Primary Source Set
Mexican American Migrations and Communities

The resources in this primary source set are intended for classroom use.
If your use will be beyond a single classroom, please review the copyright
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Teacher’s Guide

To help your students analyze these primary sources, get a graphic organizer
and guides: Analysis
Tool and Guides

What were the experiences of Mexican Americans in the 19th
and 20th centuries? What challenges did they face? What
communities, institutions, and culture did they create? What
records and documents were left of their lives, and what were
some reasons for the gaps in the record? There is no single
Mexican American story, but rather multiple ones that primary
sources can help illuminate.

Historical Background

According to the 2010 U.S. Census, there were independence in the mid-1830s and ultimately
nearly 32 million people of Mexican origin living joined the United States in 1845. Mexico did not
in the United States, of which approximately 37 percent were born outside the United States.
This broad, diverse population experienced—and also influenced—vast cultural and historical
changes over the past two hundred years.

The Border and Immigration

Mexican Americans living in the southwestern states
have said, “I didn’t cross the border, the border
crossed me.” What do they mean by this? Much of
the American Southwest was once Mexican territory.
Many families in that area date their residency in the
United States from the mid-19th century or before.

Texas, formerly part of Mexico, declared its independence in the mid-1830s and ultimately
joined the United States in 1845. Mexico did not immediately accept Texas’s independence, and
tensions between the United States and Mexico grew.

Border skirmishes and a variety of political
considerations eventually led to the U.S.-Mexican
War (1846-48), which ended with the signing of
the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. In this treaty, the
United States acquired more than 500,000 square
miles of Mexican territory—all or part of the current
states of Arizona, New Mexico, California, Nevada,
Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, and Texas. The United
States purchased another 30,000 square miles of
what is now Arizona and New Mexico in 1854, in
what today is known as the Gadsden Purchase.

Approximately 80,000 people who defined
themselves as Mexicans lived in the territories that
contract laborers, typically hired for short-term,
agricultural labor. At the height of this program,
which lasted until 1964, approximately 437,000
Mexican workers traveled annually to the United
States for jobs. During and after the war, people of
Mexican origin began to move beyond the Southwest
to the industrial Midwest. In the postwar period,
immigration continued, increasing and decreasing
with economic swings and changes in immigration
law and its enforcement.

Challenges

The 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo included
Of this population, about 100,000 were immigrants,
provisions that appeared to protect the property
rights of former Mexican citizens in the areas
annexed by the United States. U.S. courts, however
failed to support those rights. Many of the new
Americans lost their property in court decisions or
were ruined by the costs of litigation.

In addition to the struggles over land, Mexican
Americans and Anglo Americans in the Southwest
experienced discord. Friction was sparked, in part,
by religious differences, economic rivalries and
resentments, and ethnic prejudice and discrimination.

When immigration increased early in the 20th
century, some workers blamed Mexican Americans
and Mexican migrant workers for holding down
the wages in mining, agriculture, and other industries.
The influence of nativist groups as well as the
economic depression led to a forced repatriation
the cultures of both nations, from religious services program in the 1930s. Many people of Mexican
origin who had been in the United States for years
were forced to return to Mexico.

In the years following World War II, Mexican
Americans faced a variety of other challenges. These
included schools and other public facilities that were
segregated, as well as poor conditions and lower pay
in the economic sectors that employed many Mexican
Americans.

The search for social justice also affected Mexican
Americans. The civil rights movement of the 1950s
and 1960s had an impact on Mexican American
struggles. The Chicano movement also began in
the 1960s, when Mexican Americans advocated for
equality as well as the restoration of land grants
and other issues. The farmworkers’ movement
spearheaded by Cesar Chavez beginning in the early
1960s also brought attention to important issues
such as compensation and working conditions.

Culture and Public Service

Americans of Mexican descent were been part of
the fabric of American life throughout the 19th and
20th centuries, in small towns in the Southwest,
in the industrial cities of the Great Lakes, and
beyond. From the military to the arts, from politics
to business, science, and more, the contributions of
these earlier generations of Mexican Americans are
an essential part of the American story. Some highly
selective examples are:

• During World War II, about 350,000 Mexican
  Americans served in the U.S. military, with
  several receiving the Medal of Honor.
• Mexican Americans have served as members
  of the U.S. Congress, heads of cabinet
  departments, governors of states, members
  of state legislatures, mayors of cities large
  and small, and members of city councils.
  Representative Joe Baca served in the U.S.
  Congress for more than ten years, representing
  districts in California.
• Mexican Americans have excelled in all areas of
  the arts, including visual arts, the theater, music,
  literature, and dance. Today, writers such as as
  Sandra Cisneros and Pat Mora and artists such
  as Rafael López continue to explore the creative
  legacy of a cultural heritage that crosses borders.

Suggestions for Teachers

• Print and copy the maps in this set to show the shifting borders of the U.S. First, ask students to observe
  the maps closely to determine what happened to the size of the United States between 1830 and 1860. How
  did the United States gain these new lands? Then, ask them to think about who lived in these areas at the
  time the United States annexed them.
• Working alone or with a partner, each student should form a hypothesis about what happened to the people
  in these areas. Next, they should look for evidence in the remaining documents in the set or elsewhere to
  support or refute their hypotheses. Finally, ask students to list their remaining questions. Where might they
  find answers?
• Make the documents in this set available to students. Organize students into small groups and ask each
  group to focus on finding evidence related to one of two topics: (1) aspects of Mexican culture that have
  been maintained in the Mexican American community and (2) attitudes of the dominant (Anglo- American)
  culture toward Mexican Americans. When they have located evidence, ask each group to write a statement
  summarizing what they learned from their exploration of the documents. Once each group has agreed on
  a statement, assign them to create a mural that illustrates their statement. They may use the murals in
  the set for inspiration.
• The documents available in this set do not cover all aspects of the history of people of Mexican heritage in the
  United States. In addition, many of the documents were created by people outside the group under study.
  Teachers may want more advanced students to examine the documents as representative of a fragmentary
  historical record. Why is the historical record incomplete? Why were so many documents created by people
  who were not Mexican Americans? What does thinking about these questions suggest about gaps in the
  historical record? What is the relationship of immigrant populations to the historical record?

Additional Resources