Mexican American Civil Rights & the Cold War

The Post War Era-1950s

Major Themes The continuation of the Bracero Program was controversial and pitted the

desire for low-paid labor against the interests of American born farm workers of Mexican descent, amongst other groups.

The Cold War communist threat created a need to present American society as full of opportunity to an international audience. Discrimination against Mexicans made this much more difficult.

During the Cold War being associated with communism could ruin your career, turn people away from your cause and result in deportation. These threats contributed to a widespread emphasis on patriotism and assimilation in the Mexican community.

Mexicans used their status as veterans to demand equal treatment under the law during the 1940s and 1950s.

The Mexican American Civil Rights Struggle, like that of African Americans, began during the 1950s.

Mexican American Civil Rights activists pursued significant changes in American society and an end to discrimination.

They also based much of their reasoning on the idea that Mexicans were entitled to equal treatment under the law because they were members of the Caucasian race. They often did explicitly confront and oppose white

supremacy.

Key Questions What were the controversies that surrounded the Bracero

Program? Why did it continue for 22 years? How was the Cold War and the threat of communism used to

support integration? How was it used to support segregation? Who was Felix Longoria? Where was he buried? Why? What

national and international factors shaped where he was buried? What effects did the Red Scare have on Mexican community

advocates and union organizers? When did the Civil Rights Movement take place? How can Civil

Rights be defined? How was it different from Black Power? When was the Mexican American Civil Rights period? What

was the relationship between Mexican American activists and race?

What was desegregated for Mexicans as a result of the Hernandez v. Texas case? What was meant by the phrase “a class apart”?

Bracero Program Continues

Braceros being fumigated with DDT upon entering the United States at El Paso. (1956)

DDT is an insecticide banned for use in the US since 1972.

Housing provided to Braceros in Texas. These are beds made of “stretched canvas

both upper and lower”(1956)

The Cold War & Race

The idea that integration and communism were linked is represented in the photos above. In contrast, the newspaper headlines below exemplify the opposite view, that segregation aided

the spread of communism.

The Felix Longoria Affair

The Red Scare and Civil Rights

Civil Rights Movement

Experiences of Segregation

Restaurant Wall, Dimmit, TX-1949

Tarrant County Courthouse, Fort Worth,

TX-1942

Mexican American Civil Rights & Defining Whiteness

Social Construction of Race & Hernandez v. Texas

Attorney Gus Garcia Arguing the Hernandez v. Texas Case

Attorney Gus Garcia, Defendant Pete

Hernandez and Attorney John Herrera

Further ReadingAllsup, Carl. The American G.I. Forum: Origins and Evolution. Austin: Center for Mexican

American Studies, The University of Texas at Austin, 1982.Carroll, Patrick James. Felix Longoria's Wake: Bereavement, Racism, and the Rise of

Mexican American Activism. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2003.Delgado, Richard, and Jean Stefancic. Critical race theory: the cutting edge.

Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2000.Dudziak, Mary L. Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy.

Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.García, Ignacio M. White but Not Equal: Mexican Americans, Jury Discrimination, and

the Supreme Court. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2009.García, Mario T. Mexican Americans: Leadership, Ideology & Identity, 1930-1960. New

Haven: Yale University Press, 1989.Olivas, Michael, ed. Colored Men and Hombres Aquí: Hernández V. Texas and The

Emergence of Mexican American Lawyering. Houston: Arte Publico Press, 2006.Strum, Philippa. Mendez V. Westminster: School Desegregation and Mexican-American

Rights. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2010.Wollenberg, Charles. All Deliberate Speed: Segregation and Exclusion in California

Schools, 1855-1975. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976.Zamora, Emilio, and Juan Gomez Quinones. Claiming Rights and Righting Wrongs in

Texas: Mexican Workers and Job Politics During World War II. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2009.