Mexican American Immigrants

Words: 1048
Pages: 5

The Mexican Americans took advantage of the new immigration laws which ended European immigration. There was a demand for labor which favored the Mexican Americans and provided them with an opportunity to migrate to the Midwest to acquire an opportunity to work. Many labor demands came from the state of Texas and the Mexican American population increased in the area because of the opportunities to work. They were mostly found working in the farms or in the railroad sections. Winter Garden, the Lower Rio Grande Valley and the Gulf Coast because the areas of resources for the South West region. These farm zones provided opportunities to work such as harvesting, picking citrus fruits and also cotton production . Mexican American workers became …show more content…
The North became home to industrial labor such as steel mills, foundries and factories. The transition from agricultural workers to industrial workers signifies a drastic change in the Mexican American labor transitions. “The steady entrance of Mexicans into steelwork resumed after the 1920-1921 depression as employers began expanding their recruiting efforts” (Vargas 260). Mexican Americans immigrants did not want to go back to their homeland because of the limited job opportunities in Mexico. Since they decided to stay to work, they began to accustom to the life and culture in the Midwest and “their assimilation into an industrial work culture, and uneven process of adaptation, was taking place through the creation of enclaves in ethnic, working-class neighborhoods established there, all of which were influenced by the persuasive factory environment” (Vargas 261). Mexicans were on and off with employment which made it difficult to pay for the rent of a location that was already not healthy to live …show more content…
Women in El Paso worked hard while their husband or children were working and “the general topics of Mexican women as housewives, as wage workers, and participate in unionization” would be avoided. It is not the most women did not work but “some Mexican woman in El Paso and throughout the urban South West contributed to the household incomes by taking in wash or lodgers” (Garcia 217). Many women participated in the labor unions and labor strikes. Mexican housewives worked manually while living off of seasonal savings. Although they were housewives, the men utilized the women's support in order to adapt to the steadily adjusting to the new urban environments and all the transitions of labor opportunities that they might have went