Field Notes 5

During the Great Depression Mexican American had to take their children to work to get some more money. Soon Mexican American children, along with other non-white children, were often not allowed in white schools.


During the Great Depression Mexican American Farmer were usually living in spartan shacks. Water had to be carried from rivers or ditch, exposing themselves sickness because of the farming chemicals.

The man in the picture used to work in the farm in which he had to do works that Californian farmers claimed white men could and should not be hired to do.
Why? Because they claimed that Mexican were physically "suited" for that kind of jobs. The man in the picture was performing the kind of back-breaking.
During the great depression it was the only job Mexican American could find.

Most of the Mexican Americans where deported to Mexico by the government plan using "repatriation" which plan was to send Mexican immigrants back to Mexico in busloads and boxcars.

Field note 3

This picture is showing a family that had to be evacuated from their home. Instead of living in their vehicles like most families, I’m guessing the didn’t have a vehicle of their own, they had to reside in a tent on side of the road.




This picture is showing Mexicans leaving or they might have been deported Someone has to evacuate them from the US to Mexico because they obviously cant afford to make it in the US so they just left




This picture shown above is showing a parent with their infant child. Times were so hard during the great depression that people were evacuated from their homes and live in their vehicles on side of the road.




This picture is showing a 2 Mexican men that are unemployed whit a sing around there neck saying they need a job or is in desperate there standing outside on a corner Things were so hard during the great depression that the unemployed had hard time finding food, so they saw the opportunity of free food and they jumped at the chance to get some free food.




This picture is shown of a mother that has no food to feed her 2 children during the time of the great depression. I think she is just think and wishing that she had a better life not just her but just her kids



This picture is in November 8, 1932 showing two Mexican American people (Unidentified) that are walking back to Mexico because they couldn’t support there self whit no job and the Govern wasn’t doing anything to fix it. They can’t support there self financially because of all the employment that was going on during the great depression.

Field Notes 4

Here we see a family of Mexican migrant workers outside of their shack in the 1930's California. They spend their time outside thinking what other jobs they could do, or find, in order to bring in money so they can support their family of seven. Even if it means living in a poorly constructed shack for their Bosses

Children playing baseball in a Mexican slum located in 1930’s California. These children spend their time playing sports and do not worry about the economic disaster that just hit America; while a parent (seen in the background) is working with metal.

1933 California, 3 boys are sitting down on the back of a rusty, beat down truck in central California. The parents of these boys are crossing the state to a job location north of here. When I asked, “What do you do for a home?” they replied “This truck is our only home now.”

A man, shown here, is holding his child next to his car and little house in 1932 on the border of California and Nevada. This man is taking care of his only child while his wife is working as a servant for a rich White family in California. This man lost his job and is hiding from government officials so he will not get deported to Mexico and leave his only child alone.

1932 South California, here we see dozens of Mexican Americans being deported back to Mexico after the government issued a mass deportation of the Mexican race. Even children are left waiting here and some have been born in America and are legal Americans.

1933 Central California, here we see two families of Mexican Americans traveling in a small car to San Francisco, on their way to meet up with a man who is willing to give them jobs, at the cost of living in poor conditions. As I ask them why they go, they simply say “We need the job in order to provide for our family with anything they need during these difficult times.”

Related Links

http://www.museumca.org/picturethis/3_2.html

http://www.memory.loc.gov/learn///features/immig/mexican6.html

http://www.millercenter.org/academic/americanpresident/fdroosevelt/essays/biography/8

http://www.irwinator.com/126/wdoc135.htm

http://www.understandingrace.org/history/gov/great_depression_ww2.html

Field Notes 2

This is a Relief line that was meant for Mexican Americans to stand there and wait for a chance to step into the office where they would give them jobs in San Antonio, Texas in 1930 since so many people were jobless.



These Mexican Americans were on the side of a building in San Antonio, Texas also in 1930. They were waiting there so hopefully someone would come by and help them in some way, shape, or form since no one could find jobs.



These were a group of Mexicans picking cotton down in Imperial Valley, California in 1933. They took these jobs because there were so little jobs that they took whatever they could no matter how hard or unfair the jobs were.



This group of Mexicans could find no work so they put up signs asking for people food or a job if they could find one. This was also in Imperial Valley, California in 1933.



These people were so desperate for work that they would go out into fields and pick crops and whatever else they could get for $1.75 a day. Imperial Valley, California 1933.



This family was moving from Texas to Wyoming looking for a job in 1934. The jobs in Texas were taken up or out and so they had no other choice but to move by loading up everything in their truck and hitting they highway.

Field notes 1

A police officer is escorting some Mexicans to a train leading out of America to Mexico, as the sign in the background states America couldn’t even handle their own during the depression.



Two Mexican children play in the dirt with each other at a camp where the poor would go for free food, shelter and clothes during the great depression.



Here a small Latino child helps his father pick carrots in a field to help out, in the 1930’s it wasn’t uncommon to see children working to help support their families.




Mexican peasants line up for a picture during their travels back to Mexico to try and escape the hardships of the depression. They seem to have it better off then most.



A group of Mexican immigrants are having car troubles on a dusty road during the Depression due to the struggles.





This single mother looks very worried because she probably can’t provide for her children at the camp she’s at; from the looks of it she’s poor and has little money.

Mexicans During The Great Deppression

The great depression was one of the toughest struggles in America, it started because of the stock market crash on October 29^th 1929; also known as black Tuesday. The dust bowl that wiped out crops didn’t help either. All ethnicities, genders and ages were affected harshly by this, and didn’t start onto the path of recovery until 1933 when the New Age laws were passed and America slowly started the climb back onto their feet. On the 29^th president Hoover was in office and everyone used him as a scapegoat; blaming it all on him- it wasn’t until Franklin Roosevelt was admitted into office that things started to get better.

Mexican Americans didn’t have the best lives even before The Great Depression. Many Anglos felt threatened by their presence and by their ability to work hard jobs and succeed in them so as many as “473 per 100,000 of population” were lynched with unfair or no trials at all. Many of the killings were carried out by the Texas Ranges who were supposed to uphold the law, but since racism was very common almost anyone who was not white was treated unfairly and was sometimes exempt from “normal” law and were tried to laws or rules that didn’t exist. Anti-Mexican mob violence and intimidation resulted in Mexicans being displaced from their lands, denied access to natural resources, and becoming politically disenfranchised.

Because of the Great-Depression the U. S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) adopted a policy of repatriation, reporting more than 250,000 Mexicans residing in the United States. Texas used Rangers to forcibly evict Mexicans who refused to accept voluntary repatriation, while Illinois, Indiana and Michigan paid for special trains to take Mexicans to the border. This happened because at that time these Latino families were accused of taking away all the job opportunities and government benefits from the so-called "real" Americans. Thus all these Mexican-Americans were repatriated or relocated even though more than half of these citizens were legal United States citizens. Herbert Hoover who was the President of United States at this time supported this acts.

The Mexican Americans during the Great Depression were having a hard time finding a steady job to support their families. This was due to the fact that most Mexican Americans were deported back to Mexico because they were the majority of unemployed workers in California, and also discrimination between Whites and Mexicans; where the White people would accuse Mexicans of stealing jobs that were originally for White people. So in order to survive they offered to work in horrible conditions that other ethnicities would not do, and work with little or no pay. Also, agriculture was not affected as much by the Dust Bowl in California where the majority of Mexicans were located, so they took advantage of farming and tried to profit from it. The majority of the Mexican Americans felt betrayed because of the massive deportation that they received, but of the Mexicans that remained in America they found whatever jobs they could find.

Well I think the governor should of took a bigger roll in the Great Depression In the 1930s it said that the Government deported more than 500,000 Mexican-Americans this was called the Mexican Repatriation I think instead of just sending them back for no reason just because they were Mexican he could of thought of something better like I think he should of open more opportunities meaning like jobs because that’s what people were struggling to find.