scholarly journals Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture, and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1945Walls and Mirrors: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the Politics of Ethnicity

1997 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-93
Author(s):  
Dennis N. Valdés
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
Mexican Immigrants ◽  
American Ethnicity

The Ambivalent Minority: Mexican Americans and the Voting Rights Act

1994 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Skerry
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
San Antonio ◽  
Voting Rights Act ◽  
News Magazine ◽  
The People ◽  
Political Orientations ◽  
Rich History

In the countless conversations about U.S. immigration policy that I have had with Mexican Americans of varied backgrounds and political orientations, seldom have my interlocutors failed to remind me that “We were here first,” or that “This was our land and you stole it from us.” Even a moderate Mexican American politician like former San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros sounds the same theme in a national news magazine:It is no accident that these regions have the names they do—Los Angeles, San Francisco, Colorado, Montana.…It is a rich history that Americans have been led to believe is an immigrant story when, in fact, the people who built this area in the first place were Hispanics.

Mexican American Identity: Regional Differentiation in New Mexico

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Casandra D. Salgado
Keyword(s):  
New Mexico ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
Mexican Immigrants ◽  
Ethnic Identification ◽  
Regional Differentiation ◽  
Defensive Strategy ◽  
Long Time ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mexican American Identity

Existing research inadequately addresses the variation in Mexican Americans’ patterns of ethnic identification. Drawing on 78 interviews, I address this question by exploring how conceptions of ancestry and nationality shape ethnic identification among New Mexico’s long-standing Mexican American population, Nuevomexicanos. I find that Nuevomexicanos emphasized their ties to Spanish heritage within the history of New Mexico to explain their ethnicity and to construct their identity in opposition to Mexican immigrants. Although Nuevomexicanos varied in their claims to Mexican ancestry, they generally prioritized their roots in the original Spanish settlement of New Mexico to emphasize distinctions in ancestry, nationality, and regionality from Mexican immigrants. Moreover, despite Nuevomexicanos’ persistent claims to Spanish ancestry, they did not perceive themselves as racially White. Instead, Spanish ancestry was integral to Nuevomexicano identity because it enabled them to highlight their regional ties to New Mexico and long-time American identities. Thus, I argue that Nuevomexicanos’ enduring claims to Spanish ancestry represent a defensive strategy to enact dissociation from stigmatized Mexican immigrants. Overall, these findings show that Mexican Americans’ dissociation strategies are contingent on how they define themselves as members of an ethnic and national community. These findings also indicate that “Mexican American” as an identity term is a loosely maintained membership category among “Mexican Americans” because of their intragroup heterogeneity.

Attitudes About Immigration

2019 ◽  
pp. 146-177
Author(s):  
Edward Telles ◽  
Christina A. Sue
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Group ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
Mexican Immigrants ◽  
American Identity ◽  
American Population ◽  
Attitudes Toward Immigrants ◽  
Small Minority ◽  
Mexican Heritage ◽  
The Media

This chapter addresses Mexican Americans’ attitudes about Mexican immigrants in the context of mass immigration. In addition to the boundary that exists between persons of Mexican heritage and non-Latinos, there is another important social boundary operating that highlights Mexican Americans’ understandings of their own ethnicity and American identity—the boundary between Mexican immigrants and themselves. Study respondents displayed a broad range of attitudes toward immigrants, illustrating the internal diversity of the Mexican American population, which runs contrary to their treatment in the media as a homogeneous ethnic group in terms of attitudes, politics, and voting. This chapter also demonstrates the underlying ideologies, philosophies, and rationales that respondents used to justify their immigration positions: whereas many framed their views based on American ideals, only a small minority framed them in terms of their ethnicity, basing their perceptions in an understanding of Mexican immigrants as co-ethnics.

English Skills, Earnings, and the Occupational Sorting of Mexican Americans along the U.S.-Mexico Border

2000 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto Dávila ◽  
Marie T. Mora
Keyword(s):  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
Mexican Immigrants ◽  
Labor Market Outcomes ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Market Outcomes ◽  
Mexico Border ◽  
Language Region ◽  
Occupational Sorting ◽  
The U.S

While English proficiency enhances labor market outcomes, its role in minority-language regions remains largely unexplored. Employing the U.S.-Mexico border as a minority-language region, we analyze whether English skills differently affect the earnings and occupational sorting of Mexican Americans along the border relative to their non-border peers. We find comparable English deficiency earnings penalties for Mexican immigrants, suggesting that this group responds to English-specific regional wage gaps. U.S.-born men, however, have a larger earnings penalty along the border, possibly reflecting natives’ relative immobility owing to strong geographic preferences. Occupational sorting exercises give credence to this interpretation for native Mexican American females.

Generations of Segregation

2019 ◽  
pp. 210-241
Author(s):  
George J. Sanchez
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
American Citizenship ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Film Making ◽  
The City

Los Angeles was built by immigrants from the U.S. South, Asia, and especially Mexico. After 1900 the city grew as a rail terminus, Pacific port, and tourist destination. It became a focus of film making and petroleum production, and developed booming defense industries during World War II and the Cold War. Marketed as the city of dreams, continuing immigration made it increasingly Mexican while Mexicans faced residential segregation that constrained educational chances, economic opportunities, and political participation. Fragmented urban administration allowed Realty Boards and County officials to limit Mexican-American (and African-American) citizenship despite national civil rights policies promoting integration and participation. When defense, energy, and other industries declined in the turn to globalization, African American (1973-93) and Mexican American (2005-13) mayors offered images of opening while enduring segregation constrained education, employment, and life opportunities for Mexican-Americans and African Americans. New immigrants from Mexico, Central America and beyond faced lives of marginality.

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