PROGRAM INFO
- Title:
- Mexican Americans During The Great Depression
- Program #
- 1977-09
- Themes:
- Identity, Society
- Series:
- History, Immigration
- Host:
- Richard Goodman
- Guest:
- Richard Goodman
- Date:
- Feb 14, 1977
Mexican Americans During the Great Depression
Richard Goodman discusses the mass deportations and repatriations of Mexicans during the Great Depression. In the aftermath of the stock market crash, Mexicans of all nationalities were considered and subsequently treated as undesirable aliens subject to deportation. In the early years of the Depression, many returned to Mexico voluntarily. Yet by 1931, private and public welfare organizations began organizing campaigns to deport Mexicans, who they felt occupied jobs that should be held by those born in the U.S. Secretary of Labor William Doak organized many sensational raids and local citizen groups offered to help the federal government deport immigrants. In Los Angeles, the immigration bureau, with the help of the police and sherrif’s department, organized several raids, that often arrested Mexicans who were in the U.S. legally. Moreover, many of those detained were denied counsel and other rights.
Eventually, the Bureau of Immigration shifted to other less sensational tactics, but they continued to pursue and deport immigrants. Their efforts dramatically reduced Mexican communities in many northern states, while states like Texas and California lost large portions of their Spanish-speaking population. Goodman concludes that this period created a long-lasting sense of alienation among Mexican Americans. This episode is based on research from Abraham Hoffman’s Unwanted Mexican Americans in the Great Depression.
KEYWORDS
Abraham HoffmanBakersfield, California
Bureau of Immigration
Charles Visel
Col. Arthur Woods
Consuls
Deportation Campaigns
Deportations
Discrimination
Ethnic Alienation
Herbert Hoover
Ignacio Bautista
Illegal Alien
Illinois
Immigrant Rights
Immigration Policy
Immigration Quotas
Immigration Raids
Indiana
Liberals
Los Angeles
Los Angeles Citizens Committee on Coordination of Unemployment Relief
Mexican Consul
Mexico
Michigan
National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement
Nativism
Ohio
Police
Police and immigration
President’s Emergency Committee for Employment
Private welfare organizations
Public Relief
Racism
Relief Rolls
Repatriation
Sheriff
Southern California
Stock market crash
Texas
Unemployment
Unwanted Mexican Americans in the Great Depression
Visas
Voluntary repatriation
Welfare
William Doak
William Walkins