Mexican Americans can be considered the first citizens of California and much of the western United States. Since the early days Mexican Americans have built up the western United Sates from raw land into growing and successful cities. Many European Americans claim that the Mexican Americans should go back home. Little do many Americans know that Mexican Americans have been here for hundreds of years and that their blood lineage leads back to the Native Americans. Despite these well known but also well forgotten facts the Mexican Americans have received Social Injustice. Mexican Americans in the early part of the twentieth century faced social injustice regarding restoration of land grants, farm workers rights, enhanced education and voting and political rights; however Mexican Americans since 1945 have started to overcome these struggles and have with the help of America created a more Mexican American friendly society.

The patience of many Mexican Americans in the southern most part of the United States was running thin. After the Mexican American War in the late part of the nineteenth century the United States government had signed the treaties of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the Gadsden. These treaties had promised that all land that belonged to the Mexican Americans would still be owned by the Mexican Americans. In plain and simple words it states, "The Mexicans who, in the territories aforesaid, shall not preserve the character of citizens of the Mexican Republic ... shall be incorporated into the Union of the United States and be admitted ... to the enjoyment of all the rights of citizens of the United States according to the principles of the Constitution; and in the meantime shall be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty and property, and secured in the free exercise of their religion without restriction (Treaty)." This treaty had not be recognized and respected as law. Originally by Spanish rule all land had been given to the land owners by a simple rule of grants. "These concessions, which received the name of grants [ mercedes ], were sometimes simple donations in reward for efforts in conquest and colonization, and other times true sales transactions. All private dominion over lands and waters in the Indies, therefore, derived directly or indirectly from royal grants." (1) One reason that this injustice had occurred is based on the way land was recorded by the Mexican Government and the way it was recorded by the American Government. When the transfer from Mexican American Geography and Land Ownership to the American way, many lands had been lost and given or sold ignorantly away by the American Government who didn't actually own or possess the land.

Still today many Mexican Americans have not received total reimbursement for the injustice. In the early forties according to Hispanic Online, María Ernestina Montoya, 90, has been fighting for land that was taken away for a "secret" government project, later to be known as the Manhattan Project (Lopez). The Montoyas were given $750 plus the promise that their property would eventually be returned to them however after the Manhattan project was over the Government tried to sell that land and the land of others back to Los Alamos County. Despite this tragic event some Mexican Americans have come to the realization that perhaps the treaty just took place too long ago. For Example, Julius P. Arocha, a retired Marine Corps captain from Mission Viejo, California, researched his lineage and found that he was heir to 28,000 acres, on which now sit oil well, cities, and natural gas production plants. He claims that today you just can't go back and change stuff like this. It has been too long to have any effect. He states, "I can't go back and deal with land fraud that may have occurred 100 years ago. The statute of limitations has clearly run out. My efforts couldn't reverse that [fraud]," Not all Mexican Americans feel the same way and many have gone to the government for help and some have been successful. In February of 2000 New Mexico senators Jeff Bingaman and Pete Domenici produced legislation "to provide for the development of remedies to resolve unmet community land grant claims in New Mexico (Lopez)." Although nothing will probably solve the problem in its entirety many changes have taken place and have been built and structured in order to help solve the problem for future generations.

Although some resolutions have been found for the Mexican-Americans in terms of land rights there is still another social injustice which has been publicized much more. While Mexicans in Texas and other states were having problems with land rights, Mexicans in California were dealing with another very difficult issue. For decades thousands of Mexicans had been working in the agricultural fields of California will little rights and chance of getting out.

Farm workers in the early 1940's were divided into three major groups. The domestics, braceros and the undocumented migrants. The total number of farm workers was close to half a million. Despite this large force of hardworking people, employers cheated their employees out of money. For example, many times the Mexicans would be paid according to how much they could bring in. Many times the people who would weigh the products coming in would turn the scale away and pay the Mexicans less. Common occurrences like this frustrated the Mexican-Americans (Galarza). Not only this but many other forms of cheating out the Mexicans were developed. Poor housing conditions also contributed to the dissatisfaction of Mexican-Americans.
It wasn’t until 1965 that a strong leader for Mexican-American Rights took a stand. Ceazer Chaves a young man who believed in change encouraged Mexicans to strike and demand higher wages. The strikes lasted five years and became quite successful in terms of publishing the problem. It wasn’t until 1977 that an agreement was made and farm workers were satisfied. Chaves continued to work for farm workers across the United States until his death in 1993 (Sahlman).

Political activism has also been a struggle for many Mexican-Americans. Due to the great depression a great number of native born Mexican Americans, many political leaders were lost for various reasons and it wasn’t until the 1960’s and after seeing the great power the African Americans had that leaders decided to take action. Many leaders were convinced that Mexican Americans could never adapt to the structure of Anglo society and that equality could only be accomplished by establishing Mexican American leaders into government positions (Marquez).

Over the years many political parities have come out against the Democratic and Republican parties however it wasn’t until the “La Raza Unida Party” was established that a minority ethnic group had its own political party. This political party had an impact when it started in 1970 until its demise in the 1980’s. (Navarro)

The “La Raza Unida Party” party came after leaders of Mexican American rights realized that the traditional way of obtaining political power in such parties as the Republican and Democratic parties was doing little to help solve the problems their people were facing. Slowly little political parties sprouted out of small towns and areas in the western untied states. The official “La Raza” party was established in San Francisco, the home of liberals and also many Mexican Americans. The official “La Raza Unida Party” website quotes that they, “took a more militant line, organizing under working class issues and emphasizing the development of a Chicano Mexicano ideological line. (Ayala)” In Colorado the party was built by a political rights leader Corky Gonzales and in Texas the party was developed with the help of City Councils, Local area leaders and a youthful leader, José Angel Gutiérrez. José Gutiérrez was president of MAYO (Mexican American Youth Organization) a very popular youth organization. The flames that had been developed in California, Colorado and Texas quickly spead through the rest of the southwestern United States. Chapters existed or became existent all over California. In Los angles alone thirty chapters existed and many others through out the rest of the state. La Raza Unida Party held its first National Convention in 1972. The main figures were José Angel Gutiérrez, Corky Gonzales, Reyes López Tijerina, and agricultural rights leader César Chávez. This organization is built on many different levels and is structured so that all Mexican Americans take part. Basically, there are student organizations, agencies, mainstream political organization, and independent community organizations. Student organizations are encouraged because of the impact they can have on the upcoming generations.
Today this political party is built around the needs of the people and not of the requests of other political parties. Benjamin Marquez in his essay Representation by Other Means: Mexican American and Puerto Rican Social Movement Organizations, explained the modern movement like this, ”Mexican American political organizations today serve a population increasingly differentiated along the lines of class, gender, and occupation. Mexican American business and professional associations, like their Anglo counterparts, advance their members' economic interests through lobbying, advocacy, and networking. Several women's organizations, notably the Mothers of East Los Angeles and the Mexican American Women's National Association-the only Mexican American organization to maintain a continuous presence in Washington, DC, since the collapse of the Chicano Movement-have established reputations as important players in local and national politics (Marquez).”

The leaders of the Mexican American communities have realized that the future is in the hands of our progenitors, our children. While most of the world has been trying to create better classrooms and schools the Mexican-Americans have also tried to accomplish such things. The Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO) is only a small example of such interest in the youth of today. Sometime after World War Two many teachers would place their Chicano students into separate classrooms to allow them to learn separately from others. Although I feel many people had good intentions, the best way to learn is not to isolate the student from the objects they are to learn (English) and not to isolate them from classroom students. In 1948, the League of United Latin American Citizens, assisted in a lawsuit that eventuated in a federal district court decision prohibiting school segregation based on Mexican ancestry (Bender). Today many Mexican Americans receive special help with the language and within a few years they are participating regularly with other students.


Work Cited:

(1) Translated from José Fuentes Mares, "Ensayo . . ." p. 17. For definitions of words left in Spanish, see glossary.

Ayala, Xenaro. "A Brief History of La Raza Unida." Partido Nacional De La Raza Unida. 19 Apr. 2003 <http://larazaunida.tripod.com/hist.htm>.

Bender, Pennee and Joshua Brown and Roy Rosenzweig. "Fighting Discrimination in Mexican American Education." History Matters. 19 Apr. 2003 <http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6584/>.

Galarza, Ernesto. Farm Workers and Agri-business in California, 1947-1960. London: University of Notre Dame Press, 1977
Lopez, Lalo. "Legacy of a Land Grab." Hispanic Heritage Plaza. 19 Apr. 2003 <http://www.hispaniconline.com/hh02/ history_legacy_guadalupe_hidalgo.html>.

Marquez, Benjamin and James Jennings. "Representation by Other Means: Mexican American and Puerto Rican Social Movement Organizations." PS Online. 19 Apr. 2003 http://www.apsanet.org/PS/sept00/marquez.cfm.

Navarro, Armando. "La Raza Unida Party." La Voz de Aztlan. 19 Apr. 2003 http://aztlan.net/lrupbook.htm.

Sahlman, Rachel. "Cesar Chavez." SPECTRUM Home & School Magazine. [http://www.incwell.com/Spectrum.html] (4-5-04). © K. B. Shaw

"The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo." 2 Feb. 1848

© Copyright 2004, John Heathcote. All Rights Reserved.