The Effect Of The Great Depression On Mexican Americans

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Being a different skin color or just coming from another country during the Great Depression, just meant that jobs the opportunity available for you would be that much slimmer to obtain. Its as if history was repeating itself, like the time when African American slaves were freed, but were never freed to choose what they would want to work in, because the hardships of the white men would always be blame at the black men. Which is what happened during the great depression for many Mexicans, they were blame for why the Great Depression was happening. Also as Acuna puts it “the ugly head of racist nativism revealed itself” (216). Many Mexicans were deported back to their homeland, even if their children were born in America, it didn’t matter, …show more content…
These type of remarks just sounded childish to me, because for one how could Americans blame a race for the problem that the country was having, it just doesn’t seem logical. It all comes down to finding the perfect candidate to put all the blame on, and the most reasonable one at the time was Mexicans. In Occupied America it stats that “once the government removed the Japanese, Mexican Americans became the country’s scapegoats of choice” (Acuna 248). What this meant for many Mexican Americans is that the future for them in America was no more. The line of division between Mexicans and White Americans just became that much greater. This just created more problems for the country that seem to never end. We can go on and on talking about the restrictions being created against Mexicans, but the fact is that racism was a factor in blaming the Mexicans for …show more content…
Since America wasn’t providing any support only a feeling of unwanted many Mexicans during that time period, seeked ways to help each other. Groups of support were created throughout the country (Acuna 252). What seems very disturbing to me is that, what did the Mexican community do to deserve such poor treatment that drove them to create support groups of their own during the great depression. Not only was the Mexican community affected, but were trying to find solutions to their problems instead dwelling in their misfortune. They had no other option other than to stay together and ride out the great depression. A great example stated by Acuna he said “it was common for three and even four generations to live together as a household” (Acuna 214). During the tough times for many families came together to work as an unit. Everyone in the family had an obligation to bring money to the household and make sacrifices for the greater cause of the family. The more harsh jobs got towards mexicans the more they seek unions for support, it was a form to fight back.These unions represented the voices of so many mexicans who were unable to fight back, but what all these unions had in common was that they preached as state

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