Mexican American

The ethnonym Mexican American is the usual term of self description for people with strong ties to both the United States of America and Mexico. It describes both United States citizens of Mexican ancestry (14 million in 2003) and Mexican citizens who reside in the United States (10 million in 2003). According to the Pew Hispanic Center, in mid-2001, an additional 4.5 million Mexicans were residing illegally in the United States. Mexican Americans account for 64% of the Hispanic or Latino population of the United States. Settlement concentration is mostly in the Southwestern part of the United States, however, there are isolated concentration of Mexican-Americans near the Chicago area and in mostly rural areas in Florida and North Carolina. Growing populations also are present in other parts of the rural Southeastern United States, in states such as Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and Arkansas in addition to the upper Midwest. A growing population also is present in urban areas such as New York City. However, Mexican American citizens reside throughout the entire US.

Economic issues

The economy of the United States has long needed service workers, manufacturing workers, farm laborers, and skilled artisans. Mexican workers have usually met those demands for cheap labor. However, fear of detection and deportation keep many illegal immigrant workers from taking advantage of social welfare programs as well as interaction with public authorities and makes them highly vulnerable to exploitation by employers. Some employers, however, over the last decade, have developed a "don't ask, don't tell" attitude, indicating a greater comfort or casual approach toward hiring ethnic Mexican residents.

In U.S. states where Mexican Americans make up a significant percentage of the population, such as California and Texas, Mexican Americans almost exclusively occupy most blue-collar occupations, such as restaurant workers, janitors, truck drivers, gardeners, construction laborers, material moving workers, and other manual labor. In many of these places with large Latino populations, blue-collar workers are often assumed to be Mexican Americans because of their dominance in those occupations. Occasionally, tensions have risen between Mexican immigrants and other ethnic groups because of increasing concerns over the availability of working-class jobs to non-Hispanic ethnic groups. However, tensions have also risen among Mexican American laborers who have been displaced as a result of both cheap Mexican labor and racial profiling.

Social mobility

As many Mexican Americans are newcomers searching for the American dream, just as many Europeans were at the turn of the century, they make up some of the lower rungs of the social ladder, however, their diaspora is evident in other areas of the socioeconomic spheres.

Some Mexican Americans take offense for society to continually viewed them as a group stuck in poverty and socioeconomic difficulties. There are upper-class and successful Mexican Americans with a complete public education and well-paid professional careers. The U.S. Census finds substantial jumps in average personal and household incomes for Mexican Americans, among all Latinos in the early 2000s. U.S. born Mexican Americans earn more and higher represented in the middle and upper-class segments than most recently arrived Mexican immigrants. Time will tell as the immigrants and second-generation children will advance upward in the socioeconomic ladder.

Mexican Americans and Race

Mexicans are legally White and were at many times during the history of the United States, and in the last U.S census around half of them checked the box for White (in addition to stating their Hispanic national origin). Many Mexican Americans have ancestors that did not cross any border- the border crossed over them, making them American Citizens. They were allowed to intermarry with whites (unlike blacks and Asians); were allowed to get citizenship upon arrival (unlike Asian immigrants); served in all-white units during the Second World War (unlike blacks and Japanese); could vote and hold elected office in places such as Texas, especially San Antonio (unlike blacks); ran the state politics and elite of New Mexico since colonial times; and went to integrated schools in Central Texas and Los Anegeles (unlike Blacks in the south and Asians in Southern California). Asians were not allowed to marry Mexican Americans in California, because of the White status held by Mexicans.

Despite their legal status today as White, and even their rightful claim to a European heritage, some but not all Mexican Americans are seen by other Americans as socially non-white. Given that many Mexican-Americans with complete or predominant European features are not seen, or even realized to be "of a mexican type", they are looked over as being simply White Americans- lowering the real number of White Mexican Americans. This is the case with other white Hispanics. Those Mexican Americans who appear more non-white to most of "Anglo" society may have a high level of Amerindian descent.

However, during the Great Depression, Mexicans were conveniently not considered White. Anywhere from one to two million people were deported in a decade-long effort by the government to free up jobs for those who were considered “real Americans” and rid the county governments of “the problem.” The campaign, called the "Mexican Repatriation", was authorized by President Herbert Hoover and it targeted areas with large Hispanic populations, mostly in California, Texas and Michigan. Although President Franklin Roosevelt ended federal support when he took office, many state and local governments continued with their efforts. It left festering emotional wounds that for many have not healed. Estimates now indicate that approximately 60 percent of the people deported were children who were born in America and others who, while of Mexican descent, were legal citizens. Many of these people returned to the United States during the labor shortages of World War II.

The 1930 U.S. census form asked for "color or race." The 1930 census enumerators were given these instructions: "Write 'W' for White; 'Mex for Mexican.needed, but from 1940 to the latter part of the century the instructions were: Mexicans.-Report "white" (W) for Mexicans unless they are definitely of Indian or other nonwhite race. (http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~vbashi/soc108-handout-census.htm)

Mexican Americans claimed to have been victims of certain forms of color-based and ethnic discrimination. Before the early 1960's in some rural areas of the Southwest, Mexican Americans were barred from entering public places and businesses that wanted to cater to a "white" clientele. Real estate practices, public education and social mores had successfully blocked or prevented some Mexican Americans from entering a place. However, this was not as strong as the official racial segregation against African Americans in the Southern U.S. before the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Even when legally white, many Mexican Americans do have a mestizo heritage, a mixture of European and Amerindian. Together with the White population of Mexico, these mestizos constitute more than 70% of the country of Mexico, the rest being purely Amerindian and 1% other. Time will tell as it has for other nationalities that were once considered non-white, but are now White Americans. But the emphasis among some Mexican Americans in the La Raza and Chicano movements speak of "brown power".

Political issues

The turnout among Mexican Americans is low (less than 40% vote). Of those who vote, large majorities vote for Democratic candidates in most states except Texas (where the Democrats win narrowly). In the 2004 presidential election, in the western states, exit polls showed that "Latinos" (nearly all Mexican Americans) comprised 13% of all voters. They split 39% for Bush and 58% for Kerry. In California alone they comprised 21% of the voters and split 32% for Bush and 63% for Kerry. However in Texas where the Republicans made a strong appeal, they comprised 20% of the voters and split 49% for Bush and 51% for Kerry. Senator Octaviano Ambrosio Larrazolo, elected in New Mexico in 1928, was the first Hispanic to be elected to the United States Senate; Ken Salazar, Democrat of Colorado in 2004 became the first in recent decades. Both men came from old Hispanic families and neither was a product of the 20th century immigration. Traditional Mexican communities take conservative positions on social issues such as abortion and homosexuality, and show strong loyalties to the traditional version of the Roman Catholic Church, though there is a growing evangelical Protestant group. Under George W. Bush the Republican Party is trying to make inroads with Mexican American voters, but a strong nativist undercurrent in the GOP is making Bush's efforts controversial in his party. The LULAC is an important political organization for Mexican Americans, though it also represents other Hispanic Americans as well.

In 1999, California voters elected Cruz Bustamente as the state's first Hispanic/ Mexican American lieutenant governor since 1877. Re-elected with running mate state Governor Gray Davis in 2003, Bustamente lost to Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 2003 statewide recall election. He was vocal in liberal views on political issues that affect all Americans.

Last year, Antonio Villaraigosa became Los Angeles' first mayor of Hispanic/Mexican American descent since 1871. His style in the tight election campaign earned Villaraigosa a place in city hall. Villaraigosa's style of charisma and his optimistic speeches has energized the city's racially diverse voter base.

Historically, most Mexican-Americans voted as Democrats or to certain candidates in the Democrat party that brought up civil rights issues. But there's a large representation of Mexican-American voters who are registered Republican. Recently, the Republican party has successfully received a wide margin of registered voters who are Mexican immigrants.

Culture

The proximity of the two countries, a continuous influx of new arrivals, concentration in predominantly Mexican barrios and colonias and Spanish-language media enable Mexican immigrants to maintain ties with relatives in Mexico and the Spanish language to a degree not possible for other immigrant groups with their respective countries of origin and native tongues. While there are subtle differences in the Spanish language depending on the country of origin, the Spanish language binds many Latin American immigrants together.

The trans-nationalism and biculturalism of many Mexican Americans in the four border states indicate the ethnic group has little interest in abandonment of Mexican cultural heritage and a strong loyalty to American society. This has led to controversies in the late 20th century, on whether or not all Mexican Americans adopt an uniform culture as "Americans" of an ethnicity immersed in Anglo American society, or the Mexican Americans will continue to preserve and pursue bilingualism, observance of Mexican customs and dual identity.

Music

Tejano music is a unique musical style developed by Mexican Americans in Texas. Tejano is a blend of traditional Mexican forms such as the corrido and Continental European styles introduced by German and Czech settlers with modern forms of rock, jazz, and classical.

Lalo Guerrero was known as the father of Chicano Music and Selena the queen of Tex-Mex or Tejano Music. Rock music has had its share of Mexican American artists, Vikki Carr, Los Lobos, Richie Valens, War, Tierra, The Iguanas, Ha*Ash, Jaci Velasquez, Suzanne Vega, Linda Ronstadt, Santana, The Plugz, Los Cruzados, Los Lonely Boys, and Bobby Pulido, to name a few.

Theater, film, and television

George Lopez, Victoria Wyndham, Eva Longoria, Jessica Alba, Charisma Carpenter, Edward James Olmos, Salma Hayek, Ricardo Montalban, Jay Hernandez, Alexis Bledel, Sara Paxton, Linda Carter, Joanna Kerns, Maricella Ibarra, Richard Montoya and Anthony Quinn are some of the notable American actors with Mexican heritage.

In Mexican American communities across the U.S. there are movie theaters that offer a variety of Spanish-language movies from Mexico and Latin America.

Visual art

Chicano Art, is noted for the folk influences from Mexico, characterized by vibrant colors and striking imagery. Artist John August Swanson is a painter whose art reflects these influences.

Cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz's work reflects the Chicano consciousness and expresses it in his editorial cartoons.

Painter Gilbert "Magú" Luján paints murals and cars depicting whimsical scenes from urban Latino life.

Surrealist painter Gronk is a well known artist and illustrator, and was a member of the pioneering performance art troup Asco in the 1960s-1970

Literature

There is a depth of literature in this community. Authors like Tomás Rivera exemplify the field. Author and poet Gary Soto's published works are frequently studied in American public schools.

In 1970, a groundbreaking autobiography and political novel, Chicano, written by journalist Richard Vasquez, looks at the cultural history, political issues and personal problems of Mexican Americans of the 1960s.

Many Mexican American writers fall into the Indigenismo and Americanismo schools.

History

Main article: History of Mexican-Americans

Between 1845 and 1854, the United States acquired half of the territory of Mexico. Eighty thousand Mexicans lived in these annexed areas at the time. These new Mexican Americans often worked as railroad crew, general laborers, ranch hands, farm workers, farmers,domestic servants and laundresses.

During the Great Depression, the Repatriation Movement caused much hardship for Mexican Americans. After World War II ended, the Bracero Program was soon introduced. This program made it easier for Mexicans to come to the United States, but it often lead them to be exploited by their employers. César Chávez lobbied to end the Bracero Program. Later he helped found the United Farm Workers movement.

According to Andrés Manuel López Obrador, mayor of Mexico City, the main reason there have not been bursts of social unrest in Mexico is due to Mexican migration to the United States. Mexico has been the single largest contributor of immigrants to the U.S. At least four million Mexicans immigrated to the United States in the 1980s: 45% of the nine million immigrants who entered the country. During the 1990s, approximately five million Mexicans immigrated to the United States. In 2000, Mexican immigration is estimated to have been 350,000 and the most recent estimate (2004) is 500,000 per year.