Atlas of Hispanic-American History

on public works projects. Responding to
encouragement from President Herbert
Hoover’s administration, local govern-
ment and private agencies across the
country organized repatriation programs
to send Mexican Americans back to
Mexico. Though the programs were
designed for aliens, documented and
undocumented, in the atmosphere of

intolerance even U.S. citizens were intim-

idated or forced into being repatriated.

The Hoover Administration used

many means to persuade Mexican

Americans to accept deportation. First,

the government tried to convince

Mexicans to leave voluntarily. Second, the

U.S. Immigration Service began rounding

up those immigrants who did not wish to

THE AGE OF WORLD WARS 151

Mexican Repatriation in the 1930s

To deal with the rapid influx of repatriates from the United States, the Mexican government set up resettlement camps throughout

Mexico. The camps functioned as agricultural colonies. Although the exact failure rate of these colonies is not known, many did fail,

forcing returnees to travel from camp to camp, to look for work in Mexico’s cities, or even to try to return to the United States. The

map above illustrates the repatriates’ main points of origin in the United States and the regions of Mexico they returned to. The

width of arrows signifies the relative numbers of repatriates headed for each destination.