"Latinos in U.S. Society"

After studying black history for first semester, and now that I have read “Latinos in U.S. Society,” I have been starting to feel more and more ashamed for my country, and how they have been mistreating minorities for hundreds of years. The Hispanics, like the blacks, have a similar story during the mid-1850 through the end of the 20th century. The Hispanics were not brought into America because of slavery; they came to America for a better opportunity. Most of the Hispanics that came into America for a better opportunity were Mexican. After America’s victory over Mexico in the Mexican-American War, the Mexicans living in the region that America gained became Americans. These Mexican-American citizens were automatically sent down to the bottom part of the economic class system, unlike the whites who remained on top. World War I opened thousands of jobs for Mexicans to work on agricultural production. However because of a postwar crisis in farm production during the early 1920’s, many Mexicans become out of work, and left with no money. When things started to look up for America during the “Roaring ‘20s,” Mexican immigration to the U.S. began to skyrocket. This caused the American population to feel very uncomfortable because of how many new immigrants were coming to their country. “…many Americans felt that people of Mexican descent represented a threat to the racial and cultural integrity of the nation, particularly because of the strength of Catholicism among Mexican immigrants.” So many Mexicans were coming into the country, which caused Americans to take this almost as a threat. Not only did they take it as a threat but this change in society frightened them, and caused them to panic. They treated the Mexicans very poorly, and the Mexicans did what the blacks did, and boycotted things like schooling because of segregation. During the Great Depression, many whites were out of work, so the U.S. sent hundreds of thousands of Mexicans back to Mexico. When World War II came around, America needed workers, so they introduced the Bracero Program to bring Mexicans back for work. This is another reason why America’s history has caused me to look down upon them because they kicked out the Mexicans when they became a “threat” to society, and then brought them back when they needed more workers. Mexican immigration is just one aspect to Hispanics relations to America; however it is one of the biggest problems today in the U.S.

"Latinos in U.S. society." American HIstory. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 28 Jan. 2010.
http://www.americanhistory.abc-clio.com.

Sincerely,

The Chosen One