Broadening of the campaigns for civil rights - Race - OCR AHispanic Americans

Migration to the USA

Hispanic Americans are immigrants to the USA, from Spanish-speaking countries in Central and South America, or are children of these immigrants who were born in the USA. The majority can trace their heritage to Mexico. However, there have been millions of immigrants to America from other Spanish-speaking countries, such as Guatemala and Cuba.

Migration across the Mexican-American border had occurred for many years, but it boomed in the 1960s and 1970s. The states closest to the Mexican border, such as Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas, where the majority of these people chose to settle.

This migration was caused by many factors, such as:

• a lack of wealth in these countries compared to the USA
• the opportunity to earn higher wages and send money to relatives outside the USA

Another contributing factor was the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act. It:

• ended restrictions on how many people from countries south of America could migrate north
• introduced rules that allowed family members of Hispanic Americans already in America to reunite north of the border and become US citizens

Immigration

The Hispanic American community increased throughout the 1960s and 1970s, as people immigrated to the USA. It is almost impossible to calculate the exact number of people who moved in this period, as both legal and illegal immigration were happening. Records show that:

• by 1978 there were over 7 million Hispanic people living in America. By 1980 there were over 1 million in the city of Los Angeles alone
• By 1980, numbering 14.8 million people, Hispanics made up just 6.5 per cent of the total US population

Origins of the Chicano civil rights movement

Hispanic Americans' standard of living in the USA was far below that of most white Americans. They were discriminated against in employment, education and politics. As African Americans fought for improvement in their standards of living, Hispanic Americans were influenced to do the same. Their efforts became known as the Chicano movement.

Employment

Many Hispanic Americans came to America to work in agriculture to support the war effort during World War Two. In 1942 the US and Mexican governments agreed the Bracero programme, which brought thousands of Mexicans to work as contract labourers on US farms. They kept these roles after the war, but the low wages in agriculture and manual labour employment created frustration in the community.

There was a much higher rate of unemployment in the Hispanic community in comparison to the white community. It was difficult to find employment in the agricultural and manual industries as a trade union member. This meant that Hispanic workers often rejected memberships of trade unions and went without the protection that this could provide, such as the ability to collectively negotiate higher wages.

Education

Many schools were segregated, which meant that Hispanic schools received much lower levels of funding and teaching standards than schools for white Americans.

Hispanic Americans found it difficult to reach higher education establishments, such as universities. This was because their substandard facilities and resources restricted their ability to gain high grades.

Politics

The 1965 Voting Rights Act gave people over the age of 21 the right to vote. However, it wasn’t until 1975 that the law was amended to allow registration documents to be translated into languages other than English. For this reason, many Hispanic Americans could not vote until 1975.

As so few of them could vote, they were underrepresented by politicians in local and national government. This meant that their community had a small political voice.