Latin@s have increasingly claimed a space in the public imagination in this country in recent decades. On the one hand, we see a growing number of Latin@ artists in the mainstream American music industry, in films, on television, and in magazines (think Jessica Alba, Shakira, Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony, George Lopez, Eva Longoria, etc.). In this respect, Latin@ performers have captured the interest of American consumers of popular culture, in particular, young people. On the other hand, however, Latin@s also hold a more disparaged position in the public arena, that of the ubiquitous “illegal aliens.”
Immigration has certainly taken a prominent stage on the domestic agenda in recent years but we must understand this in its proper historical context. For one, the nativism, xenophobia, and anti-immigrant rhetoric that fills the air waves, news headlines and editorials, and television programs is not a new phenomenon, nor has it always been directed only at Latin@ immigrants. European immigrants, in particular those from Eastern and Southern Europe, became targets of nativist attacks in the early 20th century. The very same alarmist language about Latin American immigrants being “unassimilable,” “foreign,” and changing our culture was deployed against Italians, Greeks, Poles, Lithuanians, Jews, and other groups who were deemed at one point in time as “undesirable.” Asian immigrants have also been historically scapegoated and explicitly restricted as national groups. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 explicitly denied entrance to the United States to all immigrants from China, while the Gentleman’s Agreement of 1917 prohibited the immigration of Japanese nationals.
Yet Latin@s, specifically Mexicans, have historically suffered from racial scapegoating in the past as well. During the Great Depression, for example, Mexican immigrants and their U.S.-born (citizen) children were summarily deported throughout the Southwest and in some Midwestern areas. A total of nearly 500,000 persons were deported during the early 1930s after being blamed as the cause for the economic crisis and a burden to welfare rolls. Again, in 1954, the Immigration and Naturalization Service carried out a campaign called “Operation Wetback” conducting raids and sweeps throughout the country and ultimately deporting nearly 1 million Mexicans and Mexican Americans (including some who were U.S. citizens). Throughout the 1970s, Mexican and other Latin@ immigrant communities in urban areas around the nation lived in constant fear and terror of immigration raids at places of work, stores, restaurants, theaters, and even churches.
The recognition of these episodes in our nation’s past should not lessen our outrage against these practices being carried today. Instead, we should try to learn from this history about how immigrants have been unjustly targeted rhetorically, how economic and international conditions have contributed to transnational immigration, especially in the last 50 years from Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America, not to mention Asia and Africa, and what the United States’ role has been in prompting people to leave their homelands and often loved ones, travel long, sometimes dangerous journeys thousands of miles to this country in search of a living, an escape from economic and political repression, and a way to help their families survive.
It is important that Latin@s and non-Latin@s know the history of the presence of Latin American people in this country. Knowing this helps us understand that Latin@s are not a “new” immigrant group; some people have been Americans for many generations. Understanding Latin@ history also puts into perspective the cultural contributions that Latin@s have made to American society throughout the 20th century and into the 21st.
Suggested Readings:
González, Gilbert G., and Raul A. Fernández. A Century of Chicano History: Empire, Nations, and Migration. New York: Routledge, 2003.
González, Juan. Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America. New York: Viking Press, 2000.
Habell-Pallán, Michelle, and Mary Romero, eds. Latina/o Popular Culture. New York: New York University Press, 2002.
1 It is important to recognize that Latin@s are not the only immigrants who are cast negatively in this manner. In the age of the American “War on Terror”, Middle Eastern, Arab, South Asian, and African immigrants also suffer from suspicion of being terrorists, Islamic fundamentalists, and ultimately, a threat to national security. In the post-9/11 era, securing our borders from “illegal aliens” has become closely intertwined with concerns over terrorist attacks by those who would do us harm.
This was in fact not the case, as Mexicans and Mexican Americans actually constituted only a small segment of those receiving public assistance during this era.
