Onda Latina

The KUT Longhorn Radio Network Presents: Mexican American Experience Collection

Audio recordings including interviews, music, and informational programs related to the Mexican American community and their concerns in the series "The Mexican American Experience" and "A esta hora conversamos" from the Longhorn Radio Network, 1976-1982.

Nav: Home
#

PROGRAM INFO

Title:
50th Anniversary Of LULAC
Program #
1979-08
Theme:
Identity

Series:
History
Host:
Armando Gutiérrez
Guest:
Cynthia Orozco
Date:
Jan 25, 1979

50th Anniversary of LULAC

Cynthia Orozco, a history student at UT-Austin, discusses some of her research on the League of United Latin American Citizens and the context in which it formed. Orozco argues that in order to understand LULAC we need to place the organization in its historical context and the ideas and issues prevalent at the time, including the debates about Americanization and immigration, and the activity and racism of the Texas Rangers. Although Mexican Americans officially founded LULAC in 1929, several other Mexican American organizations had formed in the aftermath of World War One as Mexican-American veterans returned to continued discrimination and the widespread perception that they were not citizens. Almost simultaneously, ideas of Americanization and nativism were gaining ground and the government passed increasingly restrictive immigration and labor laws. Orozco explains that Mexican Americans were typically against immigration because they feared the job competition. At the same time, Mexican Americans continued to face widespread discrimination, segregation, persecution and poverty. In response to these issues, the small Mexican American Middle Class formed organizations, such as Orden de Hijos de America, designed to help organize the community’s vote and prepare them for citizenship. Several of these organizations met in 1927 to form one united organization, but these talks fell apart after a delegate proposed membership be denied to Mexicans who were not citizens. Two years later, the organizations formally merged into LULAC, and the organization began to tackle issues of segregation, language barriers and citizenship.

KEYWORDS

1930 Congressional Hearings on Mexican Immigration
Alonso Perales
Americanization
Anti-Immigrant Attitudes
Anti-Labor Attitudes
Border Patrol
Bureau of Education
California
Child Labor
Citizenship
Clemente Idar
Columbus, Ohio
Communism
Corpus Christi, Texas
Corridos
Corruption
Democracy
Department of the Interior
Discrimination
En Defensa de mi Raza
Filiberto Galvan
Greasers
Head Start Program
Immigrants
Immigration
Immigration Restrictions
J.T. Canales
Jim Wells
Ku Klux Klan
Labor
League of United Latin American Citizens
Luz Saenz
Mexican American Attitudes towards Mexicans
Mexican Americans
Mexican Fraternal Organizations
Mexican Labor
Mexican Middle Class
Mexican Revolution
Mexicans
Nativism
Orden Hijos De America
Orden Hijos de Texas
Order of Sons of America
Pablo Gonzales
Palmer Raids
Patriotism
Perceptions of foreignness
Political Bossism
Racism
Rio Grande Valley
Sacco and Vanzetti
San Antonio
Santiago “James” G. Tafolla
School of 400
South Texas
South Texas Growers Associations
Stop Speak Spanish Club
Texas Rangers
The Flores Magon Brothers
The King Family
The Knights of America
Veterans
Voting
Washington D.C.
William Knox
World War I
 

Center for Mexican American Studies | Department of History | The Benson Latin American Collection

DIIA | © 2009 Liberal Arts Instructional Technology Services