本月长RC墨西哥社区的背景论文,我试着贴出来

toward social diversification
The Mexican-origin community increased in size over time and became a
significant ethnic minority group by the second decade of the twentieth
century. Mexicans settled in compact residential neighborhoods separated
Copyright 2001. Published by Texas A&M University Press
Sample Pages
Brown, Not White
from each other by a variety of obstacles and established distinct barrios
that were differentially affected by mainstream and ethnic institutions.
Prior to 1880 there was no significant Mexican presence in Houston.2
This changed by the latter part of the nineteenth century. Between 1880
and 1930 the Mexican-origin population increased from around seventyfive
to fifteen thousand. During the next three decades it grew by an additional
sixty thousand.3 With the exception of one decade from 1930 to
1940, the history of the Mexican-origin population has been one of explosive
growth. Despite this growth, these people continued to constitute a
small minority of the total population group. Mexican-origin individuals
constituted only 2 percent of the total population in 1910; 5 percent in 1930;
and slightly over 10 percent in 1960.4
Immigration from Mexico accounted for most of the population increase,
since during the first several decades of this century the Houston
economy attracted the vast majority of them to the city. The railroads
and urban development between 1890 and 1910, the opening of the ship
channel, the discovery of oil in the early decades of the twentieth century,
and post–World War II economic expansion created an increased need for
cheap labor. This labor force was provided by Mexican immigrants who
were pushed out of Mexico by social, economic, and political developments.
Primary among these were land displacement policies caused by
Porfirio Díaz’s economic policies in the latter part of the nineteenth century,
political conflicts associated with the Mexican Revolution, and religious
conflict during the Cristero Rebellions of the 1920s. Thus, between
1880 and 1930 large numbers of landless peasants, political exiles, and religious
exiles left Mexico in search of better opportunities. After 1940 poverty
and dire economic conditions encouraged Mexicans to leave their
country, and many of them immigrated to Houston.5
Mexican-origin individuals residing in rural communities throughout
Texas also moved to the city.6 They were part of a larger urbanization process
that began in the early decades of the twentieth century and increased
after World War II.7
Immigration was the result of a process of chain migration in which individual
immigrants encouraged family members or friends to leave Mexico
and then helped them resettle in Houston by finding them housing
and jobs through immigrant networks. This process facilitated immigration
and contributed to the strengthening of family and kinship networks
in the barrios of Houston.8 The examples of Petra Guillén and Mary Villagómez,
both lifelong residents of Houston, are illustrative of this impor-
4 Origins and Development, 1900–60
tant process. Guillén’s family was brought to the barrio in the 1910s by
an uncle who had preceded them. Villagómez, on the other hand, came
to Houston as part of an eleven-member extended family migration. Both
of these families were encouraged to leave Mexico or other parts of Texas
and settle in Houston by a host of relatives and extended family members.
9 Their journey to Houston thus was not as disrupting of family and
cultural traditions as is commonly believed to be the case for many Mexican
Americans.
Prior to 1910 Mexican-origin individuals settled in various parts of the
city. As Arnoldo De León notes, there were no “ethnic enclaves” in Houston
during these years.10 After 1910 barrios began to appear, and the reasons
for settling in these barrios were varied. Racist real estate and bank
policies undoubtedly played a key role in the formation of barrios. Security,
cultural cohesion, sense of community, proximity to work, and affordable
housing also helped the neighborhood take shape.
The first Mexican-origin neighborhoods in the early part of the twentieth
century were El Segundo barrio in the Second Ward and El Crisol in
Denver Harbor. El Crisol was close to the Southern Pacific Railroad yards.
Its name was derived from the Spanish term describing the pungent chemicals
used to preserve railroad ties—creosote.11 El Segundo barrio was located
along Buffalo Bayou a few blocks from the center of town. As early as
1908 a significant number of Mexican-origin individuals began to settle
there, and by the 1920s its population became predominantly Mexican
American.12
Three additional barrios took shape during the second decade of the
twentieth century—the Northside, the Heights, and Magnolia Park. This
latter barrio, southeast of the Second Ward, was located along the ship
channel and became a Mexican neighborhood by the middle of the second
decade.13 By 1930 Magnolia Park became the city’s largest barrio.14 The
Heights was an area to the north of the downtown district that had a sizable
Mexican-origin community by 1920. In the next two decades all of
these barrios expanded as a result of the continuing influx of Mexicanorigin
individuals.15
During the post–World War II period the barrios expanded further.
El Segundo barrio pushed southwest of Commerce Street and extended
into the area known as the old Third Ward. Magnolia Park likewise grew
and eventually merged with El Segundo barrio. The merged communities
came to be recognized as part of the East End barrio.16
In the late 1940s Mexicans settled and formed new barrios in areas away
Diversification and Differentiation 5
from the pre–World War II communities. New ethnic communities were
established in Port Houston, southwest Houston, the Hobby Airport area,
and the Bellaire subdivision. Mexican families likewise settled in the suburbs.
By 1960 barrios could be found in suburbs such as South Houston,
Pasadena, and Galena Park.17
With the formation of the barrios came the establishment of ethnic organizations,
businesses, cultural institutions, and newspapers that helped
to meet the varied social, cultural, economic, and political needs of the
community. Ethnic organizations provided mutual aid, defense of democratic
rights, fraternal companionship, entertainment, and cultural reinforcement.
The first Mexican-origin organization, a patriotic group called
La Junta Patriótica, was founded in Houston in 1907. The following year
a lodge, a chapter of the Woodmen of the World (Los Leñadores del
Mundo, or Haceros), was founded. During the next several decades a host
of mutual aid associations, political clubs, civic groups, and recreational
organizations were established. Organizations such as Cruz Azul, Comisión
Honorífico, and Club Cultural Recreativo “México Bello” became important
sources of community pride and unity.
Most of these organizations during the early part of the century overwhelmingly
stressed “lo mexicano” or, as will be illustrated in chapter 3,
reflected a “Mexicanist” identity. This consciousness was part of immigrants’
experiences and part of their adjustment to life in the United States.
Two examples of community organizations with a Mexicanist orientation
and aimed at maintaining lo mexicano in the United States were the Sociedad
Mutualista Mexicana Benito Juarez and the Club Cultural Recreativo
“México Bello.” The former, established in 1919, was a mutual aid
society that emphasized caring for its members and making life more tolerable
for them in the United Sta tes. It carried the name of an indigenous
Mexican hero and utilized Spanish to conduct business. Similar to others
founded during this period, this organization was not aimed at assimilation.
It did not, as historian Arnoldo De León notes, “display an incipient
Americanization.” Its stress instead was “on Mexican ideals and values.” 18
The second organization, Club Cultural Recreativo “México Bello,”
commonly known as simply México Bello, was one of many cultural and
recreational clubs that stressed Mexican ideals and values. It was also the
most prominent and successful of these types of organizations during
the 1920s and 1930s. Founded in 1924, México Bello tried to fill a void arising
from “nostalgia for their native country.” The central goal of this
6 Origins and Development, 1900–60
group was to preserve and uphold Mexican traditions in the United States
through the presentation of Mexican dramas, picnics, leisure activities,
and dances. “Raza, Patria, e Idioma” (Race, Country, and Language) was
its motto, and green, red, and white were its colors.19
The number of social organizations grew in the post–World War II period.
Unlike immigrant-based groups of the pre-Depression years, the
majority of these post-1930 organizations gave themselves English names,
utilized English as the medium of communication, and geared their activities
toward interacting with U.S. citizens or becoming part of the mainstream.
The baseball team called the Mexican Eagles and social clubs such
as the Merry Makers or the Rolling Steppers are examples of these new
types of organizations. During the 1920s the Mexican Eagles played Anglo-
American teams from across the city and won most of their games. The
Rolling Steppers was a dance club begun by a group of young men who
sponsored citywide dances on a regular basis. It was based out of the Rusk
Settlement House.20
In the 1930s other organizations that reflected the new biculturation
emerged. One of these was El Club Femenino Chapultepec. This organization,
founded in 1931, was made up of young Mexican women from the
several Houston barrios who were born or raised in the United States.
Most of the club’s members were high school graduates, spoke English,
and worked in the Houston Anglo business community. Its purpose was
to promote pride in Mexican culture and in American citizenship. While
the organization participated in various traditional Mexican activities
such as the fiestas patrias, it also participated in more mainstream activities.
Members, for instance, sold government bonds during World War II,
helped the community to distribute sugar stamps, and assisted in other activities
to help the war effort. In the late 1930s it conducted a study on the
status of the Mexican-origin community in Houston and indicted Anglo
society for deplorably mistreating this population.21 Another important
organization reflective of the new biculturation in the 1930s was La Federación
de Sociedades Mexicanas y Latino Americanas (FSMLA). FSMLA
was a civic organization comprised of both Mexican immigrant and Mexican
American individuals. Its goals were diverse and aimed at the following:
to promote loyalty to the United States, to defend the political and cultural
interests of Mexicans living in this country, and to struggle for better
wages and end employment discrimination against Mexican workers. Although
it was an important organization, it lasted only for several years.22
Diversification and Differentiation 7
One of the most important organizations founded during the 1930s
was the League of United Latin American Citizens, LULAC.23 This organization
best represented the emerging Mexican Americanist identity in
Houston. It articulated the new ideas about being Mexican in the United
States and sought to integrate the population into this country’s mainstream
institutions. It was loyal to U.S. ideals and sought to eliminate racial
prejudice against Mexican nationals and Mexican Americans. LULAC
also struggled for legal equality, equal educational opportunities, and adequate
political representation. Furthermore, it supported the biculturation
of the Mexican-origin population. It sought to mold a syncretic culture
based on the fusion of two cultural heritages and two distinct world-
8 Origins and Development, 1900–60
Table 1. Selective List of Ethnic Organizations
in the Houston Barrios, 1908–50
Name Date Source
i. mutual aid organizations
1. Campo Laurel No. 2333 1908 p. 32, 68
2. Agrupación Protectora Mexicana 1911 p. 13
3. La Sociedad Mexicana “Vigilancia” 1915 p. 14
4. Sociedad Mutualista Mexicana
Benito Juárez 1919 p. 32
5. Comite Pro-Repatriación 1930 p. 47
6. El Campamento Navidad No. 3698 1932 p. 68
7. Sociedad Mutualista Obrera Mexicana 1930 p. 69
8. Sociedad Mutualista Obrera Mexicana
Women’s Auxiliary 1936 p. 69
9. Sociedad “Unión Fraternal” 1940 p. 69
10. El Campo Roble No. 6 1920 p. 32
ii. social /civic organizations
1. Orden Hijos de América 1921 p. 81
2. LULAC, Council #60 1934 p. 82
3. Latin American Club 1935–39 p. 85
4. Ladies LULAC Council No. 14 1935 p. 84
5. Texas American Citizens 1938 p. 90
6. Latin Sons of Texas 1939 p. 90
7. Junior LULACERs 1948 p. 111
8. Pan American Political Council 1948 p. 112
9. Club Familias Unidas 1948 p. 112
10. Ladies LULAC Council #22 1948 p. 129
views—the Mexican and the American. LULAC’s intent was to incorporate
the American identity into the existing Mexican one. “Mexicans,”
notes De León, “would adopt Americanism albeit they would retain their
parents’ cultural life.24
Further evidence of a Mexican presence in Houston was seen in patriotic
celebrations. Two of the most popular were El Diez y Seis de Septiembre
(September 16) and El Cinco de Mayo (May 5). The first celebrates the
day in 1810 in which Father Miguel Hidalgo issued his cry for independence
from Spain. The second commemorates the defeat of French intervention
forces by the Mexican general Ignacio Zaragosa at Puebla in 1862.25
As early as 1907 the Mexican-origin community commemorated the Mexican
national holiday of El Diez y Seis de Septiembre. With several excep-
Diversification and Differentiation 9
Table 1. (continued)
Name Date Source
11. Pan American Club 1940 p. 90
12. Cooperative Club of Latin
American Citizens 1940 p. 90
iii. cultural /recreative
1. Club Cultural Recreativo
“México Bello” 1924 pp. 33, 67
2. Club Deportivo Azteca 1920s p. 34
3. Club Recreativo Internacional 1935 p. 67
4. Club Recreativo Anáhuac late 1930s p. 67
5. Club Recreativo Xochimilco late 1930s p. 67
6. Club Terpsicord late 1930s p. 67
7. El Círculo Cultural Mexicano 1930 p. 68
8. Los Amigos Glee Club 1930s p. 68
9. El Club Orquidea 1930s p. 70
10. Club Masculino Faro 1930s p. 70
11. Club Femenino Dalia 1930s p. 70
12. Sociedad Latino Americano 1930s p. 70
13. Club Pan Americano of YWCA 1930s p. 70
14. Club Moderno y Recreativo 1930s p. 70
15. Club Femenino Chapultepec 1931 p. 70
16. La Federación de Sociedades
Mexicanas y Latino Americos 1938 p. 72
17. Club Recreativo Tenochtitlán 1935 p. 86
Source: De León, Ethnicity in the Sunbelt.
tions, this became an annual event that was celebrated every year, even
during the Great Depression.26 In the 1930s community groups also began
to celebrate El Cinco de Mayo.27
In addition to social organizations and Mexican celebrations, community
members also established a variety of businesses, cultural institutions,
and newspapers. All of these played important roles in establishing a Mexican
presence in Houston. Beginning in the 1920s a few businesses geared
toward meeting the needs of the Mexican-origin community—e.g., tienditas
(small stores), barbershops, restaurants, and cantinas—were established
in the downtown area. Other barrios soon had their own budding
business districts. During the 1930s and 1940s the Magnolia Park barrio
had the most Mexican businesses in the area.28
The first newspaper founded in the Mexican community in the early
1920s was La Gaceta Mexicana.29 By the end of that decade at least five
newspapers reportedly served the colonia.30 The most prominent of these
was the semiweekly El Tecolote, edited by Rodolfo Ávia de la Vega.31 Most
of these newspapers had short histories due to lack of resources.
Cultural institutions such as theaters and musical groups were also established
in the Mexican barrios. Commercial theaters showed a variety of
Mexican and American films and showcased a large number of Mexican
theatrical performers and artists. The first one in existence was El Teatro
Azteca, founded in 1920. In the late 1930s El Nuevo Palacio Theater competed
with El Teatro Azteca for clients. In the Magnolia Park barrio, community
members established El Teatro Juarez in the mid-1940s.32 La Sociedad
Benito Juarez, which served the working class more than any other
group, built a hall in 1928 to accommodate its activities that included
dances, cultural performances, and fiestas patrias proceedings. EL Club
México Bello produced Spanish-language plays in 1924 and utilized amateur
actors from the community. Occasionally a group such as the Orquesta
Típica of Miguel Lerdo de Tejada performed in Houston. His musical
group played popular Mexican music.33
These organizations, newspapers, and cultural institutions not only
met the varied needs of those it served, but they also counteracted the assimilative
influences of the mainstream institutions and promoted either
Mexicanization or selective acculturation. They maintained the spirit of lo
mexicano in the community and encouraged the development of a dual
identity that was neither American nor Mexican but a synthesis of both.
These institutions thus became important instruments of change and continuity
in the Mexican community.
10 Origins and Development, 1900–60
Not all the institutions in the barrios were established by Mexicans. Anglos
founded a variety of them. These individuals established churches,
schools, and social welfare agencies, in many cases as a result of the Mexican
community’s desires or initiatives.
The establishment of mainstream institutions in the barrios began
as early as 1912 with the founding of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in
El Segundo barrio. This church was founded as a result of the Mexicanorigin
community’s desires to maintain its spiritual faith in an alien environment.
Unwanted by established Anglo churches, Mexican immigrants
maintained their faith through a variety of community and home activities.
Some gathered in homes to pray the Rosary or to reenact Catholic rituals
such as the pastorelas (a Christmas nativity play) or the via crusis (Way
of the Cross ritual that commemorates the crucifixion of Christ during
Easter). Many families likewise worshipped at their personal altarcitos
(home altars) because of the lack of a church during the early years of
the 1900s.34
These initiatives as well as the growth of the Mexican-origin population
convinced the Catholic church leaders in the Galveston Diocese to establish
a church for them in 1912. A dozen years later another Catholic church
in Magnolia—Immaculate Heart of Mary—began to serve the Mexican
population.35 In the mid-1930s Our Lady of Sorrows Church was established
in the Denver Harbor area.36 This church was founded after several
families from the barrios of El Crisol and Las Lechusas approached the
oblate fathers at Our Lady of Guadalupe and petitioned them to send a
priest to help them with their spiritual needs.37 The nearest parish to these
barrios was Our Lady of Guadalupe, but it was about two miles away. Lack
of transportation forced many believers of the faith to walk this distance,
and those unwilling to do so did not attend church services. The meeting
between the oblate fathers and Mexican families eventually led to the establishment
of Our Lady of Sorrows Church in that area.38
Not all of these churches were Catholic. A significant number of them
were established by Presbyterians or Baptists. In the early 1920s, for instance,
at least five Protestant churches were established in several barrios.
39 The number of Protestant churches continued to grow in the 1930s
with the addition of three more.40 By 1940 there were more Protestant
churches in the barrios than Catholic ones; at least ten were serving the
Mexican-origin population.
The number of Catholic and Protestant churches or the services they
provided for Mexican-origin children and adults increased during the pe-
Diversification and Differentiation 11
riod after World War II. The Catholic Church, for example, expanded its
parochial schools for Mexican children and sponsored a variety of cultural
and religious activities aimed at strengthening the Catholic faith.41
Public schools also were established in the barrios, usually at the request
of the community or in response to their desires. The earliest school to
serve Mexican-origin children was Rusk Elementary. This school, located
in El Segundo barrio, originally was an Anglo school, but by 1910 it served
a predominantly Mexican student population. A separate school for Mexican
children, named Lorenzo De Zavala, was constructed in the Magnolia
Park barrio in the summer of 1920.42 In the 1920s at least three, and possibly
four, additional schools were established for Mexican children in
several barrios: Hawthorne Elementary, Dow Elementary, Elysian Street
School, Jones Elementary, and Lubbock School.43 By 1940 almost thirtysix
hundred Mexican-origin children were enrolled in these schools.44
Although local officials provided Mexican-origin children with access
to public education during the first four decades of the twentieth century,
it was limited to the elementary grades. Few Mexican-origin students attended
secondary schools because of poverty, a history of failure in the
lower grades, and/or exclusion from the higher grades. Mexican secondary
school enrollment, for the most part, was a post–World War II phenomenon.
The increasing enrollment can be observed through high
school annuals. For instance, at Jefferson Davis High School, located in the
Northside, few, if any children attended prior to the 1940s. By 1945, however,
there were 13 Mexican-origin children attending. Six years later this
number increased to 216. At John H. Reagan High, located in the Heights,
Mexican children did not begin to attend this school until the late 1940s.
In 1951 a few Mexican students began to enroll at Reagan. By 1956 approximately
65 out of 1,800 were Mexican students. At Milby High, located
in Magnolia Park, Mexican students began to enroll in the late 1930s and
showed a gradual increase over time. Between 1939 and 1942 a handful of
students attended Milby.45 This number increased to 18 by 1948 and to 49
by 1960.46 The increasing presence of Mexican-origin children in the secondary
grades testifies to their desire for education and self-improvement.
But failure by local officials to increase greater access to educational opportunities
at these levels ensured the continued subordinate status of this
population group at midcentury.