Analytic Entry: Background

Hispanics in America are almost like a second generation of blacks in America. After slavery was abolished the blacks had to completely start over their lives. This is similar to the Hispanics because after a Hispanic person immigrates to America, they are too completely starting over their lives. Not only are they completely starting over their lives, but like the blacks, in order to become successful in America they must learn to deal with the discrimination towards themselves.
One of the big events for the Hispanics was during World War I because it offered thousands of jobs for Hispanics in America for them to work in the agriculture. After the war the soldiers came back and the Hispanics became jobless and penniless. However, soon after the war Immigration began to skyrocket because of the “Roaring ‘20s.” This beneficial for the Hispanics because at that time America’s industry was booming so it opened up many new jobs for them. This provided a new opportunity for the Hispanics because it was a job and a new life for them. This was also good for America because the Hispanics provided cheap agricultural workers. With so many Hispanic immigrants coming in, it started to worry the Americans that soon they would be jobless. Once the Great Depression started, it convinced the Americans that they needed to kick out the Mexicans so then more jobs would be open. People in the U.S. also kicked them out because they thought that Hispanics were ruining and invading their culture. “…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” (“Latinos in America”). Because so many Mexicans were coming into the country, the Americans were viewing it as a threat. They thought that with so many immigrants in the country that it could ruin their culture, and did not realize how helpful the Hispanics had been in the past, and how useful they were. Once World War II started, Americans remembered how good of workers the Hispanics had been, and they decided to bring back all the immigrants that they had kicked out before. Most of Americans were fighting in the war so the U.S. knew that they needed workers, and they turned to the Hispanics. These past event show how selfish the U.S., and how much they used the Hispanics as their pawns in agricultural industry. Whenever the U.S. needed workers they would bring in the Hispanics, however when they felt threatened by them and felt that job opportunities were going down, then they just kicked them out.
One of the most important leaders for the Hispanics was Cesar Chavez because he fought for equality for the Hispanic workers. Every group that has been discriminated against always has a leader, and Cesar Chavez acted as that leader for the Hispanics. Cesar Chavez worked as a grape picker in California that believed that he was being mistreated, and thought they he should do something about it. In 1962, he created a farm workers union called the Nation Farm Workers Association. Most migrant worker strikes failed before, “…strikes had always failed for two basic reasons: the workers did not have enough money to outlast the growers, and the growers could easily replace the striking workers with imported Mexican farm workers,” (“Cesar Chavez”). Workers were paid so little that it was very hard for them to organize a successful strike. Also, the demand for jobs was so high that when one Mexican immigrant was fired he could easily be replaced with another hard working Mexican immigrant. It was different with Cesar Chavez because he organized a large enough group to form a strike for higher wages. He also led a five year, non-violent, boycott of al California table grapes. He finally won in 1970, and he formed a three agreement that provided, “a wage increase, provision for health insurance, and regulations prohibiting use of certain pesticides,” (Cesar Chavez). This is just another example of a leader who fought for what they believed was right, to defeat an unjust law, and do it non-violently.
The Hispanics are a race that have been used as migrant workers for many years. They are still trying to find their place in America as a successful race. It is hard for them to do so when the only thing that they can do is take very hard jobs that pay an extremely low amount. They have to take these jobs because they are starting a new life with nothing. They are immigrants looking for a new opportunity in a country that was made to achieve one’s dreams.