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Traumas Experienced by Latinas/Latinos (as a Group)
Cultural loss, adaptation to U.S. cultural standards,
stereotyping, stress and isolation
1848: After the Mexican-American War(18461848, in which
President Polk encouraged Texas Rangers toinvade Mexican territory
and provoke incidents, and then used the incidents to justify the
U. S. invasion of
Mexico) the U.S. annexed much of the current Southwestern region
from Mexico (approximately 30% of the
nation of Mexicos land mass). Nearly 77,000 Mexicans became
forced U.S. citizens. For generations, thesecitizens were to be
plagued by prejudice that would result in overt acts of
discrimination and segregation. This
prejudice led to the curtailment of many civil rights. The sign,
No Mexicans Allowed was found everywhere.
It is estimated that at least 597 Mexicans were lynched between
1848 and 1928 (this is a conservative estimatedue to lack of
records in many reported lynchings). Mexicans were lynched at a
rate of 27.4 per 100,000 of
population between 1880 and 1930. This statistic is second only
to that of the African American community
during that period, which suffered an average of 37.1 lynchings
per 100,000 population. Between 1848 and
1879, Mexicans were lynched at an unprecedented rate of 473 per
100,000 of population.
Many public institutions, businesses, and homeowners
associations had official policies to exclude Mexican
Americans. School children of Mexican American descent were
subject to racial segregation in the public
school system. In many counties, Mexican Americans were excluded
from serving as jurors in court cases,especially in those that
involved a Mexican American defendant. In many areas across the
Southwest, they lived
in separate residential areas, due to laws, community prejudice,
and real estate company policies.
1930-1940: During The Great Depression, the U.S. government
sponsored a Mexican Repatriationprogram
which was intended to encourage Mexican immigrants to
voluntarily return to Mexico, however, many wereforcibly removed
against their will. In total, up to one million persons of Mexican
ancestry were deported.
Approximately 60 percent of those individuals were actually U.S.
citizens.
1936: LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens) pressured
the U.S. Census Bureau to reclassify
persons of Mexican descent from the designation of "Mexican" to
"White". The 1940 census count reflected thechange.
1940: LULAC played a major role in filing discrimination cases
for the Federal Employment Practices
Commission, the first federal civil rights agency.
1943: The Zoot Suit Riots were vivid incidents of racial
violence against Latinos (e.g. Mexican-Americans) in
Los Angeles in 1943. Naval servicemen stationed in a Latino
neighborhood conflicted with youth in the denseneighborhood.
Frequent confrontations between small groups and individuals had
intensified into several days
of non-stop rioting. Large mobs of servicemen and local
vigilante groups would enter civilian quarters looking
to attack Mexican American youths, some of whom were wearingzoot
suits, a distinctive exaggerated fashionpopular among that group.
The disturbances continued unchecked, and even assisted, by the
local police for
several days before base commanders declared downtown Los
Angeles and Mexican American neighborhoods
off-limits to servicemen.
1946: In Santa Ana, California, LULAC filed the "Mendez
vs.Westminister Lawsuit" which ended 100 years ofsegregation in
California's public schools and becomes a key precedent for Brown
vs. Board of Education.
1945: a California LULAC Council successfully sued to integrate
the Orange County School System, which
had been segregated on the grounds that Mexican children were
more poorly clothed and mentally inferior to
white children. Additionally, in 1954, LULAC brought another
landmark case, Hernandez vs. the State ofTexas, to protest the fact
that a Mexican American had never been called to jury duty in the
state of Texas. The
Supreme Court ruled this exclusion unconstitutional.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican-American_Warhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican-American_Warhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Depressionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Repatriationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Repatriationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoot_Suit_Riotshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican-Americanshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeleshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoot_suithttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoot_suithttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoot_suithttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican-American_Warhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Depressionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Repatriationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoot_Suit_Riotshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican-Americanshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeleshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoot_suit
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1947: LULAC protested the non-burial of veteran Felix Longoria
of Three Rivers, Texas, and assisted in his
burial at the Arlington National Cemetery in Washington,
D.C.
1948: LULAC attorneys filed the "Delgado vs. Bastrop I.S.D.
Lawsuit" which ended the segregation of
Mexican American children in Texas.
1950: LULAC and the American G.I. Forum filed fifteen school
desegregation lawsuits in Texas.
1987: LULAC filed the LULAC vs. INS class action lawsuit to
force INS to process eligible amnestyapplicants.
2006: LULAC joined forces with its allies from the civil rights
community for the reauthorization of the Voting
Rights Act. LULAC mobilized millions around the nation to march
for the rights of immigrants and their
families.
2010: Attention on the unfair treatment Latinos face has
intensified since 2010, when Arizona enacted a law
requiring local police to ascertain the citizenship of people
they suspect of being in the U.S. illegally.
