Mexican-Americans: The Struggle Of A Chicano

21 October 2009
The Struggle for the Chicano
“Prefiero morir de pie que vivir siempre arrodillado.” Was once said by Emiliano Zapata, which means I’d rather die on my feet than live a life on my knees. This quote has often served as an inspiration to many Mexican and Mexican-Americans throughout history. Several times this quote has been brought to a reality in the struggle for the equal human rights among Chicanos. In this paper I will be illustrating the unfair opportunity at life that Mexican immigrants and Mexican-Americans were given by the United States. Three major themes that persisted throughout the early history of Chicanos were poor education, police brutality, and harsh labor. These three ideas are enough to keep any minority
Mexico at the time was not a place suitable to raise a family. Times were tough and the revolution was fully in effect. Families were going hungry and had no means of obtaining food. Mexicans headed north to the United States to find employment in order to feed their families. Little did they know what was in their near future. A large migration of Mexicans to the United States was from 1900 to 1920. More than a million Mexicans arrived to the United States during this time span. Mexicans found employment, but they were given low end jobs. These low end jobs consisted of the most undesirable positions such as mines and unsafe factories. When The Great Depression came around in 1929 whites began to blame Mexicans for causing The Depression. Whites demanded the deportation of all Mexicans in order for them to have jobs and end the Depression. The whites felt Mexicans were taking all of their jobs away, due to this the California Legislature passed the 1931 Alien Labor Law. This law forbade contractors from employing alien workers on public projects. The sugar beet industry was a huge one; Mexicans compromised sixty five percent of the labor. The work in the sugar beet industry was strictly segregated. Whites planted, irrigated, and cultivated, meanwhile Mexicans got the back breaking work of weeding, hoeing and topping the land. The workers would be forced to shop at the company store which had abusive pricing. The wages that were paid to the Mexican people were way below the poverty line. The Mexican workers were becoming a form of slavery, they worked all day for a couple cents and spent that same money in the company stores. They were making no progress in the United States, the only thing growing bigger and richer were the farms they worked for. The unfair treatment and pay were having a toll on the people. They all decided to come together