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""Leno and Maria: A Success Story"" by Vincent P. Cano - 1985
Page 32
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CHAPTER TEN LENO AND MARIA The history of emigration from Mexico can be divided into three migration movements with two deportation periods seperating them. The deportation periods being a result of the tendencies of Americans in the Southwest and in general relative to needs of the railroad, agriculture, and mining in a seeking out and then expelling out of the Mexican. Mexicans from central and eastern border states in Mexico migrating at the turn of the century to the United States comprise the first wave of migration. A much larger wave came about during the Mexican Revolution continuing through 1920. The majority of the Zeferinos, Lenos, and Marias came from northern border states and from west central Mexico during this wave, These immigrants, because of its volumn, were able to give the Mexican American culture much of its specific shape and present day flavor. The third movement consisted of braceros (temporary Immigrants) and mojados (illegal immigrants) who came during and after World War II. This third movement migrated for economic reasons rather than sociopolitical conditions, which was a common characteristic of the previous two movements. Previous to Leno and Maria's migration, a number of coinciding factors developed that created a surplus of workers in Mexico to fill the demand for labor in the United States. For example, the overthrowing of the peonage system resulting from the Mexican Revolution, physically displaced the peon in addition to freeing him, While the Revolution released the peon, demand for workers in the Southwest made the move northward quite attractive to them . In the United States, the total farm acreage in the west tripled between 1870 and 1900 and lands under irrigation increased from 6,000 to 1,466,000 acres. Because of the Dingley Tariff in 1897 resulting in the establishment of protective sugar rates, sugar beat acreages expanded rapidly. Competition of western railroad networks similarly put unskilled labor at a premium when Oriental immigration dropped. In the 1870s during the severe depression, nativistic-orientated unions of the pacific coast took notice of the low wage and standard of living the overflow of Chinese labor was creating. Reacting to the unions and other exclusionist groups, the United States congress passed a gentleman's agreement with Japan which left a vacuum in western labor by 1910. The dispossed and displaced from Mexico quickly frilled in this vacuum. About 1900, the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe railroads seriously began soliciting Mexican workers at El Paso, Texas. When World War I erupted in Europe, the United States became chief suppliers to the Allies. What this did was to increase the demand for industrial as well as agricultural workers. Trans-Atlantic immigration practically stopped due to the war plus many Americans were transfered from the labor market to the armed forces. Additional Mexicans were recruited to supply the thousands of new workers needed. They worked in California's diversiffied agriculture, Colorado beet fields, Arizona and New Mexico copper mines, in northeastern iron foundaries, and appalachian coal 32
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CHAPTER TEN LENO AND MARIA The history of emigration from Mexico can be divided into three migration movements with two deportation periods seperating them. The deportation periods being a result of the tendencies of Americans in the Southwest and in general relative to needs of the railroad, agriculture, and mining in a seeking out and then expelling out of the Mexican. Mexicans from central and eastern border states in Mexico migrating at the turn of the century to the United States comprise the first wave of migration. A much larger wave came about during the Mexican Revolution continuing through 1920. The majority of the Zeferinos, Lenos, and Marias came from northern border states and from west central Mexico during this wave, These immigrants, because of its volumn, were able to give the Mexican American culture much of its specific shape and present day flavor. The third movement consisted of braceros (temporary Immigrants) and mojados (illegal immigrants) who came during and after World War II. This third movement migrated for economic reasons rather than sociopolitical conditions, which was a common characteristic of the previous two movements. Previous to Leno and Maria's migration, a number of coinciding factors developed that created a surplus of workers in Mexico to fill the demand for labor in the United States. For example, the overthrowing of the peonage system resulting from the Mexican Revolution, physically displaced the peon in addition to freeing him, While the Revolution released the peon, demand for workers in the Southwest made the move northward quite attractive to them . In the United States, the total farm acreage in the west tripled between 1870 and 1900 and lands under irrigation increased from 6,000 to 1,466,000 acres. Because of the Dingley Tariff in 1897 resulting in the establishment of protective sugar rates, sugar beat acreages expanded rapidly. Competition of western railroad networks similarly put unskilled labor at a premium when Oriental immigration dropped. In the 1870s during the severe depression, nativistic-orientated unions of the pacific coast took notice of the low wage and standard of living the overflow of Chinese labor was creating. Reacting to the unions and other exclusionist groups, the United States congress passed a gentleman's agreement with Japan which left a vacuum in western labor by 1910. The dispossed and displaced from Mexico quickly frilled in this vacuum. About 1900, the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe railroads seriously began soliciting Mexican workers at El Paso, Texas. When World War I erupted in Europe, the United States became chief suppliers to the Allies. What this did was to increase the demand for industrial as well as agricultural workers. Trans-Atlantic immigration practically stopped due to the war plus many Americans were transfered from the labor market to the armed forces. Additional Mexicans were recruited to supply the thousands of new workers needed. They worked in California's diversiffied agriculture, Colorado beet fields, Arizona and New Mexico copper mines, in northeastern iron foundaries, and appalachian coal 32
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