Presentation Transcript

1. “Happy Days”: Chicano Communities Under Siege

2. 1950’s: Key Moments, Lasting Legacies Amidst the Cold War culture Nativism, political containment, and mass deportations War and political conflicts Korean War 1954 Overthrow of Guatemala’s Jacobo Arbenz 1959 Cuban Revolution Militarization of the US-Mexico border INS and the 1950 McCarran Act “Operation Wetback” Towards a Civil Rights Agenda Empire Zinc Strike Chávez Ravine
3. Cold War Politics & Culture The rise of US industry (agribusiness, transportation, financial capitalism) led to an ideology rooted in fear of “the Other”. The “Other” took on multiple shapes and forms, but namely characterized as those people and organizations that opposed a racist, capitalist political-economic system. Labor Unions Civil Rights Organizations (Asociación Nacional México-Americana ANMA) Labor-induced Migrations (Bracero Program) “Keep America American” (mass deportations, internment camps) Distinguishing “American” vs. “Non-American”
4. (Counter) Revolutions 1950 – 1953: Korean War Estimated 3 million people lost their lives in a war for securing Capitalism in South Korea. 1954: Guatemala’s Jacobo Arbenz is overthrown by US CIA covert team Arbenz was initiating land reform policies that would benefit campesinos, by nationalizing agricultural sectors and giving them back to the worker. This threatened Banana Capitalist (Sec. of State John Dulles) of private industry.
5. Significance of 1959 1959: Cuba, led by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, successfully overthrow US-puppet dictator Fulgencio Batista Powerful demonstration of Latin American potential against US Empire
6. Militarization of the US-Border 1950 Internal Security Act and McCarran-Walter Act of 1952 Designed to “tighten immigration laws and to exclude those the reactionaries said were subversive elements” Intended to curtail (prevent) further immigration of non-white Europeans Granted US government unprecedented access to define and detain “non-Americans”
7. Operation Wetback Initiated the militarization of the US-Mexico border by providing INS (Immigration and Naturalization Services) with “new equipment and smart, forest-green uniforms” Attorney General Herbert Brownell desired to build a 150-mile-long fence to keep los atrevestados out of US (unless US based agribusiness was short on labor, then it was ok) Set deportation quotas per “target areas”
8. Mexican Diaspora Despite institutional attempts to contain immigration influx into the US, mass numbers of Mexican people migrate to the North and begin to create communities in Los Angeles, San Antonio, Chicago, and various rural parts of Washington state. In the Yakima Valley, the Gallegos Family withstood nativism and Mexican xenophobia. “a sense of community began to form in the Yakima, although many (still) long for home” (p. 268)
9. “Illusion of Inclusion” Urban Renewal policies was designed by US capitalists (finance, real estate, transportation) to prevent “undesirables” from achieving social mobility. Federal Housing Act of 1949, and the G.I. Bill granted returning war veterans new opportunities to receive US government approved loans for mortgages and access to higher education. “Possessive Investment in Whiteness”
10. Dodgers and Chávez Ravine The Chandler family, owners of the LA Times, supported Mayor Norris Poulson’s urban renewal process for Los Angeles On October 1957, Walter O’Malley (Dodgers B-ball team owner) added more than 300 acres of land to his financial statements. “The eviction is the kind of thing you might expect in Nazi Germany or during the Spanish Inquisition.” – Ed Roybal
11. “Happy Days” but for whom? By the end of the decade, Mexican and Mexican-Americans had witnessed the contradictions of existing within the Anglo-American project. (legally, politically, and socially) Despite the contributions made by 1st and 2nd generation Mexicans, US policies and society very much largely opposed and discriminated against the integration of brown customs, peoples and barrios. Mexican civil rights and labor unions (such as Local 890), organized against the limitations of economic equality and political repression. “All of these activities produced a measure of moral outrage—each victory, and even each defeat, politicized larger number of Mexican Americans.” (281)