Rebirth: Mexican Los Angeles from the great migration to the Great Depression

670 Pages·1999·2.77 MB·English

by  Douglas Monroy

Rebirth : Mexican Los Angeles From the
title:
Great Migration to the Great Depression
author: Monroy, Douglas.
publisher: University of California Press
isbn10 | asin: 0520213335
print isbn13: 9780520213333
ebook isbn13: 9780585121543
language: English
Mexican Americans--California--Los
Angeles--History--20th century, Mexican
Americans--California--Los Angeles--
subject Ethnic identity, Immigrants--California--
Los Angeles--History--20th century, Los
Angeles (Calif.)--Ethnic relations, Mexico--
Emigration and immi
publication date: 1999
F869.L89M455 1999eb
lcc: F869.L89M455 1999eb
ddc: 979.4/940046872073
Mexican Americans--California--Los
Angeles--History--20th century, Mexican
Americans--California--Los Angeles--
subject: Ethnic identity, Immigrants--California--
Los Angeles--History--20th century, Los
Angeles (Calif.)--Ethnic relations, Mexico--
Emigration and immi
Page iii
Rebirth
Mexican Los Angeles from the Great Migration to the
Great Depression
Douglas Monroy
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley · Los Angeles · London
Page iv
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 1999 by
The Regents of the University of California
Grateful acknowledgment is made for the use of material from Jimmy
Santiago Baca, Immigrants in Our Own Land. Copyright © 1982 by
Jimmy Santiago Baca. Reprinted by permission of New Directions
Publishing Corp. Thanks also to Simon Ortiz for permission to
include excerpts of his poems, which originally appeared in Woven
Stone, published by the University of Arizona Press, 1992.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Monroy, Douglas.
Rebirth: Mexican Los Angeles from the great migration to
the Great Depression / Douglas Monroy.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-520-21332-7 (alk. paper). ISBN 0-520-211333-5
(alk. paper)
1. Mexican AmericansCaliforniaLos Angeles
History20th century. 2. Mexican AmericansCalifornia
Los AngelesEthnic identity 3. ImmigrantsCalifornia
Los AngelesHistory20th century. 4. Los Angeles
(Calif.)Ethnic relations. 5. MexicoEmigration and
immigrationHistory20th century. 6. Los Angeles
(Calif.)Emigration and immigrationHistory20th
century.
1. Title.
F869.L89M455 1999
979.4'940046872073dc21 98-50013
CIP
Printed in the United States of America
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements
of American National Standards for Information SciencesPermanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Page v
For my children,
Mara and Luis
Page vii
Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Introduction 1
1. The Making of México de Afuera 7
2. Born by the River: The Great Migration from Mexico to 67
Southern California
3. "Like Swallows at the Old Mission": Mexicans and the 112
Politics of the Labor Market
4. "Our Children Get So Different Here": Parents and 165
Children in México de Afuera
5. The Political Passions of México de Afuera 208
En Fin: The Trajectories of Mexican History in Los 257
Angeles
Notes 271
Glossary 301
Bibliography 305
Index 319
Page ix
Illustrations
Map
Mexican Los Angeles 16
Photographs
1. Mexican workers building the Los Angeles Railroad 9
2. Old adobe houses from Mexican Los Angeles 15
3. Old adobe with teatro ad 18
4. Southern California agricultural workers' camp 22
5. Hanging out in La Placita 26
6. Broad view of La Placita 26
7. Teatro Hidalgo at 373 North Main Street 41
8. La gente bién at a gala movie opening 42
9. Parade in honor of the Virgin of Guadalupe 53
10. Bert Colima squares off against Mickey Walker 57
11. Opening of the Los Angeles Aqueduct 72
12. Mexican Revolution battlefield 86
13. Refugees crossing the border 86
14. Yaqui Indians ready to fight the Mexican army 91
15. Dolores del Río in Evangelina 170
16. La Excelsa Dolores del Río 171
17. María Alba and Dolores del Río 172
18. A classroom 199
19. A queen of an honorific society and her court 205
20. The ILGWU float at the 1938 Labor Day parade 237
21. Speaking for the union in La Placita 243
22. Zoot Suit Riots 264
23. Zoot Suit Riots 264
24. Lupe Velez 266
Page 1
Introduction
This is an old story about people who leave their homeland for some
new place. A story ages as it survives over time. This signifies that the
story lives. If it is alive, then it is always growing and changing, like
all living things, in response to the urgencies of the moment. Which is
why this old story can be retold here, and will be told again later, in
different ways, for different purposes.
Here, the purposes turn on muted intentions, earnest re-creations, and
unintended consequences for people who moved from Mexico to a
place where they tried to re-create the familiar. Mexican people came
al norte, to the north, to continue in life as they had known it, or
imagined that it had been or could be.
This story, and indeed other histories of the Mexican people of the
United States, has been increasingly well told in recent years. The
book in hand could not have happened without the efforts of my
predecessors. This book is not an argument with any of them, only a
building on the foundations that they have laid. The social scientific
study, the oppression-resistance dichotomy, and how Mexicans
responded to their second-class status in America have each provided
points of departure for such works. More recent writers have
concentrated on issues of identity and culture, orwith the knowledge
of the usual outcome of the immigrant experienceon the creation of
something new, in this case, the Mexican Americans. I mention first
the fine books by my two friends and colleagues Ricardo Romo and
George Sánchez, which treat much the