of
Hispanic-American countries than his
social legislation in the United States was
his Good Neighbor Policy, which
reversed, at least temporarily, some of the
excesses of American jingoism, or overly
blatant nationalism, toward Latin
America of previous decades. Ever since
Roosevelt’s distant cousin and fellow
president Theodore Roosevelt had enun-
ciated what became known as the
Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe
Doctrine, when he stated that the United
States would excercise “an international
police power” in the Americas, the
United States had frequently sent military
troops into Latin America to enforce
U.S. will. Under the Good Neighbor
policy, the United States promised to
respect the rights of Latin Americans.
To cope with the Great Depression,
the Hispanic-American labor movement,
already in place in the late 1920s, grew
more powerful and vocal, as did organized
Hispanic-American demands for equal
rights with other Americans. Hispanic-
American organizations that fought in the1930s for better working conditions and
civil rights included the Confederation of
Mexican Workers and the League of
United Latin American Citizens. Heroes
of the struggle included labor leader Luisa
Moreno and U.S. senator Dennis Chávez.
Chávez became the first Hispanic mem-
ber of the U.S. Congress when he was
elected to represent New Mexico in 1934.
As the Senate’s only Hispanic, he fought
hard against ethnic and racial discrimina-
tion in the workplace and elsewhere and
championed better conditions for Puerto
Rico in the 1940s. The Guatemalan-born
Moreno began life in the United States as
a seamstress in New York City sweat-
shop. The miserable conditions there led
her to become one of the first Hispanic
labor organizers. During her career, she
would organize cigar factory workers in
New York, Pennsylvania, and Florida, and
pecan processing workers in Texas. Often
consulting with Dennis Chávez, she trav-
eled the nation, visiting colonias and bar-
rios and talking to mutualista members.Depression and
RepatriationThe Great Depression accomplished what
years of increasing legal restrictions
against Mexican immigration had not: it
reversed the flow of immigration between
the United States and Mexico. In the
early 1930s, more people of Mexican
descent returned to Mexico than moved
to the United States. Many did so volun-
tarily, but many—even those with U.S.
citizenship—were bullied into leaving
through means both legal and illegal in a
distinctly anti-immigrant and anti-
Mexican climate. For many Anglo-
Americans the rationale was clear: why
should they share scarce jobs and govern-
ment relief with “foreigners”?
Enforcement of immigration laws
was tightened, preventing new Mexican
immigration into the United States. Un-
documented workers were found and
deported through aggressive raids
on Mexican-American communities.
Employers, faced with a glut of workers,
preferred to hire unemployed Anglo-
Americans over Mexican Americans.
Meanwhile, laws were passed to establish
the same preference for government jobs:
California, for example, passed a law in
1931 prohibiting aliens from employment150 ATLAS OF HISPANIC-AMERICAN HISTORY